Climate Investment Newsletter 11/10 - 11/21

Nature tech market predicted to grow to $6 billion by 2030: Report

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.

Click below for the report!

Report: The Nature Tech Market. Necessary, Emergent, Dynamic

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Individual Deals and Market Watch

European Commission issues a new €6 billion NextGenerationEU green bond [EC]

• With today's green bond, the Commission has issued a total of €35.5 billion of NextGenerationEU green bonds to finance green projects under EU Member States' Recovery and Resilience plans

ExxonMobil, Pertamina sign $2.5 billion deal to assess CCS hub in Indonesia [Carbon Pulse]

Carlyle seeks $1.6 bln for second renewable energy fund [yahoo!]

• Carlyle Group Inc is seeking at least $1.6 billion for its second private equity fund that will invest in assets focused on renewable energy and sustainability, according to people familiar with the matter. The Washington, D.C.-based firm began amassing capital this year for the new fund, dubbed Carlyle Renewable & Sustainable Energy Fund II, the sources said. If it meets its fundraising target, it would be double the size of its predecessor fund, the Carlyle Renewable & Sustainable Energy Fund, which had collected $800 million from investors, the sources added.

Iberdrola S A : We place €1.5 billion green bond with strong investor support [Market Screener]

• Iberdrola has tapped the fixed income market in Europe, as it did in March, successfully closing a double-tranche transaction for a combined amount of €1.5 billion: €750 million with a six-year maturity and €750 million with a ten-year maturity, in both cases in green format, increasing the amount expected due to the high demand received.

EnBW places EUR 1bn of green bonds to fund renewables, grid expansion [Renewables Now]

• German electric utility EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG (ETR:EBK) has issued two green bonds with a combined volume of EUR 1 billion (USD 1.04bn) to finance the expansion of the power grid in southern Germany and renewable energy projects.

New US climate finance initiative aims to mobilize $1bn private capital [devex]

• A new U.S. government initiative is going to try to use up to $80 million in grant funding to bring in $1 billion in private-sector investment to ramp up climate financing in emerging markets.

Climate Adaptive Infrastructure raises over $1 billion, one of the largest inaugural sector focused fundraises [businesswire]

• Climate Adaptive Infrastructure (“CAI” or the “Firm”), an investment firm that targets control investments in large-scale, low-carbon real assets in the clean energy, water, and urban infrastructure sectors, today announced the successful close of its inaugural fund, Climate Adaptive Infrastructure Fund LP (the “Fund”), raising more than $825 million in equity. In addition, alongside the Fund, CAI has an affiliated co-investment program of over $200 million, for a total of over $1 billion in equity to deploy.

AIB bond raises €750 million to go towards climate action projects [Agriland]

• AIB bank has raised €750 million through the issuance of its fourth green bond this week, the proceeds of which will go towards financing environmental and climate action projects.

KfW launches €550m 'green' hydrogen financing platform [Environmental Finance]

• German development bank KfW has launched a €550 million ($568 million) financing platform to mobilise private capital towards 'green' hydrogen projects, in particular within emerging markets.

TransAlta prices $400M senior green bond offering [Seeking Alpha]

USDA invests additional $300 million in climate-smart projects [Meat+Poultry]

• On Nov. 12, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced an additional $300 million toward climate-smart agricultural projects, bringing total investment to $3.1 billion. The more than 65 additional projects will focus on small and underserved producers and methods for monitoring, reporting and verifying the benefits of climate-smart projects.

Foxconn plans to invest $170 million in EV truck maker Lordstown Motors [WSJ]

• The startup plans to use the funds to hire engineers, and will develop an electric vehicle with the Taipei-based contract manufacturer

DIF Capital Partners invests €150m in leading Nordic solar developer Alight [PV Magazine]

• DIF Capital Partners will acquire a majority stake in Stockholm-headquartered Alight, a leading developer of subsidy-free solar projects in the Nordics.

Germany's KfW grants EUR-150m loan to back solar in India [Renewables Now]

• German development bank KfW said that it has signed an agreement to extend a EUR-150-million (USD 152.1m) loan to the State Bank of India (SBI) to support the solar energy development in India.

Enviva Prices $100 Million in Tax-Exempt Green Bonds [yahoo]

• Consistent with Enviva’s Green Finance Framework, the Bonds are designated as Green Bonds because the proceeds will be used to finance the construction of a wood pellet production plant that will produce a sustainable, renewable, drop-in substitute for fossil fuels, with potential applicability in hard-to-abate industries where the use of wood pellets could reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a lifecycle basis.

£9.3-bln UK pension fund makes £100-mln anchor commitment to new forest carbon investment vehicle [Carbon Pulse]

Essex Pension Fund invests £100m in carbon impact fund [Environmental Finance]

• The Stafford impact fund aims to raise $1 billion to develop commercial timberland plantations, restore natural forests globally and generate carbon credits. Stafford Capital Partners has £7.5 billion in assets.

