India's plans for palm oil spark ecological concerns, controversy

Siddhartha Kumar

 Sep 13, 2021

© Zikri Maulana/via ZUMA Wire/dpa

The Indian government wants to cut its heavy dependence on palm oil imports by growing the water-guzzling crop at home. It's a move that environmental experts and politicians warn will be "disastrous" if the main export countries - Indonesia and Malaysia - are any example.

New Delhi (dpa) – India, the world's largest palm oil importer, has unveiled an ambitious plan to promote the cultivation of the crop at home that has environmentalists and politicians concerned about deforestation, ecological damage and human rights violations.

The government recently allocated 1.5 billion dollars to boost annual palm oil production to 2.8 million tons by 2029-30, from its current 300,000 tons, and cut the country's heavy dependence on imports from Indonesia and Malaysia.

The National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) will support farmers in expanding areas under oil palm cultivation to 1 million hectares, from 370,000 hectares, with a "special focus" on the north-eastern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Both these regions are among India's main biodiversity hotspots and are ecologically fragile.

Environmental experts and politicians warn that the move to promote cultivation could be "disastrous" given the widespread damage to rainforests and biodiversity caused by oil palm plantations in South-East Asia.

There are concerns that plantations of oil palm, a water-guzzling crop that grows best in tropical areas, will replace forest covers while triggering water scarcity, leading to deforestation and loss of habitat for endangered wildlife, agricultural scientist GV Ramanjaneyulu tells dpa.

"As a monoculture crop which ruins biodiversity, forests and ecosystem, it will have far bigger adverse effects, by impacting monsoon, temperatures, and leading to climate change," says Ramanjaneyulu, who heads the Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

Lawmaker Agatha Sangma, who belongs to north-eastern Meghalaya state, demanded wider consultation on the plan in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She flagged concerns that commercial plantations would detach tribespeople from their identity linked with community ownership of lands and "wreak havoc on the social fabric."

Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh, from the opposition Indian National Congress party, says proposals for large-scale oil palm cultivation had been studied and rejected in the late 1980s as it was a "recipe for ecological disaster."

The Indian Express daily reported that the government's oil palm mission was launched despite the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education saying that the plantations "should be avoided" in biodiversity-rich areas without further studies of their impact.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar has, however, said the government is going ahead with the plan on the basis of scientific analysis, while insisting that no forest land will be diverted for the purpose.

The plan may run into legal hurdles, since it could require clearances from the Supreme Court, which is currently hearing a case regarding oil palm cultivation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

According to reports, the court had ordered the phasing out of all "exotic" plantations on forest land to conserve the island's ecology in 2002 - with exotic referring to all species of flora and fauna not native to the islands.

Ramanjaneyulu says that over the past 25 years, thanks to cheaper imports, the area that was under edible oil and pulse cultivation in India dropped significantly in favour of paddy and cotton.

"We should opt for oil palm in areas where paddy and cotton are cultivated, as India has crossed self-sufficiency in both and there is often a glut ... That is, we should change cropping pattern instead of going in for new areas and cutting forests."

"Also we should boost production of a wide range of healthier edible oils, like sunflower, sesame and safflower, instead of just palm oil," he adds.

The oil is an ingredient in a wide array of products, from fuels to cosmetics to confectionery.

However environmental case studies in forested belts of Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula – which produce 90 per cent of the world's palm oil – found that the levelling of tropical jungles to make way for plantations has pushed out wildlife and endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger and orangutan.

New Delhi's plan comes amid a wider debate over palm oil, with the European Union banning its use in biofuels, citing environmental and human rights violations in the production.

India's southern neighbour, Sri Lanka, in April 2021 banned palm oil imports and ordered existing plantations to be razed, citing adverse environmental and social impacts. 

Exclusive: Investors call for governments to toughen climate accounting - letter

By Simon Jessop 

© Reuters/Mike Hutchings FILE PHOTO: 

Clouds gather but produce no rain as cracks are seen in the dried up municipal dam in drought-stricken Graaff-Reinet

LONDON (Reuters) - Investors managing more than $2.5 trillion have called on governments to compel companies and auditors to file financial accounts aligned with the world's net zero emissions target, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

Writing to UK climate czar Alok Sharma ahead of the next round of global climate talks in Glasgow in November, the group said doing so was crucial to clarify the financial impact of climate change and give an incentive to invest accordingly.

Governments should mandate a requirement for companies to make clear the financial consequences of a net-zero pathway and for auditors to call out where companies have failed to do so, the investor group said in the Sept. 14 letter.

It follows a recent study by Carbon Tracker and the Climate Accounting Project that found more than 70% of the world's heaviest-emitting companies did not disclose the full risks in their 2020 disclosures, with 80% of audits showing no evidence the risk had been assessed.

