Banks accused of financing biodiversity loss, again

A new report from the coalition Forests & Finance alleges that banks are still financing agribusiness and critical minerals companies in tropical forest regions that are driving deforestation, biodiversity loss, and human rights violations.

The report, Banking on Biodiversity Collapse 2026, estimates that banks have provided $595bn to high-risk agribusiness and mining companies in tropical forest regions since 2020. For the first time, the analysis covers metal and mineral mining, reflecting the rapid spread of nickel, lithium, cobalt and copper extraction into some of the world’s most biodiverse areas. Coffee and cocoa have also been added to the assessment this year. Since 2016, banks have provided $363bn to mining in tropical forest regions, alongside $531bn in credit to companies in high-risk agricultural commodity sectors. Bank policies addressing financing for forest-risk agro-commodities scores an average of just 25%.

The report was released at the UN Principles for Responsible Investment conference in Amsterdam recently, ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP17, in Armenia. The coalition, which includes Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack and Amazon Watch among others, wants governments to require banks and investors to carry out biodiversity and human rights due diligence and to hold them accountable when their financing contributes to harm. It also calls on banks to strengthen no-deforestation, no-peat and no-exploitation requirements, verify that clients comply, and end relationships with companies that repeatedly breach them.

The scale challenges for competitiveness in Europe

A new report on resiliency to 2040 from the European Environment Agency argues that competitiveness should be judged on more than productivity, prices and growth, and should include keeping the natural and social resources on which future prosperity depends. Growth built on resource depletion or on pushing social costs elsewhere may bring short-term gains, the agency says, but weakens resilience over time.

The report sets out six options it considers worthwhile whichever way the future unfolds: scaling up circularity and resource efficiency; investing in climate adaptation, nature-based solutions and resilient infrastructure; building European capability in computing, AI and biotechnology; investing in skills; supporting social cohesion and effective regulation; and, keeping an active EU role in setting global sustainability standards.

It also highlights trade-offs. Electrification reduces dependence on fossil fuels but increases demand for grids and critical materials, and bio-based production can replace fossil resources while adding pressure on land and water. The EEA concludes that Europe already has much of the policy in place, and the main challenge is putting it into practice at the necessary pace and scale.

UN scales programme to cut farm pesticides and plastics

The Financing Agrochemical Reduction and Management programme, known as FARM, is expanding from seven countries to 15. Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), FARM launched in 2024 in Ecuador, India, Kenya, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Uruguay and Vietnam. A second phase led by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), under the name of FARM+, adds Benin, Costa Rica, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Mexico, Nepal and Nigeria. Together, the two phases represent more than $1bn in GEF funding and co-financing.

Across its first seven countries, FARM aims to keep more than 51,000 tonnes of hazardous pesticides and 20,000 tonnes of plastic waste out of the environment and protect more than 3m hectares of land. Work on the ground under FARM+ starts in 2027 and will test tools such as insurance to cover farmers against yield losses while they switch practices.

Auto batteries linked to Indonesian deforestation

An investigation carried by the Guardian newspaper in partnership with Voxeurop and other European media partners, has traced nickel from two mines on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island into the battery supply chains of big international carmakers. Sulawesi holds the world’s largest nickel deposits, and the metal is used in battery cathodes to increase driving range. The mines sit in forest inhabited by the Indigenous Tolaki people.

Satellite analysis by geospatial firm The TreeMap suggests nickel mining accounts for around two thirds of forest loss since 2001 in the Cahaya concession and more than half in Hengjaya, the two major nickel concessions traced in the investigation.

Volkswagen, Volvo, Ford, General Motors, Tesla, BMW, Stellantis and Hyundai have been identified as end users of Huayou or as recipients of CATL batteries. Most of the carmakers said they do not buy nickel directly and require suppliers to meet responsible sourcing standards but declined to share audit results. Public records do not link specific ore shipments to specific cars.

Global nickel demand is set to double to 5.5m tonnes by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency. Stricter EU due diligence rules for batteries, such as the Digital Battery Passport, are due to apply from 2027.

Consumer waste app Too Good To Go to grow

Too Good To Go, the app best known for selling unsold food from shops and restaurants, is expanding into five new categories: personal care and beauty, pet care, flowers and plants, nutrition and supplements, and home products such as cleaning items and décor. More than 8,500 stores already supply these products, and around a third of them were already using the platform for surplus food.

The company says surplus in these categories builds up for reasons unrelated to quality. A packaging redesign can leave older stock hard to sell, range changes leave behind discontinued shades or flavours, seasonal gift sets go out of date, and forecasts miss demand. Partners include Nivea, Dove and Oral-B in France, home and garden retailer OBI in Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, Interflora in Denmark and Sweden, and Whole Foods Market in the US and Canada.

Too Good To Go acknowledges that waste data for these sectors is far thinner than for food. It points to research showing water makes up more than two thirds of the average cosmetic formulation, that emissions from global dry pet food production are comparable to those of the world’s 60th-highest-emitting country, and that post-harvest losses in flowers can reach 40%. The platform has 150 million registered users and 200,000 active partners across 20 countries.