One hundred 1.5C compatible investments by 2030

New investor framework launched today at European Climate Innovation Summit.

• The EU-backed Mission Innovation, the first global framework for ‘avoided emissions’, launches ‘Countdown to 100 low-carbon solutions’ today at Mission Finance
• Each of the 100 solutions will have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 10 million CO2e or more by 2030
• The Mission Innovation consortia, representing 70% of global GDP and 80% of government investment in clean energy research, will call on pioneering investment bodies to drive a new phase of ‘opportunity-led’ climate action

Dublin 6 November 2018 – The IPCC’s Special Report on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels should leave us in no doubt that the financial sector has a make-or-break role in averting catastrophic climate change, says CEO of the EU’s EIT Climate-KIC Dr Kirsten Dunlop.

Speaking ahead of the organisation’s three-day finance-focused innovation summit – Mission Finance – which kicks off in Dublin today, Dunlop said:

“Divestment can get us only so far. We now need to identify 1.5C compatible solutions and drive investment and uptake much more quickly. We need the financial system to drive structural and behavioural change. This event will surface some of the urgently needed frameworks, economic models and systems innovations that support the financial sector in this new mission.”

Countdown to 100 low-carbon solutions – nominations opened

One of the biggest announcements of the Summit is the launch of Mission Innovation’s ‘Countdown to 100 low-carbon solutions’ – a framework to identify 100 investments with the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10 million CO2e or more by 2030 and/or be able to present a compelling argument for impact.

The solutions will be a mix of technologies and system solutions and will include both start-ups and large companies.

The ‘Countdown’ is a new phase for Mission Innovation (MI). The global initiative of 23 countries and the European Commission was launched at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015 to make clean energy widely affordable and reliable. As part of the initiative, participating countries will seek to double their governments’ clean energy R&D investments over five years, while encouraging greater levels of private sector investment in transformative clean energy technologies.

Sweden has been assigned to lead the collaboration. Speaking ahead of the launch, Ibrahim Baylan, Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy in Sweden, said:

“To be able to reach long-term energy and climate objectives we need disruptive solutions. Solutions that help us avoid as much emissions as possible while promoting innovation and growth in our societies.”

Dennis Pamlin, senior advisor of the Swedish group RISE, who is leading the MI consortia, will launch the countdown and open nominations for solutions on Tuesday 7 November during the Summit.

The 100 solutions will be selected from an open nomination process, as well as being sourced from organisations already working to identify and support low-carbon solutions including EIT Climate-KIC, the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre, WWF Climate Solvers, Breakthrough Energy and World Alliance for Efficient Solutions. They will be evaluated using the recently launched MI framework for avoided emissions to estimate potential GHG reductions.

Pamlin said,

“The framework aims to open new doors to investors to encourage their focus to move from avoiding investing in companies with high emissions, to supporting companies that produce the solutions that help reduce emissions in society. This is a shift in focus from how companies produce their goods and services, to what they produce.

Countdown to 20 framework innovators

Solution providers need investors that can support the accelerated uptake of disruptive low-carbon solutions. MI, currently working with pension funds, multi-laterals, institutional and venture capital investors, is calling for ‘framework innovators’ with the power to mainstream this approach of reinvestment and opportunity to join the pilot and test the framework over the coming two years. The aim is for it to be widely accessible by 2020.

4th Mission Innovation Ministerial meeting (MI-4), Vancouver, 27- 28 May, 2019

The final 100 solutions and 20 framework innovators will be presented at the next Mission Innovation Ministerial meeting, MI-4 in Vancouver, Canada, the week of 27 May 2019, where leading policymakers and business leaders will join to assess progress and discuss ways forward.

Kirsten Dunlop, CEO of EIT Climate-KIC, said:

“The Mission Innovation framework aims to disrupt conventional thinking around green or ESG investment, shifting mindsets from risk to opportunity. We need capital to go into building the next generation of ecological industries and sustainable ways of living. Shifting mindsets is at the core of systems interventions, like this, that can drive behaviour change and transformation.”

The 2018 Climate Innovation Summit

This year’s Climate Innovation Summit, organised by EIT Climate-KIC, focuses on ‘Mission Finance’ – the innovation in the global financial system needed to accelerate climate action.

The annual event convened by EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s main climate innovation agency, brings together EIT Climate-KIC’s growing public-private knowledge and innovation community, spanning 27 countries and over 330 partners in research, business, government and higher education. Since 2010 the community has brought 367 new products and services to market and leveraged over €2.5 billion in climate funding.

Inaugural meeting of the European hub for the UNFC4S

The Summit is being held in the emerging green business hub of Dublin, also home to the EU Hub of the UN’s FC4S Network. The EU Hub, which is supported by an investment of €1.5 million from EIT Climate-KIC, will hold its inaugural meeting at the summit, and will be opened by Ireland’s Minister of Finance, Paschal Donohoe, on 7 November 2018.

The FC4S network will develop a common European assessment tool to evaluate climate and sustainability credentials for financial centres and assist with the design and delivery of development plans within financial centres yet to fully embed “the green finance agenda” within their activities. EIT Climate-KIC supported the development of the world’s first green benchmark for financial centres, the tool at the centre of this initiative.

Environmental Finance partnered with EIT Climate-KIC on a series of articles ahead of the event, available here.