Top 10 ESG Markers - July 2021

This is the first ESG column for the financial year, and again the new financial year is off to a racing start.?This month’s feature includes one in 1,000-year heatwaves, extraordinary melt of the Greenland ice sheet, the EU fit for 55 Plan and the carbon border adjustment mechanism to name a few.

Again, if I happen to miss some key markers in a particular month. Just drop me some comments, and I will pick them up next month!?

*‘ESG Markers’ – like biomarkers that tell us how healthy our body may be, ESG Markers showing us the big movements in the field of ESG in Oceania and globally.?

So, here are my Top 10 for July 2021, again not in any particular order.

EU unveils proposal for Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on steel, aluminium imports

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will apply to imports into the EU of?iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilizers and electricity.?During a transition period from 2023 to 2025, importers will have to report the emissions embodied in the goods brought to the EU without paying any duties.

Definitive measures will come into force in 2026, and importers will then have to declare annually the quantity of goods and the amount of embedded emissions in the total goods they imported into the EU in the preceding year, and surrender the corresponding amount of CBAM certificates.?CBAM will apply to direct emissions but, by the end of the transition period, the EC will evaluate whether an extension of the measures is needed, possibly including indirect emissions. More on CBAM can be found at Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: Implications for Australia | LinkedIn

AEMO pushes for 100% renewable grid by 2025

Australia’s energy market operator, AEMO, has set an ambitious target for the country to surge ahead of the rest of the world with an electrical grid ready to handle 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025.

This target is based on stronger transmission infrastructure, big batteries, pumped hydro and gas plants providing on-demand energy would be vital?to ensuring a smooth transition. ??Previously, the?most ambitious?forecast from AEMO stated that the grid may be able to cope with 75 per cent renewables by 2025.?As power generation accounts for around 30 per cent of the Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, increasing renewable power would make a major difference to Australia’s greenhouse gas budget.

NSW & WA announce single-use plastic bans

New South Wales and Western Australia announced major revamped plans to phase out single-use plastics, with each state unveiling new timelines to ban plastic cutlery, straws, stirrers, microbeads, food packaging and cotton buds.??In New South Wales, a?$365 million, six-stage recycling and waste-reduction plan?was unveiled, which intends to eliminate most single-use plastic within the next year, while establishing a robust circular economy model for recycling and recovering 80% of resources from waste streams by 2030.?Western Australia will?phase out plastic items such as bowls, cups, plates, cutlery, stirrers, straws, polystyrene food containers and thick plastic bags by 2021. Plastic coffee cups and lids, cotton buds and microbeads will be banned by the end of 2022.

Mercedes-Benz to be all-electric by 2030

Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler plans to invest more than $47 billion, between 2022 and 2030 to develop battery-electric vehicles, and be ready for an all-electric car market by 2030.

This includes a plan to build eight battery plants as it ramps up EV production, and that from 2025 all new vehicle platforms would only make electric cars. Some carmakers like Volvo Cars have committed to going all electric by 2030, while General Motors says it aspires to be fully electric by 2035.

Daimler's announcement comes just over a week after the European Union proposed an effective ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035, aiming to speed up the switch to zero-emission EVs as part of a broad package of measures to combat global warming (see Fit for 55 story below).

Canada Commits to 40-45% Emissions Reduction by 2030

The Government of Canada announced that it has formally submitted its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations, committing the country to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40% – 45% by 2030, on a 2005 base. This is slightly under the US target of 50-52% against the same baseline.?The government also outlined several of the initiatives it is pursuing in order to achieve its new climate goals. These include grants for energy efficiency and climate resiliency-focused home retrofits, funding for green building initiatives, infrastructure planning, public transportation investments, zero emissions vehicle legislation, and renewable energy development, among others.?Additionally, the government confirmed that the minimum price on carbon pollution will increase by $15 per tonne each year starting in 2023 through to 2030.

European Commission Unveils ‘Fit For 55” Roadmap to Slash EU Emissions 55% by 2030

The European Commission has released a broad set of proposals aimed at driving the EU to its targeted ambition to cut emissions by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. The proposals span policies across energy, land use, transport and taxation, as well as those aiming to ensure a socially fair transition. This is a centrepiece of the European Green Deal, the EU strategy to transform the region into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy.

