The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced the launch of a new disclosure standard for the agriculture, aquaculture and fishing sectors this week. These sectors have become the main area of focus based on their immense impacts across economic, environmental, and social dimensions. This includes impacts on climate change and biodiversity, food security, farming and fishing practices, and community engagement. According to GRI, the standard will increase the completeness and comparability of sustainability information for all organizations around the world involved in crop cultivation, animal production, aquaculture or fishing.

The European Commission proposed new rules on Wednesday that will require the EU market to have all packaging be fully recyclable by 2030. These new rules are a way to reduce packaging waste through increased recycled content in plastic drink bottles and these rules set targets for reuse of single-use materials used for things such as online deliveries.

Last month it was announced that the EU was set to become a front-runner in global sustainability reporting standards by formally adopting the Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive (CSRD). On Monday, the EU Council announced that CSRD was officially adopted and approved. This new directive will expand on the already existing Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). The hope is that CSRD will introduce more detailed reporting requirements on companies’ impact on the environment, human rights and social standards.

The EU has become a front-runner in global sustainability reporting standards by formally adopting the Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive (CSRD). With CSRD officially adopted, this new directive will expand on the already existing Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). The goal is that CSRD will introduce more detailed reporting requirements on companies’ impact on the environment, human rights and social standards.

France’s Senate approved new legislation that will now require all parking lots with spaces for 80 vehicles or more to be covered by solar panels. This legislation expands to both and new and old parking lots.

Big news in the world of ESG and Sustainability! The Biden administration announced a new proposal that will require federal contractors to disclose environmental data through CDP and set science-based decarbonization targets.

The week, CDP and the IFRS Foundation announced that CDP will incorporate the International Sustainability Standard Board’s (ISSB) climate-related disclosure standard into its environmental disclosure program. With 18,700 companies, worth half of global market capitalization, disclosing environmental information through CDP in 2022, this integration means there will be a rapid acceleration of early adoption of ISSB climate data disclosure across the global economy.

The week, The European Council agreed on a proposal that revised the Energy Performance of Building Directives. These revisions will ultimately make it so that all new buildings should be zero-emissions buildings by 2030, and all existing buildings will be transformed into zero emissions buildings by 2050.

The week, the European Union passed a ruling that is requiring all phones and small devices such as cameras and tablets, to have a USB-C charging cable. This law has been in the works for about 10 years, starting initially Brussels after consumers complained about having to switch between chargers and the cost affiliated with having a different type of charger for each device. This law was passed in hopes to not only make life easier and most cost effective for consumers, but also to be more sustainable at the end of the day.

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.

Yesterday, it was announced that Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard gave away his shares of the company. His shares are an estimated value of about $3 billion dollars that are now under ownership if a specifically designed trust and nonprofit organization that are both dedicated to fighting climate change.

Recently, The CDP published a new report after partnering with Oliver Wyman, that outlines that the G7 countries that have agreed to the Paris Agreement will not reach the Paris Agreements 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels goal. Instead, these countries are poised to only mitigate global temperature increase to 2.7 degrees, missing the goal by over 1 degree, which could have catastrophic impacts.

The California Air Resources Board on August 25th approved the Advanced Clean Cars II rule. This rule outlines a year-by-year roadmap as to how the state will make it so that 100% of new cars and light trucks sold in California will be zero emission vehicles by 2035.

A new insight from McKinsey warns that a food shortage could be coming sooner than later. Many people have heard the rumors or worries regarding possible food shortages and have even felt the impacts of rising prices. As it turns out, due to the War in Ukraine, supply chain issues that are leftover from COVID-19, and climate events such as heat waves and droughts, this could leave the world about 60 million tonnes of grain behind by the end of 2023.

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.