"Most (companies) continue to use assumptions that presume little or no decarbonisation, and thus report financial results predicated on governments failing to implement their stated commitments and, in some cases, legal targets," the letter said.

Sharma's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The upcoming climate conference, dubbed COP26, is seen as the most important since governments originally struck a deal to limit global warming in Paris in 2015, with all parties now being asked to accelerate their efforts

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/countries-emissions-pledges-still-fall-short-global-climate-goals-un-says-2021-09-17

Britain's accounting watchdog has already warned companies and auditors to do a better job, while global accounting and auditing standard setters have restated the need to assess material risks, which can include climate risk.

Despite investor bodies representing $100 trillion in assets calling in September for Paris-aligned accounts, the inaction from companies and auditors meant government action was needed, the investor group said.

"If we choose to wait for companies to respond to investor pressure, it could take years to deliver the numbers we require to invest in a way that is aligned with the Paris goals," the investors' letter said.

Signatories to the letter include a body representing British local government pensions, Sweden's AP2 pension scheme and investors including Sarasin & Partners, which coordinated the letter and an accompanying position paper, as well as Candriam and Federated Hermes.

For countries like Britain, which have made reaching net-zero emissions a legal obligation, changing the law around accounting and auditing would be "entirely consistent" with other government efforts, the investor group said.

The stakes are high. Companies such as BP wrote off billions of dollars last year after they lowered long-term oil price assumptions. Without proper accounting, money needed to fund the transition to a low-carbon economy could end up in the wrong place.

"Accounts that leave out material climate impacts misinform executives, shareholders and creditors and, thus, result in misdirected capital," the investor group said.

(Additional reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Philippa Fletcher

TORIES RED BAIT TRUDEAU (WHOSE PARTY COLOUR IS RED)

Trudeaus agreed to father's book being published by Chinese Communist-run company in 2005

FIDEL CASTRO WAS A PALLBERARER AT HIS FUNERAL

Tom Blackwell 4 days ago

It turns out a 2016 edition of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s memoirs was not his family’s first foray into Chinese state-run book publishing.

© Provided by National Post Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Hebert salute a monk in Buddhist fashion in China. From the book Two Innocents in Red China by Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Hebert.

In 2005, a Communist Party-affiliated company won the family’s approval — and a preface from brother Sacha Trudeau — for a Chinese-language edition of a book their father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, co-authored in the 1960s.

China experts differed Wednesday on why a publisher there would be interested in Two Innocents in Red China 50 years after the fact, suggesting it was either out of admiration for Pierre Trudeau — or to curry favour with his prominent sons.

Either way, said one scholar, it was likely subject to significant censorship.

Neither offspring had entered politics by 2005, but speculation had been bubbling since Pierre Trudeau’s death in 2000 that one of them would make the plunge. Justin Trudeau did three years later.

The offer to re-release the Two Innocents book by Pierre Trudeau and journalist-friend Jacques Hébert was likely an attempt to flatter two influential figures in Canadian affairs — an “insurance policy” in case one of them ran for office, says Guy Saint-Jacques, a former ambassador to Beijing.

“The approach is always the same: you make people feel special, you tell them they understand China and you pretend to give them special access,” he said. “Publishing books falls into that category because it gives face to the authors even if they cannot know for sure how many books are really sold.”

But a leading China specialist at the University of British Columbia said it’s doubtful the offer to translate and publish Pierre Trudeau’s 1960s book had anything to do with trying to influence the Trudeau sons.

It was more likely part of a common Chinese practice to issue versions of books on world leaders considered important or “empathetic” to China, said UBC Prof. Paul Evans. He said he’s seen tomes on Western heads of state from Angela Merkel to Margaret Thatcher in Chinese bookstores.

“(Pierre Trudeau) is the second best-known Canadian in China. The first is (doctor) Norman Bethune,” he said. “That they would want to publish his book in Chinese translation would not come to me as a surprise at all.”

In fact, the Canadian business world and many politicians were at that time eager to exploit the burgeoning Chinese market. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper made repeated, trade-focused trips to China after his election in 2006.

A more pertinent issue, said Evans, is the fact that almost all books published in China, whether by state-owned companies or not, are subject to censorship that has only grown more severe in recent years.

He said he pulled a recent book of his own after censors in China said they would excise any reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre, Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward or human rights generally — about a third of the volume.

“It’s a murky and risky prospect,” said the professor.

The Liberal campaign was unable to respond to a request for comment by deadline.

The general issue came to the fore recently with a report that a Chinese version of Justin Trudeau’s memoir had been released in 2016 by a state-controlled publisher. Security advisors to the prime minister at the time told The Globe and Mail they would have discouraged the translation but, regardless, were never informed about it.

A decade earlier, Two Innocents in Red China — which recounted the trip Trudeau senior and Hébert took to the country in 1960 — was published by the Shanghai People’s Publishing House.

