How To Manage Energy Transition Capital Using Modeled Abatement Strategies
Author Sticky
Christy Pooler
GE Vernova’s Software Business
May 27, 2025
Share
Takeaway
The energy and heavy industrial sectors are continuing their commitment to sustainability across their operations, with decarbonization projects aiming to reduce carbon emissions emerging as a critical focus. A 2025 PwC research report on decarbonization efforts across industries found that 84% of companies are standing by their climate commitments, and 37% are increasing their ambitions. At the same time, capital investment spending across power, renewables, upstream oil & gas, and metals and mining is expected to exceed $1.5 trillion in 2025, up 6% from 2024. Despite these trends, securing and deploying capital investment for decarbonization initiatives remains challenging, as stakeholders often weigh the costs of technology and project planning. to financiers and operations stakeholders.
The complex nature of decarbonization projects, evolving technological, economic risks and uncertainty, and regulatory policy dimensions create challenges. To help address these challenges and support the energy transition, companies may seek the advanced capabilities of emissions management software. The fundamentals of emissions management software to track, monitor, and report are desirable, however organizations often need guidance on future investment strategies for decarbonization planning. Verified emissions data and baselines can help form the foundation to model potential cost and impact of abatement strategies.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this blog is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice, regulatory compliance guidance on the subject matter. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included in this blog without seeking legal or other professional advice. The contents of this blog contain general information and may not reflect current legal developments or address your situation. We disclaim all liability for actions you take or fail to take based on any content in this blog.
The complex nature of decarbonization projects, evolving technological, economic risks and uncertainty, and regulatory policy dimensions create challenges. To help address these challenges and support the energy transition, companies may seek the advanced capabilities of emissions management software. The fundamentals of emissions management software to track, monitor, and report are desirable, however organizations often need guidance on future investment strategies for decarbonization planning. Verified emissions data and baselines can help form the foundation to model potential cost and impact of abatement strategies.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this blog is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice, regulatory compliance guidance on the subject matter. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included in this blog without seeking legal or other professional advice. The contents of this blog contain general information and may not reflect current legal developments or address your situation. We disclaim all liability for actions you take or fail to take based on any content in this blog.
Challenges Impacting Decarbonization Strategies
Let’s dive into market challenges that could impact decarbonization strategies:
1. Investment Planning and Energy Transition Return on Investment (ROI)
Investment planning and energy transition ROI involve tactical investments in innovative technologies, infrastructure, and R&D. Carbon reduction efforts—by site, project, or business operation—must be cost-effective and properly managed alongside the finance and operational teams to achieve ROI and meet long-term business goals.
2. Regulatory and Policy Uncertainty
The regulatory environment for carbon emissions is continuously evolving. Uncertainty around future impacts to regulations, carbon pricing, and government incentives can create hesitation in the market. Inconsistent sustainability and decarbonization policies across different regions and countries plays a factor in financing projects that operate across multiple jurisdictions.
3. Market and Economic Volatility
Energy markets can be volatile, with fluctuations in commodity process, demand, and supply. This volatility can potentially impact the financial viability of decarbonization projects and can impact strategic investment planning under evolving market conditions.
4. Varying Stakeholder Expectations
Energy and heavy industrial companies can face pressure from various stakeholders, including shareholders, customers, employees, regulators, and executives to demonstrate progress on decarbonization. Balancing these expectations while investing in abatement technologies can be a hurdle. Moreover, community stakeholders are increasingly scrutinizing the environmental impact and sustainability projects. Depending on the regions and markets addressed, companies are encouraged or mandated to provide detailed and transparent disclosures about their decarbonization plans and expected outcomes. For example, ESG (Environment, Safety and Governance) criteria are becoming central to investment decisions. Emissions data is a key component to reporting environmental performance. In many cases, ESG-focused investors want to see planning and data highlighting corporate environmental responsibility commitments.
5. Internal Company Challenges
Ensuring decarbonization projects align with the company’s overall strategic goal and energy transition priorities is required. Internal conflicts or misalignment can hinder projects. Implementing decarbonization projects often involves changes in operations, processes, and corporate culture. Managing these changes effectively can be the foundation for project success and stakeholder confidence.
6. Not all Abatement Projects are Equal
The associated costs with different decarbonization activities can vary. Technologies such as solar, carbon capture, hydrogen, and wind depend on specific market demands and operational nuances. Power and production demands change with business operation needs, influencing the effectiveness and cost of different strategies.
1. Investment Planning and Energy Transition Return on Investment (ROI)
Investment planning and energy transition ROI involve tactical investments in innovative technologies, infrastructure, and R&D. Carbon reduction efforts—by site, project, or business operation—must be cost-effective and properly managed alongside the finance and operational teams to achieve ROI and meet long-term business goals.
