World on track for "well below 2°C" Paris Agreement Goal?

The latest report from the Inevitable Policy Response paints an optimistic picture of global climate policies, projecting that the world is on track to achieve the Paris Agreement's target of limiting global temperature increases to "well below 2°C.".

Thanks to an acceleration in climate policies, the IPR forecasts an impressive 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, eventually reaching net-zero by 2080. This trajectory is expected to result in a temperature peak around 1.7-1.8°C by 2050, although it falls short of the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C target.

Advanced economies are leading the way with nearly 90% emission reductions, while emerging markets and developing economies are also making significant strides at around 40%. The IPR underscores the importance of unwavering commitment to achieving the more ambitious 1.5°C goal and addressing pressing climate challenges. This forecast highlights the critical role of policy actions in propelling global climate progress.

Disappointingly, the country policy analysis is missing many, many countries:

On Thursday, 21 September, 亚马逊 & Global Optimism together with other partners & signatories of The Climate Pledge held a special event which saw interventions by the US Special Presidential Envoy on Climate, John Kerry. A very full day of fascinating discussions saw interventions by Sally Fouts (Zwartjes) , Edward Mason , Kristina Kloberdanz , Sue Reid , Ingrid Irigoyen , Bryan Papé and many others. The Climate Pledge has reached more than 375 signatories and is built on three pillars that companies need to adhere to:

1) Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.

2) Implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies.

3) Neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040—a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement’s goal of 2050.

Questions remain about 1) Measuring of GHG emissions (why no standard is imposed, for example, use of ISSB standards, 3) the offset question - the many adjectives still do not ensure that the offsets take into account biodiversity and it does not define "socially beneficial".

In the news

Reuters : Three-quarters of firms globally are not ready for new ESG rules, KPMG finds

Financial Times : Rishi Sunak announces series of U-turns on net zero pledges

Financial Times: How regulators have relinquished their work to corporate executives

ESGToday : Guest Post – Due Diligence: A Core Concept Underpinning the CSRD Framework

ESGToday : ECB Stress Test: Banks’ Credit Risk Doubles by 2030 Under Slower Climate Transition

Environmental Finance : A deep dive on structuring SLLs

ImpactAlpha : From scientific to doomsday, the five climate change narratives shaping discourse and decisions??

IEA : The path to limiting global warming to 1.5 °C has narrowed, but clean energy growth is keeping it open

BusinessGreen : Carbon Market Watch - Climate policy is failing to prevent offsetting from slowing emissions cuts

SustainableViews : How to spot corporate greenwashing? Academics and the WWF have the answer

Reuters : Britain proposes diversity and misconduct rules for financial firms

For French speakers:

Reuters : Emmanuel Macron plans "French-style ecology"

European Commission : The High Seas Treaty, also known as the agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction or 'BBNJ', was signed in New York on 20 September, in the margins of the United Nations High Level Week.

Recommended readings

Recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures: The finalised TNFD recommendations, aligned with international initiatives and distributed across four pillars, encompass 14 disclosures addressing nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities, representing a significant step forward in valuing and preserving nature for informed decision-making.

More information is available on TNFD website and their LinkedIn account . Very well-thought out assessment of TNFD was provided by Simon Mundy , editor of Moral Money at the Financial Times . It is surprising to see that amongst the knowledge partners it is mostly the same not for profit stakeholders that are seen dominating the space, crowding out organisations that operate on the ground in different geographies - this means that the "knowledge" will almost exclusively come from large Western Europe-based organisations, with a lack of ownership from key geographies.

EU Taxonomy and the transition : The Chair of EU's Platform on Sustainable Finance, Helena Vi?es Fiestas , has published an insightful article - "The EU Taxonomy: Financing the Transition through Sustainable Investing", explaining how the taxonomy can be used as a tool to finance company transition.

Banks and the net zero transition: Tracking progress with the TPI Net Zero Banking Assessment Framework by Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) broadens the toolkit to evaluate companies' progress in achieving net-zero goals across various sectors, acknowledging banks' crucial role in financing decarbonization.

Guidance to Assess Transition Plans: Highlighting the need for accelerated action, Climate Bonds Initiative has expanded its certification scheme to evaluate the ambition and rigor of these plans, guided by the '5 Hallmarks of a credible transition,' which are captured in the ‘Triple A’ framework:

Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2022 : International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) global renewable power generation costs study shows that the competitiveness of renewables continued to improve despite rising materials and equipment costs in 2022.

1.5°C Business Playbook : is a guideline for exponential climate action by Exponential Roadmap Initiative . Paper states that innovative, disruptive and transformative companies that are taking concrete action to halve their emissions by 2030 towards Net Zero via applying the 4 Climate Pillars:

Consultation on Transition Finance Strategies and Measuring the Impact on Emission: Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) launches a consultation that will run until November 2, 2023. Feedback from all stakeholders will be considered and can be provided here . The final report will be published by COP28.

