The greatest megatrend of all time?

In yesterday’s edition of Exponential Investor, we looked at the link between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Green Energy Transition. We are not the only people to have done so.

At a time that the invasion has pushed the prices of fossil fuels through the roof, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released one of its landmark reports. Here is the last sentence:

The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.

This publication is probably not just a random event in terms of its timing.

As Bill McKibben, a famous author and environmentalist, has put it:

1. Russia can only afford to fight because of its oil and gas
2. Russia’s main weapon against Europe is its threat to cut off oil and gas
3. So it might be wise to stop using oil and gas now that we have workable alternatives
4. (This approach also saves the planet)

Why Ukraine in 2020 is not like Crimea in 2014

Whether you call it the Green Energy Transition, the Race to Net Zero (carbon dioxide emissions) or something else, the fight against climate change may well have been given a huge boost by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Events are moving quickly. Leaving aside military issues, diplomatic issues and geopolitical issues, the European response to the energy issues has been fast and big. Germany’s government announced that it will try and get its electricity grid to 100% renewable by 2035 – that’s just under 13 years away.

Europe’s rapid swing to renewable energy is something that will hurt Russia – 60% of its export revenues come from oil and gas, a lot of which is sold to customers in Europe.

In 2020 we had a global pandemic.

In 2021 we had a surge of natural disasters across the globe.

In 2022 we are having a war that is being funded and fought with fossil fuels.

This is happening in Ukraine – a country that accounts for 16% of global corn and 12% of global wheat exports.

And, as it happens, food production generates a quarter of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to Our World in Data.

It has never been clearer that we need to transition every sector of the economy to a more sustainable footing.

We need a New World…

… and we are now accelerating towards it.

New technologies in transport, food, energy and natural resources are making possible things that, until recently, were barely imaginable.

Costs of the new technologies are plummeting – causing huge disruption. When Russia annexed Crimea in February-March 2014, solar power and wind power were not really cost-competitive with energy based on fossil fuels. Now they are.

What is what at the Clean Tech Fortunes Summit

However, the move to a more sustainable future is not just about solar power and wind power. It’s not even just about energy.

To tell the rest of the story, James Allen and I have brought in six experts on climate change-related technology and sustainable investing to explain how you can buy into what is perhaps the greatest megatrend of all time.

Our Clean Tech Fortunes Summit here at Southbank Investment Research consists of a series of free podcasts, which you can watch at a time that suits you.

We organised our first summit in early 2020, to tell people about the transition away from fossil fuels.

We called it “Beyond Oil”, and in it we heard from top experts about the forces driving the transition to renewables.

And the following year turned out to be one of the greatest wealth-creation events of the modern era, as governments, institutions and individual investors woke up the magnitude of the Green Energy Transition, and stocks in the clean tech space went up hundreds and hundreds of per cent.

We didn’t know that would happen so dramatically, or so soon.

But we did know a powerful, unappreciated trend when we saw one, and so we dedicated ourselves to sharing those insights with you.

And now we want to do it again.

The next phase of the Green Energy Transition is set to begin soon.

This is the phase where the Transition moves beyond solar power, wind power and electric vehicles (EVs).

Decarbonisation is becoming central to the stuff that builds other stuff – steel, cement, aluminium and bricks.

Decarbonisation is changing how we extract raw materials.

It is affecting how we care for water and air.

It is changing the food that we eat – and how we make it.

The changes go even further…

So, who is who at the Clean Tech Fortunes Summit?

Eoin Treacy – career analyst, writer, strategist, and commentator, with a focus on breakthrough technologies.

Amy Domini – founder of Domini Impact Investments, and author of Thoughts on People, Planet & Profit.

Hazel Henderson – pioneer of sustainable and environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, the founder of Ethical Markets Media, and the author of Politics of the Solar Age.

Sam Volkering – technology, blockchain and crypto analyst, strategist, and investment director.

Alice Ross – deputy news editor of the Financial Times, and author of Investing to Save the Planet.

Shae Russell – mining and precious metals expert, analyst and investment director.

You’ll also get some free reports from the summit. These include our report on how to identify climate tech stocks set to soar, and another on the one stock in particular that we think you should keep an eye on.

The video interviews are around 30-45 minutes long, and will be available each day, one after another, as a virtual investment conference.

It starts on 14 March, and lasts five days.

As noted, it is completely free.

Sign up now, right here.

We are making rapid progress towards a New World of true sustainability. The Clean Tech Fortunes Summit will explain everything.

I really can’t wait to see you there.

Very best wishes,

Kit Winder
Co-editor, Exponential Investor