TBLI Weekly-Edition 3

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TBLI Announcement / news

TBLI HERO

Paul Clements-Hunt?is a true TBLI Hero and a dear friend. Paul coined the term ESG in 2004 and delivered the UN Principles for Responsible Investment in 2006.

He has been at the forefront of pushing Sustainable Investment., globally, through UNPRI and now in emerging markets via Blended Capital Group.

He was always willing to go the extra mile, support others, and infuse great humor in the process.

Paul has been especially supportive of TBLI's work and often was a brilliant host in one of our civilized MMA Cage fights (panel discussions), making sure that radical truth was spoken and everyone benefitted.

Most of all he is a class act and speaks his mind. Congrats. Thank you for playing such an influential role in building an economy based on well-being. You are a true mensch.?

Radical Truth - TBLI Podcast

Unravelling the mystery of China - What are the ambitions of the soon to be world's largest economy?

Isabel Hilton is a London-based international journalist and broadcaster. She will share her vast insight into China and its future relations with the rest of the world.

She studied at the Beijing Foreign Language and Culture University and at Fudan University in Shanghai before taking up a career in written and broadcast journalism, working for?The Sunday Times,?The Independent,?The Guardian, and the?New Yorker. In 1992 she became a presenter of the BBC’s flagship news program, “The World Tonight,” then BBC Radio Three’s cultural program “Night Waves.”

Click here to?listen?to the episode?on Anchor.

You can find also find our podcast?here:

• Spotify
• Google Podcasts:
• Apple Podcasts:
• Castbox

TBLI Better World Prize voting platform is live!

?Watch all presentations & grade them to help stop greenwashing.

The voting research platform is now live - you will be able to watch every presentation and grade them with the jury's questions posed in mind.?Voting?will be open in the coming months. You will be able to access, research, and vote at any time.?After voting closes, the platform will still be available for viewing, with potentially additional ESG measurement system presentations added?to the platform.

The TBLI Better World Prize will be the world's first open?ESG research center.?A people's choice competition to cut through greenwashing PR noise to ID the most valid Environmental, Social, and Governance measurement systems.

In case you will not be watching all the presentations & grading them within one sitting, you need to log in to your google account to ensure your progress in the form is saved and you then will be able to complete voting in several sittings.

Click here to access the voting platform

Earth’s ozone layer on course to be healed within decades, UN report finds

Most of atmospheric layer that protects planet from ultraviolet radiation likely to be fully recovered for most of world by 2040

The hole in the Earth’s ozone layer, once the most feared environmental peril facing humanity, is set to be completely healed over most of the world within two decades following decisive action by governments to phase out ozone-depleting substances, a new UN assessment has found.?

The loss of the ozone layer, which risked exposing people to harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, is on track to be completely recovered by 2040 across the world, aside from the polar regions,?according to the report. The poles will take a little longer – the ozone layer will fully bounce back by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2066 over the Antarctic.

Following alarm over the loss of ozone in the 1980s, the ozone layer has been steadily improving in the wake of the 1989 Montreal protocol, an international agreement that has helped eliminate 99% of ozone-depleting chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that were used as solvents and refrigerants.

The UN said the action taken on the ozone layer had also bolstered the more ponderous response to the climate crisis – CFCs are also greenhouse gases and their continued uncontrolled use would have raised global temperatures by as much as 1C by the middle of the century, worsening an already dire situation where planet-heating gases are still not declining.

“Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action,” said Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, which unveiled the progress report, which is conducted every four years, on Monday. “Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done as a matter of urgency to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase.”

The unified global response to dealing with CFCs means that the Montreal agreement should be considered “the most successful environmental treaty in history and offers encouragement that countries of the world can come together and decide an outcome and act on it”, according to David Fahey, a scientist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who is a lead author of the new assessment.

The progress has not always been smooth – in 2018 scientists detected an uptick in CFC use,?which was tracked to China?and eventually remediated. Meanwhile, the replacement of CFCs with another group of industrial chemicals, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), was problematic as HFCs are greenhouse gases, requiring a further international agreement,?struck in Kigali, to curb their use.

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Indigenous Forests Are Some of the Amazon’s Last Carbon Sinks

Forests around the world play a major role in curbing or contributing to climate change. Standing, healthy forests sequester more atmospheric carbon than they emit and act as a carbon sink; degraded and deforested areas release stored carbon and are?a carbon source.

Forests are?a net carbon sink?globally, but there’s?huge variation locally. Our analysis finds that forests managed by Indigenous people in the Amazon were strong net carbon sinks from 2001-2021, collectively removing a net 340 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere each year, equivalent to the U.K.’s annual?fossil fuel emissions.

