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The document demonstrates how banks can move beyond high-level corporate ambition assessments by using bottom-up, asset-level data to project emissions trajectories. Using ArcelorMittal as a case study, it shows that comparing these projections against company targets and global/regional transition pathways reveals 'execution gaps' and exposure to transition risks. This 'transition intelligence' allows sustainability, risk, and front-office teams to identify specific technology lock-in risks and structure tailored transition-finance products.

Nigeria is positioning itself as an African EV hub by leveraging high vehicle demand and private sector innovation in battery swapping and asset financing. The proposed Electric Vehicle Transition and Green Mobility Bill seeks to drive this shift by mandating 30% local content for EVs by 2030 and providing tax incentives for manufacturers and users. While companies like Spiro and MAX are scaling infrastructure and fleets, the report suggests Nigeria could adopt a more gradual transition from imports to local manufacturing, similar to Rwanda and Ethiopia, to avoid stalling adoption.

Upgrading the millions of US homes relying on electric resistance heating to air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) and heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) offers significant benefits for affordability, grid reliability, and climate goals. For single-family homes, these upgrades can save households an average of $1,530 annually and reduce total carbon pollution by approximately 40%. At scale, such transitions could reduce US residential summer peak demand by 11 GW and winter peak demand by 51 GW. The report advocates for updating building energy codes to discourage electric resistance in new construction and retrofits, setting specific replacement targets, and implementing midstream incentive programs and on-bill financing to overcome up-front cost barriers.

The document highlights the economic and environmental benefits of transitioning US households from electric resistance heating to heat pumps, noting potential annual national savings of nearly $20 billion and a significant reduction in peak electricity demand.

The document analyzes the use of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) to finance the plugging of orphaned oil and gas wells in North America to reduce methane emissions. It evaluates four existing methodologies (ACR, BCarbon, CarbonPath, and OCP), noting that while these projects offer strong additionality and significant co-benefits, they face challenges regarding emissions quantification and long-term permanence due to a lack of empirical data on orphaned well behavior. The report provides a risk framework for buyers and developers, highlighting the tension between industry expertise in producing wells and the uncertainty of non-producing, abandoned wellbores.

The Lionheart project in Germany's Upper Rhine Valley secured a €2.2 billion financing package in December 2025 to integrate geothermal power, heat, and lithium extraction. To attract investors amid market volatility, the project employed ten specific financial and operational de-risking measures, including a conservative 60:40 debt-to-equity ratio, government equity from KfW, and a diversified revenue model selling lithium, power, and heat. The project aims to produce lithium hydroxide monohydrate for 500,000 EV batteries and heat for 90,000 homes annually by 2028.

RMI proposes five policies to accelerate heat pump adoption in Illinois: increasing incentives for heat pumps and weatherization while phasing out gas equipment subsidies, providing 0% financing, reforming electric and gas rate designs, implementing an AC-to-heat pump replacement policy, and adopting electric-friendly standards for new construction. The brief notes that while heat pumps can reduce energy bills for most Illinois households—particularly those using propane or electric resistance heat—high up-front costs remain a primary barrier.

The document examines the role of cost tracker mechanisms in US utility expenditure recovery, noting that while they reduce financial risk for utilities, their overutilization can weaken cost-containment incentives and increase energy burdens for households. It recommends that regulators revisit the rationale for these trackers, retire unnecessary ones, and implement guardrails to improve transparency and review processes.

The US faces a critical bottleneck in connecting new electricity generation and storage to the grid, with over 2.2 terawatts of projects currently in queues. While the US Department of Energy has pushed for streamlined load interconnection for data centers, the author argues that this is insufficient without parallel reforms to generator interconnection. Current processes are characterized by long delays—averaging nearly five years from request to operation in 2024—and high network upgrade costs that often exceed 10% of project capex, leading to high attrition rates. The brief proposes several solutions: adopting advanced AI and automation software for studies, integrating Grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) to reduce costs, improving transparency in network upgrade construction, and implementing 'fast track' pathways such as energy-only interconnection, surplus interconnection service, and generator replacement.

An analysis of Texas oil and gas data reveals that methane waste is significantly underreported, with estimates suggesting actual losses are 3 to 4.5 times higher than official figures. The study finds that venting is the primary source of underreporting, particularly in low-production oil wells where economic incentives discourage gas capture. The report argues that current self-reporting systems are insufficient and recommends disaggregated reporting and more stringent regulations to reduce environmental harm and recover lost tax revenues.

The Dominican Republic faces high electricity costs and grid instability due to a heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels, which account for nearly 83% of generation. While rooftop solar exists, it is concentrated among the wealthiest 4.5% of the population, creating an unequal transition that erodes utility revenues and increases government subsidy burdens. To address this, the Convite Solar initiative uses a community-led model based on standardized, modular systems installed through collective labor and local training. A pilot in Nizao has demonstrated success in reducing household bills and increasing resilience during blackouts. The model proposes redirecting a portion of the $2 billion annual government electricity subsidies toward equipment costs and cooperative financing to scale distributed generation across the Caribbean.

