Welcome to The Endgame - a monthly roundup of climate news from around the world from us at Endgame Capital 👋🏻
We post quick fire updates on our LinkedIn, make sure to follow us there for other updates on Endgame, thoughts from our founders, and insights into the venture capital world from a climate tech perspective.
In this blog we dig into some of the good, the challenges, and the ones to watch! Any recommendations welcome - drop us a line in the comments.
It’s a crazy time to be talking about climate change and climate tech, with various political changes over the last year, but we’re excited for 2025 with some exciting developments at Endgame, and the bounce back of climate tech incoming.
Now to dig in…
The good 👇🏻
🏞️ Rivers with rights!
In the UK, the River Ouse has become the first river in England to receive legal rights! This means the river is recognised as a legal entity with rights to be free from pollution.
Why this matters? With nature based financing and biodiversity being hot on the agenda, with nature getting legal rights this could be the catalyst needed to kick start climate tech solutions for nature and biodiversity.
Source: Climate Court.
👷🏼♂️ Green jobs taking root
The net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy. The Confederation of British Industry has found that 22,000 net zero businesses employ almost 1,000,000 people in full time jobs, and the annual wage was also £5,600 higher than the national average!
Why this matters? For years there was scepticism about the green transition, but these statistics show that despite the fear-mongering the green economy is a definite positive move.
Source: CBI / Guardian
🚗 Norway charges ahead
Norway is on its way to being fully electric. EVs made up nearly 90% of new car sales in 2024 and this year will phase out fossil fuel car sales altogether. In some months last year, sales of fully electric cars were as high as 98%, as new petrol or diesel car purchases almost fizzled out.
Why this matters? Electrifying the economy is one thing, but we need people to adopt electrified lifestyles too. Whilst there are challenges with the scaling EV market, this is a highly positive sign that the future of electric.
Source: BBC
The challenges 👇🏻
⛔️ Energy backlog in the states
Trump’s new executive order, “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies”, means that independent agencies like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) must now align their policy priorities with the Executive Branch and submit major regulatory actions for White House review.
Why this matters? With over 1,000 energy project cases a year processed by FERC this could delay critical energy infrastructure development, particularly with the new administration turning it’s eyes back to the fossil fuel industry.
Source: CTVC
⚡️ Power surge ahead!
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) global electricity demand is expected to grow 4% annually through 2027. Meeting that demand will requite adding more generating capacity than all of Japan…every year…
Why this matters? Despite great progress in the adoption of renewable energy, we’re still some way off moving away from relying on fossil fuels. This is why we need to be focusing heavily on alternative energy networks…maybe we have something in the pipeline on that 👀
Source: IEA
🛢️ A crude end ahead
BP has announced it will cut its renewable energy investments and instead focus on increasing oil and gas production. Despite previous commitments to lead renewables investments, some investors unhappy that the company’s profits and share price have been lower than its rivals have pressure the giant to make a pivot.
BP said it would increase its investments in oil and gas by about 20% to $10bn (£7.9bn) a year, while decreasing previously planned funding for renewables by more than $5bn (£3.9bn).
Why this matters? Whilst this is obviously bad news, at the same time this leaves an open hole for energy startups and climate tech VCs to capitalise off of BP’s losses. The renewables market is massive, and we’re excited to see alternative solutions fill this gap that BP leaves.
Source: BBC
Ones to watch 👇🏻
🧱 Low-carbon cement? Concrete idea!
Terra CO2 Technology, a Golden, CO-based low-carbon cement materials developer, raised $82m in Series B funding from Just Climate, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Eagle Materials, and GenZero.
Why this matters? With cement production accounting for about 8% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions this is a space in need of some rapid change!
Source: CTVC.
💰 Charging ahead with innovation
Shift4Good has closed a whopping €220M fund to target sustainable transport innovation across Europe and Asia. This massively exceeds the €115M average for European CleanTech VC funds (2020–2024).
Why this matter? This is a great sign for climate tech VCs as we start to see LPs refocus on climate and deploy into high potential funds. What’s also great about this is the focus outside of the US. We love the US, but Europe and Asia need to catch up, so deploying this size of climate fund is a real positive for the regions.
Source: Impact Investor
VC capital is… Belgium?
We’re as excited as you are to hear that a fellow Belgium climate tech fund has exceeded the close of its first fund - who knew we were leading the way! Antwerp-based Junction has blown past its initial target of €100m and has closed its first fund at €115m.
Why this matters? Europe has really ambitious climate goals but there’s a bottleneck - growth-stage funding. Whilst great early stage climate tech investors like Endgame exist, energy infrastructure companies seeking to scale need that later stage funding too - this is why Junction’s round is so important.
Source: TechFundingNews.
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