NewBase 15 February-2023 Energy News issue - 1593 by Khaled Al Awadi_compressed.pdf

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NewBase Energy News 15 February 2023 No. 1593 Senior Editor Eng. Khaed Al Awadi
NewBase for discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502, Dubai, UAE
U.A.E : Masdar, IFC agree to advance climate action in
emerging markets
Trade Arabia + NewBase
UAE’s Masdar has signed an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to explore
green hydrogen development, renewable energy in Africa, distributed photovoltaics and creating
innovative technologies.
The two entities inked the collaboration framework on side-lines of World Government Summit 2023,
taking place in Dubai, to support climate action in emerging markets.
It was signed by Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer, Masdar and Mohamed
Gouled, Vice President of Industries at IFC. Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and
Advanced Technology, COP28 President-Designate, and Masdar Chairman, witnessed the signing,
along with Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of IFC.
Equitable access
Dr Al Jaber said: “As the UAE prepares to host COP28, we have placed a special emphasis on
ensuring better, more efficient and more equitable access to climate finance. The UAE is a trusted
ww.linkedin.com/in/khaled-al-awadi-80201019/

partner of many nations and actively supports the development of emerging nations. IFC has been
a key partner for Masdar in a number of emerging markets, and this agreement carries forward the
UAE’s commitment to equitable climate finance and inclusive sustainable development.”
Diop said: “We are excited to advance our partnership with Masdar today and leverage IFC’s climate
expertise across emerging markets to support Masdar in achieving breakthroughs in sectors such
as renewable energy, green hydrogen, and green finance.”
Al Ramahi said: “Masdar has a long history with the IFC, where we have worked together to fund
clean energy projects from Jordan to Uzbekistan and other countries. We are confident this
agreement will serve as the foundation for further impactful collaborations that advance sustainable
development in the countries and communities that need it most.”
Creating opportunities
The IFC, which is a member of the World Bank Group, uses its capital, expertise and influence to
create markets and opportunities in developing countries.
Masdar is active in a number of emerging markets, developing utility-scale and DPV projects to
bring clean energy to communities across Asia and Africa. Masdar has already completed many
projects in African countries, including Egypt, Mauritania, Seychelles, and Morocco.
At the recently concluded Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2023 Masdar announced the signing of
deals for projects with a combined generation capacity of 5 GW across Angola, Uganda, and
Zambia as part of Etihad 7, a UAE-led initiative that aims to raise public- and private-sector funds
to invest in the development of Africa’s renewable energy sector.
In addition to renewable energy, green hydrogen is an emerging new sector. According to a recent
report from Masdar and McKinsey & Company, Africa could capture as much as 10% of the global
green hydrogen market, helping to create up to 3.7 million jobs and adding as much as $120 billion
to the continent’s gross domestic product.

World needs about $1trln annually to exert energy transition
Zawya + NewBase
Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), called on world
leaders and heads of government to cooperate in making direct investments to overcome climate
issues.
Speaking on the first day of the World Government Summit (WGS) 2023, Diop said the aim of the
world leaders should be building a sustainable future, and bridging the financial gap to tackle climate
challenges.
The challenge lies in the management of financial resources, estimating the world needs about $9
trillion of investment annually to tackle climate action and about $1 trillion annually to exert energy
transition in many countries, he said.
He indicated that the COVID-19, geopolitical crises, and devastating natural disasters have
hindered the efforts of achieving climate goals.
“One of the major challenges we will face in the near future is access to water, so we need to discuss
the use of technology and Artificial Intelligence to understand how to use water more efficiently and
in a better way,”
He stressed that the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (COP 28), to be held in the UAE later this this year, should offer a
genuine opportunity to discuss energy transformation issues and support climate action, including
harnessing technologies for this purpose.
IFC will sign an MoU with the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development to jointly invest $1.5 billion in energy
transition and the fight against climate change
Diop confirmed that IFC has developed during the last period a new product that aims to monitor
the reality of climate change in each country and is working on developing it

