Africa: Major Victory for Wild Coast Communities - Shell Interdicted From Conducting Seismic Operations With Immediate Effect

Greenpeace International (Amsterdam)

PRESS RELEASE

By Chris Vlavianos, Greenpeace Africa and Katherine Robinson

28 December 2021: Today the Grahamstown High Court in Makhanda ordered Shell to immediately cease its seismic blasting along South Africa's Wild Coast, while ordering Shell and the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy to pay the costs of the application for the interim interdict.

Details of the judgement:

In granting the interdict sought by communities affected by the blasting and supporting civil society organisations, Judge Gerald Bloem said that Shell was under a duty to meaningfully consult with the communities and individuals who would be impacted by the seismic survey, and that based on the evidence provided, Shell failed to do so in the case of the applicant communities who hold customary rights, including fishing rights. They also hold a special spiritual and cultural connection to the ocean. It was thus crucial for Shell to consult these communities and understand how the survey may impact upon them. They did not. The judge found that the exploration right, which was awarded on the basis of a substantially flawed consultation process is thus unlawful and invalid. The applicants' right to meaningful consultation constitutes a prima facie right which deserves to be protected by way of an interim interdict.

On irreparable harm:

The applicants rely on cultural and spiritual harm; the threatened harm to marine life; and the negative impact on the livelihood of small-scale fishers, arising from the harm to marine life. In its answering affidavit, Shell elected not to deal with the aspect relating to the threat of harm to the applicant communities' cultural and spiritual beliefs, the applicants allegations in that regard are accordingly undisputed. The applicants also provided a massive body of expert evidence on the threat of harm to marine life, and this evidence establishes that, without intervention by the court, there is a real threat that the marine life would be irreparably harmed by the seismic survey. Against the acceptance of the body of expert evidence, Shell's denial that its activities will have an adverse impact on marine life cannot be sustained. The judge was satisfied that the applicants have established a reasonable apprehension of irreparable harm to marine life. In addition to the harm to marine life, the applicants have also established how the seismic survey will firstly, negatively impact on the livelihood of the fishers, and secondly, cause cultural and spiritual harm.

Costs:

Since the applicants were successful in obtaining the interim interdict, and because Minister Mantashe also opposed the application, the Minister and Shell are accordingly ordered to pay the applicants' costs.

Next steps:

Shell has been interdicted from undertaking seismic survey operations pending the finalisation of Part B of the application. A court will need to determine whether or not Shell requires an environmental authorisation obtained under NEMA, when part B of the application is dealt with at a date yet to be determined. The Applicants may also challenge the awarding of the exploration right based on the failed consultation. Shell may appeal the interim interdict, but it will not suspend the order at this stage.

Responses from applicants:

"The voices of the voiceless have been heard. The voices of the directly affected people have at last been heard, and the constitutional rights of indigenous people have been upheld.

This case reminds us that constitutional rights belong to the people and not to government, and that the only way that we can assure that the rights of indigenous people are living - and not just written on paper - is if we challenge government decisions that disregard these rights. This victory is hugely significant because we have made sure that the rights of indigenous communities are kept alive." - Sinegugu Zukulu, Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC)

"Today's judgment marks one of the important milestones in our lifetime as people of not only Pondoland but South Africa, Africa and the world at large. We - the people - we took a stand in fighting against the BULLYING by Politicians, tenderpreneurs, the so called investors who undermine and threaten our livelihoods as ordinary people. The extraction of our natural resources is not a solution for so-called "poverty stricken communities" but a get rich quick scheme of those in power as well as financial control to the greedy Mafias of this world. We are living in borrowed time where money cannot buy their immunity; the mafias must be warned." - Nobuntu Mazeka, Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC)

"This case is about making sure that profit making does not override human rights. It is about making sure that the voices of rural communities are as important as the voices of the elite. The case is not just about Shell - it is about both protecting human rights and animal rights which are both enshrined in the constitution. As coastal communities we have relied on the sea for centuries - and we are glad that the judge has recognised that our ocean livelihoods must not be sacrificed for short term profit." - Nonhle Mbuthuma, Amadiba Crisis Committee

"I feel impressed and very, very happy and proud that the court has listened to our voices - the people living on the coast. That for me is a big thing, because most of the time we feel that our government is not interested in listening to us - their people.

