Articles
Latest articles from the ETRC team
The critical role of cost-of-capital and climate policies in net-zero transitions
Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement requires a rapid scaling up of investment in low-carbon energy. The IEA estimates that limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C requires $4 trillion of investment in low-carbon energy annually by 2030, requiring investment to more than triple from current levels.
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This is how climate and environmental policies influence energy investment choices
Governments use climate and environmental (CE) policies to affect the scale, pace, and nature of change across the energy sector by shaping the perceptions and behaviours of market participants. For example, environmental economists have long advocated for policy instruments, such as carbon tax or cap-and-trade, to price carbon emissions and to internalize the environmental damages caused by carbon dioxide emissions.
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How tracking changes in the cost of capital can accelerate investment in low-carbon energy
Central to achieving the Paris Agreement goals is the need to channel large amounts of capital into low-carbon energy, with the price of renewables highly dependent on the cost of capital. The cost of capital is a major determinant of the total cost of different energy technologies and reflects the risks financial markets perceive, for example, how quickly coal might be displaced by renewables.
We need new ways to measure finance’s contribution to Net Zero
16 June 2021 – Ben Caldecott & Christian Wilson
To shift the cost of capital for big emitters, investors and regulators need to look at primary market lending activity, say Ben Caldecott and Christian Wilson. And there’s a new metric that could help.
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