May 4th, 2023

Source: Politico

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank could have major implications for startups working to reduce planet-warming emissions, potentially undercutting President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.

The Biden administration took steps over the weekend to avert the immediate failure of companies that relied on the California-based lender, including thousands of climate technology and low-carbon energy businesses. But it has yet to find a buyer willing to take on SVB’s domestic lending portfolio.

That has left some major companies scrambling to secure new lines of credit, write POLITICO’s E&E News reporters Corbin Hiar and Avery Ellfeldt.

“[It] is a major blow to early-stage and even late-stage tech startups looking to get financing,” Daniel Ives, a technology sector analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Corbin and Avery.

The banking crisis, which is the largest U.S. failure since the financial collapse of 2008, comes at a critical moment for climate technology, just as the administration is beginning to roll out the $369 billion in clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. Scaling up the country’s ability to produce low-carbon power and remove planet-warming pollution from the atmosphere is key to meeting national and international climate commitments.

Read more: What Silicon bank collapse could mean for climate.