Also, winning in this court case means that we are not alone - the courts are with us in protecting our resources - which are the resources of the citizens of all South Africans. A decision against Shell is a decision to protect the ocean - which is ourselves. This is a decision for all citizens of South Africa - not just the residents of the coast. As residents of the coast it is our responsibility to give a shout so that everyone can hear what's going on around us. And then we work together to protect our resources for future generations so that they can live the life we are living today like our forefathers did. So this judgement is a big win for all of us - citizens and government - the whole of South Africa. I am so happy. Wow!"- Siyabonga Ndovela, Amadiba Crisis Committee

Responses from attorneys:

"The case has huge significance in that it shows that no matter how big a company is, it ignores local communities at its peril. This case is really a culmination of the struggle of communities along the Wild Coast for the recognition of their customary rights to land and fishing, and to respect for their customary processes. The Amadiba and Dwesa-Cwebe communities fought for such recognition in earlier cases, and the Makhanda High Court reminded the state and Shell today, once again, that the indigenous rights of communities are protected by the Constitution from interference, no matter how powerful the intruders are." Wilmien Wicomb, Legal Resources Centre.

South Africa: Shell Stopped! a Community's Generational Defence of Their Land, the Sea and Their Environment Must Be Protected By the Constitution

28 DECEMBER 2021
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)

ANALYSIS

By Johan Lorenzen

On Tuesday morning the Makhanda High Court issued an interim interdict preventing Shell from 'undertaking seismic survey operations under Exploration Right 12/3/252 pending the finalisation of Part B of the notice of motion'. Johan Lorenzen, an associate with Richard Spoor Attorneys, reflects on the significance of this morning's successful judgment in the application to interdict Shell from seismic blasting off the Wild Coast.

On Tuesday, the Makhanda High Court ruled in favour of several Wild Coast communities in our application to interdict (stop) Shell's seismic blasting of 6,011km2 of the resplendently beautiful Wild Coast.

History made.

But also, history continuing.

History in the making.

It has been a bit frustrating, honestly.

I kept trying to tell our clients - Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu - how stressful it is to wait for the judgment.

And they kept calmly saying not to worry. That it doesn't matter whether we win or lose because either way, this is just a step in a long struggle.

Which is not what a lawyer wants to hear. I want to bloody win, dammit.

But, of course, they're right.

And their rightness - on this question, on the righteousness of their entire struggle for community-driven development...

Africa: Who's Willing to Change for Climate Change?


Gerd Altmann / Pixabay
(file image) climate, globe, earth, warming, climate change, ocean

28 DECEMBER 2021
Ensia (Minnesota)By Mary Hoff

Would you alter the way you do things to help reduce the severity of climate change? If so, you're not alone. A recent survey of individuals in 17 "advanced economies" found that 80% of respondents were willing to modify some aspects of their work and lifestyle to help mitigate the threat.

The survey, conducted in early 2021, assessed the opinions of 16,254 individuals from 16 "advanced economies" by phone and another 2,596 in the U.S. via the internet. It included a broad range of questions related to beliefs and attitudes regarding climate change actions. Countries included in the survey were Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, the U.S., Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

A drill-down into the data by traits such as gender, nationality and political persuasion offers insights for individuals, organizations, governments and others seeking to mobilize individuals to help mitigate risks. Among the more specific findings:

Individuals on the political left tended to be more willing to make changes than those on the ideological right.

Young adults were more likely to be amenable to change than older adults.

Higher educational attainment was positively correlated with more willingness to change.

The survey also found that willingness to change varied from one country to another. The range in proportion of respondents "willing to make ... changes about how you live and work to help reduce the effects of global climate change" ranged from 93% for respondents from Italy to 55% for those from Japan.

The survey also assessed a number of other attitudes and beliefs related to climate change and climate action. These included how concerned respondents were that climate change would harm them personally; how well they think society is responding; and whether climate action is good for the economy. Again, responses were broken down by demographic group, yielding some additional insights:

Except for Sweden, most respondents were at least somewhat concerned that climate change will hurt them. This was generally more true for ideological left than right, for women than for men, and for young people than for older adults.

Respondents were generally favorable regarding how well their own society is dealing with climate change. Results were mixed as to whether the international community is doing a good job.

Overall, the survey offered encouraging news for those hoping to make inroads into climate change, noting that while it "reveals a growing sense of personal threat from climate change among many of the publics polled," it also indicates that "[p]ublic concern about climate change appears alongside a willingness to reduce its effects by taking personal steps."

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Read the original article on Ensia.

Western Sahara: Morocco - Young Democrats Denounce Repression of Peaceful Protests

28 DECEMBER 2021

Sahara Press Service (El Aaiun)

  

Rabat — The Progressive Democratic Youth Movement denounced on Monday the repression carried out by the Moroccan Makhzen regime against peaceful demonstrators, announcing its intention to engage in all forms of legal struggle to defend freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate.

The National Bureau of the movement said in a statement that its members were not spared by this repression. A member of the Central Committee was also heard by the judicial police about his speech at the end of a protest action and about content published in 2019.

