2024-07-01 12:07

July 1 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O) New Tab, opens new tab has become the first company to sidestep a global standard for verifying carbon offsets that was developed by a non-profit funded largely by the U.S. technology conglomerate's founder and executive chair, Jeff Bezos. Amazon is backing the development of a new standard that could allow the online retailer and cloud-computing provider to overcome a dearth of supply for quality-labeled offsets, enabling it to meet its target of cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions to zero on a net basis by 2040. Critics worry that the move could lead to market confusion and a compromise in the standards of carbon offsets. Companies under pressure to curb their emissions can buy credits from developers of projects that absorb carbon, such as through reforestation. The market for offsets has remained small due to a limited number of projects that can verify their climate benefits. Amazon told Reuters it has completed work on Abacus, a framework for verifying the quality of carbon offsets in reforestation and agroforestry. Amazon developed the standard with carbon registry Verra as an alternative to one developed by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), the world's biggest grouping of private sector and environmental groups dedicated to validating carbon offsets. Verra first announced it was developing the label with Amazon and its Abacus working group in 2022. Bezos, through his $10-billion Earth Fund that he set up to tackle climate change, is one of ICVCM's biggest donors, having plowed at least $11 million into ICVCM and sister organization Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative since their 2021 launch. Jamey Mulligan, Amazon's head of carbon neutralization, said in an interview that the company evaluated and supported ICVCM's work, but that it wanted a more ambitious standard. "We want to ensure that every credit investment has a real, conservatively quantified and verified impact on emissions," Mulligan said. He declined to comment on whether Bezos was involved in Amazon's decision. Bezos could not be reached for comment. Alphabet (GOOGL.O) New Tab, opens new tab, Meta (META.O) New Tab, opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O) New Tab, opens new tab and Salesforce (CRM.N) New Tab, opens new tab have said they plan to buy up to 20 million metric tons of Abacus-certified credits. Pedro Martins Barata, co-chair of ICVCM's panel of experts, said he was worried about development of an alternative standard and that he hoped that Abacus would eventually be folded into ICVCM. "Otherwise, you get again into a confusing state in the market where each set of companies will find their own standards they want to support and they will say that they're a particular type of quality," he said. Martins Barata added that ICVCM was reviewing Verra's methodology for developing carbon offsets from agroforestry and reforestation projects, and that if it approves it this could make the Abacus label compatible with ICVCM's label. Kelley Kizzier, director of corporate action and markets at Bezos Earth Fund and a member of ICVCM's board, said Abacus is complementary rather than competitive to ICVCM. She also declined to comment on Bezos' role. "What we need to focus on is generating high-integrity (offsets). There is room for lots of actors to do that," Kizzier said. The label will be available within weeks, Verra said. OFFSET MARKET The $2-billion market for voluntary carbon offsets has remained small amid concerns by companies and investors that the underlying projects may not curb as many emissions as they claim. The market accounts for offsetting 300 million metric tons of emissions annually, according to an Environmental Defense Fund analysis of data from financial information provider MSCI. Yet only a fraction of those offsets are verified, with ICVCM's main quality label, CCP, accounting for 27 million tons. "My main concern with the strategy remains with the idea that the purchase of these credits somehow 'neutralizes' Amazon's impact. I don't think it does," said Gilles Dufrasne, policy lead at environmental non-profit Carbon Market Watch. Deborah Lawrence, chief scientist at credit ratings firm Calyx Global, welcomed the label's requirement to make public data on how much carbon the projects store but said it still had questions about Abacus’ ability to ensure the carbon removals are permanent. "Their permanence position requires further investigation," she said. "The way it is phrased is giving us pause, but their annual monitoring and making the results public are great ideas and raise the bar." Amazon generated 71.3 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in 2022, according to its latest sustainability report, of which 54.98 million tons came from its supply chain. It will take two to three years for projects to qualify for the Abacus label because many rely on trees growing and then developers proving how much carbon they absorb. Mulligan said Amazon could become one of the biggest carbon-credit buyers, but that it would not use them in place of the company's efforts to decarbonise its business. He added that Amazon is currently reviewing more than 70 proposals from developers and expects to restore tens of thousands of hectares of degraded land. Any developer can apply for the Abacus label provided they meet requirements of Verra's methodology, which the Abacus working group, a team of scientists, non-governmental organizations and industry specialists helped develop. Eron Bloomgarden, founder of Emergent, a not-for-profit organization that mobilizes private-sector funding for forest countries, said Abacus would help grow the carbon-offset market. "The work of ICVCM is important but it's insufficient for the growth of the market, because what we are trying to do is solve big existential challenges like climate change and biodiversity extinction," he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/amazon-sidesteps-carbon-offset-standard-bezos-helped-fund-2024-07-01/

