SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT

Lloyd's to boost insurance coverage of green economy  

Insurance giant Lloyd's of London has published a climate action roadmap detailing plans for a transition to a greener economy, including  support for low-carbon transport, energy and industrial technologies, and a response framework for nations vulnerable to climate impacts. Lloyd’s plans to scale investment in solutions to accelerate the low-carbon transition in high-emitting sectors: energy, transport and heavy industry. It outlines plans for supporting offshore wind, nuclear power and blue and green hydrogen, and aims to help deliver the UK Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan. Lloyd’s also highlights the potential of offsite modular construction and low-carbon materials construction solutions to improve building energy efficiency. Additionally, Lloyd’s committed to create a public-private disaster resilience, response, and recovery framework to assist nations particularly vulnerable to the economic and societal impacts of climate change. (Business Green*, Edie) 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Half of world nations miss deadline to submit climate plans

Friday 30^th July marked the cut-off date for the submission of new or updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, which nations are expected to submit every 5 years, detailing timeframes for required decarbonisation that contribute to either the 2^oC or 1.5^oC target of the accord. The UNFCCC has confirmed it received new or updated NDCs from 110 of the 197 nations that the UN recognises, only 58% of global nations. There are notable exclusions, namely China and India. These new commitments will be included in a new synthesis report and will provide a timely check of global efforts to combat the climate crisis ahead of COP26 in November. Current data from the UN suggests that, based on NDCs, the world is on track for 3^oC of warming. (Edie)

WASTE 

WRAP receives Walmart funding to drive down food waste

The Walmart Foundation has provided around $750,000 to UK waste prevention charity WRAP, to kickstart a new initiative that will seek to reduce household waste in the UK and Canada. The UK-Canada partnership will see WRAP work with the National Zero Waste Council in Canada to change behaviours in relation to food waste, with pilot schemes to be introduced between March 2022 and 2023. Insights that arise from the behaviour change project will be shared with partners to inform international policy. WRAP is hoping to create new partnerships in both the UK and Canada to drive behaviour change progress. The organisation is known for encouraging businesses across the food value chain to adopt a food waste reduction roadmap. Launched in 2018, the roadmap has been supported by dozens of businesses. (Edie)

POLICY

UK’s CO2 scheme cost curb measure delayed until November

The authority overseeing Britain's carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) has stated that a mechanism to curb costs in the scheme has not been triggered for August and would not likely be triggered until November at the earliest. In the UK market, the supply of permits can be increased to curb high prices under a cost containment mechanism (CCM) which is triggered if average prices remain above a certain level for three consecutive months. Last month, the business ministry said the mechanism could be triggered in August due to a period of high prices. However, in its most recent market update, it said the average carbon price in July of £44.15 a tonne was below the £44.74 per tonne August trigger and therefore the cost curb mechanism would not kick in. (Reuters)

DIGITAL ETHICS

Twitter works with Reuters & AP to tackle disinformation

Social media platform Twitter will collaborate with two of the largest international news providers, Reuters and the Associated Press (AP), to debunk disinformation on its site. The news agencies will help Twitter give more context and background information on events which create a high volume of tweets, hoping to ensure accurate and credible information is rapidly available when facts are disputed. Currently, when large or rapidly growing conversations happen on Twitter that may be noteworthy or controversial, Twitter's ‘Curation team’ finds and promotes relevant context from reliable sources to counter potentially misleading information posted by users. Material from Reuters and AP would work to improve information credibility on the platform when Twitter's Curation team "doesn't have the specific expertise or access to a high enough volume of reputable reporting ". (BBC News)

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