$3.6 Billion across 24 deals in climate ($1.7 billion), nature-based solutions ($1.1 Billion), hard to abate sectors ($561 Million) & blue economy ($200 Million).
Apr 23, 2024
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Written by
Ezekiel Maben
April 15 to April 19, 2024
Your Newsletter at a Glance
Commentary by C4C
$3.6 Billion across 24 deals in climate ($1.7 billion), nature-based solutions ($1.1 Billion), hard to abate sectors ($561 Million) & blue economy ($200 Million).
Agriculture Capital will target a $600 million raise for its new regenerative agriculture fund, with the aim of raising the target by 2025. The fund will focus on investments in Europe, North America and Australia, with 50% going to permanent crops that are harvested every year, and 30% going towards row crops, with 20% or less to pastureland. The fund will focus on improving agricultural practices to reduce climate impact and erosion, and generate carbon credits accounting for 1%-3% of total return.
The U.S Department of the Interior has announced $95 million in available funding for the support of water resources, ecosystem health and community resilience in drought prone areas. The funding is provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and grants will be available for application in 2 periods, with deadlines on June 19, 2024 and March 11, 2025.
Vietnam has invested more than 15 trillion VND ($597 million) since July 2023 to support the country's agroforestry and aquatic sectors, with the country's central bank willing to disbure an additional 15 trillion. 25.7% of the total investment has gone to agroforestry, with 74.3% going to the aquatic sector.
Astarte Capital and Silvipar have closed their $325 million Impact Forestry Fund, with the goal of acquiring 200,000 acres of land to sustainably manage in Paraguay, with a quarter earmarked for permanent conservation. The fund plans to plant 60 million trees and create 3,000 direct jobs.
The European Investment Bank and the Bank of Kigali have signed a €100 million ($107 million) partnership to facilitate the implementation of agro-ecology projects in Rwanda. The funding will be distributed gradually to eligible agri-tech and agri-food startups, with a focus on institutions that have difficulty obtaining financial credit.
Mubadala Capital will invest more than $69 million to build a 28-million cubic meter capacity per crop biomethane plant in Brazil near an existing ethanol factory in Nova Alvorada do Sul. The facility will use sugar cane waste as fuel to produce methane to support power needs in regions not serviced by pipelines.
Anglian water is investing £45 million ($55.8 million) to support the restoration of streams and rivers that have been potentially harmed by its sewage outflows, including phosphorus buildup from sewage releases that have caused major algal growth problems in rivers in the utility's service area.
Alperia, a AI startup focused on food demand planning to lower food waste, has closed a €7.5 million series A funding round. The Investment, which was led by ETF Partners and LBBW VC, will help the company build out its AI services for managing food supply chains.
The U.S International Development Finance Corporation has approved a $4 million investment in Regenera Ventures I, an impact investment fund that bolsters the regeneration of Mexican ecosystems. The funding has helped the fund reach its target capital size of $30 million, which will be invested in regenerative agricultural practices in rural Mexico.
Bia Energy has completed the Front End Engineering Design study and permits needed for its 74 acre, $1.2 billion ethanol facility, which will produce 550,000 metric tons of blue ethanol once operational. The funding for the project is expected to close by the end of 2024, with operation expected in late 2026.
Chevron has announced a $500 million commitment for its third renewable energy fund, with focus areas in industrial decarbonization, energy decentralization, and the circular carbon economy. The new fund will also target low carbon fuels, advanced materials, and transforming carbon into higher value products.
Bay Bridge Ventures has filed paperwork for a $200 million climate tech fund, the first major fund for the venture, which was founded in 2022. The fund previously participated in a $10 million round for SailPlan in 2022.
