Existing climate solutions, not innovations, crucial to meeting net-zero

Existing climate solutions, not innovations, crucial to meeting net-zero

by | Mar 3, 2020 | LSA Insights

A recent study (published 3 March) by Project Drawdown forms a comprehensive update to list of policy, business, community and individual actions needed to achieve ‘Drawdown’ – the point at which greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in the atmosphere peak and begin declining.

Drawdown’s first comprehensive analysis in 2017 was based around the Paris Agreement, listing refrigerant management, onshore wind and reducing food waste as the top three climate solutions. The updated version details the changes necessary to meet the IPCC’s call to climate action, made in its landmark report on global warming of 1.5C vs 2C above pre-industrial levels – an assertion that has seen the rise of net-zero national, state and business-level pledges accelerate rapidly across the world.

According to the updated report, it would be “feasible” to reach Drawdown by the early 2040s and global net-zero by 2050 without the use of any technologies and practices which do not currently exist – so long as simultaneous transitions towards stopping emissions at the source and sequestering them are made quickly.

More on this from edie.net here

Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash

UK Government doubles funding for EV infrastructure

UK Government doubles funding for EV infrastructure

by | Feb 3, 2020 | LSA Insights

The Department for Transport (DfT) will double its EV charger funding to £10 million, with a focus on residential chargers, as it seeks to encourage more urban dwellers to go electric.

This is the second time the Government has doubled its EV infrastructure funding allowance; last August, £2.5m was allocated to the installation of EV chargers in residential areas, matching a £2.5m pledge made in 2017.

The latest cash injection will go towards installing an additional 3600 streetside chargers across the UK. It could also fund the development of a publicly accessible charger monitoring platform that would show whether individual facilities are in use or out of order.

The DfT says such a system “could then be used by developers and incorporated into sat-navs and route-mapping apps”.

Read more on this here.

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

£30bn pension partnership aligns with Paris Agreement

£30bn pension partnership aligns with Paris Agreement

by | Jan 27, 2020 | LSA Insights

Brunel Pension Partnership, one of the UK’s eight local government pension fund pools which holds around £30bn of assets, has set out an aggressive new climate policy promising to align its holdings with the goals of the Paris Agreement and lean heavily on asset managers to do the same.

Brunel, which manages the investments of ten local government pension schemes, promised today to challenge the “not fit for purpose” asset management industry to deliver more climate-friendly investments.

In addition, Brunel promised to challenge investment managers to demonstrate they have reduced exposure to climate risk and effectively engaged with corporates on climate change. Managers who fail to comply risk having their mandates removed, Brunel warned.

The Partnership said it had adopted the new stance because it believes the finance sector is “part of the problem” when it comes to the climate crisis. It accused the sector of focusing too much on short term performance rather than long-term value, of failing to invest enough in the low-carbon economy, and not accurately analysing and responding to climate risk.

Read more at Business Green here

Photo by Fabrizio Verrecchia on Unsplash