An online description of the company, originally set up by the propaganda department of the Shanghai branch of the Communists, says it has been at the forefront of producing “party-building” books.

In a 2016 interview with the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), Alexandre (Sacha) Trudeau said he had been approached by Chinese officials about reprinting his father’s book, and asked to write a preface for it.

He said he suggested visiting China before writing the introduction, and later the Chinese publisher encouraged him to pen his own book on his experiences. Sacha’s resulting title — Barbarian Lost — Travels in the new China — was published here in 2016 . A different publisher — not Shanghai People’s — released it in China in 2019.

The translation of Pierre Trudeau’s book was unlikely to have generated much if any income for the publisher after it paid for translation — and any advance fees the sons received, said Charles Burton, a former diplomat in Beijing and fellow with the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

“This kind of book by foreigners based on a short, carefully monitored tour of China do not sell well in the PRC as they are typically ridiculously misinformed and devoid of meaningful insight,” he said. “There are dozens of them gathering dust on state bookstore shelves all over China.”

Rather, the publishing deal would be designed to curry favour and “a sense of reciprocal obligation” with Justin Trudeau, Burton argued.

“This is highly consistent with the strategy and purposes of the Chinese Communist Party’s very well-resourced United Front Work Department.”

The Conservative Party — which has promised a tougher stance toward Beijing if elected — seized on the fact that Pierre Trudeau’s book was published in China 16 years ago as more evidence of a too-cozy relationship between the prime minister and the People’s Republic.

“It is extremely concerning that Justin Trudeau has been caught hiding a second secret book deal with the Chinese Communist Party,” said Tory candidate Michael Barrett. “If Justin Trudeau won’t tell Canadians about this secret relationship with the Chinese communists, how can Canadians trust him to stand up for Canadian interests when dealing with Beijing?”

COMING TO TEXAS SOON

Afghan women outraged by new Taliban restrictions on work

Issued on: 20/09/2021 - 

About a dozen Afghan women protested briefly Sunday outside the old Ministry for Women's Affairs, which has now been replaced by a department that earned notoriety for enforcing strict islamic doctrine 

BULENT KILIC AFP


Kabul (AFP)

The Taliban's effective ban on women working sank in on Monday, sparking rage over the dramatic loss of rights after millions of female teachers and girls were barred from secondary school education.

After pledging a softer version of their brutal and repressive regime of the 1990s, the Islamic fundamentalists are tightening their control of women's freedoms one month after seizing power.

"I may as well be dead," said one woman, who was sacked from her senior role at the ministry of foreign affairs.

"I was in charge of a whole department and there were many women working with me... now we have all lost our jobs," she told AFP, insisting she not be identified for fear of reprisals.

The acting mayor of the capital Kabul has said any municipal jobs currently held by women would be filled by men.

The Taliban on Friday appeared to shut down the former government's ministry of women's affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety during their first stint in power for enforcing religious doctrine 

Hoshang Hashimi AFP

That came after the education ministry ordered male teachers and students back to secondary school at the weekend, but made no mention of the country's millions of women educators and girl pupils.

The Taliban on Friday also appeared to shut down the former government's ministry of women's affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety during their first stint in power for enforcing religious doctrine.

While the country's new rulers have not issues a formal policy outright banning women from working, directives by individual officials have amounted to their exclusion from the workplace.

Many Afghan women fear they will never find meaningful employment.

- 'When will that be?' -

A new Taliban government announced two weeks ago had no women members.

Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities.

Hundreds of thousands have entered the workforce -- a necessity in some cases as many women were widowed or now support invalid husbands as a result of two decades of conflict.

While the country's new rulers have not issues a formal policy outright banning women from working, directives by individual officials have amounted to their exclusion from the workplace

 BULENT KILIC AFP

But since returning to power on August 15, the Taliban have shown no inclination to honour those rights.

When pressed, Taliban officials say women have been told to stay at home for their own security but will be allowed to work once proper segregation can be implemented.

"When will that be?" a woman teacher said Monday.

"This happened last time. They kept saying they would allow us to return to work, but it never happened."

During the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, women were largely excluded from public life including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.

In Kabul on Friday, a sign for the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice was erected at the building housing the old government's ministry for women's affairs building in the capital.

Vice ministry enforcers were notorious for punishing anyone deemed not to be following the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam.

During the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, women were largely excluded from public life including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative 

Hoshang Hashimi AFP

On Sunday around a dozen women protested briefly outside the building, but dispersed when approached by Taliban officials.

No official from the new regime responded Monday to requests for comment.

In Herat, an education official insisted the issue of girls and women teachers returning to school was a question of time, not policy.

