The Triple Bottom - 🌱 U-Turns & Climate Wins

Congo set to auction UNESCO World Heritage site to oil companies 
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has announced that it will auction off vast quantities of critical tropical peatlands and rainforests for oil and gas drilling, just months after promising to preserve them at the COP26 climate conference. The site spreads across six countries and stores more than three years of global carbon emissions. Last week, the Congolese government said that the decision is key to raising funds to fight poverty and a rising cost of living crisis across the country.
Our take: This brings to the fore one of the more politically contentious sides to the climate debate. Rich nations have consistently refused to accept liability or calls for compensation due to historical responsibility for climate change. Without financial support for vulnerable nations - they are forced to make trade offs between economic development and sustainable growth.

UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) clamping down on greenwashing 
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will be scrutinising eco-friendly and sustainability claims made by ASOS, Boohoo and George at Asda about their fashion products. The move comes as part of its ongoing investigation into potential greenwashing and follows concerns around the way the firms’ products are being marketed to customers as eco-friendly and not aligning to its Green Claims Code .
Impact: It remains to be seen what will result from the CMA’s investigation but the UK Fashion Industry has been put on notice. This is sure to make marketing departments across the fashion industry think twice about their green claims.

Good news for sustainable farming policy in Ireland
Ireland’s government has reached a bitterly contested deal to slash emissions from the agricultural sector by 25% by 2030 - the first emissions target to be agreed for agriculture in the country. 
In the balance: European nations are implementing policies that gradually reduce farming GHG emissions without jeopardising the food supply. Other countries, such as Sri Lanka, have been more aggressive by banning agrochemicals - which wrecked crop yields and contributed to the government’s collapse. 
Why’s this important? Governments play a crucial role in food production - for years, policy supported intensive (and damaging) farming systems. Future policy must be innovative to ensure a transition to climate-friendly farming without risking food supply.

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) to boost finance for small-scale clean energy in developing countries 
The problem: Globally, 600mn people don’t have access to reliable electricity -  many in rural areas of developing countries
The solution: Providing these communities with small-scale, low-carbon energy solutions (i.e., off-grid solar) is key to sustainable development - think increased access to health, education, and productivity services (eg. electric-powered irrigation for farmers)
Nothing is simple… a predicted $35bn of investment is needed to develop these small-scale, low-carbon energy projects. However, the perceived risk of these investments means investment is not forthcoming.
CAP Financial Innovation Challenge… is a competition looking for innovative uses of ‘financial aggregation’ (see below) to bundle projects together to mitigate investment risk AND increase availability + reduce the cost of financing for projects. The competition winner will receive a cool $40,000 award to scale their concept.

• Reading Football Club release new strip featuring climate change design

• A new global coalition has called on exploring hydrogen fuel produced from nuclear power, as it could provide a critical climate solution.

• Scientists say that enriching European lakes with particular species of bacteria could be a natural way to remove plastic pollution from the environment.

• Hemp could make a comeback as a sustainable construction material in the US as farmers are legally growing hemp on an industrial scale.