Corporate Ad Giant WPP Targeted for Helping Big Oil Greenwash Its 'Net Zero' Hogwash

"The climate impact of an advertising agency is the work it does in the world, not the lightbulbs it has in its offices."

Ad agency WPP released a video recently announcing its plan to reach net zero fossil fuel emissions by 2030, but the anti-greenwashing campaign Clean Creatives took issue with the company's pledge—considering it counts fossil fuel giants among its clients. (Image: WPP/screenshot)

JULIA CONLEY, STAFF WRITER

June 8, 2021

The climate-focused Clean Creatives campaign released a mocking ad video Tuesday to rebuke the greenwashing of corporate advertising giant WPP, which represents some of the world's biggest polluters.

The satirical video is a send up of WPP's announcement ahead of Earth Day this year in which the ad agency claimed it was setting targets for its own greenhouse gas emissions going "beyond the required carbon reductions outlined in the Paris Agreement."

"For agencies, sustainability is about your clients, not just your company." —Clean Creatives
The problem with the pledge—a vow to reach net zero emissions within the firm's operations by 2025 and its supply chain by 2030—is that it makes no mention of WPP's actual biggest contribution to carbon emissions: the advertising and PR work it does for fossil fuel giants including BP, Exxon, and Shell.

“WPP's net zero commitment is just another empty promise if it doesn't include a pledge to stop promoting fossil fuel companies," said Clean Creatives campaign director Duncan Meisel. "The climate impact of an advertising agency is the work it does in the world, not the lightbulbs it has in its offices. If WPP is still polluting our airwaves with climate misinformation on behalf of clients like BP and Shell, they’re part of the problem, not the solution."

Climate Creatives' video mocked the stylized video released by WPP in April, with a voiceover introducing "a big ad agency that makes big ads" and that's "going zero" by cutting its net carbon emissions—before adding that its fossil fuel clients will continue emitting planet-heating pollution.

"But our biggest clients aren't going zero. They're going over two billion tons of CO2 per year," the voiceover says. "But we're going zero, and that's what matters, right?"

Clean Creatives called WPP's goal of zeroing out its current carbon footprint of 5.4 million tons per year "a welcome contribution."

"But it's nothing compared to the two billion tons of CO2 equivalent that WPP's fossil fuel clients produce every year," said the campaign.

WPP could easily cancel out its own net zero pledge by continuing to produce advertising content for fossil fuel giants, Clean Creatives said.

"If WPP's advertising helped just one of their clients, BP, increase sales by .3%, it would wipe out all the gains made by cutting their own emissions," the group said.

The Clean Creatives campaign was launched last year by Fossil Free Media to pressure ad and PR agencies and employees to stop working with fossil fuel companies.

WPP's video and net zero plan offers a prime example of how the advertising industry can cut its own emissions but still help fuel the climate emergency by continuing to work with oil and gas giants, Clean Creatives said.

"By greenwashing companies like BP, ad agencies like WPP are doing real damage to the very concept of net zero and our ability to reach it," said Jamie Henn, Fossil Fuel Media director. "Our goal is to get agencies to take responsibility for the work they're putting into the world. That means making a commitment by this year’s COP26 UN Climate Talks to stop working with fossil fuel companies and only engage with clients who have verifiable plans to zero out their emissions."

Just last year, a WPP-produced ad for BP claimed it was focusing on clean energy investments, despite the fact that the company was still spending 97% of its expenditures on oil and gas instead of renewable energy. The ad was pulled from the airwaves after U.K. watchdog Client Earth filed a formal complaint.

"WPP's work for BP was ruled to be an unlawful misrepresentation by the U.K. government," said Clean Creatives. "WPP's work for Chevron is the subject of an active Federal Trade Commission complaint for greenwash. WPP's work for Shell is the subject of a lawsuit by New York City for misleading consumers."

"For agencies, sustainability is about your clients, not just your company," the campaign said.

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The 'Big Con' Revealed: Report Details Fossil Fuel Industry's Deceptive 'Net Zero' Strategy

"Big polluters and rich governments should not only reduce emissions to Real Zero, they must pay reparations for the huge climate debt owed to the Global South."

A brown coal mining machine operating at the Welzow-Sued lignite opencast mine in Welzow, eastern Germany. A new report out Wednesday details how so-called "net zero" pledges are simply schemes propagated by the fossil fuel industry and other powerful interests "to mask inaction, foist the burden of emissions cuts and pollution avoidance on historically exploited communities, and bet our collective future through ensuring long-term, destructive impact on land and forests, oceans, and through advancing geoengineering technologies." (Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa / AFP via Getty Images)

BRETT WILKINS, STAFF WRITER

June 9, 2021

A new report published Wednesday by a trio of progressive advocacy groups lifts the veil on so-called "net zero" climate pledges, which are often touted by corporations and governments as solutions to the climate emergency, but which the paper's authors argue are merely a dangerous form of greenwashing that should be eschewed in favor of Real Zero policies based on meaningful, near-term commitments to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

"Increasingly, the concept of 'net zero' is being misconstrued in political spaces as well as by individual actors to evade action and avoid responsibility." —Report

The report—titled "The Big Con: How Big Polluters Are Advancing a "Net Zero" Climate Agenda to Delay, Deceive, and Deny" (pdf)—was published by Corporate Accountability, the Global Forest Coalition, and Friends of the Earth International, and is endorsed by over 60 environmental organizations. The paper comes ahead of this November's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland and amid proliferating pledges from polluting corporations and governments to achieve what they claim is carbon neutrality—increasingly via dubious offsets—by some distant date, often the year 2050.

However, the report asserts that "instead of offering meaningful real solutions to justly address the crisis they knowingly created and owning up to their responsibility to act beginning with drastically reducing emissions at source, polluting corporations and governments are advancing 'net zero' plans that require little or nothing in the way of real solutions or real effective emissions cuts."

"Furthermore... they see the potential for a 'net zero' global pathway to provide new business opportunities for them, rather than curtailing production and consumption of their polluting products," it says.

