Top 10 ESG Markers - September 2021

As the Covid restrictions continued over the past month, it was an active month for ESG.?This month’s feature includes the latest UN warning on climate change and a number of developments increasing the pressure on the Australian Government to commit to a Net Zero target.

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 September 2021, again not in any particular order.

Built environment energy efficiency standards get a makeover

Under a significant makeover to the 2022 National Construction Code, one of the changes being considered is increasing thermal performance requirements for homes from the current, 6-stars NatHERS equivalent, to an equivalent of 7 stars.?This is currently open for public consultation.

Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme?(NatHERS)?has separately launched a new National Scorecard Initiative, which builds on the Victoria’s state-based Residential Efficiency Scorecard Program.?Accredited assessors provide a star rating and detailed certificate to the household as well as advice on opportunities for improvement, which costs around $250 to $500.

The Green Building Association of Australia (GBCA) has also released a new residential certification standard to industry and is calling on the volume home building industry to adopt its Green Star Homes Standard certification system now, ahead of a planned consumer release in 2022.

Newscorp’s about-turn on climate change

News Corp Australia, an influential player in Australia’s decade-long climate wars, will, it seems, end its long-standing editorial hostility towards carbon reduction policies and advocate for the world’s leading economies to hit net zero emissions by 2050. ??From October 17, the company plans to run a two-week campaign that will advocate for a carbon net zero target to be reached by 2050, which is expected to focus heavily on jobs in a decarbonised economy, particularly blue-collar industries such as mining, resources and agriculture. Whether this positioning is linked to the mooted change of heart by the Australian Government on Net Zero, is unknown.?News Corporation’s own global environmental targets include reducing its fuel and electricity emissions 60 per cent by 2030 on a 2016 base year, reduced supply chain carbon emissions 20 per cent by 2030 and hit net zero by 2050.

Google, Facebook and Microsoft turn their attention to water

Google has become the latest technology giant to publicly commit to ensuring that its global operations, including its datacentres, will return more water to the environment than they consume by 2030.?The company has stated that it plans to achieve its goal by investing in water replenishment projects and initiatives that are geared towards improving the health of local river drainage basins in areas near where it has offices and datacentres.

Microsoft made a near-identical pledge in September 2020 to embark on a series of actions that will serve to ensure that it replenishes more water than its operations consume by 2030 as well.?The reasons for this trend is likely attributable to the fact that the water consumption habits of datacentres are coming under increased scrutiny from government policy-makers and environmentalists.?Social networking giant Facebook also went public with its plan?to become a “water-positive” entity by 2030 in August 2021.

Meat accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases from food production, study finds

The global production of food is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases emitted by human activity, with the use of animals for meat causing twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods, a major new study has found.?The study, published in Nature Food suggests that the entire system of food production, such as the use of farming machinery, spraying of fertilizer and transportation of products, causes 17.3bn metric tonnes of greenhouse gases a year.?This is more than double the?entire emissions of the US?and represents 35% of all global emissions, according to the researchers.?The paper’s calculations of the climate impact of meat is higher than previous estimates – the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization?has said?about 14% of all emissions come from meat and diary production. The difference in emissions between meat and plant production is considerable – to produce 1kg of wheat, 2.5kg of greenhouse gases are emitted. A single kilo of beef, meanwhile, creates 70kg of emissions.?

UN warns on much work to be done on the road to COP26

The UN has studied the climate plans of more than 100 countries and concluded that we're heading in the wrong direction.?The recent AR6 IPCC report recently confirmed that to avoid the worst impacts of hotter conditions, global carbon emissions needed to be cut by 45% by 2030.?But this new analysis by the UN shows that those emissions are set to rise by 16% during this period, heading for 2.7 degree warming.?Under the rules of the Paris Agreement on climate change, countries are meant to update their carbon reduction plans every five years, but of 191 countries taking part in the agreement, only 113 have so far come up with improved pledges.?China, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - together responsible for 33% of greenhouse gases - have yet to submit updated plans.

