Sustainability news stories, curated for you

November/December

  • Token weather records: The UK saw in 2022 with the warmest New Years Day on record, a balmy 16.3 degrees, hot off the back of the warmest New Years Eve ( 15.8 degrees).

  • Natural Disasters: A report from charity Christian Aid estimates that the total damages of the top 10 most expensive natural disasters of 2021 topped $170 billion (with total economic losses expected to be a degree of magnitude greater still). At an estimated $65bn, the single most expensive event was hurricane Ida in the US.

  • Renewables: A new wind farm in Scotland is now powering all of Amazon’s UK operations.

  • Conservation: And in other Bezos news, at COP26 he announced that his Earth Fund will spend $2bn on restoring landscapes and transforming food systems.

  • Deforestation: In the face of the COP 26 pledges, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is at its highest in 15 years! Increasing 22% in the past year.

  • Habitat Destruction: Staying in Brazil, it has been calculated that the “apocalyptic” 2020 wildfires across the Pantanal wetlands killed 17 million vertebrates!

  • Energy: A chilling report estimates that the “big five” UK supermarkets could reduce their electricity bills by a third simply by installing fridge doors!… that’s roughly 1% of the whole UK’s energy usage.

  • Equal Rights: Only 10 countries give women the exact same legal standing as men - check out the distressingly fascinating visualisation here.

  • Equal Rights: A lesbian couple are suing the NHS over what they claim is a £50k “Gay Tax” - which requires same-sex couples to pay for 12 rounds of private IVF treatment before being entitled to NHS support.

  • Equal Rights: The supreme court has backed up the Governments decision to not issue gender-neutral passports.

  • Fossil Fuels: Campaign group Global Citizen found that 503 lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry were accredited as delegates for COP 26 - more than any other industry or country.

  • Fossil Fuels: Seemingly buckling to pressure from climate change activists, Shell has walked away from the North Sea’s Cambo oil field - prompting some to say that this could be the end for ‘Big Oil’ in the North Sea.

  • Fossil Fuels: Denmark has announced that all domestic flights will be fossil fuel-free by 2030 (not sure how many internal flights there are in Denmark but it’s a nice headline).

  • Climate Change: There are lots of ways to fight climate change - a group of school children in Portugal are taking a legal route, using human rights laws to sue 33 countries on the basis that politicians lack of meaningful climate action is putting their futures at risk.

  • Climate Change: Every household in Wales is being offered a free tree to plant.

  • Health: In 2027, anyone in New Zealand aged 14 or under will NEVER be allowed to purchase cigarettes!

  • Mental Health: Citing concerns over users mental health, cosmetics brand Lush is quitting Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and Snap Chat until the platforms do more to provide a safer environment for their users.

  • Pollution: The staggering levels of plastic pollution in the oceans is prompting some microbes to evolve enzymes that are able to break down up to 10 different types of plastics.

  • And finally: Sad to report the death of Magawa, the landmine-sniffing hero rat, he was eight.

September/October

  • Insane weather records: Sicily reported Europes highest ever temperature of 48.8 degrees during this summers heatwave, while July has been recorded as the worlds hottest ever month.

  • Fossil Fuels: The UK is set to close its last coal-fired power station (in 2024).

  • Fossil Fuels: A report has found that fossil fuel firms across the works are suing governments for a combined £13bn as climate-friendly policies threaten their profits.

  • Climate Change: The UK government has finally published its net-zero strategy, which supposedly is set to decarbonise the country in a way that “transforms every sector of the global economy”. The 368-page document sets out how spending will be prioritised to deliver job growth while reducing emissions from transport, power, heavy industry and the built environment. As you’d probably expect, it was met with a mixed reaction from various experts, business groups, environmental organisations, charities and consultancies; simultaneously welcomed and criticised for not going further.

  • Climate Change: Researchers fear we a nearing a worrying climate tipping point with the Gulf Stream showing signs of potential collapse. (Thanks Hannah for sharing).

  • Climate Change: The historic drought in the western US has now led to a water shortage being declared in the mighty Colorado River.

  • Climate Change: Rain has fallen at the summit of Greenland's ice sheet for the first time in recorded history.

  • Climate Change: Bill Gate’s Breakthrough Energy has pledged to fund $1.5bn to climate projects that are part of the US’s historic infrastructure bill.

  • Climate Change: The world’s largest Direct Air Capture plant has started sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere in Iceland. (Thanks Angela for sharing).

  • Renewables: Boris has pledged that 100% of the UK’s power will come from renewable sources by 2035.

  • Environment and health: The UK is eating 17% less meat than it was a decade ago - a significant decrease, especially in red and processed meats, but will need to reduce a further 30% to meet the ambitious objectives of the National Food Strategy and build a sustainable food system that improves the health of the population.

  • Environment: The Bezos Earth Fund has started making grants, pledging over $200m to nonprofits working in climate justice, climate-smart economic recovery and advancing innovation in decarbonization. (Thanks Lena for sharing).

  • Environment: The 5 winners of Prince William’s £1m Earthshot Prize have been announced. The full list of the innovative finalists is here.

  • Pollution: Blue Map, is a groundbreaking app that empowers people in China to report pollution violations in their communities and hold polluters to account.

  • Pollution: Plans are underway to ban single-use plastic cutlery and polystyrene cups in the UK.

  • Pollution: Algeria, the last country in the world to use leaded petrol ran out of the toxic fule in July, meaning that it has now been eradicated.

  • Conservation: A record 227 environmental activists were murdered in 2020, according to a report from Global Citizen.

  • Conservation: From next year, the UK will become the first country in Europe to ban the import and export of any product containing sharks fins.

  • Diversity: The US’s second-largest stock exchange, the Nasdaq, is set to bring in binding rules on gender and minority/LBGTQ+ representation for its listed firms.

  • Equality: Concrete steps are underway in Scotland to introduce a Minimum Income Guarantee.

  • Human rights: Tens of thousands of vulnerable people are being trafficked into the UK and forced to work, as this Times special report on modern slavery explains. (Thanks Julia for sharing)

June/July

  • Insane Weather Records: The west of North America has been sweating in the grips of a “heatdome”, with an insane 54.4 degrees Celsius recorded in Death Valley - on a day that saw the highest daily average temperature ever reliably observed on the planet. The mercury hitting a Canadian all-time high of 49.6 in Lytton, where dozens of people were killed by the extreme heat. Experts have warned that hitting temperatures this high is “virtually impossible” without climate change. Oh, and Northern Ireland notched up 31.2 degrees on its hottest ever day.

  • Plastic: Since the start of the pandemic, an estimated 1.6 BILLION disposable masks have entered our oceans. Each one takes roughly 450 years to break down (into microplastics).

  • Conservation: President Biden has suspended Trump-era oil drilling licences in Alaska’s Arctic national wildlife refuge.

  • Conservation: On June 8th, World Oceans Day, National Geographic’s cartographers officially recognised the Southern Ocean as the worlds fifth ocean.

