2024’ssustainabilitynewshighlights

2024 has been a whirlwind of climate action, corporate responsibility, and environmental challenges, to say the least!

From the landmark COP29 to the sobering reality of Earth Overshoot Day, this year has underscored the urgent need for a radical shift in our approach to sustainability. As the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) takes effect, businesses are increasingly accountable for their environmental and social impact. This year also saw the SBTi grapple with the controversial issue of carbon offsetting, while the UK marked a historic moment by phasing out coal power.

Despite the fact that we’re still navigating some turbulent times, there’s plenty of positives to celebrate too.

Find our lowdown on what’s been going on in 2024 here:

📋CSRD has entered the building! The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive brings sustainability in line with financial reporting, enabling better understanding of an organisation’s ESG impact. This year marked the start of applying the new rules for some large companies, as part of a phased roll out. Want to know when your company needs to get involved? Read this explainer!

🌊 The SBTi’s made waves around offsets – news of a potential shift in policy announced in April in relation to allowing offsetting caused quite the stir; many saw this as a ‘betrayal‘ of SBTi’s founding principles and have condemned this approach. The SBTi will now decide next year whether corporates can use carbon offsetting to a greater extent to meet their targets…

📆 1st August was Earth Overshoot Day – this date marks when our demand on nature’s resources surpasses Earth’s capacity to regenerate them. This Overshoot Day has held steady for a decade, but remains early in the year, occurring just after 7 months of the year have passed. The remainder of the year we live from overuse, further depleting our planet faster than it can recover.

🪨We said farewell to coal in the UK – our 142 year history of coal-fired power ended on the 30th September, making us the girst G7 nation to stop using coal power. In fact, 2024 is set to be the first full year where  renewables – wind, solar and hydropower – generate more electricity than fossil fuels!

🌍COP29 November takeover – this year’s climate change conference was certainly a bumpy ride, and sadly didn’t end in resounding success to say the least. Check out these 5 key takeaways or if you’re after something more in depth, check out Carbon Brief’s article here.

🏞️ But have you heard of CBD COP16? We need to wake up to the fact that valuable habitats are vanishing across the world, and up to a million species are facing extinction. There’s been a jaw dropping 73% decline in wildlife populations since 1970. So keep an eye out for the UN’s Biodiversity Conference; you can find out more about it here and what this meant for the UK.

💸 The Autumn budget – we’ve all heard about this one! But the question is, did it deliver for the environment? The freeze on fuel duty would suggest otherwise and there’s mixed reactions around  the funding for carbon capture, usage and storage. Some other key climate and energy announcements are also helpfully summarised here!

🔥The hottest year on record, and not in a good way – 2024 is on track to be first year to exceed 1.5C of warming above pre-industrial temperatures, with scientists claiming that it is “virtually certain” that 2024 will be the hottest recorded year. Despite countries having signed up to the Paris Agreement, pledging to reach “net zero” in coming decades, there isn’t much sign of this actually being pulled off…

🩺 Earth’s 2024 checkup, how are we feeling? the answer, we could be better! It was revealed that six out of nine of our crucial planetary boundaries have been exceeded. This health check is run by the most comprehensive, science-based global initiative dedicated to investigating Earth’s systems, so we better pay more attention to these Earth doctors!

♻️ What about wonderful world of waste?! Well we saw the Simpler Recycling policy update which will come into play in next year, aiming to make recycling easier for people in England. The government also confirmed that single use vapes will be banned in England and Wales in June 2025. Defra estimates almost five million single-use vapes were either littered or thrown into general waste each week last year!