Devastation in Morocco over the weekend as a 6.8 magnitude quake struck close to Marrakesh. You feel bad but unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do. Hopefully they can find some normalcy soon.

Climate protesters in the Netherlands blocked a major highway leading into The Hague, pledging to stay there until the Dutch government ends subsidies to the oil and gas industry, leading to thousands of detainments. Let’s start on that subsidy note.

Here are some of the thought-provoking headlines from last week:

African leaders back call for global carbon tax on fossil fuels, shipping and flights

The African Climate Summit splashed across headlines last week, mostly by their leaders calling for money to battle the effects of climate change.

It’s a reasonable ask. They feel the effects of climate change, but they aren’t the ones pumping tons of carbon into the atmosphere, relatively speaking. I guess it depends where they want to funnel that money that will dictate whether I, for one, jump on board with them.

However, this headline struck me, and I disagree with them. Admittedly, I have not delved into the details of it but I had a clear, immediate thought on the matter:

We don’t need to tax fossil fuels, we need to stop subsidizing them.

Global fossil fuel subsidies reached $1.25 trillion last year, according to the IMF. Those are explicit subsidies. If you want to include the undercharging for environmental costs and forgone consumption taxes, the subsidy number climbs to $7 trillion. Seven trillion freaking dollars.

Imagine if we took that money and subsidized clean energy development instead.

So, African leaders, instead of subsidizing and then taxing, why don’t we just scale back the subsidies? I understand a ‘carbon tax’ could mean that this extra government income could be earmarked for climate issues, but we would still be shelling out trillions of dollars to fossil fuel producers each year. Let’s stop that, and put that money towards ramping up renewable infrastructure (in a responsible way) and/or climate clean-up costs.

End the fossil fuel subsidies.

‘Islamophobic policy’: French high school goes on strike over abaya ban

Maybe you’ve seen it — schools in France have banned both female and male full-length ‘dresses’ worn typically by Muslims. It’s ridiculous, I know, but before you jump on board and call France Islamophobic, which it may be, just know that France hates religion.

Also banned in schools in France are Catholic crosses, Jewish kippahs, and Sikh turbans. They ban students from, “the wearing of symbols or clothes through which pupils clearly show a religious affiliation.”

France’s school laws aren’t only anti-Islam, they are anti-all religions, in theory anyway.

Pardon my ignorance if misspeak, but these days I think religion has become so moderate that most students wearing ‘religious symbols or clothes’ are not doing it because of some religious creed. It’s cultural. I have cross-wearing friends who aren’t Catholic. I have Muslim friends that don’t pray. I have friends that wear the kippah but don’t practice Judaism.

You have these religious affiliations because that’s what you were brought up doing and that’s what is comfortable to you. Not because you are following the orders of some higher power.

France’s ban on Muslim dress is ridiculous. If a piece of fabric is a threat to the French joie de vivre, then the French government has deeper insecurities that they need to work through.

Fittingly, students affected by this ban did the most French thing possible to show the government that they really have embraced French culture, they went on strike.

Firms face simpler climate reporting under EU deal with GRI

Good job EU. The climate reporting landscape is as confusing as can be. And the introduction of new mandatory requirements has real potential to make things even more complicated. Good on the EU for collaborating with existing standards and frameworks to make the mandatory transition as smooth as possible for companies.

In speaking with sustainability leaders in companies across a wide variety of sectors, they all mentioned the lack of universal standards as something they want to see fixed. Working with GRI and ISSB to ensure they aren’t adding another reporting burden, the EU seems to be listening. Hopefully biodiversity disclosures will be streamlined in a similar way.

My Latest

Just like the EU listening to and collaborating with companies on the ground to streamline their mandates, there’s a different EU project looking to do something similar with sport federations. The big national sport federations bring in policies or mandates or even provide funding to grassroots sports clubs — and sometimes these are completely out of touch with what the needs are at the ground level.

The CHANGE project is looking to ensure that grassroots sports are able to thrive and get the specific and unique supports that each one of them needs.

Check out my article on it here: Adaptability in Crisis and Beyond: How the CHANGE Project is Reshaping Sport Programs

Have a great week and I’ll check in next Monday!

The post Newsletter: Fossil Fuel Subsidies in the Trillions — No Wonder Renewables are Slow to Catch On first appeared on Copywriting | ESG | Sustainability.

The US Open is entering the 2^nd week — the business end of the tournament, Trump’s mugshot is starting to infiltrate my dreams, and fires (both wild and urban) have wreaked havoc in Canada, Hawaii, Greece, and South Africa to name a few places. Let’s start there.

N.W.T. fires have released 97 megatonnes of carbon, says European agency — 277 times what its people emit

Fires in the Northwest Territories (NWT, the name of a Canadian state, if you will) have released 277 times more carbon that what its population emits annually. Begging the question, should we even bother with lowering our carbon emissions?

Two things here: 1) Yes, my god, yes. While fires are natural and would occur with or without humans, our impact on the climate is ripening the conditions for bigger, more frequent fires. Reduce the human-caused environmental impacts, and you reduce the likelihood of fires and the human suffering that they cause.

2) Those numbers are misleading. NWT is about the same size as France plus Spain plus Poland. It’s massive, yet it has a population of 45,000. It’s basically a giant, uninhabited forest. If NWT had the populations of France plus Spain plus Poland (152 million), assuming my calculations are correct, the fires would account for only about 8% of the emissions that the 3-country Euro zone’s population accounts for (assuming they emit the same amount as NWT residents). Still significant, but in more relatable context.

Paper drinking straws may be harmful and may not be better for the environment than plastic versions

I’ll say what everyone is thinking. Paper straws suck. No pun intended. They are crap. They feel like you are sucking on wet cardboard, which is essentially what you’re doing.

Now, evidence suggests they aren’t any better for the environment than plastic straws.

I have a radical solution to the soggy straw problem. This may get me on the straw lobby hitlist but I’ll say it anyway — let’s get rid of straws. Really, they’re unnecessary. We all know how to drink from a glass, and we can still entertain the idea of lids for the time being, but why do we need straws? They are convenient for when you want a sip of your drink while on a bumpy ride, agreed. But, you can just wait a minute until your transit is finished or you hit a smooth patch. #teamnostraw who’s with me?

Do you have a good reason for wanting a straw? Please enlighten me.

EU watchdog monitors surge of cash going into biodiversity funds

It looks like biodiversity funds will be the next wild west of the ESG frontier. This means we’ll need stricter regulations and oversight to prevent beewashing (I think that term might catch on) and companies will have to make sure they are taking the necessary steps to comply with biodiversity reporting standards. Asset managers will need to be sure that the companies they admit into their biodiversity funds are actually responsible companies committed to biodiversity.

As well, we should all prepare ourselves for the anti-bee movement (not sure that will catch on). You know that when Telsa is omitted from biodiversity funds, Elon Musk will tweet (or X) that the BeeSG movement (that’s my favourite one so far) is the devil, and Republicans will decry that BeeSG is an attack on American business.

I always maintain that the funds are the problems with these initiatives. ESG is a smart business risk mitigation strategy. ESG funds are poorly regulated schemes to entice investments from climate conscious consumers.

My Latest

Speaking of beewashing, here is a relevant article that I wrote about greenwashing, and particularly how companies can be sure that they don’t get caught unintentionally greenwashing. I also cover some of the prominent greenwashing legislation in the USA, EU. Canada, and UK.

The Step-by-Step Guide To Avoid Greenwashing and Save Brand Reputation

Have a great week and I’ll check in next Monday!

The post Newsletter: Prepare for the Anti-BeeSG Movement first appeared on Copywriting | ESG | Sustainability.