Climate Investment Newsletter 10/17 - 10/23

Groundbreaking

Reports: Mark Carney aiming to set up global CO2 offsets market in early 2021

• Former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is gearing up to establish a "credible" international carbon offsetting market by as soon as the beginning of next year, amid growing demand from the private sector to drive down emissions, The Telegraph reports.

Macro Commitments

Aussie super funds ramp up climate investing efforts

• Following last week’s launch of ‘Climate League 2030’, an Australian investor-led emission-reduction initiative, superannuation funds and other institutions have outlined how they are allocating capital and ramping up their activity on this front.

BT Pension Scheme sets 2035 net zero goal for its entire £55bn portfolio

• BT Pension Scheme, the UK’s largest company pension scheme, has today committed to an ambitious new goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 across its £55 billion portfolio.

Global Firms Managing Assets Worth US$16 Trillion Agree To Scale-Up Sustainable Investment

• The group of companies, the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance (GISD) who together control assets worth US$16 trillion, recently attended a meeting with the U.N. chief and have agreed to take action on a range of issues to align their business with the SDGs and to accelerate global sustainable investment.

Peru and Switzerland sign ‘world first’ carbon offset deal under Paris Agreement

• Switzerland has struck a carbon offsetting agreement with Peru, in what the two nations say is the first deal of its kind under Article 6 of the Paris agreement.

Bank of England to Require Company Disclosures on Climate Risks

• Current rules on company disclosures to help markets price in risks from climate change will become mandatory, a senior Bank of England official said on Friday.

ConocoPhillips Becomes First Major U.S. Oil Firm To Pledge Emission Cuts

• U.S. oil and gas producer ConocoPhillips unveiled on Monday a target to reduce emissions from its operations to net zero by 2045-2055 in a first announcement from a major American oil firm setting specific targets to cut its carbon footprint.

Poland’s PGE to Invest $19 Billion to Meet Zero-Emissions Goal

• Poland’s largest utility plans to spend 75 billion zloty ($19.4 billion) by 2030 as it aims to become climate-neutral by mid-century.

Net-zero asset owner alliance unveils target-setting range, protocol

• The members of the now 30-strong UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance have collectively agreed the range within which their first set of concrete portfolio decarbonisation targets will fall.

Net zero is THE new business imperative

• The number of major corporations making net zero pledges has doubled in less than a year, including more than 1,500 companies with a combined revenue of more than $11.4 trillion, per a new analysis by NewClimate Institute and Data-Driven Enviro Lab.

Individual Deals and Market Watch

Electric bus maker Proterra raises $200 million

• Burlingame, Calif.-based electric bus maker Proterra has raised $200 million, backed by Cowen Sustainable Advisors, Soros Fund Management, Generation Investment Management, and Broadscale Group. Obvious Ventures was an early investor (see, “Talking trillion-dollar sustainability disruptions with Obvious Ventures’ Andrew Beebe”).

EU’s Social Bonds Draw $275 Billion to Set Global Demand Record

• The European Union’s first offering of social bonds drew orders of more than 233 billion euros ($275 billion), likely to be the biggest ever for any debt deal.

The Hague earmarks €180 million for sustainability, following energy company sale

• The Dutch city of The Hague has announced that it will invest over €180 million (US$210 million) in sustainability projects, using money from the sale of energy company Eneco.

Frameworks and Case Studies

St. Kitts And Nevis Launches Green Climate Fund Readiness Project

• Climate change continues to pose a critical challenge for Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and civil society organizations (CSOs) have little access to and engagement in climate finance mechanisms. As such, St. Kitts and Nevis launched a Green Climate Fund Readiness Project: “Enhancing Caribbean Civil Society’s Access and Readiness for Climate Finance.”

Climate Investment Platform: Plugging the Energy Investment Gap in Developing Countries

• IRENA and Climate Investment Platform partners are working closely to advance renewables deployment efforts in developing countries

$1 trillion needed for key energy transition metals by 2035: WoodMac

• Over $1 trillion of investment will be needed in key energy transition metals, namely aluminum, cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium, over the next 15 years to meet the growing demands of decarbonization, Wood Mackenzie said Oct. 21.

Levelized Cost of Carbon Abatement: An Improved Cost-Assessment Methodology for a Net-Zero Emissions World

• This paper, from the Carbon Management Research Initiative at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, puts forward a levelized cost of carbon abatement, LCCA, an improved methodology for comparing technologies and policies based on the cost of carbon abatement. LCCA measures how much CO2 can be reduced by a specific investment or policy, taking into account relevant factors related to geography and specific asset. It calculates how much an investment or policy costs on the basis of dollars per ton of emissions reduced.

ACT – Assessing low Carbon Transition new methodologies development (Chemicals, Pulp & Paper, Glass and Aluminium.)

• ACT – Assessing low Carbon Transition is a joint voluntary initiative of the UNFCCC secretariat Global Climate Agenda co-founded by ADEME and CDP. ACT provides sectoral methodologies as an accountability framework to assess how companies’ strategies and actions contribute to the Paris mitigation goals.

Companies begin to test new agricultural credits for carbon goals

• Several large corporate customers became the first companies to commit to purchasing verified agricultural credits to support farmers and incentivize carbon sequestration through the planting of natural “carbon sinks”.

UNFCCC Launches New Event Platform ‘Climate Hub 360’

• To give guidance and clarity on the work ahead, UN Climate Change is launching Climate Hub 360, our new visual event platform to showcase key events as well as our own UNFCCC events leading up to COP26. This living product will be updated continuously as our work progresses and will help “drive the highest possible ambition and facilitate the delivery of mandates envisioned for 2020 and in the lead up to COP 26.”

Companies slashing carbon emissions see 15% rise in market cap

• Climate change is having an effect on companies' market capitalization as investors increasingly focus on decarbonization. On Tuesday, 137 global investors that hold $20 trillion in assets called on over 1,800 companies to set science-based targets for cutting emissions. Those companies are the source of 25% of the world's carbon emissions, according to CDP, a non-profit group that coordinated the move.