Climate Fund backs Cleanery to tidy up emissions
Climate VC Fund is proud to announce its second investment. CVCF is the largest investor in a seed round of $2.34 million for Cleanery, the innovative Kiwi eco-cleaning and personal care products company. The raise attracted significant interest from the New Zealand business community, including Peter Cullinane, Nicola O’Rourke, and Michael Stiassny (via their company […]
How to judge the Emissions Reduction Plan
It was probably the biggest announcement of the year; maybe second only to the Budget. However you rank it, the Emissions Reduction Plan is a landmark document that will determine climate policy for years to come. Is it any good? Is it good enough? Yes or no seems too binary for such a complex document, […]
Last year set the objectives. Now we must deliver. I’ll start.
Last year was a momentous and uneven year for New Zealand’s climate risk and our response to it. In some ways it was a reset for the country, embedding climate change into government policy and setting international goals. In other ways it was a disappointing business-as-usual year as Covid dominated the headlines and the actions. […]
Puncturing the waterbed – climate policy needs more than the Emissions Trading Scheme
By Dr Jez Weston, Rohan MacMahon The Emissions Trading Scheme sets the carbon price for New Zealand and the price has just gone nuts. September’s auction bashed through the Government’s $50 price cap to $53. December’s auction cleared at $68, nearly doubling the price from just a year ago. This is how markets are supposed […]
Tricksy accounting is not the outrage. Offsetting is.
As the tables are folded on COP26 one debate continues to rumble in climate circles: the accounting trick played by New Zealand to claim a 50% reduction in GHGs emissions by 2030. This so-called ‘net versus gross emissions’ slight-of-hand angers many people and rightly so. But hold my beer. There’s a much bigger problem to […]
It’s time for churches to join the climate fight
By Rohan MacMahon and Vincent Heeringa Among the many dignitaries attending COP26 in Glasgow this month is Pope Francis, representing the principality of Vatican City. As a jurisdiction, the Vatican has nothing much to report – its greenhouse commitments are subsumed within Italy’s, and its emissions include the occasional puff of white smoke. As the […]
Climate VC on climate podcast
This month, Jez and Rohan featured on ‘This Climate Business’, a podcast about turning the climate crisis into opportunity. The podcast is hosted by Vincent Heeringa (who consults to the fund). He asked Rohan if the fund is fixed on one sector or class of investments. “I’m not a believer in silver bullet solutions. Also […]
Meet Dr Jez: speed metallurgist
Dr Jez Weston is a co-founder of the Climate VC Fund. A former rocket scientist and unicycle builder, he came to New Zealand via Japan and just loves things that go really fast. Seems a natural fit for venture capital, then. Vincent Heeringa asked Jez about his journey into climate action. Vincent: Nice to chat […]
The ETS just broke. This is how to fix it.
Sneaking through the wall-to-wall coverage of Covid this week was news of an Emissions Trading Scheme’s cock-up. Unexpected demand in the quarterly government auction led to carbon busting its $50 price cap and the government having to issue 7 million more units to keep the price from blowing out. The blowout received extensive media coverage […]
Climate VC Fund wins climate impact award
The streamers have yet to be unwrapped for the launch party, but the Climate VC Fund has already won an award. We were jointly awarded ‘Highly Commended’ for Most Effective Fund for Climate Action in this week’s Mindful Money Awards. The other recipient was the New Zealand Green Investment Finance, the government fund started in […]