THE CARBON WAR

180
The Winning of The Carbon War
The venture capital and other equity financing raised for companies
coming in behind us in Kenya and Tanzania exceeds $150m. On one level
that sounds a lot, but venture capitalists expect most investments in their
portfolios to fail.
The estimated SolarAid funding requirement, if we are to lead the way
on new frontiers with enough working capital, would amount to not many
millions of dollars over the next five years. For the oil industry, the sum would
be a rounding error in a single oilfield. For us, it is a series of “big asks” that
will begin to be made of potential foundation and corporate partners over the
summer. We will see then whether the SolarAid experiment can work in more
than two national markets.
Heading off climate change is all about timing. It seems increasingly
likely, as fossil fuel costs rise and clean- energy costs fall, that a great energy
transition will sweep the world. But can it happen quickly enough to save civilisation?
If we leave the clean-energy frontiers in developing countries only
to traditional forms of capital, I have my doubts. This summer we will see if
others agree with me.