Happy Tuesday. Don’t worry … we’re here to fill the hole that the Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram outage left behind.
In today’s edition:
⛽️ Bets are placed on Hydrogen fuel
☕️ Costa coffee’s BURT cup
⚙️ Africa and its manufacturing future
Big Business (2-minute read)
French energy companies bet big on Hydrogen
Clean Hydrogen: Hydrogen produced for fuel with low or no carbon emissions. It can play a role in decarbonising sectors like long-haul transport.
The Problem: The lack of hydrogen infrastructure development is holding back widespread adoption. As hydrogen prices are dependent on the number of fuelling stations, and how much hydrogen can be delivered per day.
Potential Solution: French oil and gas companies, TotalEnergies and Air Liquide, have partnered to create the world’s largest fund (€1.5bn) to invest in hydrogen infrastructure projects across America, Asia and Europe. The fund aims to unlock large scale projects and accelerate the scaling up of hydrogen markets. y.
Nestlé boost investment in regenerative farming
Nestlé has unveiled plans to promote regenerative agriculture across its supply chain. The company plans to invest $1.2 billion over five years which will focus on 3 areas:
- Premium payments: For raw materials produced using regenerative practices.
- Supporting the transition: Nestle will support farmers to tackle the risks and costs associated with regenerative farming.
- Ramping up R&D: Investment in the development of high-yield coffee and cocoa varieties with a lower ecological footprint.
But who will bear the costs? Regenerative goods allow producers to charge a price premium that will likely be passed on to consumers. However, these higher costs mean improved supply chain resilience and lower Nestle’s susceptibility to future regulation against traditional unsustainable
Climate change activism heads to the courtroom
This week, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, a climate activism group, filed lawsuits against BMW and Daimler for allegedly not doing enough to cut carbon emissions from their cars. Following Greenpeace suing Volkswagen for failing to align with the Paris accord.
Importance: Even if climate lawsuit plaintiffs are not successful, legal action highlights to companies that their climate activities could have “huge” costs. farming practices.
🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read)
World’s longest undersea power cable is turned ON
The North Sea Link, the world’s longest undersea power cable, was switched on last week and will allow Norway and the UK to share renewable energy. The plan behind the interconnection Link is that when wind generation in the UK is high, but demand low, excess renewable power will be exported to Norway and conserve water in Norway’s hydropower reservoirs. Then, when demand is high in the UK but wind generation is low, hydropower from Norway will be imported. At maximum capacity, the link should provide enough clean electricity to power 1.4million homes.
Costa Coffee trial blockchain recycling scheme
BURT – which stands for ‘Borrow, Use, Reuse, Take Back’ – is Costa’s blockchain powered reusable cup scheme which is being trialed across Glasgow, home of COP26. How? Customers make a one-off £5 payment to join the scheme, they collect a stainless steel BURT cup in-store and scan a QR code on its base. This links the cup to the customer’s account, via blockchain. They enjoy their coffee as normal before returning the cup to any store at a convenient time. The cup is then scanned, delinked from their account, and cleaned. Customers will get a free drink for every 4 they buy.
Why? To tackle barriers to reuse by removing the need for consumers to carry a reusable cup.
💡Deep Dive (1-minute read)
Africa’s Green Manufacturing crossroads
The crossroads: As one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change, Africa has a strong incentive to join global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. At the same time, African governments are committed to industrialisation to create jobs and wealth. To achieve both, Africa can’t follow the same route to prosperity that developed nations pursued. The unchecked growth of emissions could lead to:
- Reduced financing options as developed nations seek to fund greener projects
- Emissions-related export penalties (Carbon border taxes) making African products less attractive
Opportunity: Africa’s manufacturing sector remains relatively small — only half of the continent’s potential 2050 GHG-emitting industries have been built, offering an opportunity to leapfrog developed nations and build a low-carbon manufacturing sector.
An estimated $2 trillion of additional investment over the next three decades is required to reach net zero. But Mckinsey predict 50% of all net-zero investments would be profitable and would also create around 3.8 million net new jobs.
Areas for action:
- Finance – developing a pipeline of investable green projects, and a verification system for GHG emissions to give financiers confidence their investments yield expected carbon savings.
- Green upskilling – simulations to anticipate future skills requirements; and shared learning training institutes and factories to speed up reskilling.
- Innovation & Research – developing viable new green sectors technologies and products that capitalise on Africa’s unique resource advantage (natural resources, renewable energy capability, and uncultivated/under-cultivated land)
Read the full report here
💭 Little Bytes
Quote: “Fighting climate change calls for innovation, cooperation and willpower” Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India.
Stat: Technology sector could slash its emissions by 40% over next 10 years – report by BT and Accenture
Watch: How 3D-printed tiles could save Hong Kong’s coral
🗞 In other news…
- New Danish App allows consumers to purchase direct from sustainable fishermen
- Catering Giant, Compass Group, introduces eco labels to all meals it serves
- Food company, Cargill, aims to connect sustainable farmers to carbon offset buyers through their RegenConnect project
- Ford plans to invest $11bn on EV and battery production factories
- Google maps launching wildfire tracking and tree canopy cover monitoring tools to help users adapt to our new climate reality
🎣 Deal Room
Three of these stories are true, one we made up, can you guess which?
- Polestar, a Swedish electric car maker when public via SPAC at a $20b valuation
- Ola Electric, an India-based e-scooter maker, raised over $200m in funding
- Octopus Energy Group, a UK-based renewables energy company raised $600m in funding
- DroneSeed a startup using drones to reforest after wildfires raised $36m
