- Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) has launched a $5 billion catalytic transition fund (CTF) for clean energy in emerging economies, with $1 billion already committed by UAE-based Alterra.
- Alterra, the world’s largest private clean energy investment vehicle, aims to catalyze $250 billion in investments by 2030 and needs $1.6 trillion annually in emerging economies to align with the Paris Agreement.
- Berkshire Hathaway increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum to over $15 billion and announced a joint venture for lithium production, while Google agreed to power its Nevada data centers with geothermal electricity from NV Energy.
Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) announced today the opening of a catalytic transition fund (CTF) to deploy capital into clean energy in emerging economies. Brookfield has their eye on $5bn for this fund, $1bn of which has already been committed by Alterra, a UAE-based CTF focused on the energy transition
Committed to investing $30bn into energy transition investments, Alterra was launched in 2023 at COP28. As the world’s largest private investment vehicle in the clean energy space, Alterra plans to catalyze $250bn in investments with its partners by 2030.
The fund aims specifically at emerging economies, highlighting a lack of clean energy investment in emerging economies (other than China) at ~15% despite being responsible for ~30% of emissions. It is estimated that $1.6 trillion will need to be invested in these economies per year by the early 2030s to align with the Paris Agreement.
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK: A, BRK: B) increased their stake in Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) to over $15bn. Headed by Warren Buffett, Berkshire has had a large position in Occidental, investing more than $150 mn into Occidental last week. This week, Berkshire bought another 1.75 million shares on June 10, 11, and 12.
This comes after the announcement of a joint venture between Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) Renewables and Occidental, which aims for production and deployment of Lithium, the crucial component in Electric Vehicle Batteries.
Berkshire Hathaway now owns ~30% of the company, which has been building since they opened this position in early 2019. In 2023 Buffet cleared up the speculation that he was trying to buy control of the company, but responded with, “We will not be making any offer for control of Occidental, but we love the shares we have.
”Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), announced an agreement with Berkshire Hathaway’s energy subsidiary, NV Energy to power its data centers with geothermal electricity. Through the agreement, the power grids at Google’s data centers in Nevada will be supplemented with geothermal electricity, increasing Google’s carbon free energy use to 115 megawatts from 3.5 megawatts. Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source, deriving energy from the heat of Earth’s core.