Clean Energy & Sustainability Accelerator (Green Bank)

Fund the Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator (“Accelerator”) to rapidly scale up investment needed to meet US climate goals and create millions of jobs

The Accelerator will serve as the national green bank. A green bank uses public funding to invest in decarbonization, jobs, and economic growth. It also reduces risk to help scale up private investment and eventually unlock new industries and opportunitiesfor disenfranchisedcommunities that have faced disinvestment in the past. The Accelerator achieves scale by providing loans, saving consumers money and using the revenue from loans being paid back to make even more investments. This is how we achieve scale for the clean energy transition and begin tackling the climate crisis in an equitableway that centersjustice.

The Accelerator will augment the successful work of subnational green banks and help meet bipartisan demand for new ones.The Accelerator is specifically designed to:

• Help close the financing gap that exists for technologically and commercially viable emissions reductions projects that aren’t yet considered “mainstream” in capital markets.
• Focus on financing projects within nine areas:

Our Ask

President Biden’s American Jobs Plan would establish a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator funded at $27 billion. The Climate Reality Project requests that you advocate for the Accelerator to be funded at $100 billion within a $4 trillion investment package with at least $2 trillion spent on green infrastructure that emphasizes environmental justice and green jobs.We also ask that you cosponsor Senator Ed Markey’s S.283 and Representative Debbie Dingell’s H.R.806.

• These bills:
  • Allocate $100 billion to the Accelerator ($50 billion upfront with $10 billion in each of the subsequent five years).
  • Require that at least 40 percent of investment be directed toward climate-impacted communities.¹

• According to third-party estimates, the Accelerator will:
  • Create$463 billion in total investment in four years and around$884billion over 10years.²
  • Create nearly 4 million good-paying jobs over four years.³

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1. https://coalitionforgreencapital.com/wp-content/uploads/Accelerator-Investment-Opportunity-20.12.03.pdf
2. https://coalitionforgreencapital.com/accelerator/; https://coalitionforgreencapital.com/wp-content/uploads/Accelerator-One-Pager-21.02.11.pdf
3. https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2021/02/national-climate-bank-gets-renewed-push-from-democrats-2032102

Founded and chaired by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore, The Climate Reality Project is dedicated to catalyzing a global solution to the climate crisis by making urgent action a necessity across every level of society.