Resource Sustainability

Indonesia fires emitted double the carbon of Amazon fires (25 Nov)

Fires from land and forest fires across Indonesia this year have pumped at least 708 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — almost double the emissions from the fires that swept through the Brazilian Amazon this year. That was the finding from researchers at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), who noted that the Indonesian fires were one of the most intense in nearly two decades, unleashing far more than the 366 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) churned out by the higher-profile fires in the Brazilian Amazon.

Sources: Mongabay

Indonesian fires that spread haze to the region burnt 1.6 million hectares of land this year (2 Dec)

Fires in Indonesia that spread a smoky haze over South-east Asia this year burned at least 1.6 million hectares of mostly degraded land and carbon-rich peatlands, data from a respected research group showed on Monday (2 Dec). South-east Asia has suffered for years from smoke caused by fires in Indonesia, raising health and environmental concerns, but this year’s were the worst since 2015 when 2.6 million hectares were burned. Slash-and-burn clearing by some palm oil growers is often blamed for the fires, which can then spread rapidly, especially during dry weather.

Sources: Asiaone

Top Palm Oil Buyer Considers Restricting Imports to Help Local Farmers (2 Dec)

India is considering imposing new restrictions on refined palm oil imports to curb purchases and boost the local edible oil industry, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The government is looking to move away from current regulations that don’t stipulate unit sizes on refined imports to setting standard import units at five-liter containers, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is not yet public. That would increase costs for many buyers, and fits into the government’s strategy to cut edible oil imports and double farmers’ income by 2022, the person said.

Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters

Sumatra’s dwindling forests face extra pressure from a major highway project (6 Dec)

A major highway project in Indonesia’s Sumatra island is poised to further fragment and degrade the remaining prime forests there, researchers say. Between 1990 and 2010, Sumatra lost 40 percent of its old-growth forest. The researchers also note the increase of land disputes arising from the project, given that much of land needed for the highway has yet to be acquired due to conflicts with local communities. The researchers have called on the government to issue more stringent regulations to protect the remnant forests, and to significantly reroute the roads to avoid the conservation areas.

Sources: Mongabay

Green Finance

Funds worth US$37 trillion failing to meet climate goals: analysis (27 Nov)

Britain-based think tank InfluenceMap found that the world’s largest investment funds – controlling a mammoth US$37 trillion in assets – are failing to bring their portfolios in line with the Paris climate goals of limiting global warming to well below two deg C. Experts analysed 50,000 listed funds controlled by 150 finance giants and found US$8.2 trillion of holdings in oil and gas, coal mining, car manufacturing and electric power. InfluenceMap found that within those sectors the funds were still tending towards investing in companies deploying so-called “brown technologies”, and that they were under investing in renewables and other green tech.

Sources: The Business Times, The Straits Times

Clifford Capital launches platform for Asian infrastructure debt (28 Nov)

Clifford Capital has set up a platform known as Bayfront Infrastructure Management (BIM) to mobilise a new pool of institutional capital for infrastructure debt in Asia. The first of its kind in the region, the platform is expected to be capitalised at US$1.98 billion, comprising US$180 million in equity and US$1.8 billion in debt issuance capacity. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a partner and will invest US$54 million, representing 30 per cent of BIM’s equity capital while Clifford Capital holds the remaining. In the medium and long-term, this initiative will create a new asset class that will help to scale up institutional investment in Asian infrastructure debt.

Sources: The Business Times, The Financial Times

Hedge fund TCI vows to punish directors over climate change (2 Dec)

Christopher Hohn’s activist hedge fund TCI, with US$28 billion under management, has outlined plans to punish directors of companies that fail to disclose their carbon dioxide emissions. TCI has issued warnings to Airbus, Moody’s, Charter Communications and other companies to improve their pollution disclosure or it will vote against their directors and called for asset owners to fire fund managers that did not insist on climate transparency. This comes as investors are becoming increasingly concerned about how climate risks will impact their portfolios. None of the world’s major financial centres have made climate risk disclosure mandatory, though regulators in London are weighing it.