In the same press release, the movement expresses its solidarity with the unemployed, students and pupils in their actions against the decisions of the Minister of Education and their legitimate fight for the right of everyone to a job without discriminatory conditions, stressing that "the repressive approach in dealing with the problems of the Moroccan people, in particular those of the youth, will only exacerbate the situation ".SPS

Morocco: Casablanca - Hassan II University Holds Patent for Robotic System for Scorpion Venom Extraction


28 DECEMBER 2021
Maghreb Arabe Presse (Rabat)

Casablanca — The Hassan II University of Casablanca holds a patent for a revolutionary robotic system for scorpion venom extraction and will present a book on this topic next January, says the university in a statement.

Having received a positive notice of issuance from the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC), after its publication last November 30, this invention was made by a research team composed of Mouad Mkamel, PhD student, Professor Anass Kettani, thesis director, Professor Omar Tanane, thesis co-director, and Professor Rachid Saile, Director of the laboratory of Biology and Health of the Faculty of Sciences in Ben M'Sik.

Thanks to this invention, the collection of venom is done via a network of automated conveyors and a central unit to extract the venom by providing electric discharges adapted to each species of scorpion in a faster and risk-free process.

In fact, it consists of a pneumatic and vibratory system that facilitates the recovery of the venom droplets that fall into a filling station. This robotic system ensures a fully automatic process without manual intervention of the operator.

It should be noted that the commercialization of this robot interests several actors at the national and international level, in particular venom farmers and industrial establishments thanks to its promising pharmacological properties.

Scorpion venom is among the world's most expensive as it is used as active principle in the manufacture of drugs and cosmetic products, as well as the production of the anti-venom serum.

The Hassan II University of Casablanca has an excellent project that can be included in the Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer, says the statement.

In the same context, the members of the research team have published a book entitled "Guide to scorpions in Morocco" with a first mapping according to the degree of venom, and they will present it on January 6 at the Mohamed Sekkat University Library.

Read the original article on MAP.

Moroccan University Pioneers Robot Extraction of Scorpion Venom

EShare

The Hassan II University of Casablanca holds a patent for a revolutionary robotic system for scorpion venom extraction and will present a book on this topic in January 2022, the university said in a statement.

Thanks to this invention, the collection of venom is done via a network of automated conveyors and a central unit to extract the venom by providing electric discharges adapted to each species of scorpion in a faster and risk-free process.

Scorpion venom is among the world's most expensive as it is used as active principle in the manufacture of drugs and cosmetic products, as well as the production of the anti-venom serum.

VIDEO: The Scorpion-Milking Robot: Extracting the Poison that Cures - Rethink

• Morocco:  Local University Awarded Patent for Robotic Scorpion Venom Extraction

  MAP, 28 DECEMBER 2021

  The Hassan II University of Casablanca holds a patent for a revolutionary robotic system for scorpion venom extraction and will present a book on this topic next January, says the… Read more »

• Morocco:  Milking It - A New Robot to Extract Scorpion Venom

  EUREKALERT, 2 JULY 2017

  A new scorpion-milking robot designed to extract venom could replace the traditional manual method. Scorpion venom is used in medical applications such as immunosuppressants,… Read more »

Clinton & Charles Robertson/Flickr

Scorpion tail (file photo).

AN ENTIRE CONTINENT!

Africa: Covid-19 Deaths Approach 230,000 Across Continent

Pixabay
(file photo).

29 DECEMBER 2021

As of December 29, 2021, confirmed cases of Covid-19 from 55 African countries reached 9,548,141 

While over 185,502,904 vaccinations have been administered across the continent.

Reported deaths in Africa reached 227,650 and 8,532,090 people have recovered. South Africa has the most reported cases 3,424,534 and 90,854 people died. Other most-affected countries are Morocco ( 957,594 ), Tunisia ( 724,092 ), Ethiopia ( 405,745 ), Libya ( 386,878 ) Egypt ( 383,003 ) and Kenya ( 285,654 ).

For the latest totals, see the AllAfrica interactive map with per-country numbers. The numbers are compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (world map) using statistics from the World Health Organization and other international institutions as well as national and regional public health departments.

AllAfrica interactive map with per-country numbers.

 

Why isn’t Big Oil drilling more as gas prices surge? The answer is more Wall Street than White House

in General Energy News 28/12/2021

A popular trick at gas stations this fall is to slap a sticker featuring President Joe Biden pointing to the price per gallon and saying, “I did that.” But the real answer has more to with Wall Street than Pennsylvania Avenue.

The root cause of today’s high gas prices isn’t politics: It’s financial pressure on oil companies from a decade of cash-flow losses that have made them change financial tactics. Investment in new wells has dropped more than 60%, causing U.S. crude oil production to plummet by more than 3 million barrels a day, or nearly 25%, just as the Covid virus hit, and then fail to recover with the economy. For an oil-drilling sector that lost 90% of its stock value from 2012 through early last year, it hasn’t been the toughest call in the world.