U.S. refinery utilization to average more than 90% in 2023 and 2024
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, February 2023
In our February Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we forecast that U.S. refinery utilization will
remain similar to 2022 at above 90% over the next two years. The industry is returning to more
typical rates after low refinery utilization in 2020 and 2021. We forecast U.S. refinery utilization will
average 90.8% in 2023 and then decrease slightly to 90.3% in 2024.
Refinery utilization is the amount of crude oil and other oils used as input at a refinery divided by
the total capacity at that refinery. In 2020, average refinery utilization dropped to 78.8%, the lowest
annual rate since we began collecting this data in 1997, but by 2022, utilization rates averaged
closer to pre-pandemic levels at more than 91%. On an annual average basis, fleet-wide refinery
utilization rarely climbs much higher than 95% because of maintenance periods and seasonal
periods of less demand.
In our February 2023 STEO, we forecast prices and volumes of petroleum refining in the United
States through 2024. Global refined product prices and crack spreads, which represent an estimate
of refinery margins, increased substantially in the United States in 2022, increasing refinery
utilization. We calculate the 3-2-1 crack spread by subtracting the price of a gallon of crude oil (the
input) from the combined price of two-thirds of a gallon of gasoline and one-third of a gallon of diesel
(the output).
We expect petroleum product prices for gasoline and diesel will be lower in 2023 than in 2022.
Nevertheless, petroleum product prices in 2023 will remain high compared with pre-pandemic

prices, especially as refiners undergo maintenance in the spring. Low spring utilization will limit
production before the summer and encourage refineries to maintain high utilization during the
summer and when not undergoing maintenance.
Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, February 2023
Note: The 3-2-1 crack spread is calculated by subtracting the value of a gallon of Brent crude oil
(based on the Brent spot average) from the price of two-thirds of a gallon of gasoline and one-third
of a gallon of diesel (based on the refiner price for resale).
We expect slower economic growth in 2023 and 2024, which would reduce gasoline and diesel
consumption compared with 2022, leading to a gradual decrease in petroleum product prices. We
also forecast that increased production of finished petroleum products as a result of high refinery
utilization rates will contribute to lower prices. The ban on imports of refined petroleum products
from Russia into the EU, which began earlier this month, poses a risk of additional disruptions and
brings significant uncertainty to our forecast.

Russia Did Most Oil Drilling in Decade Even as Sanctions Hit
(Bloomberg + NewBase
When Russia announced last week that it would cut oil production by half a million barrels a day in
retaliation against Western sanctions, there was skepticism about whether it was really doing so by
choice.
Russia is entangled in a tightening web of economic restrictions, from prohibitions on exports of
technology to the country to a recent European Union ban on most imports of its oil. As far as the
West is concerned, Moscow is buckling under the weight of sanctions.
“It wasn’t voluntary, it was forced on them,” Kadri Simson, EU Commissioner for Energy, said in an
interview in Cairo. “They don’t have the ability to keep up the production volumes because they
don’t have access to necessary technology.”
Yet data from within Russia tells a different story.
Russian companies did the most drilling at their oil fields in more than a decade last year, with little
sign that international sanctions or the departure of some major Western firms directly harmed so-
called upstream operations. This helps to explain how the country’s oil production rebounded in the
second half of 2022 even as further restrictions were imposed on its exports.
“The industry largely continues working just like before,” said Vitaly Mikhalchuk, head of the
research center at Business Solutions and Technologies, formerly the Russian unit of consultant
Deloitte & Touche LLP. “Russia has been able to retain most oil-service competencies, assets and
technologies.”

