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Food giants respond to worries over packaging

Posted on May 13, 2021May 13, 2021 by dishanth

When Rebecca Prince-Ruiz recalls how her eco-friendly movement Plastic Free July has progressed over the years, she can’t help but smile. What began in 2011 as 40 people committing to going plastic-free one month a year has gained momentum to 326 million people pledging to adopt this practice today.

“I’ve seen that uptick in interest every year,” says Ms Prince-Ruiz, who is based in Perth, Australia, and author of Plastic Free: The Inspiring Story of a Global Environmental Movement and Why It Matters.

“These days, people are taking a hard look at what they are doing in their lives and how they can seize an opportunity to be less wasteful,” she says.

Since 2000, the plastics industry has manufactured as much plastic as all the preceding years combined, a World Wildlife Fund report in 2019 found. “The production of virgin plastic has increased 200-fold since 1950, and has grown at a rate of 4% a year since 2000,” the report says.

This has spurred companies to replace single-use plastic with biodegradable and compostable packaging designed to dramatically reduce the toxic footprint plastics leave behind.

In March, Mars Wrigley and Danimer Scientific announced a new two-year partnership to develop compostable packaging for Skittles in the US, estimated to be on shelves by early 2022.

Mars Wrigley plans to have a compostable wrapper for Skittles by next year GETTY IMAGES

It involves a type of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) that will look and feel the same as plastic, but can be thrown into the compost where it will break down, unlike regular plastic that takes anywhere from 20 to 450 years to fully decompose.

Danimer Scientific’s polymer product is made from canola oil, and it acts similarly to wood, meaning it breaks down when bacteria interact with it. “PHA goes away naturally and is still a very strong material for all types of products,” says Stephen Croskrey, chief executive of Danimer Scientific, based in the US state of Georgia.

Alastair Child, Mars Wrigley vice-president for global sustainability, says: “Our vision is to support a circular economy where packaging never becomes waste and by 2025 we plan to reduce our virgin plastic use by 25% and for 100% of our plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable.”

Polymateria’s plastic biodegrades after three years POLYMATERIA

Hindering the widespread use of eco-friendly packaging such as PHA is the cost. It can be three to fives time as expensive to manufacture as regular plastic.

But that hasn’t stopped companies such as California-based Mango Materials and London-based Polymateria from dedicating their businesses to producing products that biodegrade over a shorter period of time.

For example, Polymateria’s Cycle+ plastic is biodegradable after three years and is still able to be recycled during its usable lifetime. Their clients range from East Africa businesses making bread bags to Extreme E, a new electric racing series that uses Polymateria products for cups and food packaging.

Consumers are demanding biodegradable plastics, says Niall Dunne, chief executive of Polymateria SUZANNE PLUNKETT

The plastics industry should wake up to the growing trend of alternative packaging, says Niall Dunne, chief executive of Polymateria. “We’ve seen how consumer pressure is saying to the big guys that they have to be on board [with reducing their plastic production] and to be more transparent and authentic in this important conversation,” Mr Dunne says.

Meg Sobkowicz, associate professor of plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, says that kind of pressure has already worked to push the plastics industry to steer away from the toxic BPA ingredient that was commonly found in reusable plastic bottles. “I think we’re coming around to where public concern is pushing them to tip the scales in favour of environmentally friendly packaging, despite its costs.”

By David Silverberg
Technology of Business reporte

Source BBC

Climate change: UK to set into law world’s most ambitious target for reducing emissions

Posted on April 22, 2021 by dishanth

The UK government is to set in law the world’s most ambitious climate change target, cutting emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels.

And, as reported by Sky News earlier, the UK’s Sixth Carbon Budget will incorporate, for the first time, the country’s share of international aviation and shipping emissions.

It will mean an increase in ambition on the international pledge made by the UK government last December to reduce emissions by 68% by 2030.

In line with the recommendation from the independent Climate Change Committee, this Sixth Carbon Budget limits the volume of greenhouse gases emitted over a five-year period from 2033-2037, taking the UK more than three-quarters of the way to reaching net zero by 2050.

This will ensure Britain remains on track to end its contribution to climate change while remaining consistent with the Paris Agreement temperature goal to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts towards 1.5°C.

The Paris Climate Agreement commits signatory countries to help limit global warming to well below 2°C, ideally to 1.5°C

The new target will become enshrined in law by the end of June, with legislation setting out the UK government’s commitments laid in Parliament on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the bold move was because he wanted to “continue to raise the bar on tackling climate change” hence “the most ambitious target to cut emissions in the world”.

Source Sky News

How to Transform Sustainability from an Empty Promise to the Guiding Star of Businesses

Posted on February 23, 2021 by dishanth

In the wake of Trump’s presidency and amidst the coronavirus pandemic, it is no surprise that people’s trust in the government is at a new low. As the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals, many people are looking to businesses to solve the societal and environmental problems they no longer believe the government is equipped to confront. Despite this transfer of trust from government to businesses, most businesses are not living up to this new responsibility.