According to the report:

After decades of inaction, corporations are suddenly racing to pledge to achieve "net zero" emissions. These include fossil fuel giants like BP, Shell, and Total; tech giants like Microsoft and Apple; retailers like Amazon and Walmart; financers like HSBC, Bank of America, and BlackRock; airlines like United and Delta; and food, livestock, and meat producing and agriculture corporations like JBS, Nestlé, and Cargill. Polluting corporations are in a race to be the loudest and proudest to pledge "net zero" emissions by 2050 or some other date in the distant future. Over recent years, more than 1,500 corporations have made "net zero" commitments, an accomplishment applauded by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the U.N. Secretary General.

"Increasingly, the concept of 'net zero' is being misconstrued in political spaces as well as by individual actors to evade action and avoid responsibility," the report states. "The idea behind big polluters' use of 'net zero' is that an entity can continue to pollute as usual—or even increase its emissions—and seek to compensate for those emissions in a number of ways. Emissions are nothing more than a math equation in these plans; they can be added one place and subtracted from another place."

"This equation is simple in theory but deeply flawed in reality," the paper asserts. "These schemes are being used to mask inaction, foist the burden of emissions cuts and pollution avoidance on historically exploited communities, and bet our collective future through ensuring long-term, destructive impact on land and forests, oceans, and through advancing geoengineering technologies. These technologies are hugely risky, do not exist at the scale supposedly needed, and are likely to cause enormous, and likely irreversible, damage."

Among the key findings of the report:

Big polluters, including the fossil fuel and aviation industries, lobbied heavily to ensure passage of Q45, a tax credit subsidizing carbon capture and storage. A 2020 report (pdf) from the U.S. Treasury Department's inspector general found that fossil fuel companies improperly claimed nearly $1 billion in Q45 credits.
The International Emissions Trading Association—described by the report's authors as "perhaps the largest global lobbyist on market and offsets, both pillars of polluters 'net zero' climate plans"—has leveraged its considerable power to push its greenwashing agenda at international climate talks.
Major polluters have contributed generously to universities including the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Princeton University, Stanford University, and Imperial College London in an effort to influence "net zero"-related research. At Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project, ExxonMobil retained the right to formally review research before completion and was allowed to place corporate staff members on development teams.

"The best, most proven approach to justly addressing the climate crisis is to significantly reduce emissions now in an equitable manner, bringing them close to Real Zero by 2030 at the latest," the report states, referring to a situation in which no carbon emissions are produced by a good or service without the use of offsets. "The cross-sectoral solutions we need already exist, are proven, and are scalable now... All that is missing is the political will to advance them, in spite of industry obstruction and deflection."

"To avoid social and planetary collapse, [leaders] must heed the calls of millions of people around the globe and pursue policies that justly, equitably transition our economies off of fossil fuels, and advance real solutions that prioritize life—now." —Report

"People around the globe have already made their demands clear," the report says. "Meaningful solutions that can be implemented now are already detailed in platforms like the People’s Demands for Climate Justice, the Liability Roadmap, the Energy Manifesto, and many other resources that encompass the wisdom of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis."

Sara Shaw, climate justice and energy program co-coordinator at Friends of the Earth International and one of the paper's authors, said "this report shows that 'net zero' plans from big polluters are nothing more than a big con. The reality is that corporations like Shell have no interest in genuinely acting to solve the climate crisis by reducing their emissions from fossil fuels. They instead plan to continue business as usual while greenwashing their image with tree planting and offsetting schemes that can never ever make up for digging up and burning fossil fuels."

"We must wake up fast to the fact that we are falling for a trick," Shaw added. "'Net zero' risks obscuring a lack of action until it is too late."

Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development—which endorsed the report—warned that "proclamations of 'net zero' targets are dangerous deceptions. 'Net zero' sounds ambitious and visionary but it actually allows big polluters and rich governments to continue emitting [greenhouse gases] which they claim will be erased through unproven and dangerous technologies, carbon trading, and offsets that shift the burden of climate action to the Global South."

"Big polluters and rich governments should not only reduce emissions to Real Zero, they must pay reparations for the huge climate debt owed to the Global South," added Nacpil.

In conclusion, the reports says world leaders must "listen to the people and once and for all prioritize people's lives and the planet over engines of profit and destruction."

"To avoid social and planetary collapse," it states, "they must heed the calls of millions of people around the globe and pursue policies that justly, equitably transition our economies off of fossil fuels, and advance real solutions that prioritize life—now."

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Those Peddling Inflation Fears Should Not Be Heeded


Far from signaling the return of significant inflation, temporary price increases are exactly what one would expect in a recovery following an economic shutdown.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ

June 8, 2021 by Project Syndicate

President Joe Biden touts the American Rescue Plan and Paycheck Protection Program during a February 22, 2021 address at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Slight increases in the rate of inflation in the United States and Europe have triggered financial-market anxieties. Has US President Joe Biden's administration risked overheating the economy with its $1.9 trillion rescue package and plans for additional spending to invest in infrastructure, job creation, and bolstering American families?

Much of the current inflationary pressure stems from short-term supply-side bottlenecks, which are inevitable when restarting an economy that has been temporarily shut down.

Such concerns are premature, considering the deep uncertainty we still face. We have never before experienced a pandemic-induced downturn featuring a disproportionately steep service-sector recession, unprecedented increases in inequality, and soaring savings rates. No one even knows if or when Covid-19 will be contained in the advanced economies, let alone globally. While weighing the risks, we also must plan for all contingencies. In my view, the Biden administration has correctly determined that the risks of doing too little far outweigh the risks of doing too much.

Moreover, much of the current inflationary pressure stems from short-term supply-side bottlenecks, which are inevitable when restarting an economy that has been temporarily shut down. We don't lack the global capacity to build cars or semiconductors; but when all new cars use semiconductors, and demand for cars is mired in uncertainty (as it was during the pandemic), production of semiconductors will be curtailed. More broadly, coordinating all production inputs across a complex integrated global economy is an enormously difficult task that we usually take for granted because things work so well, and because most adjustments are "on the margin."

