ITS GREEN IT GLOWS IN THE DARK

Nuclear Energy Could Bridge The Energy Transition Gap

By Felicity Bradstock - Oct 06, 2021

• Nuclear power is making a comeback as it has become clear that renewable energy alone cannot meet global demand 
• 
  
• Small-scale modular SMR nuclear reactor may well be the key to a nuclear revival by reducing both the cost and danger of nuclear power
• 
  
• SMR reactors have the support of companies in Poland, Britain, the U.S., and Canada, with even big names such as Bill Gates supporting them

Small scale nuclear companies are picking up pace, following the example of bigger nuclear firms looking for their place in future of renewables, as nuclear power finally makes a comeback following years of criticism and fear of power stations.

Two companies in Poland, KGHM and Synthos, are looking to get small-scale modular SMR nuclear reactors up and running in a bid to stake their claim to the future of Europe’s nuclear power. To date, over 70 companies around the world are involved in SMR nuclear reactor projects, with the popularity of small-scale nuclear business quickly expanding. 

Both KGHM and Synthos are planning to work with American companies familiar with the SMR technology to advance their independent projects in Poland, in line with European Union expectations for net-zero carbon emissions within the next few decades. 

Critics of the small-scale projects suggest that opponents of nuclear energy will use the same arguments as those of larger nuclear projects, that because of the cost and safety concerns around nuclear power, alternatives such as wind and solar energy projects are far more useful to invest in and will be more technologically advanced in a shorter timeframe. In addition, much of the small-scale technology still requires extensive testing to ensure its safety. However, small nuclear plants may be able to bridge the gap in energy output that wind and solar energy production faces. When there is a lull in renewable energy production, small-scale nuclear power could plug the gap in a way that is not possible for larger nuclear projects to do due to their high cost to energy value. 

The next step is for countries developing the technology, such as the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, to work alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and national regulators to continue testing the safety of SMR reactors and agree upon international protocols and safety procedures. 

But companies like KGHM and Synthos are simply following the examples of countries like the U.K., the U.S. and France, which have been proponents of nuclear power for years and continue to back nuclear energy despite criticism over safety and potentially life-threatening failures.                                               

Many countries are highlighting nuclear power as a necesity in a zero-carbon future, with the U.K. announcing this week that it is planning for a fossil fuel-free power grid by 2035 through the use of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy will be used by the U.K. as a back-up for renewable energy production during the energy transition period. To drive this transition, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised the construction of at least one large-scale nuclear project by 2025.

As some of the world’s energy leaders are showing their support for large-scale nuclear projects, some popular names are also backing the new small-scale technology. Bill Gates’ Terrapower, for example, is planning for a nuclear plant in Wyoming to be made up of small reactors that are better suited for a smaller grid system. 

A major appeal of SMR reactors is that they can be factory-built and then shipped, adding more as energy demand rises. These reactors have an output of anything between 50 and 300 megawatts but can be combined to form a powerplant of up to 1,000 megawatts. Furthermore, if one of the modules breaks, it can be repaired without completely stopping operations. This reduces the environmental risk as well as the cost of the project – which is often criticized by energy companies and opponents of nuclear power. 

The backing of nuclear energy by several governments, companies, and leading energy names around the world is largely due to the desire to move away from fossil fuels towards renewable alternatives and the lack of scope currently available for renewable energy production. While wind, solar, hydro, and other renewable energies have come a long way, there is still a significant road to track before the scale of these projects can meet the energy demand of 7.9 billion people worldwide. 

But it’s important to remember that nuclear energy still has a bad rep. After the monumental failures of Fukushima and Chernobyl, several countries swore off nuclear power completely. Many people around the world oppose nuclear power for fear of safety issues, fighting governments who want to build new nuclear plants. But many now question if the safety concerns, for both people and the environment, are any worse than those we face because of continued oil and gas use. As the energy transition becomes unavoidable, proponents of nuclear power are likely to remind us of this comparison and the need for something beyond renewable energy projects to bridge the gap. 

Yet, while some small companies and major governments are welcoming nuclear power once again, others continue to reject it. Nuclear power, it seems, is not for everyone - even in regions that are in dire need of sustainable electricity sources such as California. The Diablo Canyon nuclear powerplant, based in San Luis Obispo County, California, is currently in the middle of a ten-year decommissioning project, which will entirely strip the state of nuclear power. This is a questionable decision for a state that has experienced severe electricity cuts in the face of annual heatwaves.

Some of the arguments against nuclear power in California include the risk of earthquakes potentially leading to failures in the plants, utility companies in the region that are not willing to buy nuclear power, and the cost involved in the development of nuclear power plants compared to other energy options such as wind and solar power. So, while nuclear power could provide the low-carbon energy production so direly needed in California, the risks are deemed too costly. 

There seem to be mixed messages when it comes to nuclear power. Advocates believe that nuclear energy is necessary if we hope to meet the world’s energy demand as we transition away from fossil fuels, as well as being more environmentally friendly – providing rigorous international safety guidelines are met. However, not everyone agrees. Whether for the cost or for fear of failure, some governments may never get on board. What we may start to see, however, is the development of small-scale nuclear projects that support renewable energy advances over the next decade, providing competition to larger energy companies that do not want to get involved. 

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

How nuclear energy can help make all UK electricity green by 2035

October 6, 2021 

Boris Johnson is set to announce at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester that all of Britain’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2035, according to a recent report in the Times.

The government suspects that the British public – tired of petrol station queues and dreading winter gas bills – will like the idea of moving away from fossil fuels. But the nature of this energy crisis, stoked by a late summer lull in wind power generation, high wholesale gas prices and Britain’s meagre prospects for storing energy, demands a careful response.

And what energy technology offers low-carbon credentials and a reliable base supply? The UK government’s emphatic answer appears to be nuclear power.

