Supermarket shoppers could soon be checking the environmental impact of food before putting it in their trolleys, thanks to new research.
Reliable information of this kind hasn’t been available.
That’s because UK manufacturers only have to list their main ingredients, and that’s by percentage, not amount.
Scientists have overcome the problem by using public databases to estimate the composition of thousands of food products and their impact.
Many consumers want to know how their weekly food shop affects the planet, even though rising prices will likely be a more immediate concern for most.
Prof Peter Scarborough from Oxford University told BBC News he hopes that the research leads to an eco-labelling system for customers, but he believes that the bigger impact would come if the food industry uses it to cut its environmental footprint.
He said the food industry has also been “crying out” for the new tool and that the algorithm is already being used by some manufacturers and caterers to make their meals more sustainable.
“It fills a huge gap. Manufacturers, caterers and retailers have targets for reaching net zero [emissions] and they don’t have the tools they need to get there.”
“Now they have this data, and some of them are talking to us about things they can do to help people move towards more sustainable food purchasing. The data could help manufacturers adjust their formulations.”
The analysis has limits. Ingredient lists don’t tend to show sourcing information such as country of origin or agricultural production method. But Dr Mike Clark, who led the research at Oxford University, called the tool “a significant step towards providing information that could enable informed decision-making”.
The Oxford team estimated the composition of 57,000 foods and drinks in supermarkets in the UK and Ireland. It then assessed the impact of growing methods, processing and transport, against key environmental measures including greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on nature.
The team developed an algorithm to calculate an eco-score for the environmental impact of individual food and drink products.
Catering firm Compass Group began working with the researchers in January.
Its Culinary Director for Business and Industry Ryan Holmes, told BBC News that use of the algorithm “made us think about how we approach sustainability within the workplace” as the company sought to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.
He said the company took out some meat, increased proteins from other sources such as lentils and used more whole grains and vegetables and obtained a better score for many of its meal options for staff canteens.
Meat and dairy score high
Under the algorithm, the higher the score, the higher the environmental impact. As expected, foods containing more meat and dairy score much higher than those with more plant-based ingredients. By contrast, many meat alternatives such as plant-based sausages or burgers, had between a fifth and less than a tenth of the environmental impact of meat-based equivalents.
But there was also wide variation within specific categories.
For example, the highest-impact pork sausage scored about a third higher than the least impactful. And the impact of biscuits rose the more chocolate they contained, showing that small recipe changes could make big differences, according to Prof Scarborough.
“If you look at the government strategy on achieving net zero [emissions by 2050] around food systems, they are not measuring the actual greenhouse gas emissions, instead the recommendation is to reduce meat consumption.
“That’s OK, because meat has the biggest greenhouse gas emissions, but you miss a massive amount in multi-ingredient foods which had previously had no reduction targets based on them whatsoever.”
The food firm COOK is assessing whether eco-labelling would help its customers move to a more sustainable diet Source: COOK
COOK, a Kent-based frozen food producer looking to diversify away from meat, has also worked with the researchers. It wants to explore whether measures like putting eco-labels on its products would help customers embrace a more sustainable diet.
“The tool could help us by ensuring that as we are developing new recipes there is a delicious option for someone who is actively looking to reduce their environmental impact through what they eat,” said Andy Stephens, COOK’s head of sustainable food.
The researchers don’t foresee eco-labelling becoming compulsory in the near future. They want firms to adopt it voluntarily, something they believe would lead them to compete over the sustainability of their food and drink products.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs welcomed the initiative.
“We want to give everyone the information to make healthier, greener or more sustainable choices with the food they buy, if they want to. Voluntary industry schemes are really positive and through our Food Strategy we’re also looking at how we can better support them in future.”
The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
KEY POINTS
According to Tevva, which says it has raised $140 million in funding, its vehicle will have a range of as much as 310 miles.
The company says its first hydrogen electric truck will weigh 7.5 metric tons, with later versions planned to weigh 12 and 19 metric tons.
While there is excitement in some quarters about the potential of hydrogen-powered vehicles, there are hurdles when it comes to expanding the sector.
U.K.-based startup Tevva on Thursday launched a hydrogen-electric heavy goods vehicle, becoming the latest company to make a play in a sector attracting interest from multinationals like Daimler Truck and Volvo.
According to Tevva, which says it has raised $140 million in funding, its vehicle will have a range of as much as 310 miles, or slightly under 500 kilometers.
Refilling the hydrogen tanks will take 10 minutes while charging the battery “from fully depleted to 100%” will take five to six hours.
The company’s first hydrogen-electric truck will weigh 7.5 metric tons, with later versions planned to weigh 12 and 19 metric tons.
In a statement, Tevva sought to explain the rationale behind combining a fuel cell and battery. “The fuel cell system tops up the battery, extending the vehicle’s range and allowing the truck to carry heavier loads over longer distances.”
Alongside its hydrogen-electric truck, the business has also developed an electric truck that it says has a range of up to 160 miles. Details of both the electric and hydrogen-electric trucks had been previously announced by Tevva.
In an interview with CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” on Thursday, Tevva CEO Asher Bennett was asked whether his company was looking to diversify into smaller vehicles.
“We’re not interested in developing the smaller vans or the pickup trucks,” Bennett said. “Those are, in many instances, very similar technology to the larger EV sedans, which work very well,” he added.
“We’re very focused on the heavy goods trucks and we’re slowly going heavier and heavier because those are the segments that are much harder to electrify.”
With governments around the world looking to reduce the environmental footprint of transportation, a number of companies in the trucking sector are exploring ways to develop low and zero-emission vehicles, including ones that use hydrogen.
