Starbucks closes 8,000 stores in US for racial-bias training
Starbucks closed more than 8,000 stores across the US on Tuesday (29th May 2018) as staff underwent racial awareness training. This comes after the coffee firm apologised to two black men who were arrested while waiting for someone in a Starbucks outlet in Philadelphia. Bosses apologised for the incident before meeting the two men and pledging to carry out training “geared towards preventing discrimination”. Starbucks has said it has contacted activists and experts in bias training to plan a curriculum for its 175,000 US workers. The training is designed to encourage people to talk about the implicit biases and stereotypes in encountering people of colour, gender or other identities. A video previewing the Starbucks training includes recorded remarks from its executives and the rapper and activist Common. The training will also address the lesser known concept of “unconscious bias training”, which is used by many corporations, police departments and other organisations to help address racism in the workplace. (Sky News)
Sustainable Finance
RBS cuts lending to new coal and Arctic oil projects
Royal Bank of Scotland will no longer fund Arctic oil projects and has pledged to cut lending to firms profiting largely from coal as part of an updated energy policy. The changes cover the mining, power and oil and gas sectors and are aimed at taking a tougher line on climate change. They mean the bank will not provide “project-specific finance” to new coal-fired power stations, new thermal coal mines, oil sands or Arctic oil projects, or those involved in “unsustainable” vegetation or peatland clearing. RBS will also tighten restrictions on general lending to mining firms that source more than 40 percent of their revenues from thermal coal, and power companies that generate over 40 percent of their electricity from coal. The former threshold was 65 percent. (Guardian)
Technology & Innovation
Ben & Jerry’s blockchain pilot allows customers to buy carbon-offset ice cream
Customers to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop on Wardour Street in London’s Soho are now able to choose a climate-friendly ice cream, thanks to a new pilot underway with blockchain non-profit Poseidon. Using Poseidon’s crypto-ledger technology, customers can choose to add a couple of pence to the cost of their ice cream to purchase carbon credits equal to the climate impact of producing and selling the snack. The technology uses blockchain to securely enable micro transactions of carbon credits for the first time, allowing consumers to directly connect carbon credits with their specific everyday activities in real time. The Ben & Jerry’s pilot has been running since the beginning of May, and already it has driven the purchase of enough carbon credits to protect 1,000 trees, said Poseidon CEO Laszlo Giricz. The trial is the latest move from Ben & Jerry’s to price the cost of climate change into its activities. As part of its plan to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2020, it has used an internal $10 carbon tax since 2015. (BusinessGreen)
Climate Change
China’s carbon emissions set for fastest growth in seven years
China’s carbon emissions are on track to rise at their fastest pace in more than seven years during 2018, casting further doubt on the ability of the Paris climate change agreement to curb dangerous greenhouse gas increases, according to a Greenpeace analysis based on Beijing’s own data. Carbon emissions in the country, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, rose 4 percent in the first quarter of 2018, according to calculations by the environmental group based on Chinese government statistics covering coal, cement, oil and gas. If that pace continues it would be the fastest increase since 2011. Although China has invested heavily in renewable energy such as wind and solar, a key reason for its emissions growth is rising demand for oil and gas due to increased car ownership and electricity demand. (Financial Times*)
Lawsuits
Dutch government appeals against court ruling over emissions cuts
The Dutch government has launched a bid to overturn a landmark climate ruling, arguing that judges in The Hague “sidelined democracy” when they ordered a 25 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2020. Government plans for a lesser 17 percent cut in CO2 pollution were deemed unlawful in 2015, in the first successful lawsuit against a government’s climate policy. The Dutch government have since argued that judges in The Hague had overstepped their authority and were in danger of outflanking public opinion. Climate minister Eric Wiebes told Dutch media: “We also believe that renewable energy should be increased and CO2 emissions should be reduced, so this is really about something else: it’s about how the judge has intervened in something that’s [called] democracy, and actually democracy has been sidelined.” (Guardian)
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