Only three years ago, UK ambitions for new nuclear power plants were in trouble. Major Japanese conglomerates Toshiba and Hitachi had pulled the plug on their separate nuclear projects in the country. But with renewed support from Boris Johnson’s government, one of these now appears to be back on the table.

It was recently revealed that there are ongoing discussions between the government and American partners about US nuclear engineering firm Westinghouse building a new nuclear power plant on the island of Anglesea in north Wales. There is even talk of government support for Derby-based industrial giant Rolls-Royce to develop a series of smaller modular nuclear reactors. These are, in essence, scaled-down versions of traditional power plants that will generate 470 megawatts of electricity compared with the 1,000 megawatts from their larger equivalents. Importantly, with these new designs, true factory-based manufacture becomes possible. The factories produce modules for rapid assembly on-site.

Read more: Everything you need to know about mini nuclear reactors

There are likely to be benefits for British businesses in the government’s approach. But how would a new generation of nuclear plants help keep the lights on while cutting emissions from the energy sector?

The nuclear option

The reactors in nuclear power stations convert the heat generated by splitting atoms (a process known as nuclear fission) to electricity, and can usually run at maximum power for months, whatever the weather. This process doesn’t emit greenhouse gases – although there are likely to be emissions during the construction of the plant itself. The vapour that rises from the iconic cooling towers of a nuclear power plant is water, not carbon dioxide.

Large nuclear power stations have huge turbine generators spinning at high speed. These hold their speed in the face of small national fluctuations, providing stability to the grid. A constant base supply of nuclear power could continue to meet demand when renewable generation falters because the wind isn’t blowing and the Sun isn’t shining.

There are other ways nuclear energy can aid decarbonisation. Heat generated in nuclear reactors might be pumped into the central heating systems of homes and other buildings, replacing fossil gas boilers. Nuclear energy could even go towards producing hydrogen fuel – a form of stored energy with potential benefits in heating and transport. And because nuclear fuel like uranium is what’s called energy-dense, even relatively small amounts can offer an ample supply. The UK also has its own fuel factory and plant for enriching uranium, allowing greater national control over the entire process.

Read more: The future of nuclear: power stations could make hydrogen, heat homes and decarbonise industry

There remain concerns about the cost and safety of nuclear power. But these should now be placed in the context of climate change. Fossil fuels in power generation must end, and the stable and continuous operation of nuclear power plants is a useful complement to the varying output of renewable sources such as wind and solar. This appears to be the government’s logic, favouring a boost to both nuclear and renewables investment.

UK governments have pushed to rebuild British’s nuclear capacity more than once in the last two decades. When Tony Blair was prime minister, he aimed for a series of very large nuclear power plants. The construction of the first of these, Hinkley Point C, is well underway. The pandemic and other problems have caused delays, but the first electricity generated from its two large reactors is expected in the summer of 2026.

The nuclear reactor on unit one at Hinkley Point C. 

Ben Birchall/PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo

Hinkley Point C is underpinned by a finance deal with China, struck by former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. The days when, in 2015, Osborne said “Britain should run towards China” are fading. So too is the rhetoric of a nuclear renaissance that coincided with a post-cold war optimism for globalisation and market liberalisation. First it became clear that competitive electricity markets struggled with the challenge of replacing old nuclear with new. Then globalisation faltered with the return of great power nationalism.

Nuclear technology is back in the government’s sights, but this time it will involve more British money and technology. Talk of a green future has been joined with voices on the right clamouring for a new sense of national self-reliance, free from the vicissitudes of global fossil-fuel supply. Despite such realities, and the many difficulties encountered along the way, the UK nuclear renaissance remains internationalist in outlook. It is a strength that should be defended.

Author

William Nuttall
Professor of Energy, The Open University

Disclosure statement
William Nuttall is a co-investigator on grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council relating to nuclear energy. He is currently finalising the second edition of his book "Nuclear Renaissance" (Taylor and Francis group) originally published in 2005. Professor Nuttall has recently contributed to work by Policy Connect relating to energy matters.
Partners



The Open University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

Growing climate anxiety poses significant threat to individuals and society

by British Medical Journal

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Levels of eco-anxiety—the chronic fear of environmental doom—are growing, particularly among children and young people, and are likely to be significant and potentially damaging to individuals and society, warn experts in The BMJ today.

Mala Rao and Richard A Powell say neglecting the effects of increasing eco-anxiety "risks exacerbating health and social inequalities between those more or less vulnerable to these psychological impacts," while the socioeconomic effects—as yet hidden and unquantified—"will add considerably to the national costs of addressing the climate crisis."

And they call on leaders to "recognize the challenges ahead, the need to act now, and the commitment necessary to create a path to a happier and healthier future, leaving no one behind."

They point to a 2020 survey of child psychiatrists in England showing that more than half (57%) are seeing children and young people distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment.

And a recent international survey of climate anxiety in young people aged 16 to 25 showed that the psychological (emotional, cognitive, social, and functional) burdens of climate change are "profoundly affecting huge numbers of these young people around the world."

These findings also offer insights into how young people's emotions are linked with their feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults, they write. Governments are seen as failing to respond adequately, leaving young people with "no future" and "humanity doomed."

So what is to be done to alleviate the rising levels of climate anxiety, they ask?

"The best chance of increasing optimism and hope in the eco-anxious young and old is to ensure they have access to the best and most reliable information on climate mitigation and adaptation," they explain.

"Especially important is information on how they could connect more strongly with nature, contribute to greener choices at an individual level, and join forces with like-minded communities and groups."

They conclude: "The climate crisis is an existential threat, and fearfulness about the future cannot be fully tackled until a common united global strategy is put in place to address the root cause, global warming, and to give everyone—especially the young and the most vulnerable communities—the hope of a better future."Government inaction on climate change linked to psychological distress in young people

More information: The BMJ, blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/06/t … -rise-of-eco-anxiety

Provided by British Medical Journal 

‘Eco-anxiety’: fear of environmental doom weighs on young people

Although not a diagnosable condition, experts says climate anxiety is on the rise worldwide

In September children and young people around the world, including Glasgow, took part in protests against the climate crisis. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Andrew Gregory Health editor
Wed 6 Oct 2021 23.30 BST

The climate crisis is taking a growing toll on the mental health of children and young people, experts have warned.

