Nordic Sustainability Briefing: grids, emissions, waste and SME data requests
Utilities report a record 21,000 km of new grid in 2025 as COP31 backs a 35% electrification goal, while the global carbon budget projects only a 0.4% dip in fossil-fuel CO2 emissions in 2026 and circularity and waste feature on the COP31 agenda. Closer to home for small firms, Norwegian guidance says non-reporting SMEs will still face sustainability data requests, and a new CLEER method aims to estimate the energy use and emissions of closed AI models.
Utilities report record 21,000 km of new grid in 2025 as COP31 backs a 35% electrification goal
Members of the Utilities for Net Zero Alliance say they installed more than 21,000 km of new grid in 2025, 50% more than the 14,000 km in 2024, and raised combined investment plans to at least USD 156 billion a year. IRENA's director general said global grid investment must more than double, reaching a cumulative USD 10 trillion by 2035, if the 35%-by-2035 electrification goal is to be met.
Global fossil-fuel CO2 emissions projected to dip 0.4% in 2026, but not fast enough to last
The 2026 global carbon budget analysis projects a 0.4% fall in fossil-fuel emissions, attributed to renewables expansion and disruption linked to the Iran conflict. The accompanying Nature Climate Change paper says further acceleration of clean energy is needed for global emissions to peak and decline.
Circularity and waste sit on the COP31 agenda, with a leaders' roundtable and a goal to halve waste growth
The COP31 action agenda includes a Circularity Knowledge Sharing Network, and the UN Secretary-General addressed a Leaders' Roundtable on zero waste, circularity and methane on 11 November. One analysis of the agenda lists halving the growth of global waste among the presidency's goals, and Climate Home News reported on Türkiye's plastic-waste struggles on the conference's 'zero waste day'.
Norwegian guidance: non-reporting SMEs still face sustainability data requests from customers and banks
Norway's Environment Agency says many firms fall outside CSRD and accounting-act reporting duties, yet customers, banks, investors and insurers will still ask them for sustainability information. It points to EFRAG's voluntary VSME standard, with a basic and a supplementary module, as a way to answer most such requests and replace the many uncoordinated questionnaires.
Sustainable AI Group launches CLEER to estimate energy and emissions of closed AI models
The group was founded in May 2026 by Sasha Luccioni and Boris Gamazaychikov. It says CLEER is a research-based approach for estimating the energy use and emissions of closed AI models, published with a technical report, and it hosted a webinar on the method on 4 November. This is relevant to small firms that use hosted AI services and cannot see the providers' energy data.