Hello! Happy Valentine's Day! As the world celebrates love in all its shapes and forms, we take a look at how much this holiday hits people's pockets amid rising inflation. And in today's ESG Spotlight meet Lucas Cespedes, a 13-year-old boy who helped Chile firefighters combat wildfires. This Valentine's Day is set to look different after a year of record food inflation that has driven up prices of everything from flowers to chocolates and dining in restaurants. High inflation and cost of living affect the 'social' – 'S' in ESG – as a lack of social development, including poverty, inequality and weak rule of law, can hamper business operations and growth. COVID-era supply chain logjams and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have meant that Britons paid a record 16.7% more for food in the four weeks to Jan. 22 compared to the same period last year, according to research firm Kantar. |
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As a result, romantic Valentine dinners out will cost more, and restaurants are modifying their offerings to attract cash-conscious customers. According to the latest data from Britain's Office of National Statistics, eating at restaurants in December cost 9.4% more than last year. Other expenses associated with date nights – from flowers and cinema tickets to taxis and childcare – also rose. People paid 10.7% more for chocolates as companies such as Mondelez, Nestle and Lindt hiked prices. And it's not just food, flowers and chocolates that have been impacted by high inflation. French wine and spirit exports rose 11% last year to hit a new record, mainly boosted by a rise in prices, and the trend should last this year as Chinese consumers return to restaurants and resume travel, industry group FEVS said. Overseas sales of wine and spirits – France's second-biggest export after aerospace goods – reached 17.2 billion euros ($18.42 billion) in 2022, up 10.8% on 2021, the Federation of French Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS) said. The war between Russia and Ukraine cut exports to Russia by half, FEVS Chairman Cesar Giron told Reuters, but he stressed that the market was relatively small compared to total exports. The war had rather an indirect impact due to the rise in energy prices and grain to make vodka. |
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An electronic road sign reads "Pollution, speed limit 60kms" on the Paris ring road, March 14, 2014, as warm and sunny weather continues in France. REUTERS/Charles Platiau |
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- The European Parliament formally approved a law to effectively ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the European Union from 2035, aiming to speed up the switch to electric vehicles and combat climate change.
- Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell in January from a year earlier, satellite data showed, in the first monthly figures under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
- Rescuers in Turkey pulled a handful of people alive from collapsed buildings and were digging to reach a grandmother, mother and daughter from a single family, a week after the country's worst earthquake in modern history.
- A regional court in Germany has dismissed a case led by Greenpeace against Volkswagen calling on the carmaker to tighten its carbon emissions targets, the company and the climate group said in separate statements.
- Column: Europe's most coal-heavy economy showed off its little-known green credentials in 2022 by boosting clean electricity generation to a record and cutting use of coal and gas, while still lifting total electricity generation to all-time highs, writes Reuters global energy transition columnist Gavin Maguire.
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Constance Ricketts, head of shareholder activism at Tulipshare, a UK-based activist investment platform, highlights the ongoing child labor in cocoa supply chains as couples around the world purchase heart-shaped chocolates on Valentine's Day: "While Valentine's Day should be a time for people around the world to express their love for one another, it is hard to ignore the unethical practices that contribute to the global supply of novelty heart shaped chocolates. "In the 2001 Harkin-Engel Protocol, major cocoa companies promised to end their reliance on child labour. "However, it has been steadily increasing, with a recent US Department of Labor funded study finding that 1.56 million children are engaged in hazardous work on cocoa farms in Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire. As a result, the EU is also proposing banning all products made with forced labor. "Today, many children are trafficked from Mali and Burkina Faso to work under slavery-like conditions. Forced child labour routinely results in extreme bodily and mental harm, and in nearly every case, it cuts children off from schooling and health care, restricting their fundamental rights and threatening their futures. "Moreover, United Nations officials estimated that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated these issues, funneling millions of children into the workforce, including ten-year-olds working on cocoa farms in West Africa. "There have been many attempts over the last couple of decades to hold major cocoa companies legally and otherwise accountable for their ongoing use of child labour in supply chains. "But these companies persist in prioritizing short-term profits fueled by the cheap labor of exploited children, and continue to ignore the negative financial impacts that their persistent violation of human rights can have on the longevity of their businesses. "As shareholders, we're looking for eradication of child labour now, not by 2030. A violation of human rights like this can adversely impact a corporation's environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) ratings, thereby inhibiting investors, worsening their risk management, increasing their costs, reducing their revenues and lowering their share price. "It is our job as investors to engage with companies and push them to meet better ESG targets, and drive change that creates better outcomes for investors and the planet." |
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Breakingviews: Heated trade tensions could cool if the United States and the European Union make concessions on hydrogen. Washington's Inflation Reduction Act includes subsidies that could slash the cost of the element's sustainably produced "green" version by 2030. If the EU can negotiate better access to America's production chain while attractively managing its future import needs, it could help defuse a wider transatlantic spat. |
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| Lucas Cespedes, 13, rows his boat during an interview with Reuters, on the shores of the river Futa, outskirts of Valdivia, Chile Feb 9, 2023. REUTERS/Cristobal Saavedra Escobar |
Today's ESG Spotlight shines a light on 13-year-old Lucas Cespedes in southern Chile, who bravely ferried firefighters across the local river in a small yellow rowing boat to help them put out the flames as his parents fought wildfires threatening their home. Elsewhere, German airline Lufthansa will begin offering "Green Fares". Chile is battling some of the worst wildfires in years that have claimed 24 lives and burned through over 340,000 hectares (840,158 acres), affecting more than 5,400 people and destroying over a thousand homes. "I ferried people across the river because I was desperate, my parents were fighting the fire and I was very scared that the fire would reach my house," said Cespedes, who lives with his family in an area only accessible by water. "There was no other person who could ferry people, so the only hope was me." Cespedes rowed the firefighters across 30 meters (98 ft) of the Futa River, a mighty waterway in Chile's south near the city of Valdivia, about 1,000 kms (621 miles) south of the capital Santiago. He has kept doing so as fires have raged on. |
Planes of German air carrier Lufthansa are parked as Lufthansa at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Sep 2, 2022. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach |
Lufthansa will begin offering fares that already include the off-setting of flight-related carbon emissions starting this week, the German carrier announced. The "Green Fares", which can be booked for connections in Europe and North Africa, are the first to provide 100% carbon-offsetting, Lufthansa Executive Board member Harry Hohmeister said. The burden on the climate is offset 20% through the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and 80% through the financing of climate protection projects, according to the airline. |
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"As budgets are stretched thin by inflationary pressure, many couples may pare down their Valentine's celebrations this year. If the pandemic's taught us anything, it's how to spice up a quiet night in and cash-strapped romantics may put those skills to use this year." Laura Hoy, equity analyst at British financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown |
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- Feb. 15, Reuters Feature: A look back at the global energy crisis that impacted countries all over the world, as Russia's war in Ukraine reaches one year.
- Feb.15, Netherlands, Amsterdam: Environmental Defense group protests oil major Shell's profit and sustainable energy investments at the company's old headquarters in The Hague.
- Feb. 15, United States: The Democratic-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a hearing in which several of President Joe Biden's judicial nominees will testify in connection with its consideration of their nominations.
- Feb. 17, Britain: British shoppers are reining in their spending in the face of high inflation and the prospect of a recession in 2023. Economists polled by Reuters expect sales to have contracted by 0.5% in January from December when they also fell, extending their long run of weakness.
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