Increasing levels of “eco-anxiety” – the chronic fear of environmental doom – were likely to be underestimated and damaging to many in the long term, public health experts said.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Mala Rao and Richard Powell, of Imperial College London’s Department of Primary Care and Public Health, said eco-anxiety “risks exacerbating health and social inequalities between those more or less vulnerable to these psychological impacts”.

Although not yet considered a diagnosable condition, recognition of eco-anxiety and its complex psychological effects was increasing, they said, as was its “disproportionate” impact on children and young people.

In their article, they pointed to a 2020 survey of child psychiatrists in England showing that more than half (57%) are seeing children and young people distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment.


Children set for more climate disasters than their grandparents, research shows

A recent international survey of climate anxiety in young people aged 16 to 25 showed that the psychological burdens of climate crisis were “profoundly affecting huge numbers of these young people around the world”, they added.

Rao and Powell called on global leaders to “recognise the challenges ahead, the need to act now, and the commitment necessary to create a path to a happier and healthier future, leaving no one behind”.

Research offered insights into how young people’s emotions were linked with their feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults, they said. Governments were seen as failing to respond adequately, leaving young people with “no future” and “humanity doomed”.

Their warning comes a week after Greta Thunberg excoriated global leaders, dismissing their promises to address the climate emergency as “blah, blah, blah”.

In April, she quoted Boris Johnson, who derisively used the phrase “bunny hugging” to describe climate activism. Thunberg said: “This is not some expensive, politically correct, green act of bunny hugging”.

By 2030 carbon emissions are expected to rise by 16%, according to the UN, rather than fall by half, which is the cut needed to keep global heating under the internationally agreed limit of 1.5C

Protest in a pandemic: voices of young climate activists – video

Rao and Powell said it was important to consider what could be done to alleviate the rising levels of climate anxiety.


“The best chance of increasing optimism and hope in the eco-anxious young and old is to ensure they have access to the best and most reliable information on climate mitigation and adaptation,” they said. “Especially important is information on how they could connect more strongly with nature, contribute to greener choices at an individual level, and join forces with like-minded communities and groups.”

Separately, new research also published in the BMJ suggests changing unhealthy behaviour could be key to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Theresa Marteau, of the University of Cambridge, said technological innovation alone would be insufficient.

Adopting a largely plant-based diet and taking most journeys using a combination of walking, cycling and public transport would substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health, she said.

FIRST READING: Alberta really, really doesn't like Jason Kenney anymore

The federal Liberal government goes to bat for a pipeline (seriously)

Author of the article:

Tristin Hopper

Publishing date:

Oct 06, 2021  •  +NATONAL POST

Jason Kenney actually looked relatively confident at this Tuesday press conference, but we                                   grabbed this photo of him looking defeated to match the headline. PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOWICHUK/POSTMEDIA

Premier Jason Kenney has become one of the most hated leaders in modern Alberta history, according to a new poll by ThinkHQ. More than 77 per cent of Albertans gave the thumbs-down to his leadership, putting him in roughly the same territory as Alison Redford just prior to her 2014 resignation. With COVID-19 hospitalizations now reaching an all-time high in Alberta, Kenney is currently getting hate from the right for inaugurating a system of vaccine passports, and from the left for pursuing a months-long strategy of strenuously avoiding even moderate measures for contract tracing and monitoring.

That’s right; COVID-19 has made Albertans pine for Rachel Notley to return. PHOTO BY THINKHQ

The Canadian Energy Centre is the fancy name for Kenney’s government-funded “energy war room.” The centre just released a report tracking the quantities of foreign oil that Canada has imported since the 1980s, with the implication being that Canada should buy more of its own supply rather than __. They found that Quebec is the largest single buyer of foreign oil in Canada, with the average Quebec household consuming roughly $1,576 of imported petroleum per year.

FIRST READING: Alberta really, really doesn't like Jason Kenney anymore | National Post

Canadian oil exports to U.S. jump with expanded Line 3 pipeline

Sheela Tobben, Bloomberg News

Canadian oil shipments to the U.S. jumped to the highest volume since the start of the year thanks in part to the startup of a long-delayed Canadian pipeline.

Weekly oil deliveries from America’s northern neighbor reached 4.04 million barrels day, the most since January, according to the Energy Information Administration. It’s only the third time the U.S. has imported more than 4 million barrels a day of Canadian crude since the agency began compiling weekly data in 2010.

It’s likely these increased flows will be the new norm mainly because of the expanded Line 3, said Elisabeth Murphy, ESAI Energy LLC upstream analyst for North America. In fact, weekly volumes should start to average closer to 3.7-3.8 million barrels a day from here, from current levels of around 3.5 million, she added.



The additional barrels from Canada come as a relief to U.S. refiners struggling with less supply from OPEC+, shrinking imports from Latin America, and more recently, the loss of about 30 million barrels of Gulf of Mexico production after Hurricane Ida.

Gulf Coast refineries have increasingly been pulling from Canada to offset the crude production in the Gulf of Mexico thats remains shut since Hurricane Ida swept through over a month ago, said Shirin Lakhani, director of global oil service at Rapidan Energy Group.

Last week, Enbridge Inc. started its new Line 3 crude pipeline after years of delays. It can transport 760,000 barrels a day of heavy and light oil, nearly double the size of the old line it replaced.

Canada set to fall short on targets for carbon emissions, report finds

Oct 6, 2021

Canada is forecast to fall short of its 2030 target to cut emissions by 40 per cent, according to a new report by Trottier Energy Institute.  

