Sustainability/ESG bulletin, Friday 27 January 2023 ​

 

In this week’s Sustainability/ESG bulletin, read about the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s webinar on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive this week. Also covered are new resources for managing waste in Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Irish Climate Tech Opportunity, reform of the EU’s electricity market design, a new European Environmental Agency report on recycling, EU actions on food security and eco-system resilience, a new free resource to help business with biodiversity data, and the launch of a global Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate, as well as articles, podcasts and events.

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Webinar on Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

Over 500 stakeholders, including members of the EU Commission, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), Chartered Accountants Ireland and officials from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) attended a webinar this week on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Presentations covered topics from the overall goal of the Directive, the Sustainability Reporting Standards, how businesses can prepare, and the transposition process. DETE is leading the transposition of the Directive and will shortly launch a public consultation on Member State options contained within the Directive.

New waste-related resources in Ireland and Northern Ireland

My Waste, Ireland’s official guide to waste, has produced a range of free materials on waste-segregation to make it as easy as possible for Irish businesses to segregate their waste. By implementing simple practices and actions, businesses can achieve better waste management, more effective recycling and even prevent waste being created in the first instance. Visit www.mywaste.ie/business/ for more.

In Northern Ireland, consumers will also be able to recycle their plastic and canned drink containers more easily through a new Deposit Return Scheme. The Scheme, which is set to be introduced in 2025, will incentivise people to recycle their drinks bottles and cans and redeem a small refundable deposit. DAERA is also introducing an Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme for packaging, which will mean packaging producers and manufactures will cover the costs of recycling and disposing of their packaging from 2024. This aims to drive higher collection and recycling rates of packaging, as it covers drinks containers not included in the Deposit Return Scheme, such as glass, cartons, or high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic, which is used for most fresh milk packaging.

The Irish Climate Tech Opportunity

SustainabilityWorks and PwC have published a report into ‘The Irish ClimateTech Opportunity 2023’. The report showcases 36 of Ireland’s innovative Climate Tech entrepreneurs whose solutions will help make net zero a reality. Climate Tech is defined as technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions or addressing the impact of climate change. Climate Tech companies are distributed across all industries, including energy, the built environment, food, agriculture and land use (FALU) and transport.

Reform of EU’s electricity market design

The European Commission has opened a public consultation on the reform of the European Union's electricity market design. The goal of the reform is to protect businesses and households from excessive price volatility, increase their resilience, and support their access to secure energy from clean sources. The consultation focuses on the four main areas of making electricity bills less dependent on short-term fossil fuel prices, and boosting the deployment of renewables; improving market functioning to ensure security of supply, and fully utilise alternatives to gas; enhancing consumer protection and empowerment; and improving market transparency, surveillance and integrity. The consultation will run until 13 February.

New report identifies market barriers to recycling – and how to overcome them

A European Environment Agency (EEA) assessment published this week has found that out of the eight most common recyclable products, only three -  aluminium, paper and glass -  have well-functioning secondary markets. The report, titled Investigating Europe′s secondary raw material markets', found that lack of standardisation and competition with new materials are among the market barriers for the five other most common recyclables, such as wood, plastics, biowaste and textiles. Options to overcome these barriers, identified in the report, include incentives to include recyclability into product design, strengthening recycling targets, increasing recycled content in new products, establishing technical standards for recycled materials and using taxes to level price competition with primary raw materials. Improving markets for recycled raw materials is key to delivering a circular economy in the EU, reducing the need to extract natural resources and avoiding the associated environmental impacts.

Food security and eco-system resilience

The European Commission is aiming to boost action on pollinators to tackle the serious decline in wild pollinating insects in Europe. This week it proposed a revised EU Pollinators Initiative to better restore and protect species and habitats, mitigate the impact of pesticides use and enhance pollinator habitats in urban areas. Among its priorities, the Commission and Member States aim to help citizens and business to act, for example by raising public awareness and supporting citizen science.