Oil company chief executives and finance chiefs have faced years of rising demand from markets for more disciplined capital spending after a spree of development centered in West Texas and North Dakota produced an estimated $10.9 billion in negative free cash flow in 2014 alone — roughly speaking, operating profit minus capital spending. That persistent cash drain made blue-chip oil exploration stocks drop 90% from their peak and spurred demands that companies eschew fast growth in favor of steadier profits and stock-boosting finance moves like higher dividends, more share buybacks and reduced debt.

“For really the decade that ended in 2019 or 2020, there was an energy revolution and what did the energy sector get? They were the worst performers in the S&P 500,″ said Rob Thummel, portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital in Overland Park, Kansas.

A Dec. 6 report by progressive advocacy group Accountable.US says 16 of 24 large U.S. energy companies have raised their dividends this year (through third-quarter earnings reports), while 11 made special dividend payouts totaling more than $36.5 billion of what the group says were $174 billion in industrywide profits. Indeed, one new financial trick popular with energy companies is a “variable dividend” that allows high payments in good times and a small base payout when profits are lower, Third Bridge analyst Peter McNally said.

The group only found $8 billion in share buybacks, but Exxon Mobil and Chevron alone pledged to buy back as much as $20 billion of stock in the next two years when they disclosed third-quarter earnings. Chevron’s annual dividend is now 4.7% of the company’s value, more than triple the average of 1.3% paid by members of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

“Strong operating cash flow enabled us to deliver on our financial priorities, including the resumption of share repurchases,” Chevron CFO Pierre Breber said on the company’s earnings call. “Cost efficiency and capital efficiency are essential to navigate commodity price cycles.”

“The equity holders said, ‘you’ve got to give me cash,’” according to McNally. “Now the companies are being run to generate free cash more than growth.”

Much discussion, including on social media platforms like Twitter, as to why crude oil and gasoline prices have spiked has focused on politics, with followers of former President Donald Trump claiming he kept gas prices low before Biden made them climb. But if there are political leaders to take the credit, or the blame, according to Tom Kloza, president of Oil Price Information Service, the people most responsible are not Americans, but Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin-Salman.

After oil prices tanked in 2014 and 2015, with the U.S. national average price for gasoline reaching an early-2016 low of $1.72 a gallon, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries linked up with Russia to contain oil production, which had outstripped demand as U.S. production rose to 9 million barrels per day in 2016 from 5 million in 2008. Daily worldwide demand now is about 100 million barrels, according to a report last month by BP.

Production limits by the OPEC+ bloc let gas prices rise slightly during Trump’s pre-Covid presidency. Even as U.S. crude production kept rising, peaking at 13 million barrels in November 2019, gas prices, which averaged $2.37 a gallon at Trump’s inauguration, stayed between $2.24 and $2.92 until Covid sent them plunging to an April 2020 low of $1.77. That pushed U.S. oil drillers to finally cut production back to 9.8 million barrels per day by February 2021. Meanwhile, OPEC+ continued to hold its own production near-steady.

“You have a cartel that is traditionally as disciplined as Charlie Sheen’s drinking, and for the last year they’ve been as disciplined as Olympic gymnasts,” Kloza said.

Another reason is that investment in finding new wells peaked in 2014 and has dropped sharply since, making it hard for drillers to react quickly to an improving economy. According to S&P Capital IQ data, 27 major oil makers tripled capital spending between 2004 and 2014 to $294 billion, ad then cut it all the way back to $111 billion by last year. Once old wells were capped, new ones haven’t been available to fill the production gap quickly, explained CFRA Research analyst Stewart Glickman.

The pressure on oil companies to stop draining cash took many forms. The catastrophic drop in independent oil stocks forced a series of mergers of independent oil producers, and debt markets became more wary of oil companies, forcing producers to pay more attention to stockholders’ financial strategy demands.

“In effect, shareholders [had been] subsidizing the global price of oil,” says IHS Markit analyst Raoul LeBlanc.

The managements of bigger oil companies like Oxy, ConocoPhillips and others are more fiscally conservative than the independents they took over, LeBlanc said. Instead of maintaining debt loads of 2.5 times their annual earnings before deducting interest and non-cash depreciation and amortization charges, or EBITDA, some companies are targeting debt loads of 1 times EBITDA, he said.

Hanging over all of this is pressure from environmentally conscious investors to push carbon emissions lower, and the awareness that gasoline demand will likely erode as electric cars get more popular. “Companies don’t know where this is going and don’t trust the future too much,” LeBlanc added.

With crude still at $70 a barrel, even after a big dip caused by the emergence of the omicron variant of Covid-19, there would seem to be plenty of room to boost production with many areas of the U.S. flush with oil that would cost $50 or less to produce, according to IHS Markit data. And indeed, production has recovered to about 11.7 million barrels per day, helping to spur an 11-cent drop in gasoline prices in the last month.

