In fashion and food, how to make more sustainable choices

July 21, 2021 | 6:31 pm

From recommerce in shopping to efforts on food waste reduction, consumers are placing an increasing importance on sustainability practices.

Recommerce — or the buying and selling of pre-owned items — is accelerating in Southeast Asia because it intersects ethics and e-commerce, said Miranda Dimopoulos, regional chief executive officer of Interactive Advertising Bureau Southeast Asia and India, a non-profit advertising association that published a report this month on millennial buying behaviors.

“Across all the local market research what was consistently obvious is that we are witnessing the explosive growth of recommerce as it feeds two key needs of consumers today: the demand for sustainability and the hunt for a good deal,” Ms. Dimopoulos said in a press statement. “[This] creates fertile ground for retail media because of the interplay among customer data, closed-loop reporting, and real-world results that generate more and better data.”

The report, done with commerce marketing platform Carousell Media Group, found that almost all millennials (or 99%) in the Philippines find purchasing pre-owned items more sustainable. It also found that the country ranked higher (at 84%) than regional averages when it came to sustainability considerations being factored in by under 35s when they were selling an item. Respondents said they use web-based marketplaces like Carousell to sell products with the intent of upgrading, and because it is better for the environment to sell rather than dispose of an item.

Across Carousell Group’s five markets in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, both the under 35s and over 35s were motivated to use its marketplace as the environmental impact when purchasing a pre-owned item was deemed lesser.

The Carousell Group’s definition of millennials are individuals between 18–35 years old.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Turning to the secondhand market to inject new life into pre-loved goods is one of the environmentally-friendly practices that people enjoy doing, according to Dang U. Domingo, head of advertising of Carousell Philippines.

“Supporting sustainability by buying unused or underused products that are still in good condition is a big draw, especially when these items are priced much lower, and are unique treasures not available in stores,” she told BusinessWorld in an e-mail interview.

“We feel that this trend to purchase pre-owned items will continue post-pandemic,” Ms. Domingo added. “The younger generation… feels directly responsible in making choices that solve the problems inherited from previous generations.”

The environmental impact of fashion is less obvious than that of other staples of modern life, such as single-use plastics. The industry, however, produces 10% of all humanity’s carbon emissions and is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply.

Fast fashion, in particular, has come under fire for creating waste. Spanish apparel retailer Zara, noted the World Economic Forum in January 2020, puts out 24 collections per year, whereas Swedish multinational clothing-retail company H&M offers between 12 and 16.

WASTE REDUCTION
In addition to fashion, food is another area where consumption has led to environmental degradation. Food accounts for over a quarter (or 26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture, moreover, accounts for 70% of global freshwater withdrawals and 78% of global ocean and freshwater eutrophication (or the pollution of waterways with nutrient-rich pollutants).

A solution to this is efficient food production and consumption, which House Bill 7956, or the proposed Food Surplus Reduction Act, aims to address. It mandates a National Zero-Food Waste Campaign, even as it seeks to establish linkages between food businesses, food banks, and local government units to create a community-based food distribution system for the food-insecure.

A private sector initiative with a similar objective is The Sustainable Diner Project of World Wildlife Fund-Philippines (WWF-Philippines). The three-year project, which recently held its culminating event, collaborates with government agencies and food services to create an awareness on the environmental impacts of the food industry, as well as food and dining waste reduction schemes.

This year, WWF-Philippines launched a sustainability guide for the food service and hospitality industry, which includes handouts and training videos to aid hotel and restaurant management and staff in integrating sustainability principles in their operations. The guide builds on a hotel kitchen kit based on the work of WWF US and the American Hotel and Lodging Association. The localized version of the toolkit rolled out in 2018 to address the Philippine food service industry’s food waste program.

Among the other initiatives spearheaded in the project’s run are the creation of a food waste reduction ordinance in Cebu City, as well as the training of 24 restaurant and hotel partners to kickstart their sustainability journey. These partners include Kanin Club and Cravings in Quezon City, Zubuchon in Cebu City, and Taal Vista Hotel’s Taza Fresh Table and Bag of Beans in Tagaytay City.

“Our food choices matter,” said Melody M. Rijk, project manager of WWF-Philippines’ Sustainable Consumption and Production, in a press statement. “Collectively, we can make this world a better place by simply choosing the right food, and the right way of making food.” — Patricia B. Mirasol

Valuing sustainability

July 21, 2021 | 6:00 pm

There is a lot of confusion and debate on whether it even makes sense to put numbers and figures into sustainability. Many argue that sustainability should be a way of life, a norm. Is it okay to keep doing air travel and then simply plant a tree to offset this? Is it okay to label coffee as fair trade, and put figures onto how much meat consumption is acceptable? Many say that if you give standards and boxes to tick, people will find ways to circumvent and cheat the system. It is the same for companies. When you suddenly begin ranking firms based on sustainability criteria, then they will do the minimum required to comply and look good, perhaps neglecting the bigger picture of whether their practices really do have a positive impact, or at least reduce the negatives.

