In today’s edition:

⚡️EU increases renewable energy targets by over 10%

🚜 Mars to invest $1bn to reduce emissions

🌳 12mn small-scale coffee farmers at risk from EU law

⚡️ Energy (1-minute read)

EU lawmakers pass bill hiking renewable energy targets

News: EU legislators have voted to increase 2030 targets for the bloc’s share of renewable from 30% to 42.5%. The vote also adds renewable energy targets for buildings and seeks faster permitting processes for new wind and solar developments.

Details: The share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix currently stand at 22.1% so this represents a significant hike. We’ve spoken before about the perils that permitting of energy infrastructure has on Net Zero Targets (See Full Story Here). This new legislation mandates national authorities will have 12 months to approve or reject new solar and wind farms, if they are located in a renewable “acceleration area”. Outside those, the process should not exceed 24 months. For context the current timelines for projects are often between 5 and 10 years.

Timely intervention: Many European solar module manufacturers said they faced bankruptcy as a result of “fierce competition” from Chinese companies that benefit from vast state subsidies, accelerated permitting timelines and cheap labour (Full story here).

🚜 AgriTech (1-minute read)

Mars Unveils $1 Billion Green Plan

Headline: The US snack and pet food company, which says its carbon footprint is equivalent to a country the size of Finland, has committed $1bn over the next three years to achieve net zero by 2050.

Details: Mars had pledged to reduce emissions by 27% by 2025 and has achieved an 8% reduction against a 2015 baseline so far. The investment is intended to supercharge reductions by transitioning to 100% renewable energy across its factories, offices and veterinary hospitals. Another key focus area is enhancing the transparency and traceability across the supply chains of key ingredients like cocoa, soy, and beef to stop its products’ impact on deforestation.

No easy task: The biggest challenge for Mars is reducing Scope 3 emissions, which requires working with farmers from 100s of different countries to supply produce using different farming systems. Driving the adoption of climate-smart agri-practices with these suppliers will take time, money and effort — but is crucial if the company is to achieve its net zero goals (Full story here).

🌳 Nature (1-minute read)

EU Deforestation law impacts on Coffee farmers – Ensuring the perfect blend.

EU Deforestation law impacts on Coffee farmers – Ensuring the perfect blend.

Headline: Most global coffee firms will not be ready to comply with the European Union’s new law preventing imports of commodities linked to deforestation, and small farmers may suffer as a consequence, a major coffee sector report has found.

Details: The EU’s landmark law, which comes into effect at end-2024, requires importers of commodities like coffee, cocoa, beef, soy, rubber and palm oil to produce a due diligence statement proving their goods are not contributing to the destruction of forests – a major source of climate change – or risk hefty fines.

Stumbling blocks: According to the biennial Coffee Barometer, coffee firms’ lack of preparedness for the law might prompt them to shift sourcing to more developed regions like Brazil with better traceability. This could leave millions of mostly small scale, poverty stricken farmers in the lurch. There are concerns this could have a domino effect causing desperate farmers to expand further into forested areas to increase output to make ends meet. These farmers might then sell to regions with less stringent environmental rules negating the intended impact of the law.

Walking a tightrope: An excellent example of the complexity of climate policy and the importance of consulting local communities to prevent unintended consequences. (Full story here)

💭 Little Bytes

Quote: “Our investments in direct air capture complement our emissions reduction plans, and we are excited to support the growth and deployment of the technology.” — Amazon’s vice president of worldwide sustainability, Kara Hurst.

Stat: Despite a global spend of around $5trn in 2022 towards delivering the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a funding gap of $137trn still exists to deliver them in full — Capital as a Force for Good

Watch: Tuvalu is using technology to save itself from rising seas

🗞 In other news…

G20 leaders are facing criticism after their weekend summit in India brought a pledge only to a “phasedown” of coal “in line with national circumstances”, with no reference to a phaseout of all fossil fuel usage. (Full story here)

California passed first-of-its-kind legislation in the US that will require companies to report on scope 3 emissions – the greenhouse gas emissions from their own operations and from all along their supply chains. This represents companies operating in the state that have over $1 billion in gross annual revenue. (Full story here)

2,000 white rhinos put up for auction will be released as part of world’s biggest rewilding project (Full story here)

Stalled progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has seen a funding gap increase to $137trn, with a new report calling for political remedies and private sector intervention to put the world back on track. (Full story here)

US food production systems are being reshaped by the searing heatwaves over the previous summer. Scientific models, which try to predict the impact of extreme weather on food production, are now failing to capture the full extent of the heatwaves effects (Full story here).

The earth is beyond “safe operating” limits in six out of nine important areas, damaging its ability to self-regulate and increasing the risk of abrupt and irreversible change due to human activity, per the latest research. (Full story here).

🎣 Gone Phishing

Three of these stories are true, one we’ve made up. Guess which:

First ever dog-fox hybrid discovered in the wild

Scientists unearth coral castle in Australia

China wants to dominate the production of the “world’s stinkiest fruit”

Town in Portugal flooded by red wine

Written by Colin and Ollie – Everything we brew… we brew it for you!