FOCUS ON FORESTS
in association with PEFC
& Double Helix Tracking Technologies
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TREADability:
TRAVEL RESPONSIBLY
for the ENVIRONMENT, ART & DREAMS, with ASIAN JOURNEYS
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Number One: Time is Up For Coal
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Carbon Commentary:
Climate change is in the news more than ever these days, but what worries us is that there is still far too much talk - and talk about commitments - without seeing enough real evidence of any change in direction on the ground or in the air.
US President Joe Biden's Leaders Summit was a good move. As was his move away from Trump's anti-climate rhetoric and the decision to rejoin the Paris Accord.
But as we've been saying - and apparently just hitting our heads against a brick wall for 13 years, since we started all this - time is not on our side.
According to the IEA, we're set for another record year of emissions due to all the fossil fuels we continue to burn.
We discovered last week, for example, that the Asian Development Bank was still investing in fossil fuel projects in the region, despite its stated intention to lead a campaign for Clean Energy for All some years ago. See this 2009 report.
The ASEAN Region is still not doing enough to get itself off its dependence on coal as its primary energy source, despite a lot of private sector regional initiatives to fund clean energy.
The United Kingdom and European Union - previously together, now apart - are showing the way. We can only hope that COP 26 in Scotland in December represents some real change and real commitments that stand the test of time. And now UK has its own Emissions Trading Scheme up and running.
I know this is the first time we've communicated this way for a while. But we haven't been idle. Just diverted by producing a lot of other important content - some of which we'll share with you here - where it's relevant and timely.
As this is our first ABC Carbon Express for 2021, we're determined as ever to keep this online magazine going - even if on a less regular basis. And this time we've decided to share with our loyal followers our other online efforts - Focus on Forests and The Art of Travel.
Stay focussed. Stay active. Don't let the pandemic divert our attention from the climate emergency. It's all connected. It's all for real. Let's collaborate for a change. - Ken Hickson
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TWO. Climate Threats - 99 of the World's 100 Cities Most at Risk are in Asia
Companies operating and investing in Asian cities are going to face an increasingly stiff test to their resilience. According to the first instalment of the Cities@Risk series, which ranks the world’s 576 largest urban centres on their exposure to a range of environmental and climate-related threats, 99 of the world’s 100 riskiest cities are in Asia, including 37 in China and 43 in India. Jakarta (pictured) is sinking faster than any other urban centre in the world. See the full report here.
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THREE. Solar Supply Chain: 45% of the World's Polysilicon Comes from the Chinese Province of Xinjiang
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The world's needs all the solar panels it can get to make a real shift to cleaner, renewable energy. And China has been instrumental in producing most of them and bringing down the cost of solar energy. But the latest report from BBC is worrying. The global production of solar panels is using forced labour from China's Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province, an investigation has found. Xinjiang produces about 45% of the world's supply of the key component, polysilicon, according to a study by the UK's Sheffield Hallam University. Polysilicon is extracted from mined quartz, and the research says the world's four biggest manufacturers use materials tainted by a massive system of coercion. Read more here.
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FOUR. Wildfire Smoke is Killing us Silently, while Forests are Scorched
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Climate Change and the Coronavirus Pandemic came together in 2020 to give us twin global emergencies impacting the environmental and economic health of countries and people everywhere. Now we hear from our old friend Bob Henson - the author of Rough Guide to Climate Change (2008) who made a guest appearance in The ABC of Carbon (2009) - about a "Silent calamity: The health impacts of wildfire smoke". Maybe less dramatic than an inferno's flames - and less obvious than forest and property destruction - far-reaching smoke may be much more deadly and also more costly. Bob reports that an increasing body of evidence in the US suggests that the biggest societal impacts of increasing wild-land fires are happening in our own bodies, the result of tiny particulates spewed in vast amounts. Read all about it.
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FIVE. Banking on Nature to Fight Climate Change
David Fogarty in the Straits Times last month alerted us to this carbon forestry project - perhaps the biggest in the world - with these words: "The vision is grand, the outcome could be just what the planet needs: investing billions of dollars to save vanishing nature and fight climate change at the same time." It's the Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project in Borneo, Indonesia. It involves big players from everywhere, including Singapore, Australia and Switzerland. We need to see more large scale projects like this in Southeast Asia. Also read on CNA how an illegal logger’s switch to a greener job shows a way to save Indonesia’s forests.
