Tag: aims

HSBC Bank Aims For Zero Carbon On Investments By 2050

Asia-focused bank HSBC announced Friday that it aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its investments by 2050, but campaigners accused it of falling short on tackling climate change.

“HSBC has both the scale and global reach to play a leading role in guiding its customers through this transition and helping them to achieve this ambitious goal,” the lender said in a statement.

Its target is to “align its financed emissions — the carbon emissions of its portfolio of customers — to the Paris Agreement goal to achieve net zero by 2050 or sooner”.

“The bank also aims to be net zero in its operations and supply chain by 2030.”

Europe’s biggest bank added that it has earmarked between $750 billion and $1.0 trillion of finance and investment to assist the transition.

CEO Noel Quinn called the 2020s a “pivotal decade of change” towards “a healthier, more resilient and more sustainable future”.

The 2015 Paris agreement saw nations commit to limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

London-listed HSBC meanwhile follows in the footsteps of rival Barclays, which committed in March to zero-carbon by 2050 under pressure from its shareholders to help tackle climate change.

Campaigners complain that HSBC continues to fund fossil fuel projects including coal power Campaigners complain that HSBC continues to fund fossil fuel projects including coal power Photo: AFP / GREG BAKER

Environmental campaign groups however gave a sceptical response to HSBC’s announcement on Friday, arguing that the bank should cease support for coal, gas and oil activities.

“HSBC’s net-zero commitment is a bit like saying you’ll give up smoking by 2050, but continuing to buy a pack a week, or even smoking more,” said Becky Jarvis, coordinator of campaign group network Fund Our Future UK.

“Any further financing of oil, gas, and coal expansion today is utterly at odds with a net-zero commitment by 2050.

…

Malaysia’s AirAsia X Aims to Stave off Liquidation With $15 Billion Debt Restructure | Investing News

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s AirAsia X Bhd

, the long-haul arm of AirAsia Group Bhd

, said it wanted to restructure $15.3 billion of debt and slash its share capital by 90% to continue as a going concern.

Hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic as closed borders have grounded most of its planes, the budget airline said it had severe liquidity constraints and, with no return to normalcy in sight, added, “Imminent default of contractual commitments will precipitate a potential liquidation.”

Its statement late on Tuesday came just days after Malaysia Airlines, the other major carrier, said it was very low on cash and had reached out to lessors, creditors and suppliers for urgent restructuring.

AirAsia X is seeking to reconstitute 63.5 billion ringgit ($15.3 billion) of debt into a principal amount of 200 million ringgit and waiver of the rest.

That debt restructuring as well as a revamp of its business model would be needed to raise fresh equity and debt, which in turn would be required to restart the airline, it said.

The statement did not break down the liabilities or name the airline’s creditors.

AirAsia X declined to respond to a Reuters’ query regarding its debt.

The hefty debt could include aircraft orders, potentially spelling cancellations, said an aviation analyst who declined to be identified as he no longer covers the company.

“A lot of that may be aircraft orders,” he said. “The real haircut may not be that huge if it’s purely on actual debt and lease commitments.”

AirAsia X finalised orders with Airbus SE

for 78 A330neo and 30 A321XLR planes last year, but said in February it would defer delivery of the A330neo planes and consider other changes to trim its fleet.

The airline is Airbus’ biggest customer for the A330neo.

It also

…

Japan Airlines Aims for Discount Network to Capture Post-Coronavirus Tourism | Investing News

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan Airlines <9201.T> wants to create a low-cost carrier network with three of its discount carriers to tap leisure travel that, unlike business travel, could rebound as the coronavirus wanes, the company president said on Wednesday.

“Aviation won’t return to what it was before and business travel demand could even shrink further. One of our targets is tourism,” Yuji Akasaka told a media briefing.

Japan Airlines’ three low-cost regional carriers include Jetstar, which it operates with Qantas Airlines,

, Spring Airlines Japan, a joint venture with China’s Spring Airlines <601021.SS>, and its wholly owned ZIPAIR unit.

