The overhaul of the global energy system is being touted as potentially the single biggest investment opportunity in history.
More tellingly, at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, much of the focus was on geopolitics rather than climate change. Speaking after the conference, vice-chair of rating agency SP Global and an energy markets expert, Daniel Yergin, said he had never seen such a focus on geopolitics in 25 years of coming to the annual conflab.In fact, he said business leaders were realising that transitioning to green energy would be “more complicated” than thought prior to Russia’s invasion.
NAB’s Global Head of Sustainable Finance, David Jenkins says we’re already seeing a material impact in the transport sector with the rapid expansion of electrified rail transportation and see the rise of electric vehicles. “We’re seeing in several markets the carbon footprint of either agricultural or resources commodities, increasingly being used as a key determinant in the sourcing and procurement of these commodities.
“Downforce allows farmers to remotely measure their soil carbon over time, which will allow them to demonstrate the improvement,” Jenkins says. Using NAB’s first Agri Green Loan as part of a pilot by the Bank to reach the industry’s ambitious sustainability goals, the Leather’s will be planting 1200ha of a special legume.
Jenkins says this focus on intense sustainability is not unique to the agricultural sector as “we’re seeing that through all sectors of the economy from building to transport, resources and even government”. The $300 million bond, issued for the QIC Shopping Centre Fund back in 2019 was multiple times oversubscribed and allowed QIC to rollout a series of initiatives designed to improve the sustainability performance of several QIC-owned malls.at the time, those measures – plant and equipment upgrades, LED lighting and optimisation of the building management system – are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity over the term of the bond by over 35 per cent.