Some of the proposals include:

-?????????expanding and tightening the EU Emissions Trading System

-?????????putting a price on carbon and lowering the cap on emissions for various economic sectors

-?????????mandating state spend from emissions trading revenues on climate and energy-related projects

-?????????strengthening emissions reduction targets for buildings, road and domestic maritime transport, agriculture, waste and small industries

-?????????setting national targets for member states to expand their carbon sinks to reach the EU goal to remove 310 million tons of CO2 emissions through natural sinks by 2030

-?????????producing 40% of energy from renewable sources by 2030, with specific targets proposed for renewable energy use in transport, heating and cooling, buildings and industry

-?????????allowing for only zero emission car sales from 2035 and committing to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, ten years earlier than previously planned

-?????????Creating a net zero rail network by 2050

-?????????Launching a “Jet Zero” consultation aimed at achieving net zero aviation emissions by 2050, including net zero domestic aviation emissions by 2040

-?????????introducing a new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, effectively putting a carbon price on imports.

In order to promote its goal of a socially fair transition that doesn’t unevenly burden vulnerable households or businesses, the Commission’s proposals include a new Social Climate Fund, aimed at helping help citizens finance investments in energy efficiency, heating and cooling systems, and cleaner mobility. The fund would be financed by the EU budget, using a portion of the expected revenues of emissions trading for building and road transport fuels.

Greenland experiences 'massive' ice melt

With climate change resulting in high temperatures across the Arctic, Greenland lost a massive amount of ice late this month with enough melting to cover the U.S. state of Florida in 2 inches (5.1 cm) of water, scientists said.?It was the third-biggest ice loss for Greenland in a single day since 1950. The other two records, also within the last decade, happened in 2012 and 2019.

The rapid melt followed warm air being trapped over the Arctic island by a change in atmospheric circulation patterns, scientists said, noting that there could be more ice lost.

One in 1,000 year heatwave in North America

The?heat wave?that scorched the Pacific Northwestern United States in late June rewrote the record books and cemented to the world that climate change is here and now.

-?????????Washington, Oregon and British Columbia village of Lytton set a new temperature records along with Death Valley in California

-?????????In British Columbia, officials?reported?nearly 500 “sudden and unexpected deaths” around the time of the heat wave and the US Centers for Disease Control?reported?that from June 25-30, hospitals in the Northwest saw nearly 3,000 heat-related visits

-?????????The immediate explanation for the brutal heat that gripped the Northwest was a summertime weather pattern?known as a heat dome. Within a heat dome, sunshine warms the surface, causing hot air to rise. Eventually, that rising air encounters high pressure that forces it back toward the ground. As the air sinks, it compresses and heats up even further. This process of rising and sinking is repeated over and over, causing the air inside the heat dome to become hotter and hotter

-?????????Using a published,?peer-reviewed protocol analysis,?released shows that a heat wave of this strength would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.?The authors determined that a heat wave of this intensity was at most a 1-in-1,000 year event.

Deadly floods in China and Germany

Deadly floods that have upended life in both China and Germany have sent a stark reminder that climate change is making weather more extreme across the world.?In China, a year's rainfall was dumped in just three days, completely overwhelming flood defences.

Torrential rain turned normally placid rivers into raging torrents in parts of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, dragging cars and roads with them, bringing down whole houses and leaving more than 150 people dead.

In Europe, climate change is likely to increase the number of large, slow-moving storms that can linger longer in one area and deliver deluges of the kind seen in Germany and Belgium, according to a study published last?month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

As the atmosphere warms with climate change, it also holds more moisture, which means that when rainclouds break, more rain is released. By the end of the century, such storms could be 14 times more frequent, the researchers found in the study using computer simulations.

Tokyo Olympic Medals Made of Recycled Cell Phones Collected in Japan

The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) conducted the “Tokyo 2020 Medal Project” to collect small electronic devices such as used mobile phones from all over Japan to produce the Olympic and Paralympic medals.?In the two years between April 2017 and March 2019, 100 percent of the metals required to manufacture the approximately 5,000 gold, silver and bronze medals were extracted from small electronic devices contributed by people from all over Japan. Tokyo 2020 is hopeful that the project of recycling small consumer electronics in an effort to contribute to an environmentally-friendly and sustainable society will form part of the legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Games.