We bring you another overview of the latest news in the field of ESG, CSR, sustainability and responsibility. The selection of news is prepared for MediaGuru.cz by Markéta Pavlíková, Head of Sustainable Solutions Fuse/OMG.
Selected information from the Czech Republic
- Our standard of living and the average wage have increased significantly during our membership in the EU, which in 2004 was one third of the European average, today it is two thirds. So far, we have received two trillion crowns from the EU budget, while the Czech Republic has paid 876.6 billion crowns to the EU budget. The Czech Republic's foreign trade surplus with EU countries has increased more than fourfold in the last twenty years. Germany remains our main trading partner, according to data from the Czech Statistical Office.
- 68% of sports fans support green energy and nearly seven in ten young fans (16-24 years old) want to see sports venues do more for sustainability. Waste analyses of the Sport Without Waste pilot showed that up to 90% of municipal waste from stands and facilities could be sorted. Four clubs were involved in the project - Zbrojovka Brno, Sigma Olomouc, FK Pardubice and FK Teplice. UEFA has committed to achieving zero emissions by 2040. The Bundesliga will include the sustainability criterion among the conditions for the award of a professional licence. The Premier League ranks all 20 clubs based on their environmental efforts in the form of a Sustainability Ranking.
- In the Czech Republic, an initiative is underway to create legislation that could significantly reduce the often illegal advertising media. Its initiators are convinced that the country is overwhelmed by visual smog. According to a study by the Prague City Council last year, 80% of billboards violate some kind of regulation. According to the platform nelegalnireklama.cz, there are up to 14,000 of them across the Czech Republic.
- The CEZ group released its 2023 Sustainability Report, which showed that the company is greening up. There has been a 12% year-on-year reduction in direct greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to a saving of around 2.2 million tonnes of CO₂e.
- KB Group released its Sustainable Business Report for 2023.
- Skoda Auto has published the ESG Report for 2023, its first ever sustainability report. In 2023, the company managed, among other things, to reduce water consumption per car at its Czech plants by 37.7% compared to 2010, and energy consumption by 38.8% over the same period.
- According to its 2021/2022 report, Lidl is landfilling just 3% of its waste, with over ¾ going to recycling and 17% to anaerobic digestion, which produces biogas. The chain remains on target to reduce operational emissions by 80% by 2030 compared to 2019 and to completely phase out the sale of cage eggs by mid-decade at the latest.
- TV Nova is offering its business partners advertising space in BAFTA-certified international Albert programmes.
Selected World News
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of the world's climate scientists, predicts that the internationally agreed 1.5 degrees of warming will be exceeded. A survey by the British newspaper The Guardian shows that 77% of 380 scientists surveyed believe global temperatures will rise by at least 2.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times. The prediction states that a 2°C warming will double the amount of direct damage caused by floods worldwide. If it warms by 2.7 °C, two billion people will be forced to leave their homes. In the event of a 3°C increase, cities such as Shanghai, Rio de Janiero, Miami and The Hague will flood.
In Island, the world's largest extraction plant to remove CO₂ from the air has started operation. The Mammoth purifier from Climeworks is capable of removing up to 36,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the air. The captured carbon travels underground, where it reacts naturally with basalt rock and remains there permanently, CSRD.cz reports. - A-CSR notes that 40% of Generation Z respondents surveyed plan to change jobs or industries due to climate-related concerns. Half of them report that they and their colleagues are putting pressure on their employers to take action on climate change. Data from the Gen Z and Millennial Survey released by Deloitte showed.
- Scientists at Washington University wonder whether spraying sea salt into clouds can cool the planet. A machine they are testing in California may give them the answer, A-CSR reports.
- Emissions from the Russian invasion of Ukraine are, according to the most comprehensive study yet of any war, roughly 175 million tons of CO2e, equivalent to the annual consumption of 90 million cars. A sharp increase in emissions in Ukraine could cost Russia $32 billion in additional reparations. The UN General Assembly has decided that Russia should pay the reparations.
- According to a PwC report, more than 70% of the critical minerals needed for the transition to net zero emissions are at risk from climate change, according to A-CSR.
- Disappearing ice may be redrawing the map of the internet cables lying on the ocean floor and carrying most international data traffic. There is therefore a new 14,500-km-long cable that ice floes have made way for.
- The Church of England has a bishop for the environment. The Vatican installed photovoltaic panels back in 2008. This church state wants to be the world's first ever carbon neutral state. Last year it announced a programme to "green" its fleet of cars, and by 2030 it wants to replace all cars with electric ones. The Czech Republic's St Peter's Basilica is also undergoing a carbon intensity analysis.
- Since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, just 57 corporate and state-owned manufacturers using fossil fuels are responsible for 80% of CO₂ emissions. Most have expanded production in the years since the Agreement. That's according to a new report from InfluenceMap.
- The chairman of Ad Net Zero unveiled new emissions measurement standards for TV, digital and OOH at the Cannes Lions festival, with print, radio and cinema to follow shortly.
Source: mediaguru.cz
