archiveMay 2023

A new range of financial instruments is needed to pay for annual cost of nature restoration in Southeast Asia, a new report says. Well structured capital market instruments – including sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) – can play a role in scaling up investments in nature restoration projects in Southeast Asia, a new report from Imperial College Business School finds. Recent extreme temperatures in the region demonstrate the ongoing climate and nature crisis in Southeast Asia. The report is published at a time of both ecological and economic uncertainty for the region,...

Environmental risk impacts all industries that rely on a supply chain and risk is now a key driver of green finance and regulation with volatile climate conditions and complex just-in-time supply chain operations increasing the vulnerability of companies to disruption. Increasing supply chain resilience is now a top strategic priority as raw materials, products, services, transport and food production can all be disrupted by the increasing effects of climate change. There are a range of sector-related risk impacts but all involve business continuity interruption related to extreme environmental events. Problems...

The UK Government’s new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is set to have major impact on businesses. The new regulation aims to support industrial decarbonisation without disproportionately harming domestic firms but it will also impact costs, supply chains and reporting requirements. In March, the UK Government’s new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero launched a consultation to explore new climate policies that could have significant implications for businesses importing or exporting to the UK. These measures will seek to address carbon leakage, which occurs when companies shift their business abroad to...

Wales has the highest uptake of small-scale renewable installations in homes and businesses across the UK. Scotland has previously held the top spot as the UK nation with the highest proportion of installations per household. As Welsh homeowners continue to invest heavily in greener energy they have overtaken Scotland in the league tables for the first time since 2021, according to latest data from MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme). Scotland has roughly double the number of households as Wales, so although Wales has a smaller total installation count, there are more...

An upgraded power grid will enable installation of heat pumps and EV chargers and also fuel investment and business growth. But network companies will need to make significant investments to transition to low-marginal cost renewables, a move that will enable electrification of heat and transport and see a fall in long-term network costs per unit of energy delivered.  That’s according to a new report, ‘Building an Electricity Network for Net Zero’, that evaluates existing initiatives from the UK Government, OFGEM and network operators to develop grid capacity and ease access to...

New Zealand aims to cut 45 per cent of carbon emissions from its biggest steel plant by converting to an electric power furnace. New Zealand Steel will build a new $300M Electric Arc Furnace at its steelworks at Glenbrook within the next three years as part of the move to lower carbon production. The investment will reduce Glenbrook’s carbon footprint by 800,000 tonnes from day one – the same as taking approximately 300,000 cars off the road permanently. “That’s a reduction of over 45 per cent in New Zealand Steel’s...

National Grid has detailed how industry, government and regulators can take action to enable decarbonisation of the UK power sector. The recommendations set out in ‘Delivering for 2035: Upgrading the grid for a secure, clean and affordable energy future’ are critical to realise the scale and pace of the transformation needed over the next decade. Significant progress has already been made towards transforming the UK’s power system, with a huge expansion in clean energy in recent years, as well as substantial investment in our electricity networks. But fully decarbonising the...

The G7 Hiroshima Summit ended with a series of wish-lists but no major progress on tackling climate change. The summit agenda contained a very general paragraph on climate and energy that re-affirmed a commitment to net zero but with ominous references to “different national and regional circumstances”. The meeting of world leaders was an opportunity to launch some major eco-initiatives and drive real change but, lacking in any real progress, the summit instead confined its actions to words and a series of well-worn mission statements. Following the event, the G7 Hiroshima leaders’...

Sustainable aviation fuel is a lead solution to reducing carbon emissions but synthetic fuels for shipping face major challenges. While leading companies in the aviation sector are busy producing over a million tonnes of synthetic fuel each year, efforts to produce low-carbon fuel for the maritime industry face a range of practical and cost-driven barriers. International shipping accounts for 681 million tons of CO2 every year according to a recent report by ING. While the sector is improving in terms of energy efficiency, emissions are likely to stay at about 600...

The World Circular Economy Forum 2023 will take place in Helsinki, Finland, from 30 May to 2 June 2023. The forum brings together leading circular economy players to present and seek business and government solutions to adapt our economic system to the limits of nature’s capacity. The World Circular Economy Forum wants to accelerate a future that strengthens the well-being of nature. This year’s event will therefore focus on what circular economy solutions are best suited to preventing the loss of biodiversity. In a circular economy, materials and the value they...