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  • What's Happening in Sustainability & ESG (Week Recap 10.12 - 16.12) 🌎

What's Happening in Sustainability & ESG (Week Recap 10.12 - 16.12) 🌎

US gears up for major shifts in EV and clean energy policies, and other news

This week’s read time: 8 minutes

Welcome to this edition of Green Digest, where you will get updated about everything happening in the Sustainability & ESG space in less than 10 minutes. 🌎

We go through tons of articles and data from the most reliable sources, filter & simplify them, and serve them to you in bite-sized chunks every week. 🍀

In this edition, we’ll cover:

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is proposing major shifts in US EV and clean energy policy 🇺🇸

California delays enforcement of climate reporting requirement for fiscal year 2025 🇺🇸

  Investors highlight gaps in sustainability reporting, with 80% calling for improvements in materiality 📑

Switzerland to mandate businesses to disclose 2050-aligned net zero plans 🇨🇭

Google announced record carbon removal purchase and plans to invest $20 billion in clean energy ⚡️

and other news 🌍

THIS WEEK’S TOP NEWS

Regulatory Oversight & Industry Insights

🇺🇸 President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is proposing major shifts in US EV policy, aiming to cut support for EVs, impose global tariffs on battery materials, and redirect funds toward national defense, according to a document seen by Reuters. The plan includes rolling back emissions and fuel economy standards to 2019 levels, blocking California’s stricter rules, and eliminating federal EV tax credits. The proposals seek to bolster domestic battery production and critical mineral processing while restricting imports and exports tied to China’s EV supply chain dominance. These measures mark a significant departure from the Biden administration’s EV and emissions policies, focusing instead on supporting gas-powered vehicles and defense priorities. Meanwhile, Biden’s administration will double tariffs to 50% on Chinese solar wafers and polysilicon and impose a 25% levy on tungsten products, critical materials for the solar energy and tech industries, starting January 1.

🇺🇸 In other US news, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced it will ease enforcement of new emissions reporting requirements under the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (SB 253) for the first year, giving companies time to prepare. The law mandates companies with revenues over $1 billion doing business in California to annually report Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, with Scope 1 and 2 reporting starting in 2026 and Scope 3 in 2027. CARB’s notice allows companies to use existing data and exempts them from enforcement for incomplete reporting in the first year, provided they show good faith efforts to comply. Experts, including Maura Hodge, KPMG US Sustainability Leader, view this as a practical step but emphasize the urgency for companies to establish robust emissions reporting systems, as comprehensive climate disclosures are becoming a business imperative. Meanwhile, two California State Senators criticized the move as ‘unacceptable’ and threatened legislative oversight hearings in 2025, citing CARB’s slow progress despite allocated implementation funding.”

MORE INTERESTING NEWS

Latest developments, reports, insights, and trends

Source: EY

📑 A new EY survey of 350 global investment decision-makers reveals that while 88% of investors have increased their use of ESG data over the past year, trust in this data remains low, with 85% citing greenwashing as a growing issue. Despite rising demand for sustainable investments, with 74% of asset managers noting increased client interest, nearly two-thirds anticipate a shift away from ESG factors due to short-term priorities, such as economic cycles and trade restrictions. Investors also highlight significant gaps in sustainability reporting, with 80% calling for improvements in materiality and comparability and 62% in accuracy. While 65% and 68% view the EU’s CSRD and ISSB standards, respectively, as supportive of long-term decision-making, only 34% believe these frameworks are clearly articulated. To address these challenges, firms are focusing on hiring, training, and technology investments to better integrate new standards. EY emphasizes the need to bridge the “say-do” gap between ESG intentions and actions to enhance capital allocation toward long-term sustainable projects.

