CLIMATE CHANGE

G20 host Indonesia urges cooperation to tackle climate change

Senior officials from the G2O economies have met for climate talks on the resort island of Bali, with host Indonesia warning that failure to cut emissions would push the planet towards “unchartered territory”. The G20 climate meeting comes as extreme weather events – fires, floods and heatwaves – cause disaster in several parts of the world, including unprecedented flooding in Pakistan in recent weeks that has killed at least 1,000 people. Environment officials from Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry are attending the talks in Bali, and are expected to produce a joint communique. Indonesia as current G20 chair has invited representatives from the African Union to join the talks for the first time. (Reuters)

COLLABORATION

Honda, LG partner to invest $4 billion in US EV battery plant

Automobile manufacturer Honda and technology company LG Energy Solution (LGES) have announced plans to invest $4.4 billion into a new electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US. The new plant will produce lithium-ion batteries to power Honda and Acura EV models for the North American market. Honda and LGES aim to start construction on the new plant in early 2023, and to begin mass production of advanced lithium-ion battery cells by the end of 2025. The plant will produce pouch-type batteries supplied exclusively to Honda facilities in North America, with anticipated annual production capacity of approximately 40GWh. The plant follows the launch of Honda’s vehicle fleet electrification plans which include goals to make battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles represent 100% of its vehicle sales by 2040. (ESG Today)

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

UBS signs deal with start-ups to sequester 40,000 tons of CO₂

Investment bank UBS has announced the launch of a collaboration with carbon removal solutions companies Climeworks and neustark. The collaboration will enable the removal of 39,500 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere over the next 13 years and help scale the start-ups’ technologies and infrastructure. The agreements will form part of UBS’s commitment to achieve net-zero emissions from its operations by 2025. UBS has goals of reaching net-zero across Scope 1 and 2 by 2025 and Scope 3 by 2050. Climeworks extracts CO₂ directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material, or permanently removed when combined with storage. Founded in 2019, neurstark removes CO₂ from the atmosphere and permanently stores it in recycled concrete, providing building materials containing sequestered carbon. (ESG Today)

DIGITAL ETHICS

Kochava faces legal action over sale of consumer location data

A US consumer watchdog has begun legal action against a software firm that allegedly sold location data that could help identify people having abortions. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claims data collection company Kochava sold data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices. It says the data could reveal visits to reproductive-health clinics, as well as places of worship, domestic-violence shelters and addiction services. Kochava says it abides by privacy rules and criticised “frivolous litigation”. The FTC alleges the firm’s data feeds allowed purchasers to identify and track specific mobile-device users. The FTC concluded that its data could expose individuals to “stigma, discrimination, physical violence, emotional distress, and other harms”. Kochava said in a statement that it was constantly monitoring and adjusting its technology to block location data from sensitive places. (BBC News)

AGRICULTURE

UK government to ban retailers from selling peat by 2024

The UK government has confirmed a ban on bagged compost and other retail products containing peat, set to come into force in 2024. The ban, instigated by the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) was announced following a consultation. The vast majority (95%) of the 5,000 respondents to the consultation said they would support a complete ban on the sale of peat-containing products by retailers. Some major retailers have already ended peat compost sales on a voluntary basis, including the Co-op and Dobbies Garden Centres. The ban covers the retailing of all peat and peat-containing products to amateur gardeners in England and Wales. In the UK, peatlands cover around 10% of the total land area, and are considered an essential nature=based solution for mitigating climate changes estimated to hold almost 30% of soil carbon. (edie)

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