Washington, DC— The Coalition for Green Capital (CGC) announced today that it has elected Carlos Curbelo to the organization’s board of directors. Curbelo currently leads Vocero LLC, a communications and public affairs firm, and previously served in the House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019 for the 26th Congressional District of Florida.
“We’re excited to welcome Congressman Carlos Curbelo to the CGC Board of Directors,” said Reed Hundt, Chairman of the Board. “Congressman Curbelo is a leader in energy and climate policy and has a strong record of finding bipartisan solutions to address the climate crisis. His insight and expertise will prove invaluable as we launch the national green bank and expedite our transition to the clean power platform.”
“The Coalition for Green Capital is positioned to launch the national green bank in 2023, which is why I’m excited to join the board during this pivotal time,” said Curbelo. “Green banks are proven to quickly deliver clean energy investments to the communities that need it most and I look forward to supporting the creation of a single, national green bank.”
The announcement comes as CGC works to establish a national green bank in 2023 that will focus primarily on reducing emissions and providing benefits to low-income and disadvantaged communities. The green bank model allows for unique financing and lending tools that will quickly expand access to affordable clean energy, especially for marginalized communities.
CGC has been advocating for such a national green bank for the last 13 years and works with a network of 23 state and local green banks across 17 states. This network of green banks has already catalyzed nearly $9 billion in green projects and has identified a collective backlog of $21 billion in future projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With a commitment to direct at least $8 billion to low-income and disadvantaged communities, the green bank model allows for unique financing and lending tools that will quickly expand access to affordable clean energy.
Background on Carlos Curbelo
Carlos Curbelo was born in Miami, Florida in 1980, to political refugees who fled tyranny and oppression in Cuba. He was educated in the public school system and then at Belen Jesuit. In 1998 he enrolled at the University of Miami where he obtained a Bachelor’s in Business Administration while majoring in Political Science. He later returned to UM to earn a Masters in Public Administration.
In 2002, Carlos founded a public and media relations firm which he led successfully for 12 years. In 2010, he was elected to represent his community on the Miami-Dade County School Board, and in 2014 he was elected to Congress where he served until January of 2019. In Congress, Carlos was consistently ranked one of the most bipartisan Members of Congress and led on difficult issues like climate policy, immigration, gun reform, and tax policy. He was also a prominent voice in international affairs and chaired the House’s Brazil Caucus. In 2017, Curbelo was honored by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation with the New Frontier Award for his work promoting bipartisan cooperation on environmental policy.
Today Carlos co-leads Vocero and serves as an on-air analyst for NBC NEWS, MSNBC, Telemundo, NBC6 and Telemundo 51. Carlos has been married to his wife Cecilia since 2006. They have two daughters Sylvie and Carolina.