Accountability Accelerator Newsletter, June 2024

16/06/2024

Dear Friends,

It has been a busy few months here at the Accountability Accelerator and while we are looking forward and planning our time at COP16, we wanted to share a few updates and activities.

WEBSITE

Our new website has launched and we hope that it will give you more insight into our work and our approach to accountability.

You can learn more about our grantmaking process and grantees, access tools and resources, meet the team, and explore our stakeholders and partners.

Do let us know if you have any thoughts or suggestions, and we hope you enjoy exploring it.

2024 GRANTEES

We are excited to share that we are supporting the following grants so far this year:

1. IIGCC (Finance) – The project “Fast-Tracking Investor Action to Halt Deforestation” will enable Finance Sector Deforestation Action (FSDA) to move forward as an innovative, high-ambition initiative on eliminating commodity-driven deforestation from investing and lending portfolios by 2025
2. Systems Transformation Hub (Legal/Data) – This coalition aims to counter the backlash against nature-positive related legislation in Europe and rewrite the narrative that suggests people and nature outcomes are incompatible.
3. ZELA (Legal) – Promoting Corporate Accountability in Zimbabwe’s Mining sector through Sustainability Reporting and Media Engagement for access to information
4. RAID (Legal) – Building a Just Transition to Renewable Energies (Follow-up): Supporting advocacy and community action in exposing the impacts of toxic pollution from cobalt mining in DR Congo
5. As You Sow (Finance) – Bringing Shareholder Advocacy to Cancer Alley: Environmental Justice and LNG
6. Unleash ( Campaigns) – They are a global initiative committed to bringing talented youth together to share ideas, build networks, and create solutions towards the SDGs. The project “UNLEASH Amazon Innovation Lab”
7. China G
8. lobal South Project ( Campaigns) – The “Critical Minerals Coverage and Mapping in Indonesia” project aims to uncover the behaviour of nickel companies in Indonesia, which endanger Indonesia’s nature and harm local communities.
9. Infoamazonia ( Campaigns) – Independent journalism that aims to conduct an investigation into the impacts of a controversial petroleum exploration at the mouth of the Amazon.
10. International Legal Partnership (ILP) (Legal) – Building Accountability for Environmental Injustice through Legal Avenues

UPCOMING EVENTS

We are co-hosting several upcoming in-person events. If you will be around and would like more information about these events, please reach out to Mariana Cascardo Michael.

London Climate Action Week

We are engaging our community around two workshops as part of London Climate Action Week (LCAW):

1. Nature Positive for Climate Action,
   Tuesday June 25th, 10:00am-12:00 pm
   Co-convened by Global Commons Alliance and Climate Champions Team, the “Nature Positive for Climate Action” call to action was launched at LCAW 2023 through a high level event and core partner workshop. This follow up session will shape a roadmap for 2024 and 2025, including vision and actions.
2. Aligning Action on Climate and Nature,
   Wednesday June 26th, 09:00am-11:00am
   A workshop co-hosted with European Climate Foundation and Porticus, will explore the role of a strong accountability ecosystem through practical case studies and how increased coordination across nature and climate accountability ecosystems is needed to achieve the aims of the Paris and Kunming-Montreal GBF accords.

COP16

We’re thrilled to share our latest updates with you as we gear up for COP16 in Cali, Colombia in October. Our team is eagerly preparing to bring our community together in person, with several key events planned over the course of the two weeks:

• Grantee and Stakeholder Accountability Workshop,October 26
  We have already confirmed a venue and a date to bring together our most impassioned and committed grantees, funders, and partners who will be present at COP16. This workshop will foster learning and collaboration, exploring how stakeholders can support corporate accountability in achieving GBF targets. IPLC will be a crucial part of this workshop at the “People’s COP.”

• High-Level Panel on Accountability,
  TBC
  We are in the process of organizing a high-level panel with business, government, and accountability stakeholders. This panel will advocate for increased accountability for nature across various sectors and explore the role of a UN High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Nature. We are looking for partners to help make this happen, so please let us know if you would like to work together to create something powerful!

