archiveJune 2023

COP27 promised to make world leaders progress from setting net zero goals to implementing them. Have they lived up to their promise, and what has COP27 achieved since the event six-months ago? Some of the key discussions and decisions made over the two-week climate conference included a new funding arrangement for the loss and damage for some of the most affected and often vulnerable nations, Tom McLeish, TEAM Energy’s energy consultant, explains. “The UK government announced that it would invest £65 million to speed up the development of new green...

Yorkshire Water has incorporated biodiversity net gain as collaboration between finance, sustainability and asset management. The biodiversity net gain initiative, as part of the company’s decision-making framework, has the capability to inform decisions across the whole asset management portfolio so that optimal decisions to manage risk and deliver affordable services can be made. The UK Environment Act 2021 introduced more prescriptive requirements for biodiversity net gain which impact capital delivery programmes. The requirements include: Securing a minimum ten per cent gain, calculated using a defined biodiversity metric; Protecting biodiversity net...

Climate change adaptation is one six core objectives of the EU Taxonomy regulation that is set to change the way business and industry operates. The new regulation is aimed at altering behaviour, systems and ways of life to protect the environment from the impacts of climate change caused by human activity. What is business and industry doing to adapt their commercial activities, operations and objectives to comply with the new EU taxonomy? And if it hasn’t already started, what can a company do to make the required adaptations? The EU taxonomy,...

Chief financial officers (CFOs) say sustainability is now a key part of their role and it is an important driver of business growth. New research finds that over half of UK CFOs surveyed believe sustainability is very important to their role while 44 per cent see the finance department as the most important business function in driving sustainability. The research also finds that overhead costs, financial risk and complex renewable technologies are the main barriers to sustainability investment with the top reasons for delayed decisions being lack of cost-effective renewables;...

Corporate sustainability is growing in importance, day by day. Businesses are regularly being called out for greenwashing and consumers increasingly want to only associate themselves with companies that take sustainability seriously, so the need for senior leadership teams and the C-suite to consider environmental footprints has substantially grown. But, of course, businesses are struggling. Although 90 per cent of business leaders think sustainability is important, only 60% of companies have a sustainability strategy. With the world already on the road to net zero, some businesses have begun hiring sustainability managers...

The European Banking Authority has warned of widespread greenwashing in financial services with banks overstating sustainability efforts. As the race to net zero accelerates, the greenwashing in banks’ climate credentials is leading to calls for greater accountability for FS firms’ environmental policies. Steve Round, co-founder of SaaScada, argues that banks can no longer cherry-pick their sustainability credentials – they must build the foundations for comprehensive ESG reporting. Round is an expert in sustainable banking as the Chair of the Governing Board Forum of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values – a network...

Carbon dioxide levels are now more than 50 per cent higher than they were before the onset of the industrial era, scientists say. Carbon dioxide levels measured at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory peaked at 424 parts per million in May, continuing a steady climb further into territory not seen for millions of years, say scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.  Measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) obtained by NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory averaged 424.0 parts per million (ppm) in May, the month when...

Reducing the carbon footprint of websites and IT systems is the latest initiative of content management system company Umbraco. The company, the largest open-source .Net CMS in the world, is supported by more than 250,000 software contributors, implemented by 1,500 digital agency partners and used to develop more than a million websites. It is among the top three CMS platforms used by UK local authorities. As such, the company is committed to leading positive net zero change in the CMS industry. The Umbraco Impact Report 2022 details how the company...

The $100bn per annum problem of plastic pollution shows no sign of abatement but proven policy approaches in the EU, Japan and Chile can serve as a starting point for countries seeking to curb plastic pollution as well as providing a baseline for the upcoming plastics treaty negotiations. Efforts to tackle plastic pollution are still highly uncoordinated, hampered by data gaps and focused on downstream solutions, including clean-ups which consume significant resources that would be better invested in proven policy solutions, waste management, and recycling infrastructure, finds a paper by...

The EU has doubled the number of firefighting resources across Europe in preparation for expected extreme summer heatwaves. The rescEU firefighting aircraft reserve includes 24 airplanes and 4 helicopters from 10 Member States. In addition, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia will be sending almost 450 firefighters to be pre-positioned in France, Greece, and Portugal. Following the calls from EU Ministers and the European Parliament, in 2022 the Commission developed also a Wildfire Prevention Action Plan. This action plan aims to improve administrative capacity; improve knowledge; and increase...