Oct 16, 2023 · 56m · green-blueprint
Investors riff on the new era for climate investing
Nancy Pfund · 16m spoken Eric Wesoff · 13m spoken Elaine Hsieh · 9m spoken Mona El Naggar · 6m spoken Stephen Lacey · 5m spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
At a live Canary Media event in Berkeley, climate investors and a US Department of Energy official analyze how historic federal legislation, mature growth capital, and commercial deployment strategies are defining the new era of climate investing. The panel delivers practical insights on de-risking first-of-a-kind technologies, evaluating sector-specific risks, and building durable, profitable clean energy enterprises.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 3.5 Guest teaching 2.9 Guest disagreement 2.3 The hosts pushing back 1.5
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 24:23 Nancy cuts in on Electric Hydrogen example
When Eric suggests Rafi Garabedian of Electric Hydrogen as an exemplary proven leader, Nancy abruptly cuts in to declare the company unproven.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 38:50 Eric presses Nancy on cost curve mechanismsEric drills down on Nancy's pessimistic forecast for hydrogen electrolyzers, asking whether she believes they lack the fundamental Moore's law scaling seen in solar and batteries.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 44:56 Nancy explains crop economics to EricNancy corrects Eric's observation about manual strawberry harvesting in Monterey by educating him on why high-margin specialty crops face entirely different automation pressures than thin-margin row crops.
The host holds their own ▶ 31:57 Eric details HALEU market interventionEric demonstrates technical expertise by citing high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel constraints from Russia and explaining how the DOE acts as an anchor customer to derisk private investment.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latitude Media Rebranding and Transition AI Conference Announcement | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Introductory housekeeping and framing monologue announcing Latitude Media and framing the upcoming live panel on climate venture capital. | |
| Sponsor Break: SPAN Smart Electrical Panels and NextTracker Solutions | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Eric introduces the panelists with banter and compares IRA funding scale against the New Deal; Nancy politely chimes in to add that oil and gas subsidies still dwarf climate spending. | |
| Cleantech 1.0 vs. Today: Policy Integration, Growth Capital, and Scale | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | The panel collaboratively compares Cleantech 1.0 failures to today's landscape, highlighting policy alignment, growth capital, and historical SunShot cost milestones. | |
| The Commercial DOE: Infrastructure Mandate and Liftoff Reports | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Eric highlights the DOE's fundamental transition from academic research to commercialization, and Elaine elaborates on the liftoff reports and infrastructure offices. | |
| The Human Factor: Leadership and Industry Domain Expertise | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | Nancy offers mild contrarian friction, noting reports do not guarantee success and cutting in to dismiss Electric Hydrogen as an unproven case study. | |
| Sponsor Break: SPAN Electrification and NextTracker Hail Defense | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Eric displays specific domain knowledge regarding HALEU fuel for nuclear reactors, while Nancy expresses skepticism that hydrogen or nuclear will replicate solar's 90% cost drop. | |
| Evaluating Deal Flow: Hydrogen, Nuclear Constraints, and AgTech Potential | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | Nancy directly rebuts Mona's skepticism of agriculture investing by citing FBN data, and subsequently educates Eric on row crop versus specialty crop margin dynamics. | |
| Climate Adaptation: Wildfire Defense and Advanced Response Technology | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Nancy quickly corrects Eric's mischaracterization of her stance on reports and explains the urgent economic and climate rationale for investing in wildfire adaptation tech. |
Statements from this episode (20)
Lacey: Over 200 new climate funds launched since 2021 with $121B AUM
“More than 200 new climate investment funds have been created since 2021 with a hundred and twenty one billion dollars under management. That's according to data from CTVC.”
