PETALING JAYA: CIMB Bank Bhd and CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd have introduced new Sustainability-Linked Financing (SLF) structures for businesses including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the oil palm and real estate sectors, as well as companies seeking to acquire or upgrade existing properties into green-certified buildings. The enhanced offerings build on CIMB’s RM3bil SLF programme and GreenBizReadyTM proposition, providing businesses with a simpler, more guided and rewarding pathway to adopt sector-relevant sustainable business practices, said the bank in a statement. “The SLF programmes reward customers with attractive financing rebates when they meet pre-determined Sustainability Performance Targets (SPTs), including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. “For the real estate sector, Building Energy Intensity (BEI) has also been introduced as an alternative measure of impact, enabling businesses to demonstrate credible progress in reducing the emissions intensity of their buildings while keeping pace with market expectations.” In addition, CIMB said it is now offering further incentives for businesses that implement sustainability initiatives material to their operations, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste or water management, and recognised sustainability certifications. “By rewarding businesses for sustainability initiatives that contribute towards longer-term emissions reductions, the enhanced SLF structure provides a practical and flexible route for...

PETALING JAYA: As this year’s El Nino weather phenomenon becomes more severe, a number of issues ranging from yield to sustainability practices have come under increasing focus for oil palm players. Kenanga Research has downgraded plantation stocks to a “neutral” from “overweight”, calling for a tactical pause with the KL Plantation Index having performed better than the broader market over recent months. The research house expects higher input costs such as fertiliser prices and a hike in minimum wage to drag profitability lower for a year or two. “The haze since August is evident of droughts and wildfires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Indonesia. The dryness is expected to prevail for another three to six months and its full impact on lowering palm oil yields is often felt 10 months thereafter, or early second-half 2027,” it said, adding that it expects palm oil production to dip by 4% year-on-year in 2027. Kenanga Research noted that plantation stocks’ price to book value (PBV) of 1.3 times comes in at the upper end of the longer term PBV band of 0.9 times to 1.5 times over three to 10 years. While not overly demanding, it pointed that this “is up from 1.2 times...

Solidaridad, a solution-oriented civil society organization, has presented an Oil Palm Sustainable Management Plan (SMP) to the Kogi State Government as part of efforts to promote sustainable and climate-smart oil palm production. The plan was developed under the National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS), a project designed to support smallholder farmers in improving productivity and incomes while strengthening their access to markets. The SMP is structured around four key pillars: environmental stewardship and climate resilience; sustainable economic development and competitiveness; social inclusion, livelihoods, and human rights; and governance, institutions, and policy alignment. The framework seeks to tackle challenges affecting the oil palm sector, including low productivity, deforestation, fragmented and underfunded smallholder farms, weak policy and land-tenure systems, limited use of technology, climate vulnerability, greenhouse gas emissions, poor access to finance, and the aging population of oil palm farmers. Speaking on the initiative, the program manager of Solidaridad Nigeria, Ernest Ita, said the plan was designed to help farmers increase productivity on existing plantations instead of expanding their farms through forest clearance. Ita said assessments conducted by the organization identified aging plantations, poor-quality planting materials, inappropriate use of fertilizers and agrochemicals, deforestation, and insecure land tenure...

Study finds rainforest conversion to palm oil and rubber monoculture means ecosystem collapse and the collapse of food webs.

Study finds rainforest conversion to palm oil and rubber monoculture means ecosystem collapse and the collapse of food webs.

Study finds rainforest conversion to palm oil and rubber monoculture means ecosystem collapse and the collapse of food webs.

Study finds rainforest conversion to palm oil and rubber monoculture means ecosystem collapse and the collapse of food webs.

Study finds rainforest conversion to palm oil and rubber monoculture means ecosystem collapse and the collapse of food webs.

Study finds rainforest conversion to palm oil and rubber monoculture means ecosystem collapse and the collapse of food webs.

Study finds rainforest conversion to palm oil and rubber monoculture means ecosystem collapse and the collapse of food webs.

Study finds rainforest conversion to palm oil and rubber monoculture means ecosystem collapse and the collapse of food webs.

Research shows that future palm oil expansion is a major threat to Africa's tropical forests and their rich primate biodiversity, Fight back boycott palm oil!

In Peninsular Malaysia, a new study published in Cell Biology by a team led by Dr Anna Holzner of German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig has found that infant mo...

In Peninsular Malaysia, a new study published in Cell Biology by a team led by Dr Anna Holzner of German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig has found that infant…

In Peninsular Malaysia, a new study published in Cell Biology by a team led by Dr Anna Holzner of German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig has found that infant…

In Peninsular Malaysia, a new study published in Cell Biology by a team led by Dr Anna Holzner of German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig has found that infant…

In Peninsular Malaysia, a new study published in Cell Biology by a team led by Dr Anna Holzner of German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig has found that infant…

In Peninsular Malaysia, a new study published in Cell Biology by a team led by Dr Anna Holzner of German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig has found that infant…