🇪🇺 The European Council adopted new EU regulations to reduce packaging waste, including a goal for all packaging to be recyclable by 2030. Key measures include reducing overall packaging waste by 5% by 2030, 10% by 2035, and 15% by 2040, banning certain single-use plastic packaging by 2030, and requiring packaging to be designed for material recycling and scalable waste sorting by 2035. Other rules mandate that takeaway businesses allow reusable containers and offer 10% of products in reusable packaging by 2030. The use of PFAS in food packaging will also be restricted. The regulation, approved by the European Parliament earlier this year, will apply 18 months after its publication in the EU’s Official Journal.

🇨🇭 The Swiss government launched a consultation on updating sustainability disclosure rules, proposing mandatory “net-zero roadmaps” for companies to align with Switzerland’s 2050 climate target. The changes would amend the existing Ordinance on Climate Disclosures, expanding coverage from companies with over 500 employees to those with 250 employees, CHF 25 million in assets, or CHF 50 million in sales. Climate reporting would need to align with internationally recognized standards like the ISSB or the EU’s ESRS, replacing the current TCFD-based approach. The consultation closes in March 2025, with implementation planned for 2026.

🇨🇦 The Canadian government announced a new climate target to reduce GHG emissions by 45%-50% by 2035, based on 2005 levels, as part of its progression toward net-zero emissions by 2050. The new target will inform Canada’s next Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, due in 2025, along with measures to achieve the goal.

📑 The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which provides the world’s most widely used standards for sustainability reporting, appointed Robin Hodess as its new CEO, effective February 2025. Hodess, currently Chief of Strategy and Impact at The B Team, brings extensive leadership experience in strategy, governance, and sustainability advocacy. She succeeds interim CEO Cristina Gil White, who has led GRI since September 2024. GRI also recently updated its standards and introduced new frameworks for climate, energy, and biodiversity reporting.

WHAT ARE COMPANIES DOING?

Corporate sustainability, new tools and services & companies in the news

⚡️ Google partnered with clean energy developer Intersect Power and TPG to invest $20 billion by 2030 in renewable energy infrastructure to power its expanding US data centers with clean energy. Alongside the project, Intersect Power, which focuses on large-scale clean energy projects, also raised $800 million in a new funding round led by TPG Rise Climate and Google. The partnership aims to address the rising emissions from data centers, driven by AI’s growing electricity demand, by co-locating data centers with renewable energy projects. The first clean energy project under this initiative is expected to be operational in 2026 and completed by 2027, with plans to replicate the model globally.

Google also announced its largest-ever carbon dioxide removal (CDR) purchase, agreeing to buy 200,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits from enhanced rock weathering (ERW) startup Terradot, with credits to be delivered starting in 2029. Terradot, which accelerates natural rock weathering by spreading crushed basalt rock over farmland, also improves soil health and is piloting its solution in Brazil. The company raised $54 million in a Series A funding round led by John Doerr, with participation from notable investors like Sheryl Sandberg and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund. Alongside Google’s purchase, Terradot secured a 90,000-tonne agreement with Frontier for clients including Stripe, Shopify, and Salesforce.

🟢 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) also purchased 50,250 tonnes of certified CDRs through ClimeFi to be delivered over two years, supporting a diverse range of carbon removal technologies. The company is now among the top 10 global CDR buyers, with nearly 200,000 tonnes purchased. The portfolio includes technologies such as enhanced rock weathering, microbial carbon mineralization, concrete mineralization, and biomass storage.

🔋 The US Department of Energy (DOE) finalized a $9.63 billion loan to BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK On, to fund three battery manufacturing plants in Tennessee and Kentucky. The plants, expected to produce over 120 GWh of batteries annually, will begin operations in 2025. The DOE is also supporting other EV battery projects, including loans to Stellantis, Samsung SDI, Rivian, and a GM-LG Energy joint venture.

🔋 Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Citroën, and China-based CATL have formed a joint venture to invest €4.1 billion in a large-scale EV battery plant in Zaragoza, Spain. The facility will produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, a cost-effective alternative to nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries, aimed at supporting the production of affordable EVs. Scheduled to begin production by late 2026, the plant is designed to be carbon-neutral and will have a capacity of up to 50 GWh.