Big corporations are hostages to growth and wealth creation. There is no getting away from the fact that they are hooked, addict-like to feeding on numbers. Despite all the evidence, despite all the talk of a new corporate consciousness being awakened by the monumental challenges humanity faces, the profit card continues to trump the purpose one.

It is not that big businesses can’t have a purpose, they can. The issue is that they are simply not ever going to be fit enough to deliver a purpose. They are simply the wrong kind of beast. Meat-eating wolves don’t become grass-eating sheep though they can do a pretty good job of dressing up like them – some of the time.

That is where Single Organizing Idea comes in. As we all know, business as usual is over — the world of work has changed. Businesses without a greater purpose beyond profit are increasingly being called out, struggling to respond or simply failing. While business leaders know that the pressure on them needs to be urgently addressed, few have the tools or systems required to deliver the kind of changes being demanded. Adding to the complexity, and despite best intentions, too many consultants and advisors are using outdated or fragmented models that do little to address the immediate issues, or deliver the long-term systemic changes critically needed. Single Organizing Idea (SOI®) was created to solve this problem.

SOI® is a strategy tool and management system. First conceived in 2005 by Neil Gaught,

SOI® is the culmination of many years of obsession with the challenges facing the business world and the inadequacies of ‘purpose’ to address those challenges.

Purpose is a tarnished old idea that is being promoted by out-of-date, noisy, attention and lobbying reliant big businesses who are themselves no longer fit for purpose. Businesses possess an array of unique attributes and the potential to make a huge contribution to all our futures. They will fail us in this regard, however, if we expect tacking on a CSR team or sustainability campaign, without altering the profit-centered structure of the rest of the company, to have any significant impact.

SOI® allows companies to discover their true, sustainable potential, then embed it at the heart of their mission and actions. By operating at the intersection of their economic and social strategy, these businesses thrive while simultaneously creating sustainable progress for all. The days of businesses doing the bare minimum to appear as though they care about more than just profit are over. The innovative potential of business is unparalleled, we must simply provide businesses with the tools to combine their strategy for growth with their strategy for benefiting people and the planet.

Source Single Organizing Idea

Singapore is building a 42,000-home eco ‘smart’ city

Posted on February 8, 2021 by dishanth

In a country where over 80% of residents live in public housing, a government commitment to sustainable urban design could have huge implications. And when it’s a tropical country where convenience and air conditioning are a way of life, the impact could be greater still.

Promising 42,000 new homes across five residential districts, the eco-town of Tengah — the Malay word for “middle,” though it’s in the island’s western region — will be the 24th new settlement built by Singapore’s government since World War II. It is, however, the first with centralized cooling, automated trash collection and a car-free town center, which conservationists hope offers a roadmap for slashing carbon emissions in the Southeast Asian city-state.

The development is being dubbed a “forest town” by officials, due to its abundant greenery and public gardens. Once home to brickmaking factories, and later used for military training, the 700-hectare (2.7-square-mile) site has been reclaimed by an extensive secondary forest in recent years. A 328-foot-wide ecological “corridor” will be maintained through its center, providing safe passage to wildlife and connecting a water catchment area on one side to a nature reserve on the other.

Planners say the town has been designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind. Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board

The project has proven a tabula rasa for urban planners advocating green design principles and “smart” technology, according to Chong Fook Loong, group director for research and planning at Singapore’s Housing and Development Board (HDB), the agency overseeing the country’s public housing.

“Tengah is a clean slate,” he said in a video interview, explaining that roads, parking and utilities are being pushed beneath the town center. “We’re going for the ideal concept of segregation of traffic, (with) everything underground and then the ground level totally freed up for pedestrians — for people. So, it’s a very safe environment for all.

“We want a town that allows walking and cycling in a very user-friendly manner,” he added, saying that cycling has “taken off” in Singapore in the “last three to five years especially.”

The master plan will see the installation of electric vehicle charging stations, while the streets are also being “futureproofed” to accommodate emerging technologies, Chong said.

“When we planned the road network, we envisaged a future where autonomous vehicles and self-driving vehicles will become a reality,” he said.

Cooler by design

Although comparatively small, with a population of under 6 million people, Singapore’s per-capita emissions are higher than those of the UK, China, and neighboring Malaysia, according to the country’s National Climate Change Secretariat.

That’s due, in part, to air conditioning, which accounts for more than a third of typical household energy consumption. Global warming will only exacerbate this dependence. The Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) has predicted that, by the end of this century, average daily temperatures in the city-state may be at least 34.1 degrees Celsius (93.4 degrees Fahrenheit) “almost every day” during the eight warmest months of the year.

