Abatable’s Chief Commercial Officer Douglas Greenwell sat down with Marc Height to explain what got him interested in working in the climate sector, how start-ups and scale-ups can contribute to climate action and how to step up carbon markets to solve the climate crisis.
MH: You have a background working in financial markets. What got you interested in shifting to work in climate change?
DG: My first role as a Graduate Marketing Trainee was working for Reuters – as it was back in the 1990s. Through the company I gained a great grounding in all aspects of financial markets and various financial instruments. I then took my FSA trading exams when I worked at Dow Jones on building a fixed-income trading platform.
In the background though I was always interested in climate issues, and I joined the Green Party while at university in the 1980s. However, it was never part of my career. This changed when a personal opportunity in 2022, along with seeing more VC money go into climate tech companies, made it feel that it was the right time to actively enter and participate in the market.
MH: The financial sector has been seriously grappling with climate risk, sustainability and ESG considerations over recent years. What do you think is the best way forward for financial markets to adequately respond to climate change?
DG: The major influence the financial sector can have on climate change is how and where they deploy capital. Banks and lenders, for example, can affect the activities of business by using a combination of the cost of lending and the activities they are prepared to lend against.
There are some real examples of where this is having an effect. It is now very expensive, for example, to borrow money for coal-fired power stations compared to other forms of power generation. Meanwhile some US banks are assessing companies’ net-zero plans and use of carbon credits as part of their lending risk assessments.
MH: You also have experience working with climate tech start-ups and scale-ups. What potential do you see for these firms, and for venture capital in general, to help solve the climate crisis?
DG: Ultimately, every company needs to become a climate company. Our necessary economic adaptation will mean all businesses need to figure out how they exist without having a detrimental impact on the environment.
That said, what technology start-ups have demonstrated in many and multiple markets is a way to catalyse change and ‘reset’ a market. The climate tech start-ups that will succeed and scale will be those that help us change our habits. That’s across multiple areas and, for businesses, this includes direct business behaviour, including relationships with suppliers – i.e. within value chain – and supporting additional climate action – i.e. beyond value chain.
MH: What do you think needs to happen for the voluntary carbon market, and carbon markets more broadly, to scale to contribute further to climate action?
DG: Three areas need to come together to support the scaling of carbon markets:
- Make it easier to identify and transact on the projects you want to work with. It is not sustainable to expect every company to have a deep expert in-house to work with this market.
- Continue to make it attractive for companies to want to work with the market, especially as a continuation of their own CSR programmes.
- Governments need to provide a light regulatory push and incentive to work with the market – I like the promise of the emissions tax model that the Singapore government has put in place.
More generally, I think there’s an interesting parallel between what’s happening in the VCM now, with firms like Abatable focusing on making it easier to operate in the market, and how other industries have matured. Take Netflix. It always wanted to be a streaming company, but when it started the technology wasn’t there to properly facilitate this. Also, buying behaviour was set, with people used to going to the video store to rent a movie. So Netflix began life as a DVD distribution company and set off trying to facilitate behaviour change in earnest. Once the tech was there to support it, the firm changed the industry completely.
Broking in the VCM at the moment can be seen as the equivalent of going to the video store or DVD mail order. At Abatable, we’re building the technology to allow buyers and developers to transact in the market more efficiently and really working to understand ideal buyer behaviour. We hope to improve the industry by doing so.
This is particularly critical as we move through the decade of climate action and corporates realise there is a lot left to do to be in line with net zero.
MH: What else is coming up at Abatable that you’re excited about?
DG: In the short term, I am excited to see how the market reacts to the new version of our market Intelligence platform that we will launch at Climate Week NYC. The market insights we will publish in the next few months should also help open more discussions with both corporates looking to purchase credits or investors who wish to deploy capital, especially those companies who are less experienced in the market and are looking for a trusted guide.
Over the longer term, I am really excited about the potential for us to be a major infrastructure vendor and to support other intermediaries in servicing the market insight and fulfilment needs of their customers. We are having some really promising conversations in the area.
MH: Working in climate and sustainability can often be challenging, particularly when we see so many devastating images of climate change impacts playing out in the news. What are your go-to pastimes for switching off from the world of work?
DG: I took up tennis late in life, only six years ago, and have been hooked ever since. Like any sport, it has a lot of technical subtleties. I would argue my enthusiasm for the sport is higher than my capability!
I have always been a big fan of movies and technology and gadgets in general, both of which feature heavily in the Greenwell household.
Douglas and colleagues Valerio Magliulo, CEO and Co-founder of Abatable and Tom King, Head of Carbon Solutions, will be at Climate Week NYC from 22 to 29 September. Get in touch and book a meeting here.
