Latest news with #Washington State
Geek Wire
2 days ago
- Business
- Geek Wire
‘Invest now': Climate tech advocates push for creative funding as markets decline
Sustainability: News about the rapidly growing climate tech sector and other areas of innovation to protect our planet. SEE MORE Panel at the PNW Climate Week event titled 'Climate Capital Gap' from the left: moderator and GeekWire reporter Lisa Stiffler; Gabriel Scheer, senior director of innovation for Elemental Impact; Bina Shukla, E8 board member; and Eli Lieberman, executive director of the Washington State Green Bank. (E8 Photo) With climate tech investments declining and reduced federal funding from the Trump administration, champions of the sector are calling for creative strategies and widespread participation to bolster financial resources. 'When the markets are down, you buy. So if you have funds, this is the time to join in,' said Bina Shukla, a board member with the Seattle-area, climate investment group E8. 'Invest, invest, invest now.' Climate tech has historically been a challenging sector for attracting funding. It often moves more slowly and involves capital-intensive hardware prototyping compared to software. Clean energy projects may require permitting and regulatory oversight. Scaling takes time and investors need to be patient for their returns. Investments in the sector dropped 19% worldwide from the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2024 — though U.S. investments alone rose by about the same percentage during that time. Investments in early-stage companies declined the most, according to Sightline Climate. Shukla spoke Thursday on a panel that was part of the annual PNW Climate Week, a 10-day regional conference focused on the clean-energy transition with events held in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Portland, Vancouver, B.C., and Bellingham. She was joined by Gabriel Scheer, senior director of innovation for the investment nonprofit Elemental Impact, and Eli Lieberman, executive director of the recently launched Washington State Green Bank. I moderated the discussion. Here were their thoughts on innovative funding models: Recycling philanthropic dollars: A strategy being employed by the angel investment nonprofit E8 is to offer alternative ways of supporting climate startups, including its philanthropic impact fund, Decarbon8-US. Contributions are tax-deductible and any returns generated by investments are recycled back into the fund to support other startups. 'There are a lot of ways to support the community,' Shukla said. 'For $25 you can be part of that fund.' Spreading risks: Elemental created a program called D-SAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity), which allows the organization to spread investment risk across multiple capital projects within a single company. If a project succeeds, the company can repay Elemental with interest, allowing the funds to be reinvested elsewhere. If a project fails, the investment converts into an equity stake in the parent company, derisking early-stage, first-of-a-kind (or maybe even 10th-of-a-kind) deployments. 'It's been great,' Scheer said. 'We've had a number of companies who have used that now, and it's been a really good innovation.' Green banks: Lieberman is running Washington's first green bank, which uses public and private capital to fund clean energy and sustainability projects. The institution is structured to take higher risks and produce lower profits to get climate friendly technologies on the ground and in communities. 'Green banks traditionally exist more on the 'market pull' side, so later in the commercialization stage and in project finance,' Lieberman said. 'They'll look at their given geographic region that they operate in, and try to analyze what are the market gaps in project finance, and then what are the tools that the green bank could use to try to steer in private sector investment.' All three agreed that despite lower levels of investing globally and a retraction of federal support, there was plenty that companies, investors, elected officials, philanthropists and others could do to continue stoking the movement to expand clean energy innovation and deployment. 'This is our opportunity,' Scheer said. 'This is the time when left-leaning states, left-leaning cities, places with money — all of that is here — could do a whole bunch of really cool stuff.'
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Insurance & Energy Leaders on Redefining Resilience
Patty Kuderer, Insurance Commissioner, Washington State; Fraser McLachlan, Chairman, Tokio Marine GX; and Michelle Vargo, Senior Vice President, Energy Operations, Puget Sound Energy discuss climate resilience and adaptation through the lens of disaster response and lessons learned from previous extreme weather events with Bloomberg's Leslie Kaufman at Bloomberg Green Seattle 2025. (Source: Bloomberg)
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Democrat proposes cognitive tests to root out geriatrics in Congress
A Democrat has called for members of Congress to undergo mandatory cognitive tests to determine if ageing politicians are fit for the job. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, 37, said Joe Biden's disastrous presidential debate performance last year raised 'serious concerns' among her constituents 'that it was not their elected representatives calling the shots'. She proposed that the Office of Congressional Conduct create a standardised test to determine politicians' 'ability to perform the duties of office unimpeded by significant irreversible cognitive impairment'. 'What I've heard from my neighbours, my community is this idea that this place is being run by a bunch of staffers,' Ms Gluesenkamp Perez told Axios, adding: 'And we're seeing a very real decline in confidence in Congress.' Ms Gleusenkamp Perez, who was elected to Congress in Washington State in 2022, attempted to get her proposal attached as an amendment to the House appropriations committee's Bill funding Congress for the next year, but it was voted down. David Valadao, the committee's chairman, said the House's elections, which are held every two years, were a sufficient referendum on elected officials' fitness to serve. Concerns over what has been called a ' gerontocracy ' in the US reached a boiling point with Mr Biden's public decline, which saw the octogenarian drop out of the presidential race following his devastating debate performance. In May, it was revealed that he was suffering from prostate cancer, weeks after journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson alleged a cover-up at the White House of the ailing president's cognitive decline in their book Original Sin. Three Democrats have died in office so far this year, meaning if the party had won a slim House majority in 2024, they would have lost it due to politicians passing away. There have been multiple reports of Eleanor Holmes Norton, 88, the oldest House member, telling journalists she will be running for another term in 2026, only for her office to attempt to walk back her claims. Last year it was revealed Kay Granger, 82, a Republican congresswoman from Texas, had been struggling with memory issues and living in a senior-living facility towards the end of her time in office. It comes as a string of younger Democrats have launched campaigns to unseat older politicians, in what some experts told The Telegraph could see the Democrats have their equivalent of the Tea Party movement that rocked the Republican Party in 2010. Last week Barack Obama called on Democrats frustrated by Donald Trump's second administration to stop 'whining' and 'toughen up', CNN reported. Speaking at a private fundraiser in New Jersey, he said being an effective opposition party is 'going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in foetal positions. It's going to require Democrats to just toughen up '. Mr Obama added: 'You know, don't tell me you're a Democrat, but you're kind of disappointed right now, so you're not doing anything. 'No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something... Don't say that you care deeply about free speech and then you're quiet. No, you stand up for free speech when it's hard. When somebody says something that you don't like, but you still say, 'You know what, that person has the right to speak.' … What's needed now is courage.'
