Net Zero Investor 8/21 - 8/27 - Capital for Climate

Individual Deals and Market Watch

The bonds comprise two tranches – US$300 million maturing in 2027, and US$700 million in 2031, which have been rated ‘A3’ by Moody’s and ‘A’ by Fitch
The bonds were oversubscribed five times, with Baidu planning to use the proceeds to fund green data centres and research into electric ‘robocars’

German electric utility EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG (ETR:EBK) has launched a EUR-500-million (USD 586.9m) green bond offering, seeking to finance wind, solar and e-mobility projects.

The three companies created about £170 million ($233.7 million) in market value under Bridges’ ownership, according to the U.K.-based impact investor.

Apollo Global has committed US$150 million to US energy storage technology system integrator FlexGen Power Systems.

Gresham House has raised an initial £127m (€149m) for its sustainable forestry fund, with backing from investors including the Scottish National Investment Bank.
Returns will come from UK timber, forest asset appreciation and carbon.
Close exceeded the fund’s initial target of £100m.

Energy Vault (the “Company”), the creator of gravity-based, grid-scale energy storage solutions with its proprietary technology, announced $100 million in Series C funding. The investment is being led by existing investor Prime Movers Lab, with additional participation from other existing investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Helena, and Idealab X. In addition, the Series C funding is supported by new investors, including Pickering Energy Partners through its Energy Equity Opportunity Fund, SailingStone Global Energy Transition, A.T. Gekko, Crexa Capital Advisors LLC, Green Storage Solutions Venture I LLC, and Gordon Crawford.

Macro Commitments

The State of California’s California Climate Investments—a program designed to put billions to work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—is funded with proceeds from the State’s Cap-and-Trade program. Since 2013, the California Legislature has appropriated $15.4 billion in California Climate Investments funds for projects statewide, $9 billion of which are either underway or completed.
Approximately $4.5 billion of all implemented funds directly benefit California’s priority populations, which include disadvantaged and low-income communities and low-income households statewide.

The European Commission (EC) said that it has approved France’s EUR-5.7-billion (USD 6.71bn) aid scheme to support the installation of small-scale building-mounted solar arrays.

Indian solar developer Acme Group has struck a land deal to build a green hydrogen and green ammonia production complex at the port of Duqm in Oman.
The Indian firm said it plans to invest $3.5 billion (EUR 2.98bn) into the project over the next three years. The plant is set to be built in several phases, the first one of which is to be on line byend-2022.

The world’s biggest shipping company is investing $1.4bn (£1bn) to speed up its switch to carbon neutral operations, ordering eight container vessels that can be fuelled by green methanol as well as traditional bunker fuel.
The Danish shipping business Maersk said the investment in new vessels would help to ship goods from companies including H&M Group and Unilever, while saving more than 1m tonnes of carbon emissions a year by replacing older fossil fuel-driven ships.

Pathways, Frameworks, Case Studies, Research, Climate Science

FERC's latest monthly "Energy Infrastructure Update" report (with data through June 30, 2021) reveals that renewable energy sources accounted for 91.6% - or 10,940 MW - of the 11,940 MW of new capacity added during the first six months of the year. Wind led the capacity additions with 5,617 MW, followed closely by solar (5,279 MW).
Renewables provide more than a quarter of total US available installed generating capacity. A year ago, their share was only 23.0%. Wind is now more than a tenth (10.4%) of the nation's generating capacity while utility-scale solar is 4.9%.. and that does not include distributed (e.g., rooftop) solar.
FERC data suggest that renewables’ share of generating capacity is on track to increase significantly over the next three years (i.e., by June 2024).

In the first half of 2021, climate tech startups raised ~$16b across ~250 venture deals
1,000 investment firms, yes one thousand, joined at least 1 climate tech deal from Q2’20 to Q2’21, with ~50 firms backing 5+ climate tech deals

Southeast Asia stands to reap $12.5 trillion in economic gains by 2070 if it takes urgent moves to slow climate change, while inaction could yield losses more than double that size, according to the Deloitte Economics Institute.
Note from C4C: And we know that most of the investment in the low carbon transition has to happen in Asia, roughly 55% of the approximate $124 trillion required by 2050 to get to net zero, according to BCG’s analysis last fall.

A green investment wave is washing over Canada, with listed cleantech and renewable energy companies enjoying their strongest fundraising performance ever in the first half of the year.
The growing sector secured $3.09 billion in equity financings during the first six months of 2021, a 335% gain over the same period in ‘20 according to data from TMX Group Ltd.

Titled ‘Protecting East Africa’s Natural Capital: The Cost of Inaction,’ the new report indicates that the Great East African Plains, the Northern Savannas, the Albertine Rift Forests, and the Ruweru-Mugesera-Akagera Wetlands, together contribute over US $10.9 billion annually to East African Community economies and $608 billion to the global economy.

A new market study reveals that the plant-based dairy market is predicted to expand by nearly 3X over the next ten years from $11 bn to an estimated $32 bn. China is identified as a key and flourishing market while cheese is identified as the next innovation frontier.

Net Zero Investor 8/21 - 8/27