Analysis: Michelin’s no-deforestation claims in Indonesia rubber plantation a stretch

Analysis: Michelin’s no-deforestation claims in Indonesia rubber plantation a stretch

Rubber manufacturer Michelin claims to have avoided millions of tons of carbon emissions and saved thousands of hectares of primary forest in a sustainable rubber plantation project in Indonesia. Michelin joined the project in 2014 after buying a stake in the Indonesian rubber company RLU, which in 2018 raised $95 million in green bonds. In 2022, Michelin became RLU’s sole shareholder, and repaid the green bonds raised by the project. […]

May 30, 2024 37

Health / Medical

Cancer drug pollution is a growing global concern

Cytostatic drugs help treat a range of cancers but may also pose a threat to ecosystems. (Shutterstock) By Valérie S. Langlois, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) and Diana Castañeda-Cortés, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) As incidence of cancer increases globally, the use of cancer drugs is also growing at a rate of approximately 10 per cent per year in developed countries. Pharmaceuticals significantly […]

May 22, 2024 21

Environment

Great white sharks off South Africa’s coast are protected by law, but not in practice. Why this needs to change

By Enrico Gennari, Rhodes University; Neil Hammerschlag, University of Oregon, and Sara Andreotti, Stellenbosch University In less than eight years, white sharks in South Africa have all but disappeared from their historical hotspots in False Bay and Gansbaai, on the Western Cape coast. These areas were once known as the “white shark capital of the world” and were home to a flourishing ecotourism industry. One possible […]

May 6, 2024 47

Environment

7 Billion tonnes of plastic waste threaten environment

Since the 1950s, 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced, seven billion tonnes of which have become potentially toxic waste. Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the international negotiating committee secretariat that is focused on curbing the scourge told UN News that if no action is taken, plastic pollution could triple by 2060.

May 2, 2024 87

Africa

Climate change could cost Africa billions by 2030

Africa currently loses between $7 billion and $15 billion a year because of climate change. If that trend continues, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina tells the Zero podcast, that number could reach $50 billion by 2030. That’s why Adesina is focusing the bank’s efforts on financing climate adaptation, which he describes as the “forgotten cousin” of climate mitigation.

May 2, 2024 43

Environment

Report links H&M and Zara to major environmental damage in biodiverse Cerrado

A report by U.K. investigative NGO Earthsight links supply chains of fashion giants H&M and Zara to large-scale illegal deforestation, land-grabbing, violence and corruption in Brazil. The country’s Cerrado region, home to a third of Brazil’s species, has already lost half of its vegetation to large-scale agriculture and is under increasing pressure from a booming cotton industry. The two major producers linked to illicit activities, SLC Agrícola and Grupo Horita, […]

April 23, 2024 18

Africa

Locals slam Zimbabwe for turning a blind eye to Chinese miner’s violations

By Tatenda Chitadu At the end of November last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sinomine Resource Group chair Wang Pingwei walked into a lithium processing plant, construction hats firmly on. With a crowd of policymakers, company workers and press looking on, they hailed the mining group’s $300 million investment into processing plants. The facilities will process the ore that the company unearths at its Bikita mine and […]

April 2, 2024 14

Africa

Under the shadow of war in the DRC, a mining company’s actions face impunity

Land grabbing, lack of consultation, communities wiped off maps, and impunity. These are the serious accusations made against the mining company Alphamin Bisie Mining SA by the Indigenous communities of Banamwesi and Motondo, which oversee community forest concessions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Years of complaints by these communities and civil society organizations have been met with no reaction from provincial government officials or […]

March 28, 2024 16

Africa

Foreign mining companies under fire for permit issues in the DRC

An indigenous community in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has accused two foreign-owned mining firms of obtaining licenses without consulting all the communities affected by their activities. The community says the Canadian and South African mining companies have violated the law that stipulates the process of obtaining exploration permits.

March 26, 2024 48