Temasek announced the launch of GenZero, a wholly-owned investment platform company dedicated to accelerating decarbonisation globally.
The climate crisis is intensifying and the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the world is not on track to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. There is an urgent need to accelerate decarbonisation across all sectors to avoid irreversible damage to the planet by reducing global carbon emissions and address the emissions gap, which is estimated between 19 and 26 gigatonnes of carbon in 2030 for a 1.5 degrees Celsius scenario[1].
GenZero looks to catalyse decarbonisation solutions with its ability to deploy long-term and flexible capital. It invests in opportunities ranging from early-stage companies and solutions that require patient capital to commercialise and grow, to more mature ones that are ready to scale.
It has three investment focus areas: (i) technology-based solutions that deliver deep decarbonisation impact through climate-driven technologies; (ii) nature-based solutions that help protect and restore our natural ecosystems to generate climate impact while benefiting local communities and biodiversity; (iii) carbon ecosystem enablers which refer to companies and solutions that support the development of an effective, efficient, and credible carbon ecosystem.
Together, these focus areas present a holistic and integrated approach to address the emissions gap, with solutions across both the near- and longer-term horizons. GenZero seeks to deliver positive climate impact alongside long-term sustainable financial returns
Commenting on its establishment, Dr Steve Howard, Chief Sustainability Officer, Temasek International, said “GenZero expands Temasek’s focus on deploying capital to catalyse solutions for a better world. Achieving net zero globally will require deployment of around US$5 trillion annually by 2030[2], to rapidly adopt and commercialise sustainable energy solutions. Its flexible approach will enable it to catalyse near- and long-term solutions to support ongoing efforts to achieve net zero globally. GenZero will not only support Temasek’s efforts as we strive towards halving our portfolio’s net emissions by 2030 and working towards a net zero portfolio by 2050, but also those of the wider ecosystem.”