Shaken Not Burned

Highlighting changemakers and solutions

Glossary - Affordable to abate

Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Liebreich Associates and managing partner of EcoPragma Capital, argues we should stop using the term “hard to abate” because the vast majority of sectors can cut their emissions, as the technologies and policy tools to do so are already a reality. Implementing them may not be the most economical choice, but the consequences of climate change are way more costly. As such, “affordable to abate” provides a more constructive way to discuss the race to net zero, while “hard to abate” risks allowing companies to continue with business as usual because the challenges are deemed insurmountable.

Busting a myth - Fashion is taking great strides in sustainability

Even though there are companies adopting sustainable models, or genuinely making an effort in implementing change, most of the fashion industry is lagging behind climate and emissions-reduction targets. According to the latest report by Fashion Revolution, 86% of companies don’t have a public coal phase-out target, 94% a public renewable energy target, while 92% don’t have a public renewable electricity target for their supply chains.

Considering that switching to renewable energy is often the low-hanging fruit for many industries (one may argue that fashon’s biggest problems are human rights breaches and sheer consumption of water and plastics, which are much more challenging to tackle) it sounds like a lot of work still needs to be done.

What we’ve been reading this week

• The International Seabed Authority has elected UN environmental regulator Leticia Carvalho as its new leader to replace Michael Lodge, who has been accused of working behind the scenes to push for the approval of deep sea mining. Carvalho has expressed a position of neutrality on the matter, but said in an interview industrial-scale mining could only start when environmental regulations are finalised, which could take years.

• The World Benchmarking Alliance has published its first Nature Benchmark, ranking 816 companies across 20 industries. Disappointingly, it finds that only 5% of corporates assess their impact, and less than 1% understand dependencies on nature, meaning that most sustainability efforts so far don’t take nature into account – despite the world already facing a biodiversity crisis.

• Flag carrier Air New Zealand has scrapped 2030 emissions reduction targets due to delays in building new planes, the absence of alternative fuel and “challenging” regulations and policies. It is yet another company that has abandoned lofty targets not rooted in reality, designed without establishing meaningful plans.The aviation industry in particular has been betting on sustainable aviation fuel as a silver bullet, however it is struggling to scale it up and continues to rely on fossil fuels.

• The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market will not allow carbon credits issued under existing renewable energy methodologies to gain the Core Carbon Principles (CCP) designation. This decision may rock the space as this type of credits account for a third of the voluntary carbon market.

• Royal Mint, the official maker of the UK’s coins, is planning to extract gold from electronic waste – such as laptops and smartphones – to cut reliance on mining. The UK, like many other countries, is sitting on growing piles of e-waste which contain many precious minerals; recycling them is a great way to avoid using natural resources and limit the impact of mining on human rights and the environment.