February 2023: Top Ten Takeaways in Climate News

The speed of the energy transition dominated climate headlines in February. Investments in cleaner energy are booming, with more finance?pouring into renewables than new oil and gas projects. As the price of carbon credits in the European Union reached €100, a new paper suggested the voluntary carbon market could provide demand for up to 2.6 gigatons (Gt) of carbon credits by 2030. And fifty years after the The Club of Rome ’s landmark report, media continues to question whether progress can be measured by economic activity alone. Last but not least, the US moved to appoint the new 世界银行 Bank chief. Here's our list of?February’s Top Ten Takeaways in climate news:

• The shift to renewable energy is speeding up. Here’s how. (NY Times) Russia’s war in Ukraine seems to have sped up the global energy transition to renewables, with an?estimated $1.4 trillion?poured into “clean energy” projects in 2022.

• IEA forecasts power sector set for 2025 ‘tipping point’ on emissions (Financial Times). The power sector is getting close to “a tipping point” as renewable energy and cleaner sources of electricity generation are set to provide almost all the new global electricity demand in the next three years.

• What would the perfect climate change lender look like? (The Economist) According to Nicholas Stern and Vera Songwe , two economists, by 2030 poor countries will need somewhere in the region of $2trn-$2.8trn a year of investment to combat climate change.

• The Voluntary Carbon Market: Climate Finance at an Inflection Point (Bain & Company). A briefing paper by 贝恩公司 and the World Economic Forum discusses the actions necessary to create a well-functioning voluntary carbon market.

• Europe beefs up Green Deal in response to Biden’s climate subsidies (Reuters) This week the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen , set out more details of a Green Deal industrial plan to sharpen Europe’s competitiveness.

• U.S. Nominates Ajay Banga to Lead World Bank (NY Times) The Biden administration nominated Ajay Banga, the former longtime chief executive of 萬事達卡 , to be the next president of the World Bank, a selection that is likely to drastically reshape the global development institution and broaden its ambitions to combat climate change.

• Countries gather to thrash out U.N. ocean protection treaty (Reuters) Delegations from hundreds of countries will meet in New York this week in an attempt to hammer out a new legally binding ocean protection treaty that green groups believe will decide whether efforts to safeguard global biodiversity can succeed.

• War for climate talent is hotting up (Financial Times) As competition for green business experts grows, financial firms are snapping up staff from environmental non-profit groups at a striking pace.

• Why we need to prioritise wellbeing over growth (Financial Times) Five decades since The Limits to Growth report argued that increasing populations and industrial development were pushing humanity over the edge, new concerns about global warming, inequality and mental illness are reinforcing the view that measuring progress by economic activity alone is too reductive.

• Saving the rainforests would be a bargain (The Economist) A freshly cleared hectare of the Amazon fetches an average price of only around $1,200. By contrast, the social costs of clearing it are immense.