DEFORESTATION

Deforestation from palm oil falls to three-year low in 2021

Palm oil deforestation has slowed significantly in the first half of this year, signalling the impact of commitments made by major industry players. Palm oil-related deforestation fell by 42% in the first six months of 2021, year-on-year, with 11,500 hectares of forests lost in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea, according to satellite analysis published by risk analysis group Chain Reaction Research. This compares to 19,894 ha in the first half of 2020 and 40,000 ha in the first half of 2019. The biggest tree-felling palm oil firms this year have been companies supplying domestic demand for biofuel in Indonesia, with no known ties to the international market for palm oil cultivated free from deforestation, which the major consumer goods brands such as Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive and Nestlé buy from. (Eco-Business)

DIGITAL ETHICS

Google to ban climate denial ads from search engine & YouTube

Internet giant Google has announced a new policy that prohibits users from making money from climate denial content found on its search engine or on its video-sharing platform YouTube. The new prohibition covers both online advertisements and creator payments that refer to climate change as a hoax or scam, deny widely accepted scientific consensus that the global climate is warming, and that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change. The policy will be enforced by a mixture of automated tools and human review and will start by November. In making this policy change, Google said it has consulted authoritative sources on climate science, including experts who contributed to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) assessment reports. (Eco-Business)

CLIMATE CHANGE 

UK professional institutions launch Charter for Climate Action

The UK's leading professional institutions have launched a new ‘Charter for Climate Action’, calling on bodies to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement while upskilling their workforces to champion sustainability. The Charter’s signatories will aim to align with both the Paris Agreement and the SDGs. The Charter binds members to three overarching commitments to align to the 1.5^oC pathway, unify their voice to lobby for long-lasting change, and to empower and develop their members. UK membership associations account for nearly half of the UK’s working population across every part of the economy, and include the Energy Institute, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. (Edie)

STRATEGY

ESG and decarbonisation are top priorities for mining and metals

ESG issues and climate concerns have risen to the top of the agenda for the global metal and mining sector, according to research by professional services firm EY. A survey covering over 200 global mining and metals firms, revealed the top risk for the sector, reported by 25% of executives, was “Environment and Social,” moving up from a fourth-place ranking last year. Within Environment and Social, “local community impact” was revealed as receiving the most scrutiny from investors, following the high-profile scandal involving the destruction of culturally significant sites in Australia by Rio Tinto. Decarbonisation moved up from last year’s survey to second place, now viewed as a major disrupter as several top investors divest from coal companies and reduce their exposure to the sector. (ESG Today)

ENERGY

Hyundai to invest over $1 billion in new hydrogen fuel cell plants

Global automotive supplier Hyundai Mobis has announced plans to invest $1.1 billion to build two hydrogen cell system plants in Korea. When fully operational, the two facilities are expected to produce 100,000 hydrogen fuel cells every year. With the completion of the new plants, which are expected to start mass production in the second half of 2023, the company aims to expand its production line-ups that apply fuel cell systems and diversify its hydrogen business. Once the plants are completed, Hyundai Mobis will operate a total of three fuel cell plants following the launch of its Chungju Plant in 2018, that is capable of producing approximately 23,000 hydrogen cells every year. (ESG Today)

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