🌱 Beef Battles

Happy Tuesday.  There’s a sizzling showdown in New York as JBS comes under fire for greenwashing claims.

In today’s edition:
⚡️ Delay for US gas-burning power plants to cut their emissions
🚜 New York sues the world’s largest meatpacker
🌳 WTO fails to agree on rules to curb harmful fishing practices

🔋 Energy (1-Min Read)
The E.P.A’s Decision to Narrow Two Big Climate Rules

What happened: This week, America’s Environmental Protection Agency said it would delay requirements for gas-burning power plants to cut their carbon dioxide emissions. The agency is also expected to delay regulations for car makers to limit tailpipe emissions.

Play-by-Play:

• In May 23: The E.P.A. unveiled a landmark plan to curb emissions from power plants. Large gas-burning plants must capture or eliminate 90% of their emissions by 2040. Coal plants by 2030

• Since then: Immediate pushback from the utility industry, which challenged the feasibility of plans, and from democrat leaders in swing states who feared the plans could result in higher electricity bills for constituents.

• This week: The E.P.A. said the final version of the regulation would apply only to existing coal-burning plants and future gas-burning plants, not gas plants in current operation

Why it matters: There were multiple high-profile environmental legal battles in 2023 (good overview here). In a US election year, policymakers must balance progressive climate policy with legal durability because policies will face future legal challenges that could be heard in unfriendly courts.

Quick quote: “If you can get a rule that achieves 90 percent or more benefit of the proposal, and it has more supporters and fewer opponents, that is a pathway toward a more legally durable rule,” David Doniger - Strategist @ Natural Resources Defence Council. (Full story here).

 🚜 AgriTech (1-Min Read)
Grilling the Beef Giant as JBS Faces Legal Heat

What happened? The state of New York is suing the US arm of JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, accusing the Brazilian company of misleading customers over its climate goals.

Details: JBS is the leading beef producer in the world and can process over 200k cattle a week in the US alone. JBS had planned to list its US arm on the New York Stock Exchange. But, these plans have run into fierce opposition, not least from the New York attorney general who filed the lawsuit alleging that JBS USA had assured the public and consumers with sustainability claims yet had no viable plans to meet the commitment to be net zero by 2040. 

Hitting back: Predictably, JBS disagrees with the attorney general’s characterisation of its commitments to sustainability, stating it will continue to partner with farmers and ranchers to feed a growing population while reducing its environmental impact.  

Why is this important? The lawsuit demonstrates the growing regulatory attention to corporate environmental claims, signalling the consequences these companies could face if misleading practices are true. (Full story here).

🐘 Nature (1-Min Read)
First Deal on Fishing Subsidies Hits a Roadblock

What happened: The latest World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations failed to agree on strengthening rules to curb harmful fisheries subsidies, which observers say is a major setback for marine biodiversity conservation efforts.

Details:  

• WTO negotiators sought to build on a 2022 agreement that forbade subsidies for illegal and unregulated fishing by expanding the ban to subsidies that contribute to overfishing more broadly.

• During the negotiations, the Philippines and South Africa joined the 2022 fisheries subsidies agreement, bringing the total number of ratifications to 71. The text will enter into force when at least 110 countries have ratified it.

Key sticking points:

• India was one of the most vocal nations in their opposition to the policy, stating that fisheries subsidies are vital for developing nations, their subsistence-level fishing populations, and their food security.

• India and other African, Caribbean, and Pacific nations suggested their small-scale fisheries were unfairly punished for damage caused by larger Chinese and European fleets that fish in distant waters.

The numbers: A recent study estimated global fisheries subsidies at $35 billion per year, of which $22 billion proves harmful by negatively impacting vulnerable marine ecosystems and habitats. China has the largest share of fisheries subsidies worldwide, followed by the US, South Korea, the EU, and Japan. (Full story here).

💭 Little Bytes (1-Min Read)

💬 Quote: “We have to put in place more rapidly the funding mechanisms that are going to actually fuel this transition at the pace it needs to be.” John Kerry, top US climate official

📊 Stat: The world's carbon dioxide emissions reached a record 37.4bn tonnes as droughts and rising energy demand pushed up fossil fuel use, a rise of 1.1 per cent, or 410mn tonnes, compared to the year before — IEA

📺️ Watch: A robot has found over 100 new marine species off the coast of Chile

🛗 Snippets for your lift conversations (1-Min Read)

• After a decade of rumours, secretive developments, executive entrances and exits, and pivots, Apple reportedly told employees that its EV car project, internally called “Project Titan,” is no more.

• The European Union should support struggling European manufacturers of solar panels but cannot close its borders to imports of such products from China as it would risk climate targets, EU energy policy chief Kadri Simson said this week.

• Research shows pollinating insects thrive in solar parks, particularly where various plants are flourishing.

• Ministers have urged the EU to increase funding for the €60bn-a-year Common Agricultural Policy subsidy scheme to quell protests.

• Unsustainable development threatens the health and diverse fish populations of the Mekong River, with one-fifth of fish species in Southeast Asia's main artery facing extinction.

• Departing US climate envoy John Kerry has accused asset managers of “turning away from science” just weeks after a clutch of the world’s most prominent investors stepped back from an industry group set up to tackle climate change.

• The world’s longest hydrogen pipeline has received approval for construction in China, spanning 700km for $845m.

 🎣 Gone Phishing (1-Minute Read)

Three of these stories are true, one we've made up. Guess which:

• Cambridge academic escapes toilet using eyeliner and cotton buds

• NASA unveils plans for human settlement on Mars

• Florida man faces 50-year prison sentence over turtle-smuggling 

• Tech Libertarians fund Drug-Fueled ‘Olympics’