New York Climate Week, Mario Draghi's Competition report, and the road to COP29

Mario Draghi's EU Competitiveness report

It's been a busy summer and it is shaping up to be a very busy autumn. There has been a flurry of publications and reports, all mostly overshadowed by Mario Draghi's "The future of European competitiveness" report. While the report outlined all the major challenges Europe faces in terms of competitiveness, innovation and digitalisation - nothing new to those who follow European policy debates - the critique and recommendations received wide coverage.

Euronews published an article with all major reactions to the report.

The Washington Post went for "Europe grapples with its decline" as a headline.

One of the strongest reactions came from the renowned Financial Times Chief Economic commentator Martin Wolf: "Draghi is trying to save Europe from itself. His report on competitiveness presents the EU with an ‘existential challenge’".

With the new European Commission said to be focussing on competition as a key area, the challenge will be to see how the Commission will start tackling the main criticisms expressed in the report: fragmentation of labour and capital markets, lack of Member state coordination and integration (think energy markets etc), and how an enabling environment for innovation can be created.

POLITICO has published a great article on Von der Leyen's promises: "Von der Leyen’s first 100 days: What she’s promised, what it means and what she’ll really deliver". Sadly at least one or two of the nominated Commissioners will be struck down by the European Parliament, and the likelihood is that it will be ones from the CEE region.

NY Climate Week

The week starting 23 September is the UN General Assembly and the New York Climate Week. With over 900 events across the whole city, it is a fascinating time for taking stock of the global conversation about climate and sustainability, and a time when the differences between countries and sectors become clearer, and challenges are acknowledged. For the full agenda of events and their recordings, check out Climate Group 's Climate Week NYC website.

One of the best interventions came from Jacinda Ardern , the former Prime Minister of New Zealand - a powerful speech about keeping expectations high when it comes to our politicians, and not giving up on driving meaningful change, because a lot is at stake.

The hope is that the new European Commission will deliver. And that it will not forget about the importance of climate action and sustainability integration for resilience, competitiveness, and longer term sustainability of the systems we rely on.

News

• Investment and Pension Europe: Denmark's PKA quits Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance.
• EFRAG: EFRAG publishes the ESRS Set 1 XBRL Taxonomy
• Green central banking: Azerbaijan plans to present global green taxonomy at Cop29
• ESG Today: HSBC Launches Net Zero Transition Infrastructure Debt Strategy with $240 Million Commitments
• Responsible Investor: FCA to ditch stewardship effectiveness KPI over complexity
• Financial Times: Dutch bank ING to ditch climate laggards as clients
• PA Future: World Bank launches ‘largest ever’ outcome bond to fund Amazon reforestation
• Reuters: Goldman Sachs' fund division to leave climate investor group
• ESG Today: Microsoft Unveils New Multi-Framework ESG Reporting Solution
• University of Oxford: Oxford researchers propose ‘Carbon Removal Budget’ to tackle climate change
• European Commission: Commission and EBRD launch joint facility mobilising up to €100 million for critical raw materials investments

Articles and recommended reading

• Reclaim Finance published an interesting article on The need to redesign bank decarbonisation targets, that analyses over 200 decarbonisation targets from major banks showing issues with transparency and effectiveness.

• Science published an in-depth article evaluating over 1,500 climate policies across to identify the 63 most successful ones in reducing emissions. Their findings reveal that a combination of well-designed, price-based policies plays a key role in achieving significant emission cuts, with reductions ranging from 0.6 to 1.8 billion metric tonnes CO2.
• European Central Bank: Obstacles to the greening of energy-intensive industries

• Robert H?glund wrote an article on The end of high hopes for the traditional VCM highlighting the market’s decline due to oversupply and lack of SBTi endorsement.

?Reports and publications??

• FTSE Russell published the results of the 2024 global Sustainable Investment Asset Owner survey showing that most remain positive about sustainable investment and only 11% of asset owners believe that ESG regulations pose an obstacle to sustainability efforts.

• Climate X analysed the adaptation efforts of the world’s largest banks, releasing a ranking of the top 50 banks addressing climate adaptation. The analysis reveals that 88% are failing to address adaptation risks adequately.

