Here is today’s sustainability news, research and analysis for technology partners; renewable energy and green IT service providers; management consultants; CIOs; chief sustainability officers (CSOs) and c-suite members.
A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Green IT Alliances
1. Research - Energy Transition Funding Gap: Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will require an annual global investment in the energy sector ranging from US$5 trillion to US$7 trillion, Deloitte reported. However, the world currently invests less than US$2 trillion each year into the transition, which is far short of the financing needed to help put the world on course to meet our collective climate goals, the Deloitte report said.
2. Smart Energy Grids: Schneider Electric called on energy decision makers to "prioritize digital upgrades to realize the potential of sustainable, resilient, efficient and flexible Grids of the Future."
3. Amazon and Carbon Credits: Amazon plans to certify all carbon credits generated through its investments with Viridis Terra and Belterra, as well as through the Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator, under ABACUS, the e-commerce giant said.
4. COP28 and IBM:  IBM will apply the company's geospatial AI technologies, including IBM's geospatial foundation model developed in collaboration with NASA, to "climate efforts including analysis of urban heat islands in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); reforestation across Kenya; and climate resiliency in the United Kingdom (UK)," the company said.
5. COP28 and Microsoft: The United Nations and Microsoft are partnering to "enable the UNFCCC to create a new AI-powered platform and global climate data hub to measure and analyze global progress in reducing emissions," the organizations said. UNFCCC stands for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Clean Energy Stocks Collapse: High interest rates, supply chain issues and other concerns have pressured the U.S. clean energy market. Among the proof points: US clean energy stocks have fallen $30 billion in the last six months, Bloomberg reports.
2. Fund - Climate Impact Startups: Resolve Ventures, an Irish development and growth capital fund management company, has launched a €30 million Climate Impact Fund aimed. The fund will support early-stage tech start-ups in Ireland dedicated to addressing the climate crisis. Key backers include European Investment Fund, Enterprise Ireland, and NTMA Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Target markets include sustainability and climate tech startups focused on energy, agriculture, mobility, construction, smart consumerism and resource management.
3. Funding - Hospitality and Travel: Sustainability technology startup BeCause Solutions has raised $1.9 million in seed funding. Ugly Duckling Ventures and Superangel.io led the round, PhocusWire reported. BeCause develops an AI platform that helps hotels and travel brands reduce the cost of managing sustainability data.
4. M&A - Environmental Consultants: Trinity Consultants, a global environmental consulting firm providing services and solutions in the built environment, EHS regulatory compliance, life sciences, and water and ecology markets, has acquired Longman Lindsey, a New York-based full-service acoustical consultancy with specialized expertise in the construction industry.
5. M&A List: Here's our database of all M&A deals involving sustainability, green IT and renewable energy buyers, sellers and investors.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. COP28 and United States: US Vice President Kamala Harris will attend COP28, Bloomberg reported.
2. COP28 Opens: The incoming COP28 president, Sultan al-Jaber, opened this year's U.N. climate summit by urging countries and fossil fuel companies to work together to meet global climate goals, Reuters reported.
3. Germany: A court ordered Germany to set up a climate action plan to ensure the country cuts carbon emissions in the traffic and construction sectors and can’t dodge the rules by setting up targets for the economy as a whole, Bloomberg reported.
4. Uzbekistan - Data Centers: The Ministry of Digital Technologies, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and DataVolt have signed an agreement to develop green data centers in Uzbekistan. Under terms of the deal, DataVolt will "develop, invest and operate state-of-the-art data centers and make it the first fully renewable large data center campus in the region, which could eventually consist of several 100s of MW," the company said.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- AWS re:Invent 2023 (November 27-December 1, Las Vegas)
- Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2023 (November 29-30, Phoenix, Arizona)
- Climate Smart Engineering 2023 (November 29-30, Melbourne, Australia)
- COP28 (November 30-December 12, UAE)
- CSR and Sustainability Summit MOZ (December 6-7, Mozambique)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
E. Previous Updates & Future News
1. Did You Miss Yesterday's Daily Update?: Here is our previous sustainability, green IT and renewable energy news for technology partners.
2. Future Updates: Send us your news tips. Please email me the details.
