For the love of trees

Hi friend,

I was going to rant about the 16-year-old that senselessly cut down one of Britain’s most iconic trees.

Or about the land-grabbers who torched 360,000 trees that were part of an Amazon reforestation project.

Or about a TV advert I saw that pitches wood as the most sustainable building material because you can just replant them!

Instead, I closed my laptop and went to the beach. And for someone who’s not a “beach person”, that’s saying a lot.

Sometimes, we need to step back from the doom and gloom, say fuck it, and go stare at the ocean. And that’s what I did.

So, there’s no intro story this week, but lots to catch up on in the news…

— Tarryn ✌️

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This week's climate and sustainability news worth noting

News from the New York Climate Summit and the UN Climate Ambition Summit:

• Panama and Colombia joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance to stop the development of new coal power plants and develop plans to phase out existing facilities. The Alliance now has 99 members.

• 67 nations signed the High Seas Treaty for increased ocean protection. The Treaty is legally binding but must still be ratified by each state. It will come into force 120 days after it’s been ratified by a minimum of 60 countries, which could take years.

• Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that territory taken from the Xokleng people a decade ago, when the region was moved to create a new reserve, would be restored.

• The UN Summit enforced strict criteria for speaking slots, excluding heads of state who had not brought new actions to the table, including US President Joe Biden and UK PM Rishi Sunak. Rather, airtime was given to outspoken first-movers on climate action.

👩🏻‍⚖️ Environmental lawyers will take legal action against the UK government if it cannot explain how Rishi Sunak’s changes to green policies align with its binding climate commitments. Sunak said he did not believe that his ludicrous changes would undermine efforts to meet the UK’s net-zero goal, nor any interim carbon budgets. The Good Law Project wanted to see the forecasted impacts of Sunak’s moves to weaken policies relating to electric vehicle manufacturing, low-carbon heating, and building energy efficiency by the end of last week. Meanwhile, Sunak’s government has pushed back on yet another key green policy.

🇫🇷 French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled a €10 billion ecological plan to end fossil fuel use by 2030 and reduce emissions by 55%. The plan includes measures to accelerate electric vehicle production, offshore wind farms, and investments in the train network.

🧑🏽‍⚖️ Six young people – the youngest being 11 – have taken 32 nations to the European Court of Human Rights, saying their inadequate response to climate change violates their human rights. They want a binding ruling from the judges to force the countries to accelerate their emissions reductions. Meanwhile, in the US, students at more than 50 high schools are proposing a Green New Deal for Schools, demanding that their districts teach climate justice, create pathways to green jobs, and plan for climate disasters, among other policies.

🦑 Niue, an island in the Pacific Ocean, has launched a crowdfunding scheme allowing companies and individuals to sponsor marine conservation. For US$149, funders can help to conserve one square kilometre of the Pacific Ocean. The initiative aims to raise US$18 million over 20 years to protect Niue’s “no-take” marine zone, which makes up 40% of the island’s sovereign waters.

👏 Climate activist and former US vice-president, Al Gore, has told the world how he really feels about the fossil fuel industry. Accusing them of engaging in “massive fraud” for decades, Gore said it was time they “get out of the way” of those fighting the climate crisis. He added that the fossil fuel industry “speaks with a forked tongue” and that it had infiltrated the political process at every level.

You know who else should get out of the way? Politicians, starting with Rishi Sunak, Donald Trump, and Sultan Al Jaber. Michael Bloomberg can stay, though. The former New York City mayor, who is also the 11th richest man in the world, has spent US$500 million in an effort to shut down coal and gas plants. This month he said he planned to spend another $500 million on the effort, this time targeting petrochemical plants that make fertiliser, plastics, and packaging.

❌ In more evidence that (most) carbon credits are bullshit, researchers found that about a quarter of global carbon offset projects are prone to greenwashing. They concluded that not only are the projects unsuitable for carbon reduction, but they also lead to the displacement or dispossession of vulnerable communities. Once again, Verra topped the list of dodgy certifiers.

