Calls for greater consistency and ambition in policymakers’ climate policies and incentives.  Asset owners are calling for increased policy support and financial incentives to upscale low-carbon technologies to accelerate the net zero transition, as new research from the Inevitable Policy Response (IPR) warns existing global policies are not 1.5°C-aligned.  The UN-convened Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) has published a…

Mia Mottley says conversations on climate finance for developing nations must move from commitments to action.   Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley plans to convene actors from the private and public sector to create viable contractual frameworks for blended finance deals ahead of COP28 in Dubai.  Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative 2023 meeting, on a panel with Noel…

Two new bills have been passed in California as part of a “Climate Accountability Package” that require U.S.-based companies “doing business”[1] in California to make disclosures about their emissions and climate-related financial risks. These are (a) the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (California Senate Bill 253 (SB-253)) and (b) the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (California Senate Bill 261 (SB-261)). The…

Heat-related illnesses and deaths are mostly preventable. However, more than 1220 people die from extreme heat each year, with 3066 succumbing from heat-related illnesses between 2018-2022. During the Summer of 2023, there were 194 confirmed heat-associated deaths in just one Arizona county, while hundreds of other deaths are still under investigation. A recent study estimated that temperature-related deaths in the U.S. could increase fivefold by 2100. Exposure to…

Companies are increasingly recognising that climate risk poses “strategic and operational risk” that could severely impact business operations. On 3 August 2023, United Nations Global Compact released Just Transition in Supply Chains: A Business Brief (the “Brief”).  At the heart of the Brief is a call for businesses to embed the concept of ‘just transition’ into supply chain risk management,…

On 24 August 2023, through Decree No. 11,666/2023, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was enacted in Brazil (the “Amendment“). It was at MOP 28 (Meeting of the Parties) of the Montreal Protocol, in 2016, in the city of Kigali, Rwanda, that the Parties agreed to include HFCs among the substances controlled…

It’s all over but the shouting, as the saying goes. The war on ESG investing, financed by Big Business and waged by political opportunists who built a straw man out of “woke capitalism,” is rapidly running out of steam. “Recent polls show limited enthusiasm among the public for the ‘anti-woke’ culture war that GOP politicians have launched against corporations’ handling…