Since Trump’s inauguration, a U.S. coal plant has been shut down every 15 days, with 2018 being the nation’s top coal-plant closing year ever. This is happening for the same reason that China and the entire developing world installed more new renewables than fossil power last year for the first time ever and why 42 percent of global coal fleets are unprofitable: Renewables are now cheaper in many major power markets. And we’re just at the beginning of the innovation S-curve for renewables and storage.

 

In other portents for the future, according to Accenture, 2018 likely marked the peak production of internal combustion engine vehicles which are imminently set to be made obsolete by cheaper electric and fuel cell vehicles. Meanwhile, at least nine countries including China and India have telegraphed they will be banning fossil fuel burning vehicles and other jurisdictions around the world are beginning to put policies in place to make it so. In addition, as a result of the march of technology, zero-emission vehicles will be cheaper right off-the-lot before accounting for the fuel savings and any subsidies, as soon as 2024 according to Bloomberg.

 

In terms of oil and gas stocks, they are rapidly fading away. In 1980, oil and gas stocks made up 25 percent of the S&P 500. By 2009, the sector had halved to 12 percent, and since 2009 they have halved again to just over 6 percent. At the current rate of decline, Energy stocks may be less than a rounding error of major benchmarks inside the next decade.

Redefining what it means to be Clean

In line with these changes in the world, beginning in this version of the Clean200, we have adapted our methodology to reflect the broadening of this cross-sector grouping of companies. These changes mean that we are now applying a new carbon-free definition that captures a larger portion of the economy beyond energy efficiency, green energy, and zero emission and hybrid vehicles. This resulted in a relatively high turnover, with 87 new companies added from the last update on July 1, 2018.

 

We will now include:

• Banks that are financing the low-carbon solutions
• Real estate companies leading the way on low-carbon buildings
• Forestry companies protecting carbon sinks
• Responsible miners of critical materials for the low carbon economy
• Food and apparel companies with products that are primarily made of raw materials with a significantly lower carbon footprint
• Energy-hungry Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies that are leading the way on renewable energy while also being best-in-sector according to currently accepted privacy benchmarks.

The biggest surprise on the Clean200

The updated criteria has broadened the Clean200 so it is now more diverse from a sector perspective and more representative of the breadth of the low carbon economic transition. 

 

It has also resulted in what may be a surprise at the top of the Clean200 list: Alphabet, the holding company for Google.

 

As per the updated methodology, Internet and Data Services companies (a subset of ICT) are considered “green” or “clean” if they fulfill two tests. Number 1: They must derive 100 percent of the energy they consume from renewable sources. Number 2: They must rank in the top quartile among peers on privacy, according to the best available benchmark, Ranking Digital Rights. Alphabet has invested billions of dollars over the past few years to meet its renewable energy target.

 

Also, Google ranks number one among its peers on privacy – we acknowledge that being number one on privacy is far from perfect and are looking for ways to improve this benchmarking.

 

From a carbon emissions perspective, Google’s decision to go 100 percent renewable as compared to a business-as-usual scenario, removes five million tonnes of carbon emissions from the atmosphere every year. That is no small beans. It is equivalent to taking one million cars off the road or shutting down a quarter of Suncor’s operations, one of the largest oil sands companies in the world.

[pullquote]Google’s decision to go 100 percent renewable as compared to a business-as-usual scenario, removes five million tonnes of carbon emissions from the atmosphere every year – equal to shutting down a quarter of Suncor’s operations. [/pullquote]

From a big picture perspective, it matters a lot what kind of energy ICT companies choose because they are projected to account for 20 percent of the entire global electric grid by 2025.

We encourage and challenge all ICT companies, many of which have cash burning a hole in their pockets, to go 100 percent renewable and to up their game on privacy, which will only become more important as data replaces oil.