Wesoff: DOE has shifted from basic science to commercial project financing
“It's not the intense science-based Department of Energy of Ernest Moniz or Stephen Chu. The DOE is being helmed by Business people and industrialists like Jigar Shah, like David Crane, like Elaine Shea, and many, many others, and so we, we've gone away from a …”
Wesoff: Current climate tech boom will not repeat Cleantech 1.0 bust
“Those of us who have lived through a bubble might see certain parallels this time, and this is certainly not your grandmother's venture capital bubble. It's a very different situation. The societal impetus for acknowledging climate change, the bank and financi…”
Pfund: Global oil and gas subsidies reached $7T in 2022
“So it does, 3.5 trillion is, is a huge accomplishment, and it We're so grateful for it, but it is dwarfed by the seven, seven trillion dollars in twenty-twenty-two that the oil and gas industry has in subsidies.”
Hsieh: Reaching net-zero by 2050 requires $10T in private clean energy capital
“Right, so the president, yes, so the president's goals are to be carbon free electricity by 2035 and net zero economy by 20 50 in order to achieve the net zero economy by 20 50 goal. You need roughly 10 trillion dollars by twenty-fifty in terms of clean energy…”
Pfund: Climate tech is not SaaS and requires policy and advocacy integration
“It, it's not just a technology game. This is not like investing in SaaS or you know, a traditional tech profile. You have to weave your technology into a broader framework that really matters, and that means engaging across policy, technology, investment, and …”
El Naggar: 80% of recent climate capital went to growth and late-stage PE
“80% of the money that was raised for climate over the past few years has gone into growth investing, private equity, you know, the kind of later stage, and that's really quite helpful as well.”
Pfund: Electric Hydrogen has not proven itself yet
“Well, I would argue that Electric Hydrogen has not proven itself.”
El Naggar: Tech talent fails in climate without industry domain expertise
“I think what we've seen a lot is some very smart, you know, former Google engineers who can write an amazing piece of software but they're, you know, then trying to completely change the way utilities work, but not one member of the team has ever worked in a u…”
Hsieh: DOE Allocating Up to $1B to Support Hydrogen Demand Mechanisms
“Took, of the ten billion that was allocated for hydrogen hubs, we took up to a billion to issue an RFP related to getting demand-side support from, you know, partnering with a non-profit entity to be able to create the kind of contract for differences, like th…”
Pfund: Cost Declines for Newer Clean Tech Won't Match Solar's
“I predict that the cost decline in these newer technologies will not be as impressive. That 10 years from now, we will not see .”
Pfund: Public Markets Will No Longer List Unprofitable Climate Tech
“You don't have public markets now that will take a company public that doesn't have earnings. I mean, and a lot of these companies did not have earnings when they went public.”
Pfund: DBL passed on all hydrogen deals to invest in Tesla
“We didn't do any. We decided to go for batteries in electric vehicles, so we invested in Tesla.”
El Naggar: Nuclear energy deployment does not fit 10-year venture fund cycles
“I do worry that nuclear is for example, one of those technologies where, Where government needs to move the needle more because it just isn't on a time scale that fits a ten-year investment fund, you know, in venture capital.”
Pfund: Precision spraying cuts pesticide use by 80%, threatening chemical makers
“There's now precision spraying of pesticides so that you use 80% less. I mean, it's really an existential threat for the pesticide industry when these new spraying arms.”
Pfund: ADM paid $8M to low-carbon farmers in six-month FBN pilot
“ADM is the largest grain buyer on the planet. And they are, in the last six months with FBN, they paid eight million dollars to farmers who grew their crops with less carbon, and it was just a pilot”
Pfund: If wildfires were a country, they'd rank fourth in carbon emissions
“And the fires of twenty-twenty in our state wiped out 15 years of progress, and if wildfires were a country, they'd be ranked number four behind China, U.S., and India in terms of carbon emissions.”
Pfund: Reaching Wildfires 15 Minutes Earlier Saves Hundreds of Billions
“The Moore Foundation in San Mateo County, where you used to live, which experienced A very major fire a few years ago. They did a study showing that for every 15 minutes that you get to a fire, 15 minutes earlier, you save billions of dollars, hundreds of bill…”