South Korea launches world’s second largest carbon market
Trading started on Monday in South Korea’s new emissions trading scheme, which is now established as the second largest carbon market globally after the EU’s. The new scheme covers 525 of the country’s biggest companies, imposing an emissions cap of just under 1.7 billion tonnes of CO2. Trading began on the Korea Exchange (KRX) with prices in the initial trades reaching $7.26 per tonne, before climbing to $7.97. As expected, trading volumes were initially low, with Reuters reporting that just four deals covering a total of 1,040 emissions permits went through on the KRX. Price forecasters at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon and ICIS had estimated that the permit price would start at less than $10 but rise to around $30 in 2017. The new market is a key component in the government’s plan to meet a target of limiting climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 to 30 percent below current levels. (Business Green, Reuters)
Strategy
Report: “Collaboration and board engagement is critical to sustainability success”
A new study by MIT Sloan Management Review (MIT SMR), The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the UN Global Compact says that the practice of corporate sustainability is moving beyond ad hoc, opportunistic efforts towards a more strategic approach through collaboration and partnerships. The study results, based on a survey of more than 3,795 executives and managers from 113 countries, are being released today in a report titled Joining Forces: Collaboration and Leadership for Sustainability. While 90 percent of respondents recognised the importance of sustainability collaboration, only 47 percent were actively collaborating. Meanwhile, 86 percent of respondents believed that the board of directors should play a strong role in driving their company’s sustainability efforts. But only 42 percent of respondents saw their boards as moderately or more engaged with the company’s sustainability agenda. (3BL Media)
Human Rights
Thailand to adopt fines and GPS to ‘eradicate slave trade’
Thailand is deploying GPS on fishing boats, adopting steep fines and a budget to hire 700 anti-corruption staff in an effort to combat human trafficking ahead of a US deadline to show improvement, authorities said on Monday. The US State Department in June named Thailand as one of the world’s worst centres for human trafficking, saying it was “not making significant efforts” and was a source, destination and transit country for forced labour. The State Department said most victims of trafficking in Thailand were from neighbouring countries and forced or defrauded into labour, with tens of thousands exploited in the commercial sex trade, on fishing boats or as domestic servants. A new law passed on Friday to combat “illegal, unregistered and unreported fishing” will fine abuses by up to $910,000. As part of the law, satellite-based monitoring systems would be required for large fishing ships. (Reuters)
‘Wikileaks for Africa’ launched by African media coalition
A new service launching today hopes to safely connect African whistleblowers with investigative journalists, encouraging a ‘new culture of accountability and justice’ across the continent. Described as a ‘Wikileaks for Africa’, Afrileaks is the first of its kind to provide ongoing technical training in how to “verify and investigate the quality of leaks”. Khadija Sharife, an investigative journalist based in South Africa, along with her colleagues at Afrileaks, says that many journalists across Africa lack such investigative skills . The secure web service, developed in partnership with Italy’s Hermes Centre for Transparency and Digital Human Rights and the Africa Network of Centres for Investigative Journalism (ANCIR), will allow individuals to send information “without fear of being compromised and exposed,” says Sharife. Media outlets that have already signed up to the initiative include South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, Botswana’s Guardian newspaper, The Zimbabwean, and Mozambique’s Verdade. (The Guardian)
Responsible Investment
New finance-charity hybrid aims to make affordable housing greener
A US non-profit has become the latest to join a growing move to combine charitable donations with social-impact investments. The International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology (ICAST), on Monday launched a charity-finance hybrid to provide low-interest loans for energy-efficiency upgrades to low-income homes. The hybrid includes a charity and crowdfunding platform, Project Sunlight, as well as a new community development financial institution, the Triple Bottom-Line (TBL) Fund. By combining donations and investments, ICAST hopes to increase the pool of low-interest money available to fund these retrofits. The TBL Fund is already catching the attention of some impact investors; by the end of 2014, it had gathered $500,000 in loan funding from investors, and Project Sunlight had received $44,000 in charitable donations. (The Guardian)
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