Completed NRP 73 research project: Financing cleantech

Investors still feel clean technologies are risky. Cleantech solutions are based on speculative assessments of future, public policy-dependent demand for climate measures. In addition, cleantech is more capital-intensive than other technologies and thus less attractive for traditional, established investors. The “Financing cleantech” project investigated the effects that environmental policy (or the uncertainty surrounding political decisions) has on investments and whether new financing schemes could persuade investors to support cleantech start-ups.

The results of the project highlight the overriding importance of having a robust and consistent environmental and climate policy as a way of steering investments and creating markets for cleantech. In particular, the results underscore the negative impact of political uncertainty, which, despite the urgency of climate protection measures, is delaying further investment. Moreover, the results for new sources of finance indicate that while venture competitions and/or crowdfunding are useful supplementary sources of funding for cleantech investments, they are no panacea for making good shortfalls in financing.

 

More information:

More information on the research project

 

Selected publications:

van den Heuvel, Matthias; Popp, David
The Role of Venture Capital and Governments in Clean Energy: Lessons from the First Cleantech Bubble. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research.

Dugoua, Eugenie; Dumas, Marion; Noailly, Joëlle
Text as Data in Environmental Economics and Policy. The University of Chicago, USD: The University of Chicago Press Journals.

Noailly, Joëlle; Nowzohour, Laura; van den Heuvel, Matthias
Does Environmental Policy Uncertainty Hinder Investments Towards a Low-Carbon Economy?. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bortolotti, Eva; Kast, Bettina; Noailly, Joëlle
What do investors in electric vehicles technologies want?. Geneva, Switzerland: CIES Policy Brief.

Nowzohour, Laura; van den Heuvel, Matthias; Noailly, Joëlle
A new index of environmental policy using newspapers. Geneva, Switzerland: CIES Research Brief.

 

Contact:

Dr. Joëlle Noailly
Centre for International Environmental Studies, Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement IHEID
+41 22 908 62 22
joelle.noailly@graduateinstitute.ch