Projects

Research for PECH Committee: The diversity of detrimental factors impacting the European eel and the number of involved stakeholders pose a challenge for an effective stock management. Knowledge on the economic consequences of single management measures is required to better assess their implications for the involved sectors.

Carrefour SA holds a majority share in Atacadão SA/Carrefour Brasil, the largest retailer in Brazil. Carrefour’s size makes it a major buyer of Brazilian beef and may expose it to deforestation risks, as cattle contributes to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. This report analyses Carrefour’s deforestation risk exposure based on samples collected through store visits. Chain Reaction Research (CRR) visited 48 Carrefour supermarkets in five Brazilian cities, and inspected 480 randomly selected frozen beef products. Data from the product labels establishes supply chain links between Carrefour supermarkets and slaughterhouses located in the Legal Amazon.

This report is an update of the report that was launched in February 2015 by TuK Indonesia. It is about the power of tycoons in the Indonesian palm oil sector.

Being a farmers' bank, Rabobank has invested a lot in the cattle industry - 85% of the Dutch agro industry is financed by this bank. Commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands Profundo has analysed more than 80 (policy)documents of Rabobank.

Brazil is one of the top target countries for farmland investment deals, because of the potential for high yields and productivity. Following the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, institutional investors, including pension funds, university endowments and private equity, invested heavily in newly formed rural real estate corporations. This paper describes the linkages between foreign investments in Brazilian farmland and the deforestation of this farmland since 2000, with a focus on Matopiba, the region consisting of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia.

The Fair Bank Guide is a consumer's tool. More and more consumers consider it of great importance that their bank invests in a sustainable way. The Fair Bank Guide website (www.eerlijkebankwijzer.nl) tries to involve consumers in realising the Fair Bank Guide's goals.

Profundo provided the financial data for the Global Coal Developers list, published by Urgewald on coalexit.org, in cooperation with Banktrack, Les Amis de la Terre, RAN and Re:Common. The financial data concern the loans and underwritings to, and the bondholdings and shareholdings of 120 coal plant developing companies worldwide.

This report ranks world’s 24 biggest insurers on their policies towards fossil fuel (more specifically on coal), underwriting and investing, and other initiatives to tackle the climate change. In Europe, most major insurers have by now taken action on coal. In the US, none of the nine leading insurers assessed have taken any action on coal. Companies like AIG, Chubb, Liberty Mutual and Berkshire Hathaway continue to underwrite and invest in the industry. Asia-Pacific insurers also continue to insure and invest in coal, although there are the first signs of change

This report builds on Chain Reaction Research’s (CRR) company profile on BrasilAgro, published in November 2017. It showed that from 2012 to 2017, BrasilAgro had cleared 21,690 ha of native vegetation in the Brazilian Cerrado. BrasilAgro has faced the risk of losing clients with zero-deforestation commitments, as well as an overvaluation of its land portfolio. This update report shows the continuation of deforestation on BrasilAgro farms since November 2017, and the associated business and financial risks.

The countries, parties to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, have agreed to limit global warming to a maximum of 2°C, and to try to keep it below 1.5°C. Despite the urgent need to act, the measures taken since then are not sufficient to meet these objectives. In the pace of current emissions, we risk exceeding 1.5°C in the coming decades. In 2016 and 2017, the most important French banks (BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société General, BPCE, La Banque Postale and Crédit Mutuel-CIC) have invested € 42.9 billion in fossil fuels and only 11.8 billion euros in renewable energy.

Large palm oil refiners have adopted sourcing policies that require their suppliers to refrain from clearing forests, using peatland or exploiting people. A November 2017 analysis by Chain Reaction Research showed that 74 percent of Indonesian and Malaysian refining capacity is covered by such No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) policies. This report looks at palm oil use in India and Pakistan. It assesses whether these countries are a ‘leakage’ market for unsustainably produced palm oil, who the main palm oil processors are and whether their activities are covered by NDPE policies.