Last month, Volvo Trucks said it began to test vehicles that use “fuel cells powered by hydrogen,” with the Swedish firm claiming their range could extend to as much as 1,000 kilometers, or a little over 621 miles.
Gothenburg-headquartered Volvo Trucks said refueling of the vehicles would take under 15 minutes. Customer pilots are set to begin in the next few years, with commercialization “planned for the latter part of this decade.”
Alongside hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Volvo Trucks — which is part of the Volvo Group — has also developed battery-electric trucks.
Like Volvo Trucks and Tevva, Daimler Truck is focusing on both battery-electric vehicles and ones that use hydrogen.
In an interview with CNBC last year, Martin Daum, chairman of the board of management at Daimler Truck, was asked about the debate between battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cells.
“We go for both because both … make sense,” he replied, before explaining how different technologies would be appropriate in different scenarios.
While there is excitement in some quarters about the potential of hydrogen-powered vehicles, there are hurdles when it comes to expanding the sector, not least when it comes to the development of adequate refueling infrastructure. The way hydrogen is produced is also an issue.
Both of these points were acknowledged by Volvo Trucks in June when it pointed to challenges including the “large-scale supply of green hydrogen” as well as “the fact that refueling infrastructure for heavy vehicles is yet to be developed.”
Hydrogen can be produced in a number of ways. One method includes using electrolysis, with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.
If the electricity used in this process comes from a renewable source such as wind or solar then some call it “green” or “renewable” hydrogen. Today, the vast majority of hydrogen generation is based on fossil fuels.
For its part, Tevva said it would help its customers “access sustainable and affordable hydrogen supplies safely and conveniently, alongside their purchase or lease of Tevva Hydrogen Trucks.”
There were 131 billion parcels shipped worldwide in 2020 — a figure that is predicted to double in the next five years. Asia represents a huge market for global trade and logistics with the continent expected to account for 57 per cent of the growth of the global e-commerce logistics markets between 2020 and 2025.
But getting things from A to B creates an enormous carbon footprint.
Transportation was responsible for 8.26 gigatons, or about 26 per cent, of CO2 emissions globally in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Freight, the transport of goods, accounts for more than 7 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the International Transport Forum.
Slashing planet-warming gases produced by transport and logistics will be instrumental in helping nations and corporates hit their climate goals.
A raft of corporate net-zero commitments has largely led to rapid efforts to drive down direct Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. More organisations are pledging to reduce Scope 3 emissions generated upstream and downstream of the value chain and those embodied in transport and distribution.
Supply chains have become longer, more complex as logistics networks link more economic centres together and consumer preferences change leading to more regular, smaller freight shipments and rapid delivery by energy-intensive transport such as air freight.
While Europe and North America dominate historic transport emissions, much of the projected growth in emissions is in Asia, according to the World Economic Forum which reckons that highly ambitious policies could cut emissions by 70 per cent – but not to zero.
Operating in 220 countries and territories, Germany-headquartered Deutsche Post DHL Group is one of the largest logistics firms in the world. It also produced 33.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020.
The organisation has pegged its pathway to decarbonisation on reducing annual group carbon dioxide emissions to below 29 million tonnes by 2030 as it attempts to hit zero emissions by 2050. An investment of US$7.6 billion until 2030 will be funnelled into alternative aviation fuels, the expansion of electric vehicles and climate-neutral buildings, the group announced on 22 March.
“Logistics is a key contributor to the global carbon footprint. DHL occupies a big share of global logistics,” said Amrita Khadilkar, regional director, Operations Development, Digitalisation and GoGreen, APAC.
“In order to accelerate the move towards net zero carbon logistics, more work needs to be done to develop solutions within transport,” Khadilkar said. Private sector efforts alone are not enough, governments and policymakers must also buoy decarbonisation efforts.
From burning less, to burning clean
The S-curve charts the firm’s path to net zero logistics emissions.
The early climb on the solid S-curve represents carbon reduction strategies through supply chain efficiencies using existing technology that will enable the firm to burn fewer fossil fuels.
Carbon offsets are used to compensate for the hard-to-abate emissions and bridge the leap to the second dotted line S-curve—which represents the impending usage of new and currently less familiar types of technologies and approaches for carbon reduction—the final leg to net zero.
On this ‘burn clean’ pathway, the company sees the removal of carbon through sustainable fuels and alternative technologies, such as electric vehicles.
The S-curve framework – used to illustrate the typical pattern of start, rapid growth and maturity of technology diffusion as well as the corresponding efficiency improvements across an industry or economy – is one way to guide carbon reduction in logistics. This is achieved by reducing, compensating and removing. [Click to enlarge]. Image: DHL
However, there are several roadblocks to getting transport and logistics firms to burn clean fuels and move closer to net zero. Initial efforts show that firms find it challenging to navigate this road alone without meaningful collaboration.
“Most logistics firms have the know-how for reducing their carbon footprint using their existing technologies and familiar ways of working. But that will only take them so far as per the solid S-curve,” said Professor Emeritus Steven Miller, former vice provost (Research), Singapore Management University.
“To make the required progress in carbon reduction, companies need to jump to the next-generation (dotted line) S-curve enabled by new technology and new ways of working which will enable far greater opportunities for carbon footprint reduction,” he added.
Transport is still largely dependent on fossil fuels and is likely to remain so in the coming decades. Long-distance road freight (large trucks), aviation and shipping are areas from which carbon is particularly difficult to eliminate.
The potential for hydrogen as a fuel, or battery electricity to run planes, ships and large trucks is limited by the range and power required; the size and weight of batteries or hydrogen fuel tanks would be much larger and heavier than current combustion engines.
