ESG and Of Interest News for the Past Year
How to manage AI's energy demand-today, tomorrow and in the future
April 25, 2024--The computational power required for sustaining AI's rise is doubling roughly every 100 days.
It is imperative that we balance the progression of AI with the imperatives of sustainability.
There are steps we can take immediately -and foundations that we can lay today that will pay dividends in the future- to manage AI and the green transition.
In an era where society stands in awe of the swift progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the environmental footprint of these advancements often remains overlooked. The significant ecological impacts of AI demand attention and action.
For AI to fulfill its transformative potential, offering unprecedented levels of productivity and enhancing societal well-being, it must evolve sustainably.
Central to this dilemma is the AI ecosystem's heavy energy demand, encompassing everything from hardware to training protocols and operational techniques.
AI and energy demand
Remarkably, the computational power required for sustaining AI's rise is doubling roughly every 100 days. To achieve a tenfold improvement in AI model efficiency, the computational power demand could surge by up to 10,000 times. The energy required to run AI tasks is already accelerating with an annual growth rate between 26% and 36%. This means by 2028, AI could be using more power than the entire country of Iceland used in 2021.
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Source: weforum.org
New Data Show Massive, Wider-than-Expected Global Gender Gap
March 4, 2024---Women enjoy just two-thirds of the legal rights that men enjoy
The global gender gap for women in the workplace is far wider than previously thought, a groundbreaking new World Bank Group report shows. When legal differences involving violence and childcare are taken into account, women enjoy fewer than two-thirds the rights of men.
No country provides equal opportunity for women-not even the wealthiest economies.
The latest Women, Business, and the Law report offers a comprehensive picture of the obstacles that women face in entering the global workforce and contributing to greater prosperity-for themselves, their families, and their communities. It expands the scope of its analysis, adding two indicators that can be critical in opening up or restricting women's options: safety from violence and access to childcare services. When those measures are included, women on average enjoy just 64% of the legal protections that men do-far fewer than the previous estimate of 77%.
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Source: worldbank.org
CBO-Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the Manufacturing Sector
February 28, 2024--CBO provides an overview of greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing sector, presents projections of future emissions, and explains how uncertainty about economic conditions, fuel prices, and technology affects those projections.
Summary
When producing goods, the manufacturing sector emits carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that cause global warming, both by burning fossil fuels and through certain industrial processes.
In this report, the Congressional Budget Office provides an overview of greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing sector, describes historical changes in the factors that determine those emissions, presents projections of future emissions, and explains key uncertainties surrounding those projections.
CBO estimates that the manufacturing sector was responsible for 12 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. About 75 percent of those emissions came from burning fuel to create heat, and the rest were by-products of industrial processes that transform materials into products.
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Source: CBO (Congressional Budget Office)
Landmark UN report: The world's migratory species of animals are in decline, and the global extinction risk is increasing
January 12, 2024-- The first-ever State of the World's Migratory Species report was launched today by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), a UN biodiversity treaty, at the opening of a major UN wildlife conservation conference (CMS COP14). The landmark report reveals:
While some migratory species listed under CMS are improving, nearly half (44 per cent) are showing population declines.
More than one-in-five (22 per cent) of CMS-listed species are threatened with extinction.
Nearly all (97 per cent) of CMS-listed fish are threatened with extinction.
The extinction risk is growing for migratory species globally, including those not listed under CMS.
Half (51 per cent) of Key Biodiversity Areas identified as important for CMS-listed migratory animals do not have protected status, and 58 per cent of the monitored sites recognized as being important for CMS-listed species are experiencing unsustainable levels of human-caused pressure.
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Source: unep.org
What You Need to Know About Blue Carbon
November 21, 2023---Carbon pricing critical for achieving climate objectives
What is "Blue Carbon"?
Blue Carbon is the term coined for carbon dioxide (CO2) stored in the world's coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrasses. It's called "Blue" Carbon because of its proximity to the ocean: it is stored mostly in the soil and silt up to 6 meters under the seabed.
Besides coastal Blue Carbon, there is also "deep sea carbon". Each type is measured using a specific methodology to understand its impacts and benefits. The World Bank Group focuses on coastal Blue Carbon, namely mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrasses, which come with accounting methodologies recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Additional habitats may be added in the future.