An artist’s impression of the 2.7-square-mile site. Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board

As such, keeping cool will, increasingly, be a necessity for residents. Rather than demonizing air conditioning, Tengah’s planners have instead sought to reimagine it. Cold water, chilled using solar power, will be piped though the district’s homes, meaning residents don’t need to install inefficient outdoor AC condensers (though they can still control the temperature in their own apartments).

According to the town’s energy provider, SP Group, this will generate carbon dioxide savings equivalent to taking 4,500 cars off the roads each year. The state-owned energy company reports that, of the apartments already sold in advance, 9 out of 10 future residents have signed up for centralized cooling.

Planners used computer modeling to simulate wind flow and heat gain across the town, helping to reduce the so-called urban heat island effect (whereby human activities and structures make urban areas notably warmer than the surrounding nature). Elsewhere, “smart” lights will switch off when public spaces are unoccupied, and trash will be stored centrally, with monitors detecting when garbage needs collecting.

“Instead of using a truck to collect garbage from every block, we will suck all the garbage through the pneumatic system to a chamber that serves several blocks,” Chong said. “From time to time, the (garbage) truck just needs to collect from the chamber.”

One of the town’s five residential districts, known as the Plantation District, will offer community farming. Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board

Of the 42,000 homes being built at Tengah, more than 70% will be made available through the HDB on long-term leases. Prices for two-bedroom apartments currently begin at just 108,000 Singapore dollars ($82,000), with the first apartments set to complete in 2023.

All residents will have access to an app allowing them to monitor their energy and water usage. (“You empower them to take control of where they can cut down their energy consumption,” Chong said.) Digital displays in each block will meanwhile inform occupants of their collective environmental impact, which could even encourage competition between residential blocks, according to SP Group.

Regardless of whether the use of smart technology can significantly dent greenhouse gas emissions or not, engaging residents with their own consumption could instigate behavioral change, according to Perrine Hamel, an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment. This, she added, is a crucial part of Singapore’s goal of reaching peak emissions by 2030 and reducing them thereafter.

“Thinking about food consumption and thinking about the way people use air conditioning is all part of (achieving climate targets),” she said. “Changing behavior is going to be an integral part of it and, of course, urban design is the first way to affect and change behavior.”

Dubbing the project a “forest town,” planners aim to retain some of the site’s natural greenery. Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board

Connecting with nature
For Hamel, the integration of nature and residential areas — which creates “more opportunities for people to interact with nature” — is where Tengah’s plan excels. In addition to the aforementioned forest corridor, the town’s residents will have access to community farming in the so-called Plantation District.

Beyond promoting and protecting biodiversity, conserving nature on the site can lead to further behavioral change, Hamel said.

“There are a lot of examples, from around the world, showing that changing our relationship with nature through everyday encounters does help people take environmental action,” she said. “On that front I think the biophilic design and (Tengah’s) master plan actually does a good job.”.

The Nature Society Singapore (NSS) has nonetheless criticized the plan for conserving too little — less than 10% — of the site’s existing forest. The environmental group has proposed two additional “core forest areas” at either end of the green corridor to promote biodiversity and protect migratory species.

The government said it is “refining” its plan based the NSS report, though Singapore’s Land Transport Authority has since disclosed that even more of the remaining forest — about 3% of the proposed corridor — will be felled to make way for viaducts connecting the town to a nearby expressway.

(In an email to CNN, the agency said it will later replant the trees in the cleared area and create “suitable temporary wildlife crossings … to provide a safe passage for animals during construction.”)

Yet, even Tengah’s critics have broadly welcomed the eco-town, with the NSS concluding its environmental critique by stating it is still “heartened by this bold plan.”

What these urban design initiatives mean for the rest of Singapore remains to be seen. When Tengah was first revealed in 2016, it was the first new town announced by Singapore’s government in two decades, meaning every other neighborhood was designed long before the era of autonomous vehicles and internet-enabled amenities. Chong readily admitted that “it’s not so easy” to retrofit underground road networks and pneumatic trash chutes in existing towns.

Nevertheless, he struck a positive note when asked what Tengah’s model offers future residential projects.
“We try to bring all the lessons forward — whenever we can and to the best of our ability,” he said. “You look at Tengah and, in a nutshell, you’re seeing the future of what the (government) is trying to build: the future of towns.”

Written byOscar Holland

Source CNN

How does public procurement become sustainable?

Posted on January 12, 2021 by dishanth

Bonn, 11 November 2019. In the EU alone, public institutions spend EUR 2 trillion a year on procurement processes, making public procurement a major lever for achieving sustainability goals. For several years now, public-procurement legislation and regulations have increasingly included sustainability criteria. Having already been mainstreamed throughout Europe in the current EU Public Procurement Directive (2014/24/EU) issued in 2014, these criteria have been incorporated into the national legislation of the member states. Nonetheless, practical integration of sustainability criteria into public procurement processes has so far been the exception rather than the rule. Both mandatory and optional regulations need to be translated into practice.

