Tom Steyer, Co-Executive Chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, joins Yahoo Finance's Madison Mills at Yahoo Finance Invest to share his thesis for investing in the energy transition.

Steyer says he looks for companies that may not be featured on the front page of a newspaper like Tesla (TSLA). He seeks out names that generate "real compounding good returns" over a long period of time. "I think there's going to be a whole other part of this economy absolutely relevant to climate, where returns are going to be really good. Information, agriculture, sequestration," says Steyer.

When it comes to public investment in climate technology, Steyer isn't sure if Tesla CEO Elon Musk can sway President-elect Donald Trump's position toward further investment in the space.

Steyer explains how pulling back from a position as a global leader in the energy transition could be detrimental to the US's competition with China: "If we're not pushing on this from an economic and business standpoint, that means China is pushing on it from an economic and business standpoint."

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This post was written by Cheyenne Reid.