Chocolate shock for Valentine's Day

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♻️ This week’s sustainability news

Climate change drives increased cost of chocolate

What’s happening: People expressing their love on Valentine’s Day by gifting chocolate may have been in for a shock at how much it costs. Two reports released on Wednesday found that rising temperatures are making it harder to grow cacao in the main countries that supply it, especially during the main harvest seasons. Four West African countries are the base of an industry valued at over $100 billion. In Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria, cacao trees grow pods filled with seeds. After being picked, these beans are dried, roasted, and turned into a product loved all over the world.

Why it’s happening: Around 70% of the world's cacao comes from West Africa, mainly from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria. Most of the remaining cacao is grown in other warm, humid places near the equator, like Indonesia and Ecuador. Cacao trees thrive in rainforest conditions with lots of rain, rich soil, and protection from strong winds. If temperatures go above 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the trees can suffer from water stress, which can slow their growth and reduce the quality and amount of cacao they produce. Last year, warmer temperatures caused at least six extra weeks of hot days in almost two-thirds of the areas where cacao is grown in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria. This likely led to a poor harvest, as reported by Climate Central.

Why it’s important: Last year, droughts, floods, and plant diseases in the region led to record cocoa prices. This made chocolate more expensive, as reported by the nonprofit Christian Aid, which focuses on sustainable development and economic fairness. Worldwide cocoa production dropped by about 14 percent in the 2023-24 season. Before Valentine’s Day last year, cocoa prices on the futures market hit their highest level in 47 years. Federal Reserve data suggests that global cocoa prices rose 144 percent in December, more than doubling from the year before. As a result, many chocolate makers have had to change their approach. Companies like Mars and Hershey have started using less cocoa or creating new products without it. With prices going up, experts think people will buy less chocolate in the future, even on Valentine’s Day.

📖 Read the full article: Why chocolate is ridiculously expensive right now

Growing global security threats due to climate change

What’s happening: A report from the German federal government this week points out increasing global climate security risks. These include political instability in different countries, threats to food supply, conflicts over resources like water, and the possibility of unregulated geo-engineering projects.

Why it’s happening: The National Interdisciplinary Climate Risk Assessment was created by a group of independent think tanks, climate research institutes, and the German Federal Intelligence Service. Germany is only the second country, after the United States, to request a detailed study on climate and security. The 2022 US Framework for Climate Resilience and Security stated that the "climate crisis is a serious threat to American lives and interests, affecting political, military, economic, environmental, and social stability."

Why it’s important: Climate is a key part of Germany's national security plan and will be a major topic at the upcoming Munich Security Conference. At this event, European security officials who care about climate issues will meet with their US counterparts for the first time since the election of a US president who does not believe in climate change. The Trump administration has stopped considering climate change a national security issue by revoking the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.

📖 Read the full article: New German government report highlights growing climate security risks

Data centres prolong use of coal power plants in the US

What’s happening: Southern Company, one of the biggest electric utility companies in the US, announced three years ago that it would shut down most of its coal power plants in the next few years. This is an important move towards their goal of having no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Southern's utility companies, which operate the coal plants to supply electricity to homes and businesses, supported the announcement by getting permission from state regulators to shut down the coal plants. However, the utility companies are now changing their plans. They claim they need to handle a huge increase in electricity demand, mainly from big buildings full of computer servers. These servers support heavy online activities like generative artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency, and are called data centres. As a result, they want to keep some coal plants running longer, even though they were supposed to be shut down because of their heavy pollution and running costs.

Why it’s happening: In its latest plan, Georgia Power, a part of Southern Company, predicts that by the winter of 2030-31, electricity demand will increase by 8,200 megawatts. This is more than three times the output of the new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, which cost over $30 billion to build. To handle this growth, Georgia Power wants to upgrade current nuclear plants, add more renewable energy, and improve the power grid while also keeping their coal power plants open for longer than planned.

