SBTi Net Zero 2.0 & Strait of Hormuz: What Business Leaders Must Know Now

Hey, thanks so much for listening. I would love to be able to help you more on what it is that you are listening to and why you're listening to, to me. If you could click on the link in the show notes, that would be awesome because it will help me define what it is that we should be talking about on this podcast. Before we start, the US-Iran war may be ending, But here is what that means for your business right now. Oil prices crashed 5% overnight. Supply chains are still a mess. And the SBTi just dropped a new net-zero standard that changes how you report emissions. Stay to the end. Number 1 will be— will affect every listed business. So this week in sustainability, here are your top 10 stories. ranked by what the world is talking about most. Number 10, global rice production more than doubled. This is relevant for food and beverage supply chains tracking agricultural Scope 3 emissions. So the global rice production has risen from 296 million tons in 1961 to over 750 million today. Climate change has reduced the yields by 7%. But rising CO2 concentrations have boosted them by 30%. For food and beverage businesses, your agricultural supply base is already being reshaped. Growth is slowing, though. That trajectory will not continue indefinitely. We got this from Bloomberg Green, Daily and Semafor. Number 9: US tomato prices are up 40% in 3 months. This is directly relevant to food and beverage sector. So the climate volatility is now a food inflation driver. US tomato price rose approximately 40% between January and April 2026, the biggest 3-month increase since 2006. A freeze in Florida and drought in Mexico hit both supply regions simultaneously. For every 1 degree Celsius temperature anomaly, developing countries experience roughly 1% additional inflation within 3 months. This is happening in your supply chain right now. We got this from Bloomberg Green Daily. Number 8: The UK proposes dropping TCFD-based climate reporting for investment products. This is relevant for finance and listed organisations tracking the UK regulatory landscape. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has proposed removing TCFD-based climate reporting requirements from investment products. This does not mean climate risk is disappearing from reporting. It signals a transition to a new framework. Watch this space really carefully and closely, and do get in contact with us if you need any more information. Source: ESG Today. Number 7: CDP splits into 2 entities. This is relevant to all organisations using CDP for sustainability disclosure. CDP has split into a non-profit foundation and a commercial entity backed by private equity firm Permira. The number of reporting companies fell in 2025 for the first time in CDP's 25-year history. The commercial arm will expand global environmental disclosure services. This is a significant signal about the future of voluntary ESG reporting infrastructure. We got this from ESG Today and Trellis. Number 6: UK paved gardens are increasing flood risk. This is relevant for the real estate and food and beverage businesses with UK physical operations. The UK's Flood— —ry has flagged that garden paving is now one of the biggest predictors of surface water flooding. In England, permeable land fell by approximately 173,000 acres between 2001 and 2022. Cities dropped from 63% to 54% permeable in 2 decades. Surface water flooding is the fastest growing climate risk in the UK right now. We got this from Bloomberg Green Daily and Flood Re. Number 5, AI could unlock $600 billion in climate value. Relevant to all sectors, especially MMA clients with AI investments. A BCG Temasek report estimated AI could generate $600 billion in sustainability value by improving efficiency across industry. Energy grids and risk modeling. The US's largest wind farm, SunZia Wind Project in New Mexico, at 3.65 gigawatts, just opened, driven partly by surging AI data center electricity demand. The link between AI infrastructure and clean energy investment is becoming structural. The source for these are One Stop ESG and Semafor. Number 4, SBTi released new Corporate Net Zero Standard 2.0. Critical for all organizations with or seeking SBTi-validated targets, the Science Based Targets initiative has released its finalized updated Corporate Net Zero Standard. Key changes: separate goals now required for Scope 1, Scope 2 electricity and Scope 1 operations. Renewable energy certificates must match your consumption region. Scope 3 pathways expanded to include purchases of low-carbon products. If you have SBTi-validated targets, review them now. We'd be really happy to look at them. Sources for this is ESG Today, Trellis, and Eddy. Number 3: CBAM expands to downstream products. This is essential for any organisation importing or manufacturing metal-intensive products into the EU. The European Council has agreed to expand the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to cover forklifts, conveyor equipment, machinery parts, and electric motor components, beyond the original scope of steel, cement, and aluminium. CBAM entered into force at the start of 2026. Annual reviews will consider further expansion. The source of this is ESG Today and One Stop ESG. Number 2: UK chemical deregulation faces legal challenge. This is relevant to any UK business operating under environmental chemical regulations. The government plans to roll back UK environmental chemical rules and are facing a legal challenge described by critics as a deregulation dressed up as efficiency. Compliance risk is rising for listed organisations managing UK regulatory exposure. Watch this really closely. Source for this is ENDS Reports from Haymarket. And number 1: the US-Iran deal And the Strait of Hormuz, what it means for business. The most covered story this week, and the last week, and the week before, and pretty much every week since it started. And the biggest near-term risk for your global supply chains. This is something we've been really, really trying to get people to understand. The US and Iran signed a preliminary agreement to end 111 days of conflict. And reopen the Straits of Hormuz. Brent crude fell more than 5% to below $80 a barrel. Stock markets surged globally, but details remain disputed. And wait till one of my mind-blowing facts. Iran and the US are offering conflicting accounts on timelines and terms. Analysts warn it could take weeks or months for global oil and gas supplies to normalise. And the World Bank forecasts global growth slowing to 2.5% this year. The risk is not over. Plan for continued supply chain volatility for at least the next 60 days. Sources for this is Guardian, Sempfor, and Bloomberg. Top 3 mind-blowing environmental facts from this week. Iran cannot find the mines it laid in the Strait of Hormuz. Meaning, Even its own navy did not know where they were. International shipping companies face weeks of uncertainty before the strait is truly safe. Every 1 degree Celsius temperature anomaly causes approximately 1% additional inflation in developing countries within 3 months. Climate change is already a direct driver of global food prices and central bank decisions. And number 3, permeable land in English cities fell from 63% to 54% in just 2 decades. The UK is effectively turning its cities into concrete, increasing flood risk for millions of homes and businesses that have never flooded before. If you want to be a part of our network, please DM me or comment below. And do you know any CFOs in in mid-tier to large enterprise companies. If you do, I would be very, very happy if you could introduce me to them, please, because I know that we can definitely help them. Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.

Grab free access to Will's Substack while it lasts. Every week, we pull together the top sustainability stories from dozens of trusted sources, Then he breaks down the big issues facing business right now in plain, practical terms. Link in the description.