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Presented by TSMC: | | | | | |  | | By Lorraine Woellert and Catherine Boudreau | Presented by TSMC | | | | | 
Yes, but is it union-made? | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | CLIMATE VS. JOBS — President Joe Biden wants to put an electric vehicle in every driveway. But he‘s also promised to deliver to unions and the middle class. Those agendas are now colliding in Washington, where Democrats want unionized automakers — General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler parent Stellantis — to get a leg up on tax incentives for electric vehicles. Critics, including non-unionized automakers, say attaching too many strings to clean-car tax credits undermines Biden’s goal for electric vehicles to account for half of new car sales by 2030. “To state the obvious, an EV made by autoworkers who choose to unionize does not make that vehicle any better for the environment,” Toyota Motor Corp. executives told House leaders. But it’s not just about climate. It’s about quality jobs, said United Auto Workers President Ray Curry. Union shops account for less than half the U.S. auto market. “We welcome all other auto companies to unionize and give U.S. workers the same union voice as they have in every other country where they build autos,” he said. Here’s the math. House and Senate Democrats want to maintain the current $7,500 tax credit for EV purchasers. The House would add another $4,500 if the vehicle was assembled in the U.S. at union plants. The tax breaks won’t be available to the wealthiest Americans under the House plan. The Senate has proposed an extra $2,500 for union-assembled vehicles and a $2,500 bonus for those made domestically. Some EV market leaders say nickel-and-diming tax credits could hurt climate goals. “If we want to drive adoption, we need a widely accessible tax credit,” said Joe Britton, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, which counts Tesla Inc. and Rivian among its members. “This isn’t about the driver and who should get the goodies. This is about reducing emissions, spurring economic development and improving public health.” Where are the environmentalists? The blue-green political alliance between factory workers and environmentalists seems to be holding strong. The Sierra Club and Plug In America, a nonprofit group that represents EV owners, are among groups that have endorsed the House bill. Researchers at the nonpartisan Rhodium Group estimate that EVs could account for 61 percent of new car sales by 2030 under Democrats' budget and infrastructure bills, well above Biden’s goal. FWIW, that study was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the ClimateWorks Foundation and the Heising-Simons Foundation, all big players in climate activism. Check out the full story from Catherine and tell us what you think. In today’s news: Honda Motor Co. expects its entire suite of vehicles to be zero emission in North America by 2040. But it said those targets are contingent on “fair and equitable access” to state and federal EV tax credits. | | | | A message from TSMC: TSMC, the world’s leading semiconductor technology and service provider, continues to advance semiconductor manufacturing process technologies to enable next-generation silicon design. In 2020, the Company unleashed 11,617 IC innovations for over 500 global innovators successfully. TSMC also helps the world conserve 4kWh of energy for every 1kWh spent in production. On September 16, TSMC marked the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer with a commitment to reach net zero by 2050. | | | | | | It’s Climate Week NYC, an annual confab that coincides with the U.N. General Assembly in New York City. It’s a dazzling show but so far the most important audience — big polluters — aren’t impressed. Read on and send your thoughts to lwoellert@politico.com and cboudreau@politico.com. Check us out on Twitter @ceboudreau and @Woellert. FOMO? Sign up for The Long Game. A big thank you to Shayna Greene, Karl Mathiesen, Zack Colman and Zachary Warmbrodt for their help today.
| | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | | THIS ISN’T GOING WELL — Climate Week has taken on a whiff of desperation. The collection of events — celebrity appearances, scientific briefings, demonstrations, data dumps, spectacle and pledges designed to prod government action — is a bigger deal than usual this year given the stakes. But the cheery announcements flooding our inboxes belie the pessimism behind the scenes. On Friday, the U.N. released a gloomy update of national climate plans and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned of catastrophe. On Monday, Guterres and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson gathered world leaders to drive home the message that wealthy economies need to ramp up funding to help developing countries transition to net-zero. But the big emitters were truants. China, India and the U.S. skipped the meeting. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen showed up, though. Most of the attendees were from vulnerable countries with little power, such as Bangladesh, Colombia and small island states. $100 billion a year. That’s what major economies promised to pony up by 2020. As of 2019 they’d mobilized only $79.6 billion. Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Biden said the U.S. would provide more than $11 billion a year beginning in 2024 to assist poorer countries vulnerable to rising temperatures. But he didn’t say how he plans to convince Congress to increase aid from the current $5.7 billion commitment. U.S. frugality on climate aid has been a major obstacle to securing ambitious action in Glasgow, Scotland. Extracting promises. India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will meet with Biden this week, has said rich countries need to make good on their promises before India does more. Researchers have found several ways India could reach net zero by 2070.