Even more difficult is the democratization and politization of rankings and assigning value. It is arguable that energy efficiency is high on the agenda of many nations whose gender balance, when it comes to people in leadership and pay scale, remain questionable. Many companies can be high on internal best practices and employee retention such as Apple, and yet still be criticized for demeaning labor standards in their outsourced operations or parts of their supply chain. And because of this, many companies are hesitant to join the bandwagon of reporting, case in point: Scandinavia. They have some of the most gender-balanced, social-protectionist, environmentally conscious operations in the world, and yet barely report on it. They do not feel the need to do so, with some of them even saying that the lengthy process of reporting takes away resources, time, and effort from simply doing the thing instead.

From a theoretical perspective, we must first go back to the definition of valuation, what matters to people, and what it means.

Valuation in the sociology of finance literatures is the process of bringing order to mere differences. A valuation process comprises two dimensions: first, determining that something is of worth and then, second, assessing that worth. From a sustainability standpoint it is to determine what should be measured, and then measuring it. The sociology of worth argues that individuals and organizations have “orders of worth,” a set of common values that they pursue and that evaluation criteria are attached to these values. For instance, market evaluation criteria, such as financial performance measures, are tied to the worth that individuals and/or organizations attach to the market, whereas family evaluation criteria such as standards of parental love are tied to the worth that individuals or society attach to the concept of family.

However, recent research in the sociology of valuation shows that the opposite relationship is also possible: the choice of evaluation tools might instead determine what is then of worth or valuable. Think of IT systems, web-based rating systems, appraisal systems: such evaluation tools can contribute to the reinforcement of particular value systems within an industry and affirm certain values over others. To wit, calculative devices, categorization, classification, standardization: all these can institutionalize sustainability and make it happen even if this was not de facto part of what was deemed of value. This happens in an accounting framework like what the UN PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) is doing and the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). In having to report about sustainability, companies are obliged to create sustainable practices to report on.

And so, what can be measured, gets done. For instance, one can argue that the fact that carbon emissions can now be measured contributes to making the environment (financially) valuable to organizations. In this way, sustainability accounting has been identified as a key lever for pushing practices towards sustainability and reinforcing its value. Finally, this process is iterative and requires the involvement of multiple actors and discussions often involving conflicts and power struggle. Such expression is key for the transformation of practices towards sustainable development.

And indeed, attention over the past decade has shifted from the dominance of quantitative economic value towards the commensuration of non-economic value. Unlike financial performance indicators, which over time have become more precise and standardized, to date there has been no convergence upon universally accepted environmental and social performance indicators, making such information questionable and difficult to measure, and unverifiable. Despite their limitations, these methodologies dominate since they are useful for assessing such a complex concept and they are effective in convincing actors to engage using their financial language. In fact, tools are performative; they shape practices independent of their validity, simply by their usage. Research shows that while established evaluation tools largely guide and frame action, reflexive agents actively take and transform the usage of existing tools to fit their own purposes, making the value of sustainability, not something to be proven but rather, something to be created.

Note: This article is based on a working paper entitled “Valuing Sustainability Without Financializing? The Case of the Reporting and Assessment Framework of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI)” written by the author with Diane-Laure Arjalies of Ivey Business School, Western University (Canada) and Nicolas Mottis of the Ecole Polytechnique Paris. References are available upon request.

Daniela “Danie” Luz Laurel is a business journalist and anchor-producer of BusinessWorld Live on One News, formerly Bloomberg TV Philippines. Prior to this, she was a permanent professor of Finance at IÉSEG School of Management in Paris and maintains teaching affiliations at IÉSEG and the Ateneo School of Government. She has also worked as an investment banker in The Netherlands. Ms. Laurel holds a Ph.D. in Management Engineering with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy and an MBA from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Green mining and liquid ore

July 21, 2021 | 6:00 pm

Mining can be “green,” and ore can be “liquid.” Sounds too good to be true? Not according to a recent study by Oxford scientists. Just a matter of time, I believe, for this to happen. Given the necessity of mining in the digital age, coupled with the quick pace of technological advancement, green mining and liquid ore may yet become the standard in extraction by the next decade.

The shift from fossil fuel to electricity to power transportation is already driving the demand for metals like copper. The demand for batteries and other components for the production of energy from renewables like wind and solar is also pushing up demand for metallic and non-metallic minerals. There is correlation between mining output and renewable energy production.

So, with the shift to renewables to cut down on emissions, and the greater investment emphasis on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues, and how mining seems to be related to all this, then isn’t it just a matter of time when the industry will also need to turn “green” by sourcing ore and minerals from liquid and not solid earth?

President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order No. 130 on April 14 to lift the nine-year moratorium on new mining contracts. He opted not to wait for new legislation that was supposed to set the terms for taxes and royalties, among others, for the mining industry. As we now review the rules for mining, we should already bear in mind the possibility of green mining in the future.

Opening up new mining sites is a step in the right direction, given that the economy is in trouble and the country is in dire need of new investments. But the government should go beyond “[maximizing] government revenues and share from production, including the possibility of declaring [mining] areas as mineral reservations to obtain appropriate royalties.”