  • Conservation: The seabed off the Sussex coast is set to be leased from the Queen as part of plans to create a marine park, and regenerate the kelp forests which were once abundant in the Channel (thanks Angela for sharing).

  • Conservation: The critically endangered Saiga, or the “Floppy-nose” antelope, has made a remarkable recovery in the grasslands of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

  • Conservation: Ever wondered how cattle can help rare butterfly populations thrive?

  • Health: Scientists have found that infecting mosquitos with Wolbachia bacteria can reduce the spread of dengue fever by up to 77% (thanks Hannah for sharing).

  • Equality: In the US, the NFL has said it will stop settling concussion lawsuits using a race-based formula that assumes the average black player has a lower level of cognitive function than the average white player.

  • Equality: Fina, the world governing body for watersports has been criticised for outlawing swimming caps designed to accommodate afro hair.

  • Equality: In the UK, a new top police role is being created to address violence against women and girls*

    *or Male Violence, as we should be calling it!!

  • Sustainable Business: Check out this cool infographic detailing the climate targets of the Fortune 500.

  • Sustainable Business: Australian craft brewery Young Henrys, are using algae to convert all the CO2 emitted through their brewing process into oxygen.

  • Sustainable Business: Palm oil giant Korindo has been stripped of its sustainability status by the FSC after failing to agree on how to verify its compliance to standards amid human rights and environmental issues in Papua.

  • Energy: Check out this hypnotising animation detailing the energy mix of the G20 over the past 56 years (in 30 seconds!).

  • Clean Energy: The Ikea Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation are planning to give away $1 billion to clean energy projects in the emerging world. A fantastic example of how philanthropy can pave the way for (hopefully) much more investment capital to kickstart the global energy transition (thanks to Lena for sharing this one)

  • Electric Vehicles: Scotland's biggest bus operator has announced it is building the UK's largest electric vehicle charging hub.

  • Electric Vehicles: French lawmakers are offering an attractive incentive to scrap old polluting cars in return for a €2.5k grant to buy an eBike.

  • Human Rights: The world has reached a grim all-time high number of forcibly displaced people, with an estimated 82.4 million refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people.

  • Human Rights: A boost to gender diversity, the US is set to make a third gender option of “X” available in passports. Similarly, Argentinians can register themselves as gender-neutral in their national ID system.

  • Finance: Danske bank have introduces a carbon-neutral mortgage, certified by the Carbon Trust.

  • Finance: NatWest is adding a carbon footprint tracker to its mobile banking app to help customers reduce the climate impact of their spending.

  • Legislation: The European Union has announced a raft of climate change proposals aimed at pushing it towards its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. One of which is a carbon border tax, which has rather annoyed Australia.

  • Legislation: In the UK, the sale of energy-intensive Halogen lightbulbs will be banned; followed by fluorescent strips in 2023… a move that mirrors EU regulations.

May

  • National Treasure: Happy 95th birthday Sir David Attenborough (for the 8th May).

  • Conservation: and happy World Bee Day! (for the 20th May).

  • Conservation: A WWF report has found that forests the size of France have regrown across the world since the turn of the millennium.

  • Emissions: A Dutch court has ordered Shell to cut their emissions by 45% compared to 2019 levels by 2030 - the first ruling of its kind where a company has been ordered to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

  • Emissions: Staying in the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Metro has banned adverts for carbon-intensive products such as cars and flights.

  • Emissions: If the UK finance industry were a country, it would be the 9th largest emitter in the world; a new report from the WWF and Greenpeace has found…

  • Waste: …but never fear! HSBC has said that by 2026 their credit and debit cards will be made from recycled plastic.

  • Waste: Research from the London School of Economics has found that just 20 companies are responsible for manufacturing half of the world’s single-use plastics.

  • Climate Change: Up to 50,000 Australian students walked out of school in protest of the lack of ambition the country is showing on reducing their emissions.

  • Legislation: The delayed Environment Bill has made it back into the House of Commons - with amendments that include legally binding targets for species abundance.

  • Legislation: The UK government announced reforms that will ban live animal exports, prohibit trophy hunting imports and formally recognise animals as sentient beings

  • Legislation: The EU has approved a $21bn green transition fund; aimed at supporting coal-dependent countries with their clean energy transition.

  • Legislation: French MPs have voted to ban domestic flights which can be completed by train in under 2hrs30.

  • Policy: A new policy paper claims that the carbon capture industry could support 50,000 UK jobs by 2050.

  • Policy: The UK government are also being taken to court for their continued support for expanding oil and gas production in the North Sea… while hypocritically urging the G7 to commit to ending fossil fuel subsidies.

  • COP26: Conference president, Alok Sharma, has confirmed that it will go ahead in Glasgow in November as planned.

April

  • Health: An HIV vaccine has passed phase 1 human trials with initial results suggesting an effectiveness of around 97%.

  • Health: A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health has found that amongst city dwellers, living close to a garden or park reduces your risk of premature death by 8-12%! The researchers found that green spaces are correlated with improvements in mental health, immune function, metabolism and pregnancy outcomes as well as reductions in cardiovascular disease and levels of stress.

  • EVs: Turbines anchored to the seafloor are enabling cars on the island of Yell, in the Shetlands, to re-charge using tidal energy.

  • Emissions: The responsible disposal of waste refrigerant gases has been described as the “best climate solution you’ve never heard of”.

  • Emissions: The IKEA Foundation have pledged €1bn to climate programmes aimed at reducing their emissions (thanks to Julia for sending this one in!).

  • Emissions: The global shipping industry is calling for a carbon tax on…. itself!

  • Climate Justice: New research has shown that almost all types of air pollution disproportionately affect communities of colour.

  • Net Zero: More than 40 global banks including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and UBS AG have signed Mark Carney’s Climate Action Pledge to cut pollution from their portfolios and reach net zero emissions by 2050.

  • Climate Change & biodiversity collapse are locked in a positive feedback loop; each accelerating the rate of the other. Check out Michael le Page’s excellent article on the interdependencies of two of our greatest challenges - “We can’t save biodiversity without staying below 1.5 degrees, and we can’t stay below 1.5 degrees without saving biodiversity.” (thanks Lena for sharing this one!)

  • Climate Change: Research by Imperial College has found that “Contrails” - the water vapour trails left by aeroplanes are responsible for the majority of aviation’s climate impact by trapping heat high in the atmosphere. Adjusting the altitudes of less than two per cent of flights could reduce the industry’s climate impact by 59%! Cambridge based Satavia have developed software to do this.

  • Climate Change: Forest fires in northern India and Nepal are setting some worrying records.

  • Conservation: Staying in Nepal, with more exciting news, populations of the Greater One-Horned Rhino are reportedly increasing!

  • Ecosystems: A new study using satellite imagery has found that just 3% of the earth’s ecosystems remain fully intact.

  • Legislation: Germany’s highest court has ruled that the country’s climate laws put an unfair burden of reducing emissions on young people, thus violating their fundamental freedoms.

