 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682800&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34117914&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682801&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34117914&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682802&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34117914&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682803&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34117914&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682804&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34117914&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
|
Hello!
European climate politics is the focus of today’s newsletter as the European Parliament election this year could make passing environmental policies harder if the vote delivers the “sharp right turn” that recent opinion polls suggest, researchers said.
EU citizens are set to elect in June a new EU parliament – the body of 705 lawmakers which, alongside member countries’ representatives, passes new EU policies and laws.
The election is expected to yield more seats for populist, right-wing parties, and losses for center-left and green parties, producing an “anti-climate policy action” coalition in the Parliament, according to a study commissioned by the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.
“This would significantly undermine the EU’s Green Deal framework and the adoption and enforcement of common policies to meet the EU’s net zero targets,” the study said.
Here’s what else is on my radar today:
|
|
|
French farmers drive tractors during a protest over price pressures, taxes and green regulation, in Rennes, Brittany, France REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
|
|
|
The EU has passed a raft of environmental measures to cut CO2 emissions, curb pollution and protect nature in the last few years – interlinked issues that Brussels has said must be tackled in tandem.
Yet recent environmental laws have met pushback from some governments, lawmakers and industries concerned about cost and red tape.
One such example can be seen in France’s agriculture sector. This week, protesting farmers blocked roads across France to press the government to ease its drive for lower consumer prices and loosen environmental regulations.
|
|
|
Many farmers struggle financially and say their livelihoods are threatened as food retailers are increasing pressure to bring down prices after a period of high inflation.
“There are too many regulations,” Thomas Bonnet, the head of a youth farmers’ union in southwestern France’s Castelnaudary area, told Reuters at a blockade.
Fearing a spillover from farmer unrest in Germany, Poland and Romania, President Emmanuel Macron’s government has already withdrawn a contested draft farming law that would have helped more people become farmers.
Macron is also wary of farmers’ growing support for the far-right ahead of the European Parliament elections in June. A small group of French farmers also protested near the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels.
As the EU’s Green Deal of environmental policies is rolled out, farmers’ increased work and costs need to be reflected in product prices, Waitz said. He urged the 27-member EU to make sure imported goods also have to meet high environmental standards to avoid unfair competition.
|
Speaking of environmental standards, European Union lawmakers backed a two-year delay to sector-specific rules for the oil, energy and mining industries.
The laws would require more detailed disclosures on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. The EU delayed the rules citing the need to ease regulatory burdens on companies.
The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee approved a draft proposal from the European Commission to delay eight sector standards by two years until June 2026. EU member state approval is also needed.
The aim is to give companies time to focus on implementing initial, broader ESG disclosures they must include in their annual reports for 2024 and onwards under the EU’s corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD).
The delay is yet another sign of how climate-related rulemaking is facing some pushback in the EU after a welter of legislation, echoing a larger backlash in the United States.
Click here for a Thomson Reuters white paper on the state of ESG activity and backlash around the world.
|
|
|
A 3D model of a 70-days-old southern white rhino foetus at a press conference of the world’s first successful embryo transfer at Tierpark Zoo in Berlin, Germany. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
|
|
|
- Scientists in Berlin announced the first successful embryo transfer in a white rhinoceros using a method that offers hope for saving the critically endangered northern white rhino subspecies from extinction.
- A group of investors managing more than $25 trillion said they plan to challenge mining companies that have not yet committed to a tailings dam best-practice standard and may vote against management at upcoming annual meetings.
- Energy Transfer does not expect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to shut down the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL) after a long-pending environmental review of a section that runs under a lake and is opposed by nearby Native American tribes, Executive Chair Kelcy Warren said.
- Train drivers walked off the job on Wednesday in Germany’s longest rail strike yet, stranding commuters and piling pain on the country’s economy, with both sides far from agreement. Across Europe, transport workers have staged strikes to demand higher wages to cope with the impact of inflation.
- A national park that provides clean water to Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown is critically under threat due to human activities such as land grabbing, charcoal burning, quarrying and marijuana cultivation, a U.N. report said.
- Breakingviews: Working less may be the key to producing more. Pilot schemes have led to revenue increases and sharp declines in burnout rates and churn. It’s a way for CEOs to keep wages in check while making staff happy and freeing them up to spend more. Click here for the full feature by Breakingviews’ European business editor Lisa Jucca.
|
|
|
Morris DeFeo, chair of the corporate department at New York law firm Herrick, Feinstein LLP, shares his thoughts on the pushback against ESG initiatives:
“ESG matters, like everything, have become politically charged, and in this environment polarizing.
“Lawsuits and regulatory action—whether seen as promoting or limiting ESG investments—are going to be a factor as they always are.
“It’s important to note that some of these suits and regulatory efforts, including for example by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), center on the accuracy of disclosures relating to a company’s or fund’s ESG investments, practices or consequences, rather than on the merits of ESG-related efforts.
“Many market participants are strongly committed to seeing capital invested in favor of important environmental and social goals and are willing to accept tradeoffs in the amount or timing of economic returns.
“As long as financial and strategic investors see the prospect for good returns on ESG-related investments, capital will continue to flow into investment entities and operating companies that are focused on ESG-related matters, including renewable energy solutions and other technologies.”
|
|
|
Silveria Cutipa mixes chemical processes in the garden of her home, which she turned into a lab to make soap produced from recycled oils, in La Paz, Bolivia REUTERS/Claudia Morales
|
|
|
Our spotlight shines a light on a recycling initiative in La Paz, Bolivia where an Indigenous Bolivian chemist is turning used cooking oil into soap.
Silveria Cutipa Pari claims to have gotten the idea for her project while at university where she learned that discarded cooking oil was a high pollutant. She now runs a company transforming it into products like laundry soap, hand and body soap.
“Our cleaning products are natural and ecological. They don’t harm the environment and they don’t harm our water resources in comparison with large-scale companies or industrial companies that produce detergents,” said Pari.
Pari’s project follows a similar oil waste-to-soap company formed by Martial-Gervais Oden Bella, an industrial chemistry technician from Cameroon, reported by non-profit organization SciDev. Net in 2019.
|
|
|
- Jan. 29, Tokyo, Japan: Three foreign-born citizens and residents of Japan – one born in Pakistan, an African American, and a Pacific Islander – will file a lawsuit against the Japanese government to stop alleged racial profiling by police officers, according to their lawyers.
- Jan. 30, Frankfurt, Germany: Engineering group VDMA will issue data for wind energy installations in 2023 and provide a look ahead at whether a target of 30 GW capacity by 2030 is realistic.
- Jan. 31, Georgia, United States: A federal appeals court will consider whether a venture capital fund can move forward with a program that awards funding to businesses run by Black women in a case by Edward Blum, an American conservative strategist and anti-affirmative action speaker, who is behind the U.S. Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious college admissions policies.
- Jan. 31, Washington D.C., United States: The CEOs of Discord, Snap and X, formerly known as Twitter, were issued subpoenas to compel them to testify at a hearing on online child sexual exploitation, according to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