Now that the normal process has been interrupted, there will be hiccups, and these will translate into price increases for one product or the other. But there is no reason to believe that these movements will fuel inflation expectations and thus generate inflationary momentum, especially given the overall excess capacity around the world. It is worth remembering just how recently some of those who are now warning about inflation from excessive demand were talking about "secular stagnation" born of insufficient aggregate demand (even at a zero interest rate).

In a country with deep, longstanding inequalities that have been exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic, a tight labor market is just what the doctor ordered. When the demand for labor is strong, wages at the bottom rise and marginalized groups are brought into the labor market. Of course, the exact tightness of the current US labor market is a matter of some debate, given reports of labor shortages despite employment remaining markedly below its pre-crisis level.

Conservatives blame the situation on excessively generous unemployment insurance benefits. But econometric studies comparing labor supply across US states suggest that these kinds of labor-disincentive effects are limited. And in any case, the expanded unemployment benefits are set to end in the fall, even though the global economic effects of the virus will linger.

Rather than panicking about inflation, we should be worrying about what will happen to aggregate demand when the funds provided by fiscal relief packages dry up. Many of those at the bottom of the income and wealth distribution have accumulated large debts–including, in some cases, more than a year's worth of rent arrears, owing to temporary protections against eviction.

Reduced spending by indebted households is unlikely to be offset by those at the top, most of whom have accumulated savings during the pandemic. Given that spending on consumer durables remained robust during the past 16 months, it seems likely that the well-off will treat their additional savings as they would any other windfall: as something to be invested or spent slowly over the course of many years. Unless there is new public spending, the economy could once again suffer from insufficient aggregate demand.

Moreover, even if inflationary pressures were to become truly worrisome, we have tools to dampen demand (and using them would actually strengthen the economy's long-term prospects). For starters, there is the US Federal Reserve's interest-rate policy. The past decade-plus of near-zero interest rates has not been economically healthy. The scarcity value of capital is not zero. Low interest rates distort capital markets by triggering a search for yield that leads to excessively low risk premia. Returning to more normal interest rates would be a good thing (though the rich, who have been the primary beneficiaries of this era of super-low interest rates, may beg to differ).

To be sure, some commentators look at the Fed's balance-of-risk assessment and worry that it will not act when it needs to. But I think the Fed's pronouncements have been spot on, and I trust that its position will change if and when the evidence does. The instinct to fight inflation is embedded in central bankers' DNA. If they don't see inflation as the key problem currently facing the economy, neither should you.

The second tool is tax hikes. Ensuring the economy's long-run health requires much more public investment, which will have to be paid for. The US tax-to-GDP ratio is far too low, especially given America's huge inequalities. There is an urgent need for more progressive taxation, not to mention more environmental taxes to deal with the climate crisis. That said, it is perfectly understandable that there would be hesitancy to enact new taxes while the economy remains in a precarious state.

We should recognize the current "inflation debate" for what it is: a red herring that is being raised by those who would stymie the Biden administration's efforts to confront some of America's most fundamental problems. Success will require more public spending. The US is fortunate finally to have economic leadership that won't succumb to fearmongering.

© 2021 Project Syndicate

Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University. His most recent book is "Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement for Well-Being" (2019). Among his many other books, he is the author of "The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future" (2013), "Globalization and Its Discontents" (2003), "Free Fall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy" (2010), and (with co-author Linda Bilmes) "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict" (2008). He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for research on the economics of information.

Arms Sales: What We Know About Bombs Being Dropped in Our Name

A Palestinian child was injured while playing near the door of his house after Israeli warplanes targeted him with a number of children in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, East of Gaza City. (Photo: Mohammed Zaanoun/Majority World /Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Arms Sales: What We Know About Bombs Being Dropped in Our Name

In this day and age where videos of U.S. allies committing war crimes are readily available on Twitter or Instagram, no one can claim that they don't know what U.S.-made weapons are used for around the world.

DANAKA KATOVICH

June 8, 2021

At some point before the summer of 2018, an arms deal from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia was sealed and delivered. A 227kg laser-guided bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of many thousands, was part of that sale. On August 9th, 2018 one of those Lockheed Martin bombs was dropped on a school bus full of Yemeni children. They were on their way to a field trip when their lives came to a sudden end. Amidst shock and grief, their loved ones would learn that Lockheed Martin was responsible for creating the bomb that murdered their children.


While Lockheed Martin profited from the death of forty Yemeni children that day, top United States weapons companies continue to sell weapons to repressive regimes around the world.

What they might not know is that the United States government (the President and the State Department) approved the sale of the bomb that killed their children, in the process enriching Lockheed Martin, which makes millions in profits from arms sales every year.

While Lockheed Martin profited from the death of forty Yemeni children that day, top United States weapons companies continue to sell weapons to repressive regimes around the world, killing countless more people in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and more. And in many cases, the United States public has no idea this is being done in our name to benefit the largest private companies in the world.

Now, the newest $735 million in precision-guided weapons that are being sold to Israel- are destined to have a similar fate. The news about this sale broke in the midst of Israel's most recent assault on Gaza that killed over 200 Palestinians. When Israel attacks Gaza, it does so with US-made bombs and warplanes.

If we condemn the abhorrent destruction of life that occurs when Saudi Arabia or Israel kills people with U.S.-manufactured weapons, what can we do about it?

Arms sales are confusing. Every once in a while a news story will break about a certain weapons sale from the United States to some other country across the globe that is worth millions, or even billions of dollars. And as Americans, we virtually have no say in where the bombs that say "MADE IN THE USA" go. By the time we hear about a sale, the export licenses are already approved and Boeing factories are churning out weapons we've never even heard of.

Even for people who consider themselves well informed about the military-industrial complex find themselves getting lost in the web of procedure and timing of weapons sales. There is a gross lack of transparency and information made available to the American peoples. Generally, here's how arms sales work:

There is a period of negotiation that takes place between a country that wants to buy weapons and either the U.S. government or a private company like Boeing or Lockheed Martin. After a deal is reached, the State Department is required by the Arms Export Control Act to notify Congress. After the notification is received by Congress, they have 15 or 30 days to introduce and pass a Resolution of Joint Disapproval to block the issuance of the export license. The amount of days depends on how close the United States is with the country buying the weapons.