Moving forward, I believe the government should also ban the export of raw ore, and require local processing prior to sale of minerals abroad. I also support sustainable development, and believe that we should strive to find a balance between environmental and economic interests by making sure that mining is done sustainably and responsibly.

And this is why the Oxford study matters. It points to the possibility of extracting from “brine mines,” and how this can become a reality in the next five to 15 years. Given this, existing rules should be reviewed in light of what we hope to achieve with the local mining industry in the next five to 10 years. Rules should pave the way for green mining by the medium term.

In a press announcement, the University of Oxford said that scientists from its Department of Earth Sciences have demonstrated how it was “possible to directly extract valuable metals from hot salty fluids (‘brines’) trapped in porous rocks at depths of around two kilometers below dormant volcanoes.” Calling this a “radical green-mining approach,” the University said the proposed process could “provide essential metals for a net zero future — copper, gold, zinc, silver and lithium — in a sustainable way.”

If this technology can be harnessed and developed for commercial use in the next five years, I believe it points to good prospects particularly for local mining. After all, the Philippines is in the Ring of Fire and has numerous active and dormant volcanoes all over the country. This sounds particularly promising if open pit mining can be abandoned altogether in favor of volcano mining.

“Magma beneath volcanoes releases gases that rise towards the surface. These gases are rich in metals. As the pressure drops, the gases separate into steam and brine. Most metals dissolved in the original magmatic gas become concentrated in the dense brine, which in turn gets trapped in porous rock. The less dense, and metal-depleted steam continues up to the surface, where it can form fumaroles, such as those seen at many active volcanoes,” the university explained.

“Oxford scientists reveal how this trapped, subterranean brine is a potential ‘liquid ore’ containing a slew of valuable metals, including gold, copper and lithium, that could be exploited by extracting the fluids to the surface via deep wells… Their models show that the brines potentially contain several million tons of copper,” it added.

Oxford scientists noted that “copper is a key metal for making the transition to net zero, due to its importance in electricity generation and transmission, and electric vehicles.” And, as stated by Oxford Professor Jon Blundy: “Getting to net zero will place unprecedented demand on natural metal resources, demand that recycling alone cannot meet. We need to be thinking of low-energy, sustainable ways to extract metals from the ground. Volcanoes are an obvious and ubiquitous target.”

Then there is the additional benefit of extracting geothermal power as a “significant by-product of a green-mining approach, meaning that operations at the well-head will be carbon-neutral,” the study noted. “The prospect of extracting metals in solution form from wells reduces the cost of mining and ore processing, plus exploits geothermal power to drive operations. This vastly reduces environmental impact of metal production.”

More important to the Philippines is the study finding that “geophysical surveys of volcanoes show that almost every active and dormant volcano hosts a potentially exploitable ‘lens’ of metal-rich brine. This means that metal exploration may not be limited to relatively few countries as it is currently, owing to the ubiquity of volcanoes around the world.”

While there are plenty of challenges to pursuing green mining, I believe that this early it should already form part of the considerations of policymakers in reviewing Philippine laws and guidelines on extraction. New guidelines and incentives may be made time-bound, and conditioned on the introduction and use of new technologies that are green and sustainable.

Rapid changes in technological advancement usually outpace the change in policy and regulation. This does not have to be the case, always. Access to data and studies and information on new developments already give us foresight, and allow for better visioning and planning. Policy changes must always be strategic and not just tactical, with the far future always in mind.

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

Citius, altius, fortius: Faster, higher, stronger

July 21, 2021 | 6:00 pm

The countdown to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics ends tomorrow, Friday, July 23, the day of the opening ceremonies and parade of athletes.

The 2021 Tokyo Olympics is going to be the most restrictive ever simply because it is being staged in the middle of a global health emergency. The fact that it will start tomorrow is in itself an achievement, added testimony to man’s resiliency. The fact that most of the 10,000 athletes competing have completed their long journeys is also a victory over adversity. It underscores the tremendous influence the Olympics have on governments and populations, despite the widespread and vocal objections to it in Japan itself.

Athletes and officials speak of the remarkable absence of demonstrations or public outcries or graffiti protesting the staging of the Earth’s biggest event. Obviously, restraint is a Japanese trait.

Edward Kho, communications and marketing director of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) is in Isahaya City, Nagasaki prefecture as the one-person advance party of the Patafa. The 55-year-old or so organization is a private, non-profit corporation that is the sole governing body of the sport of athletics in the country. Athletics covers the following events: track and field, race walking (walkathon), road running (marathon), and cross country. The sport, which is the foundation and centerpiece of any multi-sport Olympic-type festival, aptly breathes life into the Latin slogan, citius (faster), altius, (higher), fortius (stronger). The events in the sport include, running, jumping and throwing.

Edward was with me at Ishihaya in 2017 to lay the ground work for the pre-games, acclimatization, and athletics training camp. He noted the sparse crowd in the streets of Isahaya with a population of about 145,000. Edward said, “there are not too many people out walking in the streets, although quite a number of vehicles are running around. Our gracious hosts have politely informed us that, per National Government policy, our movements are limited to the hotel, to the track and back. No side trips anywhere.”