A paradigm shift is already emerging in this regard at the international level and was also observable at the second MUPASS Dialogue Forum, which brought together public procurement experts from Germany, Europe, Latin America and Africa in Bonn in late October. These experts discussed ways of implementing a sustainable public procurement system, for instance, by incorporating sustainability criteria into e-procurement processes and making general use of sustainability standards. If there is no simple textbook approach to this topic, then experience-sharing and joint learning are the key tools for bringing about change.

In addition to a sound legal basis, there is a need for change management approaches, additional personnel and specific advice on implementation. In highly decentralised public procurement systems such as Germany’s, municipal procurement authorities require greater external support. Entities such as the Competence Center for Sustainable Procurement and the Service Agency Communities in One World already offer advisory and support services in this regard. In order to reach Germany’s 11,000 plus municipalities, the federal states need to finally join the German Government in fulfilling their responsibility to provide relevant services. It is worth taking a look at the Netherlands in this context, where central advisory institution PIANOo has successfully initiated sustainable procurement measures in the country’s municipalities (of which there are just 355) and employs over 30 staff to advise and support them. Many African nations, such as Ghana and South Africa, also run regular training campaigns for procurement officers which increasingly incorporate the topic of sustainability.

There is a need to provide training and establish new structures to equip procurement authorities and those who request and use the procured products to develop and apply sustainable procurement criteria. This has been seen in Germany and Europe and around the world, from Bremen, Berlin and Rotterdam to Tshwane in South Africa.

Communicating sustainability goals to the market can be a time-consuming process. Organising bidder dialogues, which give procurement agencies an opportunity to discuss their expectations with potential bidders, takes careful preparation and broad-based public relations work. African practitioners in particular are concerned about engaging in closer dialogue with companies due to the perceived corruption risk. However, frank exchange with the market not only provides an opportunity to strengthen sustainable procurement, but can also increase transparency regarding the procurement process.

The digitalisation of procurement is currently raising many expectations. In addition to boosting effectiveness and transparency, e-procurement could also be used to incorporate sustainability goals into the process. The city of Mainz and the Brazilian state of São Paulo, for example, are using electronic catalogues to raise buyers’ awareness of more environmentally friendly and fair alternatives within existing framework agreements. Nevertheless, new procedures alone will not ensure more effective integration of sustainability criteria into the public procurement process. When it comes to making these and other procurement instruments more sustainable, it is crucial to take account of sustainability as an integral system component in their use from the outset. The procurement agencies need corresponding support with changing their mindset on this topic.

We are currently experiencing a turning point in the world of public procurement. Consolidating long-term, strategic planning in procurement, promoting greater professionalism and introducing and piloting new procedures, such as bidder dialogues and digital processes, are all suitable ways of integrating social and environmental sustainability to a greater extent in public procurement. It is important on the way to achieving this to make the necessary resources for these change processes available, something which pays off in the form of increased efficiency and longer-term planning and facilitates both national and international dialogue between administrations. This emerging turning point is not a foregone conclusion – it must be supported and shaped.

Stoffel, Tim / Maximilian Müngersdorff
The Current Column (2019)

Bonn: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE),
The Current Column of 11 November 2019

India pushes back against strengthening climate pledge

Posted on December 16, 2020December 16, 2020 by dishanth

The easiest way to irritate a senior official in India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is to ask if the government is enhancing its Paris ambition. “Why should we?” everyone from the minister to the joint secretary snaps back. “We’re the only G20 country to have met our Paris commitments. We’ve gone well beyond. Why don’t you ask the countries lecturing us to mend their own ways instead?”

Five years after the landmark Paris Agreement, climate change is gathering pace despite the pandemic-forced hiatus in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Impacts of climate change are already here for all to suffer and pledges to control emissions are still inadequate.

Hope was to be rekindled in 2020, when 195 governments and the European Union were expected to strengthen their pledges at the annual UN climate summit. Covid-19 has forced a one-year delay to that summit scheduled in Glasgow.

Meanwhile, major economies such as China, Japan and South Korea are among 126 countries that have declared dates by which they will be carbon neutral. Add to that the expectation that Joe Biden will make some big-ticket climate announcements as soon as he takes over the US presidency.

Altogether, it has led to shriller demands from rich countries that India – the world’s fourth-highest GHG polluter after China, the US and the EU – should announce the strengthening of its Paris pledges.

This makes the Indian government bristle in private and reiterate in public what India has been doing on the climate front. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the recent G20 virtual summit how India has the world’s most ambitious renewable energy programme.

“We will meet our goal of 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy (RE) well before the target of 2022. Now, we are taking a big step ahead by seeking to achieve 450 gigawatts by 2030,” he promised.