But the most conspicuous part of the production jump has come from producers whose stock isn’t publicly traded, according to experts. Privately owned oil and gas exploration firms are moving faster because they don’t have the day-to-day shareholder pressure that has made CEOs and CFOs of bigger drilling companies change their tactics. One sign that the pressure is still working: The number of U.S. oil wells that have been drilled but are not completed, or ready to begin pumping, is still down more than 30% since 2018, according to government data.

The question is how long the restraint by publicly traded oil companies will last. Glickman is betting that it will be durable, with capital spending around $135 billion next year – less than half of 2014′s level. Kloza suspects the discipline will break down sooner, helping gas prices keep falling.

The worst combination for gas purchasers would be a quick recovery from omicron, followed by a surge in economic activity and continued low spending. That could pull gas prices toward $4 a gallon again if the economy is strong, according to Glickman, while McNally said consumers could benefit from a recent rise in gasoline inventories.

For shareholders, the outlook is for more dividend hikes to protect 2021 gains in energy stocks, followed by stock buybacks rather than plunging into new drilling — and, ultimately, a shift in investment toward the future that many companies have already telegraphed.

“They’ll start spending capex on decarbonization,” Thummel said. “For these companies to get investors to return, you have to show a solid cash-flow-making business. It’s kind of a prove-it story for the industry.”
Source: CNBC

Natural gas use may affect climate as much as coal does if methane leaks persist

in General Energy News 29/12/2021

Flames from a flaring pit near a well in the Bakken oil field in North Dakota. Satellites are gathering methane release data from the oil and gas industry.

As satellites deliver more accurate data on methane emissions from oil and gas production, scientists are getting a clearer picture of how natural gas stacks up against coal and whether it is truly the cleaner fuel.

Researchers are refining their understanding of the point at which methane leaks along the gas chain offset the climate benefits of switching from burning coal to natural gas to generate electricity.

“I think the main breakthrough is that we’re starting to be able to put numbers to it,” Yasjka Meijer, a scientist with the European Space Agency’s Copernicus program, said. Meijer has looked at comparisons of carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants versus life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from the production and burning of natural gas.

Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, carries more than 80 times the warming punch of carbon dioxide for the first 20 years, an impact that matters in climate planning scenarios at all levels, from utilities to nations.

Scientists caution that research into ongoing methane emissions is in the early stages, noting that uncertainty remains around which sources are responsible for the rapid buildup of methane in the atmosphere. Accidental blowouts from oil and gas fields and releases from coal mines are likely major contributors, however.

But over the last several years, readings by a growing fleet of satellites circling the Earth have also revealed that some normally functioning facilities are releasing significantly more of the climate-warming gas than what official greenhouse gas inventories suggest.

“We’re able to pinpoint it down to specific sources, and in some cases, we’ve seen the quantification,” Meijer said.

Satellites gather data

Meijer estimated that if 3% to 4% of natural gas produced at oil and gas wells leaks into the atmosphere, power produced by natural gas plants is on par with coal plants in terms of the overall climate impact. If upstream emissions exceed that percentage, natural gas would be more harmful than coal in the short term.

Another study by German researchers published in the journal Nature in June 2021 concluded that methane leakage below 4.9% would still give natural gas a leading edge over coal. A research paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012 put the threshold at 3.2%.

One 2020 study modeling satellite observations of methane releases across North America found that operators in the prolific Permian Basin released 3.7% of the gas they extracted in 2018 and 2019. Based on Meijer’s calculations, the life cycle of that natural gas — from the well to the power plant stack — would have roughly the same climate impact as coal would from mine to plant.

Another six-year study found that older production wells in the Uintah Basin in northeastern Utah emitted 6% to 8% of the gas they extracted, twice the break-even threshold in Meijer’s estimate. Research from other areas has estimated a leak rate closer to 2.3%.

The persistent problem of methane plumes from oil and gas production fields in the Permian Basin has also been documented by the Environmental Defense Fund, a group advocating for stricter pollution controls. Its latest aerial survey released Dec. 13 showed that 40% of 900-some production sites are continuously leaking methane into the atmosphere.

‘Possible’ undercounting

The EPA calculates industry’s methane emissions by measuring leaks from a limited number of sites and by collecting data the industry self-reports. From there the agency extrapolates national data. The method has been challenged by researchers and environmental groups in recent years.

A 2021 Harvard University study looking at satellite data found methane emissions from oil production to be 90% higher and natural gas production 50% higher than the national data that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Harvard study was the first to confirm on a national level what regional studies had shown before: The government’s official inventory of methane emissions from oil and gas production sites underestimates how much they actually release. The EPA, in an email, acknowledged as much.

“Given the variability of practices and technologies across oil and gas systems and the occurrence of episodic events,” EPA Deputy Press Secretary Tim Carroll said, “it is possible that the EPA’s estimates do not include all methane emissions from abnormal events.”