Robert Schuman Centre Research Agenda : As the new academic year begins, the European University Institute has published a publication outlining what their academics recognise as the major challenges facing Europe and the world today.

Responsible Banking: Towards Real-world Impact : UN Environment Programme published the second biennial progress report on implementation of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking:

EU to ban greenwashing and improve consumer information on product durability : Parliament and Council have reached a provisional agreement on new rules to ban misleading advertisements and provide consumers with better product information.

FACT SHEET : Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Combat the Climate?Crisis

Youtube video: 苹果 just released a unique promotional video unveiling its 2023 sustainability goals, featuring Mother Nature herself, eagerly seeking a progress update.

Blog Post : 1 in 5 companies have disparities between CDP GHG emissions reporting and their Sustainability Reports

Linkedin Post: Ola Hansén reflects on a dynamic week at the World Trade Organization 's annual #WTOPublicForum , where Stegra shared innovative approach to sustainable steel production with 95% fewer CO2 emissions, sparking discussions on global steel decarbonization and green criteria.

Linkedin Article : Dinesh Babu, PhD explains how LiDAR and Geospatial Technologies contribute Sustainable Finance.

Linkedin Article: Ian Simm reflects on 25 years of investing in the transition to a more sustainable economy. A remarkable journey in sustainable finance, marked by global collaboration, ethical clarity, and compelling results in a rapidly evolving green landscape.

Twitter : Ed Conway 's fantastic X thread about achieving Net Zero - how it is an enormous industrial and economic challenge, defies the historic trend of ascending the energy-density ladder in prior energy transitions, and how it will completely reshape our economies and how it will influence many economic outcomes and indicators. It is all based on his 2023 book Material World .

Youtube video : The Federalist Society has a great video about the SEC’s ESG Reporting Rule - Understanding the Debate over Climate-Risk Disclosure Requirements.

Youtube video : IFAC , We Mean Business Coalition and Climate Group have a very informative event recording "Achieving Investor-Grade GHG Reporting: The Role of Accounting amp; Finance Professionals" from NY Climate Week featuring IFRS Foundation discussing International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards.

Podcasts

Corporate responsibility: For our Slovak listeners we have a new episode of Sustainability in Finance podcast with Janka Ru?ická , Sustainability Director at 玛泽咨询 where she shares insights into integrating sustainability into Slovak companies. She discusses ESG strategies, sustainability reporting, and the significance of supply chains, following GRI and ESRS guidelines. Discover how Slovak firms pursue sustainability goals with Mazars' support in CEE.

Events

Paris, France: OECD - OCDE is hosting its Forum on Green Finance and Investment on 2 and 3 October.

Slovakia: The 13th edition of?SAPI Energy Conference ?focused on renewables is happening on 4 and 5 October in Senec.

Online & Helsinki, Finland: On 5 October, EU Finance Days will take place - with a focus on information events on EU business support programmes (InvestEU, Single Marker programme, etc.). Check out the programme and register on event website .

Online: On 10 October, at 9:30AM CEST, DG FISMA will host a special webinar: "The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) - What next? ", with the agenda available online.

Online: The next Climate Bonds Initiative online GSS+ bond training takes place between 17-19 October 2023.

Bucharest, Romania: The Climate Change Summit returns to Bucharest, gathering some of the brightest minds in sustainability, climate and environment topics. Tune in to watch online, or explore attendance in person!

Czechia:?On 18 October, the US Department of State,?CRDF Global ,?PwC Czech Republic ?and the?AmCham CZ ?are hosting investors and startups to an exclusive roundtable discussion on managing investment risk associated with emerging technologies with military & commercial applications.

Prague, Czechia: On the afternoon of 18th of October, the 2023 FIR Annual Conference will take place, with the headline "Sustainability in Finance: How to make decarbonisation happen?". Speakers include Josef Tau?er , Daniel Houska , Martin Spolc, Richard Ju?ík , Raul Garcia Rodriguez , Hélène Lanier , Jarolím Antal , Ota Melcher , and Linda Zeilina-Cross . More details on the event website .

Italy:?RICS ?-?World Built Environment Forum Europe ?will take place on 19 - 20 October in Venice, hosted by RICS and Generali Real Estate at a historical venue on St Mark's Square.

London, UK: The annual Climate Bonds Initiative global conference returns to London, Bishopsgate on 9 and 10 November, which will include a full day of training and master classes on green debt instruments. More details on the event website .

London, UK: The UK Financial Services Summit will take place on 9 November, organised by POLITICO Live . It will focus on "Maintaining the U.K.’s lead in the financial world".

Budapest, Hungary: On 4 December, the Budapest Climate Summit will take place at Hotel Marriott.

Prague, Czechia 2024: The CEE Sustainable Finance Summit will return to Prague from 27 until 31 May 2024. The agenda will include deep dives into ESG reporting, implementation of ESRS, CSRD, SFDR, CSDDD, and biodiversity indicators. Register for updates on the event website or email [email protected] for more information