Cyan Venture's Releases Inaugural White Paper: The Time for Big Bets

Cyan Venture's has released it's inaugural white paper - Building the green economy: The time for Big Bets. The media release can be found below:

“Big Bet” approach needed for $6.6 trillion economic opportunity in shift to net zero

4 April 2024, Melbourne: A new approach is needed to unlock the “Big Bet” opportunities valued at $6.6trillion in the Asia Pacific region alone, Cyan Ventures proposes in its inaugural White Paper.

Cyan Ventures builds the Big Bets needed to transition to a low carbon, nature positive economy. These Big Bets are the new technologies and markets - which, with the right market conditions and regulations, will meaningfully accelerate the breadth and pace of the transition to a nature positive, low carbon, green economy.

The current narrative in Australia is primarily focused on the potential risks and costs of the environmental challenge we face. Merely six years away, this is what is at risk:

• the property market is expected to lose $571 billion in value by 2030 due to climate change and extreme weather;
• as temperatures rise, workers in exposed industries may need to reduce their exposure to heat or the physical intensity of their work, which could cost the economy over $420 billion.
• reduced agricultural productivity and labour productivity as a result of climate change is projected to exceed $19 billion by 2030.

But there is a viable pathway to address climate change and biodiversity risks, that could also drive significant economic and investment value. Past work by Cyan Ventures co-founder Dr. Fraser Thompson, the World Economic Forum and Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, has identified $6.6trillion of economic opportunity in the Asia Pacific region alone from transitioning to a low carbon, green economy.

But only one-third of these opportunities are receiving significant business and investor focus today. The remaining $4.4 trillion parts of the opportunity receive only marginal attention from investors, even though they are feasible, could have a large impact, and have investors ready to deploy capital.

Cyan Ventures identified the need for a new approach, focused on Big Bets to harness this opportunity.

Fraser Thompson, co-founder of Cyan Ventures uses his experience as co-founder of Sun Cable to highlight this approach: “If you took a normal engineering approach to developing Sun Cable, it never would have happened.”

“Before you even start developing a Big Bet, you need to focus on identifying the core enablers needed to make a Big Bet a success. That’s how Cyan is building the Big Bet projects. We identify regulatory structures, the offtake markets, the supply chain gaps and we leverage our advisory work to unlock these enablers.

“We then build out the concept - from the business case to the financial model, secure the early value milestones and through our global network, put together the best development team to secure the initial investment needed to support the project through to financial close.”

Cyan Ventures’ inaugural White Paper has identified three areas which have the potential to be as significant as Sun Cable, but to date are receiving limited investor interest:

• Positioning Australia as a world leader in sustainable aviation fuel
• Closing the loop to eliminate waste and capture value
• Becoming a clean export superpower

Specific interventions are required to accelerate these Big Bets - ranging from shifting reporting standards through to introducing new financial products and mechanisms. But the three consistent “non-negotiables” for creating success in this area are:

1. Understanding where to focus. Further research and attention by policymakers and business leaders is needed to shift the focus from risk mitigation to opportunity creation.

2. Building the coalition. Most of these opportunities involve many different sectors. Business collaboration, particularly cross-sectoral collaboration needs to be scaled up and lessons shared on how to shift from talk to action.

3. Shifting mindsets from regulating risk to enabling opportunity. In almost every one of these opportunity areas, there is a crucial role for government policy, whether it be around pricing of externalities or addressing information failures. Policymaking needs to shift from thinking about regulating against risks to thinking about how policy can enable businesses and investors to go after these opportunities.

The full report can be found here

ENDS

About Cyan Ventures

Cyan Ventures exists to build the Big Bets needed to transition to a low carbon, nature positive economy. We develop and incubate new technologies and markets - which, with the right market conditions and regulations, will meaningfully accelerate the breadth and pace of the transition to a nature positive, low carbon, green economy. Our advisory work focuses on partnering with governments, NGOs, companies and investors that are looking to accelerate progress on sustainability project development and investment. www.cyanventures.com.au

MEDIA CONTACT

Ranya Alkadamani | ranya@impactgroupinternational.com | +61 434 664 58

Image credit: Unsplash