IUCN summit delivers major commitments to save precious natural areas
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s World Parks Congress 2014, the once-in-a-decade global forum on protected areas, closed yesterday with the release of The Promise of Sydney. The Promise sets out an ambitious agenda to safeguard the planet’s natural assets, ranging from halting rainforest loss in the Asia-Pacific and tripling ocean protection off Africa’s coasts to a business commitment to plant 1.3 billion trees along the historic Silk Road. The Promise includes pledges from governments, international organisations, the private sector, Indigenous leaders, community groups and individuals, with many more still being recorded. “There has been a willingness to move beyond words to action,” said IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre. However, business participation left something to be desired: “I would have loved to have hundreds of business leaders among us; we did have some,” she added. (IUCN; AAAS)
Supply Chain
Dutch energy firms agree to come clean on ‘blood coal’
Five energy firms active in the Netherlands have pledged to take action to improve the working conditions of coal miners, signing an agreement with aid minister Lilianne Ploumen. NGO Pax said in a recent report entitled The Dark Side of Coal that mining companies Drummond and Prodeco are guilty of serious human rights abuses in Colombia, where 25% of the coal used in Dutch power stations comes from. Pax claims 3,100 people have been killed by paramilitaries paid by the mining firms. When the report was published in June, the four biggest Dutch energy firms – Nuon, E.ON, EPZ and Essent – issued a joint statement in which they said they would not stop buying so-called ‘blood coal’, despite calls in parliament for them to do so. “If we immediately stop buying the coal, someone else will,” they said, adding that they did not want to “sit in the judge’s chair”. However, the four companies, in addition to GDF Suez Energie, have now pledged to talk to their suppliers about conditions at the mines and name the mines they do business with. (Dutch News)
Corporate Reputation
General Motors sued over recalls
The attorney general of Arizona announced yesterday that the state had filed a suit against automaker General Motors (GM) for defrauding the state’s consumers of an estimated $3 billion. Around 300,000 GM vehicles have been recalled in the state this year alone, most notably due to faulty ignition switches, which saw the recall of 2.6 million vehicles nationally. The complaint also alleges that GM CEO Mary Barra was made aware of a safety defect in the power steering of its vehicles in 2011, yet “despite 4,800 consumer complaints and more than 30,000 warranty repairs, G.M. waited until 2014 to disclose this defect.” By filing the suit, Arizona is breaking from a multistate investigation of 48 attorneys general, led by South Carolina and Ohio. GM is also facing enquiries from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Transport Canada, The Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Justice Department. (New York Times)
Renewable Energy
Google and Ikea announce latest wind deals
Google and Ikea have doubled down on green energy with each unveiling a new wind farm deal in the other’s home region. Ikea, the Swedish furniture retailer, has taken its biggest plunge in renewable power to date by buying a 55-turbine wind farm in Texas, the leading US state for wind energy production. Google said it had signed a 10-year deal to buy all the power generated by 19 turbines at a wind farm being built near a €600 million data centre the US technology giant is constructing in the Netherlands. Google has invested more than $1 billion in such projects and Ikea has said it will put a total of $1.9 billion into wind and solar power by the end of 2015. “We invest in renewable energy to become more sustainable as a business and also because it makes good business sense,” said Rob Olson, acting president for Ikea’s US operations. (Financial Times*)
Human Rights
Unicef: World not delivering on children’s rights
25 years have passed since the UN convention on the rights of the child was ratified, yet the international community has failed to match its commitment with the funding necessary to achieve a better world for children, according to a new report from Unicef. The report says that laudable progress has been made in education, reducing child mortality and recognising the inalienable rights of children, but significant barriers remain. Recent escalations of conflict in Syria and South Sudan, for example, have created new dangerous environments for children. Half the countries that no longer allow children to work in hazardous jobs have legal exceptions allowing them to work in jobs that endanger their health and safety, including mining and factory work. Meanwhile, only 49% of countries protect girls from early marriage if parental consent exists. Susan Bissell, Unicef’s global chief of child protection, says progress requires co-ordination and co-operation between civil society, governments and the private sector. (The Guardian)
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Image source: Lake Gunn by Jocelyn Kinghorn (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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