Today’s ESG Updates
- Court Clears Equinor to Resume $5B Wind Project: A federal judge overturned Trump’s suspension order, allowing Equinor to immediately resume work on its $5 billion New York wind farm.
- Blue Earth Capital Raises $100M for Impact Secondaries: The Swiss firm raised $100M to provide liquidity for impact investors, allowing them to exit early and recycle capital into new projects.
- Google Signs Major 1.2 GW Carbon-Free Energy Deal: The tech giant secured 1.2 GW of new clean energy to power its U.S. data centers and meet 2030 carbon-free targets.
- US to Finalize 2026 Biofuel Quotas by March: The administration aims to set 2026 quotas by March, maintaining blending targets but abandoning plans to penalize imported renewable fuels.
Judge clears Equinor to resume $5B Empire wind project, blocking Trump halt
A U.S. federal judge has granted Equinor permission to resume construction of its $5 billion Empire Wind project. This blocks a suspension order from the Trump administration. Judge Carl Nichols issued a preliminary injunction, ruling that the administration’s halt in December posed a threat to the project’s existence.
The wind farm, located off the coast of New York, is already 60% complete, representing a $4 billion investment intended to power 500,000 homes. This marks the second legal setback for the administration’s efforts to pause offshore wind leases this week. The first blockage occurred due to claims that the Biden administration had ‘rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis’. The second blockage occurred due to national security concerns that were not clearly specified.
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Further reading: U.S. Court Allows Equinor to go Back to Work Building $5 Billion Offshore Wind Project Halted by Trump
Blue Earth Capital raises $100M for new secondaries strategy
Blue Earth Capital, a Swiss-based investment company, has raised $100 million to launch a new strategy focused on ‘impact secondaries’. The company is backed by institutional investors from Europe and the U.S. But what exactly is an “impact secondary”? It is essentially a combination of impact investing, investing in companies or funds with the aim of generating positive social or environmental change alongside financial profit, and secondaries, the ‘secondary market’ is where investors sell their stake in a fund to someone else before the ten years are up. Impact secondaries occur when an investor buys an existing stake in an impact fund or company from another investor who wants to exit early. In short, no extra money will enter the impact investment sector, but a new Swiss player is slowly gaining momentum, and at the same time, Blue Earth will eventually enable new money to flow into new projects.
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Further reading: Impact Investor Blue Earth Capital Raises $100 Million to Launch New Secondaries Strategy
Klimado – Navigating climate complexity just got easier. Klimado offers a user-friendly platform for tracking local and global environmental shifts, making it an essential tool for climate-aware individuals and organizations.
Google buys 1.2 GW of clean energy
Clean energy developer Clearway has signed a major deal with Google to supply them with almost 1.2 GW of carbon-free power. This is enough to power almost 1 million U.S. homes, as well as the DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future (which required 1.19–1.21 GW to travel through time).
For this project, Clearway will build new energy projects in Missouri, Texas, and West Virginia, representing a substantial $2.4 billion investment in infrastructure. Construction is set to begin this year, with the sites expected to be operational between 2027 and 2028. This energy will be supplied to local grids to power Google’s data centres, directly supporting the tech giant’s ambitious goal of operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030.
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Further reading: Google Buys 1.2 GW of Carbon-free Energy to Power Data Centers Across U.S.
US to release 2026 biofuel mandates in March, waive import fines
The Trump administration is planning to finalise the 2026 biofuel blending quotas by early March. According to sources, the EPA will maintain blending targets close to those in its initial proposal, estimating 5.2 to 5.6 billion gallons for bio-based diesel, but will abandon a controversial plan to penalise imported biofuels.
The administration has abandoned its plan to restrict imports in order to increase domestic demand, due to concerns from oil refiners regarding the potential negative impact on fuel prices. This decision follows positive market reactions to soybean and oilseed futures, which were triggered by the initial announcement. Additionally, the EPA has not yet decided how to address small refinery waivers, but reports indicate that larger refineries may be required to offset at least 50% of the exempted gallons with their overall quotas in the future. The final proposed rule will be reviewed by the White House at the end of January.
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Further reading: Exclusive: US to finalize 2026 biofuel quotas by early March, drop import penalties, sources say
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Feather grass, Tarutyne Steppe, Ukraine. Cover Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