Currently, the logistics sector has low clean-technology maturity and high costs for such, such as new energy vehicles (NEVs), sustainable fuels, according to DHL. Supporting infrastructure like charging ports for EVs and access to renewable energy is currently lacking in some markets, driving up the cost of sustainable alternatives further. Meanwhile, aviation is still grappling with hitting on a viable low-carbon strategy.
“Some of the sustainable technologies and solutions in the early stages may not be commercially viable or operationally scalable,” acknowledged Khadilkar.
The IEA says that there needs to be deep cuts in fossil fuels to reach the mid-century target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Climate Action 100+, the world’s largest grouping of investors representing US$65 trillion in assets, warned in March that the aviation industry needed to take “urgent action” to align with the world’s climate goal. Its report highlighted the need for a “substantial” increase in sustainable aviation fuel between now and 2030.
Collaboration is key
In a bid to cut the reliance on fossil fuels in its air freight, DHL has set an ambitious goal of using 30 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for all air transport by 2030.
Last month, DHL announced one of the largest SAF deals with bp and Neste which have committed to provide 800 million litres until 2026. DHL expects its strategic collaborations to save about two million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the aviation fuel lifecycle – equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of about 400,000 passenger cars.
Tackling emissions created on land, DHL teamed up with Swedish firm, Volvo Trucks to introduce heavy duty electric delivery trucks for regional transport in Europe. The initiative is buoyed with funding from the country’s innovation agency, Vinnova and energy agency.
The adoption of new fuel technologies, essential to helping firms complete the journey to zero carbon emissions, requires partnering with governments to fund research and development efforts. Public investment in higher-risk programmes can also lead to the development of potentially disruptive technologies for energy applications.
“Government support can improve the rate of adoption of such technologies or solutions,” said Khadilkar. “Government incentives can also enable more research in green technologies and speed up any efforts to bring them to market.”
This would also reduce the cost. While companies like DHL and its industry peers can pilot new green technologies into freight, the cost will have to be shouldered by the consumer to some extent. Customers and companies say they want to live more sustainably but not all are willing to pay a premium to enable it.
Firms can only edge closer to net zero through trial and error. “Governments need to help through more research and development support, staging and coordinating larger scale domestic and international field trials, and by providing incentives for relevant business investments in new technology and capital, as well as in the related needs for human learning and training to work with these new technologies,” Miller said.
The adoption of sustainable alternatives has accelerated in countries where governments are offering financial support. This includes subsides and incentives through tax relief. Government subsidies have helped China become the world’s largest market for EVs. It is expected to exceed the government 2025 target and hit 20 per cent nationwide penetration this year.
“Investing or promoting green infrastructure can enable local businesses’ operations to be greener—through available and affordable renewable energy or developed local EV charging infrastructure, for example. A regulatory push such as inner city emissions regulation, or incentives like tax breaks, subsidies, are other ways we have seen help accelerate sustainability efforts,” said Kevin Jungnitsch, project manager & APAC sustainability lead, DHL Consulting APAC office.
Governments have also proven that they can help reduce emissions created by last-mile delivery.
In Singapore, a nationwide parcel delivery locker network spearheaded by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore allows e-commerce platforms and their customers collect and return online purchases using parcel lockers scattered across the city. It is expected to reduce the distance travelled for delivery purposes by 44 per cent daily and the city state’s CO2 emissions by up to 50 tonnes a year.
Waste also needs to be addressed. Out of the 1.56 million tonnes of household waste generated in Singapore in 2018, approximately one-third was packaging, according to a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature and DHL Consulting published in November. About 2000,000 e-commerce parcels are delivered daily in the city state, and this is expected to grow by about 50 per cent in the next three years.
In a bid to stem the tide of waste, a six-month pilot scheme was launched last month in Singapore to encourage shoppers to return packaging from their online purchases and encourage retailers to adopt a circular waste model. The pilot is an attempt to tackle the mountains of waste caused by the high volume of online shopping.
Navigating the decarbonisation road map
Supply chains are coming under greater scrutiny as firms and countries accelerate efforts to decarbonise. If the transport and logistics industry fails to respond effectively, it is likely to face significant and rapid regulatory tightening, and ever greater scrutiny from capital markets.
Strong public-private partnerships are needed to accelerate the necessary transition to the new generation of technology and new supporting business processes and ways of working in order to get supply chains to net zero carbon emissions, Miller added.
The private sector and government institutions could follow a simple framework to prompt deeper discussion and action surrounding the acceleration of adopting decarbonising logistics. This begins with a discovery phase where current infrastructure, resources and technologies are evaluated, sustainability challenges assessed, and key areas of focus are prioritised.
Embedding sustainability into corporate governance could help influence the decision-making that flows into the supply chain. This includes measures such as introducing mandatory sustainability requirements around reporting and transparency.
The challenge for governments will be to encourage companies to form robust decarbonisation plans with supporting incentives so that no single player is penalised for taking the harder path to sustainability.
Lastly, companies on the path to net zero need to examine each aspect of decarbonisation and identify where they can follow, share or lead on aspects of the net zero journey. While some firms will be able to distinguish themselves as sustainable leaders in some areas, they will also need to make alliances with public and private stakeholders.
But time is of the essence as capping the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — a target key to avoiding the worst climate impacts — is slipping further out of reach.
“Climate promises and plans must be turned into reality and action now,” said Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, following a clarion call by hundreds of scientists last month to take action against climate change. “It is time to stop burning our planet, and start investing in the abundant renewable energy all around us.”
Singapore has announced a steep rise in the price heavy polluters must pay for carbon emissons, as it looks to set more ambitious climate targets, in line with what scientists say is needed to battle global warming.
