A National Strategy for Nature | 1/16 - 1/31
[NEW] The Nature-based Solutions Market
Starting in 2023 Capital for Climate will be providing an in-depth, bi-monthly, look into all things NbS.
Our detailed review of individual deals, macro commitments, research, and global frameworks surrounding NbS investment can be found towards the end of the newsletter.
Individual Deals and Market Watch
U.S., UAE: $20 billion investment to fund 15 gw in new clean energy [Reuters]
- The United States and United Arab Emirates announced on Sunday that the first $20 billion of their $100 billion clean energy partnership would be allocated to fund 15 new gigawatts of renewable energy projects before 2035, state news agency WAM said.
Tesla carbon credit sales reach record $1.78 billion in 2022 [Carbon Credits]
- Tesla has been selling carbon credits to other automakers. In 2019, the company made headlines when it reportedly earned $357 million from the sale of carbon credits to other car companies that did not meet emissions standards set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
PNC issues second green bond for $1.25bln [cision]
- The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) announced the closing of its latest Green Bond issuance. The proceeds will fund eligible projects that promote a transition to a low-carbon economy and offer sustainability benefits across four categories aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including renewable energy, energy efficiency green buildings, and clean transportation.
Telefónica issues $1.1 billion green bond [data center dynamics]
- The funds will be used towards green projects that ‘seek to achieve greater energy efficiency’, and will largely consist of shutting down obsolete equipment and the deployment and improvement of the network infrastructure through the deployment of more energy-efficient fiber optics and 5G infrastructure, as well as the procurement of renewable energy.
- Laconic Infrastructure Partners Inc. (Laconic), a leading global environmental intelligence and sustainable-growth solution provider, today announced that it has entered into a ten-year $357 Million USD contract with Perusda Bali, a Balinese provincial government-owned enterprise, to provide comprehensive Environmental Intelligence, Natural Capital Monetization, and Regenerative Ecoculture services across the island of Bali.
Vedanta Aluminium raises USD 250 Mn in sustainability linked loans [Orissadiary.com]
- Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, has raised USD 250 million through Sustainability Linked Loans (SLL) from reputed international banks, for financing its capex initiatives and reducing carbon footprint. The loans were granted on the basis of specific performance parameters for decarbonization and safety, which the company aims to meet by deploying these funds towards capital expenditure.
- These funds will support efforts to deliver on recycled-plastic commitments by accelerating the expansion of Nexus Circular's market-leading advanced recycling process. Nexus has consistently produced, and commercially sold, high-quality, ISCC PLUS certified circular products made from landfill-bound plastics, diverting over seven million pounds to date.
Shell buys EV-charger operator Volta for pennies on the dollar at $169mln [Canary Media]
- Volta, the San Francisco–based EV-charging-station company that raised $275 million from venture capital investors and reached a market valuation of $2 billion after its 2021 public-market debut, announced that it will be acquired by oil major Shell at a price of $169 million.
One Moto raises $150 million to scale its last-mile delivery operations in the UK [Wamda]
- UAE-based electric mobility startup and last-mile delivery services provider One Moto, has raised $150 million from an undisclosed investor in the UK. The recent round of financing will be utilised to expand the company’s operations in the UK to help tackle the decarbonisation challenge from the last-mile delivery industry.
DOE invests more than $130 million to lower nation’s carbon pollution [Energy.Gov]
- Funding supports 33 carbon management projects to ramp up efforts to achieve nationwide goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
Boston Metal announced $120mln funding round led by Microsoft and ArcelorMittal [CNBC]
- The clean steel technology company Boston Metal, which spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a $120 million funding round, led by the international steel giant ArcelorMittal and with participation from software behemoth Microsoft.
- Sustainable investment solution provider Orestes has launched its third offering, the Orestes Hydrogen Equity and Growth Portfolio which is targeting a 100 million euro raise and will offer investors access to private companies operating in the European hydrogen economy.
RI receives $103m for environmental projects [The Jakarta Post]
- Indonesia has received US$103.65 million in funding allocated for programs related to biodiversity, climate change and land degradation from the multilateral environmental fund Global Environment Facility’s eighth replenishment cycle (GEF-8) for 2022-2026.
Bluestar Energy opens shop in Australia after USD-100m cash boost [Renewables Now]
- US renewable energy investment platform Bluestar Energy Capital has opened an office in Sydney, Australia, after a capital raise that provided it with USD 100 million (EUR 92.6m) to expand its foothold on the global market.
