Cross-border bank Standard Chartered has announced the successful closing of a six-year US$235 million non-recourse senior secured-term green-loan facility to fund the development, construction, and operation of a 1.35 million square foot solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing plant in Texas. The funding will go to global renewables company Trina Solar – headquartered in the Chinese province of Jiangsu, and with subsidiaries across the US, Europe and Asia. Standard Chartered was the sole lead structuring bank and bookrunner for the financing and acted as green loan coordinator, as well as a joint lead arranger, lender, and hedge counterparty. The transaction is one of the first solar panel manufacturing facilities to be financed on a non-recourse basis in the US. The new manufacturing plant will include seven solar PV panel assembly lines, producing three types of solar modules for utility-scale, commercial and industrial, and residential-scale solar – with a total output of 5 gigawatts direct current per year. Standard Chartered said the project would help improve the country’s renewable energy mix and transition to cleaner energy, while bringing 1,500 new local jobs. “In addition to boosting job creation locally in Texas, this new solar panel plant will strengthen Trinasolar US’s leading position in the local solar market,” said Sridhar Nagarajan, Regional Head of Project Export Finance for Europe and Americas at Standard Chartered. “This project … allows us to bring to life our commitment to working with clients towards net zero using our ability to provide comprehensive, innovative, and bespoke sustainable financing solutions.” The financing followed a US$250 million syndicated green loan for Trinasolar in 2022, which supported electricity generation using solar PV technology.

Carbon-free ammonia production could grow by as much as 30 times its current levels by 2030, accounting for 13% of global supply, according to BloombergNEF (BNEF). Today, just 1.1 million tonnes of clean ammonia – tipped to be an important clean energy source of the future – are produced per year. But this could rise to 32.4 million by the end of the decade, the report found. North America, China and the Middle East will be the key producers of the gas, which can be used as a fuel for shipping and as a vector to transport hydrogen around the world. However, these uses are theoretical at this stage, and today ammonia is predominantly used in fertiliser and explosives. The conventional production method involves extracting hydrogen from natural gas, then mixing the hydrogen with nitrogen drawn from the atmosphere. While ammonia itself contains no carbon, the process of extracting hydrogen from natural gas produces CO2 as a byproduct. There are two solutions to this, BNEF said: either capturing the CO2 emissions using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology – known as ‘blue ammonia’ – or manufacturing hydrogen from water using renewable energy – known as ‘green ammonia’. BNEF predicted blue ammonia would dominate this decade. “However, global policy support is stronger for green, which could overtake blue from 2030,” it said.

Research provider Fitch Ratings has predicted that ESG sukuk issuance will decrease in the third quarter of this year, in line with global sukuk market seasonality. The market will likely regain momentum towards the end of the year and early 2025, Fitch Ratings said. Global outstanding ESG sukuk rose by 41% year-on-year (yoy) to reach US$43 billion at the end of H1 2024, with issuance seeing a 13% yoy increase in core Islamic markets to reach US$6.3 billion. Meanwhile, ESG bonds issuance declined by 34% yoy to US$7.8 billion. “Almost all (99%) of Fitch-rated ESG sukuk are investment-grade, with issuers on stable outlooks,” said Bashar Al Natoor, Global Head of Islamic Finance at Fitch Ratings. “The promising medium-term potential for ESG debt issuance is fuelled by governments’ increasing commitment to sustainability, and issuers’ aims to meet ESG mandates and funding diversification plans.” However, the ESG debt segment is still at a nascent stage compared to more developed markets, Al Natoor noted.

The UK has been listed as the most common location for migrant worker abuse in 2024 so far by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. New analysis from the centre revealed more than 40 cases of abuse in the first six months of the year, impacting migrant workers from India, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Ecuador, Spain, Indonesia, Nigeria and nine other countries. Large multinational companies of the likes of Amazon, Deliveroo, security provider ISS, Meta and Uber Eats were also linked to such allegations – alongside multiple private healthcare companies and well-known UK-headquartered companies, including Cotswold Outdoors, Deliveroo, Footasylum, HSBC, JD Sports, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer’s, Next, Schroders and Sports Direct. “UK brands have responsibility to respect migrant workers’ rights throughout their global supply chains,” said Isobel Archer, Labour and Migration Senior Researcher at the BHRRC. “As mandatory human rights due diligence laws become the norm, UK companies will find they can no longer turn a blind eye to abuse happening overseas – but they should already be taking action to address abuses in sectors and geographies where workers are most at risk.” Where allegations of abuse are brought to light, brands with the most leverage and resources must act swiftly to investigate and remedy direct abuse to workers, Archer added. Over 40% of cases (17) recorded by the BHRRC were linked to the UK’s health and social care sector, increasingly propped up with labour sourced from countries in the Global South – whose nationals reported being charged extortionate and illegal recruitment fees and being subjected to sexual harassment, extremely long hours, wage theft and abuse on arrival. Meanwhile, 14 cases (14%) were linked to agriculture and fishing, as the Seasonal Worker Scheme continues to be linked to unfair recruitment, and poor working and living conditions –  including by UN experts, the BHRRC argued. Several cases of abuse were also reported by hotel and restaurant staff (5), and cleaning and maintenance workers (5).

There is no valid rationale for the California state government’s decision to delay compulsory climate reporting, and the original timeline should be reinstated, Carbon Accountable has argued in a new report. California had originally planned to require reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from 2026 under the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (CA SB 253). The law requires companies with over US$1 billion in revenue that do business in California to report their Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. But in June this year, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed amending the legislation to delay roll-out by two years, claiming the original deadlines were “likely infeasible”. In the report, Carbon Accountable – a data policy initiative that played a key role in designing CA SB 253 – detailed how the original timeline could be achieved. Commitment to simplicity, transparency, and a limited compliance burden, would all make the original rollout “eminently achievable”, it said. “This report clearly shows that the governor’s office – with its request for a two-year delay for implementing the law – grossly overstates the work required by the ARB [Air Resources Board] to develop the necessary regulations and prepare for timely reporting,” said Catherine Atkin, Co-founder of Carbon Accountable and lead author of the report. “We are out of time, we have to move with the urgency that the climate crisis demands.”

Global insured losses from natural catastrophes reached US$60 billion in the first half of 2024 – 62% above the ten-year average – highlighting a ramp-up in climate-related impacts. Severe thunderstorms that largely occurred in the US accounted for 70% of these losses, according to Swiss Re Institute’s preliminary estimates. “In recent years, severe thunderstorms have emerged as a main driver of a significant increase in insured losses,” said Balz Grollimund, Head of Catastrophe Perils at Swiss Re. “This is due to growing populations and higher property values in urban areas, along with insured properties being more vulnerable to hail damage.” Twelve storms in the US caused losses of US$1 billion or more. Swiss Re Institute’s research showed that insured losses from such weather events in the US have increased by around 8% in nominal terms annually since 2008. Floods have also caused above-average losses across the UAE, Germany and Brazil, with heavy rainfall expected to increase in a warmer climate and flooding becoming more common due to swift urban growth, land-use alteration, scarce drainage systems, and dry soils. “Investing in protective measures – such as shielding vulnerable communities from floods or improving building codes to protect homes from severe hailstorms – is vital,” said Jérôme Jean Haegeli, Swiss Re’s Group Chief Economist.