Sustainable Switch: Europe’s 'greenlash' spreads

Bluenord ASA

28/09/2023 14:00

Sept 28 - By Sharon Kimathi
Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
    
     
    Hello!
  
Europe takes the focus today as the continent’s green agenda is
starting to fray. From Britain giving the go-ahead for one of
its biggest new oil and gas projects in years, to Italy
demanding that the European Union water down a directive aimed
at improving the energy efficiency of buildings.
    
Although we covered it in our Aug. 10 Sustainable Switch,
‘Greenlash surges across Europe’, the growing pushback against
climate policies has gained momentum this month inside and
outside the EU. Click here for a feature on which countries are
facing the greatest "greenlash".
    
This comes as the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the
world would need to invest nearly $4.5 trillion per year in the
transition to cleaner energy from the start of the next decade,
up from spending of $1.8 trillion expected in 2023.
    
    
    * “He couldn't care less about climate change”
  
The IEA’s pathway to net zero report urges countries to invest
in renewables to make it possible to limit global warming to 1.5
degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and asks advanced
economies to reach net zero sooner than developing economies.
However, the same “advanced economies” are still investing
heavily in fossil fuels.
    
In the UK, Norwegian energy group Equinor obtained approval for
its North Sea Rosebank oil and gas project this week, located
west of the Shetland Islands, which would start output in
2026/27.
    
The announcement comes after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
watered down interim plans for the government's 2050 net zero
emissions target, a move that critics said could also encourage
other countries to rein in their climate ambitions.
    
The government says Britain needs new domestic fossil fuels to
improve energy security and that oil and gas would still feature
in the country's energy mix even by 2050. Environmental
campaigners, however, had urged the UK government to halt
development of Rosebank, saying it contravened the plan for a
net-zero economy.
    
Uplift, a campaign group, said Britain would struggle to benefit
from Rosebank as most of the oil would be processed abroad. "By
approving Rosebank, Rishi Sunak has confirmed he couldn't care
less about climate change," Uplift's Tessa Khan said.
    
     
    * Halting building insulation standards
  
Over in Germany, the country will indefinitely halt plans on
more stringent building insulation standards, environment
minister Robert Habeck said on Sept. 24, after industry
complaints the measures are too costly and hurt the depressed
construction sector.
    
Germany's lower house of parliament passed a bill in September
on phasing out oil and gas heating systems, though the
legislation was criticized by conservatives as too costly and by
environmentalists as not strong enough.
    
Arguing over the law had brought the ruling coalition close to
collapse until it agreed to water down the original bill.
    
    
    * Watering down energy efficiency plans
  
Italy's right-wing government is pushing back on an array of
European Union initiatives aimed at greening the economy,
arguing that local business can ill-afford transition goals.
    
Italy has demanded that the EU water down a directive aimed at
improving the energy efficiency of buildings, rewrite plans to
phase out combustion engine cars and questioned a drive to slash
industrial emissions.
    
Under current policies, Italy is behind schedule in hitting the
decarbonization goals for 2030.
 
       
    * Going a step further
  
Poland's government, long conservative on environmental policies
at home and facing elections in October, has gone a step further
by suing Brussels.
    
So far it says it has filed complaints with the Court of Justice
on the EU's 2035 ban on combustion vehicles, the increase in the
bloc's emissions reductions target, the reduction of free CO2
permits, and what it called interference in national forest
management.
    
Facing pressure from mining unions, Poland has also deferred a
plan to cut its reliance on coal by downgrading the status of
its upcoming energy policy update to simply a "consultation".
    
    
    * Talking Points   
    * Switzerland's glaciers suffered their second worst melt
rate
this year after record 2022 losses, shrinking their overall
volume by 10% in the last two years, monitoring body GLAMOS
said.

    * The tentative deal Hollywood writers reached with the
major
studios and streaming services could serve as a template for
actors, who have been on strike since mid-July. Writers and
actors share common concerns, including the desire for higher
pay and for curbs on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in
entertainment. Click here for an in-depth feature from our
reporters Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine.

    * A federal judge in Texas ruled that the state's new law
limiting
public drag performances was an unconstitutional restriction on
speech and he permanently forbade enforcement of it. "This is no
different than a person's opinion on certain comedy or genres of
music, but that alone does not strip First Amendment
protection," U.S. District Judge David Hittner wrote.

    * A leading volcanologist has warned that mass evacuations
might
be needed in a town close to Naples, which sits on a so-called
Super Volcano that has been hit by hundreds of small earthquakes
in recent weeks.

    * Shell CEO Wael Sawan has come under pressure over his
strategy
from within the energy company after two employees issued a rare
open letter urging him not to scale back investments in
renewable energy, sparking an internal debate.

