Did the financial crisis lead to changes in private equity investor preferences regarding renewable energy and climate policies?

Bürer and Wüstenhagen (2009) examined the preferences of 60 clean-tech venture capital and private equity investors regarding renewable energy and climate policies in 2007. This paper presents the results of a research project that examined whether these investor preferences changed due to the financial crisis. We re-conducted that part of Bürer and Wüstenhagen (2009) survey that focuses on the preferences for 12 market-pull policies. Comparing our results with those from 2007, we found that the popularity of 11 out of 12 policies decreased. The decrease was significant for those policies that involve subsidies and trade related schemes such as CO2emissions and green certificates trading. The decrease in the popularity of the policies was mainly the result of changes in the preferences of European investors, whereas the preferences of North American investors did not change noteworthy.

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