It is also aiming to achieve net-zero carbon emissions “by or around” 2050, bringing forward an earlier commitment of reaching that target in the second half of the century “as soon as viable”.
Singapore finance minister Lawrence Wong made the announcements during the annual national budget session in Parliament, while warning that public spending on these efforts will be high for a country with limited potential to deploy renewable energy.
The cost of carbon will reach S$50-80 (US$37-60) per tonne by 2030, up from S$5 today – one of the lowest prices charged globally for carbon pollution.
The increase will be introduced in stages, starting from S$25 in 2024. Electricity bills for four-room government flats are expected to rise by about S$4 – an increase of about 4.5 per cent. The government has promised subsidies for lower-income groups.
The carbon price will rise to S$45 in 2026.
Wong said the carbon tax revenue will continue to be used in green technology investments.
“Over the coming decade, we expect to see a greening of traditional sectors of our economy like aviation, energy and tourism. At the same time, emerging green sectors like green finance and carbon services will grow in prominence,” he said.
Ajay Kumar Sanganeria, head of tax at accounting firm KPMG Singapore said that the increase in carbon tax “comes as no surprise” given the government’s 10-year green plan announced last year.
“What is good is that this change is staggered, giving businesses sufficient time to adjust and decarbonise, while minimising the impact to their business,” he added.
There was no mention of whether the criteria for who pays the tax is changing. Currently, it is levied on facilities that emit more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly.
The entities that pay the carbon tax have not been made public, but the government says the scheme covers about 50 facilities in the industry, power and waste sectors, covering 80 per cent of national emissions.
In a Parliament motion last month, politicians had asked to increase the coverage of the carbon tax to those emitting 2,000 tonnes of carbon a year. There are about 200 such facilities in Singapore.
The upper limit of S$80 (US$60) for 2030 still falls short of the US$100 estimate various think-tanks have proposed to keep climate change below 2 degrees Celsius, a global target set in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.
Resource consultancy Wood Mackenzie had also estimated that carbon prices need to reach US$160 per tonne by 2030 to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius – a target that scientists say helps to dodge the worst effects of climate change.
Firms paying Singapore’s carbon tax will be allowed to use “high quality” international carbon credits to offset up to 5 per cent of their annual payments.
Singapore has a voluntary global carbon exchange, Climate Impact X, set up with local financial institutions. The government-backed bourse is looking to auction carbon credits this year following trials with forest protection projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The government also announced a “transition framework” that will help defray costs for emitters, tagged to efficiency standards and decarbonisation targets.
“This will help mitigate the impact on business costs while still encouraging decarbonisation,” said Wong.
Climate ambition
The finance minister said Singapore was on-track to reach its target of peak emissions by 2030.
The country could bring forward its net-zero targets because international carbon markets and green technologies have become more developed, he added.
Singapore is eyeing carbon capture and hydrogen fuel to help decarbonise its large power and chemicals industry. It awarded S$55 million last year to 12 research projects in these areas, involving large petrochemical firms and local research centres.
“We aim to move Singapore into the forefront of green technologies, where new innovations are developed, trialled, scaled up and eventually exported to the rest of the world. We will work hard to grab first-mover advantage,” Wong said.
Other measures announced include the issuance of S$35 billion of green bonds by 2030 to fund public sector projects. Such bonds have been used to finance a waste and water treatment facility in Singapore.
The government is also looking to further boost the adoption of electric vehicles. It already has a target of phasing out cars that run only on fossil fuels by 2040, and aims to install 60,000 electric car charging points by 2030.
More details on the measures announced are expected in the coming weeks, as the government debates the details of how it intends to spend money in the financial year ahead.
“The climate measures announced today during the Budget are a step in the right direction,” said Isaac Neo, spokesperson for advocacy group Singapore Climate Rally.
“However, there was no update to the 2030 target, which is also important as cutting emissions earlier rather than later will mitigate more warming,” Neo added. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had said global emissions need to be halved by 2030.
“High income countries like Singapore should achieve these goals even earlier to give low income countries more time to transition,” Neo added.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is developing a prototype hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that is expected to be testing later this year.
The development vehicle, based on the new Land Rover Defender, will be used as a test bed to establish how a hydrogen powertrain can be optimised to deliver the necessary performance and capability required by Land Rover customers.
Ralph Clague, head of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells for Jaguar Land Rover, said: “We know hydrogen has a role to play in the future powertrain mix across the whole transport industry, and alongside battery electric vehicles, it offers another zero tailpipe emission solution for the specific capabilities and requirements of Jaguar Land Rover’s world-class line-up of vehicles.”
The engineering project, known as Project Zeus, is part funded by the government-backed Advanced Propulsion Centre. It forms part of JLR’s aim to achieve zero tailpipe emissions by 2036, and net zero carbon emissions across its supply chain, products and operations by 2039, in line with the Reimagine strategy announced last month.
Source Fleet News
“The work done alongside our partners in Project Zeus will help us on our journey to become a net zero carbon business by 2039, as we prepare for the next generation of zero tailpipe emissions vehicles,” Clague added.
JLR believes hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which generate electricity from hydrogen to power an electric motor, are complimentary to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on the journey to net zero vehicle emissions.
They provide high energy density and rapid refueling, with minimal loss of range in low temperatures, making the technology ideal for larger, longer-range vehicles, or those operated in hot or cold environments.
Since 2018, the global number of fuel cell vehicles on the road has nearly doubled, while hydrogen refueling stations have increased by more than 20%. By 2030, forecasts predict hydrogen-powered vehicle deployment could top 10 million with 10,000 refueling stations worldwide.