The Bezos Earth Fund has announced the launch of the $100 million AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge, which aims to fund promising new AI-related technologies that support nature restoration and conservation. The challenge will be executed in rounds, each round targeting a priority area. The first round will focus on sustainable proteins, biodiversity conservation, and power grid optimization, with a wild card category for ideas outside of the focus area that show promise. Up to 30 seed grants will be awarded in the first phase, with awardees eligible to apply for grants of up to $2 million to scale their concepts. Applications will open in May 2024, with first phase awardees being announced in September 2024.
UniSuper, a major Australian pension fund, has committed $400 million to Macquarie's Green Energy and Climate Opportunities Fund. The investments come after the pension fund found in 2023 that its investments were more harmful to the climate than previously estimated and revised its climate risk report.
Wellington Management has raised $385 million for its first private climate investment fund. The fund has already made investments in Trover Recommerce, Arcadia, Span, Meati, Amp Robotics and Orennia, and expects to back 15-20 startups with initial checks of $10 million to $25 million.
SOSV has closed its $306 million SOSV V fund, its largest yet, which is focused on backing startups focused on decarbonization and re-industrialization. The Fund will focus on investments in renewable energy, biomanufacturing and rare mineral processing. The firm will focus on companies that already have functional prototypes, and will enroll them in development programs in New York, San Francisco, and New Jersey.
Hasi has increased the credit capacity for its CarbonCount-based revolving credit facility from $915 million to $1.25 billion, and from its Carbon Count Green CP program from $100 million to $125 million, totalling an increase of $240 million and a total of $1.625 billion across 3 facilities.
Acre Impact Capital has raised $100 million in its first close for its Export Finance Fund, out of a $300 million total target. The vehicle will support businesses across renewables, health, food and water, sustainable cities and green transportation themes. The fund aims to use this funding to unlock $5.6 dollars of private sector capital for each dollar invested.
Blue Orchard, an impact investment asset manager, has raised $90 million for its climate insurance private equity fund, with a $15 million commitment from British International Investment, and $14.5 million for the Nordic Development Fund. The fund is expected to close in the second half of 2024, and focuses on protecting micro-entrepreneurs in emerging markets from climate risk through focused insurance products.
Arcadia has raised $50 million for building out the company's community solar program and implementing AI-based energy data systems. Investors in the new round included Macquarie Asset Management and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. The company also closed a $30 million credit facility with J.P. Morgan.
The U.S Department of Energy has announced $59 million in funding split across 28 college and university, national laboratory and industry recipients to support nuclear energy research and development. The awards bring the DOE's total funding on nuclear research to universities to more than $1 billion since the project started in 2009.
General Atlantic's BeyondNetZero fund has taken an undisclosed majority stake investment in GRESB, acquiring it from Summit Partners, which will retain a minority stake. The fund believes that GRESB's status as an industry benchmark makes it a potential asset for their fund as it aims to accelerate decarbonization investment.
I Squared Capital has led a consortium of Japanese investors to take a strategic minority stake in the Singapore-based Natural Gas Transition Platform. The investment will support existing gas distribution systems in India and new biogas production and distribution systems in the country, as well as hydrogen infrastructure, with details yet to be announced.
Magnesium Capital has closed its inaugural fund at €135 million ($143.85 million) exceeding its initial €100 million target. The fund will invest in proven tech-enabled decarbonization services companies in Europe.
Denmark has made the largest governmental procurement of durable carbon removal in a $23.75 million deal for 1.1 million tons of durable carbon removal. The removals have been purchased from BioCirc, Bioman ApS, and Carbon Capture Scotland, which all promise to deliver a combined 160,350 tons a year from 2026 to 2032. The removed CO2 will be locked in permanent storage sites in Denmark.
NetZEro has raised $19.5 million in new funding from STOA Infra & Energy to support its biochar plant expansion. The capital infusion will support NetZero's deployment in Brazil and other tropical regions, allowing it to expand its commercial scale biochar facilities.
Mizuho Bank has made an investment in Bison Low CArbon Ventures Alberta-based CCS projects, providing $3.64 million in a share subscription investment. The funding will help to support the development of Bison's Meadowbrook CCS Hub, which aims to capture three million tons of CO2 a year.