2024-07-01 12:06

MILAN, July 1 (Reuters) - Mesh, a U.S. fintech whose investors include PayPal Ventures, will provide customers of Italian digital asset wallet Conio access to several leading crypto exchanges, such as Binance or Coinbase, the two companies said on Monday. The partnership will allow Conio's 430,000 Italian customers to access 10 leading crypto currency trading platforms through the Conio App, the companies said. Customers will be able to instantly transfer any bitcoin they buy on the exchanges into their Conio wallet, rather than having to scan a QR code or go through other measures as at present. Conio is backed by Italian postal service Poste Italiane (PST.MI) New Tab, opens new tab and asset manager Banca Generali (BGN.MI) New Tab, opens new tab. By using open banking technology which allows the sharing of financial data, a single Mesh account can authenticate users into more than 300 centralized crypto exchanges and self-custody wallets. Conio currently only provides custody services for digital assets such as bitcoin. "With our partnership with Conio, we are deploying the infrastructure to make safe and seamless aggregation and crypto transfers possible for hundreds of thousands of users in the region," Mesh founder Bam Azizi said. Conio said a study by crypto industry association Adan and consultancy KPMG showed that two thirds of Italians who have purchased cryptocurrencies store their bitcoin on the exchanges they used to buy them, rather than having personal wallets. The Italian figure is similar to 63% in France's or 69% in Britain, Conio said, adding it was necessary to increase awareness regarding digital asset safety. Conio has developed a system that would keep users' crypto assets safe even if the company itself ceased to exist, Conio General Manager Orlando Merone told Reuters. The collapse of leading crypto exchange FTX in 2022 inflicted billions of dollars of losses on its customers. PayPal Ventures is PayPal's global corporate venture arm and invests in promising start-ups in fields that are of interest for the U.S. payments company. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/paypal-ventures-backed-fintech-mesh-partners-with-italys-crypto-wallet-conio-2024-07-01/

2024-07-01 11:59

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - Tata Steel workers in Britain suspended a planned all-out strike and overtime ban on Monday, following a warning from the company that it would bring forward the planned closure of its two blast furnaces in the country if the walkouts went ahead. Workers at the Port Talbot and Llanwern sites in Wales, represented by the Unite union, are locked in a dispute with India-owned Tata Steel over its decision to close the blast furnaces and cut up to 2,800 jobs. Around 1,500 workers at the sites, who had already begun an overtime ban on June 17, were also due to start an indefinite strike from July 8. But the union said it had paused industrial action after confirmation from the company that it was prepared to enter talks about "future investment for its operations and not just redundancies". "This is a significant development in the battle to protect jobs and the long-term future of steel making in South Wales," Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said. "It is essential that these talks progress swiftly and in good faith with the focus on fresh investment and ensuring the long-term continuation of steel making in South Wales." A spokesperson for the company, which had also threatened legal action challenging the validity of Unite's strike ballot, welcomed the union's move to suspend strikes. "Given we can now be confident of ensuring appropriate resourcing of activities to operate safely, we will halt preparations for the early cessation of operations on Blast Furnace 4 and the wider heavy end in Port Talbot," they said. The resumption of talks will "focus on the future investments and aspirations for the business, and not on a renegotiation of our existing plan for the heavy-end closure or the enhanced employment support terms", the spokesperson added. The company, which employs over 8,000 people in Britain, has previously said that its steelmaking assets were near the end of their life, operationally unstable and causing unsustainable losses of 1 million pounds ($1.26 million) a day. ($1 = 0.7915 pounds) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/tata-steel-workers-uk-suspend-strike-action-pa-media-citing-union-2024-07-01/