• A new Lancet Planetary Health report offers crucial insights into how exceeding Earth-system boundaries is threatening both the planet and human health. The report highlights that seven out of eight boundaries have been crossed and stresses the need for radical changes in energy, food systems, and resource distribution. It introduces a concept of a "safe and just corridor" to balance environmental stability and resource equity, essential for a sustainable future.

• Biodiversity Net Gain: A Roadmap for Action from the Green Finance Institute outlines the steps needed to implement Biodiversity Net Gain in the UK. It identifies key challenges and proposes actions to help government and stakeholders ensure BNG's success.??

• The European Commission’s DG ENER recently released a study – led by Trinomics – on regulatory frameworks and obstacles to renewable energy self-consumption in EU Member States. The study explores how citizens and businesses use and share the energy they generate. It identifies barriers and current self-consumption rates and offers recommendations to enhance self-consumption. Find the case studies here.
• Agora Energiewende issued a report on Investing in the Green Deal, analyses the financial requirements to ensure the success of the European Green Deal. It stresses the need for sustained public and private investment in critical sectors like energy and transport. The report warns of a "climate funding cliff" post-2026 and recommends the creation of a Green Deal Implementation Fund to secure long-term financing.

• Transition Pathway Initiative published the State of transition report 2024 reviewing evaluates the progress of over 1,000 of the world's highest-emitting companies towards the Paris agreement. While 30% of companies are aligned with 1.5°C by 2050, most lag in achieving short- and medium-term goals.
• Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) released a report titled Acute Physical Impacts from Climate Change and Monetary Policy exploring how extreme weather events affect the economy. The report provides a framework for central banks to assess these effects, stressing the need for adaptation and resilience measures to mitigate future damages and inform monetary policy decisions.

• The European Central Bank published a working paper on Climate Risk, Bank Lending, and Monetary Policy. Key findings indicate that banks charge higher interest rates to high-emission firms and offer lower rates to firms committed to decarbonization.

• The EU Commission published FAQs on the implementation of the EU corporate sustainability reporting rules.

• ESMA released Opinion. Sustainable investments: Facilitating the investor journey. The key findings focus on simplifying sustainability disclosures for easier decision-making, promoting the EU Taxonomy as the standard reference for sustainable investments, and addressing greenwashing risks.

• European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a report on Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities in EU financial market.

Online community insights

• Linkedin Post: Kurt Vandenberghe posted about the EU’s progress in reducing emissions and upcoming climate actions and regulations.

• LinkedIn post: Beata Bienkowska commented on 2024 State of TPI Transition Report on the progress of over 1,000 high-emitting companies toward a low-carbon economy.

• LinkedIn post: Susanna Arus talked about balancing competitiveness with resilience and urging coherent implementation of EU sustainability rules, not rollbacks.

• LinkedIn: Sabine Mauderer shared the NGFS report highlighting the need for central banks to consider climate change's economic impact in their monetary policies.

• LinkedIn post: Kaya Axelsson discussed the value of avoided emissions credits as contributions, and proposes a framework to reward companies for their broader climate contributions beyond reduction targets.

• LinkedIn post: Amanda Koefoed Simonsen talked about the interoperability of the CSDDD, CSRD, and EU Taxonomy.

• LinkedIn post: Andreas Hoepner commented on ESMA's new SFDR tables, highlighting how they simplify the definition of sustainable investment.

Events

October

• On 3 and 4 October, 联合国开发计划署 , European Investment Bank (EIB) , 世界银行 , HUSZPO - Hrvatska udruga stru?njaka za?tite prirode i okoli?a together with International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC) are hosting a special event on the interlinkages between sustainable finance / ESG / EU Taxonomy and environmental impact assessments. Full agenda and details are on the event website.

• On 8 October, EBRD will host its annual Nominee Directors Conference in London.
• On 10 and 11 October, OECD - OCDE will host its annual Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum & Global Forum on Trade in Paris.
• On 14 and 15 October, RICS will host its RICS Built Environment European Summit in Bilbao, Spain, including a gala dinner at the Guggenheim museum. For those interested in attending this exclusive event for practitioners focused on real estate, check out the event website and register before the space has filled up!

November

• On 7 November, Změna k lep?ímu will host Vyspělé ?esko conference, focused on the creation of inner development goals for Czechia.
• Starting

December

• On 10 and 11 December, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) will host its Global Roundtable in Geneva, Switzerland.