In today’s edition:

⚡️ A jump in US solar imports

🚜 Nestle’s boost for regenerative agriculture

🌳 New funds to tackle biodiversity crisis

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⚡️ Energy (1-minute read)

US Solar reopening?

What’s happened: For much of this year, the US solar industry has been hampered by a 2021 law that limited imports from China’s Xinjiang region. The US Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act stops US-bound imports traced to Xinjiang for extra scrutiny, limiting imports due to concerns about large-scale human rights violations. This action had consequences for the Biden administration’s clean energy efforts.

Impact: Utility-size solar installations fell by almost one-third in 2022 from a year earlier, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Commercial and residential solar projects have also been plagued by backlogs, the industry group reported.

Change: There is evidence that the Biden administration has loosened restrictions on solar panel imports. New data from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has shown that electronics imports (including solar panels) jumped to a 2023 high of $175.6mn in June. Solar companies have also reported that their foreign-made panels have been released by the CBP.

So what: Morgan Stanley estimate that solar panels installed by electricity utilities could jump by almost half this year compared with its previous forecast.

🚜 AgriTech (1-minute read)

Nestle boost efforts to source key ingredients grown with regenerative agriculture practices

Headline: The initiative aims to grow the use of regenerative agriculture practices across 100k acres of farmland (size of over 50k football fields) among farmers supplying wheat for Nestle’s DiGiorno frozen pizza brand.

Details: Financial support and technical assistance will be provided to farmers who use practices like cover crops, reduced tillage and less pesticide application which will improve soil health and reduce water, energy, and fertiliser use alongside safeguarding biodiversity.

Importance: Conventional agriculture practices erode soils and biodiversity, so adopting regenerative practices provides a way of undoing some of the damage. Nestle’s assistance for farmers will help reduce costs associated with adopting new practices.

More Regen Agri news: Nestle is also partnering with a non-profit, Leading Harvest, to verify and certify that farmers in its tomato supply chain adhere to principles of regenerative agriculture.

🌳 Nature (1-minute read)

How a wave of new funds are tackling the biodiversity crisis

(Caution: Longer story than usual..)

In discussions around sustainability, investors’ focus has been largely on climate change, but Fund groups have recently launched a wave of products targeting the threat to biodiversity. In the past couple of years, the following funds have been launched:

• Fidelity Sustainable Biodiversity Fund - allocates funds through two buckets: companies whose main focus is addressing biodiversity loss (e.g. Corteva, which offers pest control solutions to farmers that are better for biodiversity) and “best in class” companies with ambitious biodiversity goals (e.g. L’Oreal, Walmart, and Nestle) which have biodiversity targets the fund wants to encourage via investment and engagement. Having best-in-class companies is also a way for biodiversity funds to spread their risk: firms that are coming up with positive solutions will probably be smaller and riskier than the larger-cap, defensive stocks. Other funds are comfortable taking a longer-term view at the expense of significant short-term pain, such as …

• BNP Paribas Ecosystem Restoration fund: This focuses entirely on addressing biodiversity loss (e.g., Darling Ingredients - a developer and producer of sustainable natural ingredients). Direct focus can come at a price when the global economy is struggling. With solutions to biodiversity at a relatively early stage, companies focused on this area tend to be mid-cap at best and are going for growth rather than providing steady dividends. With rising interest rates and inflation, the past year has been tough for them. Their case is clearly long-term, with regulation and investor interest likely to increase. The BNP Paribas fund, for example, has lost nearly 35% in the past year.

So what: As with the broader space of ESG funds, there is a large discrepancy in both their holdings and wider approach, suggesting some way to go before a properly defined ‘biodiversity’ investment theme can emerge. One problem is that there is not much hard data on biodiversity that can be used to select stocks. Efforts to tackle this area and avoid challenges in the broader ‘ESG’ themed funds market are critical. There has been growing scrutiny amongst regulators that fund managers are “greenwashing” - using misleading environmental claims to entice well-meaning customers.

💭 Little Bytes

Quote: If we don’t keep pushing for change, we will continue to see behaviour that drives deforestation, damages the land and soil we depend on, releases harmful carbon into our atmosphere, and pollutes the waterways that give us life.” — Dove’s vice president of external communications and sustainability Firdaous El Honsali

Stat: Two in Five People Cannot Afford Healthy Food — UN Report

Watch: China launches the world’s largest salt-light solar station

🗞 In other news…

• A pileup of ancient logs nearly as big as Manhattan is trapping millions of tons of carbon in northern Canada — and much of that stored material could be released into the atmosphere due to climate change, according to a recent study.

• Green bonds continued to dominate the sustainable bond market with 935 green bonds issued, raising $351bn and making H1 2023 a record six months in terms of the value of capital raised from investors. This also puts 2023 on course to be a record year for green bond issuances.

• A little-publicised clause in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has companies scrambling to recycle electric vehicle batteries in North America, putting the region at the forefront of a global race to undermine China's dominance of the field.

• Tata Group plans to build a £4 billion battery plant in the UK to supply electric vehicles made by Jaguar Land Rover. The factory could supply roughly half a million vehicles per year.

• Several countries led by Saudi Arabia have blocked a deal by G20 nations to reduce the use of fossil fuels, in the latest sign of the global tensions over the future role of oil, gas and coal as the world grapples with climate change.

• Dove has announced a partnership with Rimba Collective to safeguard 123,000 acres of Southeast Asian rainforests over five years in a bid to protect 80 endangered wildlife species and foster nature regeneration.

🎣 Gone Phishing

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

• A French woman is hit by an apparent meteorite

• Man attempts to break World Record for longest Netflix Binge

• Food maker recalls cookies as they may contain rocks

• Man who stole 200,000 Creme Eggs is jailed

🌞 Climate meme of the week

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