"It is not exactly clear when that will happen: tomorrow, next week, next month, we don't know," Shahabudin Saqib told AFP.

"It's not my decision because we have had a big revolution in Afghanistan."

The United Nations said it was "deeply worried" for the future of girls' schooling in Afghanistan.

"It is critical that all girls, including older girls, are able to resume their education without any further delays," the UN's children's agency UNICEF said.

Afghan women demand their rights under Taliban rule

As female employees in Kabul were reportedly told to stay home, some staged a protest against the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban government.



Women have repeatedly protested against the Taliban since the Islamist militants returned to power

Several Afghan women gathered in Kabul on Sunday to demand the right to work and study under the new Taliban-run government.

Since the Taliban's return to power after a two-decade war, the fundamentalist militants have issued restrictive rules on girls' education and women's participation in public life.

Over a dozen women protested outside the premises of what used to be the Afghan Women's Affairs Ministry — until the Taliban turned it into the department for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice."

"A society in which women are not active is [a] dead society," one sign read as protesters chanted, "women's rights and human rights."


Women gathered in front of the former Women's Affairs Ministry, two days after the Taliban replaced the ministry's banner
Female employees ordered to stay home

According to the Associated Press news agency, the Taliban's interim Kabul Mayor Hamdullah Namony said on Sunday that female employees have been ordered to stay home, pending a further decision.

Namony said exceptions were made for women who could not be replaced by men. "There are some areas that men can't do it. We have to ask our female staff to fulfill their duties. There is no alternative for it,'' he was quoted as saying by the AP.

Women in several areas across Afghanistan have been told to stay home from both public and private sector jobs. But the Taliban have not yet announced a uniform policy towards women's work.

Watch video 01:35 Taliban impose new rules on women in Afghanistan

What is the Taliban's stance on women's rights?

During the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Islamist militants enforced hard-line policies toward women, including publicly beating those who dared to venture outside without covering their entire bodies.

After the Taliban seized power last month, they tried to strike a conciliatory tone, vowing to uphold human rights and respect women's rights "within the limits of Islam."

So far, they have forbidden girls from attending secondary school and instructed universities to segregate classes by gender. The Taliban also named a new Afghan Cabinet with no women in ministerial positions.

Hundreds of women have taken to the streets to protest these restrictions over the past month. Their demonstrations have mostly been met by force from Taliban fighters.

About the only job women can do for the Kabul government is clean female bathrooms, acting mayor says

By Hira Humayun and Helen Regan, CNN 

Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, and only women whose jobs cannot be done by men are allowed to come to work -- the latest restrictions imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

© BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Afghan women converse with a Taliban fighter while they hold placards during a demonstration demanding better rights for women in front of the former Ministry of Women Affairs in Kabul on September 19.

The order, announced by Kabul's acting Mayor Hamdullah Nohmani on Sunday, effectively means women are now barred from government work in the Afghan capital. One of the only jobs women can do for the Kabul government is clean female bathrooms, according to the announcement.

The order leaves hundreds of women out of work. Nohmani said there are 2,930 people working for the municipality -- 27% of whom are women.

Fear is mounting for women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of the country last month. Despite repeated assurances to respect women's rights, the order on female government employees is the latest sign the freedoms of the last 20 years are coming to an end.

Since the takeover, women have been ordered to leave their workplaces in some areas, restrictions on girls' and women's education have been introduced, and women have been completely excluded from the country's hardline new government.

When the Taliban were last in power between 1996 and 2001, the militant group banned women and girls from education and work, stopped them from leaving the home unaccompanied, and forced them to cover their entire bodies.

"Initially we allowed all of them to be present at their duties on time, but then the Islamic Emirate decided it was necessary that for some time their work must stop," Nohmani said, using the official name for the Taliban. "Then we only allowed those females whom we needed, I mean for jobs which males couldn't do, or which is not a man's job ... For example, there are public female toilets in bazaars."

He added their work will now be done by men, and "until the situation comes to a normal state, we have asked them to stay at home."

His remarks come the same day women's rights activists demanded education for girls and women's participation in government in protests on Sunday.

The women marched outside a building in Kabul that once hosted the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs. That building is now home to the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice under the Taliban, according to a new sign posted outside and seen by a CNN team on the ground on Friday.

The Sunday march was organized by the Movement for Change Party, a women's civil society movement led by Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan lawmaker, peace negotiator and women rights activist.

"The Taliban during and before the negotiations said in their statements that women have right to work and study according to Islamic law, but today what is going on in Afghanistan is against the promises Taliban made and against Islamic values," Koofi said via web conference from outside Afghanistan. "How you are banning a generation from reading and writing, it is not a social matter that group of humans are banned from study, life and freedom."

The protest came after the Taliban announced further restrictions on women and girls. A week ago, the Afghan Finance Ministry, now under Taliban control, issued a notice ordering its female employees not to return to work "until suitable work environment is arranged."