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SIX. Setting Science Based Targets in Malaysia and Singapore
Science-based targets provide companies with a clearly-defined path to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals. More than 1,400 businesses around the world are already working with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Who's on board? From Malaysia we see Sarawak Energy, Tai Wah Garment Industry Sdn Bhd and Ramatex. From Singapore there's: APRIL, CapitaLand, CDL, ComfortDelGro, Flex, Olam, SembCorp, SingTel and Zeullig Pharma. SBTi drives ambitious climate action in the private sector by enabling companies to set science-based emissions reduction targets. Read more.
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SEVEN. Only Scientists & Voters can Change the Politics of Catastrophe
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There are parallels in how governments and business have responded to the coronavirus pandemic and how the world needs to face up to the climate emergency. John Thornhill writes in the Financial Times: "As the historian Niall Ferguson writes in his latest book "Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe", the distinction drawn between “natural” and “man-made” disasters is often misleading. What matters is how humans anticipate and react to such events, which are foreseeable in their frequency if not in their particularity. And while it may be tempting to blame such disasters on incompetent leaders, they also reflect a broader societal incapacity to prepare and respond. Read what Andrew Anthony writes in The Observer/The Guardian.
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EIGHT. Germany Must Beef Up Climate Law to Protect Youth
Germany must update its climate law by the end of next year to set out how it will bring carbon emissions down to almost zero by 2050, its top court ruled on 30 April 2021, siding with a young woman who argued rising sea levels would engulf her family farm. The court concluded that a law passed in 2019 had failed to make sufficient provision for cuts beyond 2030, casting a shadow over a signature achievement of Chancellor Angela Merkel's final term in office. Read the Reuters report.
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ABC Carbon is Media Partner for Singapore International Energy Week 2021
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Focus on Forests - Eight of the Best |
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1.
PEFC & UN-REDD Work Together in Lower Mekong:
The UN-REDD Programme involves working with key institutions in five ASEAN countries, and in China, to reduce the opportunities for forest crime by strengthening governance, particularly by increasing the effectiveness of systems designed to ensure legal and sustainable trade in timber. Read the full story in THE ASEAN POST.
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2.
DNA Test & Trace to Save the Endangered African Cherry:
The science of DNA testing to check on crimes of a human kind is now being increasingly utilised to help bring an end to environmental crime or at least to reduce the level of illegal trade. The latest focus of attention is the endangered African cherry – officially known as Prunus africana. Go to Double Helix for more.
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Circular Economy & E-commerce to Support World Furniture:
Ken Hickson writes: If we apply this - the circular economy - to the furniture industry and add in the new norms of e-commerce, we see that we cannot just rely on responsible sourcing or managing a sustainable supply chain right to the end. We have to look beyond the retailer to the consumer to make sure that our products have “lasting qualities”, and that they can be used, reused and/or recycled. Read it all in Panels & Furniture Asia.
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"Restor" the World's Forests to Save the Planet:
Conserve nature. Protect nature. Restore nature. Crowther Labs aims to help generate a better understanding of Earth’s ecology and aim to inspire responsible ecosystem restoration. It's team believes that conserving, protecting and restoring nature can help fight climate change and enhance human health and wellbeing. Read all about Restor.
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5.
Plant the Right Trees in the Right Places:
Reforestation is increasingly popular amid growing recognition of the many convergent environmental crises we’re facing, from climate change to biodiversity loss and water scarcity. The urgency of restoring degraded forests and other ecosystems is such that the UN declared the years from 2021 to 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Read what Mongabay has to say.
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6.
Resurgence & Ecologist: Defending our Forests
Helen Dancer asks in the May/June issue of this respected British magazine: "At a time when we are reaching for Nature as fast as we are losing it, people and states will need to reimagine how ecological approaches to law could be developed and how power could be shared equitably between people and the state in different contexts. Rights of Nature is one possible approach, but it is not without challenges and it needs public support to be an effective legal tool." She goes on to give examples from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Ecuador. Read the rest here.
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7.
Forest Fibre to Fashion in Asia and Europe
PEFC has been highlighting the true value of fibre from forests. Thanks to new technologies, wood-based fibres can be used to produce recyclable, renewable and biodegradable textiles with a low environmental footprint. From Indonesia, Asia Pacific Rayon is taking a fashionable lead. APR’s viscose rayon fiber is widely known as a textile raw material that supports sustainable fashion trends. It also supports the government’s campaign that encourages the use of domestic products. See the May issue of the PEFC Media News Bulletin.
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8.