The RMI framework establishes rules for the issuance, transfer, and retirement of Book-and-Claim Units (BCUs) for low-emissions iron and steel. It introduces a dual functional-unit system (iron and crude steel) with eligibility thresholds anchored to ResponsibleSteel's Decarbonization Progress Level 3 (DPL3). To prevent fossil lock-in, the framework mandates route-specific criteria, including a 2035/2040 phase-out for BF-BOF eligibility and strict 90% capture rates for CCS/CCUS. It defines rigorous accounting methods—direct and enhanced substitution—to prevent over-claiming and double counting, while prohibiting on-product claims to maintain the incentive for physical green steel procurement.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes approximately 0.5°C to global temperature increases. Human-made sources—including the fossil fuel industry, landfills, livestock, and agriculture—account for about 55% of methane pollution, while natural sources like wetlands and permafrost account for 45%. Mitigation strategies focus on stopping leaks in the oil and gas supply chain, improving landfill waste management, and altering livestock diets. International efforts include the Global Methane Pledge, aiming for a 30% reduction from 2020 levels by 2030, and EU regulations banning venting and flaring. RMI supports these goals through data tools like the Oil Climate Index plus Gas (OCI+), WasteMAP, and the MiQ certification standard.

The document highlights the role of China's industrial parks as critical drivers of the energy transition, noting that they host 80 percent of industrial enterprises and consume about one-third of national energy. It discusses the emergence of zero-carbon industrial parks as a means to accelerate clean-energy deployment and industrial upgrading. Additionally, it notes China's expansion of sustainable industrial parks internationally, particularly in Asia and Africa, as a vehicle for international cooperation and the deployment of low-carbon technologies.

The document outlines the role of Indian banks in the climate transition and proposes the Corporate Transition Assessment (CTA) framework to move beyond historical data in credit appraisals. CTAs assess companies across strategy and ambition, feasibility, and accountability to provide decision-focused insights for risk management and green investment.

RMI's analysis of more than 200 utility PIMs reveals a strong preference for 'upside-only' reward structures over penalties, with Return on Equity (ROE) and shared savings being the most common and highest-paying designs. While utilities consistently achieve targets for percentage adder-based and equity-focused PIMs, the report suggests that targets may be set too low. Most PIMs are short-term experiments lasting two to three years, except for fuel cost-sharing and distributed energy resource mechanisms, which often lack end dates to provide regulatory certainty.

The document evaluates the feasibility of fuel cell electric trucks (FCETs) and hydrogen internal combustion engine (ICE) trucks in India. It finds that while FCETs could be more cost-competitive than diesel trucks in long-haul, heavy-duty applications by 2040, they currently struggle to reach cost parity with battery electric trucks (BETs) due to high hydrogen fuel costs. These costs are driven by production, refueling infrastructure, and an 18% GST. The brief argues that hydrogen trucks are a critical complement to BETs for use cases requiring high payload and minimal downtime. It recommends a coordinated pathway involving capital subsidies, tax rationalization (reducing GST to 5%), and the development of public hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) to unlock the market.

The briefing proposes Bring-Your-Own (BYO) tariffs to allow large energy users, such as data centers, to fund their own power resources to speed up grid connection and reduce financial risks for other ratepayers. It distinguishes these from 'baseline' tariffs and highlights specific examples of BYO and Clean Transition programs in the US, including initiatives by PJM, NV Energy, and Georgia Power.

Following a structural shift in 2025 where federal programs providing flexible capital for clean energy projects receded, RMI convened 70 practitioners to identify how to make community projects fit the "credit box" of mainstream capital. The report argues that projects often fail to secure financing due to three primary gaps: affordability (economic viability for low-income users), risk perception (investor discomfort with unfamiliar risks), and market access (assets being too small or fragmented for secondary markets). To resolve these, the report proposes four priorities for 2026: fixing the affordability gap through tools like on-bill mechanisms and interest rate buydowns; addressing risk perception via standardized credit enhancements; closing the market access gap through asset aggregation and warehousing; and resolving ecosystem capacity constraints by investing in subnational financing systems to improve coordination and capital translation.

Agriculture contributes roughly one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, with nitrogen fertilizer production, distribution, and use generating an estimated 1.31 gigatons of CO2-equivalent annually. While low-emission solutions like renewable-powered electrolysis exist, high costs and fragmented supply chains prevent scaling, as farmers cannot absorb price premiums and food companies lack direct mechanisms to fund producers. To bridge this gap, RMI and the Center for Green Market Activation (GMA) are launching a pilot book-and-claim system. This allows food and beverage companies to purchase Environmental Attribute Certificates (EACs) to claim verified emissions reductions toward Scope 3 targets, providing producers with the revenue certainty needed to finance capital-intensive green ammonia projects without disrupting conventional farmer procurement.