US-based investment firm nets over $100 million for global carbon allowance fund [Carbon Pulse]
Carbon offsetting programme inks €50 mln deal with blockchain marketplace [Carbon Pulse]
Macro Commitments
WEF launches initiative to unlock $3 trillion a year for nature, climate [Business Standard]
- The World Economic Forum launched the Giving to Amplify Earth Action to help unlock the $3 trn of financing needed each year to reach net-zero, reverse nature loss and restore biodiversity by 2050
France plans $12bn green bond issuance in 2023 [Environmental Finance]
- France is preparing to raise €11 billion ($12 billion) from sovereign green bonds in 2023, representing a €1 billion boost to the 2022 total from the major issuer.
GreenGo plans $8.75bn green energy park in Denmark [Renewables Now]
- Solar developer GreenGo Energy Group a/s is planning to build a green energy park in Denmark, powered by 4 GW of wind and solar energy, to produce more than 1 million tonnes of green fuels annually.
Hyundai unveils $8.5B spending plan amid EV push [Automotive News Europe]
- The money will be spent primarily on research and development and on building a new plant in the U.S., the automaker said.
- The expansion project will give it a capability to produce 100 gigawatts of solar wafers and 50GW of solar cells per year, it says in filing to Shanghai exchange.
Wolfspeed to build $3-bln EV chip plant in Germany [Financial Post]
- U.S. chipmaker Wolfspeed will build a $3-billion chip plant in Germany, with automotive supplier ZF investing $185 million for an equity stake, company officials said, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
Germany to back innovative battery projects with $1.09bn [Renewables Now]
- Germany will provide EUR 1 billion (USD 1.09bn) to support innovative large-scale and strategic projects from all stages of the battery value chain as part of an expansion of the IPCEI project European Battery Innovation (EuBatIn).
Bristol City Council secures $1.09bn investment plan to help the city reach net-zero [edie]
- Bristol City Council has finalised a new long-term plan to bring in more than £1bn of investment to make the city carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2030 which will transform energy and infrastructure.
City of Berlin to issue $818m in sustainable bonds [IP&E]
- The projects include, among others, the expansion of an electric bus fleet, lunchtimes in schools free of charge, and support for the programme to make forests in the city resilient against climate change, keeping alive the diversity of tree species.
Government to invest record $764m for environmental projects through new agency Project Green
- The ambitious environmental project will focus on afforestation, the reclamation of land for more open and green spaces, as well as the regeneration of spaces which have been left abandoned and will be improved for the use of Maltese and Gozitan families.
Abu Dhabi’s Masdar plans $750m green bond sale [Arabian Business]
- Masdar plans to raise as much as $750m in its first ever green bond sale to fund new solar, wind and hydrogen projects around the world.
UK Government to offer $734m for green steel switch [BBC]
- The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy told the BBC it was working closely with the steel industry to secure what it describes as "a sustainable and competitive future". Sources told the BBC last week that a £300m funding package was being considered for British Steel.
Austria to back solar expansion with $655m, ease approval rules [Renewables Now]
- Austria is planning a set of measures that aim to further promote the rollout of renewable energy across the country, including simplified approval processes for new projects and a record budget of EUR 600 million (USD 646.3m) to support solar expansion in 2023.
State Bank of India plans to raise $500 million via green bonds [Business Standard]
- The country’s largest lender — State Bank of India (SBI) — is planning to raise around $500 million through green bonds to provide sustainable project finance. This plan coincides with about Rs 8,000 crore (close $1 billion) raised by the Government of India through maiden sovereign green bonds.
Shell to spend $450m on carbon offsetting as fears grow that credits may be worthless [The Guardian]
- Shell’s plans include using nature-based solutions (NBS) – its term for the projects which generate carbon offsetting credits – to “mitigate emissions of around 120m metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) per year by 2030”. That figure is roughly half the size of the current entire annual market for nature offsets, which is about 227.7m MtC02e.
- CMA CGM Group has launched a call for projects, worth €200m (US$217m) targeted at start-ups and businesses working on concrete solutions to step up the pace of decarbonisation within all areas of the French shipping industry.
DOE allocates $118 million to increase production of sustainable biofuels [Environmental Leader]
- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it will provide $118 million to 17 projects aimed at accelerating the production of sustainable biofuels for transportation and manufacturing needs. The selected projects will drive the domestic production of biofuels and bioproducts by advancing biorefinery development from pre-pilot to demonstration, creating sustainable fuels that reduce emissions associated with fossil fuels.