Klimate.co and Charm Industrial have announced a $1.1 million offtake agreement as part of a partnership extension, with Charm delivering 1900 tons of permanent carbon dioxide removal.
The 9th annual Our Ocean Conference ended with expanded pledges to protect ocean ecosystems and commit more than $11.3 billion to ocean conservation projects. The European Union made 40 commitments worth more than $3.7 billion, while USAID pledged $103 million to establish new marine preservation programs. While the total number of commitments was larger than 2023, the total amount of commitments fell almost half from $20 billion in that year.
The International Finance Corporation and T.Rowe Price will each invest $75 million in a joint blue bond strategy. The strategy will invest in bonds issued by companies that earmark the proceeds towards sustainable marine and freshwater projects in emerging markets, and is among the first dedicated blue bond initiatives. The group's internal research has found that, while $90 billion worth of blue projects are available in emerging markets, only $5 billion of financing is currently geared towards blue investments.
The Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance (ORCA) has announced $50 million in recent commitments, bringing the total investments in the collaborative to more than $300 million since its launch at COP28. ORCA aims to use its capital to fund mitigation, sequestration, and adaptation projects across 7 core ocean-related areas. Initial grantees include Oceans 5, Oceans North, Conservation International, and Blue Ventures.
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RMI has published a meta analysis of the plans published by states taking part in the Priority Climate Action Plan system released by the U.S EPA. The analysis finds that, for 23 out of 45 states, the plans represented the first meaningful climate action planning since 2018, and most released clear measures on how to reduce climate pollution, with an average of 14 measures per plan. The transportation sector had the most measures total, with 186 across 45 plans, with industrial measures being underrepresented (63 across 27 plans). Very few plans included real regulatory measures, being mostly focused on incentives.
The Task Force on Nature Related Financial Disclosures and Global Reporting Initiative have announced that they are tightening their collaboration to better support the creation of standardized rules for corporate biodiversity reporting and target setting. The two organizations have announced they will publish a joint document in June in order to clear up confusion regarding the overlap between their standards and encourage wider adoption of reporting.
The International Emissions Trading Association has released its newest edition of VCM guidelines. The new guidelines contain updated rules for quantifying emissions, establishing decarbonization pathways, and complying with regional legislations and transition plans.
At the Our Oceans Conference, Greece announced a ban on bottom trawling in Marine Parks. The ban will take place in all national parks by 2026, and all Greek MPAs by 2030.
Using IMF and World Bank figures, the IEED has estimated that debt-for-nature swaps could potentially provide $100 billion in developing country debt relief, out of an estimated $413 billion in outstanding debt. The IEED hopes that the findings will promote increased adoption of debt-for-nature swaps as part of a broader nature protection and debt relief push.
A new study in Nature by Maximilian Kotz, Anders Levermann & Leonie Wenz analyzes the past 40 years of economic and climate data to project potential impacts from climate change on the global economy. The study found that the global economy is likely to experience an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emissions choices, which already outweighs the mitigation costs for limiting warming to 2C. If action is not taken, damages rise by approximately 50%.
BloombergNEF found that U.S renewable energy investment reached $88 billion in 2023, emerging from a 2022 slump caused by interest rate increases. The study was presented at the BNEF Summit.
A joint Bain and Temasek report found that private sector transition investments increased from $5.2 billion in 2022 to $6.3 billion in 2023 in the ASEAN region. Electric vehicles and growing awareness of the need to address power consumption were seen as driving factors in the increase. Even with the rise of investments, only $45 billion have been invested since 2021, out of the $1.5 trillion estimated needed green investments to meet the region's climate targets by 2030..
GenZero has released its new Carbon Scenarios report, analyzing the potential future pathways for carbon markets and the ways that geopolitical concerns will influence them, laying out 3 scenarios with high, medium, and low levels of global cooperation on carbon market implementation.
