Kicking 2025 Off With A Bang
And a bit of spice
Happy new year Honey Droppers. I hope you have had/are having a wonderful break, are back up to full battery charge and excited for the coming 12 months ahead.
Welcome to the 16th edition of Honey Drops, as we take stock of the push and pull factors Sustainability is facing, Australia’s place in this complex world of ours, and a quick reminder of our ABCs.
Feel free to forward this on to anyone you think would benefit from a drop on their toast, a stir in their tea or a boost to their start of the year.
Three Thoughts From Me:
1. The Real Economy Has Overtaken Geopolitics
Who else would we start with for Honey Drop’s 2025 other than Christiana Figueres, speaking at The Climate Pledge Summit in September:
"The direction on decarbonisation is set not by geopolitics anymore, because the real economy has taken over and has set a direction that is not going to be reversed."
The Signal (The Real Economy) > The Noise (Geopolitics):
In 2023, businesses invested almost twice as much in renewables vs. fossil fuels.
Renewables are now the cheaper energy source in 82% of the world’s economy.
New electric cars now make up 20% of all cars sold globally.
2024 was a record for democratic elections around the world, with more than half the global population voting in national polls. As we approach an election cycle here in Australia, there are many lessons from 2024 of what to expect from a populist, anti-climate contender and the messaging required to defeat such a challenger (being proactive with a coherent economic message encompassing cost of living, jobs, and immigration would be a good place to start).
Thankfully, Christiana Figueres’ message illustrates that no matter the political outcome, the heavy lifting is already being done across the global economy as Sustainability-first practices quickly become the international ticket to play.
Unfortunately, Australia is at a distinct disadvantage in this race to net zero. Firstly, we are the third largest exporter of fossil fuels globally, the same energy sources being phased down over the coming decades. And secondly, according to Harvard’s The Atlas of Economic Complexity, we’re now ranked 102nd out of 145 countries for economic complexity, down from our ranking of 62nd as Y2K came and went. This places us behind Uganda, Bangladesh and Senegal and just above Yemen, Ghana and Malawi.
Thankfully, we’ve definitely maximised our tax revenue opportunities from our heady export base and definitely haven’t given local and international energy firms a free ride on a non-renewable resource without setting ourselves up for generations, à la Norway.
The latest edition of The Atlas has forecasted:
“Australia is less complex than expected for its income level. As a result, its economy is projected to grow slowly. The Growth Lab's 2031 Growth Projections foresee growth in Australia of 1.7% annually over the coming decade, ranking in the bottom half of countries globally.”
It seems like ‘She’ll be right mate’ is no longer fit for purpose as we hit the quarter mark of this century and the leading nations double down on their post-carbon economies.
More so than ever before, the commercial sector now shoulders the responsibility for turning our long-term fortunes around.
You can se the below in more detail here.
2. ABC, It’s As Easy As ESG
I enjoyed reading this from Bas van de Griendt, sailing through the alphabet soup of Sustainability to the core of the mission:
A: Avoid Harm
B: Benefit to Stakeholders
C: Contribute to Solutions
Simples. He has a nice sign off as well.
3. Well, That’s A Dying Pipeline
Good news from your favourite 37 democracies, aka the OECD:
“The number of new coal plants under development in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) region has reached record lows since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015” according to Carbon Brief.
How much of a record? With only five proposals for new mine sites across all 37 countries, some strong market signals are being emitted by the sector regarding the long-term financial viability of their operations. According to Global Energy Monitor’s Global Coal Plant Tracker, this is a 96% drop in proposals from 2015, when there were 142.
While there is still opportunities for short-term profits, clearly investors, insurers and governments are moving onto the net zero energy sources needed for decarbonisation.
The Real Economy > Geopolitics. Signal > Noise.
2 Quotes From Others:
Chinese writer and literary critic Lu Xun on the power of hope:
"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."
Epigrams of Lusin (via James Clear via Dylan O'Sullivan)
Say it, Superman:
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”
Christopher Reeves
1 Thing For You To Ponder
No doubt you have seen the horrific images coming out of L.A. over the past 48 hours. I can’t remember a city being overwhelmed by flames like this. Embers blown three kilometres ahead of the fire front by the 150km/h Santa Ana winds and causing such destruction. The firefighting effort described as ‘trying to fight a fire inside a hurricane’. This in the month that has traditionally been LA’s wettest period of the year yet has only received 0.4cm of rain since October.
Jamie Lee Curtis telling it straight on Jimmy Kimmel overnight, “It's fucking… gnarly, dude. It's a catastrophe. It's the market I shop at, the schools my kids go to. Many, many, many, many people have now lost their homes.”
Valencia, Florida, Kathmandu, Durban. The recent climate news has been bleak, the impact to people directly affected severe and wide-reaching from floods, hurricanes, bushfires and droughts. Also, expensive. For governments, insurers, home owners, supply chains, local businesses and communities. Many Australians have our own experiences with such events.
Without a doubt, the next few years are going to be bumpy, uncertain and volatile. But there has also never been so many people working to rectify the situation, and this number will only continue to grow. Workers are changing jobs and leaving companies for roles where they can play a role, customers are voting with their wallets to purchase from companies committed to net zero operations.
If we wait until the worst has happened before we create change, we’ll be coming from a fair way back. Embrace your abilities, do what you can, and keep fightin’ the good fight, just like Tom LeBonge.
Credit: Dan Leverington, Hollywood Hills. The impact of Tom LeBonge’s legacy continues to expand to now include saving 500 acres of potential housing development from going up in flames this week.