Day: 27 January 2025

Businesses can unlock a nature-positive economy with an enabling policy framework from government

Stuart Mitchell

A new briefing launched recently by the Aldersgate Group calls on the government to align policy and regulation to enable business action that can unlock the economic and ecological potential of a nature-positive economy. The UK stands at a pivotal moment for nature recovery. Bold leadership, clear frameworks and collaborative efforts are required to drive a transition from ambition to tangible delivery. Nature is vital to the economy, with 55% of global GDP moderately or highly dependent on it.[i] However, successive UK governments have struggled to progress towards legally-binding environmental…

Read More

Investors shun long-term ESG rewards in quest for short-term gains

Stuart Mitchell

A blinkered view of climate change and sustainability has taken hold across the world’s investor community and is fueling a focus on short-term performance at the expense of longer-term gains from environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments, according to the latest EY Institutional Investor Survey. The survey, now in in its 11th year, canvasses the views of 350 key decision-makers from investment firms around the world – including asset managers, wealth managers, insurers and pension funds – and explores the extent to which they are building sustainability into their investment…

Read More

Next-generation datacenters consume zero water for cooling

Stuart Mitchell

This summer, Microsoft released their Datacenter Community Pledge, detailing their commitment to the local economies and communities in which we operate our datacenters. Protecting local watersheds is an important part of this pledge—especially in areas where water stress is growing.   Beginning in August 2024, Microsoft launched a new datacenter design that optimizes AI workloads and consumes zero water for cooling. By adopting chip-level cooling solutions, we can deliver precise temperature control without water evaporation. While water is still used for administrative purposes like restrooms and kitchens, this design will avoid…

Read More

UK’s energy professionals welcome Government’s early actions but fear “delivery gap” ahead

Stuart Mitchell

New independent research into the views of the UK’s energy professional community has been published recently, raising concerns that progress towards decarbonisation commitments will become significantly more challenging. The Energy Barometer is the Energy Institute’s annual state-of-the-nation member survey designed to inform the public debate about energy and provide an expert sense check on government policy. This year’s report, UK Power Shift, is a retrospective look at the decade since the survey started and, looking forward, the first comprehensive assessment by those working across all areas of energy since power…

Read More

UK sees surge in the demand for green skills despite overall job market decline – PwC Green Jobs Barometer

Stuart Mitchell

The latest PwC Green Jobs Barometer reveals a surge in green job adverts across the UK, reflecting a growing demand for green skills despite a 22.5% contraction in the overall job market. Now in its fourth year, the Barometer tracks the movement in green jobs creation, job loss, carbon intensity of employment, and worker sentiment across regions and sectors. It finds that the share of green job adverts as a proportion of total job adverts increased to 3.3% in 2024 – up from 2.3% in 2023 – adding nearly 23,000…

Read More