  • Legislation: New Zealand has become the first country in the world to introduce a new law that will force financial institutions to report on the impact of climate change on their businesses with an aim to put climate risk and environmental impact at the heart of their decision making.

March

  • Token weather record: March 30th saw the hottest March temperature recorded in the UK for 53 years, a very pleasant 24.5 degrees.

  • COP26: At the time of writing, rumour has it that COP26, due to be held in Glasgow in November will be postponed again or radically changed due to the pandemic.

  • Emissions: A new study has found that trawling the ocean floor for fish has a carbon footprint equivalent to the global aviation industry.

  • UK Budget: Was underwhelming from a green perspective - read the BBC’s Roger Harapin’s summary here.

  • Funding Cuts: The UK Government is facing criticism for cuts it’s making to electric car grants; to foreign aid - a move which has been described as “unlawful”; and to the high profile Green Homes Grant scheme aimed at making homes more energy efficient - it reached just 10% of the 600k homes that was promised.

  • Sustainable Finance: A report from the charity World Animal Protection has revealed that UK banks including Barclays HSBC and Natwest are linked to deforestation in the Brazillian Amazon via their funding portfolios (check out the full ranking on p36 of the report).

  • Sustainable Finance: Although on the flipside, HSBC has committed to ending coal financing.

  • Sustainable Finance: A host of major UK pension funds, with assets of almost £900bn, have committed to making their portfolios net zero by 2050.

  • Sustainable Finance: UK readers might remember a political party called the Liberal Democrats… their leader Ed Davey has put forward an interesting argument for a Green Sovereign Wealth Fund.

  • Recycling: Supermarket giants Tesco are rolling out the UK’s largest network of soft plastic recycling points.

  • Deforestation: A worrying new study suggests that the damaged Amazon rainforest is now contributing towards climate change rather than fighting it.

  • Deforestation: It turns out that cutting down trees can be good for the environment… if it means restoring ancient bogs, which can store far more carbon than trees.

  • Human Rights: Virginia has become the first southern US state to abolish the death penalty.

  • Conservation: In contrast, £150m of UK Government funding has been announced to help protect the world’s rain forests.

  • Conservation: Both species of African elephant are now classed as endangered.

  • Conservation: A new study has found that the economic benefits of conserving or restoring natural sites now ‘outweigh’ the profit potential of using the same areas for farming or timber.

  • Diversity: Black history lessons are to become mandatory in Welsh schools.

February

  • Token Weather Record: The UK recorded its lowest ever temperature of minus 23 degrees Centigrade in Braemar, Scotland.

  • Diversity: The environmental sector is the second least diverse in the UK. In an effort to combat this, Race4Nature is partnering with 30 charities and using the governments Kickstart scheme to offer young BAME people claiming universal credit paid placements in environmental roles.

  • Greenwashing: A review coordinated by the Consumer and Markets Authority of 500 e-commerce websites found that 40% are making false or misleading claims about the eco-credentials of the products they sell.

  • Emissions: The UK food and drink sector collectively hit their emissions target of a reduction of 55% versus 1990 levels…. 5 years ahead of schedule!

  • Emissions: A new report published by The Lancet finds that reducing emissions in line with the Paris Agreement in nine developed countries could save the lives of 8.2 million people through cleaner air, better diets and more exercise.

  • Climate Change: Check out this terrifying graphic detailing mean global temperatures over the past 170 years.

  • Climate Change: Former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has warned that the world is heading for mortality rates equivalent to the COVID crisis every year by mid-century unless urgent climate action is taken. And the answer - smart investment! In a similar vein, Bill Gates has said that solving COVID will seem easy compared to climate change.

  • Fossil Fuels: The Cumbrian coal mine situation is heating up. First, there were calls for Alok Sharma to stand down as COP26 president, with the project making his position, representing the UK’s environmental agenda on a global stage, untenable. Then the local council intervened, putting the project on hold.

  • Fossil Fuels: Plans to build Europes largest gas power plant in Yorkshire have been scrapped following a successful campaign arguing that the plant was not compatible with the UK’s legally binding net zero commitment.

  • Emissions: The healing of the Ozone Layer appears to be back on track following a worrying pause linked to illegal CFC emissions linked to Eastern China.

  • Deforestation: Wales could become the first deforestation-free nation, says a bee report that calls for the ban of any deforestation-linked product from the country.

  • Electric Vehicles: Jaguar Land Rover and Ford have both confirmed that they will become all electric brands by 2025 and 2030 respectively (in the UK at least).

  • Diversity: The Muslim Council of Britain has elected its first ever female leader.

  • Diversity: The number of female FTSE directors has doubled in five years.

  • Discrimination: Yet more indirect sexism from the UK government (see last July’s newsfeed). Campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed is suing the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the basis that the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (brought in to support the self-employed during the pandemic) does not distinguish between maternity leave and holidays and therefore discriminates against women.

  • Exploitation: The Dominican Republic has passed a bill to end child marriages.

  • Vaccines: Boris has confirmed that the UK will donate much of it’s oversupply of COVID vaccines to COVAX for distribution to low-income countries. (Unrelated to this) Ghana has become the first country to receive a shipment of COVAX vaccines.

 

January

  • Token Weather Record: According to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2020 is tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record globally - around 1.25 degrees celcius above the long-term average. The Arctic heatwave is thought to be a major factor in this.

  • More crazy weather: It has just snowed in the Sahara 🤯

  • Legislation: It’s been hard to miss news coverage of President Biden signing swathes of executive orders reversing some of Trump’s most damaging environmental and social actions. His first days in office were spent signing orders to rejoin the Paris Agreement, cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, halt the US’s exit from the World Health Organisation and many more… Another more recent flurry of orders detail commitments to take a “whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis” and “restore scientific integrity to federal decision-making”. He’s also suspended the sale of further oil or coal leases on federal land.

  • Legislation: In the UK, the long-awaited Environment Bill has been delayed for the third time!

  • Politics: President Biden has announced his climate and energy team which includes the first black person to run the Environmental Protection Agency and the first Native American cabinet member.

  • Clean Energy: Congratulations Switzerland, who have been ranked number 1 in the world for sustainable energy policies - see the full list here.

  • Clean Energy: The EU got more energy from renewables in 2020 than it did from fossil fuels.

  • Clean Energy: Over 650 households and businesses in Winlaton, a village in the North East of England, will trial the use of blended green hydrogen to be used for heating.

  • Electric Vehicles: More than half of the cars in Norway are now electric.

  • Emissions: Shortly before the new president took office, preliminary findings published by Rhodium Group suggest that 2020 saw the largest drop in year-on-year emissions in the US since WW2, and for the first time, were below 1990 levels.

  • Emissions: By now we all know that rearing cattle has a big carbon (and water) footprint, but do you realise just how big?! It turns out that from an emissions perspective, what you choose to eat has a much larger impact than where it comes from.