Pathways, Frameworks, Case Studies, Research, Climate Science
Net-Zero Insurance Alliance launches its Target-Setting Protocol [UNEPFI]
- The United Nations-convened Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) launched the Alliance’s first Target-Setting Protocol at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Voluntary carbon markets set to become at least five times bigger by 2030 -Shell [Reuters]
- Voluntary carbon markets are set to become at least five times bigger by 2030, transacting volumes comparable to annual emissions by the global aviation industry in 2019, energy major Shell (SHEL.L) said in a report.
S&P: $1trn sustainable bond market could return in 2023 [Environmental Finance]
- S&P Global Ratings has forecast that the sustainable bond market could return to being a trillion dollar market in 2023, with growth expected to comfortably exceed that of the broader bond market.
14% of sustainable bond issuers have set science-based targets [Environmental Finance]
- At the end of 2022, 14% of all issuers of sustainable bonds – 378 in total – had either set SBTi-verified targets or committed to do so. More than 86% of these issuers were corporates, with the bulk of the remaining issuers being financial institutions.
Net-zero aviation needs up to $1 trillion in carbon offsets by 2050 [New Scientist]
- Surging global demand for air travel and air freight transport means that the aviation industry would need to spend $1 trillion in carbon offsets by 2050 to achieve net-zero climate impacts – unless both the industry and frequent fliers abandon the business-as-usual approach.
At least USD 22bn needed to set up US offshore wind supply chain [Renewables Now]
- Developing a US offshore wind supply chain that can support 4 GW-6 GW of projects annually will require at least USD 22 billion (EUR 20.2bn) of investments in ports, large installation vessels, and manufacturing facilities by 2030, according to a newly-released road map.
Climate risk digital solutions market to skyrocket to $4bln by 2027 says report [Finance Feeds]
- Such high market growth expectations are attracting increasing interest from major firms, including McKinsey, Conning, BlackRock, Moody’s, and S&P Global, whch have acquired or launched climate resilience solutions in the past two years.
Climate Investment: Nigeria, China, others may lose $377bn GDP growth [This Day Live]
- Failure to invest the bare minimum needed to withstand projected climate damage could cost China, Nigeria and other emerging markets a whooping $377 billion in climate damages and lost gross domestic products (GDP) growth this decade, a new study by Standard Chartered has revealed.
Tighter energy efficiency rules could save UK economy £1.75bn a year [Climate Action]
- A new briefing from independent think tank E3G finds that stricter minimum energy efficiency standards could save the UK economy £1.75bn per year.
Three-quarters of companies increased their sustainability investments in 2022 [Business Review]
- Three-quarters of companies increased their sustainability investments over the past year, out of which 20% say that the allocated resources were significantly higher than in previous years, despite the economic uncertainty and the rise of operational costs, according to the Deloitte CxO Sustainability Report 2023.
Solar corp funding globally shrinks to USD 24.1bn in 2022 [Renewables Now]
- Total corporate funding in the global solar sector, including venture capital (VC), public market and debt financing deals amounted to USD 24.1 billion (EUR 22.18bn) in 2021, marking a 13% year-on-year drop in annual terms.
Global energy transition funding surpassed $1.1trn for first time in 2022 [edie]
- Global investment in low-carbon energy generation and innovation, plus energy efficiency, surged by almost one-third last year to reach record levels, according to new Bloomberg NEF (BNEF) analysis.
[NEW] The Nature-based Solutions Market
Individual Deals, Funds, and Commitments
- London-based Milltrust Ventures and Ireland’s Earth First Food Ventures are launching a new $300M (£242M) Smart Protein Fund tomorrow directed at funding alternative proteins companies to “disrupt and decarbonise” the food industry.
responsAbility announces first closings totaling $274mln for two sustainable food strategies [GAI]
- “This successful start to the fundraise comes on the back of the track record of our first fund, which is showing a strong performance as well as delivering high impact, changing the lives of millions of small holder farmers across Asia, and implementing sustainable agricultural practices on hundreds of thousands of hectares of land,” said Stephanie Bilo, chief client & investments solutions officer, responsAbility.
Germany vows more than $200 million for Amazon as Scholz meets Lula in Brazil [Amp France]
- Germany outlined more than $200 million in contributions for environmental projects in Brazil as Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the South American giant reeling from Amazon destruction under ex-president Jair Bolsonaro.
Maker of alternative proteins taps Richmond for $115M fermentation plant [IBJ]
- The New York City-based company says the Richmond plant—its first—is part of an effort to commercialize alternative protein products through precision fermentation manufacturing. It hopes to build a network of facilities to accommodate 80% or more of the alternative protein market, making products for “existing major food brands as well as the growing network of food-tech innovators.”
