What's Happening in Sustainability? (Week Recap 28.03 - 03.04) 🌎

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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The week’s most important news

🇪🇺 The European Council and Parliament have reached a provisional deal to increase the share of renewable energy in the EU's energy consumption to 42.5% by 2030, with each member state contributing to the goal. The agreement also includes more ambitious renewable energy targets for transport, industry, buildings, and district heating and cooling. The new target would nearly double the use of renewable energy in the energy mix from 2020 levels of 22%. The agreement will now be submitted for approval by member states' representatives in the Council and in the Parliament, followed by formal adoption in each body.

🇨🇦 Canada has announced over C$80 billion in clean tech and energy investments in response to the global race to scale up green energy and clean tech manufacturing capacity. The budget acknowledges the need for Canada to remain competitive in the global transition to cleaner energy systems and industries, with the largest portion of investments made through the Clean Energy Investment Tax Credit. Other major tax credit proposals include investments in clean hydrogen production, clean manufacturing technology, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage.

🌎 The Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA), a group of institutional investors with over $11 trillion in assets under management, has announced a policy to end financing for new oil and gas projects. The alliance's new position paper calls on oil and gas companies to set emissions reduction targets aligned with global climate goals and advises investors to align their investment policies with the expectation to end financing for new oil and gas fields. The position paper also sets expectations for policymakers and regulators aimed at facilitating reduced demand for oil and gas and increased alternative energy supply.

🇪🇺 EU has been very active these past few days, with the European Council adopting a new regulation requiring a 100% reduction in CO2 emissions from new cars and vans registered in the EU from 2035 as part of the Fit for 55 roadmap to cut GHG emissions by 55% by 2030. The regulation also includes interim targets for CO2 emission reductions for new cars and vans by 2030. A deal on the use of e-fuels was reached, allowing combustion engines to run on carbon-neutral fuels past the 2035 deadline.

🇪🇺 EU lawmakers have also agreed on a new law mandating a significant increase in EV recharging and hydrogen refueling stations across Europe’s main transport networks. The law aims to enable the transition to zero-emission transport and address consumer refueling concerns that could impede the switch to zero-emission vehicles. It sets requirements for publicly available charging infrastructure for cars and vans, based on the number of registered battery-electric cars in each member state, and for the deployment of fast-charging stations every 60 km along the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) by 2025, as well as for recharging stations dedicated to heavy-duty vehicles every 60 km along the TEN-T core network, and every 100 km on the larger TEN-T comprehensive network from 2025 onwards, with complete network coverage to be achieved by 2030, in addition to recharging stations at parking areas and delivery nodes.

What else is happening? 🧐

• The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has released new guidance for investors seeking to achieve impact in public equity investments. The guidance is based on the GIIN's Core Characteristics of Impact Investing and covers four main aspects of listed equities impact investing: setting fund/portfolio strategy, portfolio design and selection, engagement, and performance data usage. The guidance also introduces two key concepts, investor contribution and theory of change, for designing and managing listed equities impact funds. ✅

• Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, has announced that it is leaving the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA), which it helped establish in 2021, citing antitrust risk. The NZIA aims to help insurance companies accelerate the global transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Munich Re will continue to pursue its climate targets, including reducing GHG emissions related to its investment portfolio by 29% by the end of 2025 and net zero by 2050, reducing its climate-related oil and gas industry exposure, and achieving net-zero GHG emissions in its operations by 2030. ⛔️

• Mercedes-Benz has announced a new goal to reduce CO2 emissions from production by 80% by 2030. The automaker also aims to increase renewable energy to account for 70% of overall energy needs at its own production sites by 2030 and have all production plants globally running on 100% renewable energy with zero CO2 emissions by 2039. It also plans to achieve a battery recycling rate of more than 96% and to complete the assessment process of 24 raw materials in its supply chain with elevated human rights risks by 2028. 🚙

• Holcim, a global leader in sustainable building solutions, has published its second climate report, which outlines the company's efforts to achieve net-zero emissions. The report includes an updated target of reducing CO2 emissions per ton of cementitious materials to 420 kg by 2030, as well as a commitment to invest CHF 2 billion in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) projects by the same year. Holcim also aims to recycle 10 million tons of construction and demolition waste by 2025 and recycled 6.8 million tons by 2022. The company reduced its CO2 per net sales by 21% in 2022 and plans to reduce it further by over 10% in 2023. Holcim's climate report will be put to an advisory vote at its Annual General Meeting on May 4, 2023. 🍀

Where is cash flowing? 👀

• Sustainable protein company Unibio International has secured a $70 million investment from the Saudi Industrial Investment Group (SIIG). The funds will be used to expand global production capacity, grow operating capabilities, and accelerate innovation and commercialization of Unibio's U-Loop technology, which converts natural gas into a highly concentrated protein product called Uniprotein. The product can be used as a direct supplement in animal feed and can be produced without arable land, with low water usage, and is free from pesticides and non-GMO. Unibio's CEO, David Henstrom, said the investment will help improve food security and speed up the process of feeding the world in a sustainable way. 🍀

• United Airlines has invested $15 million in carbon capture and removal technology provider Svante, as part of its plans to scale the production and utilization of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from materials including captured CO2. The investment was made from the recently launched United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund, aimed at investing in and supporting startups focused on SAF research, technology and production. United has committed to fully reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 without relying on carbon offsets and has made recent SAF announcements, including an investment in CO2 utilization company Dimensional Energy. 🛩️

• Atlas Metrics, a Berlin-based ESG data management startup, has raised €5.2 million in seed funding to expand its platform for collecting, analyzing, and communicating ESG data. The company's solutions serve banks, funds, SMEs, and startups across Europe, and the funding will be used to develop new features, build out the team, and hire a new CTO. The funding round was led by b2venture and Cherry Ventures. ⭐️

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

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