Climate Investment adds CL-Invest, which focuses on removing financial barriers for emissions reduction projects, to its Investment Portfolio
24 January 2023
- CL-Invest identifies and develops commercial projects for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction that can be rapidly monetized as high-quality carbon credits
- CL-Invest works alongside oil and gas producers to make emissions reduction projects economic
- This transaction is CI’s 30th new portfolio investment in cutting-edge technologies, platforms, and projects within its Catalyst Fund I
LONDON, 19 Jan 2023– OGCI Climate Investment (CI), a specialist investor focused on capital-efficient decarbonization solutions, has invested in CL-Invest AS, a company developing projects which reduce methane and flare emissions from existing oil and gas infrastructure. CL-Invest works in partnership with national oil companies (NOCs) and independent oil and gas producers to monetize emission reductions, making the projects economically viable and as a result addressing financial barriers for climate change mitigation.
Based in Norway, CL-Invest brings with it 18 years of experience. The company is one of the first firms to develop carbon credits for methane abatement and flare reduction for the oil and gas sector in emerging markets. To date, CL-Invest has successfully monetized multiple methane-linked emissions-reduction projects in both Central Asia and Nigeria.
CL-Invest delivers an end-to-end solution covering all aspects of the carbon credit lifecycle. This includes risk evaluation and project selection, project integrity, and determining the monitoring, verification and reporting regime. It also helps navigate a complex market and regulatory framework to generate financial returns for emission reductions.
Within the upstream oil and gas sector, CL-Invest focuses on small- to mid-CAPEX (capital expenditure) projects, including leak detection and repair, vapor recovery units, and flare gas recovery in Central Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
“This transaction marks a significant expansion of CI’s financing of commercial methane mitigation activity,” CI’s Managing Director, Project Capital, James Mackey said. “CL-Invest drives on-the-ground development of projects in regions with high emissions. It joins our diverse portfolio of methane investments, further supporting CI’s holistic approach to decarbonization. Several of our investees find leaks cost-efficiently, and CL-Invest is among the companies helping emitters fix those leaks.”
“We are very excited to earn the trust of such an established decarbonization investor as Climate Investment,” Arne Peder Blix, the CEO of CL-Invest said. “We see significant alignment between the strategies and goals of both firms, and we very much look forward to have CI support us on our bold mission: immediate climate action through elimination of financial barriers.”
This transaction brings the total number of CI’s Catalyst Fund I investments in cutting-edge technologies and projects to 30, with 10 of them in solutions to reduce methane emissions.
About OGCI Climate Investment
OGCI Climate Investment was formed by the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative, established by 12 oil & gas majors that account for around 30% of global operated production. OGCI aims to lead the industry’s response to climate change through action and independently managed investments.
Climate Investment is an independently managed investor focused on capital-efficient decarbonization solutions. The firm seeks to accelerate greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction at scale by working closely with OGCI members, governments, customers and co-investors to maximize the global implementation of low-carbon solutions and impact. CI provides capital across the business lifecycle from the catalytic phase of technology and commercial validation through to scaling our investments’ sector and geographic coverage. It has invested in 30 technologies and projects since 2017.
Among its investment activities, CI manages its $1bn+ Catalyst Fund I, and it is an investor in China Climate Investment. Both funds invest in solutions to decarbonize GHG-intensive sectors within energy, industry, built environments/buildings and transportation, that have historically attracted low capital investment for decarbonization. Climate Investment targets solutions that deliver near-term GHG impact in three areas: reducing methane, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and recycling or storing carbon dioxide.
About CL-Invest AS
CL-Invest was founded as a result of a de-merger of Carbon Limits AS in 2021. The company continues the business of financing and monetizing GHG emissions while Carbon Limits provides the consulting services related to climate change issues and extends technical services to CL-Invest and indirectly to its clients. Both parties strictly adhere to confidentiality obligations towards their respective clients to avert any conflict of interest, real or otherwise as perceived by stakeholders. The companies operate under a cooperation agreement which regulates service deliveries and other aspects of the partnership.
We work in partnership with National Oil Companies (NOCs) and independent oil producers to realize scalable emission reductions that can be achieved rapidly.
We offer the full service of project identification and assessment, followed by project financing and implementation. Managing all the activities of the project cycle are essential parts of our deliveries for carbon credit projects. It includes field work prior to validation and preparation for and conducting of the monitoring, reporting and verification of emission reductions.
An essential part of our services is to engage in project financing to overcome project implementation barriers. This includes sales of emission reductions as High-Quality Credits in carbon markets.
Our supply of carbon credits will comply with High-Quality criteria and requirements (standards). Standards under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) have guided our work until now and all credits we have brought to market have made use of CDM 3
methodologies to test additionality, quantify and verify emission reductions in line with conservative baseline assumptions and document permanence of emission reductions. We will adhere to new and/or revised standards which are under development and discussion through many initiatives. This includes safe-guards against double-counting and double-use of carbon credits and supply and use of credits that are aligned with a transition towards net-zero emissions.
We only engage in climate mitigation at existing oil and gas infrastructures with significant emission reduction potential. We are not involved in projects which expand oil and gas production capacity. In the context of the energy transition, we are conscious of not engaging in activities that would represent oil and gas “lock-in”.
