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New Female Leaders Favor Climate Action
Tim Mohin
07 Jun
This week, Mexico elected its first female president and the world’s first national leader, who is also a climate scientist. Claudia Sheinbaum has a PhD in energy engineering and was part of a UN climate change panel that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
She inherits a tough gig. Mexico is the world’s 11th largest oil producer, and under her predecessor, Mexico dropped seven places on the Climate Change Performance Index to 38th. Ms. Shienbaum has to juggle competing factors: how to support the country’s largest oil and gas company, PEMEX - the world’s most indebted fossil fuel company - while meeting her goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030. Mexico expert Shannon K. O'Neil said, “Claudia is an environmental scientist and unlike her mentor, (Andrés Manuel López Obrador - the former president), believes in decarbonization and in boosting renewables.”
She brings a strong environmental legacy from her time as the Mayor of Mexico City, where she implemented solar panels on public buildings, zero-emission public transport, and cycling paths across the city. She wrote a paper on how to transition Mexico away from oil and gas to renewables.
Sheinbaum is not the only female national leader championing climate action: This week, Iceland elected Halla Tomasdottir as their new President. Tomasdottir moves into the role after leading The B Team, a global nonprofit focused on integrating climate and equality into business practices, and she previously founded a responsible investment firm. These amazing women are the vanguard of a trend in female climate leaders - here are a few of the many exemplary leaders.
Mixed Report from Largest Election Year
Halfway through the largest election year ever, the results from a climate lens are beginning to take shape. The trajectory in Iceland and Mexico looks positive for continued climate action, but elsewhere, it’s a mixed bag:
India: The world’s largest democracy re-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his third five-year term. Modi will face major climate challenges as extreme weather is causing havoc for India’s agricultural sector, which supports the majority of its 1.4 billion people. With 70% of their energy coming from coal, increased power demands are likely to exacerbate their issues further. While Mr. Modi has emphasized his push to build renewable energy infrastructure, his government has continued to expand the use of coal.
Currently India is struggling with extreme heat reaching above 120℉ (49℃) found to be 45 times more likely to occur due to climate change. The extreme heat led to the deaths of 33 people, including poll workers, leading future elections to be rescheduled outside of peak summer.
Europe: The EU elections kicked off across the continent yesterday (June 6th) and will culminate on Sunday (June 9th). The buzzword dominating these elections is competitiveness. Many EU economists, politicians, and voters believe that the EU’s leadership on environmental regulations is one of the main reasons the bloc’s growth is lagging behind the US and China. Polls show that right-wing parties are likely to win a majority, which would slow the EU's sustainability progress. The so-called “greenlash” could wipe out as many as 30% of “green” seats in the EU Parliament.
United Kingdom: After Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a snap general election for July 4, his Conservative Party is behind in the polls, and climate is a central issue. Sunak has largely reversed the UK’s leadership on the green transition and is running on a platform of “prioritizing energy security and your (energy) bills.” Former minister in the conservative government, Rt Hon Chris Skidmore, described Sunak’s decision to water down a series of net zero policies last year as “the worst mistake of his premiership.”
United States: Climate and sustainability have largely been lost in a flurry of other news affecting the US elections. The climate successes of the Biden Administration - including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Act, and other policies - will certainly be slowed or reversed under a Trump Administration. While polls say that less than 5 percent believe climate change is the most important problem facing the country, Matt Burgess, from the University of Colorado Boulder, believes the issue is a growing electoral advantage for Democrats.
Peak Carbon?
Greenhouse gas emissions may have peaked last year. Multiple reports corroborate the finding that carbon emissions have reached a point which they will never exceed again. Also, the world’s largest polluter, China, may have also hit its emissions peak in 2023, almost half a decade ahead of its target.
Bloomberg reports that “the energy transition has accelerated in recent years with the pace of clean technology deployment and capital investment surging to record levels,” but warned, “aligning with a net-zero trajectory will require an immediate peaking of emissions and fossil-fuel use across the global energy system – spanning the power, transport, industrial and buildings sectors.”
