Happy Tuesday. To brighten your morning, here’s a selection of finalists for the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards - trust us, you won’t be disappointed.

In today’s edition:

⛽️ Barcelona-Marseille hydrogen pipeline

🤖 Weed-zapping robots

🇮🇳 India’s green energy revolution

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💼 Big Business (1-minute read)

Norway to slash pollution with the world's first zero-emissions public transport network 

Oslo is on course to become the first capital city in the world with an all-electric public transport system, targeting that goal for the end of 2023 as part of its aim to become the world's first wholly emissions-free city by 2030. This comes with Oslo making a new $47 million deal replacing its diesel-fuelled buses with 450 electric ones. We spoke last week about the opportunities and hurdles for green mobility.

Global push for green energy 

• Barcelona-Marseille Gas Pipeline: Spain, Portugal and France have announced plans for a sea-based pipeline to carry green hydrogen between Spain/Portugal and central Europe. The pipeline will mainly pump green hydrogen and temporarily allow for natural gas to help alleviate Europe’s energy crisis. Spain accounted for 20% of global investment in green hydrogen during the first quarter of 2022, so this pipeline will be a significant step in the continent’s green energy transition.

• South Africa approves $8.5bn energy transition plan: The country’s electricity system is the world's most carbon-intensive (depending on coal for over 80% of its power). So this finance package can accelerate the country’s transition towards clean energy. A full announcement of the plans is expected in next month’s COP27.

Lloyds Bank drops finance for new oil and gas fields

The UK high-street bank has updated its climate policy to stop financial support for new oil and gas developments. In addition, the bank will not support the “self-financing” of oil and gas companies with developing exploration/operations in the arctic or oil sands. 

It’s not all good: Lloyds is still supporting some customers partaking in oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. However, these are a minor part of its customer base - making up around 0.2% of its overall lending. 

An important step: Although Lloyds' exposure to the sector is small, the move reflects growing pressure on banks to do more to accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon economy. The divestment vs engagement debate is complex and long-lived (summary here). Divestment critics claim that unregulated private investment companies are cashing in on ‘divested’ stocks.

🤖 Future of Tech (1-minute read)

First wild baby bison in the UK for 1000 years

The surprise birth results from a rewilding project near Canterbury in the country's south. The calf’s mother and 2 other female European bison were released into the wild as part of a novel wilding initiative to combat the climate and biodiversity crisis. 

How do bison help biodiversity? European bison are the largest land animal in Europe. Due to their size and behaviour when grazing, bison create diverse habitats for wildlife. By browsing and rubbing up against trees, they fell lots of non-native/native deadwood, ultimately engineering new environments (Known as a keystone species). The UK is in the bottom 10% globally for biodiversity levels, with 41% of UK species declining since the 1970s, so releasing bison as ecosystem engineers could help.

This new farming robot uses lasers to kill 200,000 weeds per hour 

Challenges: Herbicides are chemicals farmers use to control weeds and maximise crop yields. Even using herbicides, farmers globally still lose 30-40% of their crops to weeds, pests and disease, so without them, losses would be huge - putting pressure on food producers and consumers. However, the chemicals damage non-target species in the surrounding environment resulting in knock-on effects across the food chain. 

Opportunity: Agricultural robotics company Carbon Robotics has unveiled its 2022 LaserWeeder - an autonomous robot pulled behind farm machinery that uses artificial intelligence to identify weeds and zap them (the technical term!) with lasers.

Benefits: Decreased herbicide usage and reduced chemical and labour costs - with up to 80% savings in weed management costs, with a break-even period of two to three years.

💡 Deep Dive (1-minute read)

India's Green Energy Revolution

The issue: Emerging economies accounted for 67% of carbon-dioxide emissions from energy last year, with a third of their primary energy coming from coal.

A spotlight on India: Forecast as one of the fastest-growing big economies this decade, it will need to add capacity equivalent to the size of the European Union’s power system by 2040. The country relies heavily on coal, which met 58% of its primary energy needs in 2021. 

A positive surprise: Major changes are happening in India to transition towards renewable energy systems: 

• A 50-fold increase in installed solar power since 2012. 

• Renewables accounted for 5% of its primary energy consumption in 2021.

• Plans to invest $200bn in renewable energy tech (such as green hydrogen).

Forces behind the boom: Several factors are driving the green energy boom:

1. Natural attributes: Sun-drenched India has some of the cheapest solar power in the world, with life-cycle costs of new solar plants now lower than coal plants.

2. Government support: Introducing policies that help firms dealing with old, rickety power distributors secure funding to replace them as Clean energy is viewed as a catalyst for an industrial boom. 

3. Companies deploying capital at scale: Like Tata Group, who view renewable energy projects as having better returns. Investors are getting nervous about long-run coal projects as cheap renewable powers undercut coal-fired power stations. 

Challenges remain: One is financing. It’s predicted over $500bn of investment will be needed to reach the government’s target of tripling non-fossil-fuel capacity by 2030 - x2 present investment plans, and attracting new sources of capital at a time of rising interest rates will not be easy.

💭 Little Bytes

Quote:  “Corporate climate reporting and well-designed targets focusing on deep emissions reductions are essential to channel capital where it’s most needed to accelerate the energy transition.” International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) report co-author, Frederic Hans

Stat: Cities across the world account for 75% of our carbon emissions

Watch: Scientists grow plants in moon dust for the first time

🗞 In other news…

• Greek renewables fully cover power demand for the first time on record

• Zara to launch ‘pre-owned’ platform for garment repairs and donations

• A group of 35 investors managing over $5.7trn in assets have joined a new alliance committed to building healthier, fairer societies.

• Alcoholic brand, Baileys, has become the world’s biggest B Corp - a certificate proving the company is implementing best practices in managing the impact on the consumer, communities, environment, workers and customers.

Written by Colin and Ollie - Drop us a message!