Akasaka did not say whether Japan would seek to formally merge their operations through acquisitions.

Japan Airlines, like other carriers, has been hammered by a collapse in international air travel to about a tenth of what it was before the coronavirus outbreak, but has seen domestic flight demand rebound helped by a government campaign to promote tourism.

“The impact of that campaign has been significant and in late September going into October we are seeing traveler numbers increase to about 50% of what they were a year ago,” Akasaka said.

To survive the downturn in demand, which Japan Airlines expects to last until at least 2024 on international routes, Akasaka said the carrier would look to boost revenue from non-airline businesses such as drone parcel deliveries.

Japan Airlines last month announced a tie-up with Matternet, to launch the U.S. company’s urban drone logistics business in Japan. This year, it also invested in a German start up, Volocopter, that is developing air taxis.

(Reporting by Maki Shiraki; Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Robert Birsel)

Copyright 2020 Thomson Reuters.

Source Article …

Knight-Swift Aims at 50% Carbon Emission Reduction By 2035

In an environment-friendly move, Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. KNX announced that it intends to reduce carbon emissions generated by its fleet by 50% over the next 15 years (2035).

Climate change has become a rising concern in recent years as we continue to pay the price for increase in carbon footprint that has led to adversities like heat waves, increasing sea levels, forest fires and accelerated natural resource depletion. Therefore, sustainable development is the need of the hour  to conserve environmental resources for future use and limit the mentioned adversities.

Knight-Swift,  North America’s largest truckload transportation company, expects to meet this goal by adopting certain initiatives that include implementation of next generation tractor and trailer aerodynamic solutions; deployment of advanced idle reduction technologies; utilizing next generation clean diesel engines; operating zero-emission vehicles, including battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell technology; execution of various other strategies as technology is developed and introduced to the market.

In order to commence this initiative, Knight-Swift recently partnered with Daimler Trucks North America to deploy the company’s first zero-emissions battery electric vehicle, consisting of a pre-production Freightliner eCascadia day cab tractor.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Knight-Swift currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Some other top-ranked stocks in the Zacks Transportation sector are Canadian Pacific Railway Limited CP, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. JBHT and Werner Enterprises WERN. All the stocks carry the same rank as Knight-Swift. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

Long-term expected earnings per share (three to five years) growth rate for Canadian Pacific, J.B. Hunt and Werner is pegged at 8.5%, 15% and 8.5%, respectively.

The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All

Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it’s predicted to blast through the roof

…

Demeter Aims To Open Up Micro-Farms To Mom & Pop Investors

If Demeter has anything to say about it, the coming years’ harvests will be fruitful for both small farmers and the consumers who value the way they operate. But in this instance, it’s not Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvest behind the push, but a small team of Forbes 30 Under 30 list members who gathered this weekend using the same name to take the first steps towards creating a new kind of investment vehicle powered by blockchain.

While retail and institutional investors alike already invest billions of dollars annually in agribusiness funds, largely consisting of the companies farms rely on, the cost of complying with fund requirements excludes most farms. While some of these funds allow investors to back smaller market cap companies, many independent micro-farms must resort to using state lenders and expensive farm banks or agriculture lenders. 

By issuing digital assets backed by actual harvests, using an existing blockchain like ethereum or EOS as the transaction layer, the nascent team behind Demeter believes they can lower the cost to provide high quality investment opportunities to micro-farms that exist on only a few acres of land. By allowing the loans to be easily priced on the open market, they believe they can do so at a much better rate.

But it’s not just the small farmers who lose out by their inability to access low-cost capital, says Demeter co-creator Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, a member of the 2018 30 Under 30 list. Without a publicly traded investment vehicle for everyday retail investors to back ethical farms, the only option consumers have for expressing their financial interest in supporting these farms is by buying the actual food. By using blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin that lets individuals directly transact without a middleman, Seltz-Axmacher and the rest of Demeter believe they can

…