Happy Tuesday. New Week, New Us. We’re trialling a new platform for our newsletter, and we’d love to hear your feedback - just reply to this email! |
🧢 Burberry progress climate goals
|
🛰 Satellites and rubbish dumps
|
💼 Big Business (1-minute read) |
Burberry receives Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) approval |
They are the first luxury fashion company to receive the stamp of approval from SBTi - considered the gold standard for companies setting goals to reduce scope 1,2 & 3 emissions. Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain) represent the largest portion of fashion’s carbon footprint and are also the most challenging to tackle. Burberry’s initiative to tackle scope 3 emissions has been the establishment of a “regeneration fund” to support a portfolio of carbon insetting projects such as regenerative agriculture practices across its supply chain. |
The good and the bad from the US climate bill |
Regular readers will have followed the landmark climate bill passed in the US last week. Already the impacts are rippling through businesses globally with some key headlines… |
- The Good: Huge tax credits for renewable energy and carbon capture have meant that clean energy companies dramatically outperformed the S&P 500 last week. E.g. Sunrun a provider of residential solar panels, went from being down 40% to just 5% for 2022
- The Bad: Methane ‘Loopholes’. The bill places a fee on excess methane emissions beginning at $900/tonne to punish heavy emitters. Several energy companies have already adopted an unorthodox interpretation of EPA rules - allowing one company to slash reported methane emissions by 93%. (The loophole in question is being reviewed)
|
Takeaway: Sweeping legislation is a huge climate win, but it is the finetuning of policy over the coming months where the value will lie for the climate fight
|
Positive climate news globally |
- France to enforce green roofs: The law requires all new commercial buildings to partially have their roofs covered with plants or solar panels. Green roofs can reduce city-wide ambient temperatures by 5°F while reducing building energy use by 0.7%.
- Climate pressure rises for Japanese companies: It’s been a historic year for environmental activism across boardrooms in Japan. Overall, 292 proposals were filed this year (up 80% from 2021), with a record 77 companies facing shareholder proposals. The situation in Japan should be closely watched by companies worldwide. Investors are coordinating more frequently on climate voting. More shareholders are announcing how they will vote before an annual meeting - a new strategy that can build momentum and take boards by surprise.
|
🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read) |
Using satellites to uncover the impact of landfill |
A recent study has - for the first time - used high-resolution satellite images from various cities across the globe (incl. Delhi and Buenos Aires) to identify locations persistently emitting high methane levels. All areas identified were landfills, and the cities’ overall methane emissions were 2.6x higher than previous estimates. As a result of the study, it’s recognised that decomposing waste in landfills is a significant contributor to methane emissions in urban areas. |
The importance? Satellite data to detect emissions is a relatively new field but is key to providing new (independent) data on emissions tracking. Improved data can support more cost-effective, targeted efforts by local governments on specific sites to reduce emissions. |
Helping farmers reduce waste using solar dryers |
Challenge: Roughly 80% of Indian farmers are perceived as “poor, marginalised producers”. One factor is the inability to preserve food for long enough. Fluctuating market prices also means that when prices drop, the most economical option can be to dispose of produce = lots of food waste. |
Innovation: One way to reduce food wastage is by drying fresh produce to extend its lifespan. Raheja Solar's solution is two-fold. 1) Provide farmers with affordable, DIY solar dryers which use the sun to create value-added products that would otherwise go to waste. 2) Connect farmers to marketplaces to sell their dried products to consumers. R Solar offer consistent purchasing prices at their drop-off locations to provide certainty to farmers despite market fluctuations made possible by their ability to sell produce internationally (As far as Indonesia). |
💡 Deep Dive (1-minute read) |
Artificial Intelligence and analytics for the planet |
Advanced analytics and artificial intelligence are tools uniquely positioned to support efforts to tackle climate change and promote resilience to it. A recent BCG survey found that 87% of global climate leaders believe that AI is a useful tool in the fight against climate change. |
1. Gather, process and complete data sets: AI-powered approaches allow vast combinations of data sources to be combined and analysed to draw climate insights. |
- Example: Pachama employs satellite imagery, on-the-ground sensors and AI to measure and monitor the carbon stored in forests over time, identifying high-quality carbon credits for its marketplace by ensuring ‘permanence’ and ‘additionality’
|
2. To strengthen planning and decision-making: AI can analyse and compare complex, multilayered problems to predict future scenarios and aid decision-making around adaptation and resilience. |
- Example: Climate scientists are using AI on climate model outputs to identify climate-vulnerable regions and inform policy/planning e.g. Climate X provides organisations with climate risk ratings and loss estimates for their assets.
|
3. To support collaborative ecosystems; Global cooperation is essential to respond effectively to climate change. AI language tools can be used to support global communications on climate goals as well as faster and more secure transfer of data between entities. |
- Example: Sharing data on GHG emissions between firms can contribute to a comprehensive view of the carbon footprint of entire value chains—a critical monitoring step for companies.
|
- Capacity building - Training climate leaders to use and interpret AI solutions effectively. Ensuring the Global Souths leaders are included is critical to prevent widening disparities.
- Resources and Networks - Financial support and access to decision markers is essential to bridge the gap between academic research and deployment of AI solutions at scale.
- Confidence and Trust - AI practitioners must earn the confidence of leaders, given the risks of bias or unethical behaviour when AI is used inappropriately and without human monitoring (e.g. Amplifying
|
- Responsible AI: An approach that encompasses appropriate governance, thoughtful processes, and transparency about AI’s role in decision making. For example, showing leaders exactly how it has arrived at their decision and the data points that influenced it.
- Green AI: Training AI models can be very energy-intensive. Greater focus on training models for a ‘sufficient’ level of performance and developing code in more energy-efficient ways can help.
|
- Utility Global, raised $25M in Series B funding for its zero electricity process to convert sustainable waste streams directly into high-purity hydrogen
- CleanRobotics, raised $4.5mn in Series A funding for its AI waste bins that sort rubbish at the point of disposal (rather than at waste centres)
- Vespene Energy Closed $4.3 Million in Seed Funding to Pioneer Carbon-Negative Bitcoin Mining Using Captured Landfill Methane
- Uvaru Labs Raised $2mn Seed Capital To Build Solar Panels that produce high-quality drinking water
|
- Pulling energy out of the sky - A company in Norway has developed a kite that generates electricity.
- Tweaking turbine angles squeezes more power out of wind farms.
- In search of more excitement, purpose and impact, engineers and top talent from big tech companies are quitting their jobs to join climate tech startups.
- Germany continues to boost its solar output in the face of energy crisis.
|
|
