HSBC partners and invests $100m in Bill Gates-founded green tech accelerator Catalyst

HSBC is to invest $100 million (£73.7 million) in green technology accelerator Breakthrough Energy Catalyst.

The Breakthrough Energy network was founded by Bill Gates

Catalyst leverages private-public investment to speed up the development of four climate-critical technologies: direct air capture, clean hydrogen, long-term energy storage and sustainable aviation fuel.

Alongside the investment, HSBC will join the leadership council of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, leveraging its experience in some of its biggest markets across Asia and the Middle East.

HSBC says its investment contributes to the global net-zero target and supports its own goal of achieving net-zero climate impact by 2050.

HSBC group chief executive Noel Quinn says these “small number” of green technologies will reshape the industrial landscape of the world over the next five to ten years.

While decarbonising the high-carbon sectors of power generation, transport and heavy industry is “crucial”, it’s estimated that half the technologies needed to achieve net-zero and other climate goals either do not yet exist or are prohibitively expensive.

The multinational’s group chief sustainability officer Celine Herweijer says: “Brilliant green tech innovations that could transform heavy carbon emitting industries and transform the power sector already exist.

“They just need investment like this to become reality.”

Catalyst forms part of the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy network, designed to support decarbonisation as the world’s economies move towards net-zero.

The financing model brings together businesses, governments, philanthropists and individuals to invest in the clean technologies that are needed to eliminate emissions.

Microsoft founder Gates says the only way to reduce the cost of clean technologies so they can be scaled is through deep collaboration across public and private sectors — “no country, company, or individual can halt the progress of climate change alone”.