Amazon Deforestation Rises, as Forest Crime on Increase
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose 43% in April 2021 from the same month a year ago, reports Reuters. In the first four months of 2021, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon totalled 1,157 square kilometres, an area nearly the size of Los Angeles, according to national space research agency Inpe. We hear from Africa that as "the world watches the pandemic, global climate goals are being compromised when it comes to fighting deforestation". Meanwhile, Double Helix Tracking Technologies is doing its best to help manage legal timber trade from South North America, as this story demonstrates.
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I. All the World's a Stage - but not here!
It's great to hear that finally you can go to the theatre - on the West End anyway - but Singapore's attempt to get back on the boards was short-lived. Wild Rice, Pangdemonium and Singapore Repertory Theatre had opened up to smaller audiences, but even the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) had a false start on Friday 14 May before new Government pandemic restrictions came into play two days later for a month, affecting restaurants, bars, cafes, theatres and cinemas. Singapore's wonderful veteran drummer Louis Soliano scraped in with a concert honouring him at the start of SIFA. Read what the Straits Times had to say about that event!
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II. The Art of Cybersecurity
Another big cyber attack - this time on the Colonial energy pipeline. Author of "The 4th Competitive Force For Good" Hendrik Troskie says: "There's an alternative to thinking about business leadership, ethics in business and purpose that has already proved highly efficient and effective in addressing sustainability problems and the environmental crisis. Only then can we stop this dangerous game we are playing." Cyberattacks are second only to the climate emergency as a major business risk, according to the World Economic Forum. And during the pandemic, big cyber attacks have continued apace. See what more Hendrik has to say.
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III: Celebrating Forty Years of Transforming Lives
Books come and books go, but this one had the most memorable take-off ever. Yes, it was the first time a book launch had been conducted at the Hybrid Broadcast Studio at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Thanks to Paul Town. MC was Rachel Kelly and you can catch her reports on Money FM 89.3. There was a live audience restricted to 50, but it was broadcast to thousands in at least 10 countries. What's this all about? The 40th Anniversary commemorative book for the Lions Home of the Elders, authored and published by Ken Hickson and printed by Times Printers on PEFC-certified paper, of course! Read what Floyd Cowan had to say about it online.
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IV: Advice for the Spare-time Writer - from a Scientist who Writes!
Ranjani Rao somehow makes time to write in her spare time. Her day job is as a pharmaceutical scientist and she's been particularly busy with that. But when you have a hobby like writing you have to make time to do it. See her latest Straits Times essay on Motherhood and read about her latest book project and other things she cares about on her Blog. Last month she signed up for a professional photoshoot. Dressing up, smiling for the camera. finding an outdoor spot during a thundershower - all new experiences. See one of the results at left!
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V. Patina Resorts to Sustainability
Floyd Cowan writes that visitors to the Maldives immediately become aware of its precious fragile environment and most guests are sensitive to the need to protect and preserve it. Developer Pontiac Land of Singapore took every imaginable step to be as sustainable as possible. It not only uses PEFC-certified timber, but the onsite James Turrell Skyspace is PEFC Project Certified by Venturer Timberwork of Singapore. DoubleHelix was engaged to verify the flow of certified timber from European forests to the Indian Ocean island, transparently presented by Sourcemap.
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VII: Sustainability in Packaging Asia
Once again PEFC's CEO Ben Gunneberg makes a guest appearance at this virtual event. If you have any questions about the conference, programme or need assistance with your registration, you can visit the conference website
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IIX: Fashions Change, Forests Stay with Sustainable & Renewable Materials
Art on the catwalk and the Art of Sustainability come together in what Asia Pacific Rayon is doing in Indonesia and further afield. In addition to meeting international standards and securing PEFC certification, APR also opened the Jakarta Fashion Hub as a collaborative space to unlock the potential of the domestic fashion, textile and creative industries. This is in addition to the many partnerships and collaborations, like the UNFCCC’s Fashion for Global Climate Action, in which the company is actively involved, as it embeds itself in the sustainable textile and fashion market. Read my article here.
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Tune in to Money FM 89.3 in Singapore on Friday 21 May to hear a report on the first book launch held at the Hybrid Broadcast Studio at Marina Bay Sands on "Celebrating Forty Years of Transforming Lives" by Ken Hickson for the Lions Home For The Elders. |
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STOP PRESS:
NET ZERO BY 2050
A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector
This special report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), released on 18 May 2021, is the world’s first comprehensive study of how to transition to a net zero energy system by 2050 while ensuring stable and affordable energy supplies, providing universal energy access, and enabling robust economic growth. Go here for more.
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