The CEF Newsletter delivers updates and financial analysis on the global energy transition, renewable energy markets, and climate policy.

Short-duration battery storage in the U.S. has grown 25x in five years, reaching 43,419 MW. This IEEFA report examines how that success is opening pathways for long-duration energy storage, driven by state mandates, data centre demand from AI companies, and advances in technologies including iron-air, liquid air, and carbon-oxygen systems.

Metals-as-a-Service (MaaS) proposes a circular business model for the wind energy sector and beyond, in which metal ownership is retained by a Special Purpose Vehicle throughout the asset lifecycle. The model converts metal procurement from capital expenditure into a service-based structure, enabling securitisation, improved supply security, and circular value creation.

Tracks global investment in clean energy and decarbonisation technologies using facility-level data, covering the US, China, and all countries worldwide.

This report examines the viability of standalone battery energy storage tariffs in India during 2025. It highlights a significant divergence between aggressive tariff reductions and actual project costs, evaluating associated execution risks, supply chain dependencies, and the need for procurement framework reforms to ensure sector resilience.

This report by InfluenceMap analyses how the fossil fuel industry uses geopolitical instability to promote energy security narratives. It highlights the industry's historical playbook of delaying the renewable transition and outlines current counter-arguments from renewable sectors advocating for electrification to ensure genuine energy independence and affordability.

This report analyses the transition to reliable, round-the-clock renewable energy through solar, wind, and battery storage. Introducing the firm levelised cost of electricity (F-LCOE), it evaluates the cost-competitiveness of hybrid systems against fossil fuels and outlines the necessary policy reforms to support widespread deployment.

Mission 300 Progress Portal is an interactive World Bank tool tracking electrification across Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides data on electricity connections, financing, and project pipelines, supporting analysis of energy access, infrastructure investment, and development finance relevant to ESG and emerging market decision-making.

Report presents UK qualitative research on centre-right attitudes to energy efficiency and renewables, finding trust deficits and scepticism. Messaging aligned with values—avoiding waste, local control, and authenticity—resonates best, while economic or corporate framing underperforms. Emphasises credible messengers and community-based approaches.

This article argues that modern investment strategies fuel economic extraction while often underperforming simpler alternatives. It calls on investors to realign portfolios with productive, community-oriented investments that generate real economic and social value.

Assesses Australian financial institutions’ views on climate and clean energy investment in South and Southeast Asia, highlighting growth potential, limited current exposure, key risks, and barriers. It emphasises blended finance, policy support, and government intervention to mobilise private capital and scale regional investment.

This month’s sustainable finance article roundup examines a landscape increasingly shaped by geopolitics and climate risk, as near-term fragmentation, energy security, and affordability pressures collide with intensifying long-term threats from climate change, biodiversity loss, and water stress. The works featured analyse how these dynamics are reshaping capital allocation, disclosure, and resilience planning, demonstrating the growing need for sustainable finance to integrate geopolitical risk with real-economy transition.

Global Renewables Watch Atlas is an open, interactive database mapping utility-scale solar and wind projects worldwide. It provides project-level data on location, capacity, and development status to support analysis of renewable energy deployment, infrastructure planning, and investment-related research.

Global Renewables Watch is a project/initiative of Global Energy Monitor, which acts as the organisational author and is responsible for governance, data production, and oversight.

The report argues the Global South is rapidly adopting cleantech as its cheapest growth pathway, driven by low energy access, limited fossil resources and abundant renewables. Falling costs, electrification and Chinese supply underpin accelerating solar and wind deployment, with fossil fuel demand for electricity expected to peak by 2030.

This report uses empirically validated probabilistic forecasting to assess future energy technology costs. It finds that rapid deployment of solar, wind, batteries, and electrolyser technologies is likely to lower overall system costs and deliver substantial net savings compared with continued reliance on fossil fuels.

Australia’s fossil-fuel-exposed regions are assessed across seven dimensions of adaptive capacity, showing common weaknesses in economic diversity, social capital and service access. The report outlines region-specific strengths and proposes tailored, place-based transition planning to support diversification and community resilience through the net zero shift.