🔥 Wildfires in Canada released two billion tonnes of CO2 – triple the country’s annual carbon footprint – transforming Canada’s forests from carbon sinks into super-emitters.

😡 Arsonists have destroyed an Amazon reforestation project, aimed at fighting climate change and creating jobs. The project planted 360,000 trees on illegally deforested land, which has been torched by suspected land-grabbers.

🇧🇷 In Brazil, drought, low river levels, and hotter waters have killed masses of fish, which have contaminated drinking water. Authorities have warned that the Amazon drought could impact half a million people. The government is preparing an emergency task force to assist the 111,000 people affected by the rapidly depleting food source.

🇮🇳 In India, farmers in the drought-stricken area of Karnataka went on a day-long strike to oppose the sharing of water from a river that flows into the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.

⏩️ The International Energy Agency (IEA) says rich countries should fast-track their efforts to achieve net-zero emissions to reach carbon neutrality by 2045 – five years earlier than previously planned – to keep to the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5C. Encouragingly, the IEA also noted that record growth in clean energy technologies in recent years – including solar panels and electric vehicles – indicates that there is still a chance to limit global warming to 1.5C.

🥩 Research finds that if everyone in the world replaced half of the meat and dairy they consume with plant-based substitutes, it would chop agricultural and land-use emissions by 31% in just 30 years. That figure could double if the land released by livestock was devoted to reforestation.

😵 One in six species is at risk of being lost in the UK, a new study has found. Over 60 researchers and conservation organisations assessed 10,000 species in what is considered the most comprehensive analysis of the UK’s biodiversity. They found that wildlife in the country has declined on average by 19% since widespread monitoring began in 1970.

😭 A 16-year-old and a 60-year-old have been arrested in Britain for chopping down one of England’s most iconic trees. The tree was one of the main landmarks along Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built nearly 2,000 years ago when Britain was part of the Roman Empire to guard its northwestern frontier. The tree also featured in Kevin Costner's 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

🔬 From the labs:

• 🧫 Researchers have engineered the common E. Coli bacteria to produce electricity from a range of sources, including wastewater.

• ☁️ Researchers in Japan have confirmed that microplastics are present in clouds, and are likely affecting the climate. Each litre of cloud water tested contained between 6.7-13.9 pieces of the plastics.

🌀 Wild weather:

• In Bolivia, an ongoing drought is threatening water supply.

• In Tanzania, maintenance issues and climate change-induced water shortages have triggered power rationing.

• Heavy rain and flooding in Vietnam and Cape Town.

And in business news

💸 HSBC will invest US$1 billion in early-stage climate tech businesses and project financing worldwide. It plans to support emerging companies developing solutions including electric vehicle charging, battery storage, sustainable food and agriculture, and carbon removal technologies.

🚛 The Climate Pledge, co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism, has partnered with C40 Cities to launch a new US$10 million initiative to decarbonise road freight in developing and emerging markets, with an initial focus on India and Latin America.

⚡️ The IKEA Foundation will invest US$20 million in seed funding to assist the development of Just Transition Plans for the energy sector in Indonesia, South Africa, and Vietnam.

👩‍🏫 Microsoft UK and The Crown Estate have launched a new initiative aimed at educating children on wind energy and biodiversity, via Minecraft.

⚡️ Danfoss, Google, Microsoft, and Schneider Electric form a consortium aimed at reducing emissions from energy-hungry data centres across Europe.

🧱 Lego has shelved plans to switch to recycled plastic, saying the process would be more carbon-intensive than using raw materials.

🚗 Nissan has unveiled a goal to only sell electric vehicles in Europe by 2030.

One small thing you can do

Skip the “same” or “next day” delivery option.

More frequent, smaller deliveries increase the number of deliveries and vehicle emissions.

Also, choose the option to have everything delivered at once, rather than individually in multiple plastic packages.

Express deliveries mean courier companies have to optimise their routes for speed, which are not always the most fuel or emissions-efficient.

Because lots of little actions combined can add up to something remarkable.

I'll leave you on this happy note...

The Xokleng people of Brazil celebrate after a ruling that land taken from them a decade ago will be restored.

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