The prototype Defender will begin testing towards the end of 2021 in the UK to verify key attributes such as off-road capability and fuel consumption.
Flying taxis to help you skip a morning traffic jam? Sounds like a thing of the future, but the future might be closer than you think.
With new backing from American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Microsoft, UK electric aircraft manufacturer Vertical Aerospace is innovating to make environmentally-friendly, accessible urban air travel a reality.
The startup created a zero-emissions vertical takeoff aircraft called the VA-X4 that can travel over 200 miles per hour and be “near-silent” in flight, the company said, CNN reported. A prototype of the electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) with a range of over 100 miles is currently in production and has its first test flight planned for later this year.
“The X4 is going to be 100 times quieter than a helicopter, it’s going to be zero-carbon, it’s going to be a fraction of the cost. Most important of all, it’s going to be 100 times safer, so this is going to open up urban air mobility to whole new range of passengers,” founder and CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick said in a statement.
The company’s mission to make air travel personal, on-demand and carbon-free eVTOLs like the X4 has the potential to transform both short, on-demand travel within cities that is currently accomplished via taxis and longer, medium-haul regional travel, Fitzpatrick told Yahoo! Finance. He estimated that a trip from downtown Los Angeles to LAX or from JFK International Airport to Manhattan would last only 12 minutes and cost roughly $40. Partners are already discussing commercial flight potentials out of large airports such as London Heathrow and Gatwick.
Rolls-Royce, the leading supplier of all-electric and hybrid-electric power and propulsion systems for aviation, will provide the electric engines. Honeywell, a leader in avionics and flight control systems, developed customized, state-of-the-art technology in the new flight vehicles.
The VA-X4 prototype is electric and aerodynamic, which allows it to use far less energy than an airplane or a helicopter. Vertical Aerospace
According to CNN, Fitzpatrick also founded Ovo Group, which owns the UK’s second-biggest energy retailer. The energy transition from fossil fuels to zero-carbon energy supplies is the “biggest challenge facing humanity today,” the energy-tech entrepeneur said in a statement. At scale, the synergy of his two companies may actually help reduce the negative environmental impact of flying, which currently rates as one of the most detrimental activities for air quality and the climate.
“On an individual level, there is no other human activity that emits as much over such a short period of time as aviation, because it is so energy-intensive,” said Stefan Gössling, co-editor of the book Climate Change and Aviation: Issues, Challenges and Solutions.
BBC estimated that aviation is responsible for around 2.4 percent of global carbon emissions and around 5 percent of global warming, due to nitrous oxides, water vapor, particulates and other airplane emissions that also have a warming effect. Other estimates place this figure between five and nine percent.
The relatively “small” aviation industry and an even smaller portion of the world that flies has been accused of having a disproportionately large, negative impact on the climate crisis. Climate justice advocates note that the flying populations are not the ones who will suffer the most from the climate crisis. These are some of the issues that Vertical Aerospace hopes to tackle.
“I love travelling. I love flying to new places. It cannot be that the way we’re going to solve climate change is by asking everybody to do less, to travel less, to turn back time and forgo some of the advantages that technology has brought us,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think that when people start to understand just how much better these vehicles are than what we have today, it’s going to completely change how people think about flying through the skies.”
“If we focus on finding the solutions, this will drive us towards the electrification of flight,” he added. “This is the most exciting time in aviation for almost a century. Electrification will transform flying in the 21st century in the same way the jet engine did 70 years ago,” he told CNN.
Each aircraft is worth as much as $4 billion, and Vertical Aerospace already has pre-orders for up to 1,000 VA-X4s, CNN reported. 250 of those will go to American Airlines, with an option for an additional 100. Virgin Atlantic has a pre-order option for up to 150, and Dublin-based aircraft leasing company Avolon has pre-orders and options for 500 of the new-age taxis.
“Our order with Vertical will… accelerate the inevitable commercial roll-out of zero emissions aircraft,” CEO of Avolon Dómhnal Slattery said in the press release. “Before the end of this decade, we expect zero emission urban air mobility, enabled by eVTOLs, to play an increasingly important role in the global commercial aviation market.”
The United Kingdom is already a global leader in aerospace innovation, Fitzpatrick noted. Unrelated blimp prototypes in the UK are similarly aiming to make air travel more environmentally-friendly and accessible.
“We’re doing more than just developing an aircraft, we’re actually creating an industry together,” Mike Madsen, president and CEO of Honeywell Aerospace said in the statement.
According to Yahoo! Finance, Vertical Aerospace has secured several key partnerships and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange after a merger with Broadstone Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), later this year. The latter was attracted to Vertical’s highly commercial approach and clear route to market, the joint press release noted.
Hugh Osmond, chairman of Broadstone, said, “Transportation is one of the next big sectors of the global economy to be disrupted at scale. Vertical has a clear commercial plan to challenge short-haul air travel, and to create new markets where neither cars nor public transport can cope with demand.”
According to CNN, Vertical believes the X4 will secure the same level of certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency as large commercial airliners, allowing production at scale. Commercial operations are slated to begin in 2024.
“This is probably the first commercial aircraft that most people will fly on that will have a zero carbon footprint, Fitzpatrick said. “We’re going to look back at a time when we didn’t have these vehicles flying over our skies. I think in five or six years’ time, we’ll be looking back thinking, ‘I can’t believe we didn’t have this.'”
The US climate envoy, John Kerry, has said 50% of the carbon reductions needed to get to net zero will come from technologies that have not yet been invented, and said people “don’t have to give up a quality of life” in order to cut emissions.
