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Why COP28 Matters for Business
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This week: Delta Air Lines' CSO talks climate action; stormy times for U.S. offshore wind; M.B.A. gender parity
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Amr Alfiky/Reuters
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Welcome back. There is one month to go to this year’s United Nations’ climate summit—roughly midway between the 2015 Paris climate accord and 2030, when we are meant to have halved global emissions to meet that agreement’s target. Meetings in Abu Dhabi this week to set the stage have done little to raise the rock-bottom expectations for this year’s climate summit. Particularly with heightened geopolitical tensions over the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
The climate fault lines are quite clear. The first is the standoff over agreeing to a phase-out of fossil fuels, not that surprising given the event is hosted in a petrostate and led by an oil-and-gas executive whose company has big expansion plans. Money is the second big, thorny issue: for the loss-and-damage fund agreed to last year, for the still-unfulfilled $100 billion-a-year promise to the developing world, and for investment in adaptation and resilience.
There is more support to target a tripling of investments in clean energy and doubling those in energy efficiency by 2030 as well as on making significant progress in cutting methane emissions this decade. Overall though, it seems likely to be a recipe for long nights and tense negotiations.
Why it matters
While it may feel remote or even irrelevant to many, gathering decision makers can sometimes lead to breakthroughs or new commitments and it also holds countries to public account. And in the backrooms of the summit, there will be negotiations on the detailed technical rules underlying things such as global carbon trading.
Beyond the politicians, COP also brings together corporate leaders across sectors and countries along with nonbusiness groups including nonprofits, youth campaigners, indigenous populations and philanthropists. Even the pope is making an appearance.
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Amelia DeLuca, Delta Air Lines’ chief sustainability officer
PHOTO: Rank Studios
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Delta Air Lines' sustainability chief Amelia DeLuca told WSJ Pro in a recent interview: “What I like about the COP is that all voices are at the table. From the business perspective, everyone is there for the same reason and you’re spending from dawn till dusk having conversations. Action is really important, but we do occasionally have to pause and really talk about it, to listen to each other and to challenge each other to do more.”
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Key takeaways
Decarbonizing is tricky, and while politicians may squabble and delay decisions, companies face rising scrutiny—from investors, customers, regulators and others—on how they plan to transition.
DeLuca puts it like this: “Two years ago, the net-zero commitments were made. Now, it’s becoming a business imperative and the conversation is really: How are you building this into your business? How are you making this economically viable? Only through having conversations with my peers can I better understand how to prepare Delta for the future.”
Tell me what you think: Send me your feedback and suggestions at rochelle.toplensky@wsj.com or reply to any newsletter. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up here.
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Content from: DELOITTE
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Nature: The Other Side of the Environmental Risk Coin
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Nature and biodiversity loss pose a looming and pervasive risk to many insurance companies, whose customers are grappling with fundamental changes and shocks to their business models. Keep Reading ›
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Like many large companies, Delta Air Lines has promised to be net zero by 2050, but unlike most other businesses, its biggest source of emissions is its own operations.
Amelia DeLuca, who was recently appointed Delta's sustainability chief, talked to WSJ Pro about the company's multistage approach to cutting its footprint, why the anti-ESG movement doesn’t make sense for an airline and how she is thinking about carbon offsets.
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Stormy Times for U.S. Offshore Wind
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Wayne Parry/Associated Press
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A wave of impairments is sweeping through the U.S. wind-energy sector amid high interest rates, inflation and supply-chain woes, forcing developers to put off projects and casting doubts over the industry’s outlook, writes Giulia Petroni.
Governments around the world have set ambitious targets to increase the share of renewables in their energy mixes, but their plans are now under pressure as wind developers face a surge in financing costs. Orsted, BP and Equinor have collectively written off $4.8 billion against U.S. offshore wind projects in recent days
Danish renewable giant Orsted booked a 28.4 billion Danish kroner ($4.02 billion) impairment charge in the third quarter related to its U.S. offshore wind portfolio and said it would stop development of two wind farm projects off the coast of New Jersey amid spiraling costs and supplier delays, writes Dominic Chopping.
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"Significant adverse developments necessitate that we, over the coming months, conclude our review of the U.S. offshore portfolio...We remain confident [in] the value creation of our portfolio of European and APAC [Asia Pacific] construction and development projects."
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— Mads Nipper Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Ørsted
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403,000
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New jobs from large-scale clean-energy projects announced in the first year of the Inflation Reduction Act, according to E2 advocacy group.
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Each week, we will share selections from WSJ Pro that provide insight and analysis. The articles are free for Wall Street Journal members.
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Layoffs, budget cuts and general skimping are putting pressure on cybersecurity teams, which are pausing hiring and tech investment.
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Wall Street firms are struggling to capture staff communications as regulators require while the ways employees talk to each other change.
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The collapse of one of the largest U.S. trucking companies is propping up competitors in a lean freight market.
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🎧 Listen to Ulta Beauty’s chief marketing officer discuss how the right price strategy can play into beauty consumers’ desire to experiment, even in an inflationary environment.
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Deep dive into the offshore wind industry's struggles (Financial Times)
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Largest U.S. offshore wind farm (yet) gets approval (NYT)
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Four best practices for using AI to reduce carbon emissions (Greenbiz)
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How the country's largest ferry system is going green (Axios)
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COP veteran Saleemul Huq’s final call for climate justice (Guardian)
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Operating data centers at a space temperature of 41°Celcius instead of the typical 22°C could provide 56% cooling-energy savings (Science)
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Philanthropic funding for climate-change mitigation was flat last year, after consistent growth in 2019, 2020 and 2021 (Climateworks)
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