Hello New York Climate Week! It’s that time of year when the climate world descends on the Big Apple to work on climate policy, celebrate progress, and scare each other with how much work remains to be done.
As usual, there is a wealth of news from the over one hundred events scattered across the city. Here’s a roundup of news and moments that have emerged as good to know for business energy:
Businesses need to focus on strategy, not metrics, to make a climate impact.get started, a new report from Oliver Wyman and the Climate Group, shows that how a company contributes to the transition, rather than its own emissions performance, is necessary for transformational change. The report echoes a recent article by Bloomberg Green this shows how companies often sell carbon-emitting assets to claim carbon decarbonization numbers – despite the fact that the asset is still emitting, just under new ownership.
Renewable energies increase energy security. During sign During the opening ceremonies, Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen took aim at those who “falsely claim that the current energy crisis is due to renewables”. Indeed, renewable energy – with the right infrastructure – adds a resilience that is not subject to the contrast of fossil fuel supply. Francesco La Camera, chief executive of the International Renewable Energy Agency, echoed that sentiment, flipping the script on critics of renewables who point out that solar and wind are intermittent. As European countries have seen since Russia’s restriction of gas imports, “if we don’t have gas, we don’t have gas”.
We are not going in the right direction yet. Despite increased awareness and commitments to climate change, Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, shared some hard truths at the opening ceremony. A statistic that jumped out at me: 2022 has already exceeded the total emissions of 2019. And there are still three months left in the year.
RE100, the clean energy business initiative made up of more than 380 companies, has developed six policy ‘demands’ to encourage the adoption of renewable energy – and encourages companies with clean energy goals to imply. The “demands” include policy that ensures a level playing field between renewables and fossil fuels, removes regulatory barriers to businesses supplying renewable electricity, updates electricity market structures to catalyze direct trade between business buyers and promotes on-site and off-site direct investment. renewable electricity projects.
The National Grid Utility unveiled a blueprint for developing a large-scale, clean, fossil-free energy hub across Long Island. The plan includes solar, offshore wind, clean hydrogen, battery storage and transmission, according to the Release.