What's Happening in Sustainability? (Week Recap 21.02 - 27.02)🌎

This week’s read time: 5 minutes

Welcome to this edition of Green Digest, where you will get updated about everything happening in the sustainability & ESG space in less than 5 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. 🍀

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Last week’s most important news:

⛔️ A mapping project has revealed that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as "forever chemicals", have been found at high levels at thousands of sites across the UK and Europe. PFAS are a family of about 10,000 chemicals that do not break down in the environment and have made their way into water, soils, and sediments from consumer products, firefighting foams, waste, and industrial processes. The substances have been linked to an array of health problems and have been found at about 17,000 sites across the UK and Europe, with Belgium being home to the highest levels of pollution. The map shows that drinking water sources in the UK have been contaminated with PFAS, but water companies say the chemicals do not make it into the final tap water.

🍀 Over 20 companies in the carbon removal industry have formed a coalition called the Carbon Removal Advocacy Group (CRA) to lobby the US government for policies to commercialize carbon removal technology. The CRA will represent companies developing carbon removal technologies, buyers of carbon removal credits, and groups supporting the development of the field. The US government has committed to spending over $580 billion to support the development of carbon dioxide removal technologies through grants, technical support, and tax credits for start-up companies and investors. The CRA aims to create a unified industry voice in policy discussions with lawmakers and government officials to achieve climate goals.

🧐 A group of 27 Republican state Attorneys General have written a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to block a new Department of Labor law allowing for the consideration of climate and ESG factors in private employer-sponsored retirement plans. This is part of an ongoing anti-ESG campaign by Republican politicians in the US, which has included initiatives targeting large investors, law firms, and proxy advisory firms. The DOL's ruling allowing fund managers for Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plans to include ESG considerations in the investment process marked a major reversal of a Trump administration move to block the integration of climate and ESG factors in these funds. The AGs argue that the rule "threatens the financial stability of millions of Americans" and violates ERISA rules mandating asset managers to focus solely on financial returns and reducing risks and expenses.

🌎 United Airlines has launched the United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund, with over $100m of investments from United and partners including Air Canada, Boeing, GE Aerospace, JPMorgan Chase, and Honeywell. The fund aims to invest in and support startups focused on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) research, technology, and production, prioritizing investment in new technology, advanced fuel sources, and proven producers. SAF is seen as one of the key tools to help decarbonize the aviation industry, which currently accounts for 2-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

🇪🇺 The European Commission has approved over €520 million (US$557 million) in state aid for steel and mining company ArcelorMittal's decarbonization projects in Germany and Spain. The projects aim to replace fossil fuels with hydrogen in steel production, with the Spanish project expected to avoid the release of over 70 million tonnes of CO2.

🏛 A group of French NGOs, including Friends of the Earth France, Notre Affaire à Tous, and Oxfam France, have filed a lawsuit against BNP Paribas, targeting the bank's financing for new oil and gas projects. The NGOs aim to force BNP to implement an effective climate policy and immediately stop supporting the development of fossil fuels. BNP Paribas is Europe's leading funder of the development of fossil fuels and the fifth largest in the world, providing $55 billion of financing between 2016 and 2022.

What else is happening? 🧐

• Republican congressional leaders have written a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair, Gary Gensler, arguing that the commission's proposed climate-related disclosure rule exceeds its authority and accusing it of pursuing a "progressive social agenda." ⛔️

• The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has warned that proposed rules on the use of ESG or sustainability-related terms in the names of investment funds by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will not protect investors from greenwashing risk. EFAMA raised concerns regarding the regulator's proposed threshold approach and suggested that ESMA should either delay the guidelines until clarity and interoperability issues are addressed or revise the proposals. 🧐

• A group of carbon market and removal-focused organizations have written an open letter to the Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance (NZAOA), urging the investor group to support carbon removal technologies after disallowing their use in members' climate goals. The NZAOA is an UN-convened initiative of institutional investors committed to transitioning their investment portfolios to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. 🍀

What are companies doing? 👀

• HSBC has announced new targets aimed at reducing the bank's financed emissions in some of the heaviest-emitting sectors in its financing portfolio, including cement, iron, steel & aluminum, automotive, and aviation. The new sector goals include 2030 targets to reduce on-balance sheet financed emissions intensity by 28% for the Cement sector, 42% for iron, steel and aluminum, 25% for aviation, and 65% for automotive, on a 2019 basis. 📈

• Volkswagen plans to retrain 22,000 production employees in electric mobility at its Wolfsburg plant, as part of a €460 million investment in the facility to prepare for the production of electric vehicles. The training initiative is part of Volkswagen's "Way to Zero" plan, which aims to have at least 70% of its unit sales in Europe be all-electric vehicles by 2030 and to produce only electric vehicles in Europe from 2033. 🚙

• Wizz Air has announced a deal with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) provider Neste to purchase 36,000 tons of SAF to supply its operations across Europe and the UK, starting in 2025. The purchase is part of Wizz Air's environmental strategy, which aims to reduce carbon emissions intensity by 25% by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. Neste's "MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel" is made from 100% renewable waste and residue raw materials and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared to fossil jet fuel use. 🛩️

• LVMH Beauty has announced a new collaboration with Dow Inc. to accelerate the use of sustainable packaging across LVMH's perfume and cosmetics product brands. The companies plan to begin utilizing bio-based and circular plastics on key brands this year, with an aim to eliminate fossil-based virgin plastic in packaging by 2026. The initiative will begin with the perfume brand GUERLAIN La Petite Robe Noire. ♻️

• Amazon has announced that it will fund a project researching the potential of seaweed to capture and store carbon. The project, North Sea Farm 1, will be the first-ever commercial-scale seaweed farm located between offshore wind turbines, based in a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands, and led by NGO North Sea Farmers. The European seaweed farming sector has the potential to reduce CO2 by millions of tonnes a year by 2040 if expanded to occupy the entire space occupied by wind farms.💡

• KBR has partnered with Swedish Biofuels to launch Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) technology that can produce SAF from materials including carbon dioxide. The technology can process ethanol and convert carbon dioxide and synthesis gas to SAF, providing a differentiated SAF offering that can help decarbonize the aviation industry. ✅

• BMW has signed an agreement with Rio Tinto to provide low-carbon aluminum for use in vehicle production in the US and to deploy supply chain transparency technology to provide full traceability of the aluminum. The approach can save around 70% of emissions compared to conventionally manufactured aluminum. The companies will work to deploy Rio Tinto's START technology, a blockchain-based solution providing traceability for aluminum back to the mine. 🍀

That’s it for this week. Thanks for making it to the end, your attention span is absolutely impressive 💪.

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