Yesterday, The European Commission adopted a detailed set of reporting regulations for the transitional phase of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Set to begin on October 1, 2023 and extend through the year 2025, this transitional phase aims to lay the groundwork for the CBAM's full implementation.

In efforts to combat climate change, the Biden-Harris Administration has announced an investment of $1.2 billion dedicated to launching the nation's first-ever Direct Air Capture (DAC) program. This program will launch two new demonstration projects in Texas and Louisiana to essentially vacuum carbon dioxide out of the air. Once captured, this carbon dioxide will be stored underground or used in industrial materials such as cement. This initiative, unveiled on August 11th, 2023 truly highlights the Biden administration's unwavering commitment to innovative solutions aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving our planet for future generations.

This summer, across the globe we have seen record-breaking temperatures that are leaving scientists concerned, many saying that these climate records are unprecedented given their speed and timing. Records broken include the hottest day on record globally in June and July, extreme marine heatwaves in the North Atlantic, highest Ocean temperatures, and record low Antarctic sea ice.

This week IRENA’s Director-General Fancesco La Camera shared the World Energy Transitions Outlook 2023 Preview and warned that our world needs a dramatic shift in the energy transition to avoid surpassing our 1.5 C climate target. What this translates to is a total of $35 trillion is needed by 2030 to expedite this energy transition.

Today, the European Union countries gave their final approval to adopt a new regulation that will require a 100% reduction in emission from new cars and vans. The EU policy will require all new cars sold to have zero CO2 emissions from 2035 and 55% lower CO2 emissions from 2030, versus 2021 levels. This is in line with the European Commission’s “Fit for 55” roadmap to cut GHG emissions. However, Germany won an exemption for cars running on e-fuels, leading to concerns that traditional combustion engine cars could still be sold beyond 2035.

This month, Deloitte released a new a new poll that shows that private equity investors (PEI) could be paving the way when it comes to ESG diligence procedures and considering ESG provisions in M&A. According to the poll, PEIs are leading by factors of two or three compared to their corporate peers when it comes to the use of ESG clauses in deal contracts and routine ESG due diligence.

On Sunday, national governments gave their final approvals on the latest IPCC report after approval was delayed due to battles between rich and developing countries over emissions targets and financial aid to vulnerable nations. The IPCC report was intended to be approved last Friday, but was repeatedly delayed as officials from big nations such as China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the United States and the European Union negotiated around specific wording of key phrases found in the report. After approvals finally happened, the report was publish Monday afternoon and made some very clear statements regarding what is possible and what the stakes are when looking at climate change.

Early this month, Reuters reported around a study that says that due to extreme weather caused by climate change, Germany could be looking at a bill of about 900 Billion Euros in total damages by mid-century. This is a direct example of how sustainability and ESG is affecting the bottom line. The study, originally from economic research companies Prognos and GWS and Germany's Institute for Ecological Economic Research comes as Berlin works on a climate strategy that is supposed to be presented by the environment ministry.

Of the 18,600 companies which provided information to CDP, less than one in 200 companies disclosed information against 21 key indicators that CDP includes in a questionnaire which represents a credible climate transition plan. This means of 18,600 only 81 companies - a mere 0.4% - were able to disclosure against key indicators and prove that their climate transition plans are credible. While the number of organizations reporting to CDP has been rising rapidly, increasing by more than 40% in 2022, this 81 organizations is actually a decrease from the 153 companies that provided a credible climate plan the year before.

Last week news broke that JetBlue along with Britian’s Virgin Atlantic signed an agreement with a sustainable fuel start up, Air Company, to purchase fuel made from captured carbon emissions.

On Wednesday Amazon announced that they would expand their already vast portfolio of renewable energy projects by 71 more projects. With a total of now 379 renewable energy projects these 71 new projects are dedicated to wind and solar around the world which will add 2.7 GW of energy capacity. Amazon expects that all 379 of these renewable energy projects will generate about 50,000 GWh of clean energy which equals enough energy to power 4.6 million US homes each year.

The seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly opened on September 13th under the theme of “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”. This week marks the second week of the United Nations General Assembly and is the begging of the High-Level week. Yesterday, the SDG Moment was a 90-minute event that is meant to place a spotlight on the Sustainable Development Goals. In that 90 minute session, it became extremely clear that the world is not on track to reach these goals and we have a lengthy “to do” list to get back on track.

Last week, California governor Gavin Newsom signed on a package of legislation that will address a wide array of climate measures designed to ensure the state will reach it commitment of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 among other ambitious goals. Legislation includes bills to reduce carbon emissions, protect Californians from big polluters and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

This week, Indonesia issued a new regulation that will encourage renewable energy use. This is a landmark regulation as Indonesia is one of the world’s top carbon emitters due to coal use. Along with encouraging renewable energy, a presidential decree said that Indonesia also plants to retire some of their coal plants early.

California is commonly known for it’s earthquake risk and more recently, severe drought and wild fires. However, the tides are changing for California as a new study from UCLA predicts that potentially catastrophic flooding or what being called a “megaflood” is likely to happen. While there isn’t a clear timeline on when this “megaflood” may hit, the study from UCLA indicates that the possibility has been almost doubled thanks climate change.

This week, The California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted a set of goals that will enable the state to develop clean energy through offshore wind. This offshore wind development is expected to generate 2,000-5,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind by 2030, and should increase to 25,000 MW by 2045. Assuming the state hits these goals, that would be enough electricity to power 3.75 million homes by 2030 and 25 million homes by mid-century.

On Sunday the United States Senate passed The Inflation Reduction Act and it’s expected to pass in the House of Representatives later this week. The Inflation Reduction act is a package that would fulfill multiple longstanding goals including addressing climate change, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and adjust tax codes.