Green Energy & Environmental Finance with a key focus on Clean Technology Industry
Peter Fusaro ” Living in the best of times – time for innovation and creativity — Time for Sustainability”.
In this episode of The Middle Road, host Nishant Malhotra talks with Peter Fusaro, a renowned leader in green energy and environmental finance. The conversation offers a deep insight into the evolving landscape of sustainable finance and the transition to green energy. Fusaro, with his extensive experience in clean tech startups, discusses the vital role of innovative financial solutions like impact and catastrophic bonds in contributing to global development. The episode explores the transformative potential of microgrid projects in providing electricity to billions and facilitating resilience against catastrophic events. Peter underlines the critical role of energy storage in empowering renewable energy sources and talks about new technologies in the Advanced Battery field. The critical spots in decarbonizing the global economy, such as the hydrogen industry and sustainable agriculture, are also highlighted.
The dialogue delves into future prospects of sustainable practices worldwide, like reforestation, agroforestry, sustainable fishing, and vertical farming. In the backdrop of climate change, the need for adaptation and innovation in energy, food, and water sectors is emphasized. Discussing the emerging significance of impact investing, the conversation highlights the role of venture capital, sovereign wealth funds, startups. The talk concludes with the importance of measuring carbon footprints and reducing them and a vibrant discussion on the prospects of the carbon credits market. This episode provides listeners an inside look into the sustainable initiatives globally, including carbon markets, sustainable finance, and green technology. The role of public-private partnerships in driving innovative solutions to address climate change issues gets a notable mention. Exploration of alternative sustainable energy sources like hydrogen, prospects in the mobility and transportation space, and the lack of standardization and benchmarking in sustainable finance are some of the many points discussed. The vision for a greener future where clean energy, education, and water are accessible to all closes the conversation on a hopeful note. This episode serves as a comprehensive guide to the potential of green energy and environmental finance globally.
Nishant Malhotra’s discussion with Peter Fusaro, a global thought leader on Green Energy & Environmental Finance
Peter Fusaro is a veteran figure in clean energy and environmental finance, with nearly 50 years of experience spanning the private and public sectors. He is currently a Managing Director at Weild & Co., focused on financing solutions for decarbonization, and founded the 23-year running Wall Street Green Summit on sustainable finance. Passionate about accelerating the global transition to sustainability, Peter has authored 17 books on energy including the best seller “What Went Wrong at Enron”. He served as an advisor or entrepreneur across numerous cleantech startups and served as an external advisory board member of the ERB Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, US.
Below are most of the questions Nishant asked Peter in this episode.
Q). Today Social Finance has changed the social landscape including climate action. Innovative bonds finance nature-based solutions, biodiversity, gender equity and other themes in the sustainable sector. From impact bonds to cataphoric bonds, speak to how this social financial innovation would change the way we raise private capital for the global development sector.
Q). You have worked on microgrid projects. One of them is based in India – Grameen Surya Bijlee Foundation in Delhi. How do you see microgrid projects changing development both in India and other countries?
Q). Peter, you have worked in cleantech venture capital funds as well as worked with hedge funds on portfolio construction. What key attributes do you look for in startups, especially in the clean tech sector? Which areas like clean water, sustainable agriculture, energy efficiency etc. are you bullish at present.
Q). Singapore recently launched taxonomy for sustainable finance. How do you think will change the sustainable finance globally?
Q). Clean tech is fast emerging as a key sector within both the business and development sectors. How do you see it impacting the less privileged sections of society?
Q). You worked with the Toyota Prius development team on electric power issues in the mid-1990s. The electric vehicle sector has changed a lot since then. Tesla revolutionized this space. Today companies like BYD, GM, Volkswagen, Toyota, Stellantis etc to upstarts like Rivian, Lucid Motors, Polestar, Xpeng Motors etc are doing fantastic work in EVs. This sector is rapidly changing with innovation in batteries, battery swapping, styling, autonomous vehicles and other technologies. America leads in this space and other countries are also making significant progress.
What are your views about this sector? What trends do you think will be important going forward?
Q). You worked for eight years as an external advisory board member of the ERB Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. I am an alumnus of Michigan. How was your experience and what were your key takeaways from your experience there?
Q). You started the Wall Street Green Summit on Sustainable Finance. It is one of the largest running events of its kind. What prompted you to start this event? Would you like to share any learnings from this summit?
Finally, the aha question. Check about any experience that brings happy thoughts.