Green light

The development of environmental technologies was once seen as a worthy but woolly pursuit, with little to attract the hard-nosed investors of the City of London.

A combination of circumstances has changed that, and a growing amount of investment capital is available to back early-stage technology ventures in areas such as renewable energy and alternative fuels.

This is good news for the engineers and scientists working in the ‘green technology’ field, who previously found it tough to bridge the gap between research grant funding and the serious cash needed to create a growing business.

The converging circumstances behind the increased pool of finance available for environmental technologies are many and varied, but all stem from a growing consensus that action is needed to reverse the impact of climate change and provide sustainable, clean energy sources.

This has produced a frenzy of directives setting targets and limits - many of them backed by the force of law - from national governments and the EU.