Welcome back. As week two of the U.N. climate conference kicked off in Egypt, the biggest break in negotiations seems to have come from nearly 6,000 miles away in Bali. Monday’s meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to have opened the way for their climate envoys to start working together again, reversing the split caused by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

Detailed climate negotiations in Egypt have been bogged down. Traditionally, negotiators would have already been haggling over the nitty-gritty of the end-of-summit “cover decision,” which broadly sets out this COP’s economic, environmental and political goals. The rough draft only appeared late Monday.

So far the draft includes mentions of the goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, renewable-energy commitments, doubling funding to help developing countries adapt to climate change, and some sort of loss and damage support. A phase-down of fossil-fuels use is notably absent, adding to concerns about COP27's relative embrace of oil and gas producers. Tuesday is Energy Day, so we will see what that has in store.

G-20 Breakthrough in Bali

As evidenced by the Biden-Xi meeting, additional momentum on climate talks might come from Bali, where the leaders of the G-20—the European Union and 19 large developing and industrial economies—are meeting today and Wednesday. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for them to break the “dramatic geopolitical divides” in order to keep the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive. More than 200 business and civil society leaders publicly asked for the same.

The G-20 agenda is packed, but gathering most of the leaders of the globe’s biggest economies in one place (Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t coming) does create the opportunity for some type of breakthrough.

Efforts in Egypt

Back at COP27, other parties have launched a host of specific initiatives. Germany and the V20 group of climate-vulnerable nations unveiled the Global Shield on Monday, a G-7-backed initiative with about $219 million in funding that will provide quick insurance and protection funding after climate-related disasters. It adds to the so-called loss-and-damage funding but much more is needed and hoped for.

Brazil, Indonesia and Congo launched a long-discussed partnership to gather funding to protect their forests. The three countries are home to around half of the world’s tropical rainforests, a crucial store of carbon and biodiversity. Brazil’s recently elected president, Luiz Inácio da Silva, may also have a trick up his sleeve when he speaks at COP27 later this week.

Indonesia has agreed to a $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership to speed its shift from coal, reducing peak emissions and hitting peak by 2030, seven years sooner than current projections. It is modeled on South Africa’s $8.5 billion deal that was reached last year in Glasgow, which got off to a rocky start. Some of those concerns are meant to be fixed in Indonesia’s plan. More JET-Ps are in the works.

Back to Business

Companies are also getting in on climate action. Top executives from more than 100 companies called on governments to act quickly and decisively to support climate action.

Big fashion brands are using their purchasing power to back the scaling up of more sustainable fibers (see more below). The 65 companies in the Early Movers Coalition have also promised to buy $12 billion in low-carbon products and services to foster innovative new suppliers in hard-to-abate sectors like cement and long-haul transport.

Among all the gloomy reports of the failure to do enough, a new bottom-up examination of key decarbonization trends gives a rare glimmer of hope. The report says on-the-ground trends in decarbonization—including renewable installation, electric-vehicle purchases and clean-energy investment—make it likely that emissions will fall faster than promised in China, the EU and India, according to the nonprofit Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit. The other top 4 emitter, the U.S., shows promising momentum as well. 

This time round: Fashionable recycled fibers; Storage

Owners of fashion brands H&M, Zara, Gucci and Stella McCartney were among companies that have promised to buy 550,000 metric tons of fibers made from agricultural residues and recycled materials to make textiles and packaging, writes Dieter Holger.

The move comes as fashion's carbon footprint has fallen under increasing scrutiny and the sector also faces new regulation.

The planned purchases are only a small part of the companies' total output, but it is an example of an emerging trend of business using purchasing to help foster low-carbon innovation in their suppliers.  

“The fashion industry has been a very linear industry where we take things from the ground, we make something out of them, and sooner or later they become waste,” said Cecilia Strömblad Brännsten, head of resource use and circular impact at H&M Group. “The whole fashion system needs to become circular.”

The intermittency of renewables has long been a challenge, but energy storage is coming along in leaps and bounds.

Energy conglomerate Koch Industries has emerged as one of the biggest investors in batteries, a marked turnaround from its emphasis on fossil fuels. Incentives in the U.S. climate-and-healthcare bill this year have sped up its plans to build a giant factory making batteries primarily for power storage in Georgia in partnership with Norwegian company Freyr.

Another part of the intermittency solution for the U.S electric system is asking industrial customers and households to curb their use during peak times to help avoid blackouts. Meanwhile, some EV owners have discovered that their vehicles can be used as a source of backup power during blackouts.

Elsewhere around the globe, companies' abandoned pits of old mines are getting a new lease on life as pumped-storage hydropower.

Car and truck makers are considering a lower-cost battery type with less driving range in their race to build more affordable electric vehicles.

Deep geothermal promises to let drillers go deeper, faster and hotter.

Solar panels get a beauty makeover.

The U.S. men’s soccer team unveiled a rainbow crest that the team will use to promote its inclusivity campaign for parts of Qatar World Cup.

Tips to keep your flexibility even if your boss is over hybrid working.

Climate action challenge is growing as world population passes 8 billion people. (Reuters)

Some ways that the world can change agriculture to sustianably feed 8 billion people. (Guardian)

Five charts exploring the world's failure to deliver on climate action.(Bloomberg)

How Nepal grew back its forests. (New York Times)

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