KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) plans to "demonstrate credible progress” in its net-zero commitments to stakeholders as the company has taken appropriate actions for overall emissions reduction.

SDP chief sustainability officer Rashyid Redza Anwarudin said the plantation group has also made progress in its labour practices as well.

"Moving forward, following these commitments, we also need to make sure that we can demonstrate to our stakeholders our credible progress.

"That’s not the next big thing, but as we know, that’s what we need to work on because we want to show that we are making progress,” he said at SDP’s net zero webinar today.

Rashyid pointed at three key opportunities from the palm oil industry to significantly reduce emissions.

Firstly to eliminate deforestation throughout the supply chain and ensure no new development on peat land; enhance the approach to land use by looking into reforestation of unproductive areas; and ensure effective solutions to manage emissions from peat.

"In addition, we want to utilise methane capture to reduce emissions from palm oil mills effluents,” he added.

On December 8, 2022, SDP unveiled its net-zero emissions commitments with a clear roadmap to achieve the targets by 2050, in line with Paris Agreement targets to limit the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C.

SDP said its net-zero strategy is science-based and in accordance with the latest guidance by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), including the Forest, Land and Agriculture Guidance launched by SBTi on September 28, 2022.

It submitted both its near-term 2030 targets and longer-term 2050 targets to SBTi on November 10, 2022 for validation.

The SBTi is a collaboration between the Carbon Disclosure Project, World Resources Institute, World Wide Fund for Nature, and the United Nations Global Compact. — Bernama