He said Americans would “not necessarily” have to eat less meat, because of research being done into the way cattle are herded and fed in order to reduce methane emissions.
“You don’t have to give up a quality of life to achieve some of the things that we know we have to achieve. That’s the brilliance of some of the things that we know how to do,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show. “I am told by scientists that 50% of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have. That’s just a reality.
“And people who are realistic about this understand that’s part of the challenge. So we have to get there sooner rather than later.”
Kerry is visiting London next week to meet government representatives before the UN climate change conference Cop26 due to be held in Glasgow in November.
On Saturday Kerry met Pope Francis in Rome, and he described him as “one of the great voices of reason and compelling moral authority on the subject of the climate crisis”.
“I think that his voice will be a very important voice leading up to and through the Glasgow conference, which I believe he intends to attend,” Kerry told Vatican News. “We need everybody in this fight. All the leaders of the world need to come together and every country needs to do its part.”
When asked by Marr if the US would support an end to all coal-fired power stations if called for by the UK at Cop26, Kerry said Joe Biden had set a goal of making the US power sector carbon-free by 2035 but he could not speak for the president on specific proposals.
“What’s the phase-out schedule? Is it reasonable? Is everybody working in the same direction? Those are questions I’m sure President Biden will want answered, but he is leading this charge to move America on to renewable, alternative energy,” Kerry said.
The US is the second largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions after China, and has one of the highest per capita CO2 emission rates.
“We’re determined to turn that around,” Kerry said. “We are going to be moving very rapidly to a new economy, building out a new grid, moving towards alternative renewable energy, and pushing the curve on the discovery of new technologies. There are a lot of possibilities out there.”
Introduction
What is a science-based net zero emissions target?
What does Investa’s science-based net zero emissions target look like?
How will Investa achieve net zero emissions?
How is Investa working with tenant customers?
Introduction
In the race to net zero emissions, Investa took an early lead as the first Australian property company to commit to a science-based target in 2015. Nina James, General Manager for Corporate Sustainability and Responsible Investment, shares Investa’s progress and explains why Investa customers should care.
When Australia signed on to the Paris Agreement, we agreed to play our part to limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this, we must halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve a climate neutral world – or net zero emissions – by 2050.
Around 20% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from our buildings. Businesses play a central role in driving down greenhouse gas emissions in their commercial offices, but a resilient, zero-emissions future must be underpinned by robust science.
“When Investa committed to a science-based target in 2016, we charted a course to net zero emissions by 2040. To do this, we have set a bona fide carbon reduction target that is verified against the climate change science and the Paris Agreement,” James explains.
What is a science-based net zero emissions target?
Any company can set a carbon reduction target. But how do we know that the target is ambitious enough to achieve net zero emissions?
Science-based targets help companies to understand how much and how quickly they need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
“Investa has always had a strong commitment to third-party verification,” James says. “We have certified our portfolio of assets under the NABERS and Green Star rating systems. We report to GRESB, the global benchmark for sustainable real estate, each year. And we have been a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment since 2007. When we set our carbon target the same expectation applied.”
Investa established its target through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a global organisation that sets the ‘gold standard’ for corporate emissions reduction. More than 1,200 companies have committed to cut their carbon footprints and 593, including Investa, have had their targets approved by SBTi.
SBTi’s 2020 progress report shows science-based targets work. The typical company with science-based targets has reduced its direct emissions (Scope 1 and 2) at a rate of 6.4% per year. This exceeds the 4.2% rate needed to limit warming to 1.5°C.
Investa has reduced emissions by a massive 63.3% since 2004.
Investa’s science-based target was pivotal for the property industry. By working through the complexity raised by science-based targets, Investa showed everyone that it could be done.
Davina Rooney, CEO, Green Building Council of Australia
What does Investa’s science-based net zero emissions target look like?
Davina Rooney, Chief Executive Officer of the Green Building Council of Australia, says Investa’s net zero goal was a “game-changer” for the nation’s buildings.
“Investa’s science-based target was pivotal for the property industry. By working through the complexity raised by science-based targets, Investa showed everyone that it could be done, and gave other property companies the confidence to pursue their own ambitious sustainability goals,” Rooney explains.
Australia’s property industry can achieve net zero emissions by 2050 using technologies that exist today, Rooney adds.
“The Low Carbon, High Performance report finds eliminating emissions from our buildings would also deliver $20 billion in financial savings by 2030, and improve the productivity and quality of life of Australian businesses and households.”
Investa has committed to reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 60% per square metre of net lettable area by 2030 and 100% by 2040 from a 2015 baseline. We have also committed to reduce Scope 3 greenhouse emissions by 26% per net lettable area by 2030 and 42% by 2040 from a 2015 baseline.
Importantly, this target includes Scope 3 emissions – the emissions that are generated by our tenant customers.
“Reducing our tenant customers’ emissions is embedded in our commitment, and that sets us apart,” James says.
“It says we are accountable for more than what’s in our own backyard. We might not control Scope 3 emissions, but we want to walk alongside our tenant customers, arm in arm, to help them reduce their footprint.”
James says Investa is “thrilled” to see nearly every large Australian property company set competitive targets since 2015. “They’ve used our target as a bookend – and that makes our team proud.”
Let’s break down Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
Scope 1 emissions – or direct emissions – are from sources that a company owns or controls, like emissions produced during manufacturing, or from business travel in a company car,
Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the purchase of electricity, steam, heating and cooling for the company’s own use.
Scope 3 emissions cover emissions outside a company’s boundary – like the emissions from employees’ commute, purchased good and services, or leased assets, like office buildings.
How will Investa achieve net zero emissions?
