The greenwashing threat

The world is close to overshooting 1.5C warming and leaving a key objective of the 2015 Paris Agreement in the ash heap of unfulfilled climate promises. The threshold, and avoiding breaching it, has been a shorthand for success at every climate summit since, including the one happening right now in Egypt. Though many have written off the number as unachievable in the face of insufficient political will and overabundant corporate greed, the United Nations is still pushing the principles established 7 years ago. In particular, the private sector’s propensity to seek profit by pretending to fight environmental destruction, or greenwashing, has come in for special criticism in Sharm el-Sheikh. A UN panel suggested mandatory reductions in emissions for companies to save the planet from its deadly future. But who will enforce such measures is another question. Among corporations, “a critical mass” of commitments to net zero has been achieved, the panel said. Now it’s time to “zoom in on the quality and implementation of plans.” —Margaret Sutherlin

Europe is racing to fill the gap left by Russian gas, but emerging nations like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand are the ones who will suffer as they are forced to compete on energy prices with economies several times their size. It’s all leaving the world’s poorest countries facing shutdowns, blackouts and social unrest. And while this winter isn’t looking great in Europe, at least gas reserves are full and the forecast is mild. It’s what happens next winter, and thereafter, that should have every country on the continent shivering with fear.

As voting winds down in the US midterms, the world is watching to see whether the Democratic Party retains control of some or all of Congress. Republicans have sought to blame President Joe Biden for inflation many economists say has more to do with supply chain issues and Russia’s war. Matt Winkler writes in Bloomberg Opinion that Biden’s economic record is actually an enviable one. “The history of more than a dozen measures of relative prosperity shows Biden outperformed the last six of his seven predecessors and the 46th president has no peers reducing the nation's budget deficit,” Winkler says. Follow Bloomberg’s live election returns here.

Russia and the US expect to meet in the coming weeks to talk about resuming inspections of atomic weapons sites under the New START treaty, a small step toward reviving arms-control talks suspended since Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine. But in Russia, the rise of hardliners is worrying officials who believe Putin will dig in on a war which has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians, and perhaps heed calls for more confrontation.

China expanded a key financing support program designed for private firms, a move that may help its troubled real estate developers sell more bonds and ease liquidity woes. The additional aid came as record defaults mount.

A 48-hour crypto drama came to a dramatic conclusion Tuesday when Binance Holdings agreed to acquire rival FTX.com after helping orchestrate an investor exodus. Binance founder Zhao Changpeng said he would sell roughly $530 million of FTX’s native token, FTT, triggering a selloff. The turbulence brought back memories of the contagion that ripped through crypto markets when the TerraUSD coin collapsed in May.

As TikTok has grown in popularity, it’s become one of the music industry’s most powerful kingmakers. Now the world’s largest record labels want a bigger slice of the pie.

Adidas didn’t look far for its new CEO—just across town at Puma. When Bjoern Gulden starts in January, he faces an uphill battle to breathe new life into the brand’s sneakers and apparel, and navigate the monumental revenue loss from a terminated deal with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

Bloomberg continues to track the global coronavirus pandemic. Click here for daily updates.

Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan took the stage at COP27 on Tuesday, where he called for the global community to prioritize adaptation for vulnerable countries, including his own: After devastating floods over the summer, Pakistan has been cited as one of the clearest examples of climate loss and damage. The country is one of eight that occupy what’s known as the Third Pole—6,000 cubic kilometers of glacial ice, the largest volume outside the North and South Poles.

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