Since President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine almost a year ago, Russia’s oil industry
has undergone the most dramatic change in political circumstances since the collapse of the Soviet
Union.
Western majors including BP Plc, Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. walked away from multibillion
dollar investments in the country. Some of the major international service providers followed them.
Europe also introduced “comprehensive exports restriction on equipment, technology and services
for the energy industry in Russia.”
Yet Russian oil rigs drilled a total depth of more than 28,000 kilometers last year, the highest in over
a decade, according to industry data seen by Bloomberg. The total number of wells started rose
nearly 7% to above 7,800, with most key oil companies beating their results of the previous year,
the data show.
Several factors have helped Russia keep its oil industry ticking over.
First, top international providers accounted for only 15% of the country’s total oil-services segment
in 2021, according to data from Vygon Consulting. The in-house units of domestic producers such
as Rosneft PJSC, Surgutneftegas PJSC and Gazprom Group make up the bulk of the market, the
data showed. Those companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“Russian companies attract foreign contractors if they need high-tech services and equipment” as
well as advanced software, a report of the Moscow-based consultant said. But such things aren’t
generally needed to keep the oil flowing from established fields.
Second, some of the most significant western oil-service providers didn’t leave the country. SLB
and Weatherford International Plc continue Russian operations, with some limitations.

SLB Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said in July that his company’s unique corporate
structure gives it flexibility to work in Russia while fully complying with US and EU sanctions. The
company didn’t respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg.
Weatherford said last year that it had halted “any new investments or deploying new technology in
Russia,” but its most recent quarterly report still lists the nation among the regions where it operates.
The oil-services provider declined to comment on its Russian operations in response to a request
by Bloomberg.
Third, the two oil-service giants that did depart Russia — Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Co. —
sold off their in-country businesses to the local management. This allowed the units to retain
personnel and expertise, according to Victor Katona, a crude analyst at Kpler.
BurService, the successor of Halliburton in Russia didn’t respond to written requests for comments.
OFS Technologies, formerly the Russian unit of Baker Hughes, could not provide an immediate
comment.
The main issue for Russia’s domestic oil industry has been obtaining western high-tech equipment,
according to BST. Yet “these problems are resolved thanks to imports through intermediaries in
friendly states or by finding alternative suppliers in China,” said Mikhalchuk.
Since hitting a post-invasion low of 10.05 million barrels a day in April, Russian oil production
rebounded to around 10.9 million barrels a day at the end of 2022 and stayed close to that level in
January.
While the upstream impact of sanctions has been limited, Russia’s oil industry faces other
challenges. The country doesn’t have the capacity to store oil on a large scale, so if companies can’t
sell what they produce because of Western restrictions the system can quickly become backed up.

That’s what happened in the weeks immediately after the invasion of Ukraine last year, when a
buyers strike swelled crude inventories to such an extent that the country was forced to cut output
by about 500,000 barrels a day.
There’s no evidence that the Dec. 5 EU ban on crude imports has caused comparable problems,
with Russian production holding steady in the two months since then. It’s still early to be assessing
the full impact of Europe’s Feb. 5 prohibition on buying Russia’s refined fuels including diesel — for
which it was the largest market.
Processing rates at Russian refineries in the first 8 days of February were about 2% above January
levels, at just over 5.8 million barrels a day, according to industry data seen by Bloomberg. Spare
capacity in the country’s oil inventories was above 25 million barrels as of Feb. 10, compared with
20 million barrels last year when it was forced to cut production.
Long-Term Impact
While western technology sanctions probably won’t have a short-term impact on Russia’s upstream
oil industry, the effects may be visible in the long term, said Swapnil Babele, Vice-President at
Rystad Energy A/S.
“Performance of some oil services may decline, while losses and risks will be growing,” according
to BST’s Mikhalchuk. “A deficit of technologies for development of offshore and some hard-to-
recover reserves may become a problem.”
After Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014, an international ban was brought in
on providing services for oil projects in Russia’s shale formations, Arctic and deep water. Those
measures stymied Rosneft’s plans to tap offshore fields in the northerly Kara Sea.
But since then, Russian companies have shown they can develop in-house expertise some of those
areas, according to Kpler’s Katona. Gazprom Neft PJSC actually increased its drilling in a major
shale formation in West Siberia last year, he said.
“Although delayed by many
years, Russia’s domestic
technological know-how to tap
into shale has been
progressing,” Katona said.
Even if technology sanctions
restrict activity in more
challenging reservoirs, right
now Russia has enough
traditional reserves to keep
the oil flowing. Assuming
output were to remain close to
current levels, by 2027 just 3%
of it would depend on
technologies the country has
difficulty accessing now,
Mikhalchuk said.
“Russian production could be
maintained around current
output levels for at least four to five years” on a technical basis, Katona said.

