The REP Wrap: SSE’s CEO says just transition programme brings plaudits
Your weekly summary of corporate sustainability news.
The CEO of UK energy company SSE says the company’s leadership on the ‘just transition’ has helped it gain good will among politicians, the media and employees. The firm runs a programme to retrain and hire workers at risk of job cuts in the Oil & Gas as a result of the energy transition. “We get a lot of plaudits for that,” said Alistair Phillips-Davies, speaking at the launch of new guidelines from the UK Government’s Transition Plan Taskforce, which included advice on how to approach the just transition. On top of positive media coverage, Phillips-Davies said SSE’s programme helped to attract and retain staff. “We tend to find politicians, if you’re interested, quite like you,” he added, “and ultimately you can feel good about yourself”.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that government inaction on climate change violates fundamental human rights – namely the right to a private and family life. The case, brought by a group of Swiss women, had been dismissed in their own country. But ECHR said on Tuesday that Switzerland had not complied with its duties under the European Convention on Human Rights, noting “critical gaps” in national regulation and a failure to decarbonise at the appropriate speed to help stave off catastrophic climate change.
The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has been at the centre of controversy this week, after its board of trustees issued a statement suggesting it will allow companies to use certain types of carbon credits to meet their Scope 3 climate targets. While those in the carbon offsetting industry welcomed the move, insisting that it would generate demand for high-quality credits, others were outraged by the U-turn. SBTi’s own technical committee said in a letter that it had not been consulted on the decision, and that the Board’s statement “undermines ongoing work by SBTi staff” on the topic. SBTI’s Board has since updated its original statement to point out that “no change has been made to SBTi current standards”.
The Central Bank of Kenya has released a proposal for the country’s first green taxonomy, outlining which economic activities support or harm climate adaptation and mitigation objectives. Produced with technical assistance from the European Central Bank, the framework will be expanded to cover other environmental issues such as biodiversity over time. It is out for consultation until June 11th.
One-fifth of listed companies had science-based climate targets as of January, according to MSCI. The data giant’s latest Net Zero tracker found that more than half of the firms it assessed had some kind of decarbonisation target, including 38% with a net-zero goal. Nearly 60% disclosed their direct emissions, up 16% over the past two years, with a similar increase in those reporting at least some of their Scope 3 emissions (now 40%). “Listed companies are on track to burn through their share of the global carbon budget for limiting average temperature increases to 1.5°C by July 2026,” MSCI warned, adding that the 2024 Scope 1 emissions for listed companies looked set to remain roughly the same as last year.
The average corporate climate target will achieve 30% decarbonisation by 2030, from a 2019 baseline. Analysis of 51 major companies, including Nestle, Toyota and H&M, by New Climate Institute found the median absolute emission reduction commitment to be 30%, rising to 33% “under the most optimistic scenario”. The think-tank, which conducted the research in partnership with NGO Carbon Market Watch, found that 19 of the 51 had revised their 2030 targets over the past two years. Mars was the only firm assessed deemed to have a high integrity 2030 target. Unilever, Toyota and Walmart were among those alleged to have “very poor” targets.
Canada’s Competition Bureau has launched an online complaint form to encourage people to report perceived greenwashing. The new initiative, announced earlier this month, comes as Canadian Parliament considers updating the Competition Act to require green claims to be supported by evidence in order to reduce greenwashing.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has teamed up with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to explain how the two have aligned their expectatons, and to develop further guidance on how to conduct materiality assessments for impact. TNFD is keen to emphasise that its recommendations fit well with the GRI’s recently-updated and widely-used biodiversity standard. The pair will publish their output in a dedicated report.
