Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2025 i Corporate Knights

Economists say that the cost of building a safer, net-zero planet by 2050 should come to US$3.5 trillion a year – a fraction of the world’s economic output, yet still a far cry from current investment levels. But there will be no energy transition unless we can also train enough people to do the jobs needed for that cleaner future – from farming to finance. And the world is underperforming here, too, according to a new study by workplace specialists LinkedIn. Based on data from more than a billion members in 43 countries, LinkedIn’s 2024 Global Green Skills Report projects that a full half of the jobs required by the green economy in 2050 will lack qualified candidates. “This data is a wake-up call, and there’s no more time to…

A long-awaited and controversial global framework for carbon offsets was one of a handful of agreements reached at the COP29 conference on climate in November. Some climate campaigners welcomed the announcement with cautious optimism. Others warned that the agreement won’t address the problems plaguing the sector. The voluntary market for carbon credits (purchased by companies to offset emissions) has been hobbled by loose definitions and lax credit verification. A November meta-analysis published in Nature Communications of more than 2,000 carboncredit projects found that less than16% achieved the carbon savings claimed. Growth in this market could ramp up significantly, however, after the COP29 meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, approved a framework for recognizing carbon credits in the global accounting of carbon emissions. For the first time, carbon credits will be recognized under the…

God’s ways are famously mysterious. They are also, in legal terms, highly destructive and annoying. For nearly 500 years, whenever things have gone very badly – a storm sank your ship, say, or a drought killed your crops – and the normal course of business has been unforeseeably and uncontrollably disrupted, you could always blame your problems on an “act of God.” Dig into nearly any boilerplate contract for goods or services today and you’ll still find an all-purpose divine scapegoat, there to take the heat for catastrophes that no one could have reasonably anticipated or prevented. It’s a good system: when shit happens, blame God. Now that we’ve pumped a few trillion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, however, God has grown less reliable as a fall guy.…

1962: Humble Oil (now ExxonMobil) is not self-conscious about the potential environmental impacts of its products in this 1962 advertisement: “Each day Humble supplies enough energy to melt 7 million tons of glacier!” 1991: Ads by Informed Citizens for the Environment, a front group for coal and utilities, complain about “weak“ and “non-existent” evidence of global warming. Advertorials like these, which run in The New York Times and other newspapers, are part of a climate-denial campaign by Mobil and Exxon during the 1980s and 1990s, and ExxonMobil in the 2000s. 2004 to 2006: British petroleum giant BP installs the idea of a “carbon footprint” in popular culture, in what later is understood as an attempt to shift the blame for climate change to individuals, rather than corporations. 2024: In a…

Heroes: Environmental lawyers The day after Donald Trump’s election win, when Democratic leaders went silent, one progressive voice challenged the Republican trumpets. On November 6, the New York City–based Environmental Defense Fund tweeted, “We will *never* stop fighting for a safer climate, cleaner air, safer drinking water and a healthier, more prosperous future.” An hour later, the Washington, D.C.–based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) chimed in: “We sued Donald Trump 163 times during his first term, and we’re ready to do it again.” “Despair is not an option,” said San Francisco–based Earthjustice. “Last time around, Earthjustice filed more than 200 cases in response to the Trump administration’s policies. We won 85% of the decisions – and we’ll do it again.” Earthjustice urged worried Americans to support Biden-era emissions regulations and…

Searching for the protein of the future? Try your nearest duck pond, which in warmer weather is likely blanketed with the food sector’s next miracle ingredient: Lemna, also known as water lentils, also known as duckweed. Yes, it’s those tiny green plants that grow wild on the water’s surface, and their unique potential as an ingredient in animal-free products has been getting researchers and investors excited. Duckweed isn’t tasty – unless you’re a duck – but the flavour is at least inoffensive, and it packs a powerful nutritional punch. The plant’s miniature leaves contain uniquely high concentrations of rubisco, a ubiquitous protein that has been recognized by scientists as ideal for human consumption, according to the standards of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Duckweed’s protein density and high yield…

The makers of heat recovery systems don’t tend to generate much media frenzy, but when they’re introduced by the likes of America’s Got Talent judge Heidi Klum, Canadian supermodel Winnie Harlow and William, Prince of Wales, the paparazzi start to take notice. That’s the magic formula behind November’s Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa, a glitzy event that shamelessly combined Hollywood pizzazz and British royalty with innovative heat systems, wildlife conservation and waste solutions. Developed by Prince William and biologist and broadcaster David Attenborough four years ago as a way to build excitement (and investor attention) around planetsaving ideas, the Earthshot Prize gives five environmental innovators £1 million each to grow their vision and impact. The A-list celebs, the televised “green carpet” preshow and the Shark Tank–level…

