The recently released PRODES data for 2021 shows deforestation of 13,235 km2 (1,323,500 hectares) in the Legal Amazon, the highest number since 2008 and an increase of 22 percent when compared to the previous year (the annual rates cover a timeframe from August of the previous year to July of the current year). Since the …
Just two weeks after a watershed announcement by more than 100 countries at COP26 on eliminating deforestation, the EU released a draft law on November 17 that would require companies to show that their products are not tied to forest clearing. Essentially, the legislation would ban commodities that are linked to deforestation, whether legal or …
Commitments coming out of COP26 could represent a structural shift in efforts to conserve forests and tackle commodity-driven deforestation. The announcement that more than 100 countries, including those with vast amounts of tropical forests such as Brazil and Indonesia, pledged to eliminate deforestation by 2030 is a crucial breakthrough. Fossil fuels typically get most of …
In a landmark decision, on May 26, 2021, a Dutch civil court ordered Shell to cut its CO2 emissions by net 45 percent in 2030 compared to 2019 levels. The decision states that the reduction obligation relates to the Shell’s entire energy portfolio and to the aggregate volume of all emissions (Scope 1 to 3), …
Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corporation is seeing increasing pressure from NGOs and investors over its climate policies. In particular, the company is under increased scrutiny over its plans for a new coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh and its imports of wood chips, wood pellets, and palm kernel shells, which contribute to forest loss in Southeast …
A new Greenpeace investigation finds that Brazil’s leading meat processor JBS and its top competitors Marfrig and Minerva purchased cattle from ranchers linked to the 2020 Pantanal fires as well as other environmental and social controversies in recent years. The meatpackers reportedly continue to source from some of these ranchers despite having been informed about …
The Cerrado biome, a vast, biodiverse tropical savannah in Brazil, is under threat from commodity-driven deforestation. Soy expansion and cattle ranching are direct drivers of forest loss in the Cerrado. This report presents new data on specific actors linked to Cerrado deforestation in 2020, including the quantified risk exposure of the largest soy traders, meatpackers, …
A new lawsuit has been filed against the Casino Group, a major French supermarket chain with Latin American subsidiaries, claiming that the company’s supply chain practices in Brazilian and Colombian cattle are in violation of France’s Due Diligence law. The incident reflects the increasing legal, financial, and reputational risks that Casino and its peers are …
In 2017, the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) released its recommendations for climate-related disclosures in financial filings. The TCFD has since become the de facto global standard for the financial sector to report on climate change risks. This paper presents a framework for assessing deforestation-related risks in agricultural commodity supply chains that is …
The beef and soy sectors have been two of the major drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes in recent years. Financial institutions with exposure to these sectors may be inadvertently contributing to climate change and biodiversity loss. As global stakeholders react to these threats, financial institutions may become increasingly more exposed …