Isahaya is in the prefecture of Nagasaki, whose capital city of Nagasaki was one of two cities on which the United States dropped atomic bombs to speed up the cessation of World War II hostilities in the Pacific. Evidence of the devastation created by these two monstrous attacks are still very clear and memories are still fresh of Aug. 6 and 9, 1945 when Hiroshima and Nagasaki took those massive blows. Coincidentally, the Olympics end on Aug. 8, 2021 or 76 years later.

Aside from the atomic bomb attack, Nagasaki is known as being where Filipino missionaries like San Lorenzo Ruiz were executed. A marker has been erected in his memory with the help of Filipino clergy and laymen. There are about 50 Filipinos working and residing in Isahaya, and the commemoration of the martyrdom of Lorenzo Ruiz was milestone in the predominantly non-Christian area. Nagasaki was the only territory that the Japanese rulers back then opened up to the outside world during a period of isolation.

Typically, the Japanese were preparing early for the 2020 Olympics and had gotten the local governments like those in Nagasaki and Isahaya involved. The prefecture agreed to host the five-day pre-games training of foreign delegations and the Philippine athletics team was chosen by the officials of the two local governments. Hosting overseas athletes was simply a matter of getting the local officials and their constituents behind the games.

From our point of view, the matter was a no-brainer: Nagasaki and Isahaya offered the free use of the Transcosmos, an ultra-modern, 20,000-seat track stadium that compares very favorably with the larger New Clark City track oval built by the BCDA (Bases Conversion and Development Authority) for the 2019 SEA Games. It took Edward and I just one trip to Isahaya in August in the middle of the 2017 SEA Games at Kuala Lumpur to seal the deal. We could not help but wonder how a small city is able to own and maintain a multi-million-dollar modern track stadium. This scenario gives one an idea of the affluence of Japanese society and its economic dynamism.

The entire Philippine contingent to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics is comprised of 19 athletes – nine men and 10 women competing in athletics, aquatics, boxing, golf, gymnastics, weightlifting, and skateboarding. It’s the first time in the history of Philippine participation in the Olympics that women outnumber the men.

Ernest John (EJ) Obiena of athletics (listed by the Philippine Olympics Committee in its official publication as taking part in “pole vaulting,” which is an event in the athletics sport), will start competing in pole vault’s qualifying/preliminary round on July 31. He will be facing 31 vaulters, mostly from Europe, Scandinavia, and the Americas. The cast includes defending Olympic champion Thiago Braz of Brazil and world record holder Armand Duplantis. The American-born Duplantis opted to play for his mother’s homeland, Sweden. With a record of 6.17 meters, Duplantis is favored to win gold. EJ, however, is hardly daunted by this since he cleared 5.87 in early July to establish a new Philippine outdoor record. EJ was the first Filipino to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. EJ needs to clear the height set by organizers to move into the final round on Aug. 3. According to Emerson Obiena, EJ’s father, based on the 2016 Rio Olympics, only the top 12 players may compete in the finals.

The Philippine entry in the 200 meter race, Kristina Knott, will run in a field of 40. That group is divided into to eight entries per heat. To advance to the semis, Kristina needs to finish in the top four of her heat or register among the fastest four losers from the remaining 20 other runners. After the semis, Kristina of course hopes to make it to the finals on Aug. 3.

Both EJ and Kristina have prepared long, hard, and smart. Physically, they’re in tip-top shape. At this point, with a few days to go, the mind and heart take over.

Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as Secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.

Showing up too early

July 21, 2021 | 6:00 pm

handsome-man-in-white-t-shirt-and-transperent-glasses-hold-big-clock-in-place-of-his-head-scaled — DIANA.GRYTSKU-FREEPIK

AS A PEOPLE, we get a bad rap for treating time for appointments like suggestions for the retail price of goods. Is a 10:30 a.m. meeting really the equivalent of any time before lunch is served, but not after the soup? “Filipino time” has become an approximated time check, vague and suggestive.

Developed countries post their train or bus departure and arrival schedules to the minute like 6:07 a.m. Such precision implies a commitment to punctuality. Panting towards the pick-up point at 6:15 a.m., and you surely just missed your ride, not even seeing the back of the bus pulling away. Our own point-to-point bus service has emulated this departure precision by being parked at the terminal 15 minutes before time, pulling away on schedule.

Acceptable timeliness in our culture follows certain rules, based on venue, occasions, and habits.

A corporate launch of a new logo may state the time in the invitation as 5:30 p.m. The notation, “registration” is a wink to the cognoscenti that the actual event will take place half an hour later. Thus, the invitee routinely adds at least 30 minutes before showing up.

On the other hand, an office meeting called by the CEO to review the budget, set at 10:30 a.m., is expected to start on time, and woe to the straggler who pops in 30 minutes late with wet hair and a lame excuse about traffic during GCQ. The presenter will not even stop to recognize the latecomer. And if it’s the big boss who is late? Well, small talk fills up the gap. As soon as he walks in, the chatter stops — can we start now?

