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Nestle pilots cash incentives program for coffee farmers in sustainability drive
Nestle is piloting a scheme to give cash to coffee farmers who grow beans sustainably as part of its plan to halve greenhouse gas emissions in its coffee business by 2030, the food company said on Tuesday.
The move comes as major consumer goods companies face increased reputational and legal pressure to clean up their supply chains globally.
Nestle, the world’s largest packaged food company has pledged to spend $1 billion by 2030 on its plan to source coffee sustainably, which now includes efforts to boost farmer income.
The company said it has, under the plan, offered some 3,000 coffee farmers in developing countries like Ivory Coast, Indonesia and Mexico conditional cash incentives to encourage them to transition to regenerative agricultural practices.
These include using organic fertilisers to improve soil fertility, planting shade trees that protect coffee beans and intercropping to preserve biodiversity. The latter two measures also aim to give farmers additional revenue streams.
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“We have observed encouraging trends, including improved incomes in some countries, and increased adoption of important regenerative practices,” said environmental group Rainforest Alliance, which helps Nestle conduct impact assessments.
A major coffee report published in 2021 said there was little evidence that efforts by the world’s top coffee firms to protect human rights and the environment were having any impact, with most farmers unable to fund sustainable coffee farming.
Partly as a result of failed voluntary efforts by companies to source sustainably, the European Union has agreed a landmark law aimed at preventing companies importing commodities and related products linked to deforestation anywhere in the world.
The coffee sector is valued at $200-250 billion a year at the retail level, based on the report, but producing countries receive less than 10% of that value when exporting beans, and farmers even less than that.
Around 125 million people around the world depend on coffee for their livelihoods, while an estimated 80% of coffee-farming families live at or below the poverty line, according to non-profit organisations Fairtrade and Technoserve.
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World
Russia sinks space nuke ban at UN amid rumors of Putin's orbital weapon
A U.S.-led resolution that would prevent using nuclear weapons in outer space received dozens of co-sponsors, but Russia vetoed the measure amid reports it has deployed a weapon that can destroy satellites.
“The detonation of a nuclear weapon in space would destroy satellites that are vital to communications, agriculture, national security, and more worldwide, with grave implications for sustainable development, and other aspects of international peace and security,” the U.S. Mission to the United Nations wrote in a press release prior to the vote.
“The diverse group of cosponsors of this resolution reflects the strong shared interest in avoiding such an outcome,” the statement read. “We join these Member States in calling on the Security Council to meet this moment today and adopt the resolution unanimously, consistent with its mandate to maintain international peace and security.”
The U.S. and Japan presented the resolution to the U.N. Security Council for a vote on Wednesday, but Russia shot the measure down. Prior to the vote, Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky reported that his country’s initial impression was that the resolution served as “yet another propaganda stunt by Washington” and called it a “very politicized” effort “divorced from reality,” The Associated Press reported.
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The draft resolution, which received backing from 60 member states, states that “the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security.” It affirms that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations.
The tug-of-war over hypothetical space-based weapons follows claims from the White House in February that Russia had deployed a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon – though no one has yet confirmed the weapon is operational or even in a testing phase.
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The weapon would allegedly be capable of destroying satellites by creating a massive energy wave when detonated, Foreign Policy reported. The weapon could therefore potentially cripple countless other satellites that serve both commercial and government purposes, including cellphone use and internet access.
Russia at the time argued that it would uphold the international 1967 treaty, which bans the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” into orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”
“Our position is quite clear and transparent: we have always been and remain categorically opposed to the deployment of nuclear weapons in space,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in February. “Just the opposite, we are urging everyone to adhere to all the agreements that exist in this sphere.”
However, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu cryptically added at another time that Russia has only developed space capabilities that “other nations, including the U.S., have.”
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U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres later warned that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”
Putin, throughout the conflict with Ukraine, has dangled threats of nuclear weapons. He said that “from a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” when asked in March about a potential nuclear war.
Putin has used the threat of nuclear weapons in Ukraine as a means of preventing more direct intervention from the U.S. and other NATO allies, repeatedly stressing that any deployment of troops or similar more direct moves against Russia would be viewed as intervening in the war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
What do newly approved anti-money laundering rules cover?
