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Former U.S. Secretary of State and climate change envoy John Kerry has joined the green investment group run by billionaire fund manager and top Democratic donor Tom Steyer, making him the first person since former U.S. vice president to He became the highest-profile politician to enter finance. Al Gore.
During his tenure in the Biden administration, Mr. Kerry pushed hard for the need to channel private capital into investments that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.
Kelly, who expressed interest in a role in finance when he stepped down as US special envoy for climate change in March, will become co-executive chairman of Steyer’s Galvanize Climate Solutions.
After more than 50 years in politics, Mr Kelly told the Financial Times he had “talked to people” for months about the role. He decided to join Galvanize because the company is “focused on creating long-term value in the energy transition and scaling commercially competitive climate solutions globally.” is.
“This is the most exciting economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution,” Kelly said.
Steyer founded Galvanize in 2021 with Katie Hall, an alumnus of San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. The company closed its first venture fund last year for $1 billion and is in the process of raising money for a hedge fund and real estate strategy focused on decarbonization.
Mr Kelly said Galvanize will play a key role in proving that investments in the energy transition are profitable and have positive outcomes.
He said green investment capital flows would decline as climate change-focused mutual funds struggle to raise cash amid rising interest rates and volatile stock prices for some renewable energy companies. He dismissed the concerns.
John Kelly said Galvanize is “focused on creating long-term value in the energy transition and scaling commercially competitive climate solutions.” © Hollie Adams/FT
“We will reach a low-carbon, decarbonized economy,” Kerry said. “Right now, we’re too slow to get there, and what we have to do is bring the best skills, the best analysis, the best judgment to when, where, and how to deploy capital.” to ensure that it is applied.”
Steyer added: “Markets fluctuate. They go up and down. People’s attitudes change more than the facts,” but “this change is happening.”
Former Kerry senior adviser David Livingstone has also joined Galvanize as chief strategy officer. Livingstone previously worked for the Eurasia Group consultancy with a focus on energy, climate and trade, and is also a member of the sustainability advisory board of the healthcare group Novo Nordisk.
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Galvanize primarily invests in Western markets, but Steyer said it aims to launch new strategies within the next few years. “A huge part of this story is going to be written in developing countries. We want to take this seriously.”
Mr. Steyer made his fortune as the founder of the hedge fund Farallon Capital and as a partner at Hellman & Friedman. He spent millions of dollars on the race to become the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, which Joe Biden won.
Kerry’s move toward climate finance comes as governments struggle to pay the upfront costs of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and calls for the private sector to fill the gap are growing. It was held in
A report by the think tank Climate Policy Initiative last year said climate finance needed to increase by at least five times as soon as possible, from around $1.3 trillion in 2021-22, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. said.
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