View in Browser

Sign up for Reuters newsletters

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

The United States and the European Union have set their sights on deforestation this week, as Washington announces plans to boost funding to tackle the issue while Brussels approves a landmark supply chain law. And check out today’s ESG Spotlight for a Reuters special report on how climate change is affecting the world’s northernmost year-round research station on a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic.

President Joe Biden will announce plans on Thursday to increase U.S. funding to help developing countries fight climate change and curb deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest during a meeting with leaders from the world’s largest economies.

Biden will convene a virtual meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate as part of his efforts to galvanize support for measures to fight global warming. It is the fourth meeting of the group under his presidency. The countries that take part in the forum account for about 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and global gross domestic product, according to the White House.

The president will announce a U.S. contribution of $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund, which finances projects on clean energy and climate change resilience in developing countries, doubling the overall U.S. contribution, the White House said.

“Operation Green Wave” to combat illegal logging in Apui, in the southern region of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File Photo

He will also announce plans to request $500 million over five years to contribute to the Amazon Fund, which works to combat deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, and related activities. A senior administration official said Biden’s team would have to work with Congress to secure that funding.

On the topic of deforestation, the European Parliament approved a landmark deforestation law to ban imports into the EU of coffee, beef, soy and other commodities if they are linked to the destruction of the world’s forests.

The law will require companies that sell goods into the European Union to produce a due diligence statement and “verifiable” information proving their goods were not grown on land deforested after 2020, or risk hefty fines.

The rules aim to eliminate deforestation from the supply chains of a range of everyday items sold in Europe. It will apply to soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa, coffee, rubber, charcoal, and derived products including leather, chocolate and furniture.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s largest palm oil exporters, have accused the EU of blocking market access for their palm oil. The EU is the world’s third-largest palm oil importer.

Malaysia has said it could stop exporting palm oil to the EU in response to the law, while palm oil smallholders warn that they cannot comply with its requirement to prove where goods were produced, using geolocation data.

Deforestation is responsible for about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, and the landmark law aims to tackle the EU’s contribution to this.

Papa De aka DeLovie Kwagala, a queer Ugandan photographer and LGBTQ rights activist living in Pretoria, South Africa March 31, 2023. REUTERS/Alet Pretorius

Ahead of World Earth Day on April 22, Chris Bennett, co-founder of sustainability services company Evora Global, warns that our cities aren’t designed for climate change:

“The climate emergency has huge, long-term implications for our cities and major buildings. Many cities across the world were all designed for much cooler temperatures than we are experiencing now.

“Last summer, heatwaves brought record breaking temperatures and clearly many people struggled to cope. Offices became unpleasant to work in and just walking down the street was hard. This revealed the drastic need for us to change course.

“Real estate accounts for almost 40 percent of carbon emissions. Our cities are also very pollutive. This is where the action needs to take place.

“In London, for instance, we are blessed with many urban parks and squares that the Georgians and Victorians created. It would be great to see a new generation of parks and green spaces created that are as good or even better than these.

“In some areas parked cars dominate the streets and there are very few trees, it would be good for cities as a whole if this was reversed. Planting street trees increases protection from the climate by reducing heat stress, as well as reducing the degradation of urban construction materials, making buildings last longer.

“We also need workplaces that are well ventilated and which have plenty of natural light and green spaces. I see World Earth Day as an opportunity to rethink, redesign and rebuild our cities for the better.”

The shutdown of Germany’s last remaining nuclear reactors over the weekend means the country’s power producers have no option but to further accelerate their ongoing energy system overhaul.

With natural gas supplies still severely constrained following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, the reactor shutdowns mean that two key sources of baseload power have now been disrupted or cut off to Europe’s largest economy.

NPI (Norwegian Polar Institute) glaciologist Jean-Charles Gallet, 41, speaks to his team, 70 kilometers from Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, April 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

At the world’s northernmost year-round research station, scientists are racing to understand how the fastest-warming place on Earth is changing – and what those changes may mean for the planet’s future.

Around the tiny town of Ny-Aalesund, high above the Arctic circle on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, scientific data is getting harder to access. And sometimes it vanishes before scientists can collect it. And check out another Reuters special report on the citizens living on the dry river in Bangladesh.

Scientists hoping to harvest ice cores are finding glaciers inundated by water. Research sites are getting harder to reach, as earlier springtime melt leaves the ground too barren for snowmobile travel.

While the Arctic is warming about four times faster than the rest of the world, in Svalbard temperatures are climbing even faster — up to seven times the global average.

Children roam around an area where sewage water is directly discharged into the Buriganga river in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 5, 2023.REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Two decades ago Nurul Islam, 70, earned his living by fishing in the Buriganga river that flows southwest of the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka and was once its lifeline.

Now, with hardly any fish to be found in the ‘dead’ river, thanks to pollution from widespread dumping of industrial and human waste, Islam now sells street food on a small cart nearby to make ends meet.

“Twenty years ago this river water was good. It was full of life,” said Islam, whose family has been living on the bank of the river for generations. “We used to bathe in the river. There were lots of fish… many of us used to earn a living by catching fish in the river. Now the scenario has changed.”

“Deforestation is driven by economics. Standing forests are converted because conservation is not an economically viable alternative. Income via carbon credits secures the forest and wildlife local communities live in and around.”

Dr. Maren Pauly, director evaluation & research at Everland, a U.S.-based environmental service firm

Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content.

Sustainable Switch is sent three times a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.

Want to stop receiving this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.
To manage which newsletters you’re signed up for, click here.

Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement