Webinar Key Takeaways: Climate Tech And Renewable Energy ... - Mondaq News Alerts
Webinar Key Takeaways: Climate Tech And Renewable Energy - Renewables - United States
Foley recently cohosted a webinar with the 4thly startup accelerator where a panel of experts discussed Climate Tech and Renewable Energy.
The panel was moderated by 4thly founder Bret Waters in conversation with panelists Charlie Crocker (founder and CEO of Zonehaven, sold to Genasys), Kathleen Egan (Co-Founder and CEO of ecomedes, a vertical SaaS solution for cost-effective, sustainable commercial building products and projects), Gopal Erinjippurath (CTO of Sust Global, a platform providing AI-powered climate modeling for science-backed climate risk reporting, analysis and adaptation), and Kristin Wegner Guilfoyle (Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and CleanTech co-chair for the Keiretsu Angel investment group) with Foley's energy co-chair Jeff Atkin and Silicon Valley-based partner Louis Lehot.
The backdrop for the webinar was set by the massive amount of federal spending for clean energy projects and the proving economics for climate tech investors and entrepreneurs, juxtaposed against the challenging dynamics for obtaining venture capital (despite the fact that climate-tech deals are outperforming the overall market by a factor of 50%). Investors are increasingly looking at climate tech to diversify and develop profitable new markets, which include both hardware companies and software companies.
The panel discussed climate tech and renewable energy trends, greenwashing, the level of risk in investing in these industries, where each speaker would be investing right now, and much more.
Here are some of the key takeaways from their discussion:
- The climate industry is becoming a much safer area to invest in, and because of this, we are seeing growth in climate product commercialization. Climate tech is in an area where investors can quantify future profits on a derisked basis.
- Significant capital is available to a large number of investors as both the climate and energy industries continue to mature.
- Greenwashing has become a hot topic within the environmental, social, and governance investment areas. Typically, investors with dedicated funds in these industries and investment areas hire scientists or related professionals to understand the level of realness and competence to avoid any greenwashing.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”