This month, FEP Director David Trevelyan is sharing some positive climate news from across the globe.
The last few months have been seen a huge amount of change which are likely to result in a range of impacts and opportunities for all of us.
October saw the first budget of the new UK government; how this will affect us has certainly been extensively discussed. Time will tell the realities of these policy decisions. Early November was the US election, with a result which is certainly going to create an interesting 4 years. Environmentally and sustainably both of these events will impact us in our daily lives and could be far reaching from the Forest of Dean to Global politics.
As the lead for the FEP Climate Action Group, I will be interested in how UK and international policy will affect the wider green agenda. I suspect time will tell; What I can do is highlight some of the positive news that we’re starting to see in this space:
China and Global Emissions
One of the complaints we often hear is “what about China” the worlds largest carbon emitter (30%). The good news (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02877-6) appeared in an article in Nature that shows signs that 2024 emissions for China are lower than 2023. The drop in China’s emissions runs in parallel with the news that 2024 is expected to be peak carbon emissions, the future seeing a year on year drop.
UN Action Plastic Packaging and Pollution
Its hoped that by the end of 2024 a global treaty will be agreed by the UN to agree a legally binding target on plastic pollution (Nations agree to end plastic pollution ). Historically globally agreements can deliver real change, a well known example is the Montreal Protocol which addressed the hole in the Ozone layer. Less plastic pollution can only be a good thing especially in the beautiful Forest of Dean.
Global sustainability reporting standards being adopted around the world
Not the most exciting subject, however an increasing number of regulators are following Brazil’s example and are looking to mandate that businesses have proper environmental reporting in place (ISSB: Global Momentum For Sustainability Reporting). At the moment these are generally for larger businesses, but it seems that its only a matter of time before customers, or regulators start asking what businesses of all sizes are doing.