Category: Sustainable Finance Lab

The case for closing coal plants at scale 8/23/2022

The case for closing coal plants at scale

Deb Chattopadhyay, Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how pressure to retire coal-fired power plants is building due to economic and environmental concerns. Four business models can be applied to plant closures but greater efficiencies can be achieved when there are coal plant closures-at-scale.  A hybrid model is likely better when a country or region wants to look at a large programme of coal plant closures-at-scale.  August 23, 2022.  

Making carbon offset disclosure align with climate value

Making carbon offset disclosure align with climate value

Payne Institute Program Manager Brad Handler, Communications Associate Simon Lomax, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the voluntary carbon market would benefit from a ratings system to score the climate effectiveness of different offset types.  Carbon offsets have a valuable role to play in mobilizing private capital to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and slow the pace of climate change.  July 18, 2022.

Clearing the Non-Technical Hurdles for CCS 7/15/2022

Clearing the Non-Technical Hurdles for CCS

Payne Institute Communications Associate Brooke Bowser, Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler, CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the oil and gas industry began injecting carbon dioxide into the ground in the 1970s as a technique to produce more oil (now called enhanced oil recovery), but today there is a renewed interest in CO2 injection for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects — this time as a way to address climate change. Despite CCS technology itself being decades-old, persistent regulatory and liability questions paired with limited economic viability threaten development, even as the industry appears to be gathering momentum for large-scale growth.  July 15, 2022.

Less is More: The Impact of Auto Lender Risk on Household Auto Purchases

Less is More: The Impact of Auto Lender Risk on Household Auto Purchases 

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange, Payne Institute Researcher Caitlin McKennie, and Mirko Moro write about how credit risk can be an impediment to new auto purchases, especially for electric vehicles. This paper looks at the elimination of auto loan cramdowns for Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceedings, where the loan value is made equal to the auto value, on three outcomes: auto value, likelihood of new auto, and loan-to-value ratio of new autos. Using a difference-in-difference approach based on a state’s historical use of Chapter 13 bankruptcy, we show that household’s secure better loan-to-value ratios and acquire higher valued autos due to lower credit risk following the reform. July 5, 2022.

Decarbonizing the oil refining industry: A systematic review of sociotechnical systems, technological innovations, and policy options 2/17/2022

Decarbonizing the oil refining industry: A systematic review of sociotechnical systems, technological innovations, and policy options

Payne Institute Fellow Steve Griffiths, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Jinsoo Kim, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, and Joao M. Uratani write about how the oil refining industry, which was established in the mid-19th century, has become a foundation of modern society. While the refining of crude oil to produce transportation fuels, petrochemical feedstocks and a variety of other products has brought manifold benefits, it has also led to the global proliferation of greenhouse gas emissions as well as local air pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels. February 17, 2022.

 

 

Payne Institute’s Latest Initiative – Sustainable Finance Lab 2/10/2022

Payne Institute’s Latest Initiative – Sustainable Finance Lab

The Payne Institute is pleased to introduce our latest initiative, the Sustainable Finance Lab (SFL).  The SFL will seek to promote ideas to mobilize more capital investment in the Energy Transition.  Under the direction of long-time Wall Street research analyst Brad Handler, the SFL will focus initially on encouraging the retirement of carbon emitting assets and on the potential of carbon offset markets. It will also support various Payne/School of Mines initiatives, including CCUS and critical minerals.  In addition, the SFL will be a reference resource. In a section on the SFL web page called Payne Financial Flow, we will frequently post on climate finance topics and metrics. To kick off, you will find comments on ESG debt raise in 2021 and the latest voluntary carbon market size statistics.  February 10, 2022.

How private capital can be leveraged to fight climate change 2/8/2022

How private capital can be leveraged to fight climate change

Payne Institute Research Associate Brad Handler and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the recent UN COP26 climate negotiations once again revealed how the richest nations in the world are not meeting their commitments to the developing world. This was perhaps most powerfully symbolized by OECD countries failing to provide $100 billion a year in capital as promised. Yet, a vastly more important shortcoming of public climate finance is its continued failure to attract the private capital that increasingly appreciates the long-term imperative of climate action and that will be essential if the world is to spend the trillions necessary to fight climate change.  February 8, 2022.

Crediting emissions saved in plugging oil and gas wells 1/26/2022

Crediting emissions saved in plugging oil and gas wells

Payne Institute Research Associate Brad Handler and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how avoided emissions could be credited as carbon offsets and sold on exchanges. Funds totalling $21bn have been allocated in the US’ recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to clean up former industrial and energy sites, including properly retiring some of the estimated 2mn of unplugged abandoned oil and gas (O&G) wells in the US. Those funds can be stretched further if the avoided methane is credited as carbon offsets and sold on carbon exchanges.  January 26, 2022.  

Colorado oil and gas wells are constantly changing hands. Some risk becoming costly “orphans” along the way 1/19/2022

Colorado oil and gas wells are constantly changing hands. Some risk becoming costly “orphans” along the way

Payne Institute Research Associate Brad Handler contributes to this article about how since 2017, more than 42,000 oil and gas properties have been bought or sold in Colorado. If they fall into the wrong hands, they risk ending up abandoned, leaving the state on the hook for cleanup.  Along the way there have been negotiations, a promised $1 million to the community, protests and lawsuits. In whose hands those wells and pipelines end up will determine if they are well run or turn into nuisances and environmental problems, and also whether they are properly plugged and abandoned when they no longer produce. January 19, 2022.