Zibelman joins Pollination board to target “critical, urgent work” of funding decarbonisation

Energy transition and innovation guru and former CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator, Audrey Zibelman, has been appointed to the board of Pollination, stepping up her role at the climate investment and advisory firm to help put a rocket under global decarbonisation.

A US native, Zibelman led AEMO between the pivotal – if politically frustrating – years of 2017 and 2021, helping to steer the market through a significant period of transition as wind and solar established themselves as the cheapest sources of power and battery technologies emerged as an essential part of the future grid.

After leaving AEMO, Zibelman worked as a vice president at Google’s X, the moonshot factory, leading an initiative focused on the digitisation of electricity grids. She has also kept one foot in Australia, with roles advising the reboot of Victoria’s State Electricity Commission, advising Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy and as a senior advisor as Pollination.

In a speech at the end of 2020, ahead of her departure from the helm at AEMO, Zibelman said Australia’s energy industry was at an inflection point and needed to choose a direction and take it, instead of bickering over policy and regulation.

More than three years later, Zibelman says Australia still has work to do to knocking the NEM into shape to run on firmed renewables – with fine-tuning of policies like the Capacity Investment Scheme and a coordinated national push to electrification up near the top of her list. But at Pollination, her focus will be a little more big picture.

“What I’m excited about at Pollination is a combination of both their geographic reach, along with their strategy around investment advice, asset management, and supporting governments and industry and tech.

“The opportunity to get more directly involved with Pollination’s next phase was a great match for my skills and interests and it is a challenge I am greatly looking forward to taking on.”

For Pollination, Zibelman brings to the board her deep electricity market knowledge and her unique perspective as a US citizen who, among other things, chaired New York State’s Public Service Commission just before taking the role at AEMO.

In particular, Pollination hopes to tap her experience and contacts to identify new partnerships and opportunities that can leverage the $US1.5 trillion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

“There’s a huge amount of capital in the US,” Zibelman tells RenewEconomy. “It’s just huge numbers. And so we’ve got to get working.

“[It’s] a huge opportunity for new approaches and new infrastructure and is a powerful tool to attract and deploy capital to meet the challenges we see across hard-to-decarbonise sectors of the global economy.”

“The truth is we mostly have and know the solutions we need to deploy if we are going to limit global warming below 1.5 degrees,” Zibelman says, adding that the major remaining road blocks are capital and deployment.

“The critical and urgent work ahead lies with bringing together those who wish to invest in solutions and those who are working on them, all while creating regulatory and enabling environments that make collaboration easier and faster.

“Pollination is uniquely placed to help make all of that happen, which is what excites me about this role and the impact we can have together.”

Zibelman joins Pollination’s board following the recent appointment of former Climate Counsellor to the US Treasury Secretary, John Morton, as the company’s head of Americas. Pollination also opened its first Asian office in Singapore late last year, joining existing offices in Australia, as well as London, Washington DC and Chicago.

Pollination CEO Martijn Wilder said the company was continuing to put in place the building blocks to deliver on its goal of becoming the pre-eminent climate and nature firm worldwide.

“We know that the expertise, the strategic understanding and the partnership-forming capabilities we have gathered are widely needed right now and that demand for these things is only going to increase in the years to come,” he said.

“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 help steer Pollination as it expands its presence across North America, Europe and Asia, while cementing its market leading presence in Australia.”