Doctors and farmers demand stronger climate ambition from the Australian Government

Multiple doctors’ organisations, led by the Australian Medical Association, and Farmers for Climate Action have called on the federal government to boost Australia’s climate change ambition ahead of the Glasgow COP26 Climate Conference.?In an open letter to the Prime Minister, the AMA, Doctors for the Environment Australia and many of the country’s medical colleges say: “Medical leaders across the country are calling on your government to urgently take much greater action to avert a further deterioration of the current climate crisis”.?“Australia must significantly lift its commitment to the global effort to bring climate change under control in order to save lives and protect health”, it says while calling on the Government to develop a national climate change and health strategy and set up a Sustainable Healthcare unit.?Meanwhile, a report by EY commissioned by Farmers for Climate Action, with more than 6000 farming supporters, lays out a pathway to zero emissions by 2040 without shrinking Australia’s agriculture.

AGL faces increased shareholder pressure on climate resolution

AGL, the nation’s heaviest greenhouse gas emitter, had 55 per cent of AGL’s investors defy the board by supporting a motion for the energy giant to set “short-, medium- and long-term” decarbonisation targets in line with the Paris Agreement’s aspirations to keep global warming below 2 degrees.?This was the biggest vote ever recorded for a climate-focused shareholder push in corporate Australia without board support.?The resolution – which called for interim emissions targets and how AGL’s spending plans would align with Paris Agreement goals – will not compel the board to act because it depended on the passage of a separate motion to amend the company’s constitution, which did not receive the required support of 75 per cent of shareholders.

Quad Leaders issue a joint climate statement

Meeting for the first time, the Quad leaders of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, have stated an ambition to join forces to tackle the climate crisis, which they say must be addressed with the urgency it demands. Quad countries stated in their first joint statement that they will work together to keep the Paris-aligned temperature limits within reach and will pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. To this end, Quad countries intend to update or communicate ambitious NDCs by COP26. Quad countries will also coordinate their diplomacy to raise global ambition, including reaching out to key stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific region, with the work being organized across three thematic areas: climate ambition, clean-energy innovation and deployment, and climate adaptation, resilience and preparedness, aiming to achieve global net-zero emissions preferably by 2050, and taking into account national circumstances. They have indicated pursuing nationally appropriate sectoral decarbonization efforts, including those aimed at decarbonizing shipping and port operations and the deployment of clean-hydrogen technology. The statement indicated that the Quad countries would work together for successful outcomes at the COP26 and G20 that uphold the level of climate ambition and innovation that this moment requires.

NSW Nationals support plan to halve the State’s emissions by 2030

The NSW government has committed to a 50% 2030 emissions target backed by Liberals and Nationals in state cabinet, while their federal counterparts remain split.?The new target lifts its 2030 emissions reduction target from 35% to 50% compared with 2005 levels.?The state commitment will add to the?domestic?and?international pressure?on the Federal Government to set a target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and significantly increase Australia’s short-term goal before the COP26 climate summit?in Glasgow in November.

Three Americans produce enough carbon emissions to kill one person

In the first analysis to calculate the mortal cost of carbon emissions, it has been revealed that the lifestyles of around three average Americans will create enough planet-heating emissions to kill one person.?Also, the emissions from a single coal-fired power plant are likely to result in more than 900 deaths according to the paper from Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

The research relies on several public health studies to conclude that for every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere beyond the 2020 rate of emissions, one person globally will die prematurely from the increased temperature.?The calculations are based on the social cost of carbon.?

Additionally, nearly 1 in 3 Americans live in a county hit by a weather disaster in the past three months, according to a new Washington Post analysis of federal disaster declarations. On top of that, 64 percent live in places that experienced a multiday heat wave — phenomena that are not officially deemed disasters but are considered the most dangerous form of extreme weather.