Money in Green
Some people have muttered that with the credit crunch now upon us, investors will be cautious about moving into clean technology.
If only the move to green business were a choice.
With oil now at $130 a barrel and perhaps starting to dwindle in supply, there has never been a more pressing need to find alternative energies and cut down the use of carbon-intensive ones.
That is if the human race wishes to maintain a certain standard of living.
Even if you are someone who disagrees that climate change is occurring, other drivers for alternative energy technologies include better national energy security, increasing demand from India and China, and of course the falling supply of fossil fuels.
Clean-tech and the green industry are unlike the internet boom, where entrepreneurs built online services to see what kind of audiences and money they could attract.
There is already a strong demand for the product of clean technology. Good green business doesn’t provide new products, services or utilities. They meet the same demands for clean water, air, heat and food but in a less-damaging way to the planet.
Water, food, heat and shelter are basic demands. And the basic laws of economics state there must be demand and supply for a market to exist.
The trouble we face now is that global demand for energy is increasing. There is a lot of gloomy speculation as to whether supply can keep up, or if it will start falling.
With that in mind, investors are coming to a market where demand is already built. They just need to find a way to supply people in a cleaner fashion.
So there has never been such a need for investment or promotion of new technologies. But they have to be the right ones (not carbon intensive) – and that has to happen before the oil runs out. The credit crunch is nothing compared to that.
Dan Ilett is the editor and founder of Greenbang, a blog that tracks the explosion of the environmental industry, reporting on news of green innovation and clever business people.
With Gordon Brown in the Middle East to encourage investors in nuclear energy and lower the price of oil - I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that the UK is focusing on nuclear over what I would consider cleaner energy sources (i.e. Wind, Solar, Hydro etc). Nuclear energy isn’t a green solution - it’s more of a hybrid of green and brown with the potential for some really troubling side effects. Why aren’t our efforts moving to a totally green solution?
by Chris / June 23, 2008