Brookings: Should We Be Worried About Cleantech Foreign Investment? It’s Complicated

Innovation in cleantech, or clean technology, could make America’s energy sector more efficient, cheaper and safer. Due to its high-risk, high-reward nature, cleantech relies on venture capital investment for funding, but that has been steadily declining. Hence foreign mergers and acquisitions may help the US “protect its status as a global innovation leader,” note Rachel Barker, Ryan Donahue and Brad McDearman for Brookings. For instance, foreign direct investment in Milwaukee has helped the city leverage its historical role as a center for beer production into a modern one for treating wastewater and creating potable water. In addition to supplying capital, foreign firms can assist American ones by transferring new techniques and information as well as opening more distribution channels across the world. The authors are cautiously optimistic, concluding that “just as globalization and the rise of global value chains have complicated notions of where goods are actually produced, foreign investment flows should be seen as a reality of globalization.” —YaleGlobal