Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) has announced a new initiative to increase the availability of standardized, climate-related data. In partnership with BloombergNEF (BNEF), GIG’s Carbon Score methodology will be combined with BNEF’s renewable energy project data to build a tool to assess the carbon impact of over 40,000 wind and solar assets globally.
As developers, asset owners and managers, project finance providers, and energy consumers increasingly seek to understand the environmental benefits of projects, the demand for data continues to grow. However, as recognized in the recent Climate Finance Leadership Initiative’s Financing the Low-Carbon Future report, the integration of climate-related risks and opportunities into investment decisions continues to be challenged by a lack of information, the partners say.
GIG’s methodology helps to address some of this by generating a simple and intuitive Carbon Score for renewables assets, enabling BNEF clients to quickly, clearly and consistently assess and compare the positive carbon impact of individual assets, fund portfolios or power purchase agreements. Through the partnership, GIG’s Carbon Score will be applied to over 60% of the world’s consented wind and solar projects.
Power off-takers will be able to identify opportunities to purchase high-impact clean power, while asset owners and managers will have access to data to quantify and report on the contribution of renewable energy assets and portfolios to carbon reduction more accurately, the partners say.
“I am delighted that this joint initiative between GIG and BNEF brings together two global leaders in their field,” says Mark Tooley, global head of GIG. “The transition to a lower-carbon economy demands that climate impacts are factored into investment decisions. GIG has developed market-leading methodologies in the quantification of environmental benefits, and I’m proud that we’re opening access to our Carbon Scores to help stakeholders quantify their positive contribution in tackling climate change.”
Jon Moore, CEO of BNEF, adds, “Our goal is to provide better data to enable our clients to make more-informed decisions. This initiative will help developers and investors assess and compare the carbon impact of renewable energy projects across the globe, promoting investments in cleaner renewable assets.”
