The vital role of nonprofits in decarbonising the global power sector

Earlier this month I was thrilled to speak at the Subak Climate Summit 2022 about the role of not-for-profits in decarbonising the power sector.

As mission-led organisations with no profit motive, nonprofits have a trusted role in pushing for climate action in the power sector. I am the CEO of one such organisation, TransitionZero. We’re a climate data startup and nonprofit which provides data and insights to policymakers and the private sector to scale clean energy solutions and retire fossil fuel assets.

The challenge

A key challenge with decarbonising the power sector is that power generation assets are long-life assets. Investment now locks in emissions for many years into the future, or risks becoming a stranded asset. Power plants are often tied to long-term Power Purchase Agreements which guarantee selling power at a certain price for 20 or more years. 

Decarbonising the power sector necessarily means closing fossil fuel assets before the end of their economic life, which poses a unique financial challenge.

The roles that nonprofits play 

There are a vast range of nonprofits working in and around the power and climate space which play very different roles. I think we can organise them broadly into five categories:

Disobedience: Radical groups which use non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to change corporate and government policies. For example, Extinction Rebellion.

Brands: Agitators that campaign to get companies to change their policies, tending to do this through brand contamination. For example, Greenpeace.

Narratives: Organisations that influence media narratives through sharing data, analysis and stories that attract journalists. For example, fellow Subak Cohort Zero member, Ember.

Convening: Organisations that bring companies and public sector bodies together to promote voluntary action, via ambition coalitions, engagement initiatives, or sector frameworks. For example, Climate Group.

Solutions: Organisations that develop a product or service based on a user need. Similarly to in the for-profit space, this involves having an idea, testing the idea, building a proof of concept and convincing the vertical to use their product. For example, WattTime.

Examples from our work

TransitionZero currently sits between the Narratives and the Solutions categories. We aim to use data science and economic modelling to produce actionable insights for decision makers.

One example of this is the report Turning the Supertanker we released in 2021, which utilised our novel methodology, using satellite data and machine learning, to estimate the emissions from coal power plants in China, which is not publicly available. Al Gore gave copies of the report in Mandarin to John Kerry for a diplomatic meeting in China, and he believes that President Xi Jinping’s following statement reflected some of our analysis.

Another example is the Coal Asset Transition Tool which we recently launched. This tool is designed to help stakeholders inform coal phase out discussions, and is based on extensive input from the anti coal campaigner ecosystem.

Final thoughts

There is space for a multitude of different types of nonprofits tackling this historic and unprecedented challenge from different angles. Only then will a 1.5C aligned zero carbon power system be within reach.