CAMPAIGNS & ACTIVISM

Over 400 scientists call on Hill+Knowlton to drop fossil fuel clients

Environmental activist group Clean Creatives and the Union of Concerned Scientists have released a letter from over 400 scientists urging marketing company Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K) to cut ties with fossil-fuel clients. Signatories said that H+K’s work for fossil-fuel interests such as Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil and the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative has undermined the agency’s role leading PR at the COP27 climate summit. A spokesperson from Clean Creatives said that as running PR for COP27, H+K has access to sensitive information, such as countries’ timelines for phasing out oil and gas production, how net-zero is defined or if carbon offsets would continue to be allowed in emissions accounting. H+K’s parent company, WPP is also addressed in the letter. H+K did not respond to requests for comment. (PR Week)

STRATEGY

UK unveils disclosure framework for net-zero transition plans

The UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) has announced the launch of its new ‘TPT Disclosure Framework’ for companies to disclose their climate transition plans. According to TPT Co-Chair and Aviva Group CEO Amanda Blanc, the disclosure framework is being introduced as companies increasingly announce net-zero commitments, with many yet to publish plans to support their targets, or with plans that have been disclosed varying in quality, consistency and level of detail. The Framework makes recommendations to companies and financial institutions to develop gold-standard transition plans with TPT ‘Implementation Guidance’ providing steps to develop a transition plan, as well as when, where and how to disclose plans. The framework will draw on recommendations from TCFD, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). (ESG Today)

DIGITAL ETHICS

Group accuses search engine of illegally using biometric data

Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch has made a complaint against face recognition search engine PimEyes. The search engine enables people to look for faces in images which have been posted publicly on the internet. Big Brother Watch claims the search engine facilitates stalking and has complained to the UK data and privacy watchdog. Starting with a person’s picture, PimEyes finds other photos of them published online. This could include images on photo-sharing sites, in blog posts and news articles, and on websites. Big Brother Watch says that by piecing together information associated with these images, a stalker could identify a person’s “place of work, or indications of the area in which they live”. The campaigners accuse PimEyes of unlawfully processing the biometric data of millions of UK citizens. (BBC News)

STRATEGY

S&P Global launches carbon intensity assessment for fuels

Finance company S&P Global Commodity Insights is poised to launch the first carbon intensity assessments and daily carbon offset premiums for transportation fuels at key oil hubs. The assessments will cover diesel, gasoline and jet fuel in the Northwest Europe, US Gulf Coast and Singapore regions, and are tied to existing price benchmarks in these markets. The assessments are aimed at helping market participants better understand the emissions profile of these fuels and to improve transparency in how carbon intensity is calculated. S&P will publish Platts monthly assessments of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel carbon intensity in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per produced volume of product. The daily price premium assessments are published using the daily Platts ‘Carbon Removal Credit’ voluntary carbon credit assessment. (Reuters)

RENEWABLE ENERGY

COP27: UK signs up to join Global Offshore Wind Alliance  

The UK has announced it will join the Global Offshore Wind Alliance, a collaborative initiative between politicians, the private sector, and international organisations to accelerate offshore wind technology deployment. The announcement puts the UK among a pool of eight countries that have signed up to the multi-stakeholder alliance at COP27. Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the US have also signed up to the Alliance, which was launched in September 2022 by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Global Wind Energy Council, and the Danish government. The group has a target of increasing global offshore wind capacity more than six-fold from 60GW to 380GW by the end of 2030, by installing 35GW a year. It hopes to increase deployment to 70GW annually throughout the next decade. (Business Green)*

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