Global technology giant Apple recently announced a dedicated fund to fight climate change. With this initiative, the company hopes to make investments in forestry projects, while also ensuring generating a financial return for investors. By Bayar Jain
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In an official release issued by Apple, the company—along with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs—has announced a carbon removal initiative. This Apple Restore Fund aims at making investments to combat carbon release in the atmosphere while simultaneously generating financial return for investors. With this, the technology giant aims to remove at least one million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The USD 200 million (approximately INR 1,500 crore) fund is reportedly a part of Apple’s broader goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. By then, the company aims to eliminate 75 per cent of its emissions for its supply chain and products, and reserve 25 per cent to combat carbon emissions.
However, the fund will reportedly go beyond just investment purposes. The California-based iPhone maker claims that the Restore Fund will also work towards ensuring the carbon stored in forest is quantified accurately and locked out of the atmosphere. For this, organisations like Verra, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will draft standard protocols to be followed. Moreover, buffer zones and natural set-asides will reportedly be chalked out as well.
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Interestingly, this is not the first of Apple’s conservation efforts. Reportedly, the company has been using 100 per cent responsibly-sourced fibres in its packaging for the past three years. The release also notes that Apple has ‘improved the management’ of one-million-acred forests globally. Apple, along with Conservation International, has undertaken projects to protect and restore grasslands, wetlands, and forests. In 2018, both the companies also joined hands to restore a 27,000-acred mangrove in Columbia, partnered with conservation organisation in Kenya to restore degraded savannahs in the Chyulu Hills region, worked towards removing carbon from the atmosphere, and benefitted local communities and wildlife. Apple is also giving its patrons the opportunity to contribute towards these conservation and preservation efforts with each purchase till Earth Day (April 22).
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