#GlobalNews

 New Brunswick

All CUPE locals in wage talks with province vote overwhelmingly to strike

Social Sharing

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Email

• Reddit

• LinkedIn

At least one local has already started job

action

Mia Urquhart · CBC News · Posted: Oct 06, 2021 2

Support for strike action ranged from 83 to 98 per cent across the 10 locals negotiating with the province. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)

All 10 CUPE locals who were in wage talks with the province have voted in favour of a strike.

Results for the final two votes were announced by CUPE officials in a news briefing on Wednesday morning. 

Local 5026, which represents francophone community college workers, and Local 1190, general labour and trades, both voted 96 per cent in favour of strike action. 

The ten locals represent approximately 22,000 workers around the province. 

Nearly every one of the locals voted overwhelmingly for a strike. Percentages ranged from 83 to 98 across the 10 groups. 

Steve Drost, the president of CUPE New Brunswick, said the average was 94 per cent. He said the results send a clear message to government and Premier Blaine Higgs. 

CUPE New Brunswick president Steve Drost said 94 per cent of 22,000 workers from 10 locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees have voted in favour of a strike. (Jacques Poitras/CBC News)

"So, Mr. Higgs, you've got 10 locals that have taken very, very strong strike mandates. Let's not go down that road. Don't force us down that road, but our members have given us a very, very clear, strong message."

Talks between the province and CUPE members broke down on Sept. 3 when an agreement over wages couldn't be reached and the province stopped negotiating.

Drost said the union wrote to the premier last Friday, asking the province to come back to the bargaining table. So far, he said, they haven't received a response. 

The union is asking for annual wage increases of five per cent over the next four years. 

Last December, Higgs asked public-sector unions to agree to four-year contracts with no wage increase in the first year and increases of one per cent in each of the three remaining years.

Higgs said wage restraint was necessary because COVID-19 had pushed the province into a precarious financial position.

The province's most recent offer was for annual increases of 1.25 per cent over four years, then two per cent in the fifth and sixth years.

But the government wanted CUPE to agree to concessions, including converting members' pensions to the shared-risk model used elsewhere in the civil service and transferring about 100 union members to management positions.

Court stenographers counting votes in Moncton last month. 96 per cent of the local voted in favour of a strike. (CUPE NB )

There have also been complaints of bad faith bargaining filed by both sides with the province's labour board.

"Let's get back to the bargaining table and let's settle this and bring some labour peace to this province," said Drost. 

Here's a breakdown for each local that voted in favour of strike action: 

• Local 1418 – Rehabilitation, therapy and RCPO - 92 per cent
• Local 1251 – Institutional services and care -  98 per cent
• Local 1253 – School district unions -  97 per cent
• Local 2745 – Educational support staff -  91 per cent
• Local 1840 - Court stenographers - 96 per cent
• Local 1866 - WorkSafe NB - 83 per cent
• Local 5017 - Community colleges - 93 per cent
• Local 1252 - Hospital workers - 94 per cent
• Local 5026 - Collèges communautaires du NB - 96 per cent
• Local 1190  - General Labour and Trades  96 per cent

Eight of those 10 locals are in a strike position right now and by next Tuesday, all 10 "will be in a  legal position to take job action," said Drost.  

One local started last week and another is planning to start. But Drost declined to give any details about what that means or how it might impact the public. 

He said union members "will be doing exactly what is required in the collective agreements," but said members are committed to being "socially responsible" and will not do anything to endanger the public. 

"Again, we're reviewing this extremely closely. We don't want to put our members at risk, we certainly don't want to put the public at risk, and we are looking at everyone's safety and well-being."

Some deemed essential

Each local has a number of "essential" positions that cannot walk off the job. The numbers vary depending on the classification within the local. 

In the case of hospital workers, for example, there are more than 140 classifications in Local 1252, explained CUPE spokesperson Simon Ouellette. 

He said at least 50 per cent of the positions are deemed essential, but the percentages vary depending on worker classifications. Ouellette said it's about 75 per cent for those directly involved in patient care and significantly lower in others, like administrative/clerical positions.

The president of Local 1252, the New Brunswick Council of Hospital Unions, said the numbers are adequate to ensure public safety. 

Norma Robinson, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1215, said the number of hospital workers designated "essential" during strike action is adequate to ensure public safety. (CBC)

"The one thing that we really view when we do essential service designations is public safety," said Norma Robinson. 

"So yes, we feel that they are more than adequate and they were agreed to by the union and the employer, so both parties agree they're adequate."

The question, Robinson said, is how service will be impacted in six weeks when the government is set to suspend without pay all workers who are not fully vaccinated. 

Drost said workers would prefer to get back to the bargaining table instead of taking job action. He said some employees have been without a contract for five years. 

He also said CUPE expects a level playing field when talks resume. He said the government was offering concessions to other groups that were not being offered to his members. 

"How can you bargain with a bunch of other unions in this province and offer them one thing, but come to the table and offer our group something else?" asked Drost. 

But he declined to give specifics about what concessions he was talking about and to whom they were offered. 

Higgs said he was aware of the results of the CUPE votes. 

"It is unfortunate they feel they must go on strike, but we remain confident that a deal can be achieved at the bargaining table. We are willing to return to the table as soon as CUPE is prepared to come forward with revised wage proposals," Higgs said in an emailed statement.

"With respect to working to rule, it is very unfortunate that CUPE is sanctioning this action while the province is immersed in the fourth wave of the COVID pandemic."

Germany puts 100-year-old on trial for Nazi crimes

Issued on: 07/10/2021 - 

Josef Schuetz, stands accused of "knowingly and willingly" assisting in the murder of 3,518 prisoners at the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, between 1942 and 1945 

Tobias Schwarz AFP/File


Brandenburg an der Havel (Germany) (AFP)

A 100-year-old former concentration camp guard became the oldest person yet to be tried for Nazi-era crimes in Germany as he went before the court on Thursday charged with complicity in mass murder.