GCA as a whole will take the opportunity to further engage in ” Safe and Just  dialogues” in Cali and will be present in the Blue and Green Zone. We are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and look forward to sharing more updates with you soon.

INDONESIAN CRITICAL MINERALS

Image credit: Based on Stephen Brown

South East Asia is one of the Accelerator’s regional focus areas and we have been watching how the exponential growth in the demand for transition minerals has placed Indonesia in a critical role. With increasing global demand for transition minerals used in electric vehicles as well as solar and wind production, a dramatic expansion of the mining and processing of these resources has created significant environmental and social challenges.

 Indonesia is currently expected to comprise about 90% of nickel supply growth by 2030 to deliver on the global (and local) promise of batteries and electric vehicles. This promise of growth has blurred local decision making processes, policies, and roadmaps, endangering the country’s biodiversity, land, oceans, and freshwater, and contributing to the social upheaval of local communities.

 There is currently a window of opportunity to reshape the narrative as Indonesia is in its transition period into a new administration and we hope to contribute our efforts. The Accountability Accelerator is currently engaging with several partners undertaking or developing projects and grants, and we are aware of many more.

 As we expand our work in the region, if you know who we should be talking to or would like to collaborate with us please do reach out.

TARGET VALIDATION

The Science Based Targets Network has announced the appointment of the Accountability Accelerator to host validation of its corporate science-based targets for nature.

The Accelerator will evaluate each company submitting science-based nature targets for validation through an independent expert review process to make sure their targets are robust, supporting the public claims companies can make once validated.

Natasha Milan Matic, Ph.D., Executive Director, Accountability Accelerator, said: “SBTN’s need for independent validation of science-based targets for nature aligns well with our commitment to improve and support a strong corporate accountability ecosystem. Our existing relationship as part of the Global Commons Alliance also means we have complementary but distinct wider goals and ambitions. Through our rigorous assessment and compliance processes, we will support companies to play an important role in creating an equitable, nature positive, net-zero future using science-based targets for nature.”

In another exciting development, SBTN and the Accountability Accelerator are also opening a call for Expressions of Interest from companies interested in using the upcoming target validation services to set science-based targets for nature. Motivated companies are encouraged to step forward and be at the forefront of setting ambitious science-based targets for nature.

Erin Billman, Executive Director of Science Based Targets Network, said: “Achieving global net-zero ambitions won’t be possible without halting and reversing nature loss. Science-based targets for nature are a vital means for enabling companies to take ambitious, measurable action on climate and nature in tandem, for the long-term resilience of business, people and planet. The Accountability Accelerator becoming host of SBTN’s target validation function marks a vital step in safeguarding the integrity of the targets and ensuring an independent and rigorous evaluation process.”

Read more about the announcement or learn more about the validation process.

WHAT WE ARE READING…

• China proposes sustainability disclosure standard (Corporate Disclosures)
• We’re joining legal action against Total for greenwashing (ClientEarth)
•  The European Council formally endorsed the CSDDD (Loyens & Loeff)
• On World Biodiversity Day, a Look at How Companies Can Account for Nature (Newsweek)
• Definition of a Biodiversity Credit (Biodiversity Credit Alliance)
• International Court Says Countries Must Reduce Greenhouse Gas To Protect Marine Environment (Forbes)
• Community Resource Exchange (The Coalition for Human Rights in Development)
• Where Does the Money Go in Environmental Grantmaking? (Nonprofit Quarterly)
• The Bezos Earth fund has pumped billions into climate and nature projects. So why are experts uneasy? (The Guardian)
• The Country of Peru Is Now Liable for Corporate Pollution (Nonprofit Quarterly)
• Bloom 24 – Accelerating Business Action at COP 16 (Green Biz)
• Leaderboard reveals lack of commitment from automakers to Indigenous Peoples’ rights (Lead the Charge)
• Marina Silva on Brazil’s Fight to Turn the Tide on Deforestation (Yale E360)
• Cheap coal, cheap workers, Chinese money: Indonesia’s nickel success comes at a price (The Guardian)
• Why societies grow more fragile and vulnerable to collapse as time passes (BBC)

With gratitude for your partnership and continued support,

Natasha M. Matic, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Accountability Accelerator

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