AI and sustainability jobs: juniors on the front line, according to Ditto's barometer
• Novethic opened a series on the impact of AI on sustainability jobs, drawing on Ditto's AI x Sustainability Barometer published in September: 66% of sustainability professionals used AI at least once a week (33% every day) and 57% said they saved at least two hours a week.
• AI remained mostly limited to writing and summarizing, with fewer than 15% of professionals using it for data collection, risk assessment or ESG rating questionnaires, but 75% systematically checked its outputs, with concerns about greenwashing (58%), data privacy (57%) and hallucinations (42%) remaining strong.
• By taking over newcomers' tasks, AI has already led to fewer junior sustainability job offers, which made the professionals surveyed fear a shortage of future experts deprived of the formative experiences (data, materiality analyses, risk assessment) needed to drive sustainability in companies tomorrow.
Source: Novethic – "IA : les métiers de la RSE bouleversés, les juniors en première ligne (1/3)"
The industrialization of the oceans meets a legal framework under strain
• Guillaume Pitron spent three years investigating the rapid industrialization of the oceans, which has seen the blue economy become a vital sector spanning metals, gas, aquaculture and new marine resources.
• This transformation raises major issues (overexploitation of phytoplankton in Antarctica, increased hydrocarbon extraction), while the framework of the Montego Bay Convention seems increasingly constrained in the face of commercial and strategic ambitions.
• The emergence of the "ocean footprint" and the prospect of a world where resource consumption would double by 2060 illustrate the scale of the change under way, while the ecological and digital transition remains a complex challenge to grasp.
Source: Novethic – "Guillaume Pitron : « Nous ne sommes qu’aux prémices de l’industrialisation des océans »"
Google challenged by alternatives in the push for European digital sovereignty
• Google kept nearly 90% of the global search market, relying on an effective algorithm that is criticized for the quality of its results and its intensive collection of personal data for advertising purposes.
• This concentration has heightened privacy risks and reinforced filter bubble effects, while few search engines have an independent web index.
• Alternatives such as Qwant, DuckDuckGo, Startpage, Brave Search, Ecosia or Lilo have offered distinct models to support privacy, environmental commitment or European digital sovereignty.
Source: Vert le média – "DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Ecosia… Quel moteur de recherche choisir pour sortir de la dépendance à Google ?"
Breast cancer in France: blind to environmental and occupational risks
• France has recorded a persistent rise in breast cancer incidence, with about 61,000 new cases a year, including a marked increase among young women and more aggressive forms such as triple-negative cancers.
• Marc Billaud stressed that environmental exposures (pesticides, pollution, night work) and occupational exposures remain underestimated in prevention policies, with the authorities favoring an approach centered on individual responsibility and screening.
• He called for a major transformation of public health policies, with an emphasis on primary prevention aimed at collectively reducing risk exposures.
Source: Vert le média – "Marc Billaud, chercheur en cancérologie : « En France, la prévention du cancer du sein repose sur les comportements individuels »"
Maternal exposure to endocrine disruptors linked to lower IQ in children
• A study by INSERM, CNRS, Grenoble University Hospital and the University of Granada followed 380 pregnant women and showed that increased exposure to phthalates and bisphenols, found in everyday products, was associated with a drop in children's IQ at age 3.
• This exposure represents a public health issue.
• Researcher Claire Philippat stressed the importance of global regulations to reduce the impact of these pollutants on society.
Source: Reporterre – "Grossesse : les perturbateurs endocriniens pourraient faire baisser le QI des enfants"
More than 800 companies commit to publishing under TNFD recommendations for nature
• More than 800 companies and financial institutions from 57 countries have committed to publishing reports aligned with TNFD recommendations, aiming to better assess and disclose dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities related to nature.
• This 14% increase in adoptions involved major players managing more than $26 trillion in assets and came with stronger environmental reporting standards at the international level.
• The release of the latest recommendations and LEAP 2.0 guidance closed the TNFD's technical work, which is now refocusing on supporting standardization: an upcoming ISSB practice statement on nature and the transformation of the LEAP approach into an ISO standard, approved in September.
Source: ESG Today – "Over 800 Companies Commit to TNFD-Aligned Nature Reporting Ahead of New ISSB, ISO Standards"
COP17: a mixed record for global biodiversity
• The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) on biodiversity opened in Yerevan on October 19, 2026, bringing together 196 member states of the Convention on Biological Diversity to assess progress on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in 2022.
• Faced with the widespread decline of animal and plant populations, companies and society are confronted with the challenge of meeting 23 targets, such as protecting 30% of land and sea or reducing subsidies harmful to biodiversity.
• Midway through the period set for 2030, a mixed assessment leaves doubt over the ability to stem the systemic biodiversity crisis worldwide.
Source: Le Monde – "COP17 d’Erevan : face à l’effondrement de la biodiversité, des efforts « inégaux et insuffisants » de l’humanité"
The sustainable aviation fuel sector's challenge despite successes in Europe
• The European Union exceeded its 2025 targets for blending sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), marking progress in reducing the aviation sector's environmental footprint.
• However, the supply chain for these fuels remained vulnerable, while uncertainties persist over the development and scale-up of synthetic fuels.
• These challenges and researchers' warnings about environmental impacts are a reminder that the desired shift to more sustainable aviation still carries many systemic risks to manage.
Source: Novethic – "Carburants d’aviation durable : décollage réussi, de fortes turbulences à venir"
European banks called out over metallurgical coal financing
• According to a report by the NGO Reclaim Finance published on October 21, 2026, major European banks reduced their exposure to thermal coal but have rarely applied these restrictions to metallurgical coal used for steelmaking.
• This difference in treatment raises a major issue for companies involved in the energy transition and for financial players seeking to align their practices with their climate commitments.
• Reclaim Finance called for a single standard to comprehensively cover all types of coal-related financing.
Source: Novethic – "Les grandes banques françaises financent le plus grand hub mondial de charbon métallurgique"
Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Danone commit to revising their environmental claims
• Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Danone agreed to revise the environmental claims on their plastic bottles following a complaint filed in November 2023 by BEUC and its members from thirteen countries over misleading claims about the recyclability of their products.
• This decision involves replacing expressions such as "100% recyclable" or "100% recycled" with wording that specifies the exclusion of caps and labels, as well as a commitment to stop using representations likely to mislead consumers.
• The commitments will be monitored by national consumer protection authorities, with the aim of strengthening compliance with European regulation on environmental information.
Source: ESG Today – "Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and Danone Agree to Improve Recycling Claims Following EU Greenwashing Complaint"