The methane problem is an irritant for power companies that continue to shift to natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal, and the power industry has applauded proposed regulations to rein in leaks from wells, pipelines and processing plants.

“We are working to get the energy we provide as clean as we can as fast as we can while maintaining the reliability and affordability that our customers value,” Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, said in November when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new and stringent methane curbs on the oil and natural gas industry. “Federal regulations on methane emissions across the value chain are essential.”

A number of electric utilities are also zeroing in on their own natural gas infrastructure and supply chains. Xcel Energy Inc. announced in November that it would cut emissions from its natural gas service by 25% by 2030 from 2020 levels and only source gas from certified low-emission suppliers.

Sempra is developing upstream “preferred source” programs to procure more cleanly produced natural gas as well. Dominion Energy Inc. sold most of its natural gas transmission and storage facilities in 2020 and plans to sell the Questar Pipeline Co., part of the utility’s plan to cut methane emissions 65% by 2030 below 2010 levels.

The demand for responsibly sourced natural gas is not lost on the industry: At least two dozen North American operators have thus far pledged to certify their products.

And the One Future Coalition — a group of companies spanning the natural gas value chain and representing roughly 19% of the gas produced in the U.S. — set a 2020 methane intensity goal of 0.283%. The group said its methane intensity, or leak rate, for that year came in at 0.105%.

Scientists like Meijer say they hope the scrutiny of the natural gas supply chain will prompt policies that end methane leaks once and for all. Indeed, such efforts now have broad support from previously reluctant U.S. industry players.

The oil and gas industry’s main trade group is generally on board with methane reduction plans. In comments on the proposed methane emissions reduction policy, the American Petroleum Institute said methane reductions are a priority for the industry, albeit while urging the EPA to consider costs and implementation timelines.

Regulations could also help to tamp down criticism against the country’s booming production and exports of liquefied natural gas, the group suggested.

“We believe the direct regulation of methane can further bolster the environmental benefits of American natural gas,” Dustin Meyer, API’s vice president of natural gas markets, said in an emailed statement. “Exports of U.S. LNG could help drive down global emissions by replacing dirtier fuels and higher-emitting Russian natural gas to our allies abroad.”
Source: Platts

Labour demands stricter air pollution limits after child poverty link revealed

Research shows UK’s 50 most polluted areas also have highest rates of child poverty

Traffic on the A205 South Circular road in Lewisham, south London.

 Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Fiona Harvey

Environment correspondent
Tue 28 Dec 2021 

The Labour party has demanded stricter limits on air pollution after analysis showed the close correlation between children living in poverty and dirty air in the UK.

Five London boroughs rank worst for child poverty and worst for dirty air, according to government data collated by Labour, mapping areas of high poverty against statistics on air pollution. The analysis showed that the higher the rate of child poverty in a given area, the dirtier the air there was on average, with most of the 50 most polluted areas in the UK also showing the highest rates of child poverty.

Boroughs in Birmingham, Southampton, Portsmouth, Sandwell and Walsall also showed high correlations between child poverty and air pollution.

In the 11 local authorities that exceed the WHO’s recommended guideline limit of an annual mean concentration of 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air (µg/m3), an average of 39.5% of children are living in poverty – much higher than the national average of 31%.

Altogether, about 6.7 million children are living in areas of the UK where air pollution has breached legal limits, of whom about 2 million are also living in poverty, according to the research.

The announcement by the Labour party follows a meeting in December with Keir Starmer, Ed Miliband, and campaign group Choked Up, a group of young black and brown teenagers living in areas affected by air pollution, who are calling for a right to clean air.

Jim McMahon, the shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, said: “Everyone should have the right to breathe clean, safe air, no matter where you live. If the pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that public health has to be at the very top of the political agenda, and that has to start with the air we breathe.”

He pointed to Labour proposals for a Clean Air Act, which would establish a legal right to breathe clean air, and legal requirements for air quality based on the advice of the World Health Organization. The government rejected amendments to the environment bill that would have set pollution limits in line with WHO advice.

He added: “The Conservative government refused to protect the health of British children, voting against tougher limits on pollution. Our children should be able to take clean, safe air for granted. Only a Clean Air Act is going to guarantee that.”

Under the new environment legislation, the government will set new pollution targets from late next year. The government was repeatedly found to be in breach of EU air pollution rules, when they applied to the UK, before Brexit.

A government spokesperson said: “Air pollution has reduced significantly since 2010 – at a national level, emissions of fine particulate matter have fallen by 11%, while emissions of nitrogen oxides are at their lowest levels since records began. But we know there is still more to do. To continue to drive forward tangible and long-lasting improvements to air quality, we are committed to setting stretching and ambitious targets on air quality through our Environment Act.”

