The investment world and the climate change world appear to be in different solar systems.
That’s the finding of PwC research into the flow of venture capital money — the early-stage risk investment designed to get fledgling companies or ideas some traction. It turns out investors are not as focused on big emitter industries as climate observers.
First of all, they note, investors are flocking to this broad sector. Investment rose by nearly 4000 per cent from 2013 to 2019 and environment tech investment accounts for 15 per cent of all venture capital placements.
But the report shows that sectors such as transportation – electric cars and so on – are favoured by investors even though they account for a smaller percentage of emissions. Industries such as manufacturing, which are bigger emitters, attract a proportionately smaller share of this investment capital.
It turns out more money is going to industries groups that have less wiggle room to improve while big emitter industries are attracting smaller amounts of this capital designed to spark innovation and help new ideas reach market success.
