December 3, 2022 Carbon Capital is Coming One company is using renewable biowaste called lignin to create wood batteries, while two others work together to make the first net zero milk project in New Zealand.  A Saudi Arabian renewables developer closes a $7 billion deal to build green hydrogen in Thailand. Meanwhile, a carbon credit firm aims to raise $1 billion to fund projects that remove carbon from the air.  Interesting stories worth billions are up this week, so let’s dive in.  Batteries Made of Wood? Companies have been busy finding ways to provide sustainable power storage solutions using renewables. And one of the largest forest owners in the world, Stora Enso, has started to scale the production of batteries made out of wood.  Their source is a biomaterial called lignin. It’s one of the most common organic polymers found in trees that makes their structure firm and resistant to rotting. Lignin has a high carbon content of 60% and makes up about 30% of wood’...

December 10, 2022 The Carbon Roller Coaster The voluntary carbon prices this week saw a massive one-day drop in and followed up by a partial bounceback. A global energy firm signs a $750M carbon credits deal with a South American nation and Vanguard walks away from the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange names the first fund to use its new framework for carbon credits while the World Bank and its partners launch a new carbon credit platform. So, lets jump in. The Forest from the Trees Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation programs, a.k.a. REDD, are critical to limit the global temperature rise to below 2°C. Guyana, one of the most heavily forested countries in the world, has ~18 million hectares of forests that can store about 20 billion tonnes of CO2e. The country signed an agreement with oil giant Hess Corporation, who’ll buy $750 million worth of its REDD+ carbon credits to help protect its Amazonian rainforests. LSE’s Firs...