With this game of “reciprocal expectations,” it is impractical to take the designated time for an event literally. The host provides a time which is expected to be adjusted by the socially aware invitee so that an overly punctual arrival does not cause embarrassment. (Please water the plants, while I take a shower.)

Being too early (or even on the dot) is considered a social lapse of manners.

Even in virtual meetings which have become routine, there are always those who click the link 15 minutes before time — the host will let you in shortly. Why are you so early?

For in-person meetings which are now allowed a bit more after the proper vaccinations, early birds are the bane of event organizers. The commute time is estimated on the high side, even with the lower traffic volume and the opening of new overpasses. Mishaps are thrown into the calculation like the possibility of a flat tire or being in front of three ambulances with sirens blaring. Waiters putting tablecloths on the table in their undershirts give these eager beavers a pitying look — do you want a bread basket, sir?

The early guest is expected to kill time somewhere else. It is a challenge then depending on the venue (a mall is ideal for killing time) to find something to do for at least 30 minutes which may allow a browse through the bookstore without buying a book. No need for a shopping bag, if the shopper will just download the title as an e-book.

It’s fine to be too early for appointments with doctors, dentists, car repair shops, job interviews, and lunches. There are waiting areas to look busy in.

In this political season, announcing availability too early gives the trolls time for “opposition research.” This is an investigative effort to dig up dirt on a subject like fake diplomas, unexplained mansions in the provinces, and previous entanglements of a scandalous nature. This effort is akin to the canonization process where the “devil’s advocate” tries to prove the unworthiness of a possible saint. It can also be conducted by a candidate himself to test his vulnerabilities. Early announcements just give more time for the trolls to get to work.

The incumbent has already demonstrated the advantage of tardiness in filing candidacies, even using substitutes as a way in. Even after being in office, his lateness for appointments can extend to not even showing up for announcements of quarantine status for the next two weeks.

The overly punctual guest is seldom fussed over and dismissed as a favor seeker. Nobody looks for him when he leaves too early… unless he’s supposed to pay the bill.

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

China’s ‘iPhone city’ relocates 100,000 after massive floods

July 21, 2021 | 5:25 pm

Residents wade through floodwaters amid heavy rainfall in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China July 20. — CHINA DAILY VIA REUTERS

AROUND 100,000 people have been evacuated from the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, as record rainfall caused widespread flooding and economic disruptions to Henan province, home to the world’s biggest production base for iPhones and a major hub for food production and heavy industry.

Pictures published by state media showed large sections of roads submerged in Zhengzhou, a city of 10 million, while videos posted on social media showed passengers stuck inside flooded subway cars with water levels up to their shoulders and residents pulled to safety with ropes from fast moving floodwaters. State news agency Xinhua reported that 12 deaths had been confirmed so far.

The deluge has brought the equivalent of more than eight months’ worth of the city’s average rainfall since Tuesday, and has already interrupted the operations of at least one global company with manufacturing operations there. Nissan Motor Co Ltd. has temporarily halted production in Zhengzhou, according to a spokeswoman for the company. SAIC Motor Corp., China’s biggest automaker, said logistics around its factory in Zhengzhou have been impacted by the floods in the short term, but that the plant hasn’t been damaged.

Meanwhile Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which owns a massive iPhone production plant in Zhengzhou, said that it had activated an emergency response plan for flood control measures but that the flooding has had no direct impact on the facility.

Hon Hai’s plant receives components needed to assemble iPhones from global and domestic Chinese suppliers before shipping out the finished producers. The flooding struck just as the company prepares to ramp up output ahead of the launch of Apple, Inc.’s latest devices toward the end of the year.

The flooding in Henan may also impact China’s food supply. The province is the country’s second-largest food producer, accounts for about a quarter of the wheat harvest and is a major center for frozen food production. Henan is also the home of the world’s biggest pork processor WH Group Ltd., which acquired US meat production giant Smithfield Food, Inc. in 2013.

While China has already harvested its main wheat crop, earlier widespread rains impacted quality from areas including Henan. That is expected to drive up wheat imports by as much as 40% this year to the highest level since the mid-1990s, according to Bric Agriculture Group, a Beijing-based consulting firm. China has increased purchases from the US, Canada and Australia this year.

Other commodities have also been impacted by the flooding in Henan, which is a key hub for coal and metals. Some aluminum production and scrap-metal procurement has been halted or reduced, according to researcher Mysteel, citing its own survey.

On Wednesday, rescue workers and authorities continued to work to prevent dam breaches, restore lost power and pump out submerged gas stations. President Xi Jinping urged officials to step up disaster relief measures, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Inbound flights to Zhengzhou have also been suspended.

Zhengzhou saw 457.5 millimeters (18 inches) of rain fall in the 24 hours through 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the highest since records began for the city of more than 10 million people, Xinhua reported. That included a record 201.9 millimeters in a single hour, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m, a record for mainland China. Zhengzhou typically receives average annual precipitation of about 640.8 millimeters.

The record rainfall came shortly after key Chinese cities warned that homes and factories face new power outages as historic demand and supply shortages strain energy grids. Eleven provinces including eastern manufacturing hubs and landlocked central China reported record demand and peak-load surges last week, amid hot weather. Henan already started banning exports of its coal supply to other areas last week amid concerns over energy supplies due to heavy rain.

