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It’s been a strong start to the week for climate policy in the United States as Democrats scored a major policy victory when the Senate passed a $430 billion climate change, healthcare and tax bill. Elsewhere, the European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to align their climate disclosure standards with existing EU and U.S. rules. Meanwhile, vulnerable countries ramp up demands for rich countries to pay compensation for losses inflicted on the world’s poorest people by climate change.
The package passed by the U.S. Senate, called the Inflation Reduction Act, is a dramatically scaled-back version of a prior bill that was blocked by Senate Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as too expensive. The bill aims to reduce the carbon emissions that drive climate change while also cutting drug costs for the elderly. With $370 billion in climate-focused spending, it would become the most consequential climate change bill ever passed by Congress.
The bill offers businesses and families billions in incentives to encourage purchases of electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances. It also spurs new investments in wind and solar power that would double the amount of new, clean electricity-generating capacity coming online in the United States by 2024, according to modeling by the Repeat Project at Princeton University.
The new climate bill comes as the ECB and IMF urged global standard setters, like the Frankfurt-based ISSB, to come up with company climate disclosures that align with European and U.S. alternatives. While widely backing the creation of global norms, many call for better definitions of key concepts, a longer phase-in, and stress the need for them to be 'interoperable' with standards being written by the European Union and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The ECB called on the ISSB and other standard setters to "iron out" differences and come up with baseline standards which are widely implemented globally as the EU aims to finalize its first batch of ESG disclosure rules by November, with the ISSB expected to finalize its own rules by year end.
Elsewhere, tensions are mounting ahead of this year's U.N. climate summit, with vulnerable countries finding it difficult to get loss and damage finance into the COP27 discussions, as a proposal to add it to the agenda has not yet won broad support. Putting the topic on the COP27 agenda could open up discussions on where the money would come from, how it would be distributed or even how to define climate-induced losses.
Some research suggests such losses could reach $580 billion per year by 2030. Negotiators at last year's COP26 U.N. summit agreed to launch a two-year dialogue on loss and damage, but stopped short of setting up an actual fund.
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| | | | | |  | | | | A view of dried out ground in Verulamium Park, following a long period of little rainfall and hot weather, in St Albans, Britain, August 8, 2022. REUTERS/Matthew Childs | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dr Christian Thiel, CEO of Norwegian energy storage company EnergyNest | | | | “Europe is walking a tightrope. A record-shattering heatwave disrupted transportation and threatened food systems, while over-reliance on Russian gas has led to discussions on how best to curb gas usage and ration energy to ensure supply for the coming winter months. Weaning off fossil fuels is not just a climate issue anymore, it’s an economic necessity and a critical matter of security.
“As we look ahead to the next decade, it’s evident we are not prepared. Already, our systems are straining. Modernizing these systems will be critical to facilitating the energy transition, bolstering human resilience to natural disasters and extreme weather, and strengthening our energy security from external threats.
“We know the answer is more renewables. But we also know that unless we reduce our energy consumption and ensure successful integration of renewables within the grid, our bills will remain high and energy security will continue to be precarious. Energy storage is a key piece of the puzzle. To keep up with the rising flexibility needs of renewable generation, storage capacity will need to grow, on average, by 38% annually.
“We need a readily-available solution that allows us to store excess energy for later use when generation is low or consumption is high.” | | | | | | |  | | | Degrowth - the idea that a finite planet cannot sustain ever-increasing consumption - is about the closest you can get to a heresy in economics, where growth is widely held as the best route to prosperity.
But, as climate change accelerates and supply chain disruptions offer rich-world consumers an unaccustomed taste of scarcity, the theory is becoming less taboo and some have started to ponder what a degrowth world might look like. | | | | | | | UK-headquartered asset manager Insight Investment has appointed David McNeil as head of responsible investment research. McNeil joins Insight from American credit rating agency Fitch Ratings, where he spent three years – most recently as head of climate risk. He was particularly associated with climate vulnerability scores for rated sectors. He was previously a senior analyst at Trucost, part of credit rating agency S&P, and an environmental economics consultant for global consulting and tech services company ICF International.
German solar power construction company Belectric has appointed Dr. Thorsten Blanke as its new chief executive officer (CEO). He currently serves as chief commercial officer of Belectric and will succeed Ingo Alphus. Alphus will join Elevion, Beletric’s parent company, as its new country manager in Germany and Austria. Blanke brings more than 10 years of experience in developing and building large-scale solar farms. | | | | Ostara, a Canadian-based phosphate fertilizer and nutrient management firm, has appointed Kerry Cebul as CEO. Cebul has 15 years of experience building and investing in organizations to scale sustainable solutions in agriculture and energy markets. He joins Ostara from Grosvenor Food & AgTech where he supported the firm’s expansion into the United States. Prior to Grosvenor, he was a founding member of a sustainable farmland investment and management firm, SLM Partners’ North American grains fund.
The U.S. Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards (CFPBS) has hired Kate Healy as managing director of the CFP Board’s Center for Financial Planning, with a focus on generating a more diverse workforce in the wealth management sector. Formerly a senior executive with TD Ameritrade, Healy has a long history with the CFP Board dating back to 2013 when she became an inaugural member of the group’s Women’s Initiative. | | | | | | | | “We’ve already seen the impact of rising gas prices on larger firms – with the food and drink industry suffering in particular. Small businesses are also set to feel the consequences, and reduced levels of cash-flow and liquidity will only make things worse for many.” | | | | Alan Thomas, UK CEO at Simply Business, a small business insurance provider | | | | | | | • | Danish wind turbine maker Vestas will post its second-quarter results tomorrow. | | | | | • | RWE, Germany's largest power producer, will release first-half results on Aug. 11 and update investors on its Russia exposure two weeks after raising its full-year outlook. | | | | | • | Renewable energy group Orsted will post its second-quarter results on August 11. | | | | | • | South Africa's police, mining and home affairs ministers brief the country's upper house of parliament on Aug. 11 on illegal mining and crime in communities adjacent to illegal mining areas. | | | | | | | | | We think you may like these: | | |
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