Greenify #103: A Break In Solar Geoengineering
March 23, 2024
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📌 Fact of the week
Water systems in danger: The US government has warned several state governors that foreign hackers are carrying out disruptive cyberattacks against water and sewage systems throughout the country. 💻
Hottest news of the week…
Regulation 🗃 – Canada’s controversial climate financing
What happened: Canada’s big lending institutions have made a controversial statement around financing pledges, arguing these might not necessarily translate into lower emissions. For instance, Bank of Nova Scotia, which lent about $100 billion since 2018 into climate related projects has said these projects “may — or may not — lead to reductions in overall emissions”. Scotiabank also said that some of the money it’s lending will fund projects in industries such as sustainable agriculture and biodiversity preservation, which don’t necessarily carry emission savings.💰
Zoom out: Canada has pledged to reduce emissions by 39% by 2030 vs a 2019 baseline. However, should this target materialize, it will not come without cost. Canada is the fourth largest oil producer globally and the energy sector accounts for 5% of the country’s total GDP. State elections in the country have already demonstrated the high level of skepticism among Canadian citizens. For example, in May of last year, the United Conservative Party, led by Danielle Smith, won elections in the state of Alberta and said it would fight to maintain the status quo for local oil and gas companies.🛢
Business 💰 – Highlights from CERAWeek
What happened: Top oil and gas executives and stakeholders recently gathered in Houston for the CERAWeek conference. Highlights included the CEO of Saudi Aramco stating that the energy transition is “visibly failing,” Microsoft proposing AI and GenAI as enablers of decarbonization processes, and extensive discussions on the LNG situation in the US. The event provided a platform for industry leaders to address pressing issue and to carry out a lot of lobbying! 😳
Zoom out: CERAWeek is an annual energy conference in Houston, gathering top oil executives, ministers, and experts to discuss global energy trends. Participants include major oil producers like BP, Chevron, and Exxon Mobil, as well as LNG developers and government officials. Discussions cover oil and gas market dynamics, geopolitical influences, and some energy transition debates, which unfortunately remain limited.🚫
Innovation 💡 - Solar Geoengineering, a small break
What happened: Harvard’s research branch dedicated to solar geoengineering announced it has halted its long-planned geoengineering experiment. The plan was to launch a high-altitude balloon equipped with propellers and sensors, that could release a few kilograms of calcium carbonate, sulfuric acid or other materials high above the planet. These materials would have the effect of reflecting solar radiation back into outer space. The project, harshly criticized by several stakeholders, did not find enough regulatory support to go through.⛔️
Zoom out: Solar geoengineering is a type of climate engineering which consists in reflecting sunlight back to outer space in order to reduce the effects of global warming. The Harvard ceased project does not come as a great surprise, given how debated solar geoengineering is… Despite it being a potential game changer for global warming, the technology is also highly controversial. Its critics point out the amount of unknowns is too high for it to be deployed: these include its potential effects on precipitation levels, effects on different ecosystems and effects on agricultural output around the world. 🚜
Deep dives of the week…
Chart of the week - EV vs ICE
Bloomberg released a very interesting chart this week looking at the difference in emissions between electric vehicles and gas cars across different countries today and a projection to 2030. As expected, EVs are “cleaner” even considering the entire value chain, from manufacturing to driving. The largest difference between gas cars emissions and EV cars emissions appears to be in the US. 🏎
Deal of the week - Mission Zero
Mission Zero Technologies, a startup focused on clean technology, has recently received a significant investment of £21.8 million in Series A funding. Since its inception in 2020, the company has been working on direct air capture (DAC), a technology to remove CO2 directly form the air. Their technology is innovative as it is inspired by how living organisms naturally handle CO2. Essentially, their system uses electricity and a special liquid to efficiently grab carbon from the air and turn it into a pure gas that can then be stored or reused. Moreover, their technology is designed to be easily scaled up and deployed worldwide, thanks to its modular design.🏅
With this new funding, led by 2150 and supported by investors such as World Fund and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Mission Zero plans to further develop their DAC product, with the goal of capturing 1,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, and ultimately achieving megatonne capacity by the end of the decade.🎖
👋 See you next Friday, for the best sum up of this coming week!
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