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Sharon Kimathi
Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital


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The Group of Seven of the world’s richest countries aims to create a “Climate Club” and end direct public support for the international fossil fuel energy sector by the end of this year. These were some of the key climate takeaways from the group’s three-day annual summit at a luxury castle resort in the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany.

The new international group will be formed to forge cooperation on climate change and make pledges on decarbonising industrial sectors. In a draft communique summary, the G7 leaders said they would commit to a highly decarbonised road sector by 2030 and a fully or predominantly decarbonised power sector by 2035. They would also prioritize "concrete and timely steps" towards the goal of accelerating a phase-out of domestic "unabated coal" power.

"The Climate Club, as an intergovernmental forum of high ambition, will be inclusive in nature and open to countries that are committed to the full implementation of the Paris Agreement and the decisions thereunder, in particular the Glasgow Climate Pact, and to accelerate their action to this end," the G7 said in a statement.

Leaders also pledged to "explore additional measures to reduce price surges and prevent further impacts on our economies and societies, in the G7 and globally," amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine which has exacerbated the energy crisis.

The news comes as a benchmark report by oil giant BP showed that global energy consumption rose by 5.8% in 2021, exceeding pre-pandemic levels as economies revved up activity, while strong growth in renewable energies chipped away at fossil fuel use. The rapid economic recovery also led to a 5.7% increase in greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, roughly similar to 2019 levels.

The G7 communique made a commitment to "end new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022, except in limited circumstances clearly defined by each country consistent with a 1.5 degree Celsius warming limit and the goals of the Paris Agreement."

Talking Points

Ankuash Mitiap Kapuchak and Shapiom Noningo Sesen, indigenous leaders from Peru, and Ricardo Perez of the environmental activist group Amazon Watch pose in front of Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, June 27, 2022. Picture taken June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Tom Sims
Climate activists from Peru to Uganda are descending on Deutsche Bank's headquarters in Frankfurt this week to call on Germany's largest lender to stop financing fossil fuel companies.
France will raise the salary index of its civil servants by 3.5% on July 1 in order to tackle rising inflation, Public Sector Minister Stanislas Guerini said on Tuesday.
Private equity firms Blackstone, Apollo Global Management and Carlyle Group will reimburse U.S. employees' expenses for traveling out of state to access abortion reproduction care services.
Over two-thirds of European asset managers and distributors are considering halting the launch or distribution of products that do not comply with environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, a survey by PwC Luxembourg showed on Monday.
Breakingviews: Despite widespread investor risk aversion, China’s electric vehicle (EV) battery giant CATL just raised $6.7 billion in new equity. The decarbonization theme is dominating big stock sales. Supply chains and higher costs are a concern, but the Ukraine war will help keep capital coming to clean energy.

In Conversation

James Norman, CEO at Pilotly, a market research platform based in the Bay Area, and a partner at Transparent Collective, a group of founders dedicated to increasing exposure and access to Silicon Valley for African American and Latino/Hispanic men and women.
“In the venture capital space, non-white male founders are disproportionately impacted by the lack of access to capital — namely women, Black, and Latinx founders. Transparent Collective released this report to address these systemic factors and unconscious biases that stand in the way of underserved entrepreneurs receiving funding.

“Our research indicates that in 2021, companies founded solely by women received only 2% of VC funding. The same percentage also went to U.S.-based Latinx founders. Black founders only received 1.4% of venture funding, with Black women only receiving a mere 0.27% of all venture dollars.

“Conducted in partnership with Pilotly and funded by P&G Ventures, this research study serves as a channel for investors to learn how to make a conscious effort to foster diversity and provide access to opportunity for underrepresented founders. Founders can use this report to learn how to maximize their fundraising opportunity.”
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ESG Lens

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn a constitutional right to an abortion is expected to have a disproportionate impact on Black women and other women of color, who have traditionally faced overwhelming costs and logistical obstacles in obtaining reproductive healthcare, experts said.

The reversal of Roe v Wade allows state governments to decide whether an abortion is legal. While some states have recently reaffirmed the right to an abortion, 26 states are likely or certain to ban abortion in most or all circumstances.

ESG Movers and Shakers

British-based Impax Asset Management has appointed Charles French as deputy chief investment officer (CIO) of listed equities. He joins from the global investment management subsidiary of BNY Mellon Investment Management, Newton Investment Management.

French built a career as an analyst and portfolio manager and held the positions of head of multi asset, head of investment/deputy CIO, and most recently, head of equity opportunities, leading a team of global equity portfolio managers.
Multinational professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY) has appointed Dr. Matthew Bell as global leader of its climate change and sustainability services (CCaSS) team. Bell has more than 20 years’ experience helping businesses build their climate change and sustainability credentials. He has worked across the public and private sectors, including 14 years with the EY organization. He has a background in science, with a PhD in biotechnology.
British-based zero-emission vehicles and green hydrogen production company First Hydrogen has appointed Manuel Tolosa as head of powertrain engineering to support its development of hydrogen fuel cell-powered light commercial vehicles (LCV). Tolosa has been responsible for hydrogen vehicle development projects at BMW Group for the last 16 years, including the development of the BMW iX5 Hydrogen small series.

Quote of the Day

“The way the British government collects debts is making an already bad situation far worse, by making an already low basic rate of social security even lower still. It leaves too little to cover the essentials at the best of times, let alone during the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation – a crisis which shows no signs of abating.”
Katie Schmuecker, principal policy advisor at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a British independent social change organization

Looking Ahead

EU energy chief Kadri Simson will speak at the InnoGrid 2022 Mission Acceleration conference tomorrow.
Albemarle, SQM and other global producers of lithium for electric vehicle batteries will end their largest annual gathering at the Fastmarkets Lithium Supply & Battery Raw Materials conference in Phoenix, Ariz tomorrow.
Activists will take part in the 'Blue Climate March' outside the U.N. Ocean Conference in Lisbon tomorrow to urge world leaders to act and protect the environment.
EU health chief Stella Kyriakides will hold an exchange of views with the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety regarding the Commission's proposal on the sustainable use of plant protection products on June 30.
The Great Reboot
Germany wants to bring in foreign workers as quickly as possible to relieve airports overwhelmed by staff shortages during the busy summer season, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said.

The temporary workers, who would be offered accommodation and a standard wage, would have to fulfill the same security and reliability checks as other staff such as baggage handlers, which in general take about two weeks, the spokesperson said at a regular government news conference in Berlin on Monday.

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