Meanwhile, forests outside of the Amazon’s Indigenous lands were collectively a carbon source, due to significant forest loss. The research underscores the need to help Indigenous people and other local communities safeguard their forest homes and preserve some of the Amazon’s remaining carbon sinks.1

Carbon Flux: How Forests Serve As Carbon Sinks — or Carbon Sources

The world’s forests, which cover about 30% of Earth’s land, absorbed approximately?7.2 billion more tonnes?of CO2?per year than they emitted between 2001 and 2021, about twice as much carbon as they released. Deforestation, degradation and other disturbances, however, have already turned some of the?world’s most iconic forests?into carbon sources and threaten to convert others.

The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest, remains a?net carbon sink, but it teeters on the edge of becoming a net source. Southeastern Amazonia already?emits more carbon?than it sequesters. Over the past 40-50 years, an estimated?17%?of Amazonian forest has been lost, of which over four-fifths was converted to agricultural land, mainly pastures.

Scientists estimate that deforesting 20% of the Amazon could push it past?a tipping point, triggering a large-scale dieback that would release more than?90 billion tonnes of CO2?into the atmosphere?(approximately?2.5 times greater?than annual global fossil fuel emissions), transform the forest into a savannah and?disrupt rainfall?across South America.

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30×30 is conservation’s flashy new goal. Now countries need to figure out what it actually means.

The new global target aims to protect 30 percent of land and waters. But is it a powerful goal or an empty slogan?

Last month, right before the holidays, nearly 200 countries announced a?breakthrough deal?to protect Earth’s plants and animals. Of the 22 targets established at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, or COP15, one stood out: an agreement to conserve 30 percent of land and seas by the year 2030.?

The goal, commonly known as 30×30, has been around for a few years, slowly gaining traction in environmental circles since it was first proposed?in the journal Science Advances?in 2019. It draws inspiration from research by famed biologist E.O. Wilson that?at least half the planet?needs to be conserved in some way to protect 80 percent of species. The formal adoption of 30×30 by nearly all of the world’s governments at COP15 turned it into the official guiding star for the global conservation movement, with?some leaders?comparing it to the Paris Agreement in terms of significance.

Now, with negotiators at home and a new year underway, countries face the monumental task of figuring out what one of the most ambitious goals in conservation history actually means, in practice.

One of the toughest questions yet to be answered is: What exactly counts towards the 30 percent? Can certain conservation-minded agricultural methods that protect soil and promote a diversity of crops be included, or do only strictly protected areas like national parks count? To what degree will Indigenous territories be considered conserved land? And how will areas that connect fragments and contain the rarest, most species-rich ecosystems be prioritized under the goal? The final language in last month’s global agreement was vague on many of these topics.

“Underneath that [30×30] number is a huge amount of complexity,” said Claire Kremen, a conservation biology professor at the University of British Columbia who researches how to reconcile biodiversity conservation with agriculture. “It all depends on where and how you do this protection and there hasn’t been a lot of clarity on these points.”

The United States, while not technically part of last month’s global pact (the Senate since 1993 has?refused to join?the biodiversity convention), has been wrestling with these same questions independently. President Biden committed to the 30×30 goal within U.S. borders?via executive order?during his first week in office. And?many states?have also committed to the target, including California, Maine, New York, Hawaii, and New Mexico.?

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Innovation in agriculture and food and its vital role in fighting climate change

When we talk about current challenges in global warming, we face two main ones that are complementary but often seen as antagonistic: the fight against climate change and the increase in demand for food.

In this context, we find ourselves with a sector that in our opinion will be a major player in the solution but is often seen as part of the problem: agribusiness.

Contrary to what many think, agribusiness has evolved a lot in recent decades, and this evolution has accelerated with the collaboration of agrifoodtech.

Through agrifood innovation, six major trends are repositioning the sector and unlocking its game-changing potential: on-farm technology, bio-alternatives, access to credit, more efficient supply chains, avoiding food waste and the increase of carbon markets.

Technology in the field

Historically the agrifood chain has already been replete with technological innovations that have improved the lives of farmers, increased productivity and elevated management to a new level.

The management systems themselves are a clear example of how technology is already present in the sector. Through SaaS models, these systems have been gaining more and more relevance and expanding their presence in the operation of small and medium-sized farmers, which allows them to be more efficient, reduce waste and increase their productivity. Startups that offer management technologies already represent more than 24% of agritech in Brazil that operate “on the farm,” with the highest adoption rates by farmers.

However, the Saas model goes beyond management systems. Agritech offers a set of services and tools that allow the producer to optimize routes during harvest, implement precision agriculture and even have access to remote soil analysis. Through these and other new technologies, increased productivity is achieved without the need for new land. It is accompanied by a reduction in the use of inputs, resulting in a more sustainable agriculture with lower emissions.

Examples of companies tackling this challenge in our portfolio:?Aegro,?Verge?and?Leaf.

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