climate change advisory for sustainable infrastructure
transport decarbonization. clean energy transition. climate finance.
Climate change advisory for transportation and energy sectors
CPCS finds climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions for better, cleaner transportation and power systems, assets, and services.
Our climate change advisory services span developing pathways to reduce emissions in transport and energy systems, accelerating electrification of passenger and freight transport, preparing strategies for lower-carbon supply chains, mobilizing climate finance for infrastructure projects including PPPs, and advising governments seeking stronger policies, regulatory and institutional frameworks to deliver and run sustainable transportation and energy systems.
We specialize in strategies for:
- Decarbonizing all modes of transportation and logistics
- Increasing renewables in the energy sector
- Increasing access to climate finance
Integrated services:
- CPCS delivers practical pathways and provides technical assistance to public and private organizations around the world.
- CPCS has the full spectrum of expertise in-house: environmental, financial, economic, operational, commercial, legal, and regulatory to fully grasp what’s at stake and provide neutral, actionable, and evidence-based insights for decision-making.
What we do:
- Prepare e-mobility strategies for new technologies and business models
- Assess policy options and trade-offs to reach net zero transportation targets
- Develop renewable energy sector roadmaps
- Help multilateral development banks and financing institutions design climate finance facilities and develop a pipeline of climate-smart infrastructure projects
- Design financing strategies to match climate financing and market opportunities
- Help governments make policy decisions based on evidence and in-depth analyses
From evidence to action
No place for climate inaction when it’s “code red for humanity” and damage toll worsening
The world’s global transport and energy infrastructure systems are huge greenhouse gas emitters.
Consequently, we must act intelligently to improve them and increase our odds of collectively limiting their negative impact on what’s unfolding:
- accelerating and intensifying climate-related disasters (warming seas, heatwaves, floods, cyclones, droughts)
- widespread and severe losses and damages to humans and nature
- increasing compound hazards impacting water and food security, infrastructure, health, economies, and culture
The signal is loud and clear. Even the United Nations starkly described the findings of a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as “code red for humanity.”
If this warning wasn’t enough, the UN said following the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) that “countries have failed to decisively move away from fossil fuels” and there’s an “urgent need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 1.5°C.”
Staying within the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold aspired to in the Paris Agreement is about more than having ambitious targets like reducing global GHG emissions by 45% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. It’s also about how we’ll get there.
We must be smart in how we design and deploy infrastructure systems, services, and assets. We need informed decision makers and policymakers, sound strategies, effective execution, accountability, and practical, evidence-based pathways.
CPCS knows how to help clients develop solutions to achieve more sustainable transportation and energy systems.
Decarbonizing transportation and energy systems
Nations aren’t decarbonizing the global transport sector fast enough. It’s urgent.
Governments face pressure to act now. Many private actors are committed to net zero. Citizens want accountability and more stringent measures to reduce the environmental damages caused by transportation, including greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
Transport decarbonization isn’t easy. Still, organizations globally must:
- Move away from fossil fuel, carbon-intensive combustion engines
- Identify alternative business models and approaches to move people and freight
- Match public policies with investments to build green transportation fleets and systems
- Shift to cleaner transport modes based on concrete strategies
- Optimize existing infrastructure systems with new technologies
CPCS helps clients with questions such as:
- What technologies and policies can be adopted to reduce emissions by transport subsectors?
- What solutions will have the most impact on carbon emissions reductions?
- How feasible are these technologies and policies in different market contexts?
- What do they cost and how can they be financed?
Electricity generation accounts for about 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
CPCS advises clients across the global power sector in the following areas:
- Development of renewable-based power projects
- Advising for long-term sector policy and strategy
- Advising for modern regulation and sector reform
- Defining renewable energy strategies and frameworks
- Assisting with the modernization of utilities and utility performance
- Examining how to improve electricity access
- Supporting program execution, among others
Use of renewable energies is still low in many emerging markets
This is largely due to the big upfront costs, lack of institutional capacity at the government level, lack of an environment enabling private sector participation and lack of appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks.
However, provided that an adequate business environment is in place, private investors can actively contribute to renewable energy development, bringing the required financing and know-how.
CPCS helps clients with questions such as:
- How can governments in emerging economies effectively transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy?
- What policies, laws, and institutional reforms will enable an increase in renewable energy projects?
- How can we increase private sector investment in renewable energy?
- How can we scale up renewable energy and make energy measures more efficient?
Matching climate finance with investment opportunities is a global challenge of unprecedented scale, which could make or break the world’s transition towards sustainable energy and transportation.
There is a pressing need to deploy more climate finance from global and regional financiers to fund climate-positive projects. Likewise, there is no scarcity in pledges or commitments to deliver climate finance.
The key to unlocking these resources is two-fold: First, to identify a robust pipeline of bankable and credible climate projects; Second, to design optimal financing structures that strategically combine public and private capital.
The opportunity for success lies in understanding the distinctive mandates and risk appetite of various climate finance providers — be it multilateral development banks, bilateral climate funds or private fund managers – which all want their finance to deliver a return, financially and for the climate, albeit to a varying extent.
In turn, governments, infrastructure project developers, and stakeholders need support to navigate the vast climate finance architecture at the national, regional, and international levels, which often come with rigorous and different gatekeeping processes.
Climate finance needs are in the trillions of dollars to:
- Reduce dependence on fossil fuels which requires significant investments in alternative technologies and approaches
- Build more public transit and invest in electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- Produce more renewable energy and distribute it at a low cost for households and businesses
- Adapt existing infrastructure and build new infrastructure to cope with more variable and extreme climate hazards
- Support emerging economies in crowding-in investment for climate-smart projects
CPCS helps clients with questions such as:
- How can emerging economies unlock climate finance for infrastructure that meets both their adaptation and mitigation needs?
- What financial instruments or mechanisms are suitable for a given climate technology or market?
- What projects are best suited for climate finance as opposed to traditional finance?
- How can project bankability for climate-smart projects be improved?
Key contacts
CPCS committed to sustainability
CPCS advocates for climate action and sustainable infrastructure development in all our operations. It’s why our firm’s carbon footprint is zero and will remain so moving forward. We are committed to reducing and cutting greenhouse gas emissions as well as investing in high-quality carbon offsets. As a firm and advisors to infrastructure leaders, our focus is creating environmental and social value through our activities and reducing our operating impacts.
