The latest insights from the We Mean Business coalition

April 22, 2022

Net Zero Transition – Latest signals of change (22.04.22)

We Mean Business Coalition

Here are just some of the signals of change from the past week, demonstrating the transition to a resilient and inclusive net-zero economy.

Celebrating SME climate action this Earth Day

To mark Earth Day today, the SME Climate Hub, hosted by We Mean Business Coalition, is asking global companies, supply chain leaders and small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) to #InvestInOurPlanet and take decisive climate action. Find out more and participate in the campaign here.

Net-Zero Economy

It’s been rollercoaster week for US climate policy. On the one hand, the Biden administration is repealing a Trump era change to the National Environmental Policy Act, requiring the climate impacts of new infrastructure projects and local communities’ input to be considered ahead of federal approval. On the other hand, the administration will restart oil and gas leasing on federal lands, repealing one of Biden’s first acts in office. If this leaves you with mixed emotions, you’re in good company with Christina Figueres, who reacts with outrage and optimism to new research published in Nature, showing that pledges by countries to reduce emissions made since the Paris agreement could keep warming within 2ºC, if met on time. Meanwhile in Sweden, political parties agreed to include consumption-based emissions within national climate targets making it the first country in the world to consider overseas emissions reporting.

Energy

With its goal to secure a carbon-free power grid by 2045, California got a glimpse into that future this month, when the main grid ran on a record-beating over 97% renewable energy on 3 April. Meanwhile European nations are scrambling to accelerate the shift away from Russian fossil fuels, leading the European Commission to assess whether it can achieve a higher target of a 45% share of renewable energy by 2030, up from 40%. Green energy storage is also having a moment, with the ongoing transition creating an opening for pump storage facilities dubbed the ‘world’s largest batteries’. A radical breakthrough by scientists at a Swedish university this week created a system that can capture and store solar energy for up to 18 years, releasing heat when needed, potentially paving the way for self-charging electronics.

Transport

Facing challenges to scale up traditional charging stations in crowded urban cities, India is launching an innovative battery-swapping program allowing delivery fleets to swap out depleted batteries for charged ones. Meanwhile in Vermont, USA, Alia, an experimental aircraft built by aviation start-up Beta has taken off and landed without a runway. As demand for battery electric vehicles soars, so does demand for raw materials for battery production. Nations worldwide are eyeing up a domestic supply, and commercial lithium extraction by Cornish Lithium is due to begin in Cornwall, UK, from 2025/2026 at a rate of 10,000 tonnes annually.

Land and Nature

YSL Beauty and global NGO Re:wild have launched a global program aimed at protecting and restoring 100,000 hectares by 2030, to safeguard biodiversity in key sourcing areas. Focusing on farming, Dairy giant Arla Foods wants to pay farmers more for low-emissions milk, incentivizing the use of greener agricultural practices. Ending deforestation in EU and US supply chains is the goal behind The National Confectionary Association’s announcement of support for mandatory supply chain due diligence efforts. Finally, following an Indigenous-led campaign, Quebec’s Magpie River has been granted personhood, providing legal rights akin to those held by New Zealand’s Whanganui River and USA’s Klamath River.

Built Environment and Heavy Industry

The Hybrit initiativ, a joint venture between Vattenfall, LKAB and SSAB, has received €143 million worth of grants from the EU Innovation Fund. As the world’s first large-scale demonstration project for hydrogen-fuelled green steel, this represents a forward leap in decarbonizing steel production which produces 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. It’s good news for permanent carbon-removal too, with a supergroup of companies including Alphabet, McKinsey, Meta, Shopify and Stripe putting forward a $295 million dollar commitment to speed up carbon capture technology between now and 2030. Hanson UK (HeidelbergCement) is building the UK’s first net-zero cement factory in north Wales which will capture up to 800,000t of CO2 per year. The site will tap into a now-depleted gas reserve in the Irish Sea to store the captured CO2 emissions using an existing pipeline with no need for new infrastructure.