Climate solutions-focused investment business Just Climate announced its first three investments, backing companies with solutions to decarbonise the steel industry, accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, and provide renewable energy to manufacturers.
Just Climate, founded in October 2021 by Generation Investment Management, a sustainability-focused investment firm chaired by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, aims to deliver a mark by focusing on investments in projects and companies in difficult-to-abate sectors and geographies while delivering risk-adjusted returns. The fund focuses on catalytic climate solutions in energy, transportation, industry, buildings, and natural climate solutions for food, agriculture, and oceans.
The first three companies in Just Climate’s portfolio are ABB E-mobility, H2 Green Steel, and Meva Energy.
ABB E-mobility, headquartered in Switzerland, is a dominant player in electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), approximately 24% of all emissions come from the transportation sector, which has traditionally been challenging to decarbonise. Just Climate’s investment in ABB E-mobility will help decarbonise road transportation by accelerating the deployment of its solutions, which include smart chargers for the home, high-power chargers for future highway stations, solutions for fleet electrification, and opportunity charging for electric buses and trucks. As a result, just Climate believes that supporting this company will significantly impact emissions reduction in a difficult-to-decarbonise industry.
H2 Green Steel is a Swedish industrial startup that aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of the steel industry – one of the hardest-to-abate industries, according to the IEA, which is responsible for more than 7% of global emissions. The company aims to reduce steel emissions by as much as 95% by substituting the coal typically used in steel production with green hydrogen powered by renewable electricity. The investment by Just Climate is part of H2 Green Steel’s announced Series B fundraising in October 2022, the proceeds of which will be used to develop the company’s first-of-its-kind, a large-scale green steel plant in northern Sweden, the Boden Project.
Meva Energy, also headquartered in Sweden, offers an innovative gasification technology that generates renewable energy for industrial sectors. Just Climate will assist Meva Energy as it scales and expands the technology to provide a clean, practical, and cost-effective alternative to a network of mid-sized industries that rely on fossil fuels to power their industrial processes and operations. In addition, through partnerships with two prominent industrial players, IKEA and SOFIDEL, Meva Energy has the potential to catalyse a sector-wide transition.
“Our first investments will accelerate commercialisation of 95% decarbonised steel, a natural gas substitute based on wood waste from other industrial processes, and electric charging solutions for a wider range of road transport that requires high-powered charging. All three solutions bring to life our thesis of investing in transformational solutions for the highest-emitting, hard-to-abate sectors while delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns for our investors.”
Shaun Kingsbury CBE, Chief Investment Officer of Just Climate