Climate Investment Newsletter 1/1 - 1/7

Individual Deals and Market Watch

Silicon Ranch Corporation, an independent renewable power producer in the US that is backed by Royal Dutch Shell plc (AMS:RDSA), announced it has raised USD 775 million (EUR 685m) in new equity capital.

Fund manager Catalyst Capital has acquired a site to build a 100-MW battery in Yorkshire, northern England, in the first of a series of planned deals under a GBP-300-million (USD 406.1m/EUR 358.9m) strategy to develop diversified UK battery energy storage systems (BESS) facilities.

Australia’s UGL, part of CIMIC Group Ltd (ASX:CIM), unveiled it has secured three contracts worth over AUD 296 million (USD 212m/EUR 188m) on renewable energy and transmission projects in Queensland and South Australia.

Leading European life sciences venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners announced it has raised €150 million (US$169.4 million) for its Sofinnova Industrial Biotech II Fund.

PosiGen, the nation's leading provider of renewable energy and efficiency solutions for low-to-moderate income (LMI) households, is pleased to announce the close of a $100 million preferred equity financing. Magnetar Capital's Energy & Infrastructure group was the lead investor in the financing and will nominate two new directors to join PosiGen's Board of Directors.

The total number of deliveries for the year was 936,172, a massive increase from 499,550 in 2020. No EV vendor in the history of the sector has produced these kinds of volumes.
Tesla plans to begin production in its new plants in Austin, Texas and Berlin, Germany this year, and Wall Street analysts are expecting another sizable volume ramp-up, with deliveries estimated to exceed 1.4 million units in 2022.

Based in Durham, North Carolina The Climate Service, Inc. was founded in 2017. Since then, The Climate Service has won multiple awards for its innovative approach to analyzing climate risks, including winner of the 2021 ESG Investing Best Specialist ESG Data Provider award, New Wave Leader 2020 by Forrester and World Changing Ideas by Fast Company.

Indonesian agritech start-up eFishery announced that it has successfully closed US$90 million in its Series C round, making it the largest fundraise by an aquaculture technology start-up in the world. This round of investment was co-led by Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Sequoia Capital India, with participation from existing investors including the Northstar Group, Go-Ventures, Aqua-Spark, and Wavemaker Partners.

Japan’s Mitsui & Co. announced it has invested in an Australia-based carbon offset fund jointly developed with New Forests, which will manage the fund.

Macro Commitments

Taiwan's largest pension fund is set to issue what a top official said is Asia's first climate change-focused stock mandate, worth $2.3 billion, amid mounting pressure for the global financial sector to support green investing.

India's cabinet approved a plan to build transmission lines costing $1.61 billion over 5 years to link 20 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy projects from seven states with the grid, as the nation moves to cut its carbon emissions.

British Land is one of the latest organisations to back Fifth Wall’s Climate Technology Fund, which aims to invest in technologies that can reduce the carbon footprint of the real estate industry.

The bio-based food ingredient market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 5.93 percent between 2020-2027, to reach a market value of nearly $3 billion, according to the report Bio-Based Food Ingredients Market: Global Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2028, recently released by Research Nester last month.
This market has been identified by Cargill as a priority for the company, and is a strategic goal that has been reflected in its latest announcement outlining its agreement to acquire the majority of the performance technologies and industrial chemicals business from Croda for EUR 915 million (US$1.03 billion).

Governor Kathy Hochul (NY) announced a plan to strengthen New York's renewable energy leadership and make a nation-leading $500 million investment in offshore wind as part of the 2022 State of the State. This plan will directly invest in offshore wind manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure, create thousands of good-paying green jobs, deliver billions in economic impact, and generate enough energy to power millions of homes.

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, said that it will issue NT$5.4 billion (US$196 million) in green bonds to fund green building construction and other eco-friendly projects.

Pathways, Frameworks, Case Studies, Research, Climate Science

The Global Waste Management Market size was valued to USD 394.1 billion in 2020, and is predicted to reach USD 715.0 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 6.1% from 2021-2030. Waste management process involves collection of waste, recovery of solid waste and disposal of unwanted substances in the most safe and effective manner. Waste management focuses on the reusing, reducing and recycling of wastes. It also uses various new technologies for decomposition of waste which also helps in reducing the pollution.

A brace of timely reports focused on the trading of natural capital and carbon have been launched at the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) last week.
The two-part publication, commissioned and funded by the WWF and Tesco partnership, states the market potential value of UK land-based carbon credits alone could equate to as much as £1.7 billion annually. However, the governance of these markets is crucial to make the marketplace a credible and practical reality.

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