Banks have faced increasing criticism in recent years over their ongoing financial support for environmentally destructive industries, but by tweaking their practices they could become part a critical part of the solution to escalating deforestation and habitat destruction worldwide.
That is the core message this month from research by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), which outlines a set of five key actions banks and other financial firms can take to help respond to the biodiversity and climate crises, de-risking their investments in the process.
Released in mid-January, the report from CISL s Centre for Sustainable Finance focuses on soft commodities, such as palm oil, soy, beef and timber products, which are responsible for most deforestation worldwide caused by commercial agriculture.
It has now been confirmed that South Africa has entered a second wave of Covid-19, with an increase in the number of infections, daily. In the midst of the crisis caused by this global pandemic, a wide range of solutions are required to mitigate the risk of exposure to the virus – from developing low-cost ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), as well as understanding how the virus is transmitted and the rate of infection.
In light of this, a joint team from the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Faculty of Engineering and the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) at the University of the Witwatersrand has developed an interdisciplinary research project that seeks to estimate the time evolving probability of infection using droplets and surface films in selected environments.