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Business Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Issue 148: South-east Asia's strategic bet on sustainability; Sembcorp's renewables win analysts' calls
This week in ESG: Top South-east Asian representatives reaffirm commitment to sustainability; Goldman Sachs initiates 'buy' call on Sembcorp Industries Sustainable finance South-east Asia's crisis opportunities The current atmosphere of political and economic uncertainty around the world gives South-east Asia an opportunity to invest in a more sustainable and resilient future. But policymakers and regulators must take the lead with clear goals and credible plans. Top South-east Asian representatives at the recent Ecosperity conference sought to reaffirm the region's commitment to sustainable finance. Malaysia's Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad urged protection of South-east Asia's population and coastal cities, and said that climate cooperation must 'continue in tandem' with resolving tariff issues. Malaysia is the current chair of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean). Also at the conference, representatives of the Asean Taxonomy Board (ATB) made the case that enhancement of the region's eligibility definitions for sustainable finance continues apace. Mardini Haji Eddie, current ATB chair and deputy managing director for monetary operations, development and international at Brunei's central bank, gave insight into a new digital tool provided by ATB to help map activities across different taxonomies. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 12.30 pm ESG Insights An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues. Sign Up Sign Up Eugene Wong, chief executive of the Sustainable Finance Institute Asia (SFIA), the think tank that hosts the ATB, said that Asean intends to hold the line as a vocal leader on sustainable finance. The common message: Sustainability and sustainable finance in South-east Asia are still very much in business. Tariffs and unpredictable policy from the US threaten to dampen business investment and consumer demand around the world, with fears of a global recession. An economic slowdown could prompt governments to provide fiscal support. If so, fiscal responses in South-east Asia should include investments and spending in sustainable development to ensure that policy support goes towards strengthening the region's economies for future conditions. This could be the time to step up investments in climate adaptation and resilience. South-east Asia has an elevated exposure to climate risk, several studies have shown. For instance, the Philippines and Indonesia consistently top the World Risk Index, which measures exposure and vulnerability to natural disasters. Of the 10 Asean member states, only three – Brunei, Laos and Singapore – have less risk than the global median in the index. A working paper by the Asian Development Bank estimates that economic losses due to climate change in 2100 in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand could be more than 15 per cent of GDP under a low-emissions scenario and more than 55 per cent of GDP under a high-emissions scenario. Despite those risks, adaptation spending in the region is sorely lacking. The strategic use of public funds to finance and catalyse investments in climate adaptation and resilience can address several needs at the same time. There is also an opportunity to accelerate the development of nature financing in the region, which is rich in natural resources and is highly dependent on agriculture and mining. Protecting and improving the resilience of the region's natural capital is a sound long-term investment. As SFIA's Wong also highlighted, addressing social development goals should also be on the agenda. When times are tough, supporting and uplifting the more vulnerable parts of society aren't merely humane policies, they're also good economic ones. But for all the positive messaging that South-east Asia is sending out, bold words must be backed by bold action. The region's governments need to commit to clear national climate targets and strategies, and apply those ambitions through credible policies. To date, Singapore is the only South-east Asian country that has submitted its 2035 National Determined Contribution (NDC) under the requirements of the Paris Agreement. The rest of South-east Asia will have to demonstrate their seriousness in dealing with climate change when they submit theirs. Across borders, greater regional collaboration on energy transition issues – including the Asean power grid and carbon market development – will help to improve impact and attract capital at larger scales. In burgeoning areas of sustainable finance, including nature and social financing, the markets need more public-private efforts to develop financing taxonomies and pathways that can enable buyers and sellers to transact with confidence. Every cloud has a silver lining, and every crisis has its opportunities. Played right, the current storm could set South-east Asia on a more sustainable course for the future. Sustainable investing Sembcorp's renewables prospects earn 'buy' calls Sembcorp Industries' performance as a renewables player is helping the company to attract attention from analysts. Goldman Sachs has just initiated coverage on the Singapore-listed stock with a 'buy' recommendation and a target price of S$8.40, representing a premium of 28 per cent above the May 13 closing price of S$6.57. DBS also has a 'buy' call on the stock, and HSBC has picked it as a top defensive play amid US tariffs. Sembcorp, whose net profit rose 7 per cent in 2024 to S$1 billion, has a diversified portfolio, which the analysts like. That diversification allows Sembcorp to buffer headwinds in China, where increasing curtailment – forced reductions in power generation due to oversupply – has hit returns. At the same time, Sembcorp is in markets with favourable dynamics such as India, the Middle East, the Philippines and the United Kingdom, Goldman Sachs says. At home, Sembcorp also holds a strong position in the Singapore power generation and natural gas import markets. The growth is supported by expectations of stable income due to long-term power purchase agreements. The analysts estimate that about 70 per cent of profits in the next few years could come from fixed-return contracts. To further sweeten the pie, there is potential for one-off gains from selling assets given that capital recycling is a stated strategy for Sembcorp. Investors in Sembcorp have done well so far this year. As at end-April, Sembcorp shares gained 19.6 per cent, outperforming a 1.2 per cent increase in the Straits Times Index over the same period. Other ESG reads
