Impact in numbers

50,000

The Spanish government has approved a plan to use Sareb, the ‘bad bank’ established in 2012 in response to the financial crisis, to create up to 50,000 units of public housing to be let at affordable rents as a solution to the soaring cost of property.

The plan involves the acquisition of 21,000 vacant homes from Sareb and transferring them to regional governments as public housing. In addition, 14,000 occupied homes will receive social rent programmes, and the government will construct 15,000 homes on land owned by Sareb.

Spain has one of the lowest levels of public housing in the EU, at 3%, but the government is aiming to own 20% of the country’s housing stock within 20 years, which would put it on par with countries like Austria and Denmark and surpass the EU average of 9%.

Germans prefer green jobs

Younger generations in Germany are showing a preference for jobs with a green impact over occupations in industries or companies that don’t seek to improve the environment, according to research by Markus Janser, senior researcher at the Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung in Nuremberg. Research also shows that the shortage of qualified workers means wages tend to be higher in these jobs.

30 million

The adoption of clean energy technologies will create 14 million jobs by 2030, and a further 16 million in other areas of the green economy, such as retrofitting buildings and manufacturing green vehicles, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA warns that the 5 million people who will lose jobs in the fossil fuel industry will not have the skills to swap into new, greener opportunities.

700

The Center for Climate Integrity in the US asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to define the term ‘net zero’, arguing that more than 700 companies have announced net-zero targets without a clear standard for what that means.

The FTC is changing its Green Guides for the first time in a decade. These are a set of standards for companies making environmental claims and have been increasingly cited in class actions challenging greenwashing.

62%

European Union members approved a deal to reform the carbon market to cut emissions by 62% from 2005 levels by 2030, designed to deliver the EU’s emissions-cutting targets. The EU Parliament had already approved the deal, so the policy will now pass into law.