  • Emissions: In an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of animal feeds, biotech firm Deep Branch is collaborating with partners to create sustainable protein source out of thin air! (well, out of CO2 using a proprietary gas fermentation process with single-cell microbes).

  • Fossil Fuels: In its dying days the Trump administration pushed ahead with the potentially catastrophic first sale of oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Rather pleasingly, the auction turned out to be a massive failure, attracting almost zero interest from oil companies and forcing the state of Alaska into the awkward position of leasing the lands itself.

  • Fossil Fuels: The proposed new Cumbrian coal mine has attracted the attention of Greta Thunberg, who has criticised the Governments decision to not call the plans in for enquiry. The UK’s first deep coal mine in 30 years aims to provide coking coal for steel production and has (obviously) received a great deal of criticism from environmental groups and others. West Cumbria Mining, the company behind the plans, claim the project will create (just) 500 jobs 🤔

  • Fossil Fuels: January’s cold snap has exposed the fragility of the UK’s renewables infrastructure with surging energy demands sparking coal and gas-fuelled power stations back into life.

  • Carbon Capture: Elon Musk has offered up $100m to whoever can come up with the best carbon capture technology.

  • Climate Change: In a rare boost to the battle against the climate crisis, a new report suggests that thanks to the dynamism of the earth’s natural systems, achieving net-zero carbon emissions may indeed be sufficient to avert disaster (thanks to Hannah Wood for sharing this good news!). In a similarly positive vein, a report from the Climate Change Committee says that for just 1% of national wealth, the UK can reduce emissions by 78% vs. 1990 levels, by 2035.

  • Climate Change Costs: According to a report from Christian Aid, just ten natural disasters caused by climate change, (including floods, wildfires, storms, cyclones and a plague of locusts) cost the world $141 billion!

  • Climate Change Finance: Research from NGO Care has found that wealthy countries have been exaggerating the figures for the amount of climate adaptation funding they have been providing to developing nations - as much as $20 billion less was spent compared to what was promised between 2013 and 2017.

  • Climate Change Opinion: The UN has conducted the largest ever survey on climate change. The 1.2 million respondents (almost half of which were aged 14-18) represented 50 countries and 64% agreed that climate change is an “emergency, requiring urgent responses from countries”.

  • Activism: As Greta turns 18, the teenage activist met veteran environmentalist and author Margret Atwood (via Zoom). She has also released I Am Greta, a film following her international environmental crusade.

  • Sustainable Business: Prince Charles has launched the “Terra Carta” - an ask for companies to agree to almost 100 actions to become more sustainable and invest over £7bn into nature by 2030.

  • Conservation: At the same conference (the One Planet Summit for Biodiversity), Boris announced that at least £3bn (or nearly a quarter) of the international climate finance that the UK will spend through to 2026 will be allocated to nature-based solutions.

  • Conservation: The “Little Book of Investing in Nature”, recently published by Global Canopy claims that collectively, governments funnel more than $1trn of annual subsidies into businesses that harm nature, including fossil fuel majors, mining giants and industrial agriculture.

  • Inclusion: Australia has changed the words to its national anthem to reflect the country's long indigenous history.

  • Agriculture: Now that the UK is no longer bound by strict EU regulations on growing gene-edited food, DEFRA have launched a consultation on this controversial topic. With potential upsides being healthier and hardier crops, it will be very interesting to see how this topic develops…

  • Green Finance: The UK Government is issuing it’s very first sovereign green bond.

  • Sustainable Finance: Ironman (a.k.a. Rober Downey Jr) has launched a new ESG venture capital fund.

  • Human Rights: The government has unveiled a new package of measures aimed at ensuring that British organisations aren't benefitting from human rights violations linked to the abuse of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

 

November & December

  • 1st Token Weather Record: 2020 looks set to be in the top three warmest globally in history

  • 2nd Token Weather Record: As another 40+ heatwave rages through Australia, Sydney has recorded its hottest November night ever with temperatures not dropping below 25.3 degrees Celsius.

  • Net Zero: John Lewis have revised their net zero target to 2035, 15 years earlier than their original ambition.

  • Net Zero: A report from the Aldersgate Group warns that an emerging potential skills gap could hamper the UK’s transition to an inclusive and competitive low carbon economy. To address this it recommends that the requirements of a net zero economy are taught in schools.

  • Plastics: In an effort to reduce needless plastic pollution, Waitrose, Morrisons and John Lewis have all banned glitter from their own brand products this Christmas.

  • Human Rights: An analysis from the World Benchmarking Alliance of 230 of the world's largest companies has found that almost half are unable to prove they are protecting human rights in line with the UN's requirements.

  • Equality: Yet more peer reviewed evidence that women leaders have been more effective at battling the pandemic.

  • Deforestation: Mars have announced that they have achieved a deforestation-free supply chain for Palm Oil - but critics say the global confectioner should be working with their suppliers to improve their practices rather than cutting ties with them.

  • Deforestation: In the Brazilian Amazon has hit a 12 year high.

  • Environment: In a speech entitled “the state of our planet”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned of our suicidal war against nature. He also urged world leaders to declare a Climate Emergency, or face “catastrophic” consequences.

  • Environment: Research from the Weizmann Institute of Sciences predicts that by the end of this year the total mass of human made things will surpass that of life on earth :-s

  • Biodiversity: Research from the UN Convention on Biological Diversity suggests that as much as $900bn could be needed every year to protect, create and restore habitats in order to prevent catastrophic biodiversity collapse.

  • Plant Based Food: McDonald’s are introducing the McPlant in some parts of the US from next year.

  • Clean Energy: Rolls Royce have unveiled plans for 16 mini nuclear power plants across the UK. Each with capacity to power around 450k homes for 60 years.

  • Emissions: Despite 2020 lockdowns driving the largest fall in Greenhouse Gas emissions since the Second World War, the World Meteorological Organization’s GHG Bulletin reports that rise in atmospheric concentrations has only slowed marginally.

  • Emissions: and incoming COP26 President Alok Sharma has said that world leaders are lacking ambition on reducing their emissions.

  • Emissions: On the other hand, the Climate Action Tracker, suggests that with the Net Zero commitments made in November, Paris ambitions are “within reach” . Their optimistic scenario forecasts a 2.1 degree rise above pre-industrial levels.

  • Emissions: In the same vein, the Climate Change Committee says that, for less than 1% of national wealth, the UK can reduce emissions 78% by 2035.

  • Emissions: In a meeting of world leaders this week, a pre-cursor to COP26, the UK pledged to stop funding overseas fossil fuel projects. This followed a commitment from EU leaders to reduce Carbon emission by 55% in the next decade.

  • Emissions: September saw Europe reach a tipping point, where more electric cars were sold than diesel for the first time ever. Meanwhile the UK has brought its ban on new petrol and diesel car sales forward another 5 years to 2030.

  • Emissions: The 2020 UN Emissions Gap Report has found that the world's wealthiest 1% account for more than twice the combined carbon emissions of the poorest 50%.