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The ‘doomsday' seed vault in Svalbard just added thousands of climate-hardy crops
Three times a year, a fortress within the remote mountainside of a Norwegian island opens its doors to a select few. Such infrequency is intentional. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault preserves more than 1.3 million samples in what is the world's most secure stash of seeds. Far above the Arctic Circle, tucked away in the permafrost, this underground 'doomsday' facility is built to outlast everything from climate disasters to civil wars. The first vault opening of the year came Tuesday, when government officials and scientists, traveling great distances from countries like Brazil, Malawi, and the Philippines gathered to make a deposit. Their contribution of 14,022 samples from 21 gene banks around the world added to what is already the planet's largest collection dedicated to long-term seed storage. Organizers say Svalbard's growing stockpile, which includes traditional crops such as millet and drought-tolerant legumes, known colloquially as 'opportunity crops,' will ensure future farmers have what they need to adapt to an increasingly unpredictable climate. Even as the Trump administration slashes support for climate-related research and guts the U.S. Agency for International Development and Department of Agriculture, safeguarding crop diversity remains a priority for much of the international community. This deposit is 'about more than storing seeds,' said Stefan Schmitz, executive director of Crop Trust, the nonprofit organization that helps manage the vault alongside the Norwegian government and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center. 'It's about defusing a ticking time bomb that threatens our global food system … protecting crop diversity is a global imperative. We must defend and preserve these genetic resources to prevent our fragile world from becoming even more unstable.' He told Grist that now is the time for 'decision-makers around the world to recognize the urgency and take action together to secure the future of food.' The latest additions include sorghum and pearl millet shipped from Sudan's crop gene bank, nearly destroyed during the country's civil war. The delegation from Malawi, where a barrage of extreme weather events have throttled subsistence farmers and deepened a hunger crisis, provided 'velvet beans,' a nitrogen-fixing legume that acts as a natural fertilizer. Staple varieties of rice, beans and maize came from Brazil, where such crops are seeing major yield losses. And the Philippines deposited sorghum, eggplant, and lima beans from a gene bank already ravaged by typhoons. 'In the face of climate change, which we are already feeling with all the extreme weather conditions in the Philippines, it becomes more pressing to duplicate these collections in other gene banks like Svalbard to safeguard [them],' Hidelisa de Chavez, a researcher at the University of the Philippines' National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory, or NPGRL, told Grist. For 16 straight years, the Philippines has ranked highest on the World Risk Index, which measures countries' vulnerability to extreme weather. In 2006, Typhoon Xangsane flooded the laboratory's main research building in Los Baños, almost wiping out the collection, said de Chavez: 'The whole gene bank was submerged in mud and water.' The damage and subsequent loss of power caused the 'irreversible' loss of several traditional varieties of crops, with some 70 percent of the collection ruined. The NPGRL has sent roughly 1,000 genetic samples of crops to Svalbard as part of an initiative led by Crop Trust to help 'future-proof the world's food supply.' Ahead of Tuesday's deposit, de Chavez's team prepared a selection of sorghum, lima beans, eggplant and rice beans. Each is woven into the livelihoods and food culture of Indigenous and rural communities across the Philippines. Even so, the lab is not contributing about half as many samples as it would like to because climate change is making it harder to grow what it would like to preserve. This trip saw de Chavez deposit just 75, as compared to 983 last year. Haunted by the lingering ghosts of one disastrous typhoon and the looming specters of those to come, every storm season sees de Chavez increasingly fearful for the vulnerable crops she works to preserve. It gives her peace of mind to know samples of Filipino food staples now sit in an underground safe near the North Pole. Though the vault faces escalating risks and speculation over its ability to withstand the wrath of a warming planet, she still thinks the seeds stored at Svalbard have a much greater shot at prevailing there than anywhere else on Earth. 'Given climate change and the extreme weather conditions, we cannot say that these crops will still be available for future generations, so we have to continue conserving,' said de Chavez. 'If this disappears in the field, what would be our alternative, if we don't have it conserved? We cannot go back.' This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The 'doomsday' seed vault in Svalbard just added thousands of climate-hardy crops on Feb 26, 2025.
