Sumble Farooqi, CPA’s Post

This week I will be attending the Breakthrough Energy Summit to help develop and deploy the climate solutions needed to achieve net-zero by 2050. In a recent article, my colleagues Esben Hegnsholt, Edward Zaayman, Mogens Holm, Søren Skovgård Møller, Malo Grisard, Alice Iavarone and I explore new approaches to accelerate timelines of large PtX projects while reducing costs and risks, including new stage-gate processes and metrics, new ways of working and skills, use of probabilistic models and AI-driven optimization, new partnership and contracting models, and better use of climate finance and incentives for early-stage investments. https://lnkd.in/d4EtjVYZ We are now working on a new article to explore further the challenges Energy companies face to reconcile faster action on climate and value creation, due to the cost of emerging technologies, gaps in policy and difficulty to charge green premiums. Leading companies are developing winning strategies to navigate this challenge, strengthening competitive advantage, improving business resilience, and sustainably creating value. Looking forward to connecting at the summit to advance climate solutions. #BESummit24 #BCGatBESummit

📰 🌍 Last week remained eventful for climate tech developments, with significant developments across various sectors highlighting global efforts towards sustainability. Here’s Climate Insider’s weekly news breakdown: 👉 The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology advanced the bipartisan Supercritical Geothermal Research and Development Act to support research and development of superhot rock energy, a clean firm energy source with transformative potential for our global energy system. 👉 A wildfire that swept into Jasper, Alta., late Wednesday has expanded to 36,000 hectares, more than quadrupling in size since Tuesday, and has devastated vast stretches of the townsite. 👉 Brilliant Planet, led by Mariya Getsova and Keith Coleman, a U.K. company, is commercializing a scalable solution using algae forests for carbon sequestration, which can pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere 50 times faster than trees. 👉 Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced yesterday in Congress that his government will allocate €2.3bn ($2.5bn) to four new subsidy programs, including €1.2bn for renewable hydrogen hubs. 👉 Veolia, led by Estelle Brachlianoff, becomes the first company to have its net-zero goals validated by both SBTI and Moody's’s. 👉 Moody's Investors Service announced today the launch of a Net Zero Assessments (NZAs) framework, a new scoring system to help investors evaluate and compare companies’ decarbonization plans and actions. 👉 The Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (UNEZA) adopted the UNEZA Roadmap to 2030, aiming to increase renewable energy capacity in their portfolios to 749GW by 2030. 👉 The Australian Government announced Carbon Capture Technologies Program grant recipients. 👉 In a major study released July 30, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTI) found that carbon offsets are ineffective for climate mitigation and pose a risk to climate finance and the net-zero transition. #GeothermalEnergy #CleanEnergy #WildfireResponse #CarbonSequestration #AlgaeForests #RenewableHydrogen #ClimateInvestments #NetZero #Decarbonization #ClimateFinance #CarbonCapture #SBTi #ClimateResilience #SustainableTech #UtilityInnovation

Many thanks to William Shutkin for arranging an insightful discussion yesterday with Bill McKibben and our CU Boulder Masters of the Environment (MENV) Graduate Program community. A few key items & comments I gathered from the session: EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service has calculated that 2023 will be the hottest year in 125,000 years. We've already reached the 1.5 Celsius climate benchmark. "H.R. 1130 – Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2023", if passed, will unleash the "biggest climate bomb on Planet Earth". It's time for "energy from heaven not from hell." (Sun vs Fossil Fuels) 40% of all shipping cargo around the world contains fossil fuels. We talked about the need for increased urban density (7-20 HH per acre) to make energy and transit infrastructure economically feasible and the barriers created by hyper-individualism. When asked "What's the most impactful career move aspiring environmental activists can make?", his response (paraphrasing): "Do whatever gives you a sense of purpose, but don't sign up for a 100-hour work week. Save some time to be less of an individual and build community wherever you are. Get outside and get to know your neighbors." Sage advice, IMHO. https://350.org/solutions/