Electric vehicle adoption looks like it has also reached a tipping point. Driven by cheap EVs from China, US and EU car manufacturers are set to release mass-market EVs with price tags as low as $25,000.
Still on the “Highway To Climate Hell”
Despite these hopeful inflection points, after the EU’s climate monitoring service - “Copernicus” - confirmed that the last 12 months have been the hottest on record, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for countries to ban fossil fuel ads. He added “we are on the highway to climate hell,” and that the fossil fuel companies are “godfathers of climate chaos.”
Despite emissions beginning to fall, they are falling too slowly. A new International Energy Agency report revealed that we are not likely to meet the needed tripling of renewable capacity by 2030 goal at current rates. Plus, climate change driven droughts are reducing the energy output of hydroelectric power, the world’s largest source of clean energy.
New research paints a dire picture of the future of the world’s oceans with a “triple threat” of extreme heating, a loss of oxygen, and acidification. Another report found that the earth is warming at a record rate, and 92% of it is due to man-made emissions.
SEC Court Schedule
Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals set a schedule for the litigation over SEC’s Climate Rule.
June 14, 2024: Petitioners’ opening brief
June 24, 2024: Intervenors/Amici briefs supporting petitioners
August 5, 2024: Respondent's consolidated response brief
August 15, 2024: Intervenors/Amici briefs supporting respondent
September 3, 2024: Petitioners' reply brief
The Court may schedule oral arguments by the end of 2024, which means it is unlikely there will be a final judgment by the end of the year.
The litigation was simplified late last week when the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council withdrew their cases, claiming that the rule did not go far enough. Both NGOs stated that they would prefer to focus resources on finding other ways to influence climate disclosures outside the courts. Despite uncertainties with this SEC climate policy, experts advise companies to continue preparations for climate disclosure - primarily due to the emergence of similar policies in other jurisdictions.
CDP and ISSB Align
Last week, we shared ISSB's announcement that half of the global economy is integrating its standards into mandatory disclosure rules. Continuing the convergence trend, this week, the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) released its new questionnaire to more than 75,000 companies, claiming it is fully aligned with ISSB’s climate standard (S2).
In November 2023, CDP also announced an agreement with the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to maximize alignment with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
“CDP is proud of our partnerships with the ISSB, TNFD, EFRAG, and other global frameworks to fulfill our role in the ecosystem, answering market demand for efficiency and enabling faster environmental action through the power of data.”
The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
Other Notable News:
The Inflation Reduction Act was passed almost two years ago to, among other things, accelerate the implementation of renewable energy. So far, that has only partially worked, with solar power adoption surging and wind power lagging.
Vermont this week passed its Climate Super Fund, which means it will start ordering fossil fuel companies to pay for climate change-related damages. The first rule of its type in the US will likely be challenged by fossil fuel companies.
Andy Behar - CEO of Shareholder Activist “As You Sow” - claps back at the House Judiciary Committee antitrust hearings on ESG with this letter.
Notable Podcasts:
In this week’s edition of Outrage and Optimism, hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson are joined by Tom Steyer, former presidential hopeful and Co-Executive Chair of clean energy investment platform Galvanize Climate Solutions. Together, they discuss the upcoming UK and US elections and Tom’s new book, “Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War.”
This week’s edition of the Engineering With Nature podcast features an excellent interview with Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist and lead scientist at the Nature Conservancy. Hayhoe discusses her path toward becoming a climate scientist and why climate justice is the reason she became interested in climate. She also explains her “Head—Heart—Hands” approach to climate communication.
I am excited to participate in this upcoming event (on June 13th) to discuss the nexus of decarbonization and AI. My esteemed colleagues and I will cover the latest regulations and how they are driving the development of new technologies to improve our environment. Sign up here.
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