For Israel, NATO countries, and a few others, Congress has 15 days to block the sale from going through. Anyone familiar with Congress's arduous way of doing things may realize that 15 days is not really enough time to carefully consider whether selling millions/billions of dollars in weapons is in the political interest of the United States.

What does this time frame mean for advocates against arms sales? It means that they have a tiny window of opportunity to reach out to members of Congress. Take the most recent and controversial $735 million Boeing sale to Israel as an example. The story broke only a few days before those 15 days were up. Here's how it happened:

On May 5, 2021 Congress was notified about the sale. However, since the sale was commercial (from Boeing to Israel) instead of government-to-government (from the United States to Israel), there is a greater lack of transparency because there are different procedures for commercial sales. Then on May 17, with only a few days left in the 15-day period Congress has to block a sale, the story of the sale broke. Responding to the sale on the last day of the 15 days, a joint resolution of disapproval was introduced in the House on May 20. The next day, Senator Sanders introduced his legislation to block the sale in the Senate, when the 15 days were up. The export license was already approved by the State Department that same day.

The legislation introduced by Senator Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez to block the sale was virtually useless as time had run out.

However, all is not lost, as there are several ways a sale can still be stopped after the export license is granted. The State Department can revoke the license, the President can stop the sale, and Congress can introduce specific legislation to block the sale at any point up until the weapons are actually delivered. The last option has never been done before, but there is recent precedent to suggest that it might not be totally pointless to try.

Congress passed a bipartisan joint resolution of disapproval in 2019 to block an arms sale to the United Arab Emirates. Then President Donald Trump vetoed this resolution and Congress didn't have the votes to override it. However, this situation showed that both sides of the aisle can work together to block an arms sale.


Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act says that weapons sold by the United States cannot be used for human rights violations.

The convoluted and tedious ways arms sales go through raise two important questions. Should we even be selling weapons to these countries in the first place? And does there need to be a fundamental change in the procedure of selling weapons so that Americans can have more of a say?

According to our own law, the United States should not be sending weapons to countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia (among others). Technically, doing so goes against the Foreign Assistance Act, which is one of the main laws governing weapons sales.

Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act says that weapons sold by the United States cannot be used for human rights violations. When Saudi Arabia dropped that Lockheed Martin bomb on those Yemeni kids, no argument could be made for "legitimate self defense." When the primary target of Saudi airstrikes in Yemen are weddings, funerals, schools, and residential neighborhoods in Sanaa, the United States has no legitimate justification for their use of U.S. manufactured weapons. When Israel uses Boeing joint direct attack munitions to level residential buildings and international media sites, they are not doing so out of "legitimate self defense."

In this day and age where videos of U.S. allies committing war crimes are readily available on Twitter or Instagram, no one can claim that they don't know what US-made weapons are used for around the world.

As Americans, there are important steps to be taken. Are we willing to put our efforts into changing the procedure of arms sales to include more transparency and accountability? Are we willing to invoke our own laws? More importantly: are we willing to put our efforts into drastically changing our economy so that Yemeni and Palestinian parents who put every ounce of love into raising their children do not have to live in fear that their whole world could be taken in an instant? As it stands, our economy benefits from selling tools of destruction to other countries. That is something Americans must realize and ask if there is a better way to be a part of the world. The next steps for people who are concerned about this newest arms sale to Israel should be petitioning the State Department and asking their members of Congress to introduce legislation to block the sale. 

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DANAKA KATOVICH is CODEPINK’s Yemen campaign director.

Health Campaigners Rage Against EU Effort to Undermine WTO Patent Waiver on Covid Vaccines

"The E.U. 'plan' is to urge current vaccine makers to produce more, an approach that already has failed spectacularly and now imperils the world."

JAKE JOHNSON, STAFF WRITER

June 8, 2021

Global public health campaigners are lashing out at the leadership of the European Union for attempting to undercut a temporary patent waiver for coronavirus vaccines by pushing an alternative proposal that critics say would fail to address supply shortages or stark inequities in vaccine distribution.

"The E.U. and other nations opposing this waiver need to stop blocking other countries' efforts to protect their populations in a public health emergency."
—Dimitri Eynikel, Doctors Without Borders

On Friday, the E.U. submitted to the World Trade Organization a plan that touts "voluntary solutions and public-private cooperation" as the best way to ramp up vaccine production, not a temporary suspension of intellectual property rights that have given pharmaceutical companies monopoly control over manufacturing.

"Many such partnerships are already under way, including with many producers in the developing world. We need more of these," reads the proposal, which mentions compulsory licensing as "an important and perfectly legitimate fallback" should voluntary agreements fail.

Doctors Without Borders, U.S.-based consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, and other organizations were outraged by the E.U.'s counterproposal, warning Monday that it would rely heavily on the same strategy that has yet to produce a sufficient supply of vaccine doses and distribute them equitably. According to the World Health Organization, low-income countries have administered just 0.4% of the world's coronavirus vaccine doses while rich nations have administered 44%.

A recent analysis by a coalition of humanitarian groups estimates that at the current vaccination rate, it would take low-income countries 57 years to fully vaccinate their populations against Covid-19.

"The E.U. 'plan' is to urge current vaccine makers to produce more, an approach that already has failed spectacularly and now imperils the world," Public Citizen said in a statement Monday. "The E.U.'s latest WTO submissions closely hew to the Big Pharma talking points leaked last month. They include the colonialist insinuations that developing countries do not understand what is in their own interest and cannot act for themselves. They assume that the press and public do not understand that the supply chain 'bottlenecks' that the EU claims are the issue are in no small part caused by IP barriers that limit production of Covid-19 vaccine inputs as well as finished vaccines, not by 'trade barriers,' as the EU claims."

