What's Happening in Sustainability? (Week Recap 14.03 - 20.03) 🌎

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 EU is increasing its green tech subsidies to compete with the US and China. The Net-Zero Industry Act and Critical Raw Materials Act aim to ensure the bloc is ahead of other countries in cutting carbon emissions and developing the technology required for the green transition. The Net-Zero Industry Act proposes measures to scale up the manufacturing of technologies key to achieving climate neutrality, while the Critical Raw Materials Act identifies a list of strategic raw materials for the EU's green and digital ambitions, as well as for defense and space applications, and sets goals for domestic capacities along the strategic raw material supply chain. Among others, President Ursula von der Leyen declared “The race is on. The race on who is going to be dominant in this market in the future.”

🇺🇸 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has launched an alliance of 18 US states aimed at coordinating actions to "protect individuals from the ESG movement". The alliance plans to ban the use of ESG considerations in state and local pension funds, among other actions. This move is part of an ongoing anti-ESG movement by Republican politicians in the US, which has seen several states target investors over their support for energy transition-focused investments and disclosure, warn law firms about the advice they provide to clients regarding ESG initiatives, and pressure proxy advisory firms over their support for climate and DEI-related issues.

🌎 A new report by environmental disclosure platform CDP shows that despite approaching regulatory requirements to disclose emissions across the value chain, nearly 60% of companies failed to report on even one supply chain emissions category. Only 41% of companies reported on a single Scope 3 category in 2022, compared to over 70% reporting on direct Scope 1 and 2 emissions. The report lists challenges holding back Scope 3 reporting, including limited data transparency and traceability, low quality and granularity of data, and a lack of automated tools for data extraction.

What else is happening? 🧐

• BlackRock's CEO, Larry Fink, has stated that the company will continue to view climate risk as an investment risk but will not tell companies what to do. The company has been accused by Republican politicians of following a social agenda and boycotting energy companies. Fink has pointed out the importance of taking a long-term view of what will impact returns, including climate risk and the transition to a low-carbon economy. BlackRock aims to help clients benefit from the significant investment opportunities arising from the transition to a low carbon economy, but also acknowledges that not all clients are interested in energy transition-focused investing. Fink has emphasized that it is for governments to make policy and enact legislation and not for companies, including asset managers, to be the environmental police. 👀

• The European Parliament has passed a revised Effort Sharing Regulation, requiring all EU member states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and raising the EU's overall 2030 emissions reduction target to 40% compared to 2005 levels. The new law would require member states to cut emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, with targets ranging from 10% - 50%, based on GDP per capita and cost-effectiveness. The regulation also limits the emissions that member states can save from previous years, borrow from future years, or trade with other member states. 🇪🇺

• Microsoft has signed an agreement with ocean health company Running Tide for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal, which will remove 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent on behalf of Microsoft. Running Tide uses natural processes to fix carbon from the fast carbon cycle and sink it in the deep ocean for safe long-term storage. The agreement also includes innovations focused on ensuring effective measurement, reporting, and verification. 🍀

Where is cash flowing? 👀

• Closed Loop Partners has announced that several global companies, including Nestlé, Starbucks, and Microsoft, have joined its recycling and reuse infrastructure platform, Circular Services, as investors. The platform was established to help cities and businesses achieve zero-waste goals and reduce landfill costs while also achieving emissions reduction goals. With the new investors, commitments in Circular Services have reached nearly $1 billion, and the platform is the largest privately held recycling company in North America. ♻️

• Algae biofuel company Viridos has raised $25 million in Series A financing to support R&D for the creation and commercialization of sustainable, low-carbon, algae-based jet, and diesel fuel. The funding was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with participation from Chevron and United Airlines Ventures, and will be used for R&D to further increase algae oil productivity to reach commercially deployable levels. SAF and RD, made from its algae oil are expected to have a 70% reduced carbon footprint. 🍀

• Andes, a climate tech startup based in California, has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round to expand its microorganism-based carbon removal solution and commercialize its carbon removal credits. The company partners with farmers to add microorganisms to the soil, which capture CO2 and convert it into minerals in the ground. By enrolling in Andes' carbon removal program, farmers can increase their net income of operations by up to 25%. The new funding will enable the company to offer its carbon removal credits to organizations of all sizes, expand partnerships with farmers, and continue the development of its microorganism technology. ⭐️

• SOLARCYCLE, a solar industry-focused recycling startup, has raised $30 million in equity and infrastructure financing to scale its solar panel recycling capacity and expand its materials remanufacturing capabilities. The company has developed proprietary technology capable of extracting over 95% of the valuable materials in solar panels and plans to install the capacity to recycle one million solar panels per year by the end of 2023, with a recycling factory capable of processing millions of panels annually set to open in 2024. 💡

More interesting news💡:

• A survey of 1,254 European CEOs in 20 EU member states by PwC found that 24% believe their companies will be highly or extremely exposed to the impact of climate change in the next five years, making climate change the fastest-growing threat to businesses. In response, 75% of EU CEOs are implementing initiatives to reduce their company's emissions, and 71% are introducing new climate-friendly products or processes. ⛔️

• The UK's upcoming green taxonomy will classify nuclear power as "environmentally sustainable," according to Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt. This will give nuclear power access to the same investment incentives provided for renewable energy, aimed at encouraging private investment. Hunt stated that nuclear power is a critical source of cheap and reliable energy and that increasing nuclear capacity is vital to meet the UK's Net Zero obligations. The UK's Taxonomy initiative follows the recent passage of the EU Taxonomy, which included nuclear power, although the addition of nuclear and gas proved controversial. 🇬🇧

• TD Bank Group has announced a new goal to facilitate CAD$500 billion (USD$364 billion) in sustainable and decarbonization finance by 2030, following the bank's prior target of deploying $100 billion by 2030 towards low-carbon lending, financing, asset management, and internal corporate programs. The bank also expanded its range of sectors covered by its 2030 interim financed emissions reduction goals and established a new social-focused framework, "TD Pathways to Economic Inclusion," aimed at embedding social factors into its business. 📈

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

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