Many commitments, little transparency in cutting deforestation from corporate supply chains
A new report from US-based non-profit Forest Trends finds “notable progress” has been made to cut deforestation out of global commodities supply chains. Out of 566 companies identified as having some deforestation risk in their supply chains, 366 have committed to sustainable sourcing. However, while over 60 per cent of palm oil companies have adopted such pledges, only 15 per cent and 19 per cent active in cattle and soy have done so, respectively. The non-profit also found that large public companies are far more likely to have made commitments than small private ones, as the bigger, publicly traded firms face greater scrutiny and are held to higher standards of disclosure by financial institutions. However, only one in three companies that have made a commitment to go deforestation-free have reported quantifiable progress toward their goals – even among companies that set deadlines that have already passed, less than half have publicly disclosed their progress. (Eco-Business)
Strategy
Call for urgent changes in oil and gas industry
Senior figures in offshore oil and gas have called for more radical and urgent changes to avoid rapid decline. They say there are only two years in which to secure the industry’s future. The report released by PWC, A Sea Change, found that fewer than three in five senior executives interviewed were positive about the industry’s future, while a fifth were pessimistic. The report suggests that infrastructure, including the pipeline network, could be handed over to a third party company to ensure co-operation, could be nationalised. Interviewed anonymously, the industry leaders were critical of the lack of leadership. They suggested that the industry needed a dominant leading figure. This person may have to come from a different sector, to shake up inefficient, older-thinking of the existing regime, they said. (BBC)
Santiago’s subway will soon be the first to run on mostly solar and wind power
By 2017, some of the solar power produced in Chile’s Atacama Desert will be sent 400 miles away to the subway in Santiago, the first metro system in the world that will get its power from renewable energy. The subway will get up to 60% of its energy from a new solar installation and up to 18% from the nearby San Juan wind farm. The Metro is an example of a new trend in direct connections. SunPower, the California-based solar company that is designing and building the system, is also installing similar systems that will connect to Stanford University and some Apple data centres. The panels are part of SunPower’s prefab, a modular system that’s quick to install without skilled labour, keeping costs down. Because the desert is quite dusty, the system will also use special robots to keep the panels clean, increasing the amount of power generated by up to 15%. (fastcoexist)
Human Rights
Traffickers exploiting young refugees in French camps, says Unicef
Young people in refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirk are being sexually exploited and forced to commit crimes by traffickers, according to a Unicef report. The document paints a disturbing picture of the abuse of unaccompanied minors in camps in northern France. It says children are being subjected to sexual violence by traffickers who promise passage to the UK. Children in the camps also told researchers they have been forced to work and commit crimes such as opening lorry doors to enable adults to be smuggled across the channel. This shows the risks they are taking to be reunited with family members, despite many having a safe and legal route available. About 150 refugee children in Calais have the right to enter the UK because they have families here, according to the charity Citizens UK. It estimates that at the current rate it would take a year for all 150 to be reunited with their families. (Guardian)
Climate Change
Arctic melting feeds on itself
Melting sea ice is affecting the Arctic climate in a feedback loop that will speed up warming, scientists say. In a process that engineers call positive feedback, high atmospheric pressure and clear skies over the Arctic region practically committed the northwest of Greenland to an episode of melting at record rates. “If loss of sea ice is driving changes in the jet stream, the jet stream is changing Greenland, and this, in turn, has an impact on the Arctic system as well as the climate. It’s a system, it is strongly interconnected, and we have to approach it as such,” said Marco Tedesco, of Columbia University, who led the research. If Greenland’s ice all melted, sea levels would rise worldwide by seven metres. Climate change is happening, but how it will change is harder to guess. “The conditions we saw in the past aren’t necessarily the conditions of the future,” Professor Tedesco said. (Eco-Business)
Image source: The mural from the platform by Auztrel / Public Domain
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