Canadian Natural Gas Offers Relief for Asia
(Bloomberg)
A stream of natural gas that’s being unleashed from British Columbia’s vast reservoirs is blazing a
record-setting path through global markets, providing hope for Canada’s beleaguered drillers and
relief for energy-hungry economies around the world.
Tourmaline Oil Corp., Canada’s largest natural gas producer, has started shipping the fuel on a
roundabout, 3,000-mile journey from northeast British Columbia to Chicago and then southbound
to an LNG-chilling facility on the Gulf Coast in Texas. From there, it’s being shipped to ports in Asia
or Europe on voyages that can range from 5,000 to 17,000 nautical miles, depending on the route.
The arrangement promises higher prices for Tourmaline’s gas and a new source of the fuel for
European and Asian buyers who are scouring the globe for supplies as Russia’s war in Ukraine
exacerbates a global energy crunch.

The gas’s journey is believed to be the longest path from a natural gas well to a liquefaction facility
in the world. It’s also the first significant amount of Canadian gas to be contracted for markets
beyond North America, a milestone for an industry that has struggled with heavily discounted prices
because of a lack of domestic LNG facilities.
Tourmaline’s 15-year agreement to supply 140 million cubic feet of gas per day to Cheniere Energy
Inc. took effect in January, enabling the company to send the equivalent of one ship per month from
North America to Asian markets, where gas prices are roughly 10 times higher than in the Canadian
spot market.
Tourmaline is being paid around $20 per thousand cubic feet for its gas, minus 86 cents for pipeline
transportation costs and undisclosed liquefaction and shipping costs. The current price of natural
gas at Canada’s AECO hub is $2.05.
“We’re really happy to be receiving the price that we’re receiving,” said Jamie Heard, manager of capital
markets at Tourmaline.
With local gas prices languishing and domestic LNG projects stalled, multiple Canadian producers have cast
about for export options. ARC Resources Ltd. and Seven Generations Energy, which are now combined,
have also signed supply agreements with US Gulf Coast liquefaction terminals, but those supply deals don’t
begin until 2025. ARC didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Fortis Inc.’s British Columbia subsidiary operates a small LNG facility near Vancouver that supplies the fuel
to the province’s coastal ferries and has shipped occasional, small batches from its own supplies in shipping
containers to China. A company spokesperson said its last shipment was in January 2021.
Tourmaline’s long journey to market illustrates Canada’s “missed opportunity” in helping meet global LNG
demand, said Cameron Gingrich, managing partner of markets and strategy at Incorrys, a gas consulting
company in Calgary. “It’s got to be a little disappointing for the Canadian industry,” Gingrich said in an
interview.
Still, there is some hope for the industry in the decade ahead. Incorrys estimates the country’s LNG exports
will rise from zero this year to 4 billion cubic feet per day when the Shell Plc-led LNG Canada project is built
and expanded. A smaller LNG project called Woodfibre is also under construction. “Canada is definitely late
to the LNG party,” Raymond James analyst Jeremy McCrea said in an interview.

NewBase February 15 -2023 Khaled Al Awadi
NewBase for discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502, Dubai, UAE
Oil falls after industry data points to jump in U.S. crude stocks
Reuters + NewBase
Oil prices slipped in early Asian trade on Wednesday after falling by more than $1 a barrel in the
previous session as industry data pointed to a much bigger-than-expected surge in U.S. crude
inventories.
Brent crude futures lost 41 cents to $85.17 per barrel by 04.33 GMT, while U.S. West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) crude futures shed 39 cents to $78.67.
U.S. crude inventories rose by about 10.5 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 10, according to
market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. The build was much larger
than the 1.2 million-barrel rise that nine analysts polled by Reuters had expected, potentially pointing
to a drop in fuel demand.
Gasoline stocks rose by about 846,000 barrels, while distillate stocks rose by about 1.7 million
barrels, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Oil price special
coverage