EU lawmakers voted in a landslide in favour of new curbs on crypto, football clubs and cash transactions.
EU lawmakers today voted 482 to 47 to set up a long-promised EU anti-money laundering agency, as part of a package that would also see large cash payments banned across Europe.
The move – taken by MEPs at their last voting session before June elections – means new rules apply for football deals and crypto transactions, as the bloc seeks to repair its reputation after a series of financial-sector scandals.
“Dirty money finances terrible crimes,” EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness said, adding that there was an “absolute imperative to improve significantly on the current situation”.
Those views seemed largely shared across the political divide – including by Damien Carême (France/Greens), one of the MEPs who led negotiations.
Terrorists and fraudsters “exploit the loopholes in European legislation”, Carême told lawmakers. “We have to act decisively to ensure a robust system.”
What do new EU money-laundering rules do?
New rules include a limit on professional traders accepting or paying cash for any transaction over €10,000 – given that big wads of untraceable banknotes can send alarm bells over financial crime.
Some lawmakers claim that’s an attack on financial freedom.
“Keep your hands off our cash and our digital currencies,” Patrick Breyer of the German Pirate Party told lawmakers. “We Pirates say no to this creeping financial disenfranchisement.”
Yet one of the most touchy subjects of the complex package has been geographical: the question of where to house a new EU anti-money laundering agency.
After a first-of-a-kind 12-hour public hearing, German financial centre Frankfurt won out, from a slate of candidates that also comprised Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vienna, Riga, Vilnius, Brussels and Dublin.
Its 400-odd staff will directly supervise dirty-money controls at 40 of the bloc’s biggest financial institutions.
Expanded scope of new anti-money laundering laws
EU money laundering laws already apply to big institutions like banks, who are required to verify who their customers are, and report suspicious transactions to the authorities.
Those rules will also apply to high-risk sectors like traders in artwork, jewellery and luxury yachts. They’ll be extended to cover innovative services like cryptocurrency providers—as lawmakers are concerned bitcoin and other, even more anonymous assets can be used for illicit payments.
At MEPs’ insistence, the measures apply to major football clubs and agents – given the large amounts of sometimes dubious money that circulates between them.
More consistent rules
For the first time ever, the EU’s rules are set out in a regulation that will apply more or less consistently across the bloc.
That means less discretion for each country to tweak rules for the national context – creating discrepancies that make it harder for legitimate businesses to operate across borders, and easier for criminals and terrorists to exploit the system.
A separate money laundering directive, also agreed today, resolves issues over how journalists and activists can trace the financial structures used to hide wealth.
Arrangements were thrown into disarray by a shock 2022 EU court judgment that restricted access to company ownership registers on privacy grounds.
Why does the EU need new anti-money laundering rules?
Officials hope the new rulebook will help improve the EU’s reputation for dirty money, closing the chapter on a series of scandals.
Two EU members – Croatia and Bulgaria – currently sit on a “grey list” of suspect money laundering jurisdictions compiled by international standard-setter the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and Malta was only recently taken off it.
The region also faced a series of financial-sector scandals involving institutions such as Danske Bank, Latvia’s ABLV, and Malta’s Pilatus bank.
Danske was fined billions of euros by US and Danish regulators in 2022, after admitting that around €200bn was laundered through its Estonian arm between 2007 and 2015.
EU talks were given extra salience by the need to enforce sanctions imposed on Russia for its war in Ukraine – given fears that ultra-wealthy oligarchs can use shady financial structures to evade curbs.
When will new EU money laundering rules take effect?
New anti-money laundering controls have been a long time coming, and it’s still not over.
Valdis Dombrovskis berated uneven enforcement and promised to examine a new EU agency in his hearing to become EU financial services commissioner as far back as October 2019.
After several last-minute wrangles, lawmakers and governments announced a tentative deal on the bulk of the law in January 2024.
Once nodded through by national ministers, much of the new regulation kicks in after three years, but there is some flexibility.
Rules for the football sector will take five years to apply, and the new EU agency could start work later this year – though the law setting it up takes effect formally in July 2025.
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