Upstream Oil and Gas Investment Outlook

The state of the global economy and the energy sector has been transformed since our last upstream investment report (Investment Crisis Threatens Energy Security, December 5, 2021). The economic outlook for the near-term has deteriorated significantly while the geopolitical risks, and price volatility, across the energy sector have surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For the time being, long-term demand uncertainty has been overshadowed by turmoil impacting near-term supply and demand. On the supply-side, there are many outstanding questions about the depth and duration of a reduction in Russian production. On the demand side, there are many outstanding questions about …

IEF Outlooks Comparison Report

IEA and OPEC energy outlooks shape consensus views and influence policy and investment decisions worldwide. Given their influence, it is vital to understand these outlooks and the assumptions underlying the various scenarios. This report will inform the 13th IEA-IEF-OPEC Symposium by comparing the key scenarios and underlying
methodologies of IEA and OPEC’s most recent outlooks and placing them in the broader context of outlooks produced by other key industry organizations and market players. Promoting greater transparency of energy outlook methodologies, assumptions, and data comparability can help bring stability to the market by driving informed policies and informed investment decisions.…

Unlock the Data Needed for Effective and Equitable EV Siting

The enormous investment in charging resources will be broadly ineffective and risk chronic unreliability and underuse if key factors and stakeholders are not considered. With the billions in federal dollars available through programs such as the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and the Discretionary Grant Program for Charging and Fueling Infrastructure, along with numerous state funding opportunities, the United States is poised for the rapid development of public EV charging infrastructure. However, siting charging stations effectively and equitably is a complex task involving numerous stakeholders with different priorities

This playbook will highlight the stakeholder perspectives in siting EV …

Voluntary Carbon Offset Markets

A “currency” to help fund climate mitigation: Voluntary carbon offset credits generate funds for activities that mitigate against climate change and achieve other societal benefits. Good prospects for growth in demand: Over 4,200 companies have committed to SBTi-based emissions reductions, pointing to dramatic growth in the demand for offset credits. Visibility on large scale supply additions: Countries/jurisdictions are working through protocols for very large credit issuance. This has the advantages of scale and reducing the integrity-related concern known as Leakage. Participating corporates also get to “lock in” supply at pre-agreed prices.

A turbulent 2022: The prospects for growth drew more …

Understanding the Carbon Removals Landscape: Creating Clarity in an Opaque Market

Despite the growing interest in carbon removal projects, the removals market is still nascent and many unanswered questions exist around project-level criteria, new methodologies, and scalability. In the absence of definitive and common standards, how can corporations help build a robust carbon removals market that can support net zero ambitions by 2050 or sooner?

In this paper, we will start to answer that question by:

– Providing an overview of the current carbon removals market – Identifying possible carbon removal procurement pathways – Highlighting some key considerations and screening criteria for corporate carbon removal buyers – Outlining decisions your organization

Targeted Regulation for Reducing High-Ozone Events

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are a precursor to ground-level ozone, a pernicious pollutant that is harmful to human health and ecosystems. Despite decades of regulations and a sharp decline in NOx emissions, episodic high-ozone events prevent many areas from attaining air quality standards. Theoretically, spatially or temporally differentiated emissions prices could be more cost effective at reducing such events than a uniform price. To test this prediction, with data from EPA and NOAA spanning 2001 2019, this working paper uses novel empirical strategies to estimate (1) the link between hourly emissions and high-ozone events and (2) hourly marginal abatement costs. These …

The Changing Role of Hydropower: Challenges and opportunities

Despite being the most mature renewable technology, hydropower faces a number of challenges. These include the need to ensure sustainability and climate resilience; ageing fleets and related investment requirements; the need to adapt operation and maintenance (O&M) to modern power system requirements; and outdated market structures and business models that do not recognise the full range of services provided by hydropower. As challenging as the present situation is, it also presents opportunities to modernise hydropower plants and equip them with the means to continue providing critical services to power systems globally.

This report is aimed at policy makers and hydropower …

Internalizing Externalities: Disclosure Regulation for Hydraulic Fracturing, Drilling Activity and Water Quality

The rise of shale gas and tight oil development has triggered a major debate about hydraulic fracturing (HF). In an effort to mitigate risks from HF, especially with respect to water quality, many U.S. states have introduced disclosure mandates for HF wells and fracturing fluids. We use this setting to study whether targeting corporate activities that have dispersed environmental externalities with disclosure regulation to create public pressure reduces their environmental impact. We find significant improvements in water quality, examining salts that are considered signatures for HF impact, after the disclosure mandates are introduced. We document effects along the extensive and …

Transforming Existing Buildings from Climate Liabilities to Climate Assets

Investing in existing buildings makes climate sense; retrofitting an existing building emits 50 to 75 percent less carbon than constructing the same building new. However, we cannot ignore the embodied carbon impact of these retrofits. It is important to consider the upfront embodied carbon emissions that arise from the production, transportation, and installation of materials to prevent a spike in emissions that will negate years of the operating emissions reductions achieved through retrofits.

This report provides data to support using low-carbon and carbon-storing materials in deep energy retrofits to reduce net emissions and transform buildings into climate assets. The study …

Global Solar Report 2023 Edition

Stakeholders in today’s solar industry have the privilege of participating in a world-changing shift toward renewable energy. And yet, as large-scale solar installations multiply, it is increasingly important that all of us ensure the industry is delivering on its promises — in terms of both power production and profitability. A glance at many of the statistics in this report shows, however, that we are progressively losing more power and more money, with an estimated annual revenue loss of $82 million across the 24.5GW analyzed by Raptor Maps in 2022, translating to $2.5 billion in losses for the entire solar industry. …