Non-state actors - corporations, cities, and financial institutions – are making their own impact on emissions reductions. We don’t just have to rely on governments, explain James Newcomb, Jun Ukita Shepard and Laurens Speelman at RMI. Case studies of harnessing private collective action already exist, and they are significant. Take Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). In the U.S., corporates ramped up annual renewables procurements from 0.1 GW to … [Read more...]
Decommissioning coal, oil, gas: how funds can buy and retire the assets
Companies that want to retire their CO2-emitting assets (coal, oil, gas) can struggle to afford the cost of the decommissioning process. Brad Handler and Morgan Bazilian at the Payne Institute for Public Policy, writing for the World Economic Forum, explain how the creation of a new financial instrument, the 'carbon retirement portfolio' (CRP), could be a solution. In essence, it’s simple. Investors create a fund that buys the asset and takes the … [Read more...]
Oil’s decline will weaken its political influence
2020 was another bad year for the oil and gas industry. The pandemic made it worse but it was not the cause: a decline has been going on for a long time. Energy firms in the S&P 500 (overwhelmingly oil and gas) make up 2.3% of the total value, down from 16% just over a decade ago, and 30% forty years ago. Clark Williams-Derry and Tom Sanzillo at IEEFA explain why, how and what the likely consequences are for oil firms. For many years it’s … [Read more...]
Five key metrics investors need to steer Oil and Gas firms into decarbonisation
If the oil and gas industry won’t commit to meaningful strategies and milestones to decarbonise, investors must make them, say Ben Ratner at the Environmental Defense Fund and Erin Blanton at Columbia University. Already, Covid has shown how vulnerable the sector is to unexpected change. If the sector refuses to factor in rising decarbonisation ambitions and policies across the globe that vulnerability will continue for decades. At the same time, … [Read more...]
Greece: lignite asset sale failure could shift focus to electricity market reform and renewables
This month Greece’s Public Power Corporation (PPC) admitted its effort to sell a third of its lignite assets had failed. Dr. Nikos Mantzaris, of the think tank The Green Tank, gives his explanation for why the numbers never added up for the buyers. He now fears the PPC will simply sweeten the deal. Instead, Greece should abandon failing lignite assets, reform the electricity market and refocus on renewables. … [Read more...]
New tool to show whether companies’ climate strategy matches their public ambitions
By now we’re used to stats that show what would happen if everyone in the world had the same carbon footprint as a European, or an American, someone in China, or indeed anywhere. According to the consultancy right. based on science, they have now created a way of modelling the same projections, except for specific companies. The model also number-crunches a company's climate strategy to work out whether they are going to help or hinder the race … [Read more...]
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