"The EU touting compulsory licensing as the way forward is even more cynical," Public Citizen added, "given decades of developing countries' attempts to use compulsory licensing being viciously attacked with trade threats and more by rich countries, including the E.U. and its member nations."

Backed by more than 100 nations and recently endorsed by the United States, the proposed waiver of the WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement was first introduced last October by India and South Africa.

After months of negotiations that have made little headway thanks to continued opposition from Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and other wealthy nations, the WTO's TRIPS Council is set to meet again on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the patent waiver and proposed alternatives.

Ahead of the meetings, E.U. member nations faced growing grassroots pressure to end their opposition to the patent waiver as the pharmaceutical industry—looking to maintain its profitable stranglehold on vaccine production—lobbies aggressively to uphold the status quo.



In a statement on Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders slammed the E.U.'s counteroffer as "weak and an attempt to derail the will of more than 100 countries."

"The EU's continued insistence on the use of compulsory licensing in its counterproposal as an excuse for opposing the original TRIPS waiver is disingenuous and endangers public health globally," said Dimitri Eynikel, E.U. policy adviser for Doctors Without Borders' Access Campaign. "In this raging pandemic, countries need to have all options at their disposal to encourage the manufacturing of Covid-19 medical tools across the world. The E.U. and other nations opposing this waiver need to stop blocking other countries' efforts to protect their populations in a public health emergency."

Fresh calls for the E.U. to end its stonewalling of the patent waiver came as coronavirus cases are rising sharply in South America, Africa, and other regions that have struggled to achieve widespread vaccination as rich countries continue to hoard doses and key technology. The U.K., one of the most prominent opponents of the patent waiver, is also experiencing an uptick in cases.

"Increasingly, we see a two-track pandemic," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a press conference in Geneva on Monday, lamenting that vast inequities in vaccine distribution haven't "changed in months."



According to the People's Vaccine Alliance, more than a million people have died of Covid-19 since the leaders of G7 nations pledged in February to bolster vaccination campaigns in low-income nations—a vow that did not include support for a temporary patent waiver.

"Eight people have died from Covid every minute since G7 leaders last met," Fatima Hassan, founder and director of the Health Justice Initiative in South Africa, said in a statement. "That's more than a million lives lost, while just a few countries, including the U.K. and Germany, continue to block proposals to waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments which would enable every qualified manufacturer in the world to produce vaccines instead of a handful of U.S. and European pharma corporations."

"Whatever pledges and promises the G7 make," Hassan added, "they are still leaving pharmaceutical corporations to decide who lives and who dies, unless they back the ending of these Covid vaccine monopolies."

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Biggest Tax Story of the Year, If Not the Decade': Analysis Shows Just How Little Richest .001% Pay in Taxes


Bill Gates and Warren Buffett speak at an event organized by Columbia Business School on January 27, 2017 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

'Biggest Tax Story of the Year, If Not the Decade': Analysis Shows Just How Little Richest .001% Pay in Taxes

"The personal federal tax bill for the top 25 in 2018: $1.9 billion. The bill for the wage earners: $143 billion."

JAKE JOHNSON, STAFF WRITER

June 8, 2021

A first-of-its-kind analysis of newly disclosed Internal Revenue Service data shows that the richest 25 billionaires in the United States paid a true federal tax rate of just 3.4% between 2014 and 2018—even as they added a staggering $401 billion to their collective wealth.

"Many will ask about the ethics of publishing such private data. We are doing so—quite selectively and carefully—because we believe it serves the public interest in fundamental ways, allowing readers to see patterns that were until now hidden."
—Richard Tofel & Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica

Published Tuesday by the investigative nonprofit ProPublica—which obtained a sprawling cache of IRS data on thousands of the nation's wealthiest people dating back 15 years—the analysis takes aim at "the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most."

"Our analysis of tax data for the 25 richest Americans quantifies just how unfair the system has become. By the end of 2018, the 25 were worth $1.1 trillion," ProPublica notes. "For comparison, it would take 14.3 million ordinary American wage earners put together to equal that same amount of wealth. The personal federal tax bill for the top 25 in 2018: $1.9 billion. The bill for the wage earners: $143 billion."

"Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, amassing little wealth and paying the federal government a percentage of their income that rises if they earn more," the outlet adds. "In recent years, the median American household earned about $70,000 annually and paid 14% in federal taxes."

The new analysis juxtaposes the recent wealth gains of U.S. billionaires—as estimated by Forbes—with the information in the newly obtained IRS data to derive the "true tax rate" paid by the mega-rich.

The results show that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos—the world's richest man—and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett paid a true tax rate of 0.98% and 0.10%, respectively, between 2014 and 2018. In 2007, ProPublica notes, Bezos paid nothing in federal taxes even as his wealth grew by $3.8 billion.

Economist Gabriel Zucman, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said the ProPublica reporting is "full of incredible findings."

"Looks like the biggest tax story of the year, if not the decade," Zucman added.

ProPublica makes clear that, far from being the beneficiaries of a sprawling, illegal tax dodging scheme, "it turns out billionaires don't have to evade taxes exotically and illicitly—they can avoid them routinely and legally," a point that spotlights the systemic inequities of the U.S. tax system.

As the outlet explains:

Most Americans have to work to live. When they do, they get paid—and they get taxed. The federal government considers almost every dollar workers earn to be "income," and employers take taxes directly out of their paychecks.

The Bezoses of the world have no need to be paid a salary. Bezos' Amazon wages have long been set at the middle-class level of around $80,000 a year.

For years, there's been something of a competition among elite founder-CEOs to go even lower. Steve Jobs took $1 in salary when he returned to Apple in the 1990s. Facebook’s Zuckerberg, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Google's Larry Page have all done the same.

Yet this is not the self-effacing gesture it appears to be: Wages are taxed at a high rate. The top 25 wealthiest Americans reported $158 million in wages in 2018, according to the IRS data. That's a mere 1.1% of what they listed on their tax forms as their total reported income. The rest mostly came from dividends and the sale of stock, bonds, or other investments, which are taxed at lower rates than wages.