Official government inventory estimates are due at 10:30 a.m. EST (0330 GMT) on Wednesday.
Also weighing on crude prices was a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announcement this week
that it would sell 26 million barrels of oil from the nation's strategic reserve, which is already at its
lowest level in roughly four decades.
Helping to support prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised its
2023 global oil demand growth forecast in its first upward revision for months, on China's reopening,
and trimmed supply forecasts for major non-OPEC producers, indicating a tighter market.
Global oil demand will rise this year by 2.32 million barrels per day (bpd), or 2.3%, OPEC said,
raising the forecast from February by 100,000 bpd.

NewBase Specual Coverage
The Energy world –February -15 -2023
CLEAN ENERGY
Who Funds the FIGHT Against CLIMATE CHANGE?
BY NATALIE BURG
As the world races to ramp up spending to address climate
change, one question looms large: Where will the money come
from?
As a global society, we must increase spending to at least $4.13 trillion every year by 20301
to fund
an energy transition sufficient to keep the planet below a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius,
according to a 2021 report by environmental think tank Climate Policy Initiative.
That’s a lot. Especially compared to current spending. The annual global climate investment
averaged $632 billion per year over 2019 and 2020—15 percent of the $4.13 trillion target.
That $632 billion accounts for direct investment in things like infrastructure, energy efficiency, and
other big-ticket initiatives around systemic change to mitigate or adapt to climate change. (The
numbers don’t include donations or the funding of things like research and development or public
information campaigns.

Due to rounding, subtotals don’t quite add up to Climate Policy Initiative’s total of $632 billion.
Here’s another critical number: $3.5 trillion. That’s the gap. That’s how much more money the world
needs to spend every year, on top of what’s happening now to reach the goals of the Paris
Agreement. So who’s gonna fill it?

“FINANCE is …possibly the most important LEVER for th
e low-carbon ECONOMIC TRANSITION.”
—Cooper Wetherbee
Source: Climate Policy Initiative, “Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2021.“
Despite the shortfall in current climate finance, there is growing optimism that nations, organizations,
and individuals will rally to meet the challenge—with their checkbooks at the ready
“Finance is a huge lever, and possibly the most important lever, for the low-carbon economic
transition,” Cooper Wetherbee, an analyst with the think tank Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), told me
in an interview in March 2021, “if we use it correctly.”
To understand what that means, here’s the Means & Matters guide to the myriad groups, sectors,
and industries pouring billions into climate action, whether it’s through sustainable infrastructure,
innovation, carbon offsetting activities, and individual actions to minimize emissions.
WHAT THEY’RE DOING WITH THE MONEY—AND WHAT
THEY’RE NOT
$78.9B: 2018 climate investment by rich nations into developing nations that often need it most—a
fraction of total investment and below OECD’s $100B goal.

