Happy Tuesday. President Biden unveiled Earth Day gifts in a solar-powered celebration, including billions for residential solar projects.
In today’s edition:
⚡️Biden announces $7bn in grants to celebrate Earth Day
🚜 Liberia loses 150,000 hectares of forest to cocoa farms
🌳 Businesses unite for biodiversity
🔋 Energy (1-Min Read)
Biden’s Earth Day gifts light up low-income homes
What happened: President Joe Biden celebrated Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in grants for residential solar projects that will power nearly a million low-income households as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Impact: The White House claim the policy will create 200,000 jobs and save households in the program about $400 a year, according to the White House.
What else: Biden also announced that applications are open to join the American Climate Corps, a program to prepare young people for jobs in climate-related industries. The announcements kick off a week of activities touting the Biden administration’s record on climate change.
Yes, but: New polling data shows that nearly two years after the Inflation Reduction Act, a federal law which included tax credits, subsidies, and federal funding for clean energy, was passed, adults are most likely to report that they don’t know enough about the law to assess its impacts on the U.S. economy, climate change, or themselves.
🚜 AgriTech (1-Min Read)
EU cocoa conundrum as forests turned to farms in Liberia
What happened: Conservation group IDEF has found evidence that cocoa farmers from Ivory Coast are migrating and clearing forests in Liberia before trafficking beans back and mixing them with Ivorian supplies. This process is undermining EU efforts to curb deforestation.
Details: An EU law to prevent agricultural commodities linked to deforestation from entering the European market will come into force at the end of this year. Cocoa is seen as an early test of the law, which requires companies to demonstrate that their supply chains do not contribute to the destruction of forests.
Migrating farmers: Efforts have focused on tracing supply chains in leading cocoa exporting countries. Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, faces challenges, including climate change, that risk declining production. Farmers are crossing into Liberia in search of land, with the country losing around 150,000 hectares of natural forest in 2022.
The importance: This highlights the challenges facing EU regulators and companies using Ivorian cocoa beans to ensure the new laws are adhered to and implemented effectively. Without robust oversight, Liberia’s cocoa will enter the European market disguised as Ivorian cocoa, which meets the standards. (Full story here).
🐘 Nature (1-Min Read)
Uniting businesses for nature’s sake
What happened: A European business network has kickstarted the Biodiversity Alliance for Sustainable Management initiative to foster biodiversity integration into corporate decision-making.
Details: The initiative will focus on advancing corporate efforts on biodiversity and hasten the adoption of standards for assessing and disclosing risks and dependencies on nature. Global businesses such as Coca-Cola, BASF, and Hitachi are among the companies that have joined the initiative so far. After a year-long incubation period, the initiative will open up to participation from other companies in 2025.
Advancing disclosures: Companies will collaborate to develop tools and metrics to measure their impact on nature. A major focus will be on implementing EU requirements on biodiversity as part of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and aligning with TNFD.
The bigger picture: As more businesses adopt a biodiversity strategy, this initiative looks to put aside competition for biodiversity and strengthen cooperation to integrate biodiversity strategies into actionable sustainability plans. (Full story here).
💭 Little Bytes (1-Min Read)
💬 Quote: “Indonesia has the potential to be a regional and even global champion in the future green economy.” Chief Financial Officer of The Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), Eddy Porwanto.
📊 Stat: Deaths linked to hot weather in Europe have risen 30% over the past 20 years — Copernicus Climate Change Service and World Meteorological Organization
📺️ Watch: The man using art to fight plastic waste
🛗 Snippets for your lift conversations (1-Min Read)
Dubai’s record-shattering “rain bomb” has clear climate change ties
Divers at a Netherlands zoo began work to create a “Noah’s Ark” of coral as part of a global effort to preserve coral reefs by building reserve populations in aquaria.
The EU needs to rethink its policies to make a 2035 ban on new petrol car sales feasible as electric vehicles (EVs) remain unaffordable and alternative fuel options are not credible, the EU’s external auditor said, jeopardising its 2050 climate goals.
Australia’s Macquarie Group launched an EV financing platform for India that will focus 95% of its $1.5 billion investment on electrifying fleets of commercial vehicles. The platform, called Vertelo, will offer financing, fleet management and charging infrastructure solutions,
Spanish cava producer Freixenet has presented a plan to temporarily lay off 615 workers, close to 80% of the company’s total workforce, due to the drought affecting the Penedes area in Catalonia.
Eleven wealthy countries have pledged a combined $11bn to fund World Bank efforts to tackle global challenges such as climate change and pandemics.
Africa Finance Corp. will join a group of companies developing a project to produce solar and wind power in Morocco and transmit it to the UK via undersea cables.
🎣 Gone Phishing (1-Minute Read)
Three of these stories are true, one we’ve made up. Guess which:
Unknown drug-resistant bacteria somehow got onto the International Space Station
Hospital staff plead with bite victims to stop bringing snakes to emergency departments
Belgian man whose body makes its own alcohol cleared of drunk-driving
Rare species of jumping spiders discovered in Ecuador