‘Green chips’: McCain invests further $43m in sustainable farming in the UK [Potato News Today]
- New contracts with suppliers promise to help farmers cope with rising fertiliser and energy costs while supporting new regenerative farming practices.
US Congress OKs $40M lower Mississippi River restoration [Daily Memphian]
- Congress has approved $40 million for ecological restoration in the lower Mississippi River — the first federal program of its kind for the 1,000-mile swath of river downstream of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Environmental advocates have been lobbying for something like it for years, following suit with a decades-old counterpart in the upper basin.
EarthOptics nets $27.6m Series B to advance soil sensing and data platform [AFN]
- EarthOptics, a company based in Arlington, Virginia that provides soil data measurement technologies and services, has secured $27.6 million Series B funding.
- Pune-based climate-tech startup Ecozen on Tuesday raised $25 million in equity and debt capital in its Series C round, as it looks beyond agriculture to expand into new deep-tech fields worldwide.
- New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette announced the award of $24.3 million in Natural Climate Solutions Grants to local governments and nonprofits to create, restore, and enhance New Jersey’s green spaces and tree canopies in urban areas, salt marshes and forests.
Foresight invests £19m ($23.7m) in UK forests [Environmental Finance]
- The London-listed investment trust aims to plant 880,000 trees to produce carbon offsets and sustainable timber with the latest investment. Nine of the new projects involve plans for tree-planting, while a further two areas are already forests.
Mushroom protein company Meati Foods opens ‘mega’ facility; closes $22M in new funding [Tech Crunch]
- The 100,000-square-foot facility was financed in part by a $150 million Series C round of capital raised last year and a brand new extension round of $22 million. This will enable Meati to produce an annual rate of tens of millions of pounds by late 2023. Once fully ramped up, the facility will have the capability of producing more than 45 million pounds of product.
Temasek funds biotech firm Living Carbon ($21mln) for GMO super trees [Carbon Credits]
- Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, along with Toyota, led the $21 million Series A funding round for climate biotech company Living Carbon that seeks to improve the ability of trees to absorb carbon.
- Evigence, a company that produces sensors and couples them with data analytics to monitor perishable food freshness in real time, has secured $18 million in a Series B round.
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $15 million loan facility with PT Dharma Satya Nusantara Tbk (DSNG) to help the company expand sustainable wood processing, rural livelihood development, and climate-resilient agroforestry in Java, Indonesia.
- The raise was led by the Gates-founded VC firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), with participation from fellow billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest via their agri-food business Harvest Road Group. Funds from both seed rounds totalled around A$25 million.
- Canada’s Sensible Hot Dogs has gone public on the NEO Exchange and raised nearly $12 million in non-brokered private financing for its plant-based hot dogs.
- The funding was led by Mandi Ventures with participation from SOSV, Big Idea Ventures, and SynBioVen, alongside sustainable materials-focused company, Asahi Kasei. Multus also secured a $2.5 million grant from Innovate U.K. through the EIC Accelerator — Europe’s most competitive start-up grant.
- Membrion, a ceramic desalination membrane manufacturer that enables recovery of up to 98% of water in harsh environments, announced a $7M Series B funding round led by PureTerra Ventures, with participation from Safar Partners, GiantLeap Capital, Freeflow, and existing investors. Nic Pannekeet, managing partner of PureTerra Ventures, and Himanshu Sekhar, co-founder and managing partner of GiantLeap Capital, will join Membrion’s Board of Directors.
- Israeli startup Pigmentum is jumping into the no-cow milk space, saying its gene-modified plant-based technology is able to create milk proteins from lettuce that are just like the real thing and can be used to make cheese.
Terramera raised $6M in USD funding [Finsmes]
- Led by Founder & CEO Karn Manhas, Terramera provides solutions to the agricultural industry to reduce the use of synthetic pesticides, increase crop resiliency, predictability and quality, support regenerative agronomy and measure the carbon sequestered in soil.
- Alt-seafood startup The ISH Company announces it has raised more than $5 million in seed funding to accelerate growth and development of its plant-based seafood products. The oversubscribed round was led by ACCELR8, with participation from Stray Dog Capital, and multiple angel investors.
- Entocycle, a UK startup that provides technologies and services for the insect farming industry, has secured $5 million in a Series A round from a pool of climate-positive institutional investors and athletes as angel investors.
Triodos loans £4m ($4.6mln) towards UK rewilding reserve [Environmental Finance]
- Heal plans to acquire a reserve in all 48 English counties by 2050 using affordable lending from public land sponsorship, corporate donations and natural capital investment.
