Climate Coffee Newsletter #16 – 29th April 2022

Here’s your regular Friday edition the Sust Global Climate Coffee 🌱☕️ newsletter! This week we cover some strong opinions on the SEC climate disclosures, the environmental risks created by the Russia-Ukraine war and much more.

Let’s dive in!

CLIMATE REGULATION AND INVESTORS

Why Do Critics Claim That The SEC Has Over-Reached With Climate Risk Disclosures?
Great piece about some widespread objections to the SEC guidance and their respective counterpoints, including (1) this level of disclosure is Congress’ job, (2) the EPA is the appropriate agency for this and (3) the SEC is overreaching in the name of institutional investors and ignoring individual investors. All of the counterpoints ultimately boil down to the fact that there is huge variety in current climate disclosure reports, so the SEC guidance is warranted.

Building Global Climate-Resilience: How Governments Can Adapt And Mitigate Long-Term Climate Risks
Deloitte recently released a 2022 government trends reports revealing that governments are prioritising climate resilience. Learning lessons from COVID-19 and how that impacted the planet, operations, supply chain and every day human life, has led governments to do so. Some of the steps they are taking include: bringing climate action to their missions and understanding the impact of climate change on all levels of government; futureproofing an equity lens to infrastructure investments to protect all citizens; embedding environmental justice into agency programs; increasing data capabilities; understanding the threats and opportunities and collaborating with private sector.

CLIMATE RISK, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

War in Ukraine poses environmental risk now and in the future, advocates say
Russian forces are decimating the Ukrainian landscape, setting back vibrant ecosystems by decades. Many areas have been occupied, meaning environmental analysis and regulation has all but stopped, which is particularly worrying in the east of the country. This is home to many oil depots and nuclear power plants, and without human intervention, could easily leak toxic pollutants into the land, air and water.

This Guardian article contains 5 global charts that show how our food is not ready for climate change, mainly due to heatwaves and drought. Here’s a few highlights:

Climate change is affecting food directly: cyclones have wiped out vanilla crops in Madagascar; high temperatures in Central America ripen coffee too quickly; drought in Sub-Saharan Africa has caused withering chickpea crops and finally, rising ocean acidity is killing oysters and scallops in American waters.

At Sust Global, we can help you manage your physical climate risk exposure, so please get in contact with us via the form below if you have any questions.