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TOP STORY
Carbon standard plans to issue first biodiversity credits by year end
A voluntary carbon standard plans to issue its first batch of biodiversity credits generated through two separate projects in Latin America by the end of the year, a company executive told Carbon Pulse.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Over 200 investors back initiative to drive corporate engagement on biodiversity loss
A group of 204 investors have joined forces to back an initiative on nature stewardship, seeking to pressure 60 companies to improve biodiversity-related risk management and help shape better environmental policies.
Italian network kickstarts programme to ramp up corporate action on biodiversity
An Italian network has launched a national initiative to steer companies and financial institutions in integrating biodiversity into decision making, with 90 organisations already enlisted.
TOOLS & GUIDANCE
IUCN adds over 1,000 threatened species to its Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has added over 1,000 species of plants and animals to its Red List of Threatened Species, bringing the total to 45,000.
POLICY
EU imports still drive substantial global deforestation, report unveils
EU member states continue to drive deforestation from their direct imports, with the bulk of clear cutting associated with cocoa and oil palm products.
Canada launches C$335 mln fund to support Indigenous-led marine conservation
Canada’s federal government announced on Tuesday a C$335 million ($245 mln) allocation in blended finance to support First Nations in the preservation and stewardship of the Great Bear Rainforest’s marine and coastal environment.
Indonesia joins forces with US philanthropy in massive push to protect rainforest, restore biodiversity
The government of Indonesia has formed a partnership with a US-based philanthropy to restore nature and biodiversity by safeguarding 15 million hectares of rainforest in the Southeast Asian country.
SCIENCE & TECH
Saving the world’s most threatened species through expanded protected areas less costly than expected, study says
Expanding protected areas (PAs) to include 1.2% of the world’s terrestrial surface would help save the most threatened species from extinction at a lower cost than expected, a paper has said.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
MARKET
Smartphones for nature – London-headquartered tech company Mozaic Earth is betting on a cheap smartphone-based tool to help scale biodiversity credit markets. Following the partnership with RePlanet, Mozaic Earth’s CEO Sylvain Vaquer told Carbon Pulse the company now plans to collaborate with Earthly, which recently launched the UK’s first voluntary biodiversity credit scheme. Mozaic Earth developed software for smartphones to enable businesses to collect data throughout their value chain and independently monitor biodiversity loss, with the company providing data assessments. “What we’re doing with our clients is enabling them to comply with the BNG framework in the UK, while providing a tool to also access the voluntary biodiversity market,” Vaquer told Carbon Pulse.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Harmonisation – The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has announced it will deliver further harmonisation of the sustainability disclosure landscape as part of its new work plan in response to market demand. ISSB will work in strategic relationships with the Transition Plan Taskforce, GHG Protocol, CDP, the TNFD, and GRI.
Scaling up – Singaporean state-owned conglomerate Temasek Holdings and Australian deep tech investment fund Main Sequence have backed the Sidney-headquartered plastic recycling tech firm Samsara Eco in a $65-mln funding round, The Edge reported. Other investors include Lululemon, Hitachi Ventures, Greycroft Coca‑Cola System Sustainability Fund, Titanium Ventures, and Wollemi Capital. The capital will support Samsara Eco’s expansion and the construction of facilities in Southeast Asia, where plastic waste will be recycled to create new products.
Oysters at the airport – The Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has announced it’s expanding the scale of its oyster shell recycling project developed in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. The initiative involves collecting discarded oyster shells to restore oyster reefs and improve biodiversity near the third runway. As of the end of May, the project team had conducted 520 rounds of oyster shell collection, expecting to collect 50 tonnes of oyster shells in 2024.
POLICY
Rush for minerals – Norway has proposed to put forward 386 blocks in the Arctic as part of the first licensing round of seabed exploration, with the government aiming to award licenses in the first half of next year. The ministry of energy said the exploitation plans must show that projects can be implemented in a sustainable and responsible manner. However, environmentalists warned that this cannot be demonstrated in such a short time, as more information is needed to take the right decision. This move follows Norway’s decision in January to permit explorations in deep-sea environments in the Arctic region, making it the first country to open up its seabed to this controversial activity.
Mapped – Mozambique’s ministry of environment has mapped the country’s ecosystems in a bid to better inform biodiversity conservation and monitoring actions. Under the initiative, a total of 162 ecosystems have been assessed. The research highlighted increasing threats to Mozambique’s ecosystems, mainly due to population growth, fires, deforestation, mining, and infrastructure. Approximately 4% of them were listed as critically endangered, 9% as endangered, and 32% as vulnerable.
Green but at what cost – Forty civil society organisations led by the CEE Bankwatch Network have penned an open letter to the European Commission asking to revise the Energy Community Treaty’s new recommendation in order to straighten nature protection rules for renewable energy projects. If the recommendation is adopted, most renewable energy projects in designated acceleration areas would be exempt from environmental impact assessments, the letter said. Organisations pointed out that Energy Community countries and regions, including Western Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, have protected 4% of their land so far, compared to 26% in the EU.
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