And on Friday, the Ministry of Education ordered male secondary school students and teachers to report to their schools on Saturday. The announcement did not mention female students, sowing fears that girls would once again be excluded from secondary education.

But the Taliban denied claims Afghan women would be banned from secondary schools, claiming they needed to set up a "secure transportation system" for female students before allowing them back into classrooms.

Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said women will be allowed to study. "There are certain rules during their class time that must be obeyed that they could be safe and sound," he said.

Mujahid reiterated previous statements from the Taliban saying, "We are committed on women's rights" according to the group's interpretation of Sharia law.

However, the activist Koofi said the Taliban's actions so far indicate it "still does not believe in the rights of women" and pleaded with the international community and UN to pressure the Taliban to back track from its hardline decision.

"Today we hear that girls are not allowed to get education, the offices' doors are shut in their face, there are no woman representative in the political leadership," she said. "They should know that only by the respect and participation of women, they can live in peace and in this world."

'We need to stop': Inside the world's first diplomatic alliance to keep oil and gas in the ground


The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance is expected to formally launch at U.N.-brokered climate talks in early November, a summit known as COP26.

Until then, Costa Rica and Demark are seeking to persuade as many countries and jurisdictions as possible to join them in bringing an end to oil and gas production.

Burning fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, is the chief driver of the climate crisis, and yet the world's fossil fuel dependency is expected to get even worse in the coming decades.

© Provided by CNBC Sheep on a road in view of mobile offshore drilling units in the Port of Cromarty Firth in Cromarty, U.K., on Tuesday, June 23, 2020.

Sam Meredith 1 hour ago

LONDON — Costa Rica and Demark are spearheading efforts to build the world's first diplomatic alliance to manage the decline of oil and gas production.

The co-leaders of the initiative, known as the "Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance," are seeking to establish a deadline for the end of oil and gas production that would get countries aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement. This legally binding treaty aims to limit global heating to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — and preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Meeting the conditions of the agreement is widely recognized as critically important to avoid an irreversible climate crisis.

The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance is expected to formally launch at U.N.-brokered climate talks in early November, a summit known as COP26.

Until then, Costa Rica and Demark are seeking to persuade as many countries and jurisdictions as possible to join them in bringing an end to oil and gas production.

It comes at a time when policymakers are under intense pressure to meet the demands of the climate emergency. Burning fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, is the chief driver of the climate crisis, and yet the world's fossil fuel dependency is expected to get even worse in the coming decades.

Speaking on Thursday during an online webinar hosted by the International Renewable Energy Agency, Dan Jorgensen, minister for climate, energy and utilities for Denmark, said: "The science is clear. We cannot negotiate with nature."

"There is no scenario in which we burn all the oil and gas that we can find and in which we stay below 2 degrees — and definitely not 1.5. It is just not possible, so we need to stop."

Denmark pledged in December last year to end all future licensing rounds on oil and gas exploration in the North Sea and put a stop date of 2050 on oil and gas production. At that time, the relatively small European country was the largest oil producer in the European Union.

"On one hand, if you look at it, it is a huge thing to ask a country," Jorgensen said, acknowledging the challenge of trying to persuade others to sign up to the alliance.

"What you are saying, like one of my political opponents did when I proposed this in Denmark, is: 'So, basically you want us to say no to free money? You want us to stop pumping money out of the ground so that others can do it instead of us?'"

"And I had to say: Well, yes," Jorgensen continued. "But it is for a good reason."

Climate hypocrisy

Andrea Meza, environment and energy minister for Costa Rica, said on Thursday that some opposition political parties were pushing the country's government to consider using oil and gas revenues to pay for their energy transition. "We are very clear that this is not the right pathway."

Costa Rica, a Central American country of around 5 million people, has never extracted oil. What's more, it is currently considering a bill to permanently ban fossil fuel exploration to ensure that no future government does so.

When asked during the same webinar why other countries would consider joining their initiative, Meza said that platforms such as the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance need to exist to show others that it is possible.

"It is just one planet," Meza said. "This is not about doing things in the right way in the internal part of our countries and selling … all of the old technologies outside of our borders. This is not fair."

© Provided by CNBC U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C), Costa Rica's First Lady Claudia Dobles (L) and Costa Rican Minister of Environment and Energy Andrea Meza (R) are seen during the launch of the National Land Use, Land Cover, and Ecosystems Monitoring System (SIMOCUTE) in San Jose, on June 2, 2021.

Research published in the scientific journal Nature on Sept. 9 found that the vast majority of the world's known fossil fuel reserves must be kept in the ground to have some hope of preventing the worst effects of climate change.