About 90 minutes from Shanghai, there’s a new ski resort sprawling over nine square hectares. Its longest run is nearly half a kilometre with a 60-metre vertical drop, and the weather is a comfortable minus 3°C to minus 5°C. Always. Outside, temperatures can soar to plus 30°C, but the L+Snow resort, which opened in September 2024, is the world’s largest indoor ski resort. It’s an energyintensive way of dealing with the climate crisis’s effect on winter sports, requiring 72 cooling machines and 33 snowmaking machines to maintain optimal winter conditions under a roof. Could this be the future of skiing? Or rather, does skiing have a future at all in a world that’s being lashed by climate change? It’s a major concern for resort operators, environmental researchers and, of course,…

Up a narrow street in the Spanish province of Valencia, dozens of vehicles lay piled up like twigs after a storm. A year’s worth of rain had fallen on the coastal region in just eight hours, flooding towns and killing more than 200 people who had little warning of the apocalypse that was coming. Early analysis suggests that global warming increased the likelihood and intensity of the extreme downpour, caused in this case by clashing warm and cold air over the Mediterranean Sea. In Paiporta, a town where at least 60 people died, residents digging themselves out of the devastation hurled mud from the storm at the king and queen of Spain who came to pay a visit, screaming out “killers” as a balm to their impotence and grief. If…

New York City’s new congestion charge really is begging for motorist analogies. It stalled. It sputtered out of the gate. Its hazards are still blinking. But for now, the path should be clear for the first vehicletoll plan of its kind in the United States to take effect in early January. Maybe. An idea that has been fiercely debated for decades, the current version of the toll imposes a $9 charge on passenger vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street. Motorcycles are charged less, while sightseeing buses and trucks pay more. “We’ll unclog our streets, reduce pollution and deliver better public transit for millions of New Yorkers,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference in November, as her administration hustled to implement the charge before President Donald Trump,…

It’s hard to laugh about Trump anymore. Electing a climate denier (again) to lead the most powerful nation on Earth at a time when the climate crisis is rapidly transitioning to its global catastrophe phase – well, it doesn’t feel very amusing. But in a moment when defeat is the pervasive mood in the climate movement, the front lines of climate action are starting to look a lot … funnier? Call it the John Oliver effect. The last few years have seen a surge in satirical web series with their targets set squarely on bad actors in government and the fossil fuel sector. Foremost among them is Climate Town, a YouTube channel run by comedian Rollie Williams, whose long-form takedowns of oil and gas disinformation are deeply researched and addictively…

Growth in sustainable revenue vs. all other revenue Sustainable revenues have grown twice as fast as all other revenues over the past five years. Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Intelligence follows the money to find the companies that are leading the transition to the low-carbon economy. Schedule a demo today to explore how our data can power your investment strategy and position you to succeed in the transition to the low-carbon economy. Visit corporateknights.com/sustainable-economy-intelligence…

1912: Early recognition of the impacts of fossil fuels on the environment is published in New Zealand’s The Rodney and Otamatea Times. 1912: Popular Mechanics magazine links the burning of fossil fuels to a warming climate and predicts rising global temperatures within a century. 1940s: The U.S. government promotes carpooling, gardening and conservation as part of the war effort. 1958: The Unchained Goddess, written and produced by Oscar winner Frank Capra as part of the Bell Laboratory Science Series, warns of the dangers of carbon dioxide, global warming and sealevel rise. 1985: Carl Sagan testifies on the “greenhouse effect” to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Sagan’s TV series and book Cosmos (1980) also explained to a broad audience how unchecked pollution could render the planet uninhabitable. 1987: Time magazine puts…

María Mendiluce believes that the uptake of clean energy is “unstoppable” at this juncture in history. The same could be said for her, a longtime climate and energy-transition advocate who is deeply invested in several organizations trying to speed up the netzero economy. That includes the We Mean Business Coalition, where she is CEO, and the Women Leading on Climate network, an international coalition she co-founded and launched at Climate Week NYC in 2024. With more than 25 years of experience in sustainable development, energy and climate, Mendiluce was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people on climate in 2023. Mendiluce spoke to Corporate Knights senior editor Natalie Alcoba from Geneva. What is the Women Leading on Climate initiative? María Mendiluce: In January last year when the COP…