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- 🪙 [#35] Nickel-and-Diming the Planet
🪙 [#35] Nickel-and-Diming the Planet
🪸 A Coral-ation between Healthy Reefs and Debt Relief
Climate starts with SEA
July 14, 2024
Hello! Halo! Kumusta! Xin chào! สวัสดี! မင်္ဂလာပါ! ជំរាបសួរ! ສະບາຍດີ!
🆕 On this week’s issue, we’ve got a new format in store for you! This issue is lighter-touch—containing roughly half the words that we typically would have on our previous issues.
⛵ Rather than diving deep on a particular topic, we’re going to sail across the SEA current affairs related to climate, environment, and sustainability.
🤿 We’ll be sticking with this new format for on a weekly basis going forward, while publishing our deeper dive issues on a monthly basis.
This week, we’ve got the following…
📰 News headlines:
🪸 The Coral-ation between healthy reefs and debt relief
🪙 Nickel-and-diming the planet
🍼 Unilever? More like ew-nilever
🌞 Brighter days ahead for Vietnam’s solar space
🚢 Not a very merry time in Philippines' maritime affairs with China
💰 Climate funding updates:
🌏 Nika.eco, a Singapore-based ClimateTech startup providing geospatial climate data and carbon modelling powered by AI
☀️ Nami Energy, a Vietnam-based renewable energy venture providing both solar & wind solutions to clients across the country
📢 Other voices:
🎙️ A podcast interview from another fellow who’s making waves in the climate space
🌊 What’s making waves across SEA this week?
We’ve got 3 headlines from Indonesia, 1 from Vietnam and 1 from the Philippines… Let’s dive in!
💱 The US Treasury’s deal with Indonesia to forgive $35M of debt over nearly a decade in exchange for restoring degraded coral reefs might sound like a highly unique arrangement, however, it’s actually the 4th time that they’ve made such a deal.
So how does it work exactly? Well it’s as simple as it sounds, in fact it can be summarized in the meme below…
⛏️ Indonesia, the largest nickel producing country in the world, generated around 1.8M metric tons of nickel last year (Statista, 2024). Nickel is of course a critical mineral used in battery manufacturing, with Indonesia enacting a law to ban the export of the raw material in order to incentivize “hilirisasi” (bahasa for down-streaming) (Kompas, 2024).
☢️ However, this has come at a human and environmental cost in Sulawesi, Indonesia, which was journaled excellently in the Rest of World’s reporting in 2022. Such bad PR has ultimately led to a German & French company pulling out of a $2.6B nickel refining deal. It’s important to note that most of the refining companies are Chinese, not European though and tend to be less sensitive to ESG pressures.
🚮 Unilever, the multinational FMCG company, has had a major impact on Indonesia’s plastic waste. Bali-based NGO, Sungai Watch, recently conducted an audit of all of the river waste that they had collected and found that Unilever was indeed amongst the top polluters (TKN PSL, 2024). Another NGO, Greenpeace, has been protesting at Unilever’s Indonesia headquarters, lamenting the flood of single-use plastic that the company is unleashing on Indonesian consumers.
🧑🏻⚖️ Last week, while one of our authors (Massimiliano) was in Vietnam, a new policy was launched to liberalize Vietnam’s energy markets: direct power purchase agreements (DPPAs).
⚡ Due to a massive renewable energy construction spree from 2018 to 2022, Vietnam is now home to over 2/3rd of Southeast Asia’s 34 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy production (Global Energy Monitor, 2024). However, there’s been a lack of clarity around energy prices and market mechanisms since this, which has led to large solar & wind plants laying dormant. The hope is that this regulatory shift with DPPAs—alongside other similar liberalizing policies—will allow the market to operate more efficiently.
🌅 Later on in the issue, there’s a related funding update with a Vietnamese solar venture…
🌊 Unlike the more positive coral news in Indonesia, the Philippines is experiencing some rough waters. The South China Sea has been home to territorial disputes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors for the past half century.
🛢️ The area is a resource-rich region, home to an estimated 11 billion barrels of untapped oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (CFR, 2024).
News for humans, by humans.
Today's news.
Edited to be unbiased as humanly possible.
Every morning, we triple-check headlines, stories, and sources for bias.
All by hand with no algorithms.
💸 Funding Updates
🌏 Nika.eco, a Singapore-based ClimateTech startup providing geospatial climate data and carbon modelling powered by AI has raised an undisclosed amount in an oversubscribed seed round in a round led by Silverstrand Capital—a family office that we featured in our biodiversity issue.
☀️ Nami Energy, a Vietnam-based renewable energy venture providing both solar & wind solutions to clients across the country has raised $10M from Clime Capital’s Southeast Asia Clean Energy Fund II. It’s worth noting that only a couple of weeks ago, Xurya, an Indonesia-based solar energy venture, raised $55M from this same fund.
🚀 All-in-all, positive news for solar funding from across the region! In case you’re keen to learn more about solar in Southeast Asia, be sure to check out our solar issue that we co-authored with Helios.
📢 Other Voices
🎙️ You may recall the name, Wavemaker Impact, from our Climate Venture Building issue, in which we interviewed Marie. Her colleague, Steve, was recently interviewed on Eco-Business’s podcast, where he discusses the state of ClimateTech in Southeast Asia. It’s a must listen, check it out below!
⏭️ Next week, we’ll be continuing our energy transition series in a deep dive issue with Steward Redqueen, in which we’ll be discussing the importance of transmission and grid infrastructure.
❓ Did you enjoy this week’s issue? If yes, please do forward to your friends who would enjoy the read as well.
📧 Also, feel free to let us know what you thought by giving us feedback at [email protected].
🌊 SEA you next week!
Karina & Massimiliano