Separately, analysis published by Carbon Action Tracker on Wednesday, showed that none of the world's major economies are currently on track to contain global heating to the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It follows a bombshell report from the influential, yet typically conservative, International Energy Agency earlier this year. The IEA concluded that there could be no new oil, gas or coal development if the world was to reach net zero fossil fuel emissions by 2050

.

© Provided by CNBC Environmental activists and Native Americans march to the construction site for the Line 3 oil pipeline near Palisade, Minnesota on January 9, 2021. Line 3 is an oil sands pipeline which runs from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin in the United States.

Denmark's Jorgensen said it would be "impolite" to name specific countries, but described it as a "paradox" that many governments were touting their commitment to net zero by 2050 while also quietly planning to extract oil and gas to sell to others. These countries include the U.S., Canada, Norway and the U.K., among others.

"You are not going to burn it yourself and you think others shouldn't either, but you will make money selling oil to other countries? It doesn't make sense," he added.

Jorgensen said he did not want to dismiss the fact that signing up to the yet-to-be-revealed pledges of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance would come with difficult economic choices, particularly those heavily reliant on oil and gas. "But, it is the tough questions that we need to ask ourselves."

"Can we live with a future where we don't do this? I don't think that we can."
'Inferior technologies'

Speaking alongside Denmark's Jorgensen and Costa Rica's Meza on Thursday, former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres addressed the urgent need for governments to dramatically scale down fossil fuel use. She cited air pollution, caused mostly by the burning of fossil fuels, which kills an estimated 7 million people worldwide every year.

Figueres also stressed that the economic imperatives for moving beyond oil and gas were compelling. "They are simply inferior technologies by now. They weren't inferior last century but, in this century, given the rise of all the other alternatives that we have, they have become inferior technologies."

© Provided by CNBC Pipes for the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline are stacked at Houstrup Strand, near Noerre Nebel, Jutland, Denmark, on February 23, 2021. The Baltic Pipe gas pipeline, which is to come ashore at Esbjerg, on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula, will transport ten billion cubic meters of gas every year from the Norwegian gas fields in the North Sea through Denmark and to Poland.

An increasing number of cities banning the use of fossil fuel burning vehicles was likely to usher in "the demise of oil," Figueres said. The end of gas production may take longer given that it is recognized as a transition fuel, she said, but still not more than 20 to 30 years as there are alternative fuels coming on the market, such as hydrogen and ammonia, "that will be able to compete favorably."

In summary, Figueres said the economic case, "pounding" litigation in Europe and elsewhere and a social license for these fuels that has been "completely lost," showed that there is no more space for oil and gas production.

INSIGHT FROM THE RIGHT
John Ivison: Singh pitch to hold the balance of power

BURNABY, B.C. — As political parties across the country girded for the last battle of the 2021 federal election, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh abandoned the pretense that he might become prime minister tomorrow.

© Provided by National Post NDP leader Jagmeet Singh delivers his morning announcement in Saskatoon, Sask., on Friday.

Instead, there was a subtle shift in his rhetoric, appealing to people who want the NDP to be a constructive influence on a minority Liberal government — the most likely outcome according to an aggregation of opinion polls.

“If you want somebody who’s going to fight, that’s what we’ll do. We’re not in Parliament looking to make it not work.

I’m looking to make government work for you. That’s our goal,” he said at a roadside rally on a patch of wasteland in the rain.

THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AND SHOULD ALWAYS BE THE MESSAGE OF NDP CAMPAIGNS FEDERALLY AND PROVINCIALLY!!!

It says something about Singh that he is upbeat in all weathers, even when he is asked whether he plans to resign if he loses seats. He said he is confident of success – though he did not define what would constitute an NDP win. “I’m proud of the campaign we ran,” he said. “I like to think about how much people have been inspired because they feel like someone’s on their side.”

John Ivison: Singh side-steps questions about post-election scenarios

John Ivison: Jagmeet Singh's crafted play on 'selfish' Trudeau may serve NDP well in election

Singh pointed to the NDP’s role in increasing the wage subsidy from 10 per cent coverage to 75 per cent during the height of the pandemic. “We saved a lot of jobs,” he said.

The final day of the campaign sees the NDP visit ridings held by its opponents, a recurring theme of the past few days. The first event of seven was in Burnaby North-Seymour, currently held by Liberal, Terry Beech. If NDP candidate, Jim Hanson, wins, it will suggest the New Democrats are on course to double their seat count from 24. More likely, Singh will add a handful of ridings across the country.

There remains a brand problem for the New Democrats over their cavalier disregard for generating growth and creating jobs. This is a party that has a fetish for small businesses and an animus toward big businesses. But at some point, successful small businesses turn into big businesses and become deplorable in New Democrat eyes.

The NDP will have to be content to be a powerbroker until it cares more about creating wealth and less about squeezing Canada’s 47 billionaires.