Installed RE capacity is now around 78 GW, with a similar amount under construction. Observers think installed capacity will reach the 175 GW mark on time, but building of transmission lines is lagging behind.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar repeatedly points out that international climate analysts have calculated that India is the only major economy on track to stick to pledges made to keep global temperature rise within two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

India’s mitigation pledge to reduce intensity of emission per unit of production – rather than reducing the emission itself – has helped. Industrial efficiency improvements were moving the country in that direction anyway.

Javadekar also says often that India is the only big country to add to its green cover in recent years. Most of this addition is not in forests but plantations, which does not help biodiversity.

Ministers and officials point to two initiatives launched by Modi as a sign of new action: the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in 2015 and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in 2019. After initial hiccups, the ISA has started some work on the ground – especially in training people from other developing countries to set up and maintain solar installations. The CDRI has received backing from most countries, but is yet to make waves.

The Indian government’s position has been strengthened by the latest report card by global climate analysts from Germanwatch, New Climate Institute and Climate Action Network. They place India 10th among the 61 largest economies who were checked to see if they are on track to meet their Paris pledges. China is 33rd and the US last.

Implementing Paris pledges

India recently set up an Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement (AIPA). Steered by the environment ministry, it has representatives from 14 ministries, in an effort to coordinate climate policies, regulate carbon markets and see how private companies are doing. The ministries include finance, agriculture, science and technology, new and renewable energy, water, power, earth sciences, health, housing and urban affairs, rural development, external affairs, commerce and industry.

As the first implementation period of the pledges made under the Paris agreement starts in 2021, the main job of the committee will be to ensure India sticks to its three promises – a 33-35 per cent reduction in emissions intensity by 2030 from 2005 levels; 40 per cent of all electricity to be generated from non-fossil fuels by 2030; and tree plantation programmes that can remove 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent GHG from the atmosphere.

AIPA will be in charge of providing information to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on India’s progress.

The coal affair

While these steps are unexceptionable, the government gets defensive when asked why India continues to push coal-fired power plants. Not only are they the biggest GHG emitters, they are now costlier than renewable energy for much of the day. Despite that, fresh coal mining figured prominently in the government’s pandemic-recovery economic package.

The only defence one hears is that the coal industry employs millions of people. There has been no move towards encouraging these millions to take up alternate jobs. Some coal-dependent economies – such as Poland – have been seeking a “just transition”.

As host and president of the next climate summit, the British government is going to launch an Energy Transition Council, which will bring together the global political, financial and technical leadership in the power sector, and help to ensure that every country considering the energy transition can access needed support.

But there is no discussion of transition among Indian policymakers. Environmental NGOs in the country have started talking about it, but only a few and only very recently.

Serious problems with wider governance

There is no climate scepticism in India. More frequent and more severe droughts, floods, storms, forest fires, locust attacks have taken care of that. The government’s own scientists have emphasised the need to control GHG emissions.

But that has not stopped the government from seriously weakening environmental protection laws. The prime minister told the G20 summit, “We are encouraging a circular economy.” But the government is now even allowing drilling for oil and mining for coal inside once-protected forests. In the haste for post-Covid economic recovery, green options have been ignored even more than before.

The adverse impacts of such poor governance are worsened by climate change. India may be on track to fulfil its Paris pledge as far as mitigating GHG emissions is concerned, but its misgovernance of natural resources is reducing the resilience of Indians to deal with climate change impacts. Costs of adaptation are going up, and so are the loss and damage the country is suffering.

The dangers of poor governance are known, and were reiterated last year by scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, when they brought out a special report on the relationship between land degradation and climate change.

The launch of that report was followed by the summit of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, hosted and presided over by India. Its main conclusion was that land has to be saved to fight climate change. India is doing the opposite.

In lieu of a climate summit

While the actual UN climate summit has been postponed, a virtual “climate dialogue” was held recently, leading up to a Climate Ambition Summit on December 12 – the anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

At the dialogue, speakers made it clear that disastrous climate change is in the offing unless all governments take immediate steps. At a session convened by the UNFCCC, scientists also warned that emissions continue to be far higher than what governments pledged in the Paris Agreement, and there is an urgent need for countries to close this gap as well as strengthen their pledges.

Current pledges are leading the world to a temperature increase of anywhere between 2.7 and 3.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. The world is already 1.2 degrees warmer.

By Joydeep Gupta, The Third Pole

Source Eco-Business

Green opportunities in Hong Kong

Posted on December 2, 2020 by dishanth

Do you have a solution that could help the territory on its low-carbon transformation?

In late November 2020, Hong Kong became yet another jurisdiction to state its ambition and pledge to become net zero. In her annual Policy Address, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced “that the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) will strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050.”.

While it could NOT be hailed as the most bullish of timelines, it IS a great step forwards and follows in the path of the President of Mainland China Xi Jinping’s recent speech to the United Nations when he made it clear that China would endeavour to achieve carbon-neutrality before 2060.