Environmental nonprofit Greenpeace warned that the weather events in China fit the global pattern of extreme weather brought on by climate change. In the last few weeks, the US and Canada have experienced unprecedented heatwaves, Europe and India have suffered major floods, wildfires have spread across Siberia and drought has gripped parts of Africa and Brazil.

“Climate change has made extreme weather like heat waves and floods more frequent and more deadly in the past 20 years,” said the group’s East Asia climate and energy campaigner Liu Junyan. Recent events in Henan, along with North America and Europe “are all wake-up calls reminding people of the climate change crisis.” — Bloomberg

J&J shot raises fewer antibodies against Delta variant in study

July 21, 2021 | 5:24 pm

A VIAL of the Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine is seen at Northwell Health’s South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, New York, March 3. — REUTERS

JOHNSON & JOHNSON’s single-dose COVID vaccine produced relatively low levels of antibodies against the Delta variant in a study, raising questions about how well the shot will hold up against the strain that accounts for the vast majority of US cases.

The laboratory study, released on the preprint server bioRxiv, hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal and focuses on one key portion of the immune response, called neutralizing antibodies. New York University (NYU) scientists found that J&J’s vaccine produced roughly five-fold lower levels of the protective antibodies against the delta variant compared to the levels raised against an early coronavirus strain.

The delta variant accounts for 83% of genetically sequenced cases in the US, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday in a Senate hearing. While two-dose messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer, Inc. and Moderna, Inc. also produced fewer antibodies against the highly transmissible Delta strain, the reduction was less dramatic, the study found.

Compared to two shots of mRNA vaccines, the single-shot J&J vaccine “showed a more pronounced decrease in neutralizing titer against the variants, raising the potential for decreased protection,” the researchers from NYU researchers said in the study.

The study examined only one aspect of protection, J&J said in an email, and didn’t consider long-lasting responses among immune cells stimulated by its vaccine.

“The data do not speak to the full nature of immune protection” from the shot, spokesman Jake Sargent said. J&J’s vaccine has been shown to produce a strong immune response that lasts at least eight months after immunization, he said.

Earlier this month, J&J researchers said their own data indicated that the vaccine neutralizes the Delta variant and booster shots weren’t needed.

Study author Nathaniel Landau of NYU Grossman School of Medicine said the results of his study and J&J’s antibody analysis are not totally different. Both found a decreased level of antibodies, he said in an email.

“We just found a greater degree of decrease,” he said. — Bloomberg

South Korea reports record daily infections as Delta variant drives surge

July 21, 2021 | 5:24 pm

SEOUL — South Korea reported a daily record of 1,784 coronavirus cases for Tuesday, breaking a mark set last week, as the authorities struggled to get on top of a surge in outbreaks linked to the Delta variant.

Transmission rates have been kept relatively low across the country despite no lockdowns thanks in part to aggressive testing and tracing, but the fourth wave of infections is proving particularly hard to contain as the unvaccinated fall victim to the Delta strain.

Genetic analysis of 2,381 infections last week found nearly 40% were the Delta variant, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Tuesday. More than half the total 1,741 Delta variant cases since December were diagnosed last week.

Latest cases do not include at least 266 infections among sailors who were flown to Seoul on Tuesday after a navy destroyer patrolling the waters off Africa was found to be riddled with the coronavirus, Lee Ki-il, deputy minister of health care policy, told a briefing on Wednesday.

The new distancing curbs, introduced about ten days ago, haven’t been effective in containing the virus spread as the summer season has contributed to higher infections in beach vacation spot, said Lee.

The government last week put the capital Seoul and neighboring areas under a semi-lockdown, including a ban on gatherings of more than two people after 6 p.m., as more than 80% of the caseloads were found in the region.

New distancing rules are expected to be announced by Sunday.

Despite the record number of cases, South Korea has seen no significant increase in hospitalizations or deaths, with a mortality rate of 1.13% and the number of severe cases at 214 as of Tuesday.

Of the country’s 52 million people 32% have received at least one vaccine dose, with the government aiming to vaccinate 70% by September.

So far, South Korea has recorded 182,265 cases and 2,060 deaths. — Reuters

Insular Life offers VUL Health Packages for dread disease and hospitalization coverage

July 21, 2021 | 3:34 pm

Healthcare spending in the Philippines could continue to rise as the country battles the pandemic. To ensure that there are funds to help shoulder health-related expenses and augment lost income due to hospitalization, Insular Life (InLife) came up with Variable Unit-Linked (VUL) Health Packages.

InLife’s VUL Health Packages are life insurance products with an investment component that should provide funds in case of sickness and hospitalization.

“Many Filipinos are trying to survive this pandemic. Many have to brave the streets and public transportation to go to work and provide for the family, even if they have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Their immune systems may be compromised. For all of us, as we age and depending on our lifestyle, we become prone to health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, among others. It is important that we prevent these from happening by taking care of our health. But in instances where sickness becomes unavoidable, it is best to be ready. This is what InLife’s Variable Unit-Linked (VUL) health packages are for,” said Gae L. Martinez, InLife’s Chief Marketing Officer said.

