What's going on in the world of ESG, CSRD, CSDDD, SDGs etc...
1. ITALY LAUNCHES SHEIN INVESTIGATION OVER GREENWASHING
The Italian Competition Authority is investigating Shein’s website over possible misleading claims about the environmental sustainability of Shein branded clothing.
The Authority alleges that the website conveys an image of sustainability of its clothing through generic, vague, confusing and/or misleading environmental claims regarding circularity and product quality and their responsible consumption.
This comes as the new EU’s Green Claims Directive has set standards for companies to substantiate and verify claims and labels about environmental attributes of products and services and established the Ecodesign framework that sets sustainability guidelines for nearly all products across the EU.
2. DOZENS DEAD AS HELENE PUMMELS SOUTH-EASTERN US
It is almost a habit now: This week’s climate change induced disaster comes from the US. Will it cause any change in behaviour?
Hurricane Helene left a path of destruction as it raged across the south-east US, killing at least 65 people, causing dangerous flooding and leaving millions without power.
Florida residents who stayed behind, after being advised to evacuate, were asked to write their names on their body in permanent ink so their dead body could be identified!
The fact that many still stayed, and many died, makes me wonder what it takes to make some people take climate change seriously.
Do you think this tragedy will persuade some US voters to choose a presidential candidate who acknowledges climate change?
3. WE ARE ABOUT TO CROSS THE SEVENTH PLANET BOUNDARY
According to the new Planetary Health Check Report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Ocean Acidification will be the seventh planetary boundary to be crossed. Six (out of nine) are already crossed.
"As CO2 emissions increase, more dissolves in sea water... breaching the acidification boundary appears to be inevitable.”
The nine planetary boundaries are (1) Climate Change, (2) Biosphere Integrity, (3) Biogeochemical Flows, (4) Land System Change, (5) Ocean Acidification, (6) Freshwater Use, (7) Novel Entities, (8) Aerosol Pollution, and (9) Ozone Depletion. All but (8) and (9) will have exceeded their boundaries.
All boundaries are interconnected, so if we improve one, all benefit. However, any degradation impacts all boundaries too.
4. GLOBAL HEATING DOUBLED EUROPE’S RISK OF EXTREME RAIN
Planet-heating pollution doubled the risk of extreme levels of rain that hammered central Europe in September, a study has found.
The study found global heating aggravated the four days of rainfall that led to deadly floods in countries from Austria to Romania.
“The trend is clear,” said Bogdan Chojnicki, a climate scientist at Poznań University of Life Sciences. “If humans keep filling the atmosphere with fossil fuel emissions, the situation will be more severe.”
In mid-September, Storm Boris unleashed record-breaking rains in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Heavy rains turned calm streams into wild rivers, triggering floods that wrecked homes and killed two dozen people.
5. EU PROPOSES CARBON FOOTPRINT LABELS FOR FLIGHTS
The European Commission has launched a consultation on a new proposed EU Flight Emissions Label (FEL), to provide passengers with info about their flight’s carbon footprint.
Passengers – 80% of whom want to know how much CO2 is linked to their flights – would now get that info when booking online.
Much of the information currently available is not standardised, as airlines that do provide emissions data often use different methods for measuring carbon. Recently, airlines have been accused with greenwashing over misleading claims on environmental impact.
The FEL provides for a single standard and will include factors such as aircraft type, average passenger numbers and freight volume, as well as aviation fuel used.
6. LARGEST FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS TO SUPPORT NUCLEAR
Fourteen of the world's largest financial institutions have pledged support for nuclear energy, recognising the role nuclear energy plays in achieving a low-carbon economy.
This announcement was made during New York Climate Week and aligns with goals set at the COP28 climate negotiations.
The support from these financial institutions, such as Bank of America, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, is seen as pivotal. Historically they were slow to finance nuclear projects due to political and public concerns.
Nuclear energy is viewed by some as essential to ensure a sustainable and secure energy future and, if that is true, collaboration between financial leaders, policymakers, and the nuclear industry is crucial.
7. CALIFORNIA SUES EXXON OVER PLASTICS RECYCLING DECEPTION
California's attorney general is suing ExxonMobil, alleging the oil giant engaged in a “decades-long campaign of deception” about the effectiveness of plastics recycling.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said Exxon is contributing to a "deluge" of plastic pollution, while telling Californians that recycling was a fix. “ExxonMobil lied to further its [record]-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardising our health."
"For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible,” Bonta said.
Exxon blamed California for an inefficient recycling programme. Of course they did.
8. PROJECT 2025 AUTHOR SAYS CLIMATE CHANGE SOUNDS LIKE WEATHER
Kevin D. Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, which published a policy blueprint for the next Republican administration known as Project 2025, dismissed the scientific consensus that humans were warming the planet.
At the New York Times Climate Forward event, he blasted the Biden administration’s climate policies and downplayed the consistent rise in average global temperatures that has triggered more severe drought, heat waves, floods and storms.
“It sounds like weather to me, a hot year,” Mr Roberts said.
Thirty-one of the 38 authors of Project 2025 plan were top advisers to Donald Trump.
This is what we are up against.
9. REPUBLICAN AGS WARN CORPORATES THAT ESG PROMISES ARE ILLEGAL
A group of Republican attorneys general is warning three corporations that their net-zero climate commitments might be illegal if they are deceiving consumers and other relevant stakeholders.
Attorney generals from Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, and Tennessee wrote letters to the CEOs of Target, Tyson Foods, and Ahold Delhaize USA asking for info on their net-zero initiatives to assess if they could be subject to consumer-protection lawsuits.
“Our letter intends to encourage your companies to abandon ESG policies that create undue litigation risk. Those policies embrace impossible-to-achieve goals that create potential for consumer fraud”.
Just another unnecessary battle to fight.
