Net Zero Investor 9/25 - 10/1

Individual Deals and Market Watch

China issues $54 bln in green bonds from Jan-Aug, up 152% on year [Thomson Reuters Foundation News]

• China issued 350 billion yuan ($54.13 billion) in green bonds in the first eight months of the year, up 152% compared to a year earlier and already surpassing the total amount for 2020, a senior central bank official told a forum.

EV maker Polestar strikes $20-billion deal with Gores Guggenheim SPAC [Yahoo Finance]

• Swedish electric-car maker Polestar said it will go public by merging with a U.S.-listed blank-check firm backed by billionaire Alec Gores and investment bank Guggenheim Partners at an enterprise value of $20 billion. The deal with Gores Guggenheim will provide Polestar cash proceeds of over $1 billion, including $800 million from the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), and a PIPE, or private investment in public equity, of $250 million from institutional investors.

APICORP sells $750 million in debut green bonds [Reuters]

• The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) sold $750 million debut green bonds with a five-year maturity last Wednesday after drawing around $2.1 billion in orders for the climate-friendly debt, a bank document showed.

Al Gore’s Generation takes $600 million stake in Octopus Energy [Bloomberg Green]

• Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management LLP bought a $600 million stake in the U.K.’s Octopus Energy Ltd., a supplier of green electricity.
• Generation’s Long-Term Equity fund will own a 13% stake, boosting Octopus’s valuation to $4.6 billion, the utility said in a statement Monday. Octopus plans to use the capital to “turbo boost” its renewable-energy business.

Energize Ventures raises $330M to fund energy, mobility and climate resiliency technology [Tech Crunch]

• Energize Ventures, an early and growth-stage venture fund, has announced the closing of its second fund with total capital commitments of $330 million. Fund II will be used to help scale and commercialize software across renewable energy, mobility, cybersecurity, battery storage, critical infrastructure and climate resiliency.

SoftBank, Al Gore’s Generation back secondhand platform Vestiaire Collective in $209M round [Green Queen]

• Vestiaire Collective, the preloved fashion platform, has raised €178 million (US$209 million) in a fresh round with high-profile tech investors SoftBank and Al Gore co-founded Generation Investment Management. The new funds will help Vestiaire scale globally amid the resale fashion market boom.
• The latest capital brings the company’s valuation to around $1.7 billion. Vestiaire had raised the same amount back in March this year, in a round led by Kering and Tiger Global, which elevated it to unicorn status.

PGE places USD-150m green bond for wind, solar in Oregon [Renewables Now]

• Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR), or PGE, has sold USD 150 million (EUR 129m) of green bonds to refinance its investment in a 380-MW complex combining wind, solar and energy storage in Oregon.

Investible launches $100M AUD fund for early-stage climate tech startups [Tech Crunch]

• Investible, the Sydney-based early-stage venture firm known for investments in Canva and other top Australian startups, announced today it is raising a $100 million AUD (about $72.3 million USD) Climate Tech Fund. This is the first time Investible has launched a sector-focused fund. Its first two funds, including a $50 million AUD one closed earlier this year, were both sector-agnostic.

Macro Commitments

Investors with $29 trillion demand science-based climate targets [Bloomberg Green]

• A coalition of financial firms overseeing a combined $29.3 trillion of assets are calling on some of the world’s biggest corporate emitters to “urgently” set science-based emissions reduction targets that are compatible with 1.5° Celsius of global warming.
• Allianz SE, Credit Agricole SA and Legal & General Investment Management are among 220 institutions that have written to 1,600 companies to request they set emissions reduction targets through the Science Based Targets initiative, a widely-endorsed program for screening corporate climate plans. The financial firms are asking companies, including Hyundai Motor Co., Duke Energy Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., to align their targets with a 1.5°C pathway.

Laurene Powell Jobs invests $3.5 bln in new climate-action group [Reuters]

• Billionaire philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs is investing $3.5 billion in a new group aimed at addressing the climate crisis, a spokesperson for Emerson Collective, the organization she founded, said.
• The Waverley Street Foundation "will focus on initiatives and ideas that will aid underserved communities who are most impacted by climate change," the spokesperson said.

Ørsted gets EUR-500m EIB loan to support renewables investments [Renewables Now]

• Danish energy group Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) has received support for its increased renewable energy investments in the form of a EUR-500-million (USD 584m) loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the parties said.

Encavis, BayernLB join hands in EUR-500m renewable energy fund [Renewables Now]

• The asset management unit of German renewables operator Encavis AG (ETR:CAP) and Munich-based bank BayernLB have set up a second special fund that will focus on renewable energy investments across Europe.

Australia to provide $180 mln in grants to promote carbon capture [Reuters]

• The grants will go toward supporting the design and construction of carbon capture hubs and shared infrastructure, backing research and commercialisation of carbon capture technologies and identifying viable carbon storage sites.

Pathways, Frameworks, Case Studies, Research, Climate Science

Large-scale reforestation to become a $1trn investment opportunity, report finds [edie]

• Co-authored by forest-tech startup Terraformation and consultancy Frontier Economics, which is led by former Climate Change Committee lead Matthew Bell, the report plots the ever-improving business case for forest restoration.
• It states that several factors have led to a growing restoration economy, including the growth of corporate interest in carbon offsetting and subsequent launch of bodies designed to ensure robust carbon markets for nature-based projects.

Three African countries need $280 billion for climate change [Bloomberg Green]

• Investments of about $280 billion will be needed to cope with the effects of climate change in 35 cities in South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia by 2050, new research shows.

Reversing Asia Pacific's biodiversity and nature loss crisis could result in US$4.3 trillion worth of nature-positive business opportunities [Yahoo Finance]

• Asia Pacific, a region rich in endemic biodiversity found nowhere else in the world, is at the heart of the biodiversity and nature loss crisis. It contains the world's largest concentration of hotspots with natural capital depletion, and under business-as-usual, up to 42 percent of all species in Southeast Asia could be lost, half of which would be global extinctions.
• These are among the findings of a new report by AlphaBeta, Temasek, and the World Economic Forum, 'New Nature Economy: Asia's Next Wave', launched today at Ecosperity Week 2021. The report makes the business case for nature-positive solutions in the region by exploring the risks, opportunities and financing needed for a nature-positive economy.

Alternative protein could take up 64% of global protein market by 2060, report finds [Plant Based News]

• The report found that 7 of 25 (28 percent) global food retailers and manufacturers have specific objectives to grow their alternative protein portfolio. For context, three years ago, none of the companies had such targets.
• Private investments in the alternative protein space were at an all-time high in 2020. In total, $3.1 billion was invested in plant-based, fermentation-based, and cultured meat technologies.