10 Worlds That Shook This Day: 10 Different Worlds Shaken to Their Foundations by Events Taking Place around the World and within the Circular Economy

May 27, 2021

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... Things move faster these days, and in the past 24 hours, we’ve had 10 different Worlds shaken to their foundations by events taking place around the world and within the Circular Economy.

1. United States announced as Chair of multilateral Biofuture Platform

In Brazil, the United States is in line to become the next chair of the Biofuture Platform, a multi-stakeholder initiative facilitated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) created to take action on climate change by promoting international coordination of the sustainable low-carbon bioeconomy. The US will take over from incumbent chair, Brazil, in June 2021.

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2. Renewable fuels activists elected to Exxon board in sustainability takeover, takedown

In New York, shareholders of ExxonMobil elected to the corporate board at least two members of a slate of directors put forward by a coalition of environmentalists and circular economy advocates, in an effort to turn Exxon towards a more aggressive path of energy transition to renewables. Among those elected are former Neste EVP Kaisa Hietala, who was a member of the executive team of the Finnish energy giant when it pivoted from an oil & gas focus to renewables.

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Eight candidates backed by Exxon management including CEO Darren Woods were elected, and results for the final two seats are still unclear.

3. Bowery Farming Secures $300M in Series C Funding

In New York, words arrived that Bowery Farming, a vertical farming company, raised a whopping $300 million in its Series C funding round, bringing the total raised by the company to $472 million. It’s the biggest capital raise for an indoor farming company yet recorded.

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4. Active Energy Group to Build 2nd U.S. CoalSwitch plant

In Maine, Active Energy Group designated Ashland, Maine as the location for its second CoalSwitch production facility. AEG has partnered with Player Design to complete the facility which, at scale, could produce up to 35,000 tons of CoalSwitch per year. CoalSwitch is a “drop-in” biomass feedstock that can co-fire with coal or replace up to 100 percent of the coal in power stations without requiring plant modification.

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5. Kula Bio Raises $10M to Advance Sustainable Agriculture

In Massachusetts, Kula Bio closed a $10 million seed round. The round was led by Collaborative Fund with participation from prominent environmental funds, including The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, and the Grantham Environmental Trust’s Neglected Climate Opportunities Fund.

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6. Renewable investments top $2 trillion, says WSJ

Marking what was described by Dominion Energy as a “tipping point,” the Wall Street Journal reported that environmentally-focused investment funds overall assets have climbed to more than $2 trillion, more than tripling since 2018, the newspaper said. And, JP Morgan said in April that it would earmarked $2.5 trillion for investment in ESG-related businesses by 2031, and Bank of America said it would add $1.5 trillion to that total by 2030.

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9. Superbrewed Food raises $45 million to date, emerges from stealth with new name, target

In Delaware, the old White Dog Labs has disappeared into stealth, shifted targets and re-emerged with a new focus and name: Superbrewed Food.

The company said that its naturally-brewed microbial protein — created by the same anaerobic fermentation process used to make beer, yogurt, and even kimchi —delivers quality, affordable nutrition that is highly nutritious, allergen-free, non-GMO, affordable and versatile.

10. The Biofuture Policy Blueprint

Back at the Biofuture Platform’s annual Summit, the organization also launched its Policy Blueprint, which aims to accelerate the growth of the sustainable bioeconomy by providing countries with the methodologies, tools, and practical guidance to evaluate and improve the impacts and effectiveness of their bioenergy and bioeconomy policies. Critical examples of successful deployment of bioenergy policies featured in the Blueprint include:

• Brazil’s RenovaBio initiative which has accelerated the overall use and production of biofuels in an effort to reduce carbon emissions from transport by 10% over a ten-year period.

• The United States’ Renewable Fuel Standard which established a blending quota for biofuels and provides financial support through the creation of tradeable certificates helping to drive adoption of bioenergy.

• The Netherlands adopting a draft target for biofuels and other renewable fuels of 27.1% for 2030, significantly higher than the EU target of 14% renewables across transportation.

The Biofuture Platform backstory READ MORE

Chevron shareholders back emissions cut proposal (The Hill)

Climate advocates win seats on Exxon's board (The Hill)

ExxonMobil Loses At Least Two Board Seats In Shareholder Election (Our Daily Planet)

Engine No. 1’s Exxon Win Provides Boost for ESG Advocates (Bloomberg)

Dutch court orders Shell to slash its emissions by 45 percent by 2030 (The Hill)

Big oil's climate reckoning ... OIL MAJORS' ROUGH DAY: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Investors and Courts Send Powerful Wake-Up Call to Oil Giants Exxon, Chevron, and Shell (Sierra Club)

Exxon, Shell, and Chevron suffer major setbacks as climate concerns cause power shift (MSNBC; includes VIDEO)

20-Year Texas Oil Subsidy Quietly Dies as Legislative Session Ends (Our Daily Planet)

The Day The Energy World Changed (Forbes)

Fossil fuels are definitively the new tobacco (The Hill)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: OIL MAJORS' ROUGH DAY: Three oil supermajors — Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell — suffered rebukes on climate change on Wednesday in what experts say could be a major inflection point for the industry.

At Exxon Mobil, at least two of activist shareholder group Engine No. 1’s dissenter candidates managed to secure spots on the board of directors at the company’s annual shareholders meeting Wednesday. Shareholders also approved two transparency measures on the company’s lobbying that Exxon leadership had opposed.

Over at Chevron's annual meeting, a majority of shareholders backed a resolution requiring the company to reduce the emissions caused by the oil and gas it sells, the so-called scope 3 emissions, over the opposition of the company’s board.

And a Dutch court ordered Shell to reduce its CO2 emissions, including those from its suppliers and customers, by a net 45 percent by the end of 2030 compared to 2019 levels (Shell plans to appeal the decision), saying the company's efforts to reduce its greenhouse gases were too modest.

“This is one of those days that will be seen in retrospect as when everything changed, or at least the beginning of a period when everything changes and a time when investors seem to have run out of patience with this sector,” Andrew Logan, senior director of oil and gas at Ceres, told reporters Wednesday.

Companies in high-emitting sectors are already making moves to respond to growing calls for climate change mitigation. Ford announced Wednesday that it is aiming for 40 percent of its vehicles to be all electric by 2030 and will raise electrification spending to over $30 billion by 2025. Citi, Goldman Sachs, ING, Société Générale, Standard Chartered and UniCredit — major lenders to steel producers — are all announcing today that they are working toward a finance agreement to decarbonize the steel industry. And Canada's Suncor Energy is vowing to be net-zero by 2050.

But Wednesday’s vote at Exxon highlights the power activist investors now wield, though two new board seats won’t necessarily create too much of a near-term practical impact on the company's operations, Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov told Pro’s Ben Lefebvre. But it’s a moment that will “reverberate around board rooms,” with momentum growing for "investors behaving like owners," said Anne Simpson, chair of the Climate Action 100+ steering committee. READ MORE

Excerpt from MSNBC: Bill McKibben, a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, talks with Rachel Maddow about three huge oil companies, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron Corp losing major climate change court cases or being forced by shareholders to address climate concerns. READ MORE