🌱 Courtroom Showdown

Happy Tuesday. A courtroom showdown between oil giant ExxonMobil and shareholder activists is shaking up corporate climate resolutions.

In today’s edition:
⚡️ ExxonMobil sues shareholders pushing for climate resolution
🚜 Research into staple African crops aims to stop rising food insecurity
🌳 Farmers protesting across Europe have won their first concession

🔋 Energy (1-Min Read)
Exxon sues Sustainable Investment Firms

What happened: Investors have withdrawn a climate resolution at ExxonMobil after the oil supermajor sued them in a retreat likely to affect similar forms of shareholder activism.

Details: Follow This, an Amsterdam-based green shareholder group, and Arjuna Capital, a US investment adviser, said that in response to the lawsuit filed by Exxon last week, they had decided to abandon their call for the company to set more ambitious emissions reduction targets. These included addressing "Scope 3" emissions.  Exxon is the only one of the five Western oil majors which does not have such targets.

Ploughing Ahead: Exxon has said that despite the proposal being withdrawn, it would continue with the suit, seeking attorneys' fees and expenses, as it questions the motivations of the investors and notes the rising number of resolutions being filed for corporate ballots. Companies rarely go to court to block shareholder motions. Instead, they usually appeal to the SEC for permission to remove unwanted resolutions from the ballot. But Exxon argued that the regulator had become too willing to allow such motions to proceed to a vote.

Why it matters: Exxon's unusual legal action has been closely watched by investor activists worried the move could lead other companies to block shareholder resolutions in court rather than through the usual process of appealing to regulators. (Full story here).

 🚜 AgriTech (1-Min Read)
Seeds of Change for African Farming

What happened: Plant scientists are directing their efforts towards transforming the agricultural landscape in Africa. Their focus is on staple crops, like teff, millet, cassava and sweet potato, as the number of people facing food insecurity has risen since 2016.

The details: Billions have gone into developing high-yielding, climate-resilient varieties of wheat and corn in Europe and North America, while staples in Africa have been neglected. Initiatives across the African continent are improving the productivity of local (or) indigenous crops, especially as climate change hampers their productivity. 

What initiatives? The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture has successfully developed high-yielding cassava varieties to improve local food production in Nigeria. The Gates Foundation is investing in research in Ethiopia to engineer gene-edited teff varieties to address yield challenges and improve weather resilience.

The bigger picture: Boosting the productivity of African staples will improve Africa’s food security resilience while empowering local communities and fostering economic independence, which could redefine the continent’s role in global agriculture. (Full story here).

🐘 Nature (1-Min Read)
 EU to delay new green rule in bid to appease protesting farmers

What happened: Farmers protesting across Europe have won their first concession from Brussels, with the EU announcing a delay in rules that would have forced them to set aside land to encourage biodiversity and soil health.

The rules: Under the rules, farmers were expected to keep 4% of their arable land free from crop production to regenerate the health of the soil and increase biodiversity, which is also in crisis. Alternatively, farmers could have got an exemption from this “set-aside” rule if they had used 7% of their land for “catch crops” such as clover, which also benefit soil health. 

The protests: About 10,000 French farmers stepped up their protests with at least 100 blockades on major roads across France. Belgian, Spanish and Italian farmers also demonstrated. European farmers are contending with additional stressors - Flooding, wildfires and droughts; squeezed profits due to inflation; and concerns about potential trade deals with South American Mercosur.

The result: Brussels announced a range of concessions, including a dilution of biodiversity policy. Under the new proposals, farmers will not be obliged to set aside fallow land, or any portion of land for catch crops, until 2025. This is a clear example of the tightrope of agricultural policymaking. (Full story here).

💭 Little Bytes (1-Min Read)

💬 Quote: “The big picture is that the global warming clock for emission reductions to minimise the risk of dangerous climate change has been brought forward by at least a decade.” Malcolm McCulloch, co-author of the paper specialising in coral reefs at the University of Western Australia 

📊 Stat: Residents of the eastern Spanish region of Catalonia saw reservoirs fall close to 16% of their capacity. With the Iberian peninsula at its driest in 1,200 years — Reuters 

📺️ Watch: Fungi discovered in the ocean could generate life-saving anti-biotics

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

• Global water shortages take hold as Mexico City and the Catalan region of Spain both face significant shortages. (Full story here).

• Pandora, the world's largest jeweller by the amount of products sold, has stopped using mined silver and gold and now only manufactures with recycled precious metals, which require less energy. (Full story here).

• German billionaire sets up a $1.5-bln nature fund through his family office to combat the mass extinction of species. (Full story here).

• JPMorgan and Lloyds are among the banks adding new senior ESG roles on biodiversity. (Full story here).

• This week, the price of a ton of CO2 in the UK fell to a record low, raising concerns about the immediate prospects of investments in alternative energy sources. (Full story here).

 🎣 Gone Phishing (1-Minute Read)

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

• Pigeon suspected of being Chinese spy released by police in India

• Toddler gets stuck after climbing into a claw machine looking for a toy

• Dying man tells police he was on Japan’s most wanted list for 50 years

• Squirrel rescues cat trapped on a roof for 3 days