1. GOVERNMENTS AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
BIG SPENDERS THAT MUST THINK BIGGER (AND SMARTER)
2019/2020 CLIMATE INVESTMENT: $321 BILLION1
Governments and intergovernmental organizations—such as the UN—are among the most
significant funders of climate change action. The $321 billion in climate finance from public sources
account for 51 percent of total global commitments.1
Even so, public investment needs to grow. The 2019/2020 spending only increased 10 percent over
2017/2018 after two successive growth periods of 24 percent. The aim should be more like 450
percent.
But the European Union gives us some hope, leading the public-spending pack. The EU committed
to making at least 20 percent of its spending climate-related between 2014 and 2020.2
As of 2020, the EU reached these goals, with annual expenditures of more than €34 billion (equal
to $40 billion) on climate change mitigation. The EU isn’t stopping there. Between 2021 and 2027,
the EU plans to increase its climate spending to 25 percent of its total expenditure.
The United States had fallen behind its European peers3
in climate change financing per capita after
years of not even including the word “climate” in budgets4
.
But the Biden Administration is racing to catch back up. Between the 2021 Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act and 2022’s CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, US climate
spending is set to triple over the next decade.5
The $1 trillion infrastructure bill, for example, included more than $62 billion to support clean energy
initiatives through the US Department of Energy, from manufacturing and workforce investments to
expanding residential and commercial access to energy efficiency and renewable energy.6
This year’s Inflation Reduction Act includes $369 billion for cutting emissions, manufacturing clean
energy products, and advancing environmental justice programs—investments the Biden
Administration says will reduce US carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and save $1.9 trillion
in climate damages by 2050.7
At the same time, some states have retained or stepped up climate investment. California, the fifth-
largest economy in the world, announced $54 billion planned in climate spending in September of
2022.8, 9
Meanwhile, China, the world’s largest source of CO2 emissions, announced its allocation of $57
billion for ecology and environment protection in 2020 and pledged to become carbon neutral by
2060.10, 11
The fund will focus on air pollution prevention and control, as well as water and soil
protection.
While increasing the amount of public climate investment is critical, so is increasing the strategic
approach of these investments.
“A massive transformation is needed to unlock the trillions required to help the world shift to a low-
carbon future and build resilience to climate change,” wrote Sophie Yeo for Nature in 2019.12
“Financiers will have to step away from approaching climate change on a project-by-project basis—
a wind farm here, a solar plant there—and start thinking about the carbon impact of every dollar
spent . . . it’s really up to policymakers to incentivize this shift by financially discouraging the wrong
kinds of projects.”

2. CORPORATIONS
BULLS IN THE CHINA SHOP OF CLIMATE ACTION
Industry is responsible for more than 20 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions.13
That
makes one thing very clear: Private sector climate investment shouldn’t be viewed as philanthropy,
but a necessary and just response to the environmental damage corporations have caused.
“The historically and current biggest emitters are the ones that both can and should be increasing
their climate finance,” Climate Policy Initiative analyst Matthew Solomon said to me during our
March call. “They’ve caused this crisis, so they should be paying to fix it. But also, if you’re emitting
hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 every year, you’re best positioned to reduce that.”
Globally, corporations may have invested an average of $124 billion into climate action in 2019 and
2020, but that’s actually a decrease from their 2018/2018 average of $183 billion.1,14
And they’re
investing in plenty of harm, too. Anti-climate politicians get nearly twice the corporate donations as
those who vote in favor of climate action.15
Source: Climate Policy Initiative, “Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2021.“
There are signs of hope. Market pressure is creating an incentive for companies to act, and some
companies are responding. Tech giants like Apple, Google, Facebook, and others vowed to power
their data centers with 100 percent renewable energy.16
Companies known for their long
commitment to climate action, such as Patagonia and REI, are demonstrating the market advantage
of environmental investment. And the growing number of certified B corporations demonstrates a

global shift toward building sustainability into companies’ business models. As many as 1,200
companies around the world have science-based targets in line with becoming net-zero by 2050.17
64%: How much more likely certified B Corporations were to survive the 2008-09 recession than
other businesses.
3. FUNDS AND INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS
PRIVATE INVESTORS PLACING BIG-TIME BETS ON CLIMATE ACTION
What’s this category? “Funds” include things like venture capital and private equity, and institutional
investors are big stock market movers, like pension funds. For most folks, the spending in this
category can seem a little confusing, but it basically all falls into big-time private sector investing.
Fortunately, the rising popularity of ESG investing is helping motivate these forces to channel
money toward the good of the planet.
Here’s a venture capital investment example that many people will recognize: Beyond Meat is a
plant-based burger company with a tasty enough product to inspire consumers to grapple with the
environmental impact of industrial farming—which is huge. One study found18
that if everyone in the
US swapped a quarter of the meat they now eat with plant-based proteins, it would eliminate 82
million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
Investments in sustainable food innovation may be helping us get there: growth in plant-based
protein shipments to restaurants grew 20 percent in 2020, while meat shipments grew by two
percent.19
Beyond Meat serves as a case study for the potential impact of climate-focused venture