To illustrate the consequences of a system that doesn't tax unrealized capital gains, ProPublica cites the example of Bezos' $127 billion explosion in wealth between 2006 and 2018. The Amazon CEO "reported a total of $6.5 billion in income" during that period and paid just $1.4 billion in personal federal taxes despite the $127 billion wealth jump—a 1.1% true tax rate.

"America's billionaires avail themselves of tax-avoidance strategies beyond the reach of ordinary people," ProPublica notes. "Their wealth derives from the skyrocketing value of their assets, like stock and property. Those gains are not defined by U.S. laws as taxable income unless and until the billionaires sell."

Richard Tofel, ProPublica's founding general manager and outgoing president, said Tuesday that he considers the tax analysis "the most important story we have ever published."

"In the coming months, we plan to use this material to explore how the nation's wealthiest people—roughly the .001%—exploit the structure of our tax code to avoid the tax burdens borne by ordinary citizens," Tofel and ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg wrote in a separate article Tuesday. "Many will ask about the ethics of publishing such private data. We are doing so—quite selectively and carefully—because we believe it serves the public interest in fundamental ways, allowing readers to see patterns that were until now hidden."

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No Evidence Whatsoever': Left Refutes Right-Wing Candidate's Election Fraud Claims in Peru

Peruvian right-wing presidential candidate for Fuerza Popular, Keiko Fujimori (L), offers a press conference at her party headquarters in Lima on June 7, 2021. Peru's right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori on Monday raised allegations of "irregularities" and "signs of fraud" in Sunday's election as her rival, far-left trade unionist Pedro Castillo, took a razor-thin lead in the vote count. (Photo: Luka Gonzales/AFP via Getty Images)

'No Evidence Whatsoever': Left Refutes Right-Wing Candidate's Election Fraud Claims in Peru
The allegations of fraud from a former dictator's daughter came as voting results showed her leftist rival with a narrow lead.

ANDREA GERMANOS, STAFF WRITER

June 8, 2021

Progressives pushed back forcefully on Tuesday against right-wing Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori's allegations of fraud in Sunday's election, saying there has been no evidence so support such claims.

"There is a clear intention to boycott the popular will," Fujimori asserted at a press conference Monday at which she pointed without evidence to "irregularities" and "signs of fraud."

"Through a tragic pandemic, a dizzying media campaign, and a severe economic crisis, the Peruvian people have mobilized to exercise their right to popular sovereignty. Our obligation now is to defend it." —Progressive International

The allegations of fraud from Keiko Fujimori, a former dictator's daughter, came as voting results showed leftist rival Pedro Castillo with a narrow lead.

A tally of about 95% of the votes showed Castillo with 50.3% of the vote compared to Fujimori's 49.7%.

Fujimori, whom Bloomberg described as a "market favorite," is the daughter of the nation's former dictator, ex-President Alberto Fujimori, currently serving a 25-year sentence in prison for his role in civilian massacres and graft. Keiko Fujimori has said she would pardon her father if elected.

According to The Associated Press:


Voters across Peru, where voting is mandatory, headed to the polls throughout Sunday under a set schedule meant to minimize long lines. No disturbances were reported at voting sites, which even opened in San Miguel del Ene, a remote village in a cocaine-producing area where two weeks ago a massacre ended with 16 people dead.

Pre-election polls indicated the candidates were virtually tied heading into the runoff. In the first round of voting, featuring 18 candidates, neither received more than 20% support and both were strongly opposed by sectors of Peruvian society.

Regional election observers did not report any voting irregularities, as the Guardian noted.

In a statement Tuesday, the Progressive International strongly rejected Fujimori's fraud accusations and urged "patience and vigilance as the final results are counted—especially in the face of fresh attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the democratic process."

"The delegation of the Progressive International has seen no evidence of systemic fraud in the course of the 2021 Peruvian presidential elections. Neither statistical models analyzing results in real time nor our time physical monitoring of this process have revealed any evidence of fraud," the group said.

The impacts of false accusations of election fraud are clear and dangerous, the Progressive International added. The group pointed to examples including U.S. President Donald Trump catalyzing the "revanchist attack on the U.S. Capitol in order to 'stop the steal'" and the 2019 U.S.-backed coup in Bolivia that ousted the democratically elected government of Evo Morales following unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.

"Through a tragic pandemic, a dizzying media campaign, and a severe economic crisis, the Peruvian people have mobilized to exercise their right to popular sovereignty. Our obligation now is to defend it," the Progressive International said.

David Adler, General Coordinator of the Progressive International, added in a tweet Tuesday that as "Castillo's lead has grown, this grim prediction has come to pass: Keiko Fujimori is now making accusations of 'systematic fraud'—and bringing large parts of the mainstream press with her."

"Our team is clear," Adler wrote. "There is no evidence *whatsoever* to support Keiko's claim."

And, should Castillo emerge victorious, it would be historic, write CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and Latin American policy expert Leonardo Flores.

His win would "be remarkable not only because he is a leftist teacher who is the son of illiterate peasants and his campaign was grossly outspent by Fujimori, but there was a relentless propaganda attack against him that touched on historical fears of Peru's middle class and elites," Benjamin and Flores wrote.

A Castillo victory would also "represent a huge blow to U.S. interests in the region and an important step towards reactivating Latin American integration. He has promised to withdraw Peru from the Lima Group, an ad hoc committee of countries dedicated to regime change in Venezuela," the pair wrote.

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Rural Teacher Pedro Castillo Poised to Write a New Chapter in Peru's History

Peruvian presidential candidate Pedro Castillo gestures at supporters from a balcony of his party's headquarters in Lima on June 7, 2021, after taking a razor-thin lead as the final votes are tallied in a neck-and-neck battle with populist Keiko Fujimori following the runoff election of June 6. (Photo: LUKA GONZALES/AFP via Getty Images)

Rural Teacher Pedro Castillo Poised to Write a New Chapter in Peru's History

On the foreign policy front, Castillo's victory will represent a huge blow to U.S. interests in the region and an important step towards reactivating Latin American integration.


