EU countries clash over nuclear energy ??

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The claws are out this week as European Union countries quarrel over nuclear energy’s ?? contribution to cutting carbon emissions. And check out today’s ESG Spotlight which showcases a small IT company ?? in India’s Indore city that has the ultimate solution to your work/life balance problems – locking you from your screen.

European Union countries failed to adopt conclusions on climate diplomacy owing to a deepening spat over the role of nuclear energy in the green transition ?? , EU officials said.

The upset is the latest development in a dispute between France and other countries who want more EU policies to promote nuclear energy's contribution to cutting ?? CO2 emissions, and those like Germany and Spain who warn this risks distracting from efforts to massively expand renewable energy.

The debate – which focuses on hydrogen produced from nuclear or renewable energy – has already delayed negotiations on new EU renewable energy targets and threatened a multi-billion-euro hydrogen pipeline.?

Some EU officials fear it could spill into other green energy policies, potentially delaying laws needed to meet EU climate targets ??.

Countries are struggling to agree ?? on whether the text should explicitly promote low-carbon hydrogen – meaning hydrogen produced from nuclear electricity – or focus on hydrogen produced from renewable energy ?? , they said.

EU officials told Reuters the majority of the text had been approved ? – including plans for the EU to rally support for a global pledge to phase out fossil fuels ahead of the November U.N. climate summit.

A draft of the conclusions, seen by Reuters, acknowledged a commitment nearly 200 countries made at previous U.N. climate talks to phase down coal-fuelled energy – but said this must go further, to phase out all CO2-emitting fossil fuels, including oil and gas ?.

This comes as a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed that the fossil fuel industry is failing to tackle methane emissions ?? despite its pledges to uncover and fix leaking infrastructure.

In 2022, the global energy industry released into the atmosphere some 135 million tonnes of methane – a potent greenhouse gas responsible for roughly a third of the rise in global temperatures ??? since the industrial revolution.

Last year's emissions rose above 2020 and 2021 levels ? and were only slightly below the record amount released in 2019, despite high energy prices and surging demand for natural gas that provided extra incentives to capture methane, the report said.

Methane is the main component of natural gas, so captured emissions can be sold as fuel. The energy sector ??? accounts for about 40% of all methane emissions from human activity, second to agriculture.

In Conversation

Larry Bradley , global head of audit at multinational professional services firm KPMG , shares his thoughts on the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) timeline for new global ESG reporting standards:

In its latest meeting, the ISSB has made its last major decisions before finalizing its first two standards. The Board left two vital points to the end: how companies can use disclosures made under the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), and the effective date for the international standards.

The good news is that companies are going to be explicitly allowed (but not required) to use metrics from GRI and ESRSs where they are useful to investors and there is no equivalent IFRS sustainability standard.

This demonstrates a level of pragmatism and a keen awareness of the need to balance cost and benefit for as many companies as possible.

However, companies already reporting under GRI won’t be able to simply cut and paste swathes of disclosures, because they will need to apply the ISSB’s investor-focused materiality lens. For companies reporting under multiple frameworks, this will make reporting less challenging.

The proposed effective date of 1 January 2024 is ambitious, but – importantly – it’s aligned with the EU timetable, so some companies may adopt it on this date regardless of local requirements. It still remains for jurisdictions to decide whether to enforce this date.”

ESG Lens

Tesla will open part of its U.S. charging network to electric vehicles (EVs) made by rivals as part of a $7.5 billion federal program to expand the use of EVs and cut carbon emissions.?

The move could help turn Tesla into the universal "filling station" of the EV era – and risk eroding a competitive edge for vehicles made by the company, which has exclusive access to the biggest network of high-speed Superchargers in the United States.

ESG Spotlight

Today’s ESG Spotlight shines a light on ?? Softgrid Computers, a small IT company in the central Indian city of Indore which has come up with an unusual way to ensure its employees maintain a healthy work-life balance ??.?

Softgrid Computers' software is equipped with a notification system that kicks in the moment an employee's shift is over, warning them that "the office system will shut down in 10 mins" ? and asking them to "please go home" ??.

The measure comes amid an increased focus ?? on and research into the adverse effect of long working hours on the health and relationships of employees across the world.?

The World Health Organisation, for example, warned in 2021 that working 55 or more hours a week can lead to a 35% higher risk of stroke, and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease ??.

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