Decarbonizing Upstream Scope 3 can sometimes feel like sailing through uncharted waters, triggering the occasional bout of self-doubt. But what a week it has been ! Many discussions were had and experiences were shared first at the 2 days EU Decarbonization Summit and then, at the 3h Climate Fresk, held at Volvo Group Trucks Purchasing, for our decarbonization advisors. All of which have helped validate the course we had set. Here are some of the key take-aways: ✨️Collaboration, whether internal or external, is instrumental to decarbonizing. ✨️ Break down decarbonization of Upstream Scope 3 in achievable steps, like setting Scope 1&2 targets to Top 500 supply partners. ✨️ Facilitate supply partners' engagement through support measures (webminar, decarbonization handbook, access to renewable energy providers...) ✨️ Favor progress over perfect data. ✨️ Relentlessly continue to raise awareness about the Climate issue and about how, even individually, we can ALL have a positive impact. A big thank you to the companies present at the Summit for being so open about their experience, to our two amazing Climate Fresk facilitators Pierre Decourt and Anne-Laure Sainmont and to our decarbonization advisors for walking the talk of decarbonization Vanessa Ticozzi Stuart, Gustav Hakegård, Tobias Lansink, Evgeny Kireev, Frashogar Umrigar and Lucie Benaroua 🙏🌱

Today is my last day at Rebound Technologies. A decade ago, we dreamed that we could solve the single biggest challenge in averting the climate crisis - making energy storage cheap enough to electrify everything using renewable energy. We invented an elegant solution, binding that storage inside a high value industrial power-hungry product, and invented a brand new thermodynamic cycle to do it. And we did it - we stored energy at 90% lower cost than batteries. There's a clear technical path to scaling to enough energy storage to run the whole electric grid carbon-free. Our customers buy it not to get IRA rebates or to look good on their ESG slide but because it makes them lots of money. We solved the hardest problem in engineering our way out of the climate crisis. Yet, I'm on my way out. I guess my job is done since we successfully engineered the product? It's inconceivable to me that we couldn't fund a company that is, to me, the most important thing you could have done to save the world and made plenty of money doing it. I'm furious. Heartbroken. Bamboozled. Livid. I don't expect to ever understand how and why this happened. I'm so proud of what we achieved. What a phenomenal waste. Meanwhile, climate change ravages on.

On this #EarthDay, fight doomerism with data. Thrilled to see that the brilliant folks at Speed & Scale have just published their latest progress report on the world's path to net zero by 2050. Good news: there is, in fact, progress. Over the past four years, the global market share for electric vehicles jumped from 3 percent to 18 percent. The costs of solar and wind have dropped dramatically, making clean energy a practical alternative to fossil fuels. Venture funding has topped $50B for three years running, up from $17B in 2020. The other good news: The Speed & Scale tracker is a plan, and a nice juicy list of targets for your innovative, ambitious, and adventurous little hearts to tackle. Check out the updated tracker here! https://lnkd.in/gFM622GY 

Carbon removals is set to play a crucial role in limiting the worst effects of the climate crisis 🌎 🌳 🏢 Working with remove, Europe's specialist CDR accelerator, we've been privileged to learn more about this nascent sector and the innovative start-ups who form part of remove's program.    This week TNW spotlighted some of the 'simply weird - and many, wonderfully simple' start-ups who make up this growing ecosystem and who are part of remove's latest cohort. You can read more about them and the scale of the challenge in the feature here: https://lnkd.in/dFGttGJT

As the world looks to accelerate climate action, 3M is intensifying its commitment to climate innovation—using cutting-edge materials science to advance decarbonization, energy efficiency, resilient infrastructure and more.

Last night our CEO Terje Pilskog joined a key debate on: We are in an energy trilemma, is the energy transition going fast enough? Preventing and adapting to climate change is on top of all agendas. Are we delivering the transition fast enough? How can «low carbon solutions» help – or will these delay the transition to zero carbon? 🍃☀️🌎 Terje addressed the opportunities and dilemmas together with the CEO of Petrobras Jean-Paul Prates, EVP at Cognite Francois Laborie, Statkraft's EVP International Ingeborg Dårflot and EVP Kjetil Hove at Equinor in this topical discussion at the International Energy Forum in Oslo🔊 "I believe the transition is not progressing at the desired speed. We observe the localised impacts of climate change in various areas. It is crucial that we intensify the pace of this transition. I take pride in Scatec's role as a frontrunner and a catalyst for change in emerging markets," said Terje during the debate. https://www.ief2023.com/ Enja Sæthren Terje Melaa Meera Bhatia Raquel Araujo, Msc Norwegian Energy Partners (NORWEP)  #renewableenergy #energytransition #climate #improvingourfuture

Incisive perspective on how economically feasible innovations such as renewable energy have become in the race to decarbonize our future. We not only have the technology, but it makes clear economic sense, too say nothing of the moral, ethical and practical benefits of transforming how we live. https://lnkd.in/evH-zbNz