EU proposes rules to label some gas and nuclear investments as green

Investments in some gas and nuclear power plants would be labelled as sustainable under rules proposed by European Commission on Wednesday, a plan that has split countries and investors, and which some lawmakers will attempt to block.

As European, I do feel deeply disappointed. As a sustainability practitioner I wonder whether the EU had another choice.

What's your opinion on this?

Just Energy Transition Innovation Challenge
Deadline approaching soon!

The energy sector powers economies and sustains jobs. It also generates approximately two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions. If the Paris Agreement goals are to be met, the energy transition needs to accelerate and reach a tremendous scale. There will be substantive employment and social impacts that need to be anticipated and planned for. Overall, it is estimated that the energy transition will deliver net job gains.

The shift to sustainable energy requires innovative solutions and breaking with business as usual while ensuring that the transition is just and leaving no one behind. While innovation is needed, scalable solutions are hard to identify and do not always reach the people who may benefit most. The ILO is dedicated to finding and accelerating such innovations. Therefore, the ILO is now launching the Just Energy Transition Innovation Challenge. The challenge will identify, enhance, test, and disseminate high-potential policy ideas and solutions that promote a just transition for all, breaking from business-as-usual.

The ILO will select 3 winners amongst the proposals and solutions submitted. All 3 winners will benefit from technical assistance equivalent to the value up to 50.000 USD. They will be linked up with experts through ILO’s Just Transition Innovation Network and gain global visibility allowing them to present their innovative ideas to potential partners and the public.

For more information, deadlines, and eligibility criteria’s go to: climateaction4jobs.org/innovation-challenge

Pleased to share link to my recent publication.

Europe and the world need to draw the right lessons from today’s natural gas crisis.

Today, Europe finds itself at the heart of an international energy storm. Understanding the causes of this crisis and drawing the right lessons from it is essential for the transition to more sustainable, secure and affordable energy supplies in the future.

"We are once again seeing claims that volatility in gas and electricity markets is the result of the clean energy transition. These assertions are misleading to say the least. This is not a renewables or a clean energy crisis; this is a natural gas market crisis" says Fatih Birol, Executive Director at International Energy Agency (IEA).

Pension Funds & Climate Risk

Nest, the £20bn UK government-backed workplace pension scheme, has sold its holdings in ExxonMobil and four other energy companies after criticising their progress on managing climate change risks.

Frustration over the response of some fossil fuel companies to the threat of catastrophic global warming is driving a small but growing number of influential pension funds to divest from businesses that are perceived as blocking progress towards a lower carbon economy.

“At Nest we aim to work with companies to encourage sustainable business decisions but will draw the line somewhere. The five companies being excluded have not done enough to convince us that we should remain shareholders".

Will a €150m project to turn cow manure into biogas help the Netherlands cut agricultural emissions?

About 10% of the Netherlands’ greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mostly methane as a result of the dairy industry, and the country’s livestock produces 74m tonnes of manure a year. Masterminded by FrieslandCampina, the country’s largest dairy collective which buys milk from 13,500 of the Netherlands’ 17,000 dairy farmers, the project has established an initial target of getting 1,000 large farms across the country to make power from cow manure within four years.

GFLP International Conference: Financing Net Zero and Nature Positive Future

From 16 to 17 December 2021, the Global Green Finance Leadership Program (GFLP) is hosting GFLP International Conference: Financing Net Zero and Nature Positive Future, co-hosted by Beijing Institute of Finance and Sustainability and UK PACT.

This two-day conference is intended to invite experts to exchange ideas and discuss topics on Role of Green and Sustainable Finance, Climate Disclosure and Other Approaches in Climate and Nature-Related Risk Management, Financial Product Innovation for Sustainability, and Carbon Accounting for Financial Institutions.

Cobalt, lithium, nickel and graphite, historically of secondary interest to miners, have gained exceptional value in a world trying to set fossil fuels aside due to their use in electric batteries.

But will mining ever been sustainable and fair?

From Congo to Serbia, the rising quest for these materials is demonstrating how the clean energy revolution, meant to save the planet from perilously warming temperatures in an age of enlightened self-interest, is already caught in a familiar cycle of exploitation, greed and gamesmanship that often puts narrow national aspirations above all else.

The Covid pandemic has made even more evident our reliance on technology. Indeed, our way of working has changed - with some of us even working remotely full time.

We often see this as a more sustainable pattern, but is this really the case?

Computers, servers and other electronic devices require large amounts of natural resources.The energy to run them emits high amounts of CO2, and
programmed obsolescence and the low percentage of recycling are generating e-waste. Plus, the vast majority of data in the cloud are not used.

Without denying the many benefits brought by these technologies, including for the environment, it is important for users, services providers and policy makers to understand what the impacts are and to learn how we can move towards greener digital technologies.

Read the brief to discover more!