The suspect, Josef Schuetz, stands accused of "knowingly and willingly" assisting in the murder of 3,518 prisoners at the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, between 1942 and 1945.

Allegations against him include aiding and abetting the "execution by firing squad of Soviet prisoners of war in 1942" and the murder of prisoners "using the poisonous gas Zyklon B".

More than seven decades after World War II, German prosecutors are racing to bring the last surviving Nazi perpetrators to justice, and have in recent years increasingly focused attention on lower-ranking Nazi staff.

The case comes a week after a 96-year-old German woman, who was a secretary in a Nazi death camp, dramatically fled before the start of her trial, but was caught several hours later.

She, too, has been charged with complicity in murder. Her trial resumes on October 19.

Despite his advanced age, a medical assessment in August found that Schuetz was fit to stand trial, although the Neuruppin court will limit his hearings to a couple of hours a day.

Schuetz arrived with a walking aid for the proceedings, held in a sports hall given the huge interest in the case. The trial is scheduled to last until early January.

"He is not accused of having shot anyone in particular, but of having contributed to these acts through his work as a guard and of having been aware such killings were happening at the camp," a court spokeswoman said.

Holocaust survivor Leon Schwarzbaum attended the trial of Josef Schuetz 

Tobias Schwarz AFP

Thomas Walther, a lawyer representing several camp survivors and victims' relatives in the case, said that even 76 years on from the war, such trials were necessary.

"There's no expiry date on justice," he told AFP.

One of his clients is Antoine Grumbach, 79, who hopes Schuetz will shed light on the methods used to kill people in the camp, but also that the accused "will say 'I was wrong, I am ashamed'".

- 'Symbolic' -

The Nazi SS guard worked at the Sachsenhausen camp which detained more than 200,000 people between 1936 and 1945, including Jews, Roma, regime opponents and gay people.

Tens of thousands of inmates died from forced labour, murder, medical experiments, hunger or disease before the camp was liberated by Soviet troops, according to the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum.

Little is known about the accused, beyond the fact that he was released from captivity as a prisoner of war in 1947 and went to work as a locksmith in the Brandenburg region of what was then Communist East Germany, the Bild newspaper reported.

The file against him was transferred by the central unit investigating Nazi crimes to the state of Brandenburg, where he lives, in April 2019, and charges were eventually filed on January 26 this year.

Co-plaintiff Christoffel Heijer, 84, told AFP his father was shot dead in the camp in May 1942.

"My mother received a letter from him on May 3, 1942, before he was shot. When she learnt a few days later that he had died, she cried a lot and went grey almost at once," he said.

The Nazi SS guard worked at the Sachsenhausen camp which detained more than 200,000 people between 1936 and 1945, including Jews, Roma, regime opponents and gay people JOHANNES EISELE AFP/File

The accused's lawyer, Stefan Waterkamp, said his client "has stayed silent" so far on the charges against him.

Schuetz remains free during the trial. Even if convicted, he is highly unlikely to be put behind bars given his advanced age.

- Race against time -

Germany has been hunting down former Nazi staff since the 2011 conviction of former guard John Demjanjuk, on the basis that he served as part of Hitler's killing machine, set a legal precedent.

Since then, courts have handed down several guilty verdicts on those grounds rather than for murders or atrocities directly linked to the individual accused.

Among those brought to late justice were Oskar Groening, an accountant at Auschwitz, and Reinhold Hanning, a former SS guard at Auschwitz.

Both were convicted at the age of 94 of complicity in mass murder, but died before they could be imprisoned.

Most recently, former SS guard Bruno Dey was found guilty at the age of 93 last year and was given a two-year suspended sentence.

Prosecutors are investigating eight other cases, according to the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes.

© 2021 AFP

French police cause misery for migrants in Calais: HRW

Issued on: 07/10/2021 -

French police evacuating hundreds of migrants last week after dismantling their camp near a hospital in Calais

 Bernard BARRON AFP

Paris (AFP)

French police are inflicting misery on migrants in the northern port of Calais, routinely tearing down their tents and forcing them to wander the streets as part of a deterrence policy, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report Thursday.

The 75-page report documents methods used by authorities to prevent the emergence of another major migrant settlement in Calais, five years after the demolition of the sprawling "Jungle" camp which housed up to 10,000 people at its peak.

Calais has for years been a rallying point for migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa trying to sneak across the English Channel to Britain.

Faced with growing public anti-migrant sentiment, President Emmanuel Macron's government has waged a campaign to prevent new camps emerging.

Police tactics include systematically tearing down migrants' tents in the woods, on wasteland or under bridges, regularly confiscating their belongings and harassing NGOs trying to provide them with aid, according to New York-based HRW.

"The authorities carry out these abusive practices with the primary purposes of forcing people to move elsewhere, without resolving their migration status or lack of housing, or of deterring new arrivals," it said in the report entitled "Enforced Misery: The Degrading Treatment of Migrant Children and Adults in Northern France".

- 'Harass and abuse' -

NGOs estimate the number of migrants currently living around Calais at between 1,500 and 2,000, including numerous families. Local authorities estimate that only 500 remain in the area.

Last week, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered the eviction of a camp housing 400 migrants near a hospital in Calais, which was presented as a danger to the hospital's patients and staff.

On that occasion the migrants were taken to temporary shelters but often they are left to wander the streets.

“When the police arrive, we have five minutes to get out of the tent before they destroy everything," a Kurdish woman from Iraq told HRW.

The interior ministry did not respond to AFP's request for comment on the report.

The government argues that the camps are havens for people smugglers, who command extortionate fees to help migrants cross to Britain, either in a small boat crossing the Channel in the dead of night or stowed away on a truck crossing by ferry or through the Channel Tunnel.

Migrants attempt to board a truck bound for Britain 

DENIS CHARLET AFP

NGOs argue that the tactics do nothing more than make migrants already difficult lives even more miserable.

