Sustainability
Private equity is powering a cleaner, healthier planet.
As global leaders work to address the climate crisis, today’s private equity firms are investing billions in capital into fast-growing clean energy sectors such as solar, carbon capture, and battery storage. Last year alone, private equity invested nearly $24 billion in renewable energy companies – a four-fold increase over 2019. To put this in context, the total private investment in clean energy was $55 billion in 2020, meaning private equity provided half of that private investment in the U.S.
“Private equity is proud to play a critical role in helping the U.S. cut carbon emissions, mitigate the growing effects of climate change, support thousands of green jobs, and make our air and water cleaner,” said AIC President & CEO Drew Maloney. “Continued long-term success in this sector will be dependent on private capital, and our elected leaders should promote policies that encourage more private investment – not move forward with a 98 percent tax increase that will threaten the investment we need to develop and scale solutions.”
So far in 2021, global investors have already closed as many climate-focused funds as were raised during the previous five years combined. Last year, private equity investments in solar energy totaled a record $5.5 billion and investment in wind energy rose to $13.4 billion, more than the previous ten years combined.
In addition, private equity is delivering long-term patient capital, years of industry expertise, and accountability and oversight to infrastructure projects – many of which will help strengthen our country’s infrastructure to withstand the impact of climate change. In the past two years alone, private equity raised more than $200 billion earmarked for U.S. infrastructure projects, and the industry is already making a difference supporting infrastructure projects across the country.
News outlets continue to cover private equity’s investments in sustainability, including:
- Axios: The private climate finance surge (July 28, 2021)
- Fortune: TPG Rise Climate raises $5.4 billion for largest climate-focused private equity fund (July 27, 2021)
- Bloomberg: More Money Than Ever Is Flowing Into Climate Tech (July 29, 2021)
- Reuters: KKR partners with Crossover Energy to develop clean energy projects (July 29, 2021)
- Private Equity Wire: Blackstone Renewable Energy Project Selected to Support New York’s Transition to Clean Energy (September 20, 2021)
- Bloomberg: Apollo Invest $150 Million in Flexgen Power Systems (August 25, 2021)