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Source: worldbank.org
Plastic Pollution Crisis Deepens Despite Global Efforts
November 21, 2023--Every year, humanity produces a staggering 430 million tonnes of plastic, two-thirds of which quickly becomes waste. This relentless tide of plastic is polluting our land, sea, and air, and it's increasingly finding its way into our food chain.
By 2060, experts estimate that global plastic production will surpass a staggering billion tonnes, further exacerbating this growing crisis.
The World Health Organization (WHO) paints a grim picture, revealing that less than 10% of the world's annual-plastic production is recycled. The situation is particularly alarming in Africa, where despite producing only 5% and consuming only 4% of the world's plastic, the continent is experiencing a surge in single-use plastic consumption, leading to heightened pollution and health concerns.
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Source: allafrica.com
Climate Equality: A planet for the 99%
November 20, 2023--Overview
The world faces twin crises of climate breakdown and runaway inequality. The richest people, corporations and countries are destroying the world with their huge carbon emissions. Meanwhile, people living in poverty, those experiencing marginalization, and countries in the Global South are those impacted the hardest.
Women and girls, Indigenous Peoples, people living in poverty and other groups experiencing discrimination are particularly at a disadvantage. The consequences of climate breakdown are felt in all parts of the world and by most people, yet only the richest people and countries have the wealth, power and influence to protect themselves. With that power comes huge responsibility.
If no action is taken, the richest will continue to burn through the carbon we have left to use while keeping the global temperature below the safe limit of 1.5℃, destroying any chance of ending poverty and ensuring equality. The world needs an equal transformation. Only a radical reduction in inequality, transformative climate action and fundamentally shifting our economic goals as a society can save our planet while ensuring wellbeing for all.
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Source: oxfam.org
IMF Working Papers-When Will Global Gender Gaps Close?
September 15, 2023--Summary:
On the current pace of reforms, global gender gaps are estimated to close, using deterministic (linear or log-linear) trends, over the next three centuries. This means that many women will likely not be able to fully use their abilities and talents, to the detriment of societies, for a long time. Yet this paper shows that, absent a significant step up in policy efforts, gender gaps may in fact never close.
Using Markov chains, a common approach in macroeconomics, this paper analyzes the dynamics of the cross-country distribution of the gender gap in labor force participation. This methodology does not impose strong restrictions on the data, allowing for episodes of progress as well as regress by countries on gender inequality. Based on the experience of the past three decades, the analysis predicts a further narrowing of gender gaps over time. But the long-run distribution of gender gaps in labor force participation features a substantial share of countries with persistently large gaps, implying that-absent a strengthened and systematic policy effort-some of the current misallocation of women's talents and abilities could persist perpetually.
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Source: imf.org
Droughts and Deficits-The Global Impacts of Droughts on Economic Growth
September 12, 2023--Across much of the world, water deficits are expected to become the new normal. With rising human populations and growing prosperity, water demand is growing exponentially.
Pollution, industrial development, agricultural intensification, land use change, and other damaging human activities are degrading and diminishing watersheds, rivers, and lakes.
The result is a water deficit, with stresses that will spread to new regions of the world and worsen in areas where water is already scarce.
Climate change is also expected to increase the risk of droughts and desertification in many at-risk regions of the world, particularly those with rapid population growth, vulnerable groups and food security challenges.
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Source: worldbank.org
Generational Shift: New Global Poll Reveals Large Minorities of Young People Lack Faith in Democracy to Deliver on Their Priorities
September 11, 2023--The Open Society Barometer, an annual global survey from the Open Society Foundations that launched today, finds that young people around the world (Generation Z and millennials) hold the least faith in democracy of any age group, presenting a grave threat to its future. Over a third (35 percent) of respondents in the 18-35 age group were supportive of a strong leader who does away with legislatures and elections.
The report, Open Society Barometer: Can Democracy Deliver?, finds that the concept of democracy remains widely popular across every region of the globe, with 86 percent saying that they would prefer to live in a democratic state. There is also widespread disbelief that authoritarian states can deliver more effectively than democracies on priorities both nationally and in global forums.
Topping the list of such priorities, people worry most about poverty and inequality (20 percent), climate change (20 percent), and corruption (18 percent). Potentially indicating a lack of faith that governments are addressing such needs, around a third of respondents on average distrust politicians to work in their best interests.
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Source: opensocietyfoundations.org