The report quoted the Calais-based Human Rights Observers group as saying that in some cases cleaning crews cut migrants' tents while people are still inside, in order to force them out.

15,400 people attempted to cross the Channel in the first eight months of this year, a increase of 50 percent over the figure for the whole of 2020 

HO Prefecture maritime de la Manche/AFP

"If the aim is to discourage migrants from gathering in northern France, these policies are a manifest failure and result in serious harm," Benedicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch, said.

French authorities "need a new approach to help people, not repeatedly harass and abuse them," she added.

A total of 15,400 people attempted to cross the Channel in the first eight months of this year, a increase of 50 percent over the figure for the whole of 2020, according to French coast guard statistics.

"Exiles aren’t travelling to northern France because they’ve heard they can camp in the woods or stay under a bridge...They come because that's where the border is," Charlotte Kwantes, national coordinator of the Utopia 56 charity was quoted in the report as saying.

© 2021 AFP

Saudi takeover of Newcastle set to go ahead despite rights concerns

Issued on: 07/10/2021

A Saudi-backed takeover could make Newcastle a Premier League

 force to contend with

 Lindsey PARNABY AFP


London (AFP)

A Saudi-backed takeover of Newcastle is set to get the green light from the Premier League despite warnings from Amnesty International on Thursday that the deal represents "sportswashing" of the Gulf kingdom's human rights record.

A consortium featuring Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), PCP Capital Partners and billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben struck a deal worth a reported £300 million ($408 million) to buy the club from unpopular owner Mike Ashley in April 2020.

However, the controversial takeover bid hit the rocks last year after an outcry from Qatar-based beIN Sports, a major television rights holder of the Premier League.

The broadcaster, which extended its rights to the English top-flight for the Middle East and North African region earlier this year until 2025 at a cost of $500 million, was banned by Saudi Arabia in 2017 at the start of a diplomatic and transport blockade of Qatar, which ended in January.

Tensions between the states have eased significantly this year and Saudi's ban on beIN is set to be lifted, with Riyadh also seeking to settle Qatar's $1 billion arbitration claim over pirate broadcasts to Saudi audiences by the BeoutQ network.

The PIF, chaired by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, is reportedly set to take an 80 percent stake under the proposed deal.

The takeover could transform the Magpies' fortunes -- despite regular attendances of 50,000 at St. James' Park, Newcastle have not won a major trophy since 1969.

Current owner Mike Ashley has been deeply unpopular in his 13 years in charge, during which time the club have twice been relegated from the Premier League before bouncing back into English football's lucrative top flight.

- Rights record -

But Amnesty has urged the Premier League to consider Saudi Arabia's human rights record.

"Ever since this deal was first talked about we said it represented a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to sportswash their appalling human rights record with the glamour of top-flight football," Amnesty International's UK chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said in a statement.

Newcastle have not won a major trophy since 1969

 Lindsey PARNABY AFP/File

Saudi Arabia faced international condemnation following the brutal murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate three years ago.

In February, US intelligence released a report that accused MBS of approving the murder, an assessment strongly rejected by the Saudis.

Newcastle, currently managed by former Manchester United defender Steve Bruce, are without a win in their opening seven games of the Premier League season and sit second-bottom of the table.

"Under this ownership there has been no ambition, effectively no investment and no hope for a sporting entity that hasn't been a sporting entity. It's been there to survive and nothing more," a spokesman for the Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) told AFP.

A recent poll by the NUST found 93.8 percent of fans were in favour of the takeover.

The transformation of Manchester City since a 2008 takeover from Sheikh Mansour, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, is the template for Newcastle to follow.

Prior to Abu Dhabi's investment, City had not won a major trophy since 1976 but the English champions have now won five of the past 10 Premier League titles.

Huge investment into Newcastle would only intensify the battle at the top end of the Premier League for the title and lucrative Champions League places.

A competition tribunal case brought by Ashley ruled last month that the Premier League had been "improperly influenced" by other clubs when rejecting the takeover last year.

© 2021 AFP

PROMOTED CONTE

China kicks off UN biodiversity summit, virtually

Issued on: 07/10/2021 

Destruction of ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest in Brazil also threatens human lives and health 

MAURO PIMENTEL AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

China will on Monday launch a crucial biodiversity summit to build political momentum to halt and even reverse the destruction of nature by man.

As the human population climbs toward nine billion by mid-century, animals are being crowded, eaten, snared, poisoned, poached, hawked and hunted out of existence.

Forests have been burned to the ground to grow commercial crops, and ecosystems that sustain life on the planet ravaged.

The virtual opening of the COP15 summit will transfer leadership from Egypt, which presided over the last gathering in 2018, to China.

During the talks, Beijing will orchestrate high-level online meetings with ministers from scores of countries in a drive to build political momentum.

China -- by far the world's biggest emitter of carbon pollution that drives global warming and harms the environment -- will also issue a "Kunming Declaration" that will set the tone for its leadership, observers say.

"This declaration, we hope, will further underline and recognise the importance of biodiversity for human health," said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a treaty ratified by 195 countries and the European Union.

"It will also recognise the importance of mainstreaming biodiversity in decision-making and will serve also as a tool to create the political momentum," she told AFP.

Since gathering in person in Rome last year, delegates have negotiated across cyberspace.

- Urgent targets -

Next week's online meet will be followed by in-person talks in Kunming from April 25 to May 8, with an intermediate session, also face-to-face, in Geneva in January.

The November COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, meanwhile, will seek to tame the increasingly devastating effects of global warming.

Discussions will focus on a negotiated draft text called the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Published in July, its stated goal is "living in harmony with nature" by 2050.

That "harmony" will be defined by mid-century goals with 2030 reality checks in the form of 21 "targets for urgent action" over the next decade.

Targets include declaring 30 percent of land and sea as protected areas, the end of plastic waste in the oceans, and sustainable management of agriculture, aquaculture and forestry.