2024-07-01 11:54

KINGSTON/PORT OF SPAIN, July 1 (Reuters) - Hurricane Beryl strengthened on Monday into a "potentially catastrophic" category 5 storm as it moved across the eastern Caribbean, putting Jamaica near its path after downing power lines and flooding streets elsewhere. Beryl brings an unusually fierce and early start to this year's Atlantic hurricane season, with scientists saying climate change probably contributed to the rapid pace of its formation as global warming has boosted North Atlantic temperatures. By 11:00 AST (0300 GMT) on Monday, Beryl, packing winds of up to 160 mph (257 kph), was about 840 miles (1,352 km) east-southeast of Kingston, the Jamaican capital, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The storm struck the Caribbean region earlier in the day as the earliest Category 4 storm on record, rated on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale. "Beryl is now a potentially catastrophic Category 5 hurricane," the NHC said in a statement, adding that it was expected to bring life-threatening winds and a storm surge to Jamaica later this week. The storm could dump 4 inches to 8 inches (10 cm to 20 cm) of rain on Wednesday, rising to as much as 12 inches (31 cm) in some areas, it said. On its way, Beryl is expected to soak the island of Hispaniola on Tuesday in 2 inches to 6 inches (5 cm to 15 cm) of rain, as it moves west-northwest at nearly 22 mph (35 kph), the Miami-based hurricane center said. Jamaica issued a hurricane warning on Monday, while tropical storm warnings were in effect for parts of the southern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. At the Chillin' restaurant in Kingston, waiter Welton Anderson said he felt calm despite the hurricane's approach. "Jamaicans wait until the last minute," he said. "The night before or in the morning, the panic sets in. It's because we're used to this." Across other islands in the eastern Caribbean, residents had boarded up windows, stocked up on food and fuelled up cars as the storm approached. Earlier on Monday, vehicles were seen driving through a flooded boardwalk in Bridgetown, Barbados. The St. Vincent community of Prospect reported roofs ripped off buildings and power cuts in some areas. In Grenada, a Reuters reporter said power was down islandwide. Officials in Mexico began to prepare for Beryl's arrival this week, with the federal government urging "extreme caution" on authorities and people. Mexico is now assessing damage in its states of Oaxaca and Veracruz from heavy rain brought by former tropical storm Chris. "What worries us is that basins are already saturated," said Cutberto Ruiz, chief of meteorology at Oaxaca's civil protection agency. "Then, with minimal rain ... rivers will rise." CLIMATE CHANGE Global warming has helped push temperatures in the North Atlantic to all-time highs, causing more surface water to evaporate, which in turn provides additional fuel for more intense hurricanes with higher wind speeds. In May, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic this year, also pointing to unseasonably high ocean temperatures. Scientists surveyed by Reuters see the powerful hurricane Beryl as a harbinger of an unusually active hurricane season made possible by record high temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean. "Climate change is loading the dice for more intense hurricanes to form," said Christopher Rozoff, an atmospheric scientist at the United States' National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Beryl jumped from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm in less than 10 hours, said Andra Garner, a meteorologist based in New Jersey. Scientists have already predicted that events like Beryl will grow more likely with climate change, added Garner, whose research has shown rising water temperatures over the last five decades have made it more than twice as likely for weak storms to grow into major hurricanes within less than 24 hours. On the island of Tobago, a hotel and tourism group said limited damage had been reported to hotel properties. "The eastern side of the island got the most battering and the seas remain dangerous," said Curtis Douglas, president of the All Tobago Fisherfolk Association. "Fisherfolk got sufficient warning and were able to remove their boats from the water." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/extremely-dangerous-hurricane-beryl-hurtles-towards-caribbean-2024-07-01/

