15 Great Ways to Invest in Climate Change Infrastructure

The impacts of climate change are presenting growing challenges to our nation's infrastructure, and therein lies opportunity as well.

Investing in companies and technologies that promise to help respond to such imperatives as reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and ensuring supplies of electricity and water is one big way to seek that double bottom line of doing well while doing good.

Here are 15 publicly traded companies to consider along those lines.

5 Stocks Under $49
Presented by Motley Fool Stock Advisor
We hear it over and over from investors, "I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by The Motley Fool. I'd be sitting on a gold mine!" It's true, but we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Click here to learn how you can grab a copy of "5 Growth Stocks Under $49" for FREE for a limited time only.

Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (NYSE: HASI) provides capital for companies engaged in solar and wind power generation, energy storage, grid-connected projects, and more.

Hannon Armstrong is a mortgage real estate investment trust (REIT), which means it has to pay most of its taxable income out as dividends. Currently, that's good for a yield of about 4% at its share price of about $40.

ALSO READ: Investing in Mortgage REITs

NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE) is an example of a traditional utility that's also a play in climate infrastructure spend. That's because the parent company of Florida Power & Light is also a major investor in wind and solar energy production.

Bonus fact: NextEra is also a Dividend Aristocrat that's raised its payout for 28 straight years and now yields about 2% at a share price of about $90. This utility also is a major investor in sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar.

First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) is a provider of one of the critical building blocks for solar power production. The company's multinational operations design, produce, and sell cadmium telluride solar modules that make electricity out of sunlight, and its customers include utilities, independent power producers, and other system owners.

ALSO READ: Why Solar Energy Stocks Have a Ton of Growth Potential

Tetra Tech (NASDAQ: TTEK) doesn't produce or distribute power or water, but it helps engineer solutions for those who do. Tetra Tech provides consulting services with a focus on early data collection and information management along with project design and management for greenhouse gas reduction work and much more. This 55-year-old company serves government agencies and corporations worldwide.

Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE: BEP) is part of gigantic Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM). This Bermuda-based company owns and operates power plants around the world -- including North and South America, Europe, India, and China -- with a focus on wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass, pumped storage, and distributed generation.

5 Stocks Under $49
Presented by Motley Fool Stock Advisor
We hear it over and over from investors, "I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by The Motley Fool. I'd be sitting on a gold mine!" It's true, but we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Click here to learn how you can grab a copy of "5 Growth Stocks Under $49" for FREE for a limited time only.

iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (NASDAQ: ICLN) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that seeks to track the performance of the S&P Global Clean Energy Index. This ETF currently holds the stocks of about 100 companies involved in the production of solar, wind, and other renewable sources. It's part of the large family of ETFs owned by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), the world's largest asset manager.

ALSO READ: How to Invest in ETFs for Beginners

The Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is another mainstream utility now building out its renewable energy infrastructure. To help supply about 8.7 million customers with electricity and natural gas in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Illinois, it operates 45 solar and 15 wind facilities along with its three nuclear power and 24 fossil fuel plants.

American States Water (NYSE: AWR) provides water services to about 246,000 customers in 10 counties in California and about a million people in nine states overall.

Utility companies like this are naturally going to find themselves on the front line of combating climate change as they deal with worsening drought conditions and water supply issues in general.

Meanwhile, this infrastructure play is a Dividend King, with a streak of 69 straight years of dividend increases that have its yield at about 1.9% at a share price of about $84.

ALSO READ: Dividend Kings of 2022

The Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (NYSEMKT: PBW) tracks its own index, the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, also known as ECO, which has been around since 2004 and is billed as the first of its kind. This ETF currently holds about 82 stocks across a range of wind, solar, biofuels, and geothermal companies and is yielding about 2.6% while selling for about $57 a share.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) makes a lot more than those iconic electric vehicles. It's also a major producer of solar energy generation and storage products. Plus, with a market cap of about $900 billion, it's one of the world's most valuable companies.

ALSO READ: Investing in Electric Car Stocks

Blink Charging (NASDAQ: BLNK) is one of a handful of publicly traded companies helping to build out the charging station infrastructure needed to power the world's growing fleet of electric vehicles.

That growing industry includes the stations themselves in all their iterations, as well as the networked data and payment systems needed to make this business buzz, and Blink already has about 30,000 ports in place.

5 Stocks Under $49
Presented by Motley Fool Stock Advisor
We hear it over and over from investors, "I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by The Motley Fool. I'd be sitting on a gold mine!" It's true, but we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Click here to learn how you can grab a copy of "5 Growth Stocks Under $49" for FREE for a limited time only.

If you see hydropower as a sustainable part of our energy infrastructure going forward, don't overlook Idacorp (NYSE: IDA).

The parent company of Idaho Power has 17 such generating plants in Idaho and Oregon, with only three natural gas facilities there and interests in two coal-fired plants in Wyoming and Nevada using fossil fuels to create electricity.

Idacorp also provides a steady flow of income for shareholders, with a 2.8% yield at a share price of about $111.

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is deeply involved in fighting climate change, beginning with the Google parent's status as perhaps the world's largest buyer of renewable energy. The company operates on its own and otherwise leases tons of leased space in data centers worldwide. Its plans to go carbon free by 2030 will require investments in facilities and technologies that presumably will be put to use by other businesses, too.

SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ: SEDG) occupies an important niche in the build-out of solar power infrastructure. The company produces the inverter systems needed by companies that produce photovoltaic equipment such as solar panels. SolarEdge also is involved in energy storage and backup, electric vehicle charging, and home energy management solutions.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) is among our most venerable industrial companies but also is working to lead the way in fighting greenhouse gas emissions.

A major producer of the turbines used by fossil fuel-powered power plants around the world, and the world's largest producer of jet engines, GE has committed to going carbon neutral by 2030.

How that occurs may well help guide what happens in the industrial world's response to the climate change challenge.

5 Stocks Under $49
Presented by Motley Fool Stock Advisor
We hear it over and over from investors, "I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by The Motley Fool. I'd be sitting on a gold mine!" It's true, but we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Click here to learn how you can grab a copy of "5 Growth Stocks Under $49" for FREE for a limited time only.

The "E" in ESG stands for environmental (the other two are social and governance). You can help build both social equity and monetary equity in your portfolio by investing in these companies and others that are working to bolster our nation's infrastructure against the changes that are now occurring and may well get more extreme.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Marc Rapport has positions in Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Brookfield Asset Management, NextEra Energy, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Asset Management Inc. CL.A LV, First Solar, and SolarEdge Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.