  • Emissions: Everyone’s guilty lockdown pleasure - video streaming - generates four times more CO2 when done in 4k Ultra HD compared to standard definition.

  • Electric Vehicles: The UK’s first EV charging forecourt has opened in Essex (powered by renewable energy of course).

  • Renewables: The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that half a million new jobs were created in renewables in 2019.

  • Green Finance: Tesco has established a £2.5bn credit facility where the interest rate is tied to them achieving a number of environmental targets.

  • Green Finance: The Credit Suisse and Rockefeller AM Ocean Engagement Fund (supposedly the world’s first ocean health impact fund), raised $212m.

  • Green Finance: European governments have approved a roadmap to turn the European Investment Bank into a “climate bank” with a €1 trillion green investment package to be spent by 2030.

  • Politics: Boris has been doing a lot of talking - his long awaited 10 point plan was given a broadly positive reaction from green groups as a step in the right direction (albeit the minimum you’d expect given the UK’s global leadership role as COP26 hosts).

  • Politics: It is also important to keep in mind that aspects of the newly announced 100-page National Infrastructure Strategy have no impact on emissions at all and some even stand to increase them! (like the £27bn roads programme, HS2, enhancing oil and gas production in the North Sea and even pondering whether to allow a new deep mine to extract coal from under the sea in Cumbria!!).

  • Politics: The UK Government has also pledged £4bn to create 250k new green jobs and doubled the £40m already pledged to protect the country’s green spaces.

  • Legislation: International lawyers are following Frances’ lead and are drafting plans for an Ecocide law that would criminalise ecosystem destruction.

and finally…

  • Holiday Spirits:

 

October

  • Token weather record: According to the Met Office, Saturday 3rd October was the wettest day for UK-wide rainfall since records began in 1891.

  • Circular Economy: Ikea are launching a scheme where they will buy back your unwanted furniture. Paying in vouchers up to 50% of the original purchase price.

  • Consumption: Thanks to our friends at Canopy, Zara and the other Inditex brands (the worlds largest fashion retailer) have committed to their Winter 2021 range being of the highest “green shirt” sustainability standards.

  • Consumption: Amazon are launching a “sustainable virtual aisle” which stocks ethical and environmentally friendly products.

  • Net Zero: Two of the worlds most fossil fuel-reliant countries, South Korea and Japan have both vowed to be carbon neutral by 2050.

  • Net Zero: A survey by PWC found that fewer than 30% of UK banks have a net zero strategy in place.

  • Emissions:  Analysis by investor network FAIRR revealed that out of 60 of the world's biggest meat, fish and dairy suppliers only 32% have set meaningful targets to reduce emissions - leaving the companies who buy from them at risk of missing their climate goals. #Cowspiricy.

  • Renewables: In a new report, the International Energy Agency predicts that renewables will overtake gas and coal globally by 2024.

  • Renewables: BT group globally is now powered 100% by renewables.

  • Renewables: A perpetual problem of renewables is storing excess energy for when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. This will be helped by the UK’s largest battery having just come online in South Yorkshire.

  • Renewables: In a similar vein, across the pennines in Lancashire a 50MW facility is being built to store surplus wind energy in the form of liquid air.

  • Green Recovery: Analogy loving Boris Johnson has declared “As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the UK is to wind”. Strange then that as data from Energy Policy Tracker shows , £3.8bn of COVID recovery spending has been earmarked to support fossil fuel energy, versus just £121m for renewables.

  • Ecosystems: Researchers and volunteers planted 70 million eelgrass seeds as part of a 20 year project to restore a wild ecosystem - with amazing results.

  • Ecosystems: The first coral reef to be discovered in Europe was found off Italy’s Adriatic coast (in 2019, apologies for the delay).

  • Ecosystems: Logs made from coconut fibres are being flown in to build dams in Cuilcagh, Northern Ireland, to help restore an area of blanket bog and turn it into a carbon sink.

  • Equality: Disney has updated the content warning for racism for a number of their classic films.

  • Finance: Portfolio Earth have released their scathing Bankrolling Extinction report which reveals the extent to which global banking giants are fuelling activities that are driving biodiversity loss and their (lack of) policies to protect the environment.

  • Policy: Meanwhile, proposed amendments to the upcoming Environmental Bill, stand to delay the implementation and water down the powers of the post-Brexit environmental regulator.

  • Policy: In contrast, the EU has drafted a preliminary accord to withhold the €460bn of subsidies handed out to farmers if they are deemed to be undermining EU climate goals.

  • Diversity: Jacinda Ardern has just appointed the most diverse cabinet in New Zealand’s history.

  • Visual of the month: Check our this fascinating picture of the greatest threats to biodiversity loss, based on the WWF’s Living Planet report.

 

September

  • Politics: Boris has been rambling again, declaring that climate action cannot be a victim of COVID and has promised to protect 30% of UK land and have every home powered by wind by 2030. Sounds good, but when it comes to action he’s watering down the green credentials of farming subsidies.

  • Net Zero: Uber and the NHS have set goals to reach net zero by 2040. Google meanwhile claim they have offset all the carbon they have ever created. Most surprisingly and significantly, China has set a 2060 target!

  • Net Zero: BEIS have launched a review into whether the UK oil and gas industry is compatible with the Net Zero legislation and the changes needed to the licensing regime to align with the 2050 target.

  • Net Zero: A report from the Energy Transitions Commission claims that by scaling up energy efficiency efforts and deploying renewables capacity more rapidly, the world could "technically and economically" transition to net zero by 2050 for the cost of less than 1% of global GDP annually.

  • Net Zero: A paper from think tank Green Alliance concludes that the reduced rate of VAT charged on gas heating disproportionately benefits the rich (who have larger houses to heat) and recommends increasing the charge and using the proceeds to fund home insulation upgrades.

  • Net Zero: 13 major airlines that make up Oneworld have set a 2050 net zero target.

  • Emissions: According to BP, we have reached “peak oil”. In fact, the oil major’s Energy Outlook 2020 Report has dropped a bit of a bombshell! Seemingly grounded in the assumption that energy markets have experienced a permanent shift towards low-carbon generation, BP are transforming from an oil company into an “energy company”. The pleasingly named CEO Bob Looney has set out how they will reach their 2050 net zero goal - they are ceasing investment in new exploration, have endorsed the UK government’s 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and thanks to their partnership with Lightsource, are on track to become the world’s leading solar energy provider.

  • Emissions: Cambridge University are divesting from fossil fuels.

  • Plastic: The (delayed) ban on plastic straws and cotton buds has come in to force in England!!

  • Plastic: Recycling plastics may not be everything you think it is… :(

  • Waste: Sri Lanka has returned 260 tonnes of illegal hazardous waste to the UK.

  • Food Waste: Tesco is teaming up with food sharing app Olio in an effort to tackle food waste.

  • Sport: Attracted by their surprising sustainable credentials, North London vegan Hector Bellerin has become fourth-tier Forest Green Rovers’ second-largest shareholder.

  • Green Recovery: France’s €100bn plan dwarfs the UK’s (FT subscription needed).