Some of the most polluted cities, including London, Birmingham and Portsmouth, have introduced clean air zones in an effort to reduce air pollution, which mainly comes from diesel and petrol vehicles, agriculture and wood-burning stoves.

ANTI-ZIONISM IS NOT ANTI-SEMITISM

Jewish woman accused of antisemitism by Labour threatens to sue

Exclusive: Diana Neslen, 82, claims party has discriminated against her based on her belief in anti-Zionism

Diana Neslen: ‘The Labour party has no idea in my opinion of what antisemitism is.’

Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent
Mon 20 Dec 2021 

An 82-year-old Jewish woman, who is being investigated by Labour for alleged antisemitism for the third time in less than three years, is threatening legal action against the party, claiming it has unlawfully discriminated against her based on her belief in anti-Zionism.

Diana Neslen, who lives in east London, regularly attends her local synagogue and keeps a kosher home but has been accused of antisemitism for tweets she has posted about Israel and Zionism.

In a pre-action letter to Labour, her lawyers, Bindmans, say the party’s investigation is totally unjustified and disproportionate as it rests on a single tweet from 2017, which said “the existence of the state of Israel is a racist endeavour and I am an antiracist Jew”.

They claim anti-Zionism is a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act and Neslen has been “subjected by the party to discrimination and harassment related to her protected philosophical belief”.

Neslen, who said she was a “committed Zionist” before she visited Israel, told the Guardian: “I remember thinking at the end of the war, ‘Why didn’t the Germans do anything?’ When there’s injustice done in your name you cannot close your eyes to it.

 That’s why I feel very strongly.

“The Labour party has no idea in my opinion of what antisemitism is. My son was attacked by a luminary of the BNP [British National party] who was jailed for three years. I remember picking up the phone and being subjected to death threats from the BNP. People who have never experienced antisemitism have no idea what it means, what it means for a Jew to be found guilty of antisemitism.”

Neslen, who grew up in South Africa, said she had spent her life fighting apartheid and racism. In 2018, while mourning the death of her husband of 51 years and having recently been diagnosed with cancer, she was sent a “reminder of conduct” accusing her of antisemitic comments on social media.

In February this year, she was given a “formal NEC warning relating to your conduct”. Bindmans said all bar one of the tweets cited in the latest investigation, of which she was notified in August, were excluded under party rules either because they were before she rejoined the party in 2015 or were considered in the previous investigation.

In 2018, Labour, beset by antisemitism allegations, adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes as an example: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour.”

Neslen is a member of Jewish Voice for Labour, which says it knows of 42 Jewish members of the Labour party, two of whom have since died, who have faced or are facing disciplinary charges relating to allegations of antisemitism. The group estimates that Jewish Labour party members are at least five times more likely to have faced actioned complaints of antisemitism than non-Jewish members.

The letter from Bindmans quotes the judge who, in the case of Maya Forstater earlier this year, determined that gender-critical views were a protected philosophical belief, saying “only if the belief involves a very grave violation of the rights of others, tantamount to the destruction of those rights, would it be one that was not worthy of respect in a democratic society”.

Neslen is threatening to sue Labour if it does not apologise and undertake not to pursue further investigations against her in respect of her beliefs.

Labour has not replied to letters from her lawyers and did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

SEE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Anti-Zionism is NOT Anti-Semitism 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Zionism is Anti-Semitism 

UK

The new Tory right is fanatical and dangerous – and should be Labour’s prime target

They have Johnson’s ear on everything from face masks to net zero. But the public mood is against them, and Starmer needs to be too

Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker pictured at the Houses of Parliament in November 2018. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

John Harris
Sun 5 Dec 2021

The House of Commons rarely hears speeches about what it is to be human, the elements of life that give it meaning, and the sanctity of free will. But last Tuesday, as MPs spent three hours considering what measures England should adopt in response to the arrival of the Omicron variant, the Conservative MP Steve Baker gave a brief oration that dealt with these things and more.

The debate, he said, was not really about modest proposals for mandatory face coverings in most public spaces, and 10 days of self-isolation for anyone deemed to have been a contact of someone infected with the new variant. Even if they didn’t know it, MPs were fundamentally considering “the kind of nation and civilisation that we are creating in the context of this new disease”.

He expressed concern about the effects of mask-wearing on children, and his worries about what a possible “pingdemic” might mean for the economy. But the nub of his argument was philosophical. “What is the relationship between the state and the individual?” he asked. “Are we to be empty vessels or mere automata – things to be managed, as if a problem? Or are we free spirits with, for want of a better term, a soul?”


Raab says ‘formal party’ in No 10 last Christmas would have broken rules

The latter was the truth, he said: all of us are “people who deserve the dignity of choice and the meaning in our lives that comes from taking responsibility. It is possible that meaning in our lives comes from little else”.