    *         Breakingviews: Reuters Breakingviews global editor
Peter
Thal Larsen shares his take on the new hurdles hitting the green
energy boom. Click here for more on how fracturing supply chains
and higher interest rates are pushing up prices, testing the
resolve of consumers and governments. 

     
    
    * In Conversation
  
    Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, minister of industry and advanced
technology of the United Arab Emirates and COP28 President
Designate, shares his thoughts on what he hopes will come out of
the summit:
  
“I am calling on leaders from both the public and private sector
to come to COP28 with real and actionable commitments to address
climate change.
    “We need to rapidly decarbonize both the supply side and
demand side of the energy system at the same time. 
  
    “We need to triple renewable energy by 2030, commercialize
other zero carbon solutions like hydrogen and scale up the
energy system free of all unabated fossil fuels, while we
eliminate the emissions of the energies we use today.
  
    “We need to protect and enhance nature, safeguard carbon
sinks and transform food systems that account for one third of
emissions. And we need fundamental reform of the international
financial architecture that was built for the last century.
  
    “I believe we can deliver all of this while creating
sustainable economic growth for our people, but we must urgently
disrupt business as usual and unite like never before to move
from ambition to action and from rhetoric to real results.”
  
 
    
    * ESG Lens 
     
Four of South African state utility Eskom's 15 coal-fired power
plants are breaching government emissions regulations as it
pushes aging facilities to their limits, a Reuters analysis of
company data found and Eskom officials confirmed.
    Africa's most developed economy is facing its worst power
crisis on record, with a persistent electricity shortfall
necessitating daily scheduled rolling blackouts - known locally
as ‘load shedding’ - of up to 10 hours for the past 18 months.
    
     
    * ESG Spotlight 
Today’s spotlight shines a light on women in business in Somalia
and Pakistan, from running newsrooms to managing a skill center
for Afghan refugees.
    
    Fathi Mohamed Ahmed runs the first and only all-female
newsroom in Somalia, one of the most dangerous places on the
planet to be a reporter.
    
With more than 50 journalists killed since 2010, Somalia is the
most dangerous country for journalists in Africa, according to
Reporters Without Borders.
    
Bilan, the media house where Ahmed works as chief editor,
produces a daily mix of hard news and in-depth features for
local and sometimes international audiences.
    
In its almost 18 months of operation Bilan, which means “to
shine a light”, has overcome prejudice and insecurity to
illuminate some of the most taboo subjects in Somalia, including
a female drug epidemic, albinism, women living with HIV and
period shame.
    
    Over in a 
    small workshop in the bustling northwestern Pakistani city
of Peshawar, a dozen Afghan women sit watching a teacher show
them how to make clothes on a sewing machine.
    
The skills center was set up last year by Peshawar resident
Mahra Basheer, 37, after seeing the steady influx of people from
neighboring Afghanistan where they face an economic crisis and
growing restrictions on women since the Taliban took over in
2021.
    
Trying to create options for women to become financially
independent, she opened the workshop to teach tailoring as well
as digital skills and beauty treatments. Basheer quickly found
hundreds of women enrolling and has a long wait list.
    
    
    * Quote of the Day
  
    “I was recently told by someone on Capitol Hill that a
carbon tax can’t pass because it would be too effective. He
wasn’t speaking about Republicans as much as he was about
Democrats in fossil-fuel-dependent states. But ESG may meet
increasing resistance. If a carbon tax can crest that hill just
one time, that would be that, a lot else would fall into place.”
  
    Ray Welch, energy consultant at international grassroots
environmental group, Citizens' Climate Lobby
  
        
  
        
  
    * Looking Ahead
  
    * Next week the team behind the Daily Briefing is launching
One
Essential Read. This newsletter will highlight a standout story
each day diving deeper into the news – from exclusive reporting
and long reads to photo essays and interactive graphics.  Sign
up here.
    *         Sept. 29, Bogota, Colombia: The UN Special
Rapporteur on
the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of
non-recurrence, Fabian Salvioli, will hold a press conference at
the close of his official visit to Colombia to give his outlook
on progress to address the legacy of human rights violations
during the country's nearly 60 years of conflict.
    *         Sept. 29, Paris, France: France's ministry of
energy
will host a government-industry conference on nuclear energy.
    *         Sept. 29, Laxgalts’ap, Canada: A totem pole is
repatriated to the Nisga'a village of Lax̱g̱altsʼap during a
homecoming ceremony in British Columbia.
    *         Oct. 3, Sydney, Australia: Australians in Sydney
vote
early in a referendum to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people in the constitution and enshrine in it an
advisory body called the Voice to Parliament that would give
non-binding advice to lawmakers on matters concerning the
continent’s first inhabitants.

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Kendal power plants emissions from Aug 2022 to Jan 2023    https://tmsnrt.rs/3LADD1G
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