🌱 Clean Energy Quandary

Happy Tuesday.  China is navigating the twists and turns of clean energy dreams and gritty realities.

In today’s edition:
⚡️ China is off track on all of its core 2025 climate targets
🚜 5 out of 50 major food companies have a plan for innovation in emission reduction goals
🌳 1000s of surplus ‘biodiversity net gain’ units from wind and solar sites in England

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🔋 Energy (1-Min Read)
 China's Climate Crunch

What happened: China is off track on all of its core 2025 climate targets, even though clean energy is now the biggest driver of the country’s economic growth, analysis has found.

Details:

• Under the Paris Agreement, China’s climate pledges are required by 2025, increasing the share of non-fossil energy sources to 20% and reducing the economy's carbon intensity by 18%. Carbon intensity refers to how many grams of CO2 are released to produce a kilowatt hour of electricity.

• China’s energy sector carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased by 5.2% in 2023, meaning a record fall of 4-6% is needed by 2025 to meet the government’s “carbon intensity” target.

Why? 

• Rapid electricity demand growth and weak rains, limiting hydropower generation, boosted demand for coal power in 2023. The hangover from COVID-19 stimulus measures that supported the construction and manufacturing sectors also contributed.

• Another source of growth was a boom in manufacturing clean energy technologies, such as solar PV, electric vehicles and batteries. These products will ultimately lead to a net drop in emissions, although some will be felt outside China as goods are exported.

Still possible?

• Renewable energy production must grow by more than 11% annually to meet the 2025 target. Renewable energy production is increasing by an annual rate of 8.5%. 

 (Full story here)

 🚜 AgriTech (1-Min Read)
Unwrapping the climate commitments of food giants

What Happened:  A new study by the Ceres’ Food Emissions 50 Company Benchmark reveals that major North American food companies are lagging in achieving net-zero progress despite setting emissions reduction targets. 

Details:

• Nearly 75% of the 50 companies assessed reported their supply chain greenhouse gas emissions, and around 65% set targets to reduce emissions. 

• Only 5 of the 50 companies have a strategy to integrate innovation into their plans for achieving their emission reduction goals.

• None of the companies have aligned future expenditures with their climate goals, indicating a gap in strategic planning for emission reduction efforts.

The bigger picture: The supply chain of these food companies is becoming evermore volatile due to the effects of climate change while simultaneously contributing to the issues through production processes. The study underscores the importance of transparent and innovative sustainability plans in reducing exposure and improving the resilience of retailers, processors and producers across supply chains. (Full story here).

🐘 Nature (1-Min Read)
 Renewable developer expects to generate surplus biodiversity net gain units

What happened: Renewable energy developer Low Carbon expects to generate thousands of surplus ‘biodiversity net gain’ units from  improving biodiversity on sites surrounding its wind and solar projects in England by allowing them to rewild naturally

Details:  

• England’s BNG market requires new development projects to achieve a net biodiversity improvement of at least 10% as of Feb. 12, 2024, with nature restoration ventures popping up to serve the market.  

• Low Carbon has estimated it has achieved an 80-150% biodiversity uplift across its portfolio of sites so far.

• The developer expects to generate about 2,000 BNG units from 10 of its upcoming projects, with the team quoted in the region of £25,000-35,000 a unit. These would be sold directly to large developers looking to fill a deficit of units on its site.

A tricky balance: The impact of renewables on biodiversity has long been debated. A study published by the think tank REN21 last month stated that the benefits of clean energy outweigh any potential adverse effects.

Why it matters: For Low Carbon and similar developers, generating additional revenue from selling surplus BNG units presents an attractive opportunity. While the availability of grid connections remains the most limiting factor regarding where renewables developers will place projects, this could help make the business case for more sites more attractive.

💭 Little Bytes (1-Min Read)

💬 Quote: “If we have less sea ice, it is mainly because the ocean is warmer. And therefore we also see an increase in the mass lost below the ice sheet and the calving of icebergs.” — Xavier Fettweis, assistant professor of climatology at Liège University

📊 Stat: AI demand would drive up water withdrawal — where water is removed from ground or surface sources — to between 4.2bn and 6.6bn cubic meters by 2027, or about half the amount consumed by the UK annually. Nature.

📺️ Watch: First-ever commercial spacecraft touchdown on the moon

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

• The Biden administration has given preliminary approval for nearly $710m in new loans for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing

• Reuters reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has “removed some of its most ambitious greenhouse gas emission disclosure requirements from corporate climate risk rules.

• Spain's Cepsa and Apical Group's Bio-Oils unit on Friday began building what will be Southern Europe's largest biofuels plant able to produce 500,000 metric tons of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) per year.

• Chinese battery and battery materials suppliers have “reportedly been asked by their European clients, such as BMW, Volkswagen, and Stellantis”, to begin production in Europe “as soon as possible”, reports Yicai.

• Walmart’s chief executive, Doug McMillion, has confirmed that the firm achieved its ‘Project Gigaton’ target of significantly reducing emissions from its vast supply chains more than four years ahead of schedule.

• Nestle sets new targets for protecting nature and banning deforestation-linked cocoa and coffee.

 🎣 Gone Phishing (1-Minute Read)

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

• Japan's 'naked man festival' ends after more than 1,000 years

• Starbucks introduces new pork-flavored latte

• Scientists in Antarctica develop their own accent

• Researchers discover dolphins using tools