On 9 September, in Brussels, former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi presented his report on the “The future of European competitiveness”. The document outlines the challenges that EU businesses face in being both productive and environmentally friendly. The Draghi report had been much anticipated and, following its launch, has generated intense debate among the range of stakeholders – especially on whether Europe’s ambitious climate targets and related policies are hindering EU economic growth. Planet Tracker and Carbon Tracker have identified four major points of discussion.

Planet Tracker’s landmark new analysis examines the link between countries’ dependence on natural resource exports, their sovereign credit ratings and their resilience to global economic shocks.

The United Nations (UN) 2023 Water Conference in New York from 22 to 24 March 2023 will be the first UN Conference to focus strictly on water since 1977. It builds on the momentum generated by frameworks such as the Paris Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework. Commonly traded food products consume vastly different amounts of water. This blog examines how much water major food products require and exposes this hidden trade network. For example, cocoa beans consume 100 times as much total water as sugar crops. Beef, the most water-intensive animal derived product, consumes about 3 to 4 times more than chicken or pork.

A number of the short-term risks identified in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2023 include climate change threats such as a failure to mitigate climate change (ranked 4th) and a failure of climate change adaptation (ranked 7th). The omission of biodiversity loss from this list implies a lack of understanding of the interdependence of climate and nature and an absence of urgency – or Biocrastination..

Although biodiversity loss has begun to capture international attention, there is an apparent absence of urgency.

Deforestation regulation in the EU is likely to be adopted in the next 12 months requiring EU importers to confirm that cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, wood and derived products are deforestation-free. This Regulation asks a major question of importing corporates as to whether they have traceability within their supply chains and has the potential to disrupt corporates which do not have traceability and responsible sourcing embedded within their supply chain.

Next month, formal negotiations will start on a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution. Although there appears to be little disagreement about the pervasiveness of plastic pollution, how to resolve this will prove problematic. Who should take responsibility for the present situation and how should this influence future responsibilities?

This report highlights the danger posed to the Brazilian economy from deforestation-driven regional climate change, and outlines what the financial services industry can and should be doing about it.

With natural capital and biodiversity rising up the global agenda, Planet Tracker examines countries’ dependence on nature and the implications for financial markets.

Proponents of digital fashion suggest that it offers one potential answer to how to move the fashion industry to a more sustainable footing. This blog considers what digital fashion means and why we do not expect it to reduce the need for the industry to make significant structural changes if it is to move to a sustainable footing.