Goodbye 2022 - Which climate headlines to remember?

As we are saying goodbye to 2022 I want to share the key Climate Change related news or highlights for 2022 to remember (my version):

More than 20,000 people died due to climate change

Summer heatwaves in France, Germany, Spain and Britain led to more than 20,000 "excess" deaths according to climate scientists from the World Weather Attribution group. In addition we saw excessive rainfall and widespread monsoon flooding occurred in the South Asian countries of?Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, causing damages and economic loss of more than USD 30 billion.

The Inflation Reduction Act

President Biden signed this measure in August following more than a year of ups and downs as Democrats tried to coalesce around a proposal that could pass the House and Senate.

The law’s climate and energy provisions include about USD 370 billion in new spending on an array of tax credits and incentives designed to encourage the development of renewable energy, electric vehicles and much more. The law is loaded with industrial policy, with incentives for companies to manufacture clean energy components within USA.

Mandatory ESG due diligence and reporting

The European Union (EU)’s approval of the corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD) in 2022 introduced new mandatory ESG reporting obligations. The CSRD was a major cornerstone of the European green deal by expanding the non-financial reporting directive (NFRD) scope and requiring more companies to report on environmental, human rights, and social impacts. In-scope companies will need to submit reports by 2025 for the financial year of 2024.

Loss & Damage agreement

COP 27 reached a milestone for developing countries seeking financial assistance for loss and damage caused by extreme weather events. On the 20th of November in Sharm-El-Sheik, Egypt, the UN Conference of Parties took a decision to establish and operationalize a loss and damage fund needed to rescue and rebuild the physical and social infrastructure of countries devastated by extreme climate. A topic which has been under discussion for nearly three decades.

"Paris agreement" for Biodiversity

The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) achieved a historical agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. The GBF features 23 targets to achieve by 2030, including:

• Effective conservation and management of at least 30 per cent of the world’s land, coastal areas and oceans. Currently, 17 percent of land and *8 per cent of marine areas are under protection
• Restoration of 30 per cent of terrestrial and marine ecosystems
• Reduce to near zero the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance and high ecological integrity
• Halving global food waste

Called out for greenwashing

2022 was the year that policymakers started to take greenwashing?more seriously. In May, German police raided asset manager DWS as part of an investigation into potential greenwashing. In July, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched investigations into the sustainability claims of three fashion brands, Asos, Boohoo and Asda’s George. The CMA also probed the supermarket group Tesco over claims it made about the environmental credentials of meat-free foods. The UK’s advertising watchdog banned in October a series of HSBC’s advertisements for being misleading about its green credentials by not mentioning the bank’s financing of fossil fuel projects and links to deforestation.

I hope that 2023 will bring more positive news and highlights for climate!