📊 SAP launched the SAP Green Ledger, a carbon accounting solution that integrates with its ERP systems to help companies track and report carbon footprints across products, services, and business units. The tool aligns carbon data with financial transactions, enabling forecasting, budgeting, and compliance with sustainability frameworks like the EU CSRD, ISSB standards, EU Taxonomy, and CBAM. Key features include Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions analysis, value chain auditing, and standardized accounting practices.

📑 NTT DATA Business Solutions, a global IT service provider focused on SAP, and osapiens, an ESG platform provider, formed a strategic partnership to provide integrated digital solutions that accelerate ESG compliance and operational efficiency. The collaboration combines NTT DATA’s SAP expertise with osapiens’ AI-powered ESG platform, offering scalable, automated solutions to meet regulations such as the EUDR, CSRD, and CSDDD. By seamlessly integrating ESG compliance into SAP systems, the partnership enables organizations to streamline processes, meet regulatory requirements, and embed sustainability strategies into operations for a competitive edge.

EVERYTHING FINANCE

Sustainable finance, funding rounds, acquisitions & private equity deals

📈 Invesco launched the Invesco MSCI North America Climate ETF (KLMN), supported by a record-breaking $2.4 billion investment from Finnish pension insurer Varma. The ETF focuses on reducing exposure to GHG emissions and investing in companies with science-based emissions reduction targets. It tracks the MSCI Global Climate 500 North America Selection Index, designed to prioritize environmentally strong companies and achieve annual reductions in emissions while increasing weight for those with approved science-based targets.

📈 DWS Group raised €323 million in the first close of its ESG Infrastructure Debt Strategy (EIDS), targeting senior secured debt investments in sustainable sectors such as renewable energy, clean transportation, digital infrastructure, and circular economy projects. The firm aims to raise €500–€750 million for the fund, which follows the deployment of €850 million from its first European infrastructure debt series. The fund targets a 5.5–6.5% gross annual return, with at least 50% of investments aligned with the EU Taxonomy and compliant with Article 8 of the EU SFDR.

⚡️ Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co acquired a 49% stake in Iberdrola’s Windanker offshore wind project in Germany’s Baltic Sea, which has a capacity of 315 megawatts and is set to begin operations in late 2026. Iberdrola retains a 51% stake, valuing the project at €1.3 billion. This marks Kansai’s fifth overseas offshore wind project, bringing its total projected offshore wind capacity to 3 gigawatts.

⚡️ Crusoe, a San Francisco-based AI infrastructure provider, raised $600 million in a Series D funding round. The funds will support the expansion of Crusoe’s clean energy-powered data centers and its AI-focused Crusoe Cloud, a platform for AI and machine learning workloads, now generally available. Crusoe uses clean, low-cost energy to power over 15 gigawatts of computing resources and recently announced a 1.2-gigawatt data center in Abilene, Texas.

⚡️ Italy’s renewable energy company Erg secured a €243 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support wind and solar energy projects in Italy, France, and Germany. The loan, part of the EU’s REPowerEU decarbonization plan, will fund three new onshore wind farms in France, the modernization of two wind farms in Italy and one in Germany, and upgrades to seven solar plants in Italy. These projects, with a combined capacity of 270 MW, aim to meet the annual energy needs of over 200,000 households.

🔌 WeaveGrid, an EV charging software platform provider, raised $28 million in a funding round led by Toyota’s Woven Capital. The funding will support the expansion of WeaveGrid’s platform, R&D, and partnerships with automakers and utilities. Founded in 2018, WeaveGrid helps integrate EVs with the grid by optimizing charging for cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency while assisting utilities with system planning and managed charging programs.

🏡 SpotmyEnergy, a German smart meter developer, raised €10.5 million in seed funding to meet growing demand and advance its household energy management technology. Founded in 2023, the company offers smart meters and energy management systems that optimize energy use, generation, and storage, enabling households to save on costs and maximize the value of sustainability solutions like heat pumps, EVs, and rooftop solar.

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