Macro Commitments

Net Zero Asset Managers Alliance nears 300 members with $21.8tr assets covered by net zero goals [Business Green]

Iberdrola to invest EUR 47bn up to 2025 [Energy Watch]

• The Spanish utility reveals plans to invest EUR 47bn in the green transition ahead of 2025, with a large portion of the capital earmarked for power grid reinforcement.

U.S., Japan and partners mobilise $20 billion to move Indonesia away from coal [Reuters]

• A coalition of countries will mobilise $20 billion of public and private finance to help Indonesia shut coal power plants and bring forward the sector's peak emissions date by seven years to 2030, the United States, Japan and partners said. The Indonesia Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), more than a year in the making, "is probably the single largest climate finance transaction or partnership ever", a U.S. Treasury official told reporters.

UAE-US led initiative doubles investment to $8bln in climate action [Zawya]

• The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) is an initiative led by the US and UAE governments, supported by 42 countries and 235 partners, with the focus on increasing investment in climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation to accelerate climate action. The initiative was announced at COP26 in Glasgow by US President Joe Biden with an initial investment of $4 billion.

EIF supports €2.5 billion of climate action investment with five venture capital, private equity and infrastructure fund partners [EC]

• The EIF is committing €250 million with five equity funds to mobilise €2.5 billion of climate action and environmental sustainability investment across Europe: Growth Blue Fund I, PureTerra Ventures, Zintinus Fund I, SUMA Capital Climate Impact Fund III and Eiffel Transition Infrastructure Fund.

DFC delivers on U.S. climate finance with more than $2.3 billion committed for climate linked projects in FY 2022 [dfc.gov]

• Delivering on President Biden’s 2021 call to catalyze more climate financing for developing countries, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) today announced it committed more than $2.3 billion in climate-linked development projects during Fiscal Year 2022.

The IKEA Foundation to invest €600M in charitable climate solutions by 2025: Know more [Silicon Canals]

• The IKEA Foundation announced on Friday, November 11, that it will invest €600M in different climate solutions and has published fresh research analysing what investments can yield the highest emissions reductions across key industries.

British International Investment’s climate investments reach $500m this year [Pioneers Post]

• British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, has invested US$500m in climate finance since the beginning of 2022, it said this week.
• The sum invested by the organisation formerly known as CDC Group over the year to date is up from just $38.8m in 2015 – a 13-fold growth since the Paris agreement was struck at COP21.

EIB backs new USD-500m renewables fund for emerging markets [Renewables Now]

• The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced commitments of USD 100 million (EUR 97m) to Alcazar Energy Partners II, a fund that will invest in renewable energy projects in the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
• The fund has a target size of USD 500 million and a hard cap of USD 650 million.

EIB, DBSA partner on EUR-400m plan to support renewables in S Africa [Renewables Now]

• The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) on Friday launched a EUR-400-million (USD 412m) initiative to support private sector renewable energy investment in South Africa.

COP27: CIF pledges $350m to scale up climate solutions [Afrik21]

• At the 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) in Charm el-Sheikh, the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) are pledging $350 million in funding to scale up climate solutions in countries around the world, including seven in Africa.

Pathways, Frameworks, Case Studies, Research, Climate Science

Deforestation is pushing Amazon to ‘point of no return’: WWF report [Mongabay]

• A new report from the World Wildlife Fund, called the Living Amazon Report, warns that threats to the Amazon have gotten worse in recent years, and could result in the disappearance of the biome if more drastic action isn’t taken.

Ghana co-chairs first ministerial meeting with the US on $16.5 billion initiative to protect global forests [joyonline]

• Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor and the United States’ Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Secretary John Kerry jointly chaired the meeting to develop a framework for 2023 and beyond to achieve the objectives of the Partnership. The meeting was attended by 28 other ministers and five observer countries with a mission to save the world’s forests.

Solar power generation helped avoid $34bn in costs for seven Asian countries [yahoo]

• The report jointly developed by energy think-tank Ember and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) stated that seven key Asian countries, including China, India, and Japan, avoided potential fossil fuel costs of approximately $34bn from January to June 2022.

Mangrove forest loss is slowing toward a halt, new report shows [Mongabay]

• In 2021, the Global Mangrove Alliance, a consortium of NGOs, published “The State of the World’s Mangroves,” the first snapshot study compiled from satellite imagery intended to provide an up-to-date record of global mangrove forest cover.
• The second installment of the report, published in September, draws on improved and updated maps.

Carbon Capture and Storage Market is Projected to Reach US$ 5.04 Billion in 2028 [GlobeNewswire]

• The Carbon Capture and Storage Market is expected to reach US$ 5.04 Billion in 2028, growing at a CAGR of 5.71% during 2022- 2028, reports Stratview Research.

More coverage, from around the world, on our nature tech report:

Global market for 'nature tech' poised to triple to $6bn by 2030 [BusinessGreen]

Climate finance experts predict “nature tech” will grow to $6 billion by 2030 [Fortune Herald]

‘Nature tech’ predicted to grow by $6 billion following COP27 [Open Access Government]

Nature tech will grow to $6 billion by 2030 [IrishTechNews]