TransitionZero joins Coal Asset Transition Accelerator as Technical Partner

London, UK, Tuesday 15th November, 2022: The climate data nonprofit TransitionZero has become a technical partner for Coal Asset Transition Accelerator (CATA).

The partnership is announced on Energy Day at COP27, as world leaders gather to discuss how to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, to combat dangerous climate change. Coal is the leading contributor to climate change globally.

CATA is a first-of-its-kind platform (PDF) aiming to leverage finance to accelerate the global transition away from coal. CATA will empower stakeholders, including governments, utilities, investors and civil society, with analysis, expertise and a suite of tools and resources to transition from coal to clean energy.

A key part of TransitionZero’s contribution as a technical partner will come from its new open data project, the Coal Asset Transition (CAT) Tool, and Model Builder. The CAT Tool is an open data project to help refinance and replace coal plants in an affordable and just way, designed to allow high-level screening to identify and rank plants for replacement using one or multiple criteria. CAT provides plant-level estimates on the cost to 'buy-out' power purchase agreements, the cost of replacing with clean energy alternatives and the social costs of air pollution, water use and climate change. TransitionZero plans to expand the CAT Tool to other countries to support CATA’s users. Model Builder is a global energy system model that provides 163 countries with a net zero-aligned pathway.

The core partners of CATA consist of Carbon Trust, RMI, Climate Smart Ventures, and the International Network of Energy Transition Think Tanks (INETTT). The partnership has been incubated by the European Climate Foundation and funded by the IKEA Foundation and the Growald Climate Fund.

Matt Gray, Co-founder and CEO of TransitionZero, commented: “I’m excited for TransitionZero to join CATA. This is a perfect fit with our mission and we’re very keen to support the global movement to phase out coal with our open, granular and accessible data. I hope our CAT Tool is useful to the CATA partnership and we look forward to developing the tool to have an even greater impact.”

Rebecca Collyer, Director, International Clean Energy at European Climate Foundation, which is incubating CATA, said: “We’re very pleased to welcome TransitionZero to join CATA as a technical partner. Their data, modelling and analysis skills, especially via their CAT Tool, is going to prove extremely useful in building out CATA’s offering to help stakeholders accelerate the phase out of coal power. We’re thrilled to be announcing this partnership on Energy Day at COP, as the global transition from coal to clean energy simply cannot wait”.

About TransitionZero

TransitionZero is a climate analytics non-profit established in 2021. We build accessible, auditable and open energy transition planning products, supporting mission-aligned organisations. For more information on how your organisation or initiative can access our data and analytics, visit our website or contact us.