2. Regulatory and Policy Uncertainty
The regulatory environment for carbon emissions is continuously evolving. Uncertainty around future impacts to regulations, carbon pricing, and government incentives can create hesitation in the market. Inconsistent sustainability and decarbonization policies across different regions and countries plays a factor in financing projects that operate across multiple jurisdictions.
3. Market and Economic Volatility
Energy markets can be volatile, with fluctuations in commodity process, demand, and supply. This volatility can potentially impact the financial viability of decarbonization projects and can impact strategic investment planning under evolving market conditions.
4. Varying Stakeholder Expectations
Energy and heavy industrial companies can face pressure from various stakeholders, including shareholders, customers, employees, regulators, and executives to demonstrate progress on decarbonization. Balancing these expectations while investing in abatement technologies can be a hurdle. Moreover, community stakeholders are increasingly scrutinizing the environmental impact and sustainability projects. Depending on the regions and markets addressed, companies are encouraged or mandated to provide detailed and transparent disclosures about their decarbonization plans and expected outcomes. For example, ESG (Environment, Safety and Governance) criteria are becoming central to investment decisions. Emissions data is a key component to reporting environmental performance. In many cases, ESG-focused investors want to see planning and data highlighting corporate environmental responsibility commitments.
5. Internal Company Challenges
Ensuring decarbonization projects align with the company’s overall strategic goal and energy transition priorities is required. Internal conflicts or misalignment can hinder projects. Implementing decarbonization projects often involves changes in operations, processes, and corporate culture. Managing these changes effectively can be the foundation for project success and stakeholder confidence.
6. Not all Abatement Projects are Equal
The associated costs with different decarbonization activities can vary. Technologies such as solar, carbon capture, hydrogen, and wind depend on specific market demands and operational nuances. Power and production demands change with business operation needs, influencing the effectiveness and cost of different strategies.
How Emissions Management Software Can help support financing sustainability investments
Verdantix (a leading independent research advisory firm), defines GHG emissions management software as platforms designed to assist organizations in tracking, calculating, and reporting emissions data to ensure compliance with environmental regulations and support sustainability initiatives.
Emissions management software can play a critical role in helping companies build abatement data modeling to help overcome the hurdles associated with financing decarbonization projects and sustainability strategies. This solution offers a range of functionalities that help with transparency, improve efficiency, and support strategic decision making.
As a provider of emissions management software for the power and energy resources industry, GE Vernova may present a favorable view of digital solutions in this space. While this paper is grounded in research, readers are encouraged to evaluate technologies independently and consider their unique operational needs.
Supporting Financial and Risk Management
Performing a detailed cost-benefit analysis of different decarbonization projects can be a major benefit of emissions management software. By evaluating the financial implications, measuring reduction impact, and ROI, companies can make informed investment decisions. The software aims to guide sustainability leaders to identify and assess risks associated with various decarbonization strategies, helping them develop robust risk mitigation plans and enhancing stakeholder confidence.
Enhancing Data Accuracy and Transparency
As mentioned in this paper, transparency can help reassure stakeholders about the company's commitment to reducing emissions. Software helps operations leaders dive deeper into projections versus impact and provide overall progress towards energy transition commitments. Furthermore, it can outline data-backed decarbonization scenarios to help guide finance decisions.
To help achieve this, emissions management software is engineered to automate the collection, aggregation, and cleaning of scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions data to improve decision-making and reporting. Near real-time monitoring capabilities allow companies to continuously track emissions data and identify trends, deviations, and areas for improvement.
Facilitating Regulatory Compliance
The software aims to help companies monitor their emissions data aiding compliance with local, national, and international regulations by automatically integrating and updating regulatory requirements into the emissions management processes. Detailed carbon accounting records and reports generated by the software help support audit preparations and third-party emissions verification. This helps reduce the risk of non-compliance.
Streamlining Operations and Efficiency
By optimizing operations, emissions management software can lower operational costs. These savings can be reinvested into additional decarbonization initiatives. The software further allows companies to set, track, and achieve emissions reduction targets, supporting continuous improvement and operational efficiency.
Enabling Strategic Planning and Decision-Making
Emissions management software can simulate different decarbonization scenarios, helping companies understand the potential impacts and outcomes of various strategies. For example, sustainability teams can explore different scenarios for efficiency upgrades on a specific asset and values. The system displays scenario reduction chart identifying percentage reduction from baseline and cumulative Capex. Further detailing projections and likely performance of decarbonization projects. This supports more strategic and effective investment decisions. Advanced analytics and reporting tools provide actionable insights that guide long-term strategic planning, aligned with corporate sustainability goals and regulatory requirements.
Enhancing Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
A comprehensive and transparent reporting mechanism to stakeholders, including regulators, is a trending requirement to manage towards energy transition goals. Emissions management software provides a single source of truth enabling clear communication about emissions performance and reduction efforts. Emissions management software provides relevant information in an accessible format, enhancing engagement. Understanding your company’s decarbonization efforts and actions to achieve net zero can help build trust and foundational support for sustainability program investment.
