#6 - How does financial structure influence a clean energy future? - TurtleTalks

Dan Morrell: So I think that the way that we engage with people on a financial basis is we've got to realize that money is actually merely an energy form.

Monica Laurence: As an energy form, accepting that, is it a positive energy form, is it a negative energy form?

Dan Morrell: It's neither positive nor negative, it's an energy form. Money merely is the capacity to be able to engage and do something. What is absolutely essential is to have a clean mechanism. You can't have clean energy and dirty finance. The two don't work together, and we have to change the humanity in order for that to actually work.

Monica Laurence: What's the clean money economy that would support the clean energy future?

Dan Morrell: Well the two have to work together, and the clean money economy would be putting a resource, a financial resource to work that actually is supportive of the individuals who are developing structure. I think energy should be a civil right, it should be a liberty, it should be something everybody should have, but also the financial structure that would actually develop these things should be a financial paradigm where banks and where financial services were there for the support of the community at scale.

Monica Laurence: Dawn, have you seen any shift in how entrepreneurial projects are being funded in clean energy?

Dawn Lippert: Venture capital is still a really important way to fund risky early stage investments, whether it's in software, healthcare, social media, Internet or clean energy. The other one that's incredibly important is strategic partnerships with large corporations who see that the energy economy is shifting and will be shifting going forward and the best way to access the innovation that we will need and will be buying in the future is to partner with start-up companies. So, some of the closest allies that we work with are companies that are oil majors or large chemical companies or other large companies that have strategic interest in cleaning their own operations.

Emilee Pierce: You can pursue both options at the same time. You can have clean energy companies that are emerging backed by venture capital. You can have clean energy companies that are emerging based on crowd sourcing. You can also be working simultaneously with a wide variety of regulators, industry stakeholders, etcetera, to reform existing systems. And I see it as a multi-front effort on which it's never either or, it's always, both and.

Dawn Lippert: It always will be and it always has been.

Rick Thompson: Without venture capitalists we will have no clean energy future, period.