MEDEA BENJAMIN, LEONARDO FLORES

June 8, 2021

With his wide-brimmed peasant hat and oversized teacher's pencil held high, Peru's Pedro Castillo has been traveling the country exhorting voters to get behind a call that has been particularly urgent during this devastating pandemic: "No más pobres en un país rico"—No more poor people in a rich country. In a cliffhanger of an election with a huge urban-rural and class divide, it appears that the rural teacher, farmer and union leader is about to make history by defeating—by less than one percent—powerful far-right candidate Keiko Fujimori, scion of the country's political "Fujimori dynasty."

Castillo's victory will be remarkable not only because he is a leftist teacher who is the son of illiterate peasants and his campaign was grossly outspent by Fujimori, but there was a relentless propaganda attack against him that touched on historical fears of Peru's middle class and elites.

Fujimori is challenging the election's results, alleging widespread fraud. Her campaign has only presented evidence of isolated irregularities, and so far there is nothing to suggest a tainted vote. However, she can challenge some of the votes to delay the final results, and much like in the U.S., even an allegation of fraud by the losing candidate will cause uncertainty and raise tensions in the country.

Castillo's victory will be remarkable not only because he is a leftist teacher who is the son of illiterate peasants and his campaign was grossly outspent by Fujimori, but there was a relentless propaganda attack against him that touched on historical fears of Peru's middle class and elites. It was similar to what happened recently to progressive candidate Andrés Arauz who narrowly lost Ecuador's elections, but even more intense. Grupo El Comercio, a media conglomerate that controls 80% of Peru's newspapers, led the charge against Castillo. They accused him of being a terrorist with links to the Shining Path, a guerrilla group whose conflict with the state between 1980 and 2002 led to tens of thousands of deaths and left the population traumatized. Castillo's link to the Shining Path link is flimsy: While a leader with Sutep, an education worker's union, Castillo is said to have been friendly with Movadef, the Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights, a group alleged to have been the political wing of the Shining Path. In reality, Castillo himself was a rondero when the insurgency was most active. Ronderos were peasant self-defense groups that protected their communities from the guerrillas and continue to provide security against crime and violence.

Two weeks before the elections, on May 23, 18 people were massacred in the rural Peruvian town of San Miguel del Ene. The government immediately attributed the attack to the remnants of the Shining Path involved in drug trafficking, although no group has taken responsibility yet. The media linked the attack to Castillo and his campaign, whipping up fear of more violence should he win the presidency. Castillo denounced the attack and reminded Peruvians that similar massacres had occurred in the run-up to the 2011 and 2016 elections. For her part, Fujimori suggested Castillo was linked to the killing.

On the economic front, Castillo has been accused of being a communist who wants to nationalize key industries, and would turn Peru into a "cruel dictatorship" like Venezuela. Billboards along Lima's main highway asked the population: "Would you like to live in Cuba or Venezuela?" referring to a Castillo win. As seen in the photos above, newspapers linked Castillo's campaign to the devaluation of the Peruvian currency and warned that a Castillo victory would hurt low-income Peruvians the most because businesses would shutter or move overseas. Time and time again, the Castillo campaign has clarified that he is not a communist and that his aim is not to nationalize industries but to renegotiate contracts with multinationals so that more of the profits stay with the local communities.

Meanwhile, Fujimori was treated with kid gloves by the media during the campaign, with one of the newspapers in the above pictures claiming that "Keiko guarantees work, food, health and an immediate reactivation of the economy." Her past as a first lady during her father Alberto Fujimori's brutal rule is largely ignored by corporate media. She is able to claim that "fujimorismo defeated terrorism" without being challenged on the horrors that fujimorismo inflicted on the country, including the forced sterilization of over 270,000 women and 22,000 men for which her father is on trial. He is currently in jail over other human rights abuses and corruption, though Keiko promised to free him if she won. Also ignored was the fact that Keiko herself is out on bail as of last year, pending a money-laundering investigation, and without presidential immunity, she will probably end up in prison.

The international media was no different in its unbalanced coverage of Castillo and Fujimori, with Bloomberg warning that "elites tremble" at the thought of Castillo as president and The Financial Times headline screaming "Peru's elite in panic at prospect of hard-left victory in presidential election."

Peru's economy has grown impressively over the past 20 years, but that growth did not raise all boats. Millions of Peruvians in the countryside have been left abandoned by the state. On top of that, like many of its neighbors (including Colombia, Chile and Ecuador), Peru has underinvested in health care, education, and other social programs. Such choices so decimated the health care system that Peru now has the shameful distinction of leading the entire world in per capita Covid-19 deaths.

In addition to the public health disaster, Peruvians have been living through political turmoil marked by an extraordinary number of high-profile cases of corruption and four presidents in three years. Five of its last seven presidents faced corruption accusations. In 2020, President Martín Vizcarra (himself accused of corruption) was impeached, unseated and replaced by Manuel Merino. The maneuver was denounced as a parliamentary coup, leading to several days of massive street protests. Just five days into his tenure, Merino resigned and was replaced by current President Francisco Sagasti.

One of Castillo's key campaign platforms is to convoke a constitutional referendum to let the people decide whether they want a new constitution or wish to keep the current one written in 1993 under the regime of Alberto Fujimori, which entrenched neoliberalism into its framework.

"The current constitution prioritizes private interests over public interests, profit over life and dignity," reads his plan of government. Castillo proposes that a new constitution include the following: recognition and guarantees for the rights to health, education, food, housing and internet access; recognition for indigenous peoples and Peru's cultural diversity; recognition of the rights of nature; redesign of the State to focus on transparency and citizens' participation; and a key role for the state in strategic planning to ensure that the public interest takes precedence.

On the foreign policy front, Castillo's victory will represent a huge blow to U.S. interests in the region and an important step towards reactivating Latin American integration. He has promised to withdraw Peru from the Lima Group, an ad hoc committee of countries dedicated to regime change in Venezuela.