While specifics will become clear over the next while, the Policy Address already provides a sense of the direction of travel and priorities for Hong Kong’s intended low-carbon transformation. Here are a few headline themes: (figures in brackets are the related paragraphs in the Policy Address):

• Reinvent construction, including through digitalisation and innovation, as part of the ongoing investment in infrastructure (57, 59)

• Various plans to develop/redevelop different districts for mixed community spaces serving conservation, nature, entertainment etc (111, 113)

• A new multi-modal environmentally friendly linkage system for Kowloon East, comprising bus/minibus routes, travellators, tracks for pedestrians and cyclists, water-taxis (116, 119)

• Smart mobility through applying technology to improve road efficiency (118).

• Promoting a green recovery through initiatives like installing more electric vehicle charging-enabling infrastructure and expanding the recycling network (124)

• The Government has indicated plans to examine various means to reduce carbon emissions, including zero-carbon energy and decarbonisation technology; enhancing the energy efficient of both new and existing buildings; promoting zero-carbon vehicles and green transportation, and building large scale waste-to-energy facilities (127).

• Supporting all of the above will be more stringent energy efficient standards, green finance will be developed to facilitate the investment required and there will be a push to enhance public education and publicity.

All of this, plus there is an indication that there will be lots more coming – a Green Tech Fund, new long-term strategy blueprint for waste, electric vehicles, updating the Clean Air Plan (124) – so there’s lots to do in the territory and inspiration/ideas will certainly be sought from offshore, for proven technologies, use cases, and more.

Looking beyond Hong Kong, the territory plus some of the southern provinces of Mainland China plus the other Special Administrative Region, Macau, comprise the land mass that is the Greater Bay Area. The so-called GBA comprising 90 million people is being developed as an integrated region, that already has impressive economic firepower of some USD24,000 GDP per capita. So, whether considering Hong Kong on its own or as an international entry point and intermediary to this larger region, the business opportunities for cleantech and green solutions in and through Hong Kong has arguably never been more attractive.

While the Policy Address isn’t a shopping list of what the territory needs to source, it does give a strong indication of what the Government is seeking to do, but it’s unlikely the current provision of goods and services in Hong Kong will have all the answers.

If you operate in any of these areas and have offerings that could help Hong Kong achieve these goals, you would be well advised to explore them now.

Should you wish to learn any more details about the market in Hong Kong, please do get in touch with Fiona of Red Links. Red Links is a Hong Kong-based consultancy, helping build responsible businesses, through services in strategy, engagement and sustainability.

Notes:
– the full text and summaries of the address are available:
https://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/2020/eng/index.html
– these plans are subject to approval but can be taken as a strong indication of what is likely to
happen

Environment to benefit from ‘biggest farming shake-up in 50 years’

Posted on December 1, 2020 by dishanth

Wildlife, nature and the climate will benefit from the biggest shake-up in farming policy in England for 50 years, according to government plans.

The £1.6bn subsidy farmers receive every year for simply owning or renting land will be phased out by 2028, with the funds used instead to pay them to restore wild habitats, create new woodlands, boost soils and cut pesticide use.

The wealthiest farmers – those receiving annual payments over £150,000 a year – will face the sharpest cuts, starting with 25% in 2021. Those receiving less than £30,000 will see a 5% cut next year.

Some of the biggest recipients of the existing scheme have been the Duke of Westminster, the inventor Sir James Dyson, racehorse owner Prince Khalid bin Abdullah al Saud and the Queen.

Farmers will also get grants to improve productivity and animal welfare, including new robotic equipment. The goal of the plan is that farmers will – within seven years – be producing healthy and profitable food in a sustainable way and without subsidies.

The environment secretary, George Eustice, acknowledged the damage done to the environment by industrial farming since the 1960s and said the new plans would deliver for nature and help fight the climate crisis. Farming occupies 70% of England, is the biggest driver of biodiversity loss and produces significant greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution.

The radical changes in agricultural policy are possible due to the UK leaving the EU, whose common agricultural policy is widely regarded as a disaster for nature and even critics of Brexit see the changes as positive.

Farming and environment groups largely welcomed the plans but said more detail was urgently required. Brexit is looming at the end of December and uncertainties remain over food tariffs and trade deals. Many groups are also concerned about the potential import of food produced to lower animal welfare and environmental standards.

“[This is] the biggest change in agricultural policy in half a century,” said Eustice. “It makes no sense to subsidise land ownership and tenure where the largest subsidy payments often go to the wealthiest landowners.

“Over the last century, much of our wildlife-rich habitat has been lost, and many species are in long-term decline.

“I know many farmers feel this loss keenly and are taking measures to reverse this decline. But we cannot deny that the intensification of agriculture since the 1960s has taken its toll. Our plans for future farming must [also] tackle climate change – one of the most urgent challenges facing the world.”