Sources: The Financial Times, The Guardian

Next Budget to transform industries and workforce, ensure sustainability (3-4 Dec)

Helping businesses to innovate, go regional and build capabilities is a priority for the government even as it helps workers to upskill and reskill to seize new opportunities, said Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah, in the first official speech to outline the government’s strategies for Budget 2020. This comes on the back of an increasingly challenging external environment, notably the US-China trade tensions. Deep, structural changes in the world are also leading to growing income inequality, which in turn has triggered unrest and uprisings in other parts of the world. The Budget then is a tool for Singapore to make the most of its advantages in the face of these challenges. On climate change, she said more immediate plans to tackle the threat will be unveiled in Budget 2020.

Sources: The Business Times, The Straits Times, The New Paper

Social Sustainability

Singapore vows ‘strong’ action on labour trafficking after first conviction (Nov 20)

An Indian couple has been found guilty of illegally harbouring and exploiting three Bangladeshi migrant women who were recruited to dance at two nightclubs in Boat Quay ran by the couple. This is the first trafficking conviction in Singapore since the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act came into force in 2015. The couple had subjected the women to “oppressive conditions” including verbal abuse, control of their movements, and confiscation of their passports and phones. The women were also forced to work every day and were not paid their promised monthly salary of 60,000 Bangladeshi taka (S$967). The women were further not allowed to keep the tips they had earned and were given “revenue targets” to meet, failing which they were penalised by having their salaries docked.

Singapore, with a population of 5.6 million, relies on about 1 million migrant workers from countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, China and Myanmar to fuel its economy, working in sectors from construction to services and home help. While most migrant workers are legally hired, Singapore was nonetheless only ranked “Tier 2” in the latest U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report for not fully meeting minimum standards when it comes to eliminating human trafficking. Following the incident, Singapore warned that the country will take strong actions to detect, deter and prosecute trafficking cases.

Source: Yahoo, Reuters, CNA, Straits Times

Ruthless Quotas at Amazon at Maiming Employees (Nov 25)

An investigation has found that Amazon’s obsession with speed has turned its warehouses into injury mills. Many workers at Amazon’s warehouses struggle to keep up with the pace of work demanded of them and do not report their injuries in fear of losing their jobs. They have expressed concerns that their contracts would be terminated if they fail to meet their targets and they would be quickly replaced as soon as their bodies broke down. Injury records and interviews with three former Amazon safety managers suggest the introduction of Amazon’s fleet of robots has led to even more injuries as the robots were so efficient that humans could barely keep up, yet they were expected to do so.

Injury records are supposed to be a way of holding companies accountable for their safety culture. The US Department of Labour under the Obama administration proposed posting them online, but under President Donald Trump, the agency has reversed course and also fought public-records requests. Amazon has similarly voiced resistance to making its own safety records public. Still, they are nonetheless obliged to reveal safety records to current and former employees under the laws. Yet, it has been alleged that Amazon would inaccurately report injuries. Reportedly, after being called out for underreporting the number of injury cases, Amazon is now being accused of inaccurately reporting the type of injuries its employees have sustained. For example, lacerations and concussions and fractures are simply recorded as sprains and strains. There are claims that also fault Amazon for failing to provide proper on-the-job equipment handling training for its employees resulting in life-threatening injuries being sustained by its employees and sometimes, even death.

Source: The Atlantic

International Tourism Partnership launches first hospitality industry training to address risks of modern slavery at the 2019 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights (Nov 27)

The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) is offering the first free industry-wide online training module, focusing on the risks of modern slavery in hotel operations and labour supply chain. The training is designed to help hospitality companies improve awareness of modern slavery risks in their key services which includes human resources, procurement and legal, specifically targeting the recruitment of hotel staff or contractors. The training comprises of three modules covering: what is modern slavery, identifying risks in operations and supply chain, and providing real-life case studies to underpin the learnings. At the end of the training, users are tested and those who are successful receive a certificate.

The ITP brings together hospitality companies to identify key social and environmental challenges and develop practical solutions for the industry. In 2017, ITP worked with its members to identify the priority areas of actions in which the industry can deliver the greatest impact and contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Human rights was identified as a key area of focus. This training also follows the launch of ITP’s Principles on Forced Labour in 2018, through which hotel companies agree that every worker should have freedom of movement, no worker should pay for a job, and no worker should be indebted or coerced to work.

Source: Hospitality Net