Tech London Advocates’ CleanTechLDN working group met for the first time last night.
The mission? To make London the cleantech capital of the world.
Opened by Michael Liebreich, founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, he said there is only one word for the growing need for action on cleantech: Volkswagen.
“It’s a basic fact. It’s difficult to live in a planetary envelope and drive around in cars. So you have to cheat.”
He flagged air quality and water as just two huge challenges facing London and its ever-expanding population.
“The super sewer is certainly not the last that we will hear on our water issues in London,” he added.
Mikele Brack, CEO of City Impact Challenge and Cognicity mentor, painted a picture of the city as our test lab.
“Cities mean jobs, healthcare, housing. And today people and the city are having to do more with less. If we don’t find smarter ways to deliver those services, we’ll all be miserable.”
She said cities must increasingly take the lead on climate action because that’s where a lot of consumption and emissions happen.
“We need urban innovation,” she said.
But do we have the cash to make this happen?
Julia Groves, CEO of Trillion Fund and founder of the UK Crowdfunding Association, said that she felt very strong resistance to change from the financial sector.
“It’s not necessarily that banks will say no, they just won’t say yes. But we know that if we don’t have more diversity in the system – a financial crisis is going to happen again.”
She pointed to the trillions of savings held up in ISAs making very little in interest and then to Citigroup research that highlights the potential end of the annuities market as people choose to do better things with their money.
“Crowdfunding is not alternative finance anymore, this is a seismic change,” she said.
“To do something like crowdfunding, or get an investor, that person has to understand the purpose of what you’re trying to do – so much so that they’re giving you their money.
“Crowdfunding demonstrates an aligning between lender and borrower, enabling businesses with purpose – and that’s phenomenal.”
Liebreich closed by emphasising that we have the tech, the skills and the finance needed to become the cleantech capital, although he did admit that we need to get better at later stage funding.
“London is the best place in the world to grow an idea. We’re going to crack this. Assume success.”
Attendees ranged from the big energy companies like Southern Electric to a ‘venture catalyst’ from the World Wildlife Fund, startup CEOs from ET Index, Do Nation, Strawberry Energy, community organisers from CleanWeb London, plus the likes of law firm Taylor Wessing.
The group was tasked with identifying the greatest strengths and challenges for cleantech in London today.
They were then asked what Tech London Advocates could do in the next year to address some of those challenges.
You can join the new Facebook group in you want to find out more about getting involved.