‘Net zero emissions’ means achieving overall balance between the emissions produced and those extracted from the atmosphere. Buildings can still produce some emissions, provided they are offset by activities that reduce those emissions, like planting forests.
Electricity and gas consumed in Investa’s buildings account for 99.6% of our greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve net zero emissions, we are addressing three areas:
1. Operations. By working alongside tenant customers to uncover new ways to enhance the energy performance of buildings we are making workplaces more productive, healthy and comfortable.
2. Design and construction. Changing the building envelope – considering solar glare and heat, orientation and thermal mass, the design of windows and services, for example – can realise big energy and carbon emissions savings for our customers.
3. Power. Sourcing zero-carbon energy, such as from solar or wind farms, addresses our residual power requirements and helps our customers to meet their net zero targets too.
How is Investa working with tenant customers?
Investa’s partnership with customers is at the heart of its strategy to cut carbon emissions.
“We don’t think it’s enough for us to address our base buildings. We want to share our ideas and intellectual property with our customers to drive a shift across Australia,” James explains.
In partnership with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Investa has created a free Sustainability Tenant Toolkit to help companies around Australia create low carbon, healthy workplaces.
“We have gathered all the information and ideas from 15 years of operating sustainable commercial offices. We aim to empower our 750 tenant organisations to improve the performance of their own tenancies,” James explains.
The Toolkit attracted nearly 37,000 unique visits in 2020 alone. From analysing the data, Investa knows that people want to understand how buildings influence health, wellbeing and productivity, and how they can actively improve the environmental sustainability of their office space.
Davina Rooney says the Toolkit is a “genuinely impressive piece of work to guide tenants on creating sustainable workplaces”.
“By tackling environmental sustainability from lots of different angles – from design and construction to how people use their office space – Investa has set the industry benchmark.”
James says the feedback Investa receives from tenant customers is “really exciting”.
“Tenants are making great savings in electricity by implementing the tips in our Toolkit. They tell us the Toolkit helps their people understand what wellness in the office looks like, and how engaged employees translate to bottom line benefits,” James says.
“Through the Toolkit, we’ve had direct conversations with 100,000 of our customers. But what makes us really proud is the fact that anyone can access the Toolkit. Sharing our knowledge is how we’ll move Australia towards net zero emissions.
The challenge of climate action is large, but so is Investa’s net zero ambition. This is why a staged approach is important, James explains.
“First, set the target, then gather and analyse the data, then enrol our tenants. That’s what we are doing – walking arm-in-arm with our tenants as an advisor. We are working with our customers to cut their carbon emissions and, at the same time, create more efficient, sustainable workplaces. We’re showing that it can be done.”
“We don’t think it’s enough for us to address our base buildings. We want to share our ideas and intellectual property with our customers to drive a shift across Australia.”
Nina James, General Manager, Corporate Sustainability, Investa
The planet’s ecosystems are nearing critical tipping points, with extinction rates 100-1,000 times higher than they were a century ago. Our current economic system has put natural resources under ever-increasing pressure.
As the recent UK Treasury-commissioned Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity puts it, our economies “are embedded within Nature … not external to it.” The task now is to embed this recognition in our “contemporary conceptions of economic possibilities.”
Many businesses, recognising the perils facing the planet, are changing the way they operate. But they can’t do it all alone, and the current rules of our financial and economic system must change if we are to build an equitable, nature-positive, net-zero future.
Such changes make economic sense. Firms that take a long-term view and meet the needs of all stakeholders by prioritising environmental and social risks and opportunities over short-term gains and profitability outperform their peers in terms of revenue, earnings, investment, and job growth. Similarly, companies with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies perform better and have higher credit ratings.
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Risks Report, four of the top five risks to our economies are environmental – including climate change and biodiversity loss. Human-driven nature loss, its links to the spread of diseases such as COVID-19, and the estimated $300 billion annual cost of natural disasters caused by ecosystem disruption and climate change highlight the risks of unbridled economic growth. Thinking beyond GDP and short-term profit is therefore essential in order to restore our relationship with the planet and transform our system into a viable one.
The true risks arising from nature loss and climate change often are not accounted for or understood, including by investors. The economic cost of land degradation amounts to more than 10% of annual gross world product, and human-caused declines in ocean health are projected to cost the global economy $428 billion per year by 2050. The flip side is that shifting toward a nature-positive economy could generate $10 trillion of business opportunities and create nearly 400 million jobs.
…governments must implement ambitious policies that reflect a vision of the sustainable economy to which we aspire. Such measures could not only unlock new business opportunities but also create a level playing field and stable operating environment.
Thriving companies supporting this transition are in a true leadership position. But if a sustainably-oriented firm’s profits dip, reality hits. Investors often chase short-term profits instead of using ESG indicators as a credible proxy – alongside financial performance – to measure a company’s value. This definition of business success must change.
Consider the case of consumer goods multinational Danone. In 2020, Danone became the first listed French company to adopt the model of an entreprise à mission, or purpose-driven company, when 99% of shareholders agreed to embed sustainability into the firm’s governance structure. This year, the company came under increasing pressure from activist shareholders – including from those in the 1% who opposed the new model – owing to what they regard as the firm’s “prolonged period of underperformance.” While Danone’s share price has underperformed those of its rivals, the company is not in the red. Nonetheless, in March it announced the departure of Chairman and CEO Emmanuel Faber, who had championed the firm’s sustainable business model.
It is fair to say that not all shareholders value the same things, and the fact that investors are questioning companies’ ESG efforts can only be positive. But that should not stop advocates of a purpose-driven strategy that considers a wider range of stakeholders and their interests from seeking ways to strengthen the rules and bolster non-financial performance further. As the Dasgupta Review argued, we must “change our measures of economic success to help guide us on a more sustainable path.”