InLife’s VUL health packages are composed of two plans: Wealth Secure Health with premiums that start at P30,000 per year, and Wealth Assure Health with premiums that start at P80,000 per year. Both plans are life insurance products with investment component and have the dread disease, and hospitalization riders as supplementary contracts. The dread disease rider provides lump sum cash of up to a maximum of P10 million upon the diagnosis of any of the 59 covered illnesses. Meanwhile, the hospitalization rider gives daily allowance up to a maximum of P2,500 per day to replace lost income during the insured’s hospital stay.

InLife’s VUL health packages cover the insured until age 99 and give death benefits equal to the sum insured plus the fund value. They may be availed of by Filipinos aged 20 to 60 years old. As these are life insurance plans with an investment component, funds may be invested in the following: money market, fixed income, balanced, and equity-laced funds.

For inquiries on InLife’s VUL health packages, please visit http://www.insularlife.com.ph/wshealth, https://www.insularlife.com.ph/wahealth, or email e-mail inquiry@insular.com.ph to get in touch with an InLife Financial Advisor.

Central banks, wealth funds going greener and more activist — survey

July 21, 2021 | 3:11 pm

LONDON — The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is accelerating a shift by central banks and sovereign wealth and public pension funds to greener and more activist investment strategies, one of the largest annual surveys of their behaviors showed.

The Global Public Investor survey by think-tank Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) sampled 102 institutions overseeing a combined $7 trillion this year to track how the pandemic and other long-term trends are affecting them.

The findings of the survey, seen by Reuters ahead of its publication on Wednesday, showed the scale and speed at which environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors were now driving investment decisions.

“There has definitely been an acceleration due to COVID,” OMFIF’s Chief Economist Danae Kyriakopoulou said.

“At the beginning [of the pandemic], we thought there would be a focus on the short-term, the quick boosts to recoveries. But actually there has been this realization that our financial systems are so vulnerable to things outside the financial world.”

As well as a store of wealth for future generations, sovereign wealth funds are often used by countries during periods of upheaval.

For the first time since OMFIF started asking about ESG, the majority in all three categories of global public investors (GPIs) said that they now implement it in some way.

This differed widely between types of institution, with all pension funds implementing ESG criteria, compared with around two-thirds of sovereign funds and just over half of central banks.

Central banks made up around 60% of OMFIF’s survey sample this year and while many don’t invest in equities or infrastructure projects, green bonds remain their most popular ESG option.

Over a third of the banks asked in the survey now hold them, although some also said that liquidity and lack of supply of green bonds, especially in dollars, can be a headache.

TIPPING POINT
The survey also showed a trend for more active ownership, especially among sovereign wealth and public pension funds. Rather than just excluding polluters, many funds are now specifically buying companies or projects that transition to more sustainable practices from dirtier or less responsible ones.

There are still clear gaps though. The survey found that around 60% of GPIs didn’t use ESG benchmarks — a kind of shopping list of assets that they can and can’t own — and only 8% had their own bespoke benchmarks.

An Invesco survey earlier this month found the majority of sovereign funds think financial markets are fully pricing in the long-term implications of climate change.

Nevertheless, Ms. Kyriakopoulou pointed to one day in May when a Dutch court ordered Shell to lower its emissions faster, Exxon Mobil’s shareholders defied management to elect two new climate-conscious board members and Chevron’s shareholders went against its management to back emissions cuts.

“Policy makers and investors should not be surprised by such rulings or decisions. Even though they are radical and mark a ‘tipping point’, it is clear that momentum for change has been building.” — Marc Jones/Reuters

Australia, under lockdown, sees jump in COVID-19 cases

July 21, 2021 | 2:43 pm

SYDNEY — Australia’s two largest states reported sharp increases in new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases on Wednesday, a blow to hopes that lockdown restrictions would be lifted with more than half the country’s population under stay-at-home orders.

New South Wales (NSW) state, home to the country’s most populous city Sydney, logged 110 new cases, up from 78 the day before, nearly four weeks into a lockdown of the city and surrounding areas to contain an outbreak of the virulent Delta variant.

Victoria state clocked 22 new cases, from nine the day before, its biggest increase since the outbreak began this month, as it nears its second week of statewide lockdown.

“Had we not gone into the lockdown a few weeks ago, the 110 number today would undoubtedly have been thousands and thousands,” said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at a televised news conference.

“But we need to work harder and, of course, all of us need to be on guard,” she added.

Health leaders have said their greatest concern is the number of people active in the community before receiving their coronavirus diagnosis, and that the number should be near zero before lifting lockdown.

Ms. Berejiklian said that number jumped to 43 on Wednesday, double the previous day, and that she could not say until the following week whether the city would exit lockdown by a July 30 target.

Overnight, NSW added three regional centres some 250 km (150 miles) from Sydney to the list of areas under lockdown after a pet food delivery driver tested positive there, raising fears of local transmission.