In addition, the Peru Libre party has called for expelling USAID and for the closure of U.S. military bases in the country. Castillo has also expressed support for countering the OAS and strengthening both the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). The victory is also a good omen for the left in Chile, Colombia and Brazil, each of which will have presidential elections over the next year and a half.

Castillo will face a daunting task, with a hostile congress, a hostile business class, a hostile press and most likely, a hostile Biden administration. The support of millions of angry and mobilized Peruvians demanding change, along with international solidarity, will be key to fulfilling his campaign promise of addressing the needs of the most poor and abandoned sectors of Peruvian society.

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MEDEA BENJAMIN

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace, is the author of the 2018 book, "Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Her previous books include: "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection" (2016); "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control" (2013); "Don’t Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart" (1989), and (with Jodie Evans) "Stop the Next War Now (Inner Ocean Action Guide)" (2005). Follow her on Twitter: @medeabenjamin

LEONARDO FLORES

PERU
Pedro Castillo Keeps Lead With 98,1 of Ballots Processed


As a victory of Peru Libre´s party approaches, Castillo turned to social media to urge people to protect the votes following accusations by Fujimori of irregularities during Sunday´elections.  Photo: Twitter/@PedroCastillo

Published 8 June 2021 
by Ignacio Ramonet
Newsletter

The report indicates that Castillo amounts 8, 657,705 valid votes while his opponent Keiko Fujimori has reached 8, 565,321.

Candidate Pedro Castillo continues to lead the race in Peru´s elections with 50.2 percent and 98,1 percent of processed ballots, according to the latest report by the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE).

RELATED:
Peru Elections: Castillo Widens His Lead as Final Results Near

The report indicates that Castillo amounts 8 657,705 valid votes while his opponent Keiko Fujimori has reached 8 565,321.

"ONPEinforma [RESULTS UPDATE] Minutes tallied for president and vice-president formula at 5:41 p.m. on June 8."

As a victory of Peru Libre´s party approaches, Castillo turned to social media to urge people to protect the votes following accusations by Fujimori of irregularities during Sunday´elections.

"We must be vigilant to defend the democracy that is expressed in every vote, inside and outside our beloved Peru. We cannot rest. May this historic vigil allow the rebirth of a new country," Castillo said.

ONPE Peru

The one scandal that should be on every Albertan's mind

Progress Report #269
Your weekly report on Alberta politics for June 8, 2021
on the web at theprogressreport.ca/progress_report_269

There is one scandal in Alberta right now that demands all of our attention. It doesn’t have anything to do with sky palaces. Brian Jean isn’t in it. There won’t be a referendum on it. And while the columnists and pundits seem to have all the time in the world for those gaffes and stunts, this issue is getting pushed to the back burner.

I would describe it as Alberta’s most pressing and severe crisis. I would say that every day that passes with things the way they are currently is a cruel, brutal injustice. And outrageously, that opinion probably puts me in the minority.

You might think it would have been cause for alarm when three men were found dead in a park in Edmonton a few weeks ago, but by today they seem to have already been forgotten. There has been a terrible inflection point in our already grim struggle with the opioid overdose crisis. All across western Canada, there are reports of a surge in the toxicity of the street drug supply—fentanyl and carfentanil are showing up in everything. And that everything includes the stats. In BC and Alberta overdoses and deaths have been spiking far above historical rates since late April, and those historical rates were pretty horrible to begin with. Big spikes, 50% or more in some regions, adding up to hundreds of deaths.

The UCP government is making this terrible situation even worse by obstructing and defunding supervised consumption sites. The conservative movement has been viciously opposed to harm reduction services for people with addictions for a long time, now. Back when the modern harm reduction model was first being worked out in InSite, in Vancouver, Harper and the federal conservatives adopted a sort of Southern Strategy in regards to the issue, pandering to the cruel and the prejudiced with spiteful policies that blocked access to care and in many cases left people dead. And here is our Premier, former Harper cabinet minister Jason Kenney, keeping up the tradition by obstructing and defunding Alberta’s overdose prevention sites.

More Albertans were killed by opioid overdoses last year than by COVID-19 and it’s are only getting worse. “The fentanyl problem isn’t going away,” warns professor Andrew Greenshaw from the University of Alberta, citing a staggering 118% increase in deaths since the UCP started closing down overdose prevention services. It’s time that we demanded the UCP stop their insane crusade against health care for people who have addictions. Jason Kenney’s rants may be offensive, and his gaffes may get on our nerves, but this project of his is killing Albertans. It’s killing us every day. And that’s the real story right now.
Sundries
The Alberta NDP held their annual convention this year and I haven’t heard anything from it that surprises me. Rachel Notley won an absurd 98.2% approval vote in their leadership review. As you might expect from a weekend that cheerlead-y, most of the things that made it into the policy book were either things the NDP caucus was already talking about. The two big policy pitches of the weekend: a pledge to make Alberta’s electricity grid net-zero by 2035, and a pledge to re-introduce public daycare (presumably not just as a tiny pilot project this time.)


Survivors of Alberta’s residential schools are calling for investigations into the graves at those schools, and it is almost certain that there are terrible things to find at many of them. 25 of the institutions, whose vile goal was to wipe the Indigenous culture out of Indigenous children, operated here in Alberta.


Jason Kenney continues to struggle with the fallout of his unwise party at the ‘sky palace’ last week: several backbenchers and now even cabinet members are criticizing him publicly. Just a few days ago he was still insisting that no rules had been broken, but he gave that lie up to apologize yesterday. His former rival for the UCP leadership, Brian Jean, publicly urged him to resign, though we still haven’t seen whether or not that’s had any impact.


The UCP have announced the details for their upcoming referendum on the equalization program, and already constitutional law experts are pointing out that the referendum is fundamentally broken and useless. The equalization program, which distributes federal tax funds in order to ensure that every province can keep up certain minimum standards of public services, is not the province’s to change. What a referendum will do, however, is drive a lot of conservative voters to the polls for municipal elections in the province that will be happening on the same day. As if just to underscore how corrupt this whole sham is, the UCP are bringing in a new law, presently Bill 68, which will let them use government resources to run a whole campaign on the referendum too.


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