Thursday 21 May 2020

New £40m fund aims to ‘supercharge’ journey to net zero

The UK Government has launched a new £40 million Clean Growth Fund to 'supercharge' green start-ups.

It has announced it is joint-funding a venture capital fund to accelerate the development of next-generation clean technologies - its £20 million investment has been matched by CCLA, one of the UK’s largest charity fund managers, to help speed up the journey towards net zero by 2050.

The fund will be accessible to UK-based companies developing green solutions across the power, transport, waste and building energy efficiency sectors.

The government has predicted the fund could reach a value of as much as £100 million by Autumn 2021 through private sector fundraising and notes potential examples of eligible projects include energy storage, smart grid systems, clean heating and ventilation technologies and biofuel development.

Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, said: “The need for innovative and ambitious ideas across green industries has never been greater. I am pleased that with the help of this fund, promising clean growth start-ups will be able to step up to accelerate the UK’s recovery, while supporting our path to Net Zero by 2050.

“This pioneering new fund will enable innovative low carbon solutions to be scaled up at speed, helping to drive a green and resilient economic recovery”.