“We know every day who’s going to walk through the door, but even the locals that do come in, they’re buying for like four days, rather than buying for every single day,” said Cameron Cassel, a butcher in Blayney, population 3,000.

Victorian authorities, meanwhile, said 16 of its 22 new cases were in quarantine during their infectious period, while exposure sites for the remaining six were “reasonably low.”

“That is something that should give us all a degree of confidence and hope that this response… is working,” said Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley.

A third state, South Australia, went into its first full day of a weeklong lockdown on Wednesday, and reported one additional case.

‘MORE PFIZER’

A year and a half into the pandemic, some 13 million Australians are under hard lockdown, raising pressure on the federal government which has seen its polling at its lowest in a year due to a sluggish immunization program. Just over 11% of the population is fully vaccinated.

The main vaccine in the government’s arsenal, developed by AstraZeneca Plc, has been recommended for use only for people aged over 60 by the country’s drug regulator due to a remote risk of blood clotting, while a vaccine made by Pfizer Inc has been restricted to over-40s due to limited supply.

“We have done as much as is humanly possible but the issue is we need more vaccines, we need more Pfizer,” said NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard.

The restrictions have also hit some economic indicators which had roared back to pre-pandemic levels after the initial upheaval of early 2020. Retail sales in June dipped 1.8% from a month earlier, according to government figures, nearly four times the drop foreshadowed by economists.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has been criticized for saying last year that the vaccine rollout was “not a race,” went on local radio to defend the program, but acknowledged it was about two months behind plan.

“I understand there is great frustration … but this latest Delta variant has thrown a completely new curveball on this issue, which every single country in the world is wrestling with,” Mr. Morrison told one radio station.

Still, Australia has fared better than many other developed economies in keeping COVID-19 numbers relatively low, with just over 32,100 cases and 915 deaths. — Renju Jose and Byron Kaye/Reuters

Central China’s Henan province swamped after heaviest rain in 1,000 years

July 21, 2021 | 2:42 pm

BEIJING — Large swathes of China’s central Henan province were under water on Wednesday, with at least a dozen people dead in its capital Zhengzhou after the city was drenched by what weather watchers said was the heaviest rain in 1,000 years.

With more rain forecast across Henan for the next three days, the government of Zhengzhou, a city of over 12 million on the banks of the Yellow River, said 12 people were reported to have died in a flooded subway line, while more than 500 were pulled to safety.

Video on social media on Tuesday showed commuters chest-deep in murky floodwaters on a train in the dark and an underground station turned into a large, churning pool.

“The water reached my chest,” a survivor wrote on social media. “I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the diminishing air supply in the carriage.”

Due to the rain, the authorities halted bus services, as the vehicles are powered by electricity, said a Zhengzhou resident surnamed Guo, who spent the night at his office.

“That’s why many people took the subway, and the tragedy happened,” Guo told Reuters.

From the evening of Saturday until late Tuesday, 617.1 millimeters (mm) of rain fell in Zhengzhou, about 650 km southwest of Beijing. That’s almost on par with Zhengzhou’s annual average of 640.8 mm.

The amount of rainfall in Zhengzhou witnessed over the three days was one seen only “once in a thousand years,” local media cited meteorologists as saying.

‘FLOOD PREVENTION DIFFICULT’
The lives of millions of people in Henan, a province with a population of around 100 million, have been upended in an unusually active rainy season that has led to the rapid rise of a number of rivers in the vast Yellow River basin.

Many train services across Henan, a major logistics hub in central China, have been suspended. Many highways have also been closed and flights delayed or cancelled.

Roads in a dozen cities have been severely flooded.

“Flood prevention efforts have become very difficult,” President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, addressing the situation in a statement broadcast by state television.

Dozens of reservoirs and dams also breached warning levels.

Local authorities said the rainfall had caused a 20-meter breach in the Yihetan dam in Luoyang city west of Zhengzhou, and that the dam “could collapse at any time.”

In Zhengzhou, the local flood control headquarters said the city’s Guojiazui reservoir had been breached but there was no dam failure yet.

About 100,000 people in the city have been evacuated to safe zones.

SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS CUT OFF
Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn operates a plant on the outskirts of Zhengzhou, next to the city’s airport, that assembles iPhones for Apple. It said there was no direct impact on its facility, but had activated an emergency response plan.

SAIC Motor, China’s largest automaker, said logistics at its Zhengzhou plant would see some short-term impact, while Japan’s Nissan said production at its Zhengzhou factory had been temporarily suspended.

Zhengzhou’s transportation system remained paralysed, with schools and hospitals cut off by waterlogging. Some children have been trapped in their kindergartens since Tuesday.

Residents caught in the flood had taken shelter in libraries, cinemas and even museums.

“We’ve up to 200 people of all ages seeking temporary shelter,” said a staffer surnamed Wang at the Zhengzhou Science and Technology Museum.

“We’ve provided them with instant noodles and hot water. They spent the night in a huge meeting room.”

About 3 km away, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University — the city’s largest with over 7,000 beds — has lost all power, and even backup supplies were down.

The hospital was racing to find transport to relocate about 600 critically ill patients. — Ryan Woo and Stella Qiu/Reuters

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