Financial targets include boosting investment in biodiversity protection to $200 billion per year within a decade 

SAEED KHAN AFP/File

Financial targets include boosting investment in biodiversity protection to $200 billion per year within a decade, while reducing subsidies for environmentally harmful industries by "at least US $500 billion per year".

It asks that individual governments implement strategies and devise reporting methods to make it easier to measure progress.

The document insists that follow-up is crucial to ensure targets do not remain a list of empty promises.

- 'Sad truth' -

Sharp divisions remain.

France and Costa Rica are among a coalition of support for the initiative to declare 30 percent of oceans and lands protected areas before 2030.

But when scientists called for more ambitious protection of half of Earth's biodiversity, Brazil and South Africa strongly opposed.

Other sources of tension surround financing, with developing nations asking rich countries to foot the bill for their ecological transitions.

France and Costa Rica are among a coalition of support for the initiative to declare 30 percent of oceans and lands protected areas before 2030

 Ezequiel BECERRA AFP/File

These issues will be at the heart of negotiation sessions set to take place in Geneva in January 2022.

"It is concerning that these issues have not been dealt with sufficiently," said Li Shuo, global policy advisor for Greenpeace China.

"The sad truth is countries simply don't care about biodiversity in other countries as much as they do for emissions others pump into the air," he told AFP, referring to the carbon pollution that drives global warming.

But while the protection of nature isn't getting the kind of buzz the climate has been able to generate, biodiversity has gotten more visibility than it used to.

At the end of September Jeff Bezos and Mike Bloomberg joined other philanthropists in pledging $5 billion by 2030 for biodiversity restoration and conservation.

© 2021 AFP

UN summit to tackle 'unprecedented' biodiversity threats

Issued on: 07/10/2021 -

The UN's COP15 summit beginning next week aims to tackle the fight against pollution, protecting ecosystems and preventing mass extinction 

Pablo PORCIUNCULA BRUNE AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

Just weeks before the crucial COP26 climate conference, another global UN summit -- this one tasked with reversing the destruction of nature -- officially kicks off next week in Kunming, China.

Focusing on biodiversity, COP15 is less well known than its sister climate summit but deals with issues that are no less vital to the health of the planet, such as fighting pollution, protecting ecosystems and preventing mass extinction.

The online session beginning on Monday will be followed by a face-to-face gathering in late April, where a final pact for nature will be hammered out.


- Who is involved? -

Discussions at the COP15 are grounded in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a treaty ratified by 195 countries and the European Union -- but not the United States, the world's biggest historical polluter. Parties meet every two years.

The CBD was drafted in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio. Its stated goals are to preserve the diversity of species on Earth and set guidelines on how to exploit natural resources sustainably and justly.

This year's gathering, originally set for 2020, was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

- Why does nature need protection? -

Plants and animals are disappearing at an accelerating rate due to human activity -- habitat encroachment, over-exploitation, pollution, the spread of invasive species and, more recently, climate change.

"Biodiversity is declining at unprecedented rates," CBD executive secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema told AFP in an interview.

"About one million animal and plant species out of 8.1 million are threatened with extinction -- more than ever before in human history."

Humanity's expanding footprint is also undermining the ecosystems that produce the clean air, drinkable water, food, medicine and raw materials we need to survive.

"Our relationship with nature must change," said Maruma Mrema.

The Covid-19 pandemic, thought to have originated from a virus in wild animals, is a "brutal reminder" of the price we can pay for neglecting or abusing nature, she said.

- What has the CBD achieved? -

At the 2010 biodiversity summit in Aichi, Japan, CBD member states laid out 20 goals to preserve biological diversity and reduce human pressures on the environment, setting a 2020 deadline for achieving them.

None of the objectives was fulfilled by that deadline, and -- with a few exceptions -- conditions are generally worse today than when the goals were first set.

This year's negotiations will likely see a new set of targets designed to allow our species to "live in harmony with nature", with a 2050 deadline and 2030 checkpoints.

- What are this year's goals? -

The draft text under negotiation, the Framework Biodiversity Convention, provisionally sets 21 "targets" for 2030.

These include according protected status to 30 percent of lands and oceans, a measure supported by a broad coalition of nations, including France and Costa Rica.

Another goal is to halve the use of fertilisers so that less of the nitrogen-rich substance leaches into fresh and ocean waters.

The draft pact also calls for reducing pesticide use by at least two thirds, and for halting the discharge of plastic waste entirely.

Another measure would see subsidies for environmentally harmful industries reduced by "at least $500 billion per year".

Without money and enforcement, however, these measures risk becoming empty promises, experts warn.

- Are COP15 and COP26 linked? -

Yes and no. Negotiations under the two conventions unfold on separate tracks and do not intersect. But parties to both treaties are increasingly looking for overlapping solutions.

"We cannot solve climate change without biodiversity and we cannot solve biodiversity loss without climate change," Maruma Mrema said.

"They are two intertwined crises and they need to be addressed together."

Healthy ecosystems -- especially forest and oceans -- make better carbon sinks to absorb CO2 pollution.

These in turn are vital to keep global warming down to levels that are survivable for humanity and other species.

- What is China's role? -

Maruma Mrema says that China's status as host for the negotiations means the world's top carbon polluter and most populous nation will be "taking global leadership on the biodiversity agenda".

A statement known as the Kunming Declaration to be unveiled at the opening next week will set the tone for China's leadership, said Li Shuo, global policy advisor for Greenpeace China.

"Beijing has the task of rescuing a weak environmental convention from the verge of a reputational collapse," he said.

"It carries the mission to boost biodiversity protection to the same rank as climate change, a task that has proven beyond its reach so far."

© 2021 AFP

Behind a ‘green façade’, Modi expands coal mining on India's tribal lands

Issued on: 07/10/2021 -

File photo taken in April 2018 of Indian coal loaders at a mine in

 Dhanbad, in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. © AFP

Text by :Leela JACINTO


The Indian government’s push to increase coal production to 1 billion tonnes in response to energy shortages has sparked a protest march by tribal villagers from forested areas up for coal mining. But their voices are being drowned out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s green messaging, which obscures India’s dark addiction to coal.

