LONDON - Mankind's response to climate change will shift how the world gets its energy and is already making "green barons" out of early investors in renewable energy, clean technologies and carbon trading.
Solar Technology
Bruce Khouri, co-founder of Solar Integrated Technologies, based in Los Angeles is one of a number entrepreneurs who are cashing in on the energy revolution and who say there is more money to be made.
At the age of 48, Khouri has made $5 million (NZ$7.3 million) by cashing in shares in the company and still holds an $11 million (NZ$16 million) stake in the company, which makes lightweight solar panels for commercial roofs. He saw the opportunity while running his own industrial roofing firm.
As long ago as the early 1990s Khouri saw a market for flexible solar panels which could be laminated on to large roofs, such as warehouses. He did not found Solar Integrated until 2001 once tax and subsidy incentives made the market more attractive.
"50 years from now every bit of a building that is struck by the sun will be generating power in some way."
Carbon Trading
Pedro Moura Costa, co-founder of Oxford-based EcoSecurities, 44, made 4.8 million pounds ($10 million) when he sold some shares in the firm which helps convert emission cuts into tradable carbon credits. His remaining shares are worth about 37 million pounds (NZ$107 million).
The Kyoto Protocol confirmed his views that an international carbon credit market could be big business.
He spent the early 1990s advising on a project to plant trees in Borneo to compensate for extra carbon pollution from new power plants in the Netherlands.
"It's become quite obvious we should do something now or it will be an irreversible trend with catastrophic consequences."
Wind Power
David Scaysbrook, founder of Novera Energy, a 43-year old Australian, made 3 million pounds (NZ$8.6 million) when he cashed in some of his shares in the wind power and landfill gas firm he founded in 1998. He has about 3 million pounds worth of shares invested in Novera and carbon cutter Camco International, which he advises.
Three things had pushed up share valuations in the wind power industry, he said, and the scale of investment to date is nothing compared to what is coming.
"First, people were more worried about energy security and producing energy themselves. Second, the cost of traditional energy sources such as oil and gas had gone up. Third, tax breaks, subsidies and emissions caps had prompted even more conservative investors to finally move off their perch." Carbon credits and emission-cutting
Neil Eckert, chief executive of Climate Exchange, which runs the main European exchange for carbon trading, has shares worth about 18 million pounds (NZ$52 million).
He is also non-executive chairman of Trading Emissions and Econergy, both involved in emission-cutting projects and generating revenue from carbon credits.
The 'business of green' is not a bubble, according to Eckert.
"We have the biggest opportunity to replace fossil fuel, which has a market capitalisation of hundreds of billions of pounds, but it's vital we listen to the scientific consensus and create a financial solution...it depends on whether people believe money can be made."
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