archive2023

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...

Robust Scope 3 reporting tools are essential for achieving industrial sustainability objectives but firms face a range of practical challenges. Large industrial companies may find it challenging to obtain data from lower-tier suppliers that may not track their CO2 emissions. Additionally, there is no standardised methodology for Scope 3 emissions calculations and disclosures, creating difficulty in assessing the activities of a broad set of suppliers, each using different data collection and reporting methods. While some areas of industry are racing ahead with AI and machine learning, others are still using...

Digital product passports will play an increasingly central role in value chain sustainability and the circular economy. Powered by blockchain and AI technology and due to become law across the EU in 2026, DPPs are key to establishing the credibility of strict new supply chain reporting rules but is business and industry ready to embrace the benefits of DPPs? The digital product passport (DPP) is a tool proposed by the European Commission (EC) to create transparency, unlock circularity and share product information across the entire value chain including data on...

Leading business figures have called for reform of company law to give sustainability the same legal standing as profit and growth. Major changes must be made to boardroom rules to enshrine sustainability in company law that currently rewards profit as the sole corporate objective, at the expense of all other considerations. More than 20,000 businesses and the vast majority of UK public polled in a nationwide survey are backing a change to company law that would see the interests of people and the planet sit alongside those of shareholders when making...

The eighth edition of the State of the EU ETS Report details recent changes to the European carbon market. The report comes at a key moment for the EU ETS, as the main elements of its reform have just been adopted by European institutions. In particular, the mechanism’s emission reduction target has been raised (-62% by 2030 compared to 2005) and will now cover shipping emissions from the maritime sector. A separate new ETS will be created to cover emissions from fuels used in commercial buildings and road transport, and a Carbon Border...

America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is set to reveal updates to its ‘Green Guides’ that aim to boost the robustness of eco-claims. The updates are expected to include changes to current disclosure frameworks; a range of new measures and guidance involving sustainability claims; the use of ‘green’ terms like ‘carbon neutral’; issues around carbon offsets; the expansion of enforcement authority and use of the Green Guides in private litigation. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Green Guides help companies avoid making environmental marketing claims that are unfair or deceptive under Section...

Around 0.5% of global carbon emissions could be captured while crushing rocks used in construction, new research suggests. The materials and construction industry accounts for 11 per cent of global carbon emissions and more than 50 billion tonnes of rock are crushed worldwide every year. Current crushing processes, standard in construction and mining, do not capture carbon dioxide CO2. The research paper ‘Mechanochemical processing of silicate rocks to trap CO2’, published in Nature Sustainability, says that almost no additional energy would be needed to trap carbon dioxide. 0.5 per cent...

The journey to net zero aviation is getting shorter thanks to a range of innovations aimed at reducing air travel carbon emissions. Major investment is going into new technologies and practical approaches to reduce the environmental impact of air travel with airlines, scientists, engineers and Formula One teams driving developments in sustainable fuel and low carbon technology. Sustainable aviation was on the royal agenda as King Charles, in his first engagement as King, launched a new £58 million net-zero aviation lab at the University of Cambridge, the facility set to become one of...