NDP HAVE A POLICY OF PROMOTING WORKER PRODUCER COOPS AS WELL AS EMPLOYEE OWNED COMPANIES LIKE INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING FIRM STANTEC (WHICH PUTS LIE TO IVESON'S SUGGESTION THE NDP OPPOSES SMALL COMPANIES GROWING INTO LARGER ONES)

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward Singh makes a campaign stop in Cranbrook, B.C., on Saturday. A cavalier disregard for generating growth and creating jobs continues to hamstring the New Democrats.

It is ironic that the most recent polls suggest Justin Trudeau might yet win his coveted majority. He is equally prone to the criticism that he enjoys spending other people’s money more than generating more of it.

But the Liberal brand, built by prime minister’s with a much more balanced perspective, seems to have survived the distinct lack of enthusiasm for the current leader. So much of what he announced in two elections remains unfinished. The Toronto Star spoke for legions of voters when it endorsed Trudeau “very reluctantly”.

Ontario, in particular, remains immune to Erin O’Toole’s attempts to re-brand his Conservative Party as one more unabashedly centre-right. At the same time, that moderation appears to have upset the party’s angriest supporters, who have turned to Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party.

The Conservative Party’s superior get-out-the-vote effort may make a mockery of the pollsters. 338 Canada, which analyses polls and makes electoral projections, gave the Liberals a 68 per cent chance of winning the most seats and the Conservatives a 31 per cent chance. As others have pointed out, Donald Trump was given just a 29 per cent chance of winning in 2016.

But the polls probably have to be off by more than 5 per cent to allow the Conservatives to win the seat count. A big, embarrassing miss remains possible but that’s not the way to bet.

jivison@postmedia.com

Health and education workers support idea of 'bubble zones' after anti-vaccine protests at schools, hospitals

ARREST AND QUANTINE THEM

SHOULD HAVE ALREADY DONE THAT

Akshay Kulkarni 

© Gian Paolo Mendoza/CBC Thousands of people protesting against vaccination passports and the COVID-19 vaccine gathered near Vancouver General Hospital on Cambie Street on Sept. 1. Representatives of healthcare workers and school principals have called for…

After anti-vaccine protests outside hospitals and schools in B.C. this month, representatives of hospital workers and school principals are asking for protest exclusion zones to be put in place around key institutions.

Thousands protested B.C.'s vaccine card rules outside hospitals earlier this month, and some healthcare workers were allegedly assaulted. On Friday, schools in and around Salmon Arm, B.C., were put into temporary lockdown after protestors entered them, and are set to remain locked beginning Monday.

Federal and provincial leaders have condemned the protests, and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has even promised to make it a criminal offence to block access to buildings that provide healthcare.

Kyla Lee, a lawyer at Acumen Law, said enacting protest zones around hospitals and schools would be entirely legal for governments to do.

"There are always going to be situations of competing rights, and the government's role is to protect people from harm, to protect the most people and respect the most rights as possible," she said.

"Obviously, the access to health care and the access to an education are more important than your right to protest in some spaces."

Lee says, historically, protest exclusion zones — also called bubble zones or buffer zones — were only used when there were legitimate safety concerns, such as when they were used to curtail protests outside abortion clinics in the 1990s

.

© Gian Paolo Mendoza/CBC Lawyer Kyla Lee says 'concerning' behaviour at anti-vaccine protests, including allegations of physical assault and entering schools, might qualify as a legitimate safety concern if governments decide to enact protest exclusion zones.

She says the pattern of behaviour seen at the anti-vaccine protests, including the "significant escalation" seen when protestors entered schools, might qualify as a legitimate safety concern.

"When the protest starts to sort of lose the plot like that, then it becomes less a protest and more into the realm of just unlawful activity where people are trespassing on private property," she said. "The government has a right to prevent that from happening."

Lee says schools and hospitals could both be included in the legislation, and it could be a temporary measure for the duration of the pandemic.

'People felt a little demoralized'

Mike Old, coordinator of policy and planning at the provincial Hospital Employees Union, said the protests outside hospitals at the start of September were disrespectful and demoralized healthcare workers.

"I think it's important that we take proportionate action to make sure that people can continue to access health care freely," he said. "I think that's the balance the government's going to need to strike here."

"Go demonstrate in front of a politician's office or demonstrate somewhere else, but do not impede access to health care by workers or by patients and their families," he added.
'Strikes me as more than just unacceptable'

B.C.'s top leaders have condemned the anti-vaccine protests at hospitals and schools, with Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth calling those who protested at schools on Friday "covidiots" and "whack jobs".

Darren Danyluk, president of the B.C. Principals' & Vice-Principals' Association, said that protestors entering schools was disturbing and beyond unacceptable.