The IEA estimates that clean electricity accounted for 80% of new energy capacity deployed worldwide in 2023, and added $320 billion to the global economy, 10% of global GDP growth. The assessment was based on an analysis of activity in clean energy manufacturing, deployment, and equipment sales, and used project by project data analyzed at the country level, with in-depth findings published for the world's four largest economies. The analysis found that clean energy growth accounted for 6% of the U.S's 2.5% GDP growth, and more than 20% of China's 5.2% GDP growth.
Climate Change News profiles a number of Indigenous-led climate and nature funds that are aiming to fund transition and resilience projects run by and for Indigenous groups. Highlighted organizations included the Mesoamerican Territorial Fund ($1.3 million across 32 projects) and the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, which is aiming to serve as a large scale fund and conduit for Indigenous and other frontline communities. Rights and Resources’ Path to Scale Funding Dashboard provides updates on the success of these and other organizations in funding these communities.
A peer-reviewed Nature Climate Change study entitled "Expert Review of the Science Underlying Nature-based Climate Solutions'' finds that the underlying scientific principles behind greenhouse gas mitigation through forest conservation, reforestation, and other ecosystem preservation techniques is essentially sound, with some small concerns about the effect of precipitation changes on forest carbon. The study found that some NbSs have higher degrees of uncertainty in their ability to sequester carbon, but that the problems with removal permanence have mostly been issues of implementation and not related to the underlying science.
A new Study in Communications Earth & Environment represents the largest ever analysis of the effects of climate change on Indigenous groups, based on data from 48 sites around the world, analyzed across 369 indicators. The study found evidence for climate impacts across reported areas, especially in terms of water access, and found that lack of land tenure protections had major impacts on indigenous community's resilience to climate change.
A new study in Science of the Total Environment of artificial forest systems in the recently reforested Loess Plateau of China finds that ecosystem services scores increased and then decreased as forests aged, with middle-aged to mature forests having the optimal range of values. The study suggested that balancing carbon sequestration and effects on local watersheds was key for maximizing ecosystem services in restored forests.
A new study from the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich examining the Atlantic forest of Brazil finds that wild tropical birds' ability to move freely has a major impact on the regeneration of carbon rich forests in the region. The study in Nature Climate Change finds that the presence of fruit eating birds can increase carbon potential recovery by up to 38%, and that a forest cover of over 40% and short distance between forest parcels is essential to fostering their presence.
A study in NPJ Ocean Sustainability examines the scientific grounding that is needed to help balance blue economy productivity with ocean protection. The study suggested that further research is needed in how MPAs affect pelagic fisheries and the economic impacts of MPAs on marine economies, and social science research on the equity effects of MPAs will be required to make effective conservation choices.
A study from the Wuhan Botanical Garden and Chinese Academy of Sciences, published in Nature Communications, examines 253 peer-reviewed articles to discern the effect of ecosystem restoration on greenhouse gas concentration. The study found that forest and grassland restoration increased CH4 uptake by 90% and 30.8% respectively, while wetland restoration increased CH4 emissions by 544.4%, while reducing N2O emissions by 68.6%. Restored wetlands were also found to transition from net CO2 sources to Net CO2 sinks on an average time of 4 years. The study suggests that ecosystem restoration is an effective strategy for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
A Study in Nature by Scientists affiliated with Utrecht University has found that Forest Stewardship Council certification for forest concessions is positively correlated with large mammal size in the Congo basin. In particular, the study finds that mammal populations weighing more than 220 kilograms had a 2.7 fold increase over similar, unprotected areas. The study found that, while FSC-certified concessions had benefits, they still did not completely eradicate illegal hunting in these forests.
Capital for Climate, along with its partner, Nature4Climate, released a first-of-its-kind landscape analysis of the nature tech market. This report illuminates a burgeoning sector that will help protect, manage, and restore nature.Click here for the report!
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