Sustainability Notice #34 (3 - 9 April 2023)

World:

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Canada, German firm to sign carbon-capture cement partnership, sources say (Source)

The Canadian government will on Wednesday sign a memorandum of understanding with Germany's Heidelberg Materials?(HEIG.DE)?to help develop a facility to capture carbon emissions from cement production, two sources with knowledge of the plan said.

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Biden offers $450M for clean energy projects at coal mines (Source)

President Joe Biden’s administration is making $450 million available for solar farms and other clean energy projects at the site of current or former coal mines, part of his efforts to combat climate change.

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Methane big part of ‘alarming’ rise in planet-warming gases (Source)

Methane in the atmosphere had its fourth-highest annual increase in 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported, part of an overall rise in planet-warming greenhouse gases that the agency called “alarming.”

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Greenhouse gas emissions rose at ‘alarming’ rate last year, US data shows (Source)

Record temperatures, devastating floods and superstorms are causing death and destruction across the planet but humans are failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions fueling the climate emergency, new US data shows.

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‘Headed off the charts’: world’s ocean surface temperature hits record high (Source)

The temperature of the world’s ocean surface has hit an all-time high since satellite records began, leading to marine heatwaves around the globe, according to US government data.

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Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rises in March (Source)

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose 14% in March from the previous year, preliminary official data showed on Friday, highlighting the continued challenges for the new leftist government.

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Record California snowpack bounty poses renewed flood risks (Source)

California's recent spate of epic Pacific storms has blanketed the Sierra Nevada range in a snowpack at or above record levels, state water resource officials said on Monday at a measuring station where less than 3 inches was documented last April.

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Japan wants G7 agreement to accelerate decarbonisation efforts (Source)

Japan wants to push for the Group of Seven (G7) economic powers to agree on accelerating decarbonisation efforts through collaboration at the ministers' meeting on climate, energy and environment later this month, its industry minister said. As the chair of the G7 this year, Japan will hold the ministerial meeting in Sapporo on April 15-16, ahead of the G7 summit in Hiroshima on May 19-21, to promote what it calls realistic energy transition.

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UN to start taking deep-sea mining applications this July (Source)

The International Seabed Authority will start accepting applications in July from companies that want to mine the ocean's floor, a decision that came after the U.N. body spent the past two weeks debating standards for the new and controversial practice.

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New Zealand ex-PM Ardern becomes trustee of Prince William's Earthshot Prize (Source)

Britain's Prince William has named Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, as a new trustee for his multi-million pound environmental award, the Earthshot Prize. William, heir to throne, set up the prize in 2020 with the mission of finding solutions to the planet's biggest environmental problems through new technologies and ideas.

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Business:

States and companies compete for billions to make hydrogen (Source)

As fossil fuel emissions continue warming Earth’s atmosphere, the Biden administration is turning to hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity.

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Cop28 president: world needs business mindset to tackle climate crisis (Source)

The world needs a “business mindset” to tackle the climate crisis, the president of the next UN climate summit has said.

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Beyond 2023: five green trends for the next five years (Source)

The theme for 2023 has already been set. If 2022 was the year of corporate commitments to sustainability, this is the year when promises become proposals, mission statements become metrics, and aims become actions. So far, so good. But what are the key drivers, blockers and potential unintended consequences ahead?

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JPMorgan facilitates nearly $200 billion sustainable finance in 2022 (Source)

JPMorgan Chase’s sustainable finance activity declined approximately 30% in 2022, with the bank financing and facilitating $197 billion supporting climate, community development and sustainable development projects and initiatives during the year, according to its Annual Report released on Tuesday, compared to a record $285 billion in 2021.

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Only 5% of FTSE 100 companies have published credible decarbonization plans: EY (Source)

Despite a UK government pledge to require large listed companies to disclose decarbonization plans this year, and over 80% of FTSE 100 companies committing to net zero by 2050, 95% of these companies have yet to publish “credible” or sufficiently detailed plans, according to a new study by professional services firm EY.

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L’Oréal rolls out product ?mpact labels in Canada (Source)

Beauty company L’Oréal announced the introduction of its Product Impact Labeling system in Canada, providing consumers with information on the environmental and social impact of its products. The launch of the impact labelling system by L’Oréal Canada was announced alongside the release by the company of a survey of 1,500 Canadians, indicating that 80% would like to make sustainable choices, and that more than two thirds (69%) of consumers expect companies to provide information about the environmental impact of a product.

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Qontigo, SDI AOP launch dashboard enabling ?nvestors to assess portfolio alignment with SDGs (Source)

Risk, analytics, and index solutions provider Qontigo and asset management coalition the Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) announced today the launch of the SDI Dashboard, a new tool enabling investors to upload investment portfolios and analyze them across UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-related parameters.

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Google signs 15-year renewable energy purchase agreement in U.S. (Source)

Energy provider ?rsted announced the signing of a 15-year, 150 MW power purchase agreement (PPA) with Google for renewable energy generated from the Texas-based Helena Wind Farm. The deal marks the first agreement between Google and ?rsted in the U.S., and the second globally, following a 2021 offshore wind agreement in Germany.

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Supply chain sustainability data provider Everstream raises $50 million (Source)

Supply chain insights and risk analytics company Everstream Analytics announced today that it has raised $50 million, with funding aimed at driving the company’s innovation in operational risk and ESG performance to accelerate supply chain sustainability.

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Research and eco-innovation:

Gulf of Mexico oil worse for climate than thought, study (Source)

Offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico are releasing?far more?climate-changing methane than official estimates show, according to a new study published Monday. Using data collected from aircraft in part, climate scientists found the additional methane coming from oil and gas platforms in the Gulf region raises their carbon intensity — the amount of climate-changing gas per unit of energy in the fuel — to twice as much as estimated by U.S. agencies like the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The study is published in PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Kyrgyz eco-activist's 'trashion' tackles a burning problem (Source)

A Kyrgyz environmental activist has found a way to combat toxic fumes choking her city by literally turning trash into treasure, sewing clothes out of waste that would otherwise be burnt in a landfill or someone's stove.

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China accounts for two thirds of world's planned new coal power – research (Source)

China accounted for more than two thirds of the world's proposed new coal-fired power by the end of 2022, with 366 gigawatts (GW) of additional capacity either being planned or under construction, research showed on Thursday. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged countries to stop building new plants and phase out coal consumption completely by 2040 in order to slash climate-warming carbon emissions and keep global temperature rises within 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.