Emissions management software can play a critical role in helping companies build abatement data modeling to help overcome the hurdles associated with financing decarbonization projects and sustainability strategies. This solution offers a range of functionalities that help with transparency, improve efficiency, and support strategic decision making.
As a provider of emissions management software for the power and energy resources industry, GE Vernova may present a favorable view of digital solutions in this space. While this paper is grounded in research, readers are encouraged to evaluate technologies independently and consider their unique operational needs.
Supporting Financial and Risk Management
Performing a detailed cost-benefit analysis of different decarbonization projects can be a major benefit of emissions management software. By evaluating the financial implications, measuring reduction impact, and ROI, companies can make informed investment decisions. The software aims to guide sustainability leaders to identify and assess risks associated with various decarbonization strategies, helping them develop robust risk mitigation plans and enhancing stakeholder confidence.
Enhancing Data Accuracy and Transparency
As mentioned in this paper, transparency can help reassure stakeholders about the company's commitment to reducing emissions. Software helps operations leaders dive deeper into projections versus impact and provide overall progress towards energy transition commitments. Furthermore, it can outline data-backed decarbonization scenarios to help guide finance decisions.
To help achieve this, emissions management software is engineered to automate the collection, aggregation, and cleaning of scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions data to improve decision-making and reporting. Near real-time monitoring capabilities allow companies to continuously track emissions data and identify trends, deviations, and areas for improvement.
Facilitating Regulatory Compliance
The software aims to help companies monitor their emissions data aiding compliance with local, national, and international regulations by automatically integrating and updating regulatory requirements into the emissions management processes. Detailed carbon accounting records and reports generated by the software help support audit preparations and third-party emissions verification. This helps reduce the risk of non-compliance.
Streamlining Operations and Efficiency
By optimizing operations, emissions management software can lower operational costs. These savings can be reinvested into additional decarbonization initiatives. The software further allows companies to set, track, and achieve emissions reduction targets, supporting continuous improvement and operational efficiency.
Enabling Strategic Planning and Decision-Making
Emissions management software can simulate different decarbonization scenarios, helping companies understand the potential impacts and outcomes of various strategies. For example, sustainability teams can explore different scenarios for efficiency upgrades on a specific asset and values. The system displays scenario reduction chart identifying percentage reduction from baseline and cumulative Capex. Further detailing projections and likely performance of decarbonization projects. This supports more strategic and effective investment decisions. Advanced analytics and reporting tools provide actionable insights that guide long-term strategic planning, aligned with corporate sustainability goals and regulatory requirements.
Enhancing Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
A comprehensive and transparent reporting mechanism to stakeholders, including regulators, is a trending requirement to manage towards energy transition goals. Emissions management software provides a single source of truth enabling clear communication about emissions performance and reduction efforts. Emissions management software provides relevant information in an accessible format, enhancing engagement. Understanding your company’s decarbonization efforts and actions to achieve net zero can help build trust and foundational support for sustainability program investment.
Pioneering a New Era of Emissions Management
GE Vernova’s CERius™ is an emissions management solution engineered to help confidently measure, manage, and operationalize your decarbonization strategy using the power of AI-validated emissions data. As the carbon accounting system of record, CERius provides energy and heavy industrial companies the ability to measure the impact of their current decarbonization programs and unlock meaningful investment strategies.
CERius aims to help manage an efficient approach to emissions management through data automation, deeper visibility, and precision into carbon intensity – freeing valuable resources to channel efforts into effective decarbonization strategies. The near real-time insights and reporting capabilities empowers companies to make impactful, data-driven investments to help achieve their lower-carbon commitment goals.
Get more from your emissions management software:
CERius aims to help manage an efficient approach to emissions management through data automation, deeper visibility, and precision into carbon intensity – freeing valuable resources to channel efforts into effective decarbonization strategies. The near real-time insights and reporting capabilities empowers companies to make impactful, data-driven investments to help achieve their lower-carbon commitment goals.
Get more from your emissions management software:
- Measure the impact and performance of existing abatement programs. CERius aims to help leadership make informed abatement decisions by highlighting the most effective areas for investment.
- AI-backed data modeling to build decarbonization scenarios to guide investment options and their impact on emissions reduction.
- Reliably measure and report reduction progress against targets and report out to stakeholders including leadership, finance, and investors.
- Help drive innovation to position your company using modern emissions management practices and meet the growing need for lower-carbon products in the market.
Conclusion
Not all emissions management software is equal, making it crucial to implement an emissions management solution designed to meet the dynamic needs of power and energy resources companies. Deploying financing for decarbonization projects can be complex. By using AI-verified emissions data, sustainability teams can provide a measurable pathway to help meet more sustainable emissions targets. Furthermore, it can support strategic planning and investment decisions with stakeholders. GE Vernova’s CERius™ software is designed to foster transparency and trust with stakeholders, which is essential for attracting and securing the necessary financing for sustainable initiatives.
Author Section
Authors