capital. As of October 2021, the VC-backed Beyond Meat reached market capitalization of
around $6.7 billion.20
While massive investment is a key ingredient in the needed climate finance paradigm shift, so is
strategic investment in potentially game-changing innovation. For instance, not long ago, it might
have been unimaginable to give up on personal car ownership for many. However, thanks to
the billions of dollars venture capitalists put into micro-mobility solutions such as e-scooters, a car-
free life is now a possibility for millions.21
According to a PwC report, climate tech VC funding grew a whopping 3750% between 2013 and
2019.22
Led by the efforts of VC firms such as Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Breakthrough
Energy Ventures, and others, more than 1,200 climate tech startups received a total investment of
$60 billion.
$3 trillion: The annual estimated environmental impact of industrial farming worldwide.
4. BANKS
MODERATE CLIMATE INVESTORS WITH THE CAPACITY TO CHANGE THE GAME
The connection between banks and climate change can seem fuzzy at best. But it’s more direct
than it seems: Most of the money people deposit in the bank goes back out into the world in the
form of loans. Those loans can fund things like mortgages or small businesses, as well as climate
startups and solar farms.

“Banks are playing a more prominent role as an intermediary of sustainable and green debt
instruments as well as a broader trend of setting climate-related targets,” states the Climate Policy
Initiative in their 2021 report.1
There is no doubt that the banking industry has woefully underinvested
in the climate in the past—but if there’s a silver lining to CPI’s new analysis it’s that commercial
finance institutions increased their spending by 154 percent since the organization’s 2019 report.
Banks appear to be continuing on the right track. Based on financing data from the first few months
of 2021, banks are on pace to lend more this year to renewable energy projects than to fossil fuel
projects, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.23
And 117 global banks representing $70 trillion in
assets have joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), committing their investment and lending
portfolios to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.24
Overall annual climate spending must grow 454 percent by 2030 to hold global warming to 1.5
degrees Celsius, so it’s not as if banks’ 150 percent increase is anything close to a silver bullet. But
given the size and influence of the industry, it’s encouraging to see banking moving in the right
direction.
5. INDIVIDUALS
SMALL-SCALE INVESTORS WITH BIG-TIME INFLUENCE
“From the food we eat to clothes we wear or the buildings we live in, carbon is in everything we do.
Consumers are increasingly more aware of this,” said Duncan Grierson, CEO and Founder of Clim8,
a green investment app. “But a Swedish schoolgirl showed the world that no individual is too small
to make a difference.”
The 2022 IPCC report on climate mitigation quantified that potential difference. For the first time,
the IPCC working group measured the impact of “socio-cultural changes“—aka, shifts to public
transit, reduced meat consumption and appliance use, shorter showers, and more.25
The report said
these behavior changes “can offer Gigaton-scale CO2 savings potential at the global level, and
therefore represent a substantial overlooked strategy in traditional mitigation scenarios.”
Of course, behavior change includes people’s choices as consumers. Households’ average annual
climate-related spending over both 2017/2018 and 2019/2020 was $55 billion, holding steady after
rising 50 percent between 2013 and 2018.1,15
Consumers are primarily investing in electric vehicles and installing solar panels on their homes.
Some people are even finding ways to offset their own carbon footprint. Others are investing their
wealth more sustainably. Today, one in three investment dollars that are professionally managed in
the US use sustainable investing strategies, and 80 percent of investors believe companies with
leading sustainability practices make better long-term investments.26, 27
The downside is that when it comes to the kind of direct capital flows needed to reach global climate
targets, the financial influence of individuals is simply much smaller than other actors, like
governments, banks, and corporations. While $55 billion isn’t nothing, it is less than 10 percent of
the 2019/2020 climate financing totals, and individuals simply aren’t in control of the kind of large-
scale infrastructure decisions required to slow climate change. A single household can’t, for
example, wake up in the morning and decide to fund a light rail system in their region.
However, they can—and increasingly do—use their power as consumers to influence the entities
that do. That is, they can elect leaders who will invest in light rail, and then they can pay to ride it.
In 2019, nearly half of consumers said they’d pay more for sustainable products—and Gen Z, the