Hundreds of tribal villagers began a long protest march against government plans for a major coal mining expansion on their lands on October 2, an important holiday in India marking the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.

“This land is our land! This land is our land!” chanted the men and women in Hindi as they navigated forest tracts, village paths, and state and national highways on a 300-kilometre (186-mile) trek to make their voices heard.

The villagers – from India’s indigenous, or Adivasi, communities – hail from the Hasdeo area in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, one of the largest contiguous stretches of dense forest on the subcontinent, which is rich in biodiversity and wildlife, including elephant corridors that are critical for forestation.

But the Hasdeo Arand forest is also rich in coal – and it’s a resource India can’t seem get enough of these days.

Earlier this week, India’s energy and power minister sounded the alarm when he warned of acute coal stock shortages. Monsoon flooding of domestic coalmines, coupled with a global energy crisis that sent coal prices spiking due to increased demand from China, had seen a reduction in Indian coal imports. Power outages were in store, warned Minister R.K. Singh.

“It's going to be touch and go," he said.

The crisis comes as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies emerges from the pandemic with soaring energy demands.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made self-reliance a central plank of his pandemic recovery plan. In a televised speech last year, Modi pledged to oversee an economic “quantum jump” so that “India can be self-sufficient”.

But critics warn this leap is being made on the backs of India’s most marginalised groups at enormous environmental cost and with little in the way of social safeguards.

Boosting coal production to 1 billion tonnes

Coal still accounts for nearly 70 percent of India's electricity generation. While the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter is committed to transitioning to renewable energy, India’s quantum, self-reliant growth will be largely powered by the “dirtiest fossil fuel”.

On the international stage, Modi touts Mahatma Gandhi’s doctrine of a “trusteeship of the planet with a duty of caring for it”. But even as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleads for an end to the “deadly addiction to coal”, the Modi administration is committed to an aggressive expansion of coal production to 1 billion tonnes by 2024.

And while Modi’s green commitments and speeches make headlines, the ramping-up of coal production in rural areas is overlooked by a national media under pressure to “toe the Hindu nationalist government’s line”, according to Reporters Without Borders, with expressions of dissent treated as “anti-national”.

Much of India’s increased coal production will come from the “coal-belt” central and eastern states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, where Adivasi communities live in areas rich in biodiversity and wildlife.

“Nationally, there are 55 new coal mines planned and there are expansion plans for 193 existing mines. Eighty percent of the new expansion is on Adivasi land and they are going to bear the brunt of it,” said Jo Woodman, senior researcher at Survival International, a UK-based tribal rights group.

Mining companies enter a once-protected zone

The Adivasi communities of the Hasdeo Arand forest have been waging a decades-long struggle to protect their ancestral homelands and their way of life, which is guided by indigenous belief systems that attach spiritual value to every feature of the forests – from fruits and flowers to the grains and seeds that sustain their livelihoods.

Once designated a “no-go area” that was off-limits to mining, the Hasdeo Arand forest’s status has been steadily undermined by complex legal and administrative manoeuvers by successive governments and state bodies handing out major contracts.

In the absence of foreign takers for contracts in a shrinking sector plagued with regulations on environmental clearance and land ownership issues, the coal block bids have been scooped up by Indian private corporations.

In 2011, India’s then environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, cleared three coal blocks in the no-go zone for mining. They were “clearly on the fringe” of the Hasdeo Arand forest, Ramesh told reporters. “But they are the first and the last” to be opened for mining, he vowed.

Those were infamous last words, according to Woodman. “There has since been a weakening and auctioning, and there’s more mining to come due to the lack of policy to protect such areas and the pressure from mining companies,” she noted.

Corporations get contracts, Adivasis bear the costs

By 2013, the Adani Group, one of India’s largest and richest companies, had begun coal production in the Parsa East-Kente Basan (PEKB) mine in Hasdeo. The Modi government has since approved more mines, putting forests and villagers at risk, according to activists.

In a statement released at the start of the latest 300-kilometre march to the Chhattisgarh state capital Raipur, Hasdeo protest leaders claimed the Modi government "has illegally allotted seven coal mines in our region to state government companies. The state governments have, in turn, appointed Adani to develop and mine these blocks”.

The Adani Group – run by the country’s second-richest man, Gautam Adani – has come under international media scrutiny since environmentalists and indigenous rights activists in Australia started a campaign against the group’s Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.

Noting the close links between Adani and Modi, the Financial Times last year reported that, “Since Mr Modi came into office, Mr Adani’s net worth has increased by about 230 per cent to more than $26bn as he won government tenders and built infrastructure projects across the country.”

As the government attempts to accelerate growth by increasing resource extraction, critics note that the concentration of capital in a few favoured hands comes at the expense of minority rights and national well-being.

“The Adivasis are viewed as superstitious, primitive, backward, their connection to the land is belittled, and their lives and lands are treated as disposable. They are expected to bear the costs in this massive ramp-up of coal mining in the so-called national interest, which is seen as making it as lucrative as possible for Indian private companies,” said Woodman.

Over the past few decades, the climate change crisis has upended the modernisation model of heavy industrialisation and resource extraction powered by cheap fossil fuels such as coal. But for countries such as India, China and Brazil that are attempting to get millions of their citizens out of poverty, an environmentally sustainable alternative to growth remains prohibitively expensive.

As the international community prepares for next month’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, environmentalists believe the focus should be on helping developing countries shift to a greener model of modernisation.

“Rich countries have to step up and help India wean itself from coal and get on the path to a true green transition,” said Woodman. “What’s worrying is that Modi seems to be hiding behind this green façade and promoting himself as a green leader as we run up to the COP26 discussions. But at the same time, he’s having this massive push for coal – and that’s simply not viable in the world we live in today.”