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📌 Fact of the week
This year, renewable power capacity is projected increase c.33% vs. 2022, the largest annual increase in new renewable capacity ever.
Hottest news of the week…
Regulation 🗃 – What’s going on in Canada? 🤔
What happened: In Canada, earlier this week, the UCP (United Conservative Party) won a majority of seats in the Alberta legislature, narrowly defeating the Democratic party in the region. Danielle Smith, UCP leader, strongly opposes current climate policies set by the country’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, who aims to cut climate-warming emissions by 40-50% by 2030. Smith’s party is targeting to become net-zero by 2050, yet thinks mid-term targets are unfeasible, unachievable and counterproductive, as they would result in thousands of losses in the Oil & Gas sector, Alberta’s largest industry. 🛢️
Zoom out: Canada is the fourth largest oil producer in the world, and makes up 6% of oil’s global production share with c.6 million barrels per day. To give you a better idea of Alberta’s importance in this context, the Oil & Gas sector accounts for c.20% of the region’s GDP. The election result was welcomed by “The Pathways Alliance”, an organization consisting of six companies representing 95% of Canada’s oil sands production. Now will be the turn of negotiations… 🤝
Business 💰 – Tree Energy Solutions 🤝Total
What happened: Tree Energy Solutions (TES) and TotalEnergies have formed a partnership to research and establish a major e-natural gas (e-NG) production facility in the United States. The project, expected to produce 100,000 to 200,000 metric tons of e-NG per year, will be equally owned by both companies and operated by TotalEnergies. The companies will conduct preliminary studies and aim to reach a Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2024. The project is expected to benefit from tax credits under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). 💪
Zoom out: e-NG is a synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and CO2. In this partnership, the process involves producing green hydrogen through the electrolysis process using wind and solar electricity supplied by Total and combining it with biogenic CO2 to obtain e-NG. The resulting e-NG can be transported and sold like natural gas, an unevaluable advantage as it does not require changes to existing transport infrastructure or clients’ industrial processes. 🚀
Innovation 💡 - Building with wood and… with offsets
What happened: A new pilot program on the U.S. West Coast is exploring the use of carbon offsets for wood-based buildings as a means to combat climate change. The initiative aims to encourage the construction of wooden structures by offering offsets to developers. The concept behind this program is that trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hence could work as a carbon offset instrument. This project aims to solve timber’s biggest problem, high costs, by trying to put a value on the carbon dioxide stored, so that builders can sell the offset and use that money to pay towards new construction. 👍
Zoom out: Mass timber, a sustainable building material, offers a climate-friendly substitute for steel, which contributes to approximately 7% of global emissions, and cement, the primary component of concrete responsible for about 8% of global emissions. However, the effectiveness and credibility of offsets markets have faced growing scrutiny. Many offsets fail to deliver actual emission reductions and may be based on exaggerated claims. 😮
Deep dives of the week…
Chart of the week - Fossil fuels phase down
According to Ember, fossil fuels’ contribution to global electricity generation is expected to fall by 47 TWh in 2023, as the increase in demand will be driven primarily by solar and wind. This data is comforting as it testifies the world is heading towards a new era of energy production. 💚
Company of the week - Neste, SAF Leader 🥇
The role sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) will play in decarbonizing the aviation industry is fundamental. Neste is a Finnish company at the forefront of the aviation revolution as the global leading supplier of SAF. With a production footprint spamming three continents (Europe, Asia, North America), the Finnish oil refiner is already supplying some of the largest airlines in the world, such as American Airlines in the U.S. and KLM in Europe. Fasten your seatbelt.🛫
Deal of the week - More on SAF: here is a big deal!
Salt Lake City-based startup CleanJoule has raised $50 million in funding, with participation from investors including Indigo Partners, GenZero, Cleanhill Partners, and three airlines: Frontier Airlines, Wizz Air, and Volaris. The investment will support the development of CleanJoule's sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production technology, focusing on cost-effective production from agricultural residues and waste biomass. 👇
SAF offers a lower carbon footprint compared to traditional jet fuel and has the potential to significantly reduce emissions in the aviation industry. SAF still emits greenhouse gases (GHGs), but it is considered "carbon-neutral" or "low-carbon" because the carbon dioxide (CO2) released during combustion is offset by the CO2 absorbed by the feedstock during its growth phase. 🤔
The backing from airlines such as Frontier Airlines, Wizz Air, and Volaris demonstrates their commitment to adopting SAF, with agreements to purchase up to 90 million gallons of the fuel. Let’s keep going 💪
👋 See you next Friday, for the best sum up of this coming week!
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