  • Pollution: According to a report published by the EU Environment Agency, one in eight deaths is linked to pollution. Meanwhile, a separate report from the CBI, commissioned by the Clean Air Fund found that improving England’s air quality to WHO guidelines could deliver a £1.6bn of economic benefits while preventing 17,000 premature deaths each year.

  • Water: Microsoft has pledged to become “water positive” by 2030 - i.e. reducing consumption, replenishing sources and working with non-profits to improve water access to struggling communities.

  • Climate Change: Last month has been confirmed as the hottest September on earth.

  • Climate Change: The UK’s Citizens Climate Assembly has returned its recommendations, including taxing frequent fliers, phasing out SUVs and reducing meat consumption.

  • Climate Change: Arctic sea ice shrunk to an almost record low this summer.

  • Child Abuse: The pandemic has caused a surge in child marriage, forced labour and trafficking in India.

  • Hydrogen Transport: Airbus and start-up ZeroAvia are building hydrogen planes, HydroFLEX have built the UK’s first hydrogen train and Glasgow is getting a fleet of hydrogen bin lorries.

  • Electric Vehicles: Ever wondered how far you can actually go in an electric car? Check out this graphic from the Visual Capitalist.

 

August

  • Clean Energy: UK's record run without coal power ended at (nearly) 68 days.

  • Just Transition: SSE, who have announced plans to spend £4m every day on green initiatives for the next 5 years, have become the first UK energy firm to commit to developing 'Just Transition' plans, which will protect affected workers and communities as it aligns with the UK's net-zero target.

  • Just Transition: As the world heads towards a low-carbon future, supporting the people and communities (often in emerging economies) that are dependent on the oil industry for their income becomes increasingly vital. This intriguing topic is explored in Ensia by Sandeep Pai.

  • Circular Economy: The move to renewables only addresses 55% of global emissions. This report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation explains the importance of the circular economy in tackling the remaining 45%.

  • Renewables: European solar generation hit an all time high in Q2 2020, 19% higher than the previous record and helping renewables provide 45% of the energy mix.

  • Renewables: The UK has leap frogged Spain to become Europe’s second largest generator of wind energy.

  • Emissions: Research from McKinsey shows that the global fashion industry emits more CO2 than the economies of the UK, Germany and France combined! That is about 4% of the global total and double the target set out by the Paris Agreement. Yet again, urgent action is needed.

  • Climate Change: The American Meteorological Society released their annual State of the Climate Report. Summarised nicely in this Economist podcast (from 1min30).

  • Climate Change: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (a.k.a the Doomsday Vault), designed to safeguard global food supplies has just experienced its highest ever temperature, risking flooding.

  • Climate Change: We might have just recorded the world’s hottest ever temperature - a mind bending 54.4C in Death Valley, California.

  • Climate Change: A 50m deep funnel has opened up in Siberia, believed to be caused by the build up of methane gas in pockets of thawing permafrost under the surface.

  • Fossil Fuels: The US government is pushing forward with controversial plans to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

  • Carbon Capture: Soil contains more carbon than trees and the atmosphere combined. Shell Australia has acquired Select Carbon, a “Carbon Farming” firm that works with land owners to improve land management techniques to capture and store carbon in soil. This is a significant first step in Shell’s net zero ambitions.

  • Deforestation: A new report from the WWF and Boston Consulting Group finds that climate change and agriculture are driving record levels of deforestation - which is up by a third YoY in the Brazilian Amazon with human activity thought to be responsible for 75% of the forest fires.

  • Inequality: The learning gap between rich and poor primary age pupils in England has widened for the first time since 2007. Analysis has show that this trend began before the pandemic but it will no doubt be exacerbated by lockdown.

  • Green Finance: Analysis from Moody’s shows that the global issuance of sustainable and green bonds totalled a record $99.9bn (£75.5bn) in Q2 2020, up 65% on Q1.

  • Consumption:  Saturday 22nd August was Earth Overshoot Day. The day where we used up all the resources for this year. Everything else we consume in 2020 eats into our “budget” for 2021 and years to come; borrowing from our children and grand children.

  • Consumption: There are fears that the price of bread will rise for consumers after extreme weather has caused the worst UK wheat harvest in 40 years, increasing our reliance on imports. Wheat prices are already up 20% and could rise a further 40% with WTO tariffs post-Brexit transition.

  • Legislation: Defra has announced that our ever evolving friend, the Environment Bill, will be updated to commit the UK to “time-bound numerical targets” covering biodiversity, air quality, water and waste - meaning that various commitments will be enshrined in law (similar to how net-zero Carbon emissions is).

  • Legislation: Defra have also opened a consultation (until October 5th) on a new law which will force UK businesses to ensure that there is no illegal deforestation in their supply chains. Summarised nicely by BBC News.

  • Conferences: Due to the pandemic, the World Economic Forum have announced that the 2021 event will be delayed to “early summer”.

 

July

  • Net Zero: BP has beefed up their climate ambitions, unveiling a strategy to cut fossil fuel production 40% by 2030 and moving away from being an oil company, towards being an “integrated energy” company.

  • Net Zero: Nine multinational corporations including Microsoft, Unilever, Nike and Starbucks are teaming up to accelerate their net zero ambitions, a coalition called “Transform to Net Zero”.

  • Net Zero: Apple has announced net zero plans across its business, supply chains and products by 2030, pledging to reduce emissions by 75% and develop carbon removal solutions for the remaining 25%.

  • Absolute Zero: Nando’s has become Europe’s first restaurant chain to set approved Science-Based Targets to take their direct emissions to absolute zero.

  • Net Zero: In the UK, Bankers for NetZero has been launched. The initiative aims to “bring together banks, businesses and regulators to enable banks to successfully support their clients, accelerate the transition to net zero”.

  • Climate Change: Arctic sea ice shrank to a record low.

  • Green Recovery: The EU’s €750bn COVID recovery package has been agreed, but has drawn criticism from green groups for its lack of accountability for climate spending.

  • Regulation: The EU have finally approved the long awaited Taxonomy Regulation, a huge boost to the fight against greenwashing.

  • Renewable Energy: The latest Digest of UK Energy Statistics, published by BIES, revealed that last year, 37.1% of the energy generated in the UK was from renewable sources - a new record.

  • Agriculture: On top of COVID, East Africa has been dealing with a plague of Desert Locusts since late last year which is now numbering in the trillions! Crops, livestock and livelihoods are being devastated. Climate change and human driven desertification have been linked to these biblical numbers.

  • Zoonosis: Vietnam is banning the import of wild animals and their parts and are cracking down on illegal wildlife markets in an effort to reduce the risks of another zoonotic pandemic.

  • Conservation: A new report suggests that protecting one third of the world's oceans and land can deliver $500bn of economic boosts

  • Conservation: 13th to 19th of July was Bees’ Needs week. Raising awareness of Bees and other pollinators.

