Carolyn Lim, who heads up the group’s company communications, advised Eco-Enterprise that its local weather objectives acquired a stamp of approval from SBTi, which is the world’s foremost arbiter of company web zero objectives consistent with Paris Settlement’s 1.5°C warming restrict, on Monday.
SBTi has confirmed that the corporate has validated its near-term targets and that they need to be revealed inside the subsequent few weeks.
The corporate plans to formally announce its SBTi-approved targets on 3 October, after the discharge of its annual sustainability report this month, mentioned Lim.
Musim Mas has operations in 13 nations and is a provider to many main client manufacturers like Unilever, Nestle and PepsiCo.
Lim mentioned that Musim Mas had already deliberate to combine these validated local weather targets into the important thing efficiency indicators (KPIs) for its inaugural sustainability-linked mortgage (SLL) from Dutch financial institution Rabobank and British lender HSBC.
The KPIs beneath the mortgage settlement, which has come beneath scrutiny for closing earlier than exterior verifiers monitoring progress on the sustainability targets have been recognized, can be reviewed in a couple of years’ time, she added.
SLLs supply corporations a decrease price of borrowing in the event that they meet sure sustainability objectives, equivalent to chopping carbon emissions or bettering board range.
The present KPIs in Musim Mas’ SLL are closely centered on smallholder farmers, which Lim mentioned is a results of each European banks pressuring the corporate to be extra formidable in its inclusion of smallholders, with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) kicking in.
Over the previous decade, Musim Mas is among the many world’s greatest palm oil merchants that has been repeatedly uncovered to unlawful palm oil manufacturing driving the destruction of Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, which is likely one of the most biodiverse locations on Earth.
EUDR requires main exporters of commodities to offer proof that their merchandise haven’t led to forest degradation by late-2024. Lim mentioned that Musim Mas must adjust to the brand new deforestation legislation by subsequent month, as shipments to Europe take about three months.
The palm oil large, which runs one among Indonesia’s most in depth impartial smallholders programmes, first dedicated to setting science-based targets in January 2024. It has additionally pledged to get rid of deforestation in its provide chain since end-2015.
Since 2022, the corporate has been working to finalise its baseline Scope 3 emissions to develop discount targets that can align with SBTi’s Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) steerage, which applies to corporations in land-intensive sectors together with timber, pulp and paper, palm oil and rubber.
Based mostly on Musim Mas’ final sustainability report, Scope 3 emissions, or oblique emissions from its worth chain, make up 91 per cent of its emissions within the baseline 12 months of 2022. This contains emissions from land use adjustments of suppliers – equivalent to changing peatlands into oil palm plantations – in addition to the transportation of uncooked supplies and merchandise to customers.
This validation comes after Malaysian palm oil large Sime Darby Plantation, now generally known as SD Guthrie, received each its near- and long-term web zero targets signed off by the SBTi final December.
The agency has dedicated to chop 100 per cent of its absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions – which consult with emissions from an entity’s personal operations and vitality use c by 2050 and to mitigate any residual Scope 3 emissions via carbon removals or offsets.
SBTi’s flip-flopping on plans to permit for the usage of carbon offsets up to now few months has pissed off the enterprise neighborhood. The main targets validator is now in search of public suggestions on technical papers which confirmed blended proof of their effectiveness in decreasing Scope 3 emissions.
SD Guthrie is among the many first globally to have its FLAG emissions discount targets authorized since Might 2023, when SBTi began requiring corporations to account for land-based emissions individually from vitality and industrial emissions.
Different corporations which have acquired SBTi endorsement on their FLAG targets embrace Dutch brewer Heineken and Japanese beverage firm Asahi Group.
