Apologies in advance -this post is based on prior readings but I don’t have many references to hand—if there’s sufficient interest I will be happy to dig up what I can but I suspect others here may be able to provide better ones...
There appears to be a misallocation of investment in climate mitigation technology—although African countries have the greatest need in the coming years to build their economies to support growing populations, investment needed to enable them to build (for example) renewable energy power systems is lacking. This can be addressed at a systemic level through governmental and inter-governmental actions, and through non-profit advocacy work, which individuals can support. But several among us also have sums to invest personally.
I am familiar with the argument that ethical investment that results in a lower return can end up reducing one’s net contribution to global welfare, but if you assume that under-investment in African climate-friendly industries is not just a bad thing but also a missed financial opportunity, investment in this area could be seen as a win-win. If such investment is blocked not just by (real) risks but by the inability of large financial institutions to assess those risks, might it not make sense for EA-informed investors to accept a higher level of risk than they would otherwise because
a) the work financed that might not otherwise be is mission-correlated
b) if financially successful, such projects and the market instruments that funded them would reduce perceived risk and draw more needed funding into this space
One option for EA folks with substantial financial resources and comfort with VC investment would be to find and back promising individual projects—I just stumbled across the MCJ Collective which seems aimed at such people.
I am looking for something a more conventional personal investor could allocate higher risk capital to—some kind of fund that invested across a wide range of related businesses in this space and thereby minimized risk if a proportion of them failed.
It appears from a little investigation that there’s no obvious mutual fund focused on either African businesses involved in green infrastructure or on international businesses focused on this region. Since most large green infrastructure businesses put the great majority of their investment into other markets, investing in them alone does not seem an effective way to address this particular gap.
Have I overlooked an option for myself personally? What do people think of this in general, and are there reports/research on this I am missing?
I invest in companies providing solar panels in Africa via Energise Africa. You invest in bonds rather than equity so your upside is capped, there is no secondary market so you can’t exit your position, and occasionally companies do go bankrupt so might lose some or all of your investment in that company.
This is the kind of thing I would like to see more of. I would not invest myself because all investments seem to be in individual projects—I would want to be able to invest in some fashion in a “basket” of companies and/or projects (ideally through a large, well-known investment company like Vanguard...)