The total of £2.4bn a year currently paid to farmers will remain the same until 2025, as promised in the Conservative manifesto. Currently, two-thirds of this is paid solely for owning land, but the proportion will fall to one-third by 2025 and zero by 2028. Funds for environmental action will rise from a quarter of the total to more than half by 2025, with the remaining funds used to increase productivity.

The new green payments will be trialled with 5,000 farmers before a full launch in 2024. But the level of payments for work such as natural flood defences and restoring peatlands and saltmarshes has not yet been set. Nor has the likely cut in carbon emissions been quantified.

The president of the National Farmers’ Union, Minette Batters, said: “Farming is changing and we look forward to working with ministers and officials to co-create the new schemes.”

But she added: “Expecting farmers to run viable, high-cost farm businesses, continue to produce food and increase their environmental delivery, while phasing out existing support and without a complete replacement scheme for almost three years is high risk and a very big ask.”

The cuts are expected to reduce the income of livestock farmers, for example, by 60% to 80% by 2024, Batters said.

Kate Norgrove, of the WWF, said: “Our farmers have the potential to be frontline heroes in the climate and nature emergency, and this roadmap starts us on the right path. It must see increased investment in nature as a way to tackle climate change.”

Tom Lancaster, principal policy officer for agriculture at the RSPB, said: “This is a make or break moment for the government’s farming reforms, which are so important to both the future of farming and recovery of nature in England. [This plan] provides some welcome clarity, but faster progress is now needed over the coming months.”

But Craig Bennett, CEO of the Wildlife Trusts, said: “We are deeply worried that the pilot [environment] schemes simply cannot deliver the promise that nature will be in a better state. Four years on from the EU referendum, we still lack the detail and clarity on how farm funding will benefit the public.”

Other measures in the government plan include funding improvements in how farmers manage animal manure – slurry is a major polluter of both water and air – and a scheme where farmers seeking to leave the sector can cash out all the subsidies payments they are due up to 2028 in 2022, part of efforts to help new farmers enter the sector.

The government said it would be cutting “red tape” for farmers, with warning letters replacing automatic fines for minor issues and more targeted – though not fewer – inspections.

In July, the government said rules about growing diverse crops, fallow land and hedges would be abolished in 2021, claiming they had little environmental benefit. Farming policy is a devolved matter and other UK nations have yet to bring forward firm new plans.

Source The Guardian

UK government commissions space solar power stations research

Posted on November 19, 2020 by dishanth

The UK government has commissioned new research into space-based solar power (SBSP) systems that would use very large solar power satellites to collect solar energy, convert it into high-frequency radio waves, and safely beam it back to ground-based receivers connected to the electrical power grid.

It is an idea first conjured by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1941, and is now being studied by several nations because the lightweight solar panels and wireless power transmission technology is advancing rapidly. This, together with lower cost commercial space launch, may make the concept of solar power satellites more feasible and economically viable.

Now the UK in 2020 will explore whether this renewable technology could offer a resilient, safe and sustainable energy source.

Science Minister Amanda Solloway said:

Solar space stations may sound like science fiction, but they could be a game-changing new source of energy for the UK and the rest of the world.

This pioneering government-backed study will help shine a light on the possibilities for a space-based solar power system which, if successful, could play an important role in reducing our emissions and meeting the UK’s ambitious climate change targets.

The study, led by Frazer-Nash Consultancy, will consider the engineering and economics of such a system – whether it could deliver affordable energy for consumers, and the engineering and technology that would be required to build it. One of the biggest issues to overcome is assembling the massive satellites in orbit, which has not been done before at this scale.

Dr Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said:

The Sun never sets in space, so a space solar power system could supply renewable energy to anywhere on the planet, day or night, rain or shine. It is an idea that has existed for decades, but has always felt decades away.

The UK is growing its status as a global player in space and we have bold plans to launch small satellites in the coming years. Space solar could be another string to our bow, and this study will help establish whether it is right for the UK.

Historically, the cost of rocket launches and the weight that would be required for a project of this scale made the idea of space-based solar power unfeasible. But the emergence of privately-led space ventures has brought the cost of launch down dramatically in the last decade.

Martin Soltau, Space Business Manager at Frazer-Nash outlined what the study will involve:

Decarbonising our economy is vital. We need to explore new technologies to provide clean, affordable, secure and dependable energy for the nation. SBSP has the potential to contribute substantially to UK energy generation, and offers many benefits if it can be made practical and affordable.

Frazer-Nash is studying the leading international solar power satellite designs, and we will be drawing up the engineering plan to deploy an operational SBSP system by 2050. We are forming an expert panel, comprised of leading SBSP experts and space and energy organisations, to gain a range of industry views.

We will compare SBSP alongside other forms of renewable energy, to see how it would contribute as part of a future mix of clean energy technologies.

We have also partnered with Oxford Economics, who have significant experience in the space sector and who will provide additional insight to the economic assessment of the system, and the benefit to the UK economy.