  • Discrimination: Another example of systemic discrimination in U.K. institutions. This time sexism in the child benefit/state pension system. People (often mothers) who do NOT claim (or do not register to claim) child benefits can see tens of thousands disappear from their state pensions. Not explicitly sexist, this does disproportionately impact women

  • Green Recovery: The latest report from the WEF suggests that if governments and companies embed “net-positive” nature requirements into their COVID recovery strategies, they could collectively realise a $10trn economic opportunity and create 395 million new jobs within a decade.

  • Green Recovery: Boris Johnson has announced a further £750m of investment towards a green COVID recovery - £400m for “sustainable aviation fuel” and other efficiency innovations, 50% public money and 50% from the aviation industry. £350m was promised for technologies like CCS and Hydrogen (the Conservative Party’s manifesto promised £800m on CCS alone over the course of this Parliament).

  • Green Recovery: Data from the Energy Policy Tracker shows that amongst the G20 $151bn of COVID recovery spending is being directed towards fossil fuels ($121bn of which is not linked to any environmental target) versus just $88.6bn being spent on supporting clean energy.

  • Clean Energy: Presidential hopeful Joe Biden has called for $2tn of spending in an effort The US to reach 100% clean energy by 2024.

  • Green Economy: A new report from UK100 suggests that a further £5bn of ‘kickstart’ investment from the UK government in energy efficiency projects could unlock £100bn of private capital investment and create 300k new jobs.

  • Carbon Capture: An exciting article in Nature details how grinding up basalt (an abundant volcanic rock) and spreading it over agricultural land can capture CO2 from the air and will likely reduce soil acidity thus improving fertility. It is cheap and it’s estimated that as much as 5% of global emissions (0.5-2bn tonnes per year) could be captured like this. 

  • Energy Efficiency:  It is a fallacy that energy efficiency building improvements are the cheapest way the reduce emissions, particularly in a domestic setting. The UK government’s £2bn fund is expected to save about 0.5 millions tonnes of CO2 a year, roughly 0.7% of UK domestic emissions with an approximate cost per tonne of CO2 saved of about £200 to £250. This is twice the cost of reducing emissions by building a large new solar farm. Thanks to Chris Goodall of the Carbon Commentary for the maths.

  • Green Recovery: Climate charity Plan B (of Heathrow expansion fame) are threatening legal action against the UK government’s COVID recovery strategy on the basis that funding set aside for a green recovery is less than bailouts for climate-wrecking projects and industries, which are not tied to environmental targets.

  • Pandemic: The UN has published a detailed report entitled “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic Diseases and How to Break the Chain of Transmission” where they call for a ‘one health strategy’ to rebalance the needs of people, the planet and animals. Sections 1 and 3 echo the points we discussed in back in May. Check out the full report here.

  • Sustainable Investing: Former US vice president and chairman of Generation Investment Management, Al Gore shared his thoughts on the future of Sustainable Investing with Bloomberg’s Emily Chasan.

  • Climate Change: The World Meteorological Organisation says there's a growing chance that global temperatures will break the 1.5C threshold over the next five years.

 

June

  • Pandemic: In the US, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the Black Lives Matter protests have had no measurable impact on the spread of COVID, and may have actually helped increase social distancing  behaviours.

  • Climate Change: May 2020 has been confirmed as the hottest on record.

  • Climate Change: The Arctic has broken its highest ever temperature record of 38C!

  • Climate Change: Greta Thunberg gave an emotional interview on Swedish radio on the importance of addressing climate change with the same urgency as we have the pandemic.

  • Renewables: UK power generation has gone coal-free for 2 months (and counting) while global demand plummets.

  • Green Economy: The Local Government Association (LGA) estimates that over one million new green jobs could be created in the UK by 2050.

  • Green Recovery: The International Energy Agency (IEA) published their Special Report. A list of policy recommendations which if followed in full, could slash annual energy-related emissions by billions of tonnes, while creating jobs, improving air pollution and boosting GDP…. ***SPOILER ALERT*** Boris clearly didn’t read this!

  • Biodiversity: Scientists call for a global biodiversity target, based on species extinctions (fewer that 20 per year for the next 100 years). Due to be formally proposed at the (delayed) Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in 2021.

  • Biodiversity: Croatia declared a state of emergency after five million bees were poisoned.

  • Conservation & Awareness: June 8th was World Ocean Day. Hundreds of organisations are involved, including in the areas of science & education, mental health & wellbeing, marine conservation and ocean activism.

  • Pollution: to mark World Ocean Day, WWF released the Transparent 2020 report, which reveals that major consumer goods giants (McDonald's, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Keurig Dr Pepper and Procter & Gamble) are collectively only sourcing 8% of their plastics from recycled feedstocks.

  • People: June 20th was World Refugee Day.

  • Deforestation: To mark World Rainforest Day on the 22nd June, 45 major fashion retailers committed to a deforestation-free supply chain, an effort coordinated by non-profit Canopy.

  • Net Zero: Analysis from think tank Carbon Tracker suggests that the climate commitments made by oil firms are largely greenwash with some on track to deliver just a 3% cut in absolute emissions by 2050.

  • Net Zero: Unilever have announced that they will invest €1bn over the next decade to achieve net zero across its value chain by 2039 and deliver a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023. They will also be adding carbon labels to 70,000 products

  • Net Zero: Sky have announced that all original TV dramas (since 2019) will be certified as carbon neutral.

  • Emissions: In May, Barclays shareholders voted to reduce scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions to net zero by 2050 - the first European bank to do so.

  • Clean Tech: Amazon have announced a $2bn venture capital fund to invest in clean energy.

  • ESG Investing: A Morningstar analysis of 4,900 European funds found that “a majority of sustainable funds outperformed their traditional peers over multiple time horizons”.

  • Politics: Trump has rolled back nondiscrimination healthcare protections, revising “the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology”, with potentially devastating impacts to women (abortion access) and transgender people (gender affirming surgery)… in the middle of a pandemic and Pride month.

 

May

  • Hong Kong Freedoms: The issue of China attempting to suppress the freedoms enjoyed in Hong Kong has taken a worrying turn.

  • The Vaccines Wars we predicted last month threatened to kick off when Paul Hudson, CEO of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi was quoted as saying that the US government had “the right to the largest pre-order because it's invested in taking the risk”. Prime Minister Philippe waded in stating that access for all was “non-negotiable”. Well that’s that then; for now at least.

  • Europe’s Green Recovery Plan has just been released. The €750bn stimulus package focuses on building renovation, renewables and hydrogen, clean mobility and the circular economy.

  • COP26 has a new proposed date, the first two weeks of November 2021 – a full year delay. This is due to be ratified at a meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) next week.

  • Emissions: Atmospheric CO2 levels reached an all-time high in April with ice cores indicating that the current levels (416.21ppm) haven’t been seen for 800,000 years. Stands to reason when you think about it. We’re still pumping out at least 83% of the carbon we were last year.

