HSBC has approved a $100 million investment in Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a private-public accelerator program aimed at raising funds for innovations that might play a critical role in the energy revolution, edie.net writes.
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst is part of Bill Gates’ wider Breakthrough Energy network of programs, which he established in 2015. Gates said earlier this month that the network had received more than $1.5 billion so far, mostly from the private sector and donors, with aspirations to exceed $15 billion by the end of the decade.
In a statement, HSBC said that their donation would be used to fund efforts in the domains of low-carbon hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), long-duration energy storage, and direct-air capture (DAC) — technologies that absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. It has earned participation on the initiative’s leadership council by giving funds, which means it will have a vote in which initiatives get support.
The Breakthrough Energy Catalyst directs funds to particular projects rather than corporations, which HSBC cites as one of the reasons it opted to support the effort over other comparable initiatives.
Dr Celine Herweijer, HSBC’s global chief sustainability officer, said that great green-tech breakthroughs that may revolutionize heavy carbon-emitting sectors and the electricity sector already exist; they only need investment like this to become a reality.
HSBC has made a notable commitment to achieving net-zero financed emissions by 2050, as well as plans to finance at least $750 billion in low-carbon operations within a decade. However, ShareAction argues that in the run-up to that statement, HSBC invested $1.8 billion in fossil fuel firms. The activist investor group is also urging HSBC to strengthen its efforts to phase out backing for coal-fired electricity and thermal coal mining by 2040.
Breakthrough Energy was highlighted on edie.net in October, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a £200 million investment from government coffers and an additional £200 million from the UK private sector. This was announced during the Global Investment Summit.