Investors Putting Billions Into Climate Tech Don’t Plan to Stop

Bill Gates is worried about a dark period ahead for the global economy. “We’re going to go through a winter period for a number of years,” he warned a room full of go-getting green entrepreneurs last week, lamenting at a TechCrunch event that their success had come up against bad timing.

Silicon Valley is bracing for an economic nosedive, and those working in clean energy and green tech might have a foreboding feeling of déjà vu. Fifteen years ago, venture capitalists started special funds to invest in the sector—only to disappear when markets soured.

In recent years, there’s been ...