  • Climate Change: Research recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences warns that within 50 years a third of the world’s population could be living in places with an average temperature of 29°C (most of us currently live in areas between 11 and 15 degrees with only a small proportion living between 20 and 25).

  • Renewables: Work is poised to commence on the UK's largest solar farm in the Kent countryside

  • Calls for Green Recovery have been coming thick and fast:

    –   The Green Recovery alliance – 180 European Business Leaders (the CLG), political leaders, policymakers and NGOs

    –   The Global medical community

    –   And finally, UK MPs – the IPPR Environmental Justice Commission have just published recommendations which call for the government to go “faster,  further and fairer” and suggest that £30bn should be spent on the UK's climate-focused recovery and a £5bn national 'Just Transition Fund'.

  • Artic Fires: There are “Zombie Fires” in Siberia. Wildfires are part of the ecosystem here, but these ones survived the winter, insulated under the snowpack and boosted by unusually high temperatures… when it’s 30.5°C inside the Arctic Circle in May you know something is seriously wrong

  • Electric Vehicles: Rumours are rife that Tesla will be announcing that they can produce batteries for roughly $80/kWh. That’s about a third cheaper than it does currently and ‘price to power ratio’ roughly comparable to internal combustion engines.

  • Data: Check out Bloomberg’s DataDash – a live climate scoreboard for the world.

 

April

  • Climate Change: 2019 has been confirmed as Europe's hottest year on record.

  • Emissions: Shell (yes, Shell! The world's 7th largest emitter of CO2) have announced plans to achieve Net Zero by 2050. Crucially, this does not include scope 3 emissions (i.e. the indirect emissions that occur further down the value chain from the energy products it sells). They have said though that they are targeting a 65% reduction in the emissions of these products by 2050.

  • Renewables: UK Solar energy broke an all-time peak generation record on April 20th, delivering 9.68GW of energy, meeting almost 30% of national demand and helping the country last for 11 consecutive days without using any energy generated from coal.

  • Net Zero: A report commissioned by the WWF and carried out by the Sustainability Research Institute at the University of Leeds warns that the UK's Net Zero 2050 target fails to account for 46% of the country's carbon footprint. This refers to consumption based emissions, i.e. those generated by the production and transport of imported products such as clothing, processed foods and electronics. This is based on the logic that these items would not be produced if it were not for UK demand. Consumption based emissions have only reduced by 15% since 1990.

  • Biodiversity: The Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its 3rd (and worst) mass bleaching event in just 5 years, caused by the highest sea temperatures recorded in 120 years of measuring.

  • Emissions: The introduction of Clean Air Zones in a number of UK cities has been delayed due to COVID. While pollution levels have plummeted during lockdown, as we discussed last month we are expecting to see it shoot back up once restrictions are eased. Air pollution is estimated to cause around 1 in every 19 deaths in the UK (c.30,000 p.a.) and a study has shown that people who have had long term exposure to air pollution have a much high COVID-19 mortality rate.

  • Pollution: The ban on single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds in the UK has also be pushed back (from April to October).

 

February

  • Researches at Brown University reported that a quarter of all climate change denying Tweets are likely to have come from bots (computer programmes intended to amplify climate change denial messages). This compares with 5% of positive environmental Tweets coming from bots.

  • The world's first all-electric cargo ship has set sail in Guangzhou, China – why, I hear you ask, is this not featuring in the 'Glass Half Full' section? Simply because the 2,000 ton load capacity is filled exclusively by coal, being delivered to a power station. KMN!

  • Stupid coal shipping news doesn't stop there as it was revealed that Tata are importing the black stuff to their Port Talbot steelworks from… Australia!

  • Antarctica broke its temperature record… twice, 18.3C on the mainland and 20.75C on Seymour Island, just off the continents northern peninsula.

  • Politics: Developments in the UK this month included:

    - the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars being brought forward to 2035;

    - the third runway at Heathrow was blocked on environmental grounds;

    - and new Environment Secretary George Eustice introduced additions to the Environment Bill at its second reading. This included a ban on the UK exporting its plastic waste to OECD countries and introduction of a clause that will force all future proposed legislation to include a statement on whether the new Bill will reduce any existing environmental protections.

 

January

  • 2019 was the cleanest year on record for UK power generation as zero carbon sources outstripped fossil fuels for the first time in a full 12 month period.

  • Other countries recording similar achievements included Germany (43% renewable electricity), Denmark (47% of power from wind alone), Spain's (electricity emissions fell by a third) and even the US saw its overall emissions fall by 2.1% (and in April their power output from renewables surpassed that from coal for the first time in history).

  • China is banning plastic bags in major cities by the end of the year, with smaller cities and towns to follow by 2022

  • They have also announced a ban on commercial fishing on Asia longest river, the Yangtze, to revive fish stocks and preserve biodiversity. 

  • France has outlawed the bulk sale of single-use plastic plates, cups, and cotton buds with straws and cutlery to follow in 2021. 

  • Finland are aiming to be carbon neutral in 15 years.

  • Prince William and Sir David Attenborough launched the Earthshot Prize. Dubbed "the most prestigious environmental prize in history" and likened to the Nobel Prize, it aims to "herald a new era of fresh optimism and action on the environment". The multi-million pound award will recognise five winners per year for the next 10 years in a bid to identify 50 solutions to the world's greatest problems by 2030.

  • The one-upmanship between Amazon and Microsoft has become entertaining – following Bezos' announcement last year that they would be carbon neutral by 2040, Satya Nadella wants to make Bill Gates' old mob carbon negative by 2030 – and by 2050 remove "all the carbon" it has emitted since it was founded in 1975. Perhaps something to do with the open letter signed by 8,703 Amazon employees to Bezos demanding a climate action plan or the letter and walkout staged by Microsoft staff at the firms 'complicity with the climate crisis'.

  • Amongst the swathes of financial institutions getting in on the ESG act:

    - I'm sure you all saw Blackrock's announcement that they are putting climate sustainability at the centre of their investment strategy aiming to reach $1tn of sustainable assets within a decade; along with exiting investments that present high sustainability-related risks. 

    - Schroders have committed to integrate ESG across all of its investments (£460+bn) by the end of this year in an effort to help clients understand how ESG factors are considered across its products.

    - Consultancy firm ETFGI reported that ESG ETFs and ETPs reached a new record of $52.4bn globally at the end of November 2019.

    - Goldman Sachs announced they are to stop financing new oil exploration in the Artic.

    - The European Investment Bank, AXA, Shanghai (one of China's largest state-owned investors) and (ironically) the Norwegian Sovereign Fund have all pledged to stop investing in coal and fossil fuels

    - They join half of all UK universities who have already committed to divesting £11bn.

    - Staying with the Norwegians for a moment, their £860bn Government Pension Fund Global has sold its shares in British security firm G4S citing ethical concerns over the treatment of migrant workers in the Middle East.

  • The Responsible Finance annual report revealed that in the UK £200m was lent to 40,000 businesses, social enterprises and individuals in 2019, creating and protecting 13,800 jobs.