Today’s ESG Updates
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- Heathrow Expansion Clashes With UK Climate Targets: Britain’s climate advisers say the government cannot expand Heathrow Airport while meeting its 2050 net-zero goal unless airlines are legally required to address all their emissions.
- Indonesia’s Wildfire Haze Sickens Millions on Borneo: Indonesia is fighting its worst wildfires in 11 years, driven by a “super El Niño,” with over 12.5 million people exposed to haze and respiratory illness cases more than doubling to over 113,000 in just over a week.
- ICE Backs AI Carbon Certification Startup: Intercontinental Exchange has joined Isometric’s Series A, pushing the round to $50 million and total funding to $75 million, as the AI-powered certifier expands from carbon removal into industrial emissions, energy and materials.
- NYC Opens 9/11 Records After Years of Legal Battle: New York City has launched a public portal with over 170,000 pages of documents revealing what officials allegedly knew about toxic air quality near Ground Zero, settling a multi-year lawsuit and committing $34 million to maintain the archive.
Heathrow expansion incompatible with UK climate goals
Britain’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) said that there is no credible pathway for Heathrow Airport’s expansion under current policies. At the same time, the UK can still meet its 2050 net-zero target unless airlines are made fully responsible for their emissions. The advice came at the government’s request, after Labor backed a £64 billion third runway at Heathrow in 2025 on economic-growth grounds.
CCC Chair Nigel Topping said the government cannot expand Heathrow without requiring the aviation sector to clean up its emissions, and the committee urged legislation that would force airlines to address all emissions by 2050 through sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or engineered carbon removal. SAF still makes up less than 1% of global jet fuel use and remains far costlier than conventional fuel, while global carbon removals total under 2 million metric tons to date.
The CCC also called for a 25-year net-zero aviation strategy and contingency planning in case key technologies underdeliver. The Department for Transport said it will review the advice.
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Indonesia wildfires choke Borneo, increasing respiratory illness cases
Indonesia is battling its worst wildfires in 11 years, worsened by a “super El Niño” which has driven up temperatures and drought across Borneo and Sumatra. According to health ministry data, more than 12.5 million people across seven provinces have been exposed to the resulting haze, with respiratory illness cases more than doubling to 113,336 by September 9, up from 50,891 on September 1.
In West Kalimantan’s capital, Pontianak, residents describe worsening breathing problems, and volunteers are distributing oxygen cylinders door-to-door through a campaign called “Rumah Oksigen” (Oxygen House). Air quality has also deteriorated in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia due to transboundary smog.
The EU’s Copernicus climate monitoring service reported Indonesia’s emissions hit 19.7 million metric tons in the week to September 7 — more than a third of the global total. Fires have burned through 202,000 hectares this year, with environmental group YKAN estimating 600,000 more hectares damaged in August alone.
Related Articles
Here is a list of articles selected by our Editorial Board that have gained significant interest from the public:
Isometric raises $50 million as ICE backs carbon certification
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), operator of the New York Stock Exchange, has joined Isometric’s Series A round, bringing it to $50 million and pushing the certification platform’s total funding to $75 million since its seed round.
Isometric uses an AI-powered platform, Certify, alongside independent verifiers to validate sustainability claims, cutting certification timelines from months to hours, the company says. Originally built around carbon removal, Isometric has been contracted to certify more than 16 million tonnes, making it the largest certifier globally by contracted volume. Its scope has since expanded into industrial emissions, energy, fuels and materials, with over 200 projects now using its infrastructure, including customers like Microsoft, Anglo American, Boeing and JPMorgan Chase.
ICE brings decades of experience running financial, energy, and environmental markets. The partnership signals a broader shift: as capital flows into data centers, clean energy, and industrial decarbonisation, verified sustainability data is becoming financial infrastructure in its own right.
NYC’s 9/11 transparency portal reveals officials concealed air quality risks
New York City has released a public portal containing over 170,000 pages of documents on post-9/11 environmental hazards. This reveals what city officials allegedly knew about toxic air quality and health risks near Ground Zero. Launched September 8 under Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration, the portal includes contamination records, internal memos, and inter-agency correspondence showing officials may have prematurely told residents and workers it was safe to return, exposing them to asbestos and other toxins.
The release settles a multi-year lawsuit by 9/11 Health Watch, which sought the “Harding Memo”—an internal 2001 warning to then-Deputy Mayor Robert Harding estimating up to 10,000 potential legal claims tied to hazardous air exposure. A May court ruling called the city’s earlier refusal to release records “arbitrary and capricious,” prompting the settlement.
Mamdani said the city owes survivors and first responders “transparency and accountability” and confirmed that $34 million was allocated for the portal, which will continue to be updated as more documents are reviewed.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — Cover Photo Credit: Harrison Lugard