Having offered this somewhat dried-up vision of the human condition (what, you could only wonder, of the meaning given to existence by friendship, family or community?), he then told his colleagues that they were facing “a fundamental choice between heading towards heaven and heading towards hell”. Some of them seemed to agree: 32 Tories opposed the self-isolation rules, and 20 voted against the new mask mandate.

There it was again: that vocal element of the Conservative party that successfully pushed us into the hardest of Brexits, and these days spends a lot of its time railing against measures designed to control the worst effects of the virus.

In the wake of the 2016 referendum, MPs faithful to its view of things relaunched the European Research Group to push for the UK to leave the single market and customs union. Today, some of their most high-profile politicking is also done via the new(ish) Covid Recovery Group. You might call the people involved Groupies: many are also members of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, reportedly overseen by Baker, who thinks that if the government achieves its carbon emissions target by 2050, people are “going to be poorer, they’re going to be colder … and they may be eating insects for protein”.

These Tories are often termed libertarians, but such beliefs seem to have their limits: notwithstanding one or two murmurings of concern, they have supported the new crime and policing bill, and its swingeing restrictions on the right to protest. They tend to insist that masks should be a matter of personal choice, but tell us what that choice should be by not wearing masks in the Commons chamber. Their politics is essentially emotional: hostile towards the state being used to shape society and the economy, more about the individual than any notion of the common good, and seemingly based on the insistence that people like them should be able to do as they please.

They clearly have a strong influence on the prime minister. When the leading lights of the ERG agreed to vote for his withdrawal agreement with the EU and opened the path to the 2019 general election, they ensured that he owed them a debt. The exit from Tory politics of remainers and Conservative centrists has been another boost, as has the presence in the cabinet of such ideological allies as Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel and Dominic Raab. Regular whispers about Nigel Farage returning to steal Tory votes maintain Baker and his comrades’ influence. And their laissez-faire outlook chimes with one of the few sets of coherent convictions that Boris Johnson seems to possess, evident in his habit of claiming that Covid measures are a matter of huge reluctance, and the fact that he has almost seemed to make a point of being photographed without a mask.

There are indications that this kind of Conservatism might not suit once-loyal Tory people and places quite as much as its adherents think: recent Tory losses in council elections clustered in the south of England, the summer’s Liberal Democrat win in the Chesham and Amersham byelection, even last week’s low turnout and 10% swing to Labour in true blue Old Bexley and Sidcup. Viewed from this perspective, the new Tory right perhaps has a flaw it shares with zealots on the left, claiming to speak for “the people”, but regularly falling out of step with large swathes of the public.

There are, of course, Brexity, me-first strands of public opinion that do seem to fit with its view of things. But climate scepticism and opposition to meaningful action now seems to be confined to an increasingly small share of the population, even at the upper end of the age range. Just before the latest Covid rules were introduced, YouGov found that 83% of us supported compulsory mask wearing in shops and on public transport. Were millions of people told that accepting such restrictions was tantamount to a descent into the moral underworld, they would surely conclude that they were listening to cranks and fanatics.

The Conservatives have a long history of focusing on the more eccentric, out-there elements of the Labour party and making hay, a habit that reached its peak in the Jeremy Corbyn years, and is these days reflected in all those caricatures of anything deemed “woke”. But even now, Keir Starmer’s Labour party seems surprisingly quiet about the Tory right and its ever-increasing influence – rarely pointing out how far its stances are from public opinion, nor highlighting the hold it seems to have on Johnson.

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If this were to change, Starmer might finally master something that has eluded him since the start of the pandemic: the ability to cast the Tories’ failings in moral terms, and offer a contrasting alternative. Think about it this way: if the most influential wing of the Conservative party favours flimsy ideas of personal choice over our collective wellbeing, that surely shines on everything from the prevalence among Tory MPs of second jobs and their aversion to face coverings, to Johnson apparently allowing staff to hold parties in Downing Street in defiance of lockdown rules. Such things are not only about arrogance, sloppiness and ineptitude: they also demonstrate what reckless individualism looks like in practice.

If Starmer needs an example of the tone he might strike, he could read an old speech by one of his predecessors. Socialism, said this Labour politician, was about “a moral purpose to life, a set of values, a belief in society, in cooperation, in achieving together what we cannot achieve alone”. He wanted, he said, a country where “your child in distress is my child, your parent ill and in pain is my parent, your friend unemployed and helpless is my friend, your neighbour, my neighbour”.

“We are not simply people set in isolation from one another,” he insisted, “but members of the same family, same community, same human race.” These were values, moreover, “shared by the vast majority of the British people”. There should be no nervousness among the Labour frontbench about rhetoric like that: Tony Blair said those words, when he and his party were less than two years away from finally sending the Conservative party into the wilderness.


John Harris is a Guardian columnist