Energy tsar Audrey Zibelman joins Australian climate advisory group Pollination

The former head of Australia’s energy market operator, Audrey Zibelman, will join the board of the advisory group Pollination, a major coup as the company moves to expand.

The former head of Australia’s energy market operator, Audrey Zibelman, will join the board of the climate and nature investments and advisory firm Pollination, a major coup for the company as it moves to expand into the US, Europe and Asia to capitalise on soaring demand amid a global energy transition.

Ms Zibelman, who has been an adviser to Pollination since 2022, will expand her role as the consultant moves to increase its presence and capitalise on revolutionary US energy transition legislation.

“The Inflation Reduction Act is injecting $US1.5 trillion ($2.3 trillion) into supporting decarbonisation and I think there’s a significant opportunity to help our Pollination clients participate and invest in that,” Ms Zibelman told The Australian.

The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022, is the signature transition policy of US President Joe Biden and is expected to expedite the rise of renewable ­energy.

Ms Zibelman said the transition would also benefit Australia as many of the critical minerals needed were found in substantial quantities in this country.

Pollination chief executive Martijn Wilder said Ms Zibelman was uniquely qualified to aid the company’s expansion.

“There are few people who understand the challenges and opportunities of the net-zero transition more clearly than Audrey and we are thrilled she has agreed to steer Pollination as it expands its presence into North America, Europe and Asia, while cementing its market-leader position in Australia,” Mr Wilder said.

Ms Zibelman was chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator between 2017 and 2021 after chairing New York State’s Public Service Commission. After leaving AEMO, she worked at Google X, where she led efforts to digitalise energy grids. The appointment of Ms Zibelman comes as Pollination enhances its presence. In 2023 it appointed former climate counsellor to the US Treasurer, John Morton, to head its US operations, and the company also opened new offices including one in Singapore.

In 2023, Pollination struck a deal with Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund to unlock and commercialise carbon credits in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Indonesia last year announced it would allow foreign entities to purchase carbon credits, a potentially lucrative revenue stream for the Asian country which is estimated to be home to some 80 per cent of the world’s carbon credits.

Carbon credits are increasingly popular as a means of reducing or offsetting emissions.

A growing number of countries are pushing corporations to reduce or offset emissions. Indonesia hopes to position itself at the centre of this demand, and has joined with Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo at COP27 to form an alliance of tropical rainforest nations, which has been dubbed the “OPEC of the rainforests”.

To unlock the market, Pollination and the Indonesia Investment Authority said they would collaborate to deliver quality projects that global investors were actively seeking.

Carbon credits are, however, controversial. Critics say their use allows emitters to use cheap abatement rather than reduce emissions, and there is concern about the quality of the credits and whether they actually deliver the carbon dioxide sequestration that they are supposed to.

Originally published as Energy tsar Audrey Zibelman joins Australian climate advisory group Pollination