Published on 12/08/2024
Canada to invest up to $1 billion in oil sands carbon capture projects
Canada’s government-backed Canada Growth Fund (CGF) announced in July the creation of a new strategic partnership with oil and gas producer Strathcona Resources agreement to jointly invest up to C$2 billion (USD$730 million) for the development of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) infrastructure on Strathcona’s Saskatchewan and Alberta oil sands facilities. The new agreement marks CGF’s sixth investment to date, with other investments including $200 million in Calgary-based carbon capture startup Entropy, and $90 million in Calgary-based geothermal energy company Eavor Technologies.
“This partnership is a breakthrough in Canada’s journey towards decarbonizing the oil and gas sector. Alongside CGF, Strathcona intends to advance Canada’s first CCS projects in the heavy oil sector.” said Patrick Charbonneau, President & CEO of CGF.
The chocolate industry searches for less polluting solutions
The chocolate from this Genevan chocolatier does not contain a gram of refined sugar, its sweetness comes solely from cocoa juice. "It offers fruity and tangy notes thanks to its cocoa juice," says Yvan Loubet, chocolatier master in Geneva. More than 3000 small farmers produce this cocoa juice in Ghana for the Zurich startup Koa. It comes from the pulp of the fruit, which is normally thrown away, but the company has set up a mobile extraction process. This juice is then pasteurized, and shipped to Europe.
The company operates in a difficult sector: the chocolate industry is regularly criticized due to child labor and the too low wages of producers, among other things. But by buying cocoa juice from farmers, in addition to the beans, their income increases by about 25%. This product therefore allows a virtuous circle.
At the Polytechnic School of Zurich, a researcher has gone even further in the valorization of the cocoa fruit, composed of 25% beans, 25% pulp from which the juice is extracted, and the endocarp. He transforms it into powder to be mixed with cocoa juice. The valorization of the cocoa fruit is maximal, explains Kim Mishra, lecturer in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETHZ.
Denmark will be first to impose CO2 tax on farms
Denmark, a major pork and dairy exporter, will introduce a tax on livestock carbon dioxide emissions from 2030, making it the first country to do so and hoping to inspire others to follow. A tax was first proposed in February by government-commissioned experts to help Denmark reach a legally binding 2030 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from 1990 levels.
The government reached a wide-ranging compromise with farmers, industry, labour unions and environmental groups on policy linked to farming, the country's largest source of CO2 emissions. "We will be the first country in the world to introduce a real CO2 tax on agriculture. Other countries will be inspired by this," declared Taxation Minister Jeppe Bruus.
The deal proposed taxing farmers 300 Danish crowns ($43.16) per tonne of CO2 in 2030, increasing to 750 crowns by 2035. Farmers will be entitled to an income tax deduction of 60%, meaning that the actual cost per tonne will start at 120 crowns and increase to 300 crowns by 2035, while subsidies will be made available to support adjustments in farm operations.
Sources: Reuters, Carbon Brief, Reasons to be cheerful, Novethic
SBTi CEO to resign after backlash over carbon offsets rules
Luiz Amaral, the managing director of the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi), has announced his departure from the initiative effective at the end of July, citing personal reasons that require him to focus his attention elsewhere. This departure comes in a particularly turbulent context for the SBTi, which has been facing criticism for its model of validating corporate climate targets for several months. The initiative indeed announced in early April that it wants to integrate the use of carbon offsetting into its methodology. Companies could thus buy carbon credits to offset their scope 3 emissions (those generated using their products) and validate their science-based trajectory. A decision that has sparked a backlash from NGOs and scientists who have pointed out that the use of carbon credits cannot substitute for a real emission reduction strategy.
The initiative's collaborators also participated in the wave of protest against the organization's decision. They even went so far as to call for the resignation of Luiz Amaral and part of the board of directors, emphasizing that the decision was made without following the usual scientific validation procedures. Ten days after the announcement of its decision, the SBTi published a second statement regretting "that the statement could be subject to misinterpretation". The initiative assured that the use of market instruments, such as carbon credits, would be accompanied by safeguards to ensure the reduction of emissions in the long term.
Nobel-winning pioneer of microfinance M. Yusuf from risking life in jail to heading Bangladesh’s interim government
M. Yunus is credited with pioneering microfinance, a financial service for people locked out of formal banking systems. It allows them to take out small loans to invest in building their own businesses. Piloted in 1976 among a group of women in a Bangladeshi village who were given small loans without needing collateral, by the mid-2000s it was seen as a key tool for ending poverty. Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the Nobel peace prize for the work in 2006.
In January, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, along with three other people, for violating labour laws at Grameen Telecom, the not-for-profit company he founded in 1983. He is now on bail pending an appeal but has been charged with more than 100 other crimes, all of which he denies. “I can’t concentrate on anything because I’m busy digging up documents to prove that I didn’t do this, documents to prove that I never did that.” said Yunus.
Early in August, it has been announced by Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of the country’s figurehead president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, that Yunus will be the head of Bangladesh’s interim government after the longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising that left hundreds of people dead and pushed the south Asian country to the brink of chaos. Yunus, who had called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day”, faced corruption charges during her rule that he derided as politically motivated.
His lawyers told the Guardian that a Dhaka court had overturned a conviction for labour law violations, one of scores of charges against him in the courts that Yunus said were part of a campaign of legal harassment prompted by Hasina.
Sources: Bloomberg, The Guardian, The Guardian
How lawyers are gearing up to fight for the oceans
A few years ago, Anna von Rebay gave up her lucrative job in a corporate law firm specialising in art law to concentrate on her passion for the ocean. “All threats to the sea come from humans, who behave as though nature is nothing more than a resource,” says Von Rebay, who works in Germany and Indonesia. “But the ocean can’t stand up for itself.” Inspired by a rising wave of lawsuits seeking to hold governments and companies to account for climate action, she set up Ocean Vision Legal, a law firm with a unique remit: to litigate on the ocean’s behalf.
In January, Von Rebay’s firm initiated preliminary proceedings against Germany on behalf of Bund, a German conservation NGO, for issuing fishing licences that allow bottom trawling, a destructive fishing practice, in a marine protected area (MPA) of the Dogger Bank.
Von Rebay is not the only lawyer exploring litigation as a tool against an industry as yet in its infancy but which could pose one of the greatest threats to the oceans. One of the world’s biggest environmental groups, the WWF, announced in May that it is suing the Norwegian government for opening up its seabed for deep-sea mining, claiming that Norway has failed to properly investigate the consequences of such activity.
And there have been other notable successes on behalf of the world’s seas. Perhaps the most significant came in May, when nine small island states won a historic climate case, which ruled that all signatories to a treaty known as the United Nations convention on the law of the sea (Unclos), must do more to protect the oceans from the impacts of global heating.
Source: The Guardian
Stellantis to expand hybrid vehicle line to meet growing demand
- Company: Stellantis
- Sector: Automobiles & Components
- Clover rating: 5/10
Stellantis said in July that it would expand its line of affordable hybrid vehicles to 36 models in Europe by 2026, to meet growing demand for this engine type, an alternative to petrol-fuelled cars and electric vehicles. Stellantis, which did not say how many such hybrid models it already sells, said it was responding to the quick ramp-up of customer orders for hybrids in Europe. It added that its sales of this kind of vehicle in the region rose 41% in the first six months this year.
The group said in June its EV sales were stable since the beginning of 2024 despite softer demand globally. Stellantis said it was focusing on selling "mild hybrid" vehicles, those without a plug and that use a 48-volt low-voltage battery, a dual-clutch robotic gearbox and a reinforced braking energy-recovery system.
Sources: Reuters, Stellantis
Google antitrust ruling may pose $20 billion risk for Apple
- Companies: Alphabet, Apple Inc
- Sector: Media & Entertainment, Technology Hardware & Equipment
- Clover rating: 5/10, 5/10
Apple's lucrative deal with Google could be under threat after a U.S. judge ruled that the Alphabet-owned search giant was operating an illegal monopoly. A potential remedy for Google to avoid antitrust actions could involve terminating the agreement, which makes its search engine a default on Apple devices, Wall Street analysts said on Tuesday. Google pays Apple $20 billion annually, or about 36% of what it earns from search advertising made through the Safari browser, for the privilege, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. The pact runs until at least September 2026 and Apple has the right to unilaterally extend it for another two years, according to media reports in May that cited a document filed by the Department of Justice in the antitrust case.
Analysts agree that the ruling will speed up Apple's move towards AI-powered search services. It recently announced that it would bring OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot to its devices. In a shift away from exclusive deals that would help Apple ward off regulatory scrutiny, the company has said it is also in talks with Google to add the Gemini chatbot and plans to add other AI models as well.
Sources: Reuters, Yahoo finance
Illegal drilling, fraud, contaminations: Nestlé Waters is accumulating troubles
- Company: Nestlé
- Sector: Food & Beverages
- Clover rating: 5/10
According to Mediapart, the company has reportedly extracted nearly 19 billion liters of water from nine wells for the benefit of Contrex and Vittel waters, in eastern France since 1992. The public prosecutor's office in Epinal confirmed that a preliminary investigation has been opened, in addition to the one already initiated in January against the company, accused of deception for subjecting its mineral waters to illegal treatments.
Several associations, including France Nature Environnement and the eau88 collective, had filed complaints in 2020 against Nestlé for the illegal exploitation of these wells in an overexploited groundwater table. The wells in question had been identified in a report by the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), commissioned by the public prosecutor's office in Epinal, which found that they had never obtained the necessary authorizations.
This controversy adds to those affecting Nestlé Waters for months. The company has notably admitted to commercializing bottled mineral waters that had undergone illegal filtrations and treatments, similar to those used for tap water.
Nestlé Waters' overall model seems to be significantly weakened now. This year, contamination incidents have also multiplied in the company's water extraction sites, especially those of its Perrier brand in the southeast of France. Bacterial and chemical contaminations, exacerbated by extreme weather conditions, forced the company to destroy nearly 2 million bottles of Perrier. Last year, two other wells belonging to the Hépar brand had to be stopped due to drought and climate change.
China’s clean energy pushes coal to record-low 53% share of power in May 2024
Clean energy generated a record-high 44% of China’s electricity in May 2024, pushing coal’s share down to a record low of 53%, despite continued growth in demand. Coal lost seven percentage points compared with May 2023, when it accounted for 60% of generation in China.
With clean energy expanding by more than the rise in electricity demand, fossil fuel output was forced into retreat, seeing the largest monthly drop since the Covid 19 pandemic. Gas generation fell by 4TWh (16%) and that from coal by 16TWh (4%). Falling generation from fossil fuels point to a 3.6% drop in CO2 emissions from the power sector, which accounts for around two-fifths of China’s total greenhouse gas emissions and has been the dominant source of emissions growth in recent years.
If current rapid wind and solar deployment continues, then China’s CO2 output is likely to continue falling, making 2023 the peak year for the country’s emissions.
Source: Carbon Brief