UAM to lead $3.7m tree restoration work [Arkansas Online]
- A $3.7 million grant procured by a University of Arkansas at Monticello professor will help restore bottomland hardwood forests in the state's southern bottomland region. The five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will encompass efforts from UA-Monticello, the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Texas A&M University.
- Amazon has announced our first Right Now Climate Fund project in France, providing €3m of funding to the Fonds Nature 2050, created by CDC Biodiversité. The funding will support the preservation, restoration and management of an estimated 600,000m2 of land in France (an area larger than 80 football pitches) through the implementation of nature-based projects.
- China-based cultivated meat company Jimi Biotech has closed an angel funding round of ¥20 million ($3 million USD) led by Plum Ventures and Fanqie Capital with funding from Green Leaf Ventures and Joyvio Capital.
Austrian startup Arkeon picks up $3 million for its sustainable protein solution [EU Startups]
- Arkeon, a startup creating sustainable proteins through carbon capture, has raised a €2.75 million investment from ICL Planet Startup Hub. The Austrian startup is taking a pioneering approach to sustainable food production, is a startup we recently highlighted as one to watch, and is planning to scale.
- Researchers in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have received a US$2.4 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture to create bioplastics from food waste.
Danish SaaS platform Kanpla raises $2.39 million to help canteens reduce food waste [tech.eu]
- Dutch fund henQ is among seed investors backing Kanpla's proposed expansion into three additional European markets.
Philippine agri-fisheries startup Mayani nets $1.7M in AgFunder-led round [Technode.global]
- Mayani, a Philippine-based agri-fisheries startup, has secured $1.7 million in oversubscribed seed funding anchored by the Silicon Valley agtech venture capital (VC) AgFunder through its GROW Impact Fund.
Revo Foods and Mycorena receive $1.65M to develop 3D-printable mycoprotein [Vegconomist]
- The funds come from Swedish innovation agency Vinnova, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, and cross-border EU funding program Eurostars. Applications were highly competitive, so the companies’ success demonstrates that there is significant interest in innovative mycoprotein solutions.
Projects, Frameworks, and Research
WWF launches biodiversity risk measurement tool [Environmental Finance]
- The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched a free biodiversity risk tool to help companies and investors understand the risks they face from biodiversity loss.
Fungal protein market to reach $115 Mn by 2032, says Global Market Insights Inc. [GlobeNewswire]
- Trend of veganism has picked up an immense pace in many regions, including the Asia Pacific, as more people are growing health conscious and want to develop sustainable dietary habits. The rise in awareness of animal welfare and focus on eco-friendliness in the production of meat alternatives are some of the other factors contributing to the use of fungal proteins.
Scottish Government to lever 'private finance' to plug £20bn nature funds gap [The Herald]
- Greens biodiversity minister Lorna Slater told MSPs that specific details on how the Scottish Government will reach its nature and biodiversity targets will be set out in a deliver plan, to be published later this year.
- Top climate tech deals in agrifood in 2022 were almost exclusively upstream startups — those closer to the farm or lab. However, as the sector matures, VC activity may yet float downstream.
Top 10 alternative protein startups brought in $1.3bn in 2022 vs $2.3bn in 2021 [AFN]
- While the pullback for some startups began back in the spring of 2022, it wasn’t until much later in the year that the down rounds and flat rounds started to appear. However, the top 10 companies raised $1 billion less in 2022 than in 2021 — a 44% drop.
White House introduces strategy to measure economic value of natural resources [Executive.gov]
- The National Strategy to Develop Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions aims to include natural capital in the national economic accounting system to organize data that enable measurement of the quantity and value of the nation’s natural assets, the White House said.
- According to the report, the global food recycler industry generated $26.3 billion in 2021, and is estimated to reach $48.8 billion by 2031, witnessing a CAGR of 6.4% from 2022 to 2031. The report offers a detailed analysis of changing market trends, top segments, key investment pockets, value chain, regional landscape, and competitive scenario.
Food waste management market worth $106.7 billion by 2030: Grand View Research, Inc. [Cision]
- The global food waste management market size is anticipated to reach USD 106.7 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2023 to 2030. Rising concerns over food waste globally, and increasing consumer preference for exotic food items, are expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period.
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The Nature Tech Market. Necessary, Emergent, Dynamic
Capital for Climate, along with its partner, Nature4Climate, released a new report, "The Nature Tech Market: Necessary, Emergent, Dynamic”.
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.
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