First, we need meaningful and credible ESG data alongside traditional financial reporting in order to counter accusations of greenwashing. Corporate performance indicators must embed the true value of natural, social, and human capital to reveal the full state of health of the planet, people, and profits. To that end, efforts are underway to develop a globally accepted system for corporate disclosure of both financial and sustainability information.
Second, all investors should stop investing in activities that have a highly negative impact on the climate and biodiversity, and they should call for companies in their portfolios to issue reports aligned with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and the more recently established Task Force on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has asked all firms in its portfolio to do this by the end of 2020, and a group of major investors worth $4.7 trillion has committed to making their portfolios zero-carbon by 2050. In addition, the US Securities and Exchange Commission recently established a Climate and ESG Task Force charged with monitoring listed companies’ conduct in these areas.
Lastly, and perhaps most important, governments must implement ambitious policies that reflect a vision of the sustainable economy to which we aspire. Such measures could not only unlock new business opportunities but also create a level playing field and stable operating environment. In the run-up to the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) scheduled to take place in China in October, more than 700 companies are urging governments to adopt policies now to reverse nature loss by 2030. And just recently, the UN adopted a landmark framework to integrate natural capital into economic reporting.
The coming post-pandemic recovery gives the world a chance to embrace such reforms. We must rewire our economic system and reward sustainable, long-term performance that goes beyond financial returns.
Paul Polman, co-founder and chair of IMAGINE & Food and Land Use Coalition. Eva Zabey is executive director of Business for Nature.
The risks that climate change poses to companies are now undeniable. Company directors are expected to factor these risks in their business activities and decisions, or may be personally responsible, a new legal opinion warns.
Singapore corporate directors are required to consider climate change risks as part of their duties to act in the best interests of the company, and failure to do so can result in legal action for their companies and themselves personally.
As climate change poses both physical and transitional risks to companies, directors should understand the activities of their companies that may impact, or be impacted by climate change and take necessary action to ensure that these issues are addressed.
These are the main findings of a new legal opinion by a team of independent legal counsel, titled Directors’ Responsibilities and Climate Change under Singapore Law. A legal opinion is an opinion from lawyers issued in letter form expressing legal conclusions on a matter.
“Given the seriousness and public concern over climate change, directors of Singapore companies must be aware that they will incur criminal and civil liabilities if they do not inform themselves on how their companies impact or are impacted by climate change and factor these into their decisions as directors,” said Jeffrey Chan, senior director of TSMP Law Corporation and lead author of the opinion.
Commissioned by the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), the main aim of the legal opinion is to examine the legal basis for directors and trustees to take account of climate change risks, and societal responses to climate change risks.
The background to the new legal opinion is the landmark Hutley opinion written in 2016, which discusses how Australian law requires company directors to consider, disclose and respond to climate change.
The Hutley opinion rose to significance as it shifted the Australian company directors’ understanding of climate change as a financial risk issue rather than just an environmental issue. It was subsequently endorsed by the Australian monetary authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
Ernest Lim, associate professor of NUS Law and co-author of the opinion explained: “As the impacts of climate change on Singapore become more visible, and legislative and regulatory responses strengthen, this affects the standards of conduct directors must meet to fulfil their duties.”
“Just last year the Monetary Authority of Singapore issued environmental risk management guidelines, setting out their expectations that directors and senior management of financial institutions should maintain oversight of environmental risk management and be assigned specific responsibilities in this regard. The legal opinion draws on these and other developments to find that climate issues are within directors’ responsibilities,” Lim added.
As the governance of a company, directors must ensure that their companies comply with all regulatory prescriptions relating to climate change. At the minimum, they should disclose the risks that climate change poses to the business of their companies, as required by the Singapore Stock Exchange Listing Rules.
Directors of Singapore companies must also be prepared for the possibility that they may be taken to court to compel them to take action to ensure that the business activities of their companies do not contribute to climate change, or if such activities are in progress, to terminate such activities.
Transitional business models are an imperative
Apart from legal action, companies that do not have a transitional business model to achieve net zero by 2050 risk stranded assets and erosion of shareholder value, warned Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, executive director and chief executive of Temasek International at the launch event of the legal opinion.
“If you don’t start today, you might find that your business model may no longer be relevant in the context of what a greener world may expect from companies,” he said.
Citing the example of the carbon pricing needed to limit global warming aligned with the Paris Agreement, he said that companies that do not factor in the possible increase in carbon tax will be greatly impacted down the road.
Although Singapore announced a carbon tax for this decade of S$5 to S$15 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions, the government has said that they are going to reassess the carbon pricing.
“To achieve a 2 degree-world or even a 1.5-degree world, you need to have carbon pricing of between US$40-80 as of now, and then US$50-100 by 2030, assuming that you can half carbon emissions by then,” Pillay said.
“So if you’re not changing your business model to cater to a potential carbon pricing of that magnitude, you are going to see an erosion of value of your company. That could have serious implications across the different stakeholders that you’re engaged with,” he said.
In addition, nine out of 10 of the asset managers in the world have decided to put in place environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks to measure the performance of each company.
“Climate change risks are going to factor into the asset managers’ decisions about whether to invest in a company or not. If you’re not thinking about it, you might find that capital markets will punish you down the road,” he said.
“It’s very difficult for boards to consider all the risks that they face. But if you can get through the Covid-19 situation, you still have climate risk as the biggest existential problem with your business model. So directors have to come up with proper transition plans,” he warned.