"Absolutely, I would be in favour of a bubble zone," he said. "Schools are public property, but they're not a mall. They're not an area for loitering and that kind of demonstration."

Danyluk says the responsibility of enforcing the zones should not rest exclusively with law enforcement, and governments should also roll out a campaign of education around conduct and behaviour around school sites.

A spokesperson for B.C.'s Ministry of Education said protestors should focus their dissatisfaction with government policies at the government, not at hospitals and schools.

"We are looking at a broader government approach to prevent this from happening again, and we are prepared to take any steps needed to protect students and staff in our schools," the spokesperson said.

'MAYBE' TECH

Hydrogen-powered Toyota reaches petrol horsepower parity

Jamie Klein 1 hour ago


The Rookie Racing-run machine was contesting the penultimate round of the Super Taikyu season at Suzuka, following on from its debut in the Fuji 24 Hours and second appearance in the subsequent Autopolis race of the second-tier Japanese sportscar series.

© Provided by motorsport.com #32 ORC ROOKIE Corolla H2 concept

As was the case at Autopolis, driving duties were shared by SUPER GT regulars Takuto Iguchi and Takamitsu Matsui, Masahiro Sasaki and Toyota president Akio Toyoda, racing under his usual ‘Morizo’ pseudonym.

The quartet completed 90 laps at Suzuka to place 42nd of the 45 finishers, 47 laps down on the winning Aston Martin Vantage GT3, after making 11 pitstops. They recorded an average speed of 103.081km/h, a significant improvement on Autopolis (78.715km/h) but also helped by a highly unusual complete lack of safety car periods or full-course yellows.

Toyota took the three-cylinder turbocharged engine from its GR Yaris road car as the basis for its hydrogen challenger, and ahead of the Suzuka race the marque claimed that it had now reached the same power output of 268bhp (272ps) as the original design.

As well as the power increase, a further reduction in the car’s refuelling time to two minutes (down from three minutes at Autopolis) also enabled an improvement in race performance.

Toyota Gazoo Racing president Koji Sato said: “The hydrogen engine we’re using is the same as the one from the GR Yaris, and at Fuji the power output was reduced by more than 10 percent, but this time the power is now at the same level, including the torque.

“Regarding refuelling, by using a dual system we were able to reduce the time needed from four minutes 30 seconds [at Fuji] to two minutes.”

Rookie Racing team boss Tetsuya Kataoka suggested that the straight-line performance of the hydrogen Toyota was now on a rough par with the cars competing in Super Taikyu’s ST-2 class, which includes a conventional petrol-powered GR Yaris.

However, in qualifying the Corolla could only achieve a best time of 2m27.510s in the hands of Sasaki, six seconds slower than the ST-2 benchmark, leaving the car 35th on the grid ahead of only the slowest ST-5 runners. The pole-sitting McLaren 720S GT3 set a best time of 2m02.482s.

"We’ve entered a new phase,” added Sato. “The drivers’ comments used to be mostly about improving our weak points, but now they have changed to higher-level things like, ‘I want to drive with more downforce through 130R’.”

© Motorsport.com #777 D’station Vantage GT3
Photo by: Kazuya Minakoshi

Taking overall victory at Suzuka was Aston Martin squad D’station Racing, with Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo sealing the title in the top ST-X category with one round still remaining in November at Okayama.

It marks a second title for Fujii, who previously won the title in 2016 in a Kondo Racing Nissan, and a first for Hoshino and Kondo.

Additional reporting by Kazuya Minakoshi

Employers say 'ghosting coasting' is a growing problem, but workers have their reasons for quietly walking away from a job

"It is causing some positive change in our industry, employers who would ordinarily just treat people like disposable workers are now treating them like real employees." 

dreuter@insider.com (Dominick Reuter) 

Coleen Piteo, director of marketing at Yours Truly restaurant, puts out a sign for hiring, Thursday, June 3, 2021, in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. AP Photo/Tony Dejak

A phenomenon of "ghosting coasting" is creating new headaches for employers in a tight labor market.

Recruiters and managers say they have been left high and dry by new hires who vanish without explanation.

Meanwhile workers say low wages and poor leadership give them little reason to stick around.

Over a summer marked by rage quits, the Great Resignation, and other high-profile walkouts by overworked and under-appreciated employees, another headache has been quietly brewing.

Where many employees have gone out with a bang this year, a growing number are instead departing without so much as a whimper.

Hiring and retention has become a defining challenge in the current labor market, and the Federal Reserve's most recent summary of economic conditions in the US says a growing trend is giving employers new headaches.

"Retention continued to be a growing problem for firms," the Atlanta Fed said in its September Beige Book entry. "Restauranteurs noted concerns over 'ghosting coasting,' where a new hire works for a few days and moves on to the next restaurant without notice before they are let go due to lack of skills."

Granted