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The Sustainability Signal | |
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What changed. Why it matters. What to do about it. | |
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Issue #3 · Week of February 10, 2026 · 5 min read | |
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THE BIG STORY | |
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A Federal Court Just Killed the Anti-ESG Playbook — And 11 States Are on the Clock | |
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On 4 February, a U.S. federal court declared Texas Senate Bill 13 — the law that launched America's anti-ESG movement — unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Judge Alan Albright found that SB 13's definition of “boycotting” fossil fuels was so broad it swept in constitutionally protected speech, and so vague that key terms were undefined and unmeasurable. | |
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SB 13, enacted in 2021, forced state agencies to divest from financial companies on a “boycott” blacklist — which included BlackRock, HSBC, and BNP Paribas — and required vendors to certify they wouldn't boycott fossil fuels. Around 14 states followed with similar laws. | |
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Source: Simpson Thacher · Reuters · Texas Tribune | |
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AI x SUSTAINABILITY | |
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White House Pushes Big Tech Toward Data Centre Energy Pact | |
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The Trump administration is negotiating a voluntary compact with OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta on data centre energy, water, and community impacts. Under the draft agreement, AI developers would bear 100% of the cost of new power generation and sign long-term contracts to prevent costs shifting to consumers. | |
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The political pressure is real. Goldman Sachs warned this week that U.S. electricity prices jumped 6.9% in 2025 — more than double headline inflation. A Harvard Belfer Center paper estimates data centre electricity could reach 325-580 TWh by 2028 (up from 176 TWh in 2023), or 6.7-12.0% of total U.S. electricity. Meanwhile, three frontier AI models launched in two weeks — Claude Opus 4.6, GPT-5.3 Codex, and Gemini 3 Deep Think — and none disclosed training energy, water use, or carbon footprint. | |
KPMG Demands AI Fee Cuts From Its Own Auditor | |
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KPMG told Grant Thornton UK to cut audit fees because AI should make the work faster — and threatened to switch auditors. Result: a 14% fee reduction ($416K to $357K). The ESG angle: if AI is compressing financial audit costs, the same pressure is heading for sustainability assurance. CSRD's mandatory limited assurance is already live for wave 1 companies. AI could make assurance more affordable — or create a race to the bottom on quality. | |
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CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT | |
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IEA: Renewables and Nuclear to Hit 50% of Global Power by 2030 | |
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The IEA's Electricity 2026 report forecasts renewables and nuclear at half of global electricity by 2030, up from 42% today. Demand is growing 3.5%+ annually — the equivalent of adding two European Unions. Renewables are on track to overtake coal. But grid infrastructure is the bottleneck: 2,500 GW of projects stuck in connection queues, and grid investment must rise 50% by 2030. | |
TotalEnergies Signs 1 GW Solar PPA With Google | |
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TotalEnergies signed 15-year PPAs to deliver 1 GW of solar (28 TWh) to Google's Texas data centres — the oil major's largest-ever U.S. renewable deal. Combined with Clearway deals, TotalEnergies now influences 2.2 GW of Google's U.S. power supply. Oil majors powering AI with renewables: the corporate PPA market is where decarbonisation investment is actually flowing. | |
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REGULATORY & POLICY | |
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EU Bans Destruction of Unsold Clothing From July 2026 | |
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CORPORATE & FINANCE | |
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Deutsche Bank Issues First G-SIB European Green Bond | |
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Deutsche Bank raised EUR 500M through its inaugural bond under the new European Green Bond Standard — the first by a Global Systemically Important Bank. The bond refinances EU Taxonomy-compliant residential mortgages with ISS Corporate providing an independent SPO. The EU Green Bond Standard requires asset-level Taxonomy alignment — a step change from self-labelled green bonds. Access to ESG capital increasingly depends on regulatory-grade frameworks, not marketing claims. | |
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MARTIN'S TAKE | |
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That's the signal for this week. See you next Monday. | |
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