As the effects of climate change become more pronounced, prominent research institutions and government agencies are focusing new money and attention on novel approaches to reduce global warming.

In 2019, Britain passed an important milestone, with more electricity generated from sources like wind, solar and nuclear power, that produce almost no carbon dioxide emissions, than from carbon-emitting fuels like natural gas and coal.

According to the World Resources Institute – a Washington-based non-profit that tracks climate change – Britain has reduced carbon dioxide generated in the country by about 40 per cent, which is more than any other major industrialised country.

As the National Space Council sets a new direction for our space policy, the UK Space Agency is committed to understanding the future opportunities space technologies open up.

From UK Space Agency and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

Source Gov.UK

REUTERS NEXT The Virtual Summit Rethinking the Future

Posted on November 18, 2020November 18, 2020 by dishanth

REUTERS NEXT kicks off 2021 by gathering global leaders and forward thinkers to reimagine solutions to the challenges the new year brings.

After the extraordinary upheavals of 2020, we will come together to look ahead at opportunities for change and growth, as well as how to deal with the rifts and problems that our world and our societies face.

No country, company or community can tackle the future alone. To build a better world, thinkers and doers must come together to share ideas, collaborate and act.

REUTERS NEXT draws on Reuters global reach to host diverse voices from around the world who will examine topics from different perspectives, bringing their passion, experience and expertise to find new ways forward.

Join the conversation at REUTERS NEXT as we look ahead, together.

REGISTER NOW FOR FREE

Global Leaders and Forward Thinkers including:

What is NEXT?

Four days of agenda setting discussion

Led by Reuters editors, this four-day event has been carefully curated to address the most critical global issues of the day.

POLITICS, POLICY AND PROGRESS

Trade wars: from tech to oil, drawing today’s battle lines
Collective uncertainty: navigating continuity & the post-BREXIT future
The world in 2021: the fallout from the U.S. election & the rise of populism

ECONOMICS: FINANCING THE RECOVERY

How to recover: finding ways out of a global recession
Taxes and the evolving consumer: how to unleash spending power
The future of innovation: global tech vs regulation

A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

An inclusive, gree recovery: who will act first?
A carbon-neutral future: how to lead the way to net zero
Zero waste: global supply chains & the circular economy

RADICAL REDESIGN: LIVE, WORK & MOVE

The new working world: challenges & opportunities of a distributed workplace
See the world or save the world: the future of travel
The big if: the reliance on vaccines to create a new normal

MEDIA AND FREE SPEECH

Freedom of speech vs. regulation: the misinformation battleground
Publisher or platform? The evolving role of social media in the digital news ecosystem
Press freedom and the rise of authoritarianism

Why NEXT?

BREAKING NEWS

Gain access to first-hand insights from global leaders and forward thinkers on innovative solutions and opportunities that will define the world in 2021

REUTERS EDITORIAL

At a time when trust and accountability matter more than ever, join Reuters journalists to examine the trends, questions and impacts shaping business and society

ALL STAKEHOLDERS IN ONE PLACE

Over 25,000 top executives from business, government, international organizations and civil society, as well as leading experts, will come together to network, engage and exchange strategies to navigate these uncertain times

IMPACT DRIVEN AGENDA

This is the time to get the bigger picture of how our many challenges and disruptions interconnect to shape our future, whilst asking the difficult questions that will help us to set a new way forward

REAL CONNECTIONS IN A DIGITAL CONTEXT

We create the topics, you set the discussion. There are plenty of opportunities to connect, engage and build partnerships with the leaders that are driving meaningful change

BEYOND BORDERS OR WALLS

The ONLY forum bringing leaders and individuals from around the globe together, seamlessly connected

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Who’s NEXT?

Global leaders and forward thinkers from across

GOVERNMENTS & POLICY MAKERS

FINANCE

TECH

ENERGY

HEALTH

RETAIL

TRAVEL

MANUFACTURING

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

FOOD

MOBILITY

Taking virtual events to the NEXT step

WATCH LIVE

Watch presentations, fireside chats and panel discussions from top industry thought-leaders throughout the day in every time zone

DISCUSS

Comment and question in real time. Spark conversations with your fellow attendees and build those relationships with instant chat, video calls and discussion groups

QUESTION

Get in-depth answers in real-time with our live Q&A sessions with presentation and panel speakers

ON-DEMAND

Missed a session? Catch-up in your own time through our on-demand service for 2 weeks. Imagine Netflix but with the best of global thought leadership

PERSONALIZE

Create your own conference agenda and export it to your calendar, so you don’t miss business critical sessions

CONNECT

Meet and build relationships with fellow attendees who share the same challenges and interests as you with our Intelligent Networking platform (Financial Services, Energy, Manufacturing, Pharma and more)

For more information, please visit Reuters Next

Source: Reuters Next