In today’s edition:

⚡️ First-ever critical minerals report

🚜 $300mn to measure farm emissions

🌳 Contested nature law passed

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⚡️ Energy (1-minute read)

IEA releases first critical minerals report

The International Energy Agency released its first-ever report on the Critical Minerals Market last week. The report depicted the three-way challenge of producing enough Critical Minerals to support Net-Zero transitions, simultaneously diversifying supply and doing it all in a climate and nature-positive way. Here are the headlines:

• Producing Enough: Investment in the critical minerals pipeline grew by 30% in 2022, bringing supply to levels required to meet 2030 climate pledges. More work is required to meet 2050 pledges - organisations must de-risk future supply by improving permissioning timelines of projects. Efforts must also be made to adapt to disruption from an increased frequency and severity of climate-related events and social unrest.

• Diversifying Supply: Diversification of supply is critical to avoid disruption caused by overreliance on any nation. The current picture isn’t pretty (see below) and isn’t set to improve - the majority of planned projects are developed in incumbent regions, with China holding half of planned lithium chemical plants and Indonesia representing 90% of planned nickel refining.

• Doing it Cleanly: The IEA's assessment of 20 companies shows headway being made on community investment, health and safety, and gender equality. However, "environmental indicators are not improving at the same rate," it warned. Greenhouse gas emissions remain high, with roughly the same amount emitted per tonne of mineral output yearly. Water withdrawals almost doubled from 2018 to 2021.

What’s Next: Investment, innovation, recycling, rigorous sustainability standards and well-designed safety nets will be required to bolster global progress. It must be a global effort - the IEA will host the first-ever international summit on critical minerals next month.

🚜 AgriTech (1-minute read)

The US agriculture department (USDA) plans a $300mn investment to measure greenhouse gas emission

Headline: The USDA has announced plans to establish a monitoring and data collection network for measuring greenhouse gas emissions and assessing the effectiveness of carbon capture from farming practices.

Details: The funding will come from the inflation reduction act to address scientific uncertainties surrounding the effectiveness of farming methods, such as regenerative agriculture, in mitigating climate change. The data collection networks will be built over the next 8 years, with sensors and monitoring technology used to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and carbon capture from various locations and different types of farms.

Importance: The move has been welcomed by environmental advocates, who believe more scientific rigour is needed around the emission reduction claims of climate-smart agriculture. At the same time, data from the collection networks will support tracking progress towards emissions reduction targets and inform future farming policy.

🌳 Nature (1-minute read)

European Nature Law survives backlash

What’s happened: The European Parliament voted to pass a fiercely contested law to restore degraded natural ecosystems, salvaging the environmental measures that some lawmakers had campaigned to kill off.

 Details: The legislation will require countries to introduce measures restoring nature on a fifth of their land and sea by 2030. The aim is to reverse the decline of Europe's natural habitats - 81% of which are classified as poor health.

Disagreement: The European People's Party (EPP), the EU Parliament's biggest lawmaker group, led a campaign to reject the plan on the grounds it would harm farmers and endanger food security. EU lawmakers voted earlier this week to weaken another law to cut farm pollution.

💭 Little Bytes

Quote: “In the face of killer heatwaves, raging wildfires and torrential floods, we must all do more, faster to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.” — A letter from climate ministers of G20 countries.

Stat: A new analysis concludes that there’s now an 81% chance this year will be the warmest on record

Watch: A special clay that can turn deserts into farmland

🗞 In other news…

• Japan's Toshiba plans to establish a domestic supply chain for offshore wind power equipment together with U.S. manufacturer General Electric, as Japan is expanding renewable energy production.

• Councils in England and Wales have called on the UK government to ban the sale of single-use vapes by 2024 on environmental grounds - With 1.3 million disposable vapes thrown away weekly.

• A company called Moolec has created a genetically-modified soya bean called “Piggy Sooy”, in which a quarter of the protein is pig protein rather than plant protein.

• Forested areas have been declining across Africa, but recent studies show this is changing through the efforts of small farmers who are allowing trees to regenerate on their land resulting in improved crop yields and boosted carbon storage.

• Millions in the US, Europe and China hit by unprecedented temperatures

• US Climate Envoy, John Kerry, opens first major climate talks with Chinese officials, as both sides pledge to work for tangible results despite geopolitical tensions

🎣 Gone Phishing

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

• A Guinness World Record mania has gripped Nigeria

• Squirrel attacks temporarily holt mail deliveries in Austin

• Debate rages over Burger King’s Barbie Pink Burger

• A sea otter in California is stealing surfboards

🌞 Climate meme of the week

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