2024-07-01 11:44

MUMBAI, July 1 (Reuters) - India is likely to receive above-average rainfall in July after receiving 11% below average in June, the weather department said on Monday, keeping alive the possibility of higher farm output and economic growth in Asia's third-biggest economy. All regions except northeastern states are likely to receive rainfall equating to more than 106% of the 50-year average in July, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), told a virtual news conference. Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia's third-largest economy, usually begin in the south around June 1 before spreading nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane. The monsoon has covered nearly all parts of the country and will reach the remaining parts of the northern states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab in the next two to three days, ahead of the usual schedule, Mohapatra said. In June India received 11% less rain than the average, with all regions except the south receiving below-average rain after the monsoon lost momentum in mid-June. A few states, such as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the foothills of the Himalayas, are likely to receive heavy rainfall in July, which could lead to landslides and floods, Mohapatra said. At least 11 people died in New Delhi because of sudden heavy rain last week while flight operations were disrupted in the Indian capital. La Nina weather pattern is likely to develop during the second half of the monsoon season, which usually boosts rainfall, he added. The lifeblood of the nearly $3.5 trillion economy, the monsoon brings nearly 70% of the rain India needs to water farms and refill reservoirs and aquifers. Without irrigation, nearly half of the farmland in the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run from June to September. The planting of summer-sown crops was delayed in some states because of patchy rainfall, but the ongoing revival in rainfall will help farmers to accelerate the sowing of paddy, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane, said one Mumabi-based dealer with a global trade house. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-likely-receive-above-average-rainfall-july-says-weather-office-2024-07-01/

2024-07-01 11:41

NEW DELHI, July 1 (Reuters) - New Delhi's main domestic terminal is likely to remain shut for a few weeks with debris still scattered outside the airport following last week's roof collapse, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday. A portion of the roof, canopy and several beams at the domestic terminal 1 collapsed after heavy rain in the Indian capital on Friday, killing one person, crushing cars and disrupting flights ever since. The incident has put a spotlight on challenges Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government faces to overhaul infrastructure projects and has raised concerns about lax regulation and compliance issues. The recently expanded terminal is mostly used by low-cost carriers IndiGo (INGL.NS) New Tab, opens new tab and SpiceJet (SPJT.BO) New Tab, opens new tab, and has a capacity to handle 40 million passengers annually, but its closure is set to increase pressure on two other terminals from where domestic flights also operate. A source at GMR Airports Infrastructure (GMRI.NS) New Tab, opens new tab, which operates the airport, said "it could take few weeks, if the issue is small but very likely that it could take beyond a month if the problem is major". "No matter how much time it takes, the terminal will not be re-opened until everything has been checked thoroughly," the person added. GMR said in a statement that it was "too early" to provide details of when the terminal could resume operations. Delhi airport handles 1,400 flights a day across its three terminals. Flight operations from T1 were currently limited to less than 15% of the total as they were gradually resuming after the recent expansion and refurbishment. More than 22,000 passengers have been affected in the past three days, with around 90 flights moved to other terminals, government data shows. On Monday, a Reuters photographer was not permitted to enter the accident site as the area has been cordoned off by authorities. The second source said that the debris would not be removed until an inspection was complete, which was likely to take a few weeks. IndiGo and SpiceJet said their passengers were being informed about terminal changes. However, on Monday, two passengers told Reuters near T1 they had no information on any change in their departure terminal. "I'm running late and it will affect my timing to board my flight," said Satyam, a 22-year old student who only gave his first name. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/new-delhis-domestic-airport-terminal-likely-be-shut-few-weeks-sources-say-2024-07-01/