Four months after COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber pledged US$30 billion for a new climate fund to invest in the energy transition and climate resilience, particularly in the Global South, one of the fund’s big beneficiaries has poured about $500 million into a North American gas pipeline, Climate Home News reveals in an exposé published today.
“ALTÉRRA was billed as the world’s largest private investment vehicle to ‘focus entirely on climate solutions’,” Climate Home reports. But after receiving $300 million in support from ALTÉRRA, Blackrock’s Global Infrastructure Fund IV joined Morgan Stanley to buy a 50% share of TC Energy’s Portland Natural Gas Transmission System, which runs 475 kilometres from the Canada-U.S. border through New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts.
“That acquisition would not have come as a surprise to the fund’s investors,” Climate Home writes. “When U.S.-based BlackRock pitched it to the State of Connecticut’s Investment Advisory Council back in 2022, the world’s biggest asset manager gave a flavour of where their money would likely end up. Its presentation—seen by Climate Home—featured a list of ‘indicative investments’ including highly-polluting sectors such as gas power plants and transportation networks, liquefied natural gas (LNG), airports, terminals, and shipping.”
Climate Home says it isn’t clear whether ALTÉRRA was aware of the presentation. “Investments seek to build the energy systems of tomorrow, while supporting the transition of existing energy infrastructure towards a just and managed clean energy ecosystem,” a spokesperson told the UK-based climate digest.
A Blackrock spokesperson said its infrastructure funds target “investments in solutions across the energy transition value chain, driven by the long-term trends of decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization to support the stability and affordability of energy supply around the world.”
In addition to the Portland gas network, “BlackRock’s infrastructure fund has so far invested in carbon capture, waste management, utilities maintenance services, telecom infrastructure, data centres, and the production of industrial gases,” Climate Home writes.
Read the rest of Climate Home’s investigative report here.
