South Pole CEO steps down after greenwashing allegations: South Pole, the world’s biggest carbon offsets seller, says its CEO and cofounder Renat Heuberger is stepping down following allegations of greenwashing by the company, Bloomberg reports. This comes after South Pole announced it was terminating operations in Zimbabwe’s Kariba REDD+ projects — one of the world’s largest forest conservation and carbon credit schemes — aimed to prevent deforestation around Lake Kariba. South Pole has said that the project failed to meet the standards it expected from its partners.

REMEMBER- Independent experts and South Pole’s own analysis found that the firm vastly overestimated the extent of the preservation by Kariba. South Pole said at the time that the credits were legitimate and would still benefit the climate despite the studies concluding that the project failed to generate enough atmospheric benefit.

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The US and Indonesia explore partnering on minerals: The US and Indonesia will discuss a potential partnership on minerals to give a push to the trade in nickel — a critical metal needed for the production of EV batteries, Reuters reports, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. The talks will focus on reducing the environmental impact of nickel supply from Indonesia, which has one of the world's biggest nickel ore reserves. This also comes as the only nickel mine in the US is expected to close in a few years, posing a risk to EV production in the country, the newswire added.

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Hyundai is building an EV-dedicated plant in South Korea: South Korean automaker Hyundai broke ground on a domestic EV manufacturing facility in Ulsan which will have an annual 200k production capacity, according to a statement. The company says it will shell out KRW 2 tn (c. USD 1.53 bn) to build the plant and full-scale construction will begin in Q4 2023, with mass production commencing in Q1 2026. Hyundai Motor Group had said in September will invest USD 12 bn in EV manufacturing and battery production.

The company is also eying MENA for EV production: KSA’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Hyundai Motor signed a JV agreement last month to establish a USD 500 mn highly automated vehicle manufacturing plant in the kingdom. Automaker Hyundai Kefico — a subsidiary of Hyundai — also signed a KRW 250 bn (c. USD 196 mn) agreement in July to supply spare parts to Saudi Arabia’s first EV manufacturing company Ceer.

OTHER STORIES WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THIS MORNING-

• AirFrance-KLM invests in DG Fuels' SAF plant: French-Dutch airline AirFrance-KLM invested USD 4.7 mn in Dg Fuel's sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plant in the US. The airline will be able to buy up to 70k tons SAF annually starting 2029. (Reuters)