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Want to chat up lawmakers? Try Slack. | Gabrielle Lurie/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images | Salesforce Inc., the $26 billion company behind Slack, Tableau and other brands, on Tuesday said it will achieve net-zero emissions across its entire value chain this year. The software platform, which helps some 150,000 companies — think names like 3M Co. and Geico — manage customer service and maximize sales, has long been a leader in climate activism. Now comes the next big step: Helping other companies follow the Salesforce lead. Lorraine spoke to Salesforce Chief Sustainability Officer Patrick Flynn. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For any company to get to net zero, its vendors have to play ball. How’d you do it? We notified them that, effective immediately, climate would be part of all standard purchasing agreements. Believe it or not, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We haven’t heard any stories of suppliers that are put off by it. Now you’ve built a dashboard to help your customers track emissions, collaborate with suppliers and buy carbon offsets. Your customer wants you to take climate action, that’s whether you sell T-shirts or you’re Salesforce. How can you purchase carbon credits, how can you engage in policy matters, how can you engage with your suppliers and customers? We, as a company that specializes in business transformation, need to help all of our customers transform through the pressures of climate change. And a new Slack tool seeks to influence politics by making it easier for business leaders to organize policy sign-on letters. We’re going to bring our voice together and communicate to Congress or the president or the G-20 that climate matters to us. Right now, that’s done with a flurry of emails and back-channel communications. It needs to be brought to a single place. It’s a massive streamlining of that effort. It’s also a way to make money, right? There’s demand for these tools, and you’ve called business the biggest platform for change. Truly and deeply, from the very top down, from Day One to today, there’s not any separation from our values and creating value. Improving the state of the world and helping our customers through the challenges they face, building tools to solve society’s problems, that’s all good for business at the end of the day. Salesforce has endorsed climate provisions in the reconciliation bill, but do you support the social welfare provisions? We’re willing to take the pay-fors related to the climate pieces. | | | |   | | | | | | | A message from TSMC: As a responsible corporate citizen, TSMC strives to adapt to climate change and mitigate climate impact to protect our shared global environment.
“TSMC is deeply aware that climate change has a severe impact on the environment and humanity. As a world-leading semiconductor company, TSMC must shoulder its corporate responsibility to face the challenge of climate change,” said Dr. Mark Liu, Chairman of TSMC. “In addition to becoming the world’s first semiconductor company to join RE100, this year we have answered the call to action on net zero and published our TCFD report, aiming to broaden our green influence and drive the industry towards low-carbon sustainability.
To achieve its goal of net zero by 2050, TSMC has set the short-term goals of zero emissions growth by 2025, and reducing emissions to year 2020 levels by 2030.
Click to read TSMC’s TCFD Report! | | |
| | | If a tree takes root, does everybody breathe easier? Maybe, but it will take a lot of trees. Billions, maybe trillions of trees. Ahead of the November climate summit, everyone is pledging to plant trees. It feels good — who’s anti-tree? — but it’s not enough. House Republicans learned that last year when they introduced the Trillion Trees Act , which scientists and environmental experts quickly panned as “a false solution” (Translation: greenwashing). To get a sense of why that is, here’s how many trees cities would need to plant for every 1,000 people, every year, to offset emissions at their current levels.
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| | | | HEAT — Extreme heat kills more Americans than any other climate-related hazard. Yet there are no federal safety standards for people working under punishing temperatures at farms, construction sites, factories and warehouses. That’s about to change. The Biden administration on Monday said it will draft enforceable rules to protect workers after hundreds of people died this summer amid record-breaking heat and wildfires. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration spent decades ignoring the advice of federal health officials and worker safety advocates, an investigation by POLITICO and E&E News found. Heat killed 815 workers from 1992 to 2017 and seriously injured 70,000 more. Those are the official numbers, but the totals almost certainly are higher. FLOODS — If you’re among the 5 million or so households that have flood insurance, you probably can thank FEMA, the federal disaster agency that stands behind most flood policies. For nearly a decade, Congress has struggled with how to raise premiums to reflect growing risk without throwing the housing market into a tailspin. Now, finally, FEMA has a plan to revamp rates beginning Oct. 1. The change will end the longtime practice of charging average homeowners too much and owners of high-value (think beachfront) properties too little. About a million homeowners, or 23 percent of policyholders, will pay lower rates. About 4 percent will see increases of $20 or more per month. But wait. Lobbying to postpone the fix — again — has picked up steam. This time, however, FEMA has a powerful ally on its side for the first time. The National Association of Realtors, one of Washington’s most influential trade groups, supports the agency’s timeline.
| | | | TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: Do you listen to POLITICO podcasts? We want to hear from you! Tell us what you like, what you could do without, and what you want to see in the future from the POLITICO Audio team! Your responses will help us improve our offerings and tailor our podcast content to better fit your needs. Find the survey here. | | | | | | | | DIVERSITY — State securities regulators and their counterparts in Canada and Mexico on Monday adopted a diversity, equity and inclusion platform. This is important. In short, regulators across the continent have lined up behind Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler. The agency is drafting a plan to require companies to disclose climate risk and is expected to tackle corporate diversity next. Already it’s being sued after it allowed the Nasdaq stock exchange to impose diversity standards on corporate boards. Grab the popcorn. The North American Securities Administrators Association is led by Lisa Hopkins, West Virginia’s senior deputy commissioner of securities, who praised the group’s announcement as “a positive and necessary step.” Meanwhile, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is leading the fight against environmental, social and governance regulation at the SEC, which he says should stay away from politics and “stick to its core mission.”
| | | — The value of U.S. plastic shipments fell in 2020, despite increased demand for the stuff. In its annual report, the Plastics Industry Association said shipments fell to $334 billion from $432 billion in 2019, before the pandemic. Shortages of materials and workers will slow plastics growth this year and next, the trade group said. — Pot enters the water wars. Illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts, adding to the strain of the West’s drought, the Associated Press reports. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
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