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), …
Beef and soy industries in the Southern Amazon region of Brazil are at risk of almost USD 200 billion of productivity losses due to Amazon deforestation, according to a new scientific study. The study, published in Nature Communications in May 2021, looked at the relationship between deforestation and rainfall. It also assessed the impact of …
There has been a string of recent shareholder votes in favor of companies taking action to adopt or strengthen deforestation commitments. This trend is likely to increase as deforestation becomes a greater part of the climate change narrative and investors increase their understanding of how links to forest lost can lead to a variety of …
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 …
Brazilian commodity trader Grupo Amaggi recently launched a green bond to expand its presence in the country’s soy market. The company’s USD 750 million green bond will allocate two-thirds of the proceeds to new schemes such as clean energy initiatives and the rest to refinancing debt for projects that include buying and processing certified soy. …
So far in 2021, there appears to be capital market movement from various players in the “big four” forest-risk commodity sectors. Major Palm Oil Company Moves Forward With IPO On January 4, 2021, PT Fangiono Agro Plantation (FAP Agri) issued the first initial public offering (IPO) of the year on the Indonesian Stock Exchange. The …
International corporations and investors have called on major soy traders to agree to a cut-off date for sourcing soy in the Cerrado biome. Signatories to the Cerrado Manifesto, which include 160 companies and investors that have exposure to the soy market, asked the traders in a letter late last year to stop sourcing from converted …
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 …