Free resources to help business help business with biodiversity data

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched a new tool to help companies and financial institutions identify and take action on biodiversity-related risks across their operations, value chains and investments. The tool – called the Biodiversity Risk Filter (BRF) - provides businesses with access to a single, free-to-use platform that brings together over 50 biodiversity-relevant data sets. The WWF is running a free webinar on 31 January to explain the BRF in greater detail.

Launch of Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate

The first Ministerial-level global forum dedicated to trade and climate and sustainable development issues launched last week.  The Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate aims to build partnerships between trade and climate communities to identify the ways in which trade policy can contribute to addressing climate change. Members include more than 50 ministers from 27 jurisdictions, and membership is open to all interested countries.  The four co-leads are Ecuador, the EU, Kenya, and New Zealand.  Civil society, business, international organisations and climate and finance communities will participate in the Coalition's work, which aims to foster global action to promote trade policies that can help address climate change through local and global initiatives.

Technical Roundup

From our colleagues in Professional Accountancy

The Chairperson of the European Banking Authority recently gave a speech on Financing transition to sustainability? What is the role of banking regulation? He said that the financial sector has an important role to play, both in terms of financing the transition to sustainability and for managing financial risks stemming from ESG factors. There was some discussion on the EBA roadmap which was adopted in December 2022 and that EBA are going to continue working to embed ESG considerations into their risk analysis and stress testing.

Professional Accountancy Education Europe (PAEE), which is a collaboration between European accountancy bodies striving to provide a high-quality education framework at international level have issued some Q&As which explain why it is vital to further develop sustainability awareness among accountancy and auditing professionals.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) have issued their January 2023 update and podcast. This discusses recent developments including the rollout and adoption of Sustainability Standards S1 and S2.

Articles

• IAASB Begins Work on Global Standards for ESG Assurance (ESG Investor)
• Athlone bus service going fully electric (RTE News)
• Electrical emissions reach highest level in over five years (Business Post)
• Global Low-Carbon Energy Technology Investment Surges Past $1 Trillion for the First Time (Bloomberg)

Podcasts

• High-Octane Capitalism Meets Climate Change: Chamath Palihapitiya says in Episode 24 of Zero: “There is going to be trillions of dollars of value that will be redistributed over the next decade or two.”

Events

• Launch Event – Biodiversity Risk Filter – World Wildlife Fund
  Jan 31, 2023 13:30, Dublin/London time
  This webinar introduces the Biodiversity Risk Filter tool - part of the WWF Risk Filter Suite -This project enables corporates and financial institutions to better understand and manage biodiversity-related risks and contribute to the development of nature-positive business models

• Resource Matching Workshop – Northern Ireland
  Hosted by Invest Northern Ireland's Resource Matching Service, a free in-person workshop from 9am–1pm on 22 February will allow businesses across Northern Ireland to find new, sustainable solutions to their waste resources and material needs, saving money and supporting Northern Ireland's green circular economy. (Find out more here.)

• Practical Steps for Reducing Energy Consumption webinar – Northern Ireland
  On Monday 13 February 2023 Invest NI will be hosting a free, online webinar specifically for NI businesses on Practical Steps for Reducing Energy Consumption. 10:30 to 11:30am

Jobs

Financial/Reporting Accountant for major energy provider in Ireland’s Energy/Sustainability/Renewables sector. Newly qualified ACAs can contact Dave Riordan, Careers Team, Chartered Accountants.

Network for Chartered Accountants working on ESG projects

Are you a Chartered Accountant working in ESG or working on ESG-related projects? Would you like an opportunity to engage with other Chartered Accountants working in this space to share insights, challenges and opportunities?

Chartered Accountant now has a network to allow members working in sustainability/ESG to meet and discuss all matters of interest re ESG and accounting.

• 3rd Wednesday of every month
• Next : 22 February, 2023
• 14.00-15.00/30
• Chartered Accountant House/Teams

If you would like to attend please email sustainability@charteredaccountants.ie