consumer of the future, was willing to pay 50-100 percent more. In the 2020 election, climate voters
donated tens of millions of dollars to pro-climate action candidates.28
“It’s important to know that consumers are not solely responsible for solving the climate crisis,”
Solomon said. “But they do have power in numbers to influence the people who are making the
problem worse.”
MORE MONEY & BEYOND
The numbers on global climate finance tell a simple story: Everyone needs to do more—much more.
Banks, corporations, and governments, in particular, have the capacity to ramp up their efforts. The
Climate Policy Initiative’s report urges that “coordination across silos of public and private financial
actors is needed to ensure coherence and impact on net-zero and sustainability.” 1
Is that goal possible on a global scale—in a complex world? The experts are taking an optimistic
view.
“A movement is underway to take renewables from being a niche sector to being an important part
of the whole picture,” Wetherbee said. “We have to green the whole picture, not just have a little
place on the shelf for renewables, alongside all the harmful things we’re doing.”
The task may seem enormous, but all around the world we know what is needed and the roadmap
is clearly laid out. The momentous shift is already underway.
“We have the solutions,” Solomon said. “We know what we need to do. It’s just a matter now of
doing it.”
NATALIE BURG
Natalie Burg is a freelance writer and editor in Ann Arbor, where she spends
much of her time getting out from under a pile of tiny people and large dogs,
keeping her 1938 Cape Cod from falling over, and writing about
sustainability, business, and public policy.

NewBase Energy News 15 February 2023 - Issue No. 1593 call on +971504822502, UAE
The Editor:” Khaled Al Awadi” Your partner in Energy Services
NewBase energy news is produced Twice a week and sponsored by Hawk Energy Service – Dubai, UAE.
For additional free subscriptions, please email us.
About: Khaled Malallah Al Awadi,
Energy Consultant

MS & BS Mechanical Engineering (HON), USA
Emarat member since 1990
ASME member since 1995
Hawk Energy member 2010
www.linkedin.com/in/khaled-al-awadi-38b995b
Mobile: +971504822502
khdmohd@hawkenergy.net or khdmohd@hotmail.com
Khaled Al Awadi is a UAE National with over 30 years of experience in the Oil & Gas
sector. Has Mechanical Engineering BSc. & MSc. Degrees from leading U.S.
Universities. Currently working as self leading external Energy consultant for the
GCC area via many leading Energy Services companies. Khaled is the Founder of
the NewBase Energy news articles issues, Khaled is an international consultant,
advisor, ecopreneur and journalist with expertise in Gas & Oil pipeline Networks,
waste management, waste-to-energy, renewable energy, environment protection
and sustainable development. His geographical areas of focus include Middle East,
Africa and Asia. Khaled has successfully accomplished a wide range of projects in
the areas of Gas & Oil with extensive works on Gas Pipeline Network Facilities & gas
compressor stations. Executed projects in the designing & constructing of gas pipelines, gas metering &
regulating stations and in the engineering of gas/oil supply routes.
Has drafted & finalized many contracts/agreements in products sale, transportation, operation &
maintenance agreements. Along with many MOUs & JVs for organizations & governments authorities.
Currently dealing for biomass energy, biogas, waste-to-energy, recycling and waste management. He has
participated in numerous conferences and workshops as chairman, session chair, keynote speaker and
panelist.
Khaled is the Editor-in-Chief of NewBase Energy News and is a professional environmental writer with over
1400 popular articles to his credit. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable
energy, waste management, plant Automation IA and environmental sustainability in different parts of the
world. Khaled has become a reference for many of the Oil & Gas Conferences and for many Energy program
broadcasted internationally, via GCC leading satellite Channels. Khaled can be reached at any time, see
contact details above.

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