Why it’s important: This trend is happening across the US. The data centre industry is growing rapidly in places like Virginia, Texas, and Oregon. In response, energy companies are either building new fossil fuel plants or keeping old ones running longer. Over 9,000 MW of fossil fuel power that was supposed to close is being kept open longer, and more than 10,800 MW of new fossil fuel power is being planned, according to the Frontier Group. When Georgia Power asked to close most of its coal plants by 2028, it wasn't just to cut emissions. The company found that keeping the plants open was too costly. One big reason was the expense of updating old plants to meet new federal emissions rules. However, the future of this rule is now unclear. Last year, the Supreme Court allowed the rule to be enforced while states and power companies challenge it in court. When he was running for president, Donald Trump promised to get rid of the rule. Environmental supporters applauded the closure of coal plants, but are now upset that some are reopening because of the many harmful effects of burning coal for electricity. It releases pollution into the air, which can hurt people's health and worsen climate change. It also produces coal ash, a leftover material that can be dangerous if it leaks into groundwater. Usually, the expenses for cleaning up and storing coal ash end up being paid by customers.

📖 Read the the full article: Georgia was about to retire coal plants. Then came the data centres.

😇 People doing great things

Super Bowl sorting!

Making big events more sustainable: Osprey Initiative, a local recycling organisation which sorts waste at premier events, was hard at work manually sorting all of the recyclable material collected from Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. Bags of items were collected from behind the bars at the Super Bowl, from recycling stations around the stadium, and by team members picking up recyclables at the stadium after the event. Specially designed tables were used to sort every single item into each type of recyclable material. With these processes, all the collected items can be properly recycled. This includes all the glass, which is being recycled locally at Glass Half Full and turned into sand and cullet for coastal restoration and bottle manufacturing. In addition to their partnership with Osprey Initiative for the Super Bowl, Glass Half Full collects tens of thousands of pounds of glass each week from landfills. The sand produced from this glass is used to benefit the environment and their local community.

⭐️ Weekly inspiration

Indigenous Amazon tribe recovering from illegal mining

The Yanomami tribe sees hope return: Two years after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva became president and started an emergency plan to help people in Brazil's largest Indigenous area, hunger and infant death rates are decreasing after hundreds of troops and health workers are reversing damage caused by tens of thousands of illegal miners.

World-first lab-grown meat for pets launches in the UK

20% of meat produced globally is eaten by our pets: Consumers in the UK can now purchase a pet treat from Meatly, a London startup, containing plant-based ingredients and 4% lab-grown chicken meat, resulting in a smaller environmental impact with less land and water, fewer carbon emissions, and not killing chickens.

The world’s first kangaroo embryo produced through IVF

Sparks hope for marsupial conservation: Scientists at the University of Queensland used a technique known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, which could be applied to help preserve endangered marsupial species like koalas, Tasmanian devils, northern hairy-nosed wombats and Leadbeater’s possums.

Fish are thriving again in the river Seine in Paris

For years, the waterway was nearly biologically dead: The number of fish species in the Seine River has almost tripled since 1990, mainly because urban wastewater treatment has improved and better quality water is now being released into the river, according to French officials.

Solar and battery storage number one in Texas last year

Now one of the leading states in the US for renewable energy: Last year, Texas added about 1,500 megawatts of battery storage to its electricity grid in 2023 with this number almost tripling to 4,374 megawatts in 2024, while solar power also grew from 4,570 megawatts added in 2023 compared to nearly 9,700 megawatts in 2024.

Biggest solar cell factory now online in the US

Located in South Carolina: At over 400,000 square feet in size, the factory is expected to be able to ship 3 gigawatts (GW) worth of products by the third quarter of 2025, making it an important part of the domestic solar supply chain while also hiring about 500 local workers by June 2025.

The world's smallest otter appears in Nepal

For the first time in 185 years: The Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus), the smallest of the world’s 13 known otter species, is classified as vulnerable to extinction and was last recorded by scientists in Nepal in 1839; its range stretches from Indonesia in the east to Nepal in the west.

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