Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to give away 99% of shares
Facebook‘s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan say they will give away 99% of their shares in the company, worth $45 billion, to good causes as they announce the birth of their daughter Max. The shares will not be donated to charity immediately, but over the course of the couple’s lives. In a letter on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said the donation would go to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, whose initial areas of focus will be “personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities”. Billionaire investor Warren Buffet congratulated Zuckerberg and Chan, proclaiming that when it comes to giving away your fortune, “30 is the new 70”. This week, Zuckerberg was also one of the billionaires who signed on to the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group organized by the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to contribute toward a multibillion-dollar clean energy fund (see below). (BBC, New York Times)
Deforestation
Corporates join governments in bid to stamp out deforestation
Marks & Spencer and Unilever have signed a new pledge committing to prioritise the development of sustainable palm oil, beef, paper and other commodities. Announcing the initiative at the COP21 climate change talks in Paris, Marc Bolland, chief executive of M&S, said it is not sufficient that only 20 per cent of the world’s palm oil today is sustainably certified. M&S and Unilever, as co-chairs of the global Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), said they would seek to reward those countries and jurisdictions with comprehensive policies on sustainable forest management. A number of other CGF members are expected to announce they are joining the scheme in the coming weeks. Forestry issues are playing a prominent role in the Paris talks. On Monday, Germany, Norway and the UK signed a memorandum of understanding to provide $5 billion to support forest programmes from 2015 to 2020, if forest countries can demonstrate measured, reported, and verified emission reductions. (BusinessGreen)
Corporate Reputation
Paris climate summit: Survey reveals ‘greenwash’ of corporate sponsors
A survey of 10 sponsors of the Paris climate summit has found that most do not publish data on their CO2 emissions, half don’t consider their lifecycle carbon footprint, and only one (EDF) is reducing its emissions in line with the EU’s targets. Of the five firms which did commission full assessments of their greenhouse gas footprints – Accor, Kering, L’Oréal, Michelin and Renault – none were able to demonstrate emissions cuts of the scale needed to avoid dangerous global warming. The French ambassador Philippe Delacroix said that the survey was unrepresentative. “We didn’t approach partners we considered incompatible with the spirit of the [summit],” he said. Separately, a series of fake adverts have appeared across Paris, designed to parody and highlight what campaigners say is the “hypocrisy” of the summit’s corporate sponsors. “We’re sorry we got caught,” apologises the parody of Volkswagen, the car manufacturer at the forefront of the diesel emissions scandal. (Guardian)
Policy & Research
Twenty countries commit to doubling clean energy R&D investments
President Obama and French President Hollande, along with a wide range of other top global leaders, on Monday announced Mission Innovation, an initiative to dramatically accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation to address global climate change, provide affordable clean energy to consumers, including in the developing world, and create additional commercial opportunities in clean energy. Through the initiative, 20 countries are committing to double their respective clean energy research and development (R&D) investment over five years to about $20 billion. These countries include the top five most populous nations – China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil – and represent 75 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions from electricity. A parallel initiative – the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, spearheaded by Bill Gates – includes over 28 significant private capital investors from 10 countries. (Washington Post)
Report: Coal plans would derail 2 degree warming target
Attempts to keep global warming to 2 degrees will be wildly off course if all planned coal fire plants are built. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis presented at the UN climate conference in Paris by Climate Action Tracker, a consortium of research institutions including the NewClimate Insitute and Ecofys. The report identifies 2,440 coal fired power stations that are planned around the world before 2030. Researchers said construction would see emissions from coal in 2030 four times higher than that necessary to achieve the 2 degree target. Even emissions from the world’s existing plants will be 1.5 higher than the target amount. In many countries, planned coal plants threaten the commitments made in national carbon-cutting plans, termed INDCs. The researchers say political power battles are leading to many countries offering to cut their carbon while increasing their reliance on coal. (BBC)
Image Source: Facebook HQ by Marco Paköeningrat / CC BY-SA 2.0
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