Thread by @Peters_Glen

THREAD: The role of politics when investing in a green transition.

Lessons from my $600m gamble on renewables: ‘I am poorer but wiser, yet my analysis 15 years ago was correct: climate change is the major challenge to humanity’

ft.com/content/f9ba8d…

2. "It is 15 years since I sold out of my interests in the oil industry and invested instead in renewables. For me, the energy transition has been personal — sometimes financially costly — but it’s a journey I am glad I have made."

3. "I decided to sell my oil-related businesses from 2001 to 2008 [employing ~5000 people] and invest the proceeds of $600m in renewables. My aim was, as a citizen, to help save the world. But, as a businessman, I also intended to make a profit."

4. First investments:
•Norwegian company REC Silicon, a US-based producer of polysilicon, for making solar power panels
•Ethanol, the biofuel which powers 60% of the cars in Brazil
•Forestry & sawmill in Canada, assuming a shift from cement to timber in North America

5. "In my naïveté, I misjudged the speed with which political action would follow to control carbon dioxide emissions and consequently reward the suppliers of cleaner alternatives to fossil fuel and cement. This has been much slower than I originally thought."

6. "I have also learnt that success or failure of investment in renewables is heavily dependent on politics with its attendant risk."

[I think this is the major lesson]

7. "I am poorer but wiser, yet my analysis 15 years ago was correct: climate change is the major challenge to humanity. And, for business investors, it remains a moral responsibility to act as well as seek an opportunity for profit."

8. Read the whole piece, written by @jens_jum founder and chief executive of Umoe (umoe.no/about) & chair of @CICERO_klima's board!

/end