In today’s edition:

⚡️ Biden administration restricts oil and gas drilling to 3 areas

🚜 Barley prices €100 above average threaten beer production

🌳 Ending ocean overexploitation, 1 of the 5 main drivers of biodiversity loss

⚡️ Energy (1-minute read)

Biden administration offers fewest offshore oil and gas leases in history

What happened: The Biden administration announced it would lease a handful of spots in the Gulf of Mexico to oil companies for drilling over the next five years.

Details: The administration said oil and gas companies would be able to drill in just three new areas in the Gulf between 2024 and 2029, the smallest number of lease sales offered since the federal drilling program began decades ago. The five-year plan is significant because the government cannot conduct any lease sales that are not specified in the plan, and the time frame is such that it determines the actions of a future administration. President Biden’s plan will undergo a 60-day congressional review before implementation.

The fall-out:

• Oil and Gas: The oil industry, which had pressed for unfettered access to waters around the United States, warned that limiting its drilling opportunities would lead to higher gas prices and force the country to increase oil imports from countries with lax environmental laws.

• Green groups: Climate advocates want the administration to end new leasing on federal lands altogether, as Biden promised in his early campaign (Full story here).

🚜 AgriTech (1-minute read)

Brewing a storm as climate change threatens beer production

What happened: The boss of Asahi Breweries, a multinational alcoholic beverages company, has warned that warmer temperatures induced by climate change affect barley and hops supplies, two crops crucial in beer production.

Details:  The UN recently concluded that the world is currently headed for a temperature rise of up to 2.6C by 2050, which is forecast to cause a 10% drop in barley yields across France and Poland. While hop yields coming from the Czech Republic, a major supplier, could decline by 13%. Volatile weather has already interfered with barley yields, leading to prices hitting record levels in 2022, which puts pressure on brewers — the cost of 2023’s crop this summer was €100 per tonne above earlier averages.

Building resilience: Ashai has partnered with Microsoft to enhance real-time insights into barley yields using sensors and artificial intelligence. This information will be used by the company’s new global procurement centre to manage supply chain disruptions better. Other brewers have also been building resilience in their supply chains, with Anheuser-Busch InBev investing in drought-resistant barley varieties in Africa. (Full story here).

🌳 Nature (1-minute read)

Think tank develops blue recovery bond framework to tackle overfishing

What happened: Financial think tank Planet Tracker has developed a theoretical framework for a blue recovery bond to fund fisheries that reduce or completely stop fishing in designated areas while stocks recover.

Details: Planet Tracker’s bond would allow investors to provide up-front capital investment to fisheries that cease or reduce fishing of an overfished population and then get repaid once the stock has recovered and fishing is resumed. In theory, blue recovery bonds would enable fishers to conserve their depleted fish stocks without having to forfeit their incomes and enable investors to fulfil their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and/or general sustainability goals, as well as generate financial returns

The numbers: Overexploitation is one of the five main drivers of biodiversity loss globally, The demand for seafood is projected to rise to 267.5 million tonnes by 2050, up from 157.4 million in 2020, pushing many fish stocks further towards unsustainability. This will increase the risk of food insecurity and likely further damage marine ecosystems.

Challenges: Establishing methods to measure success, implementing appropriate monitoring and enforcement of permanence, and overcoming a range of potentially negative social and economic impacts on supply chains. (Full story here).

💭 Little Bytes

Quote: “Every challenge that nature faces compounds all the others… Invasive alien species are adding stress to fragile ecosystems already facing a plethora of other threats.” Monica Medina, a former State Department official for biodiversity.

Stat: 16% of the 10,000 species of plants and animals surveyed in Britain were threatened with extinction — State of Nature report

Watch: The startup turning trees bound for landfill into wood products

🗞 In other news…

• The European Union launched the first phase of the world's first system to impose CO2 emissions tariffs on imported steel, cement and other goods as it tries to stop more polluting foreign products from undermining its green transition. (Full story here).

• Deforestation in top cocoa producer Ivory Coast increased last year after declining for several years, a major report has found, raising questions about how the country will comply with a new EU law preventing commodity imports linked to forest loss. (Full story here).

• More than 60,000 protesters gathered in the Swiss capital Bern on Saturday, demanding tougher policies to combat climate change, organisers said, less than a month before a national election. Such large protests are rare in Switzerland and show growing public frustration with the pace of policy-making. (Full story here).

• The incredible eco-restoration of one tiny Caribbean island - transformed from a desolate rock to a verdant wildlife haven in just a few years - has captured the imagination of environmentalists worldwide. (Full story here).

• Wildlife in Britain, already one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, is continuing its long-term decline, according to the most comprehensive assessment ever carried out on UK biodiversity. (Full story here).

• Six Portuguese youngsters have taken 32 governments to Europe’s top human rights court in the continent’s largest case yet linked to failures to address climate change. (Full story here).

• Hong Kong & China Gas Co. is accelerating biofuel production in foreign markets as it bets on rising demand for sustainable aviation fuel (Full story here).

🎣 Gone Phishing

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

• Robotic exoskeleton helps runners sprint faster

• AI facilitates communication between scientists and dolphins

• Man eats 135 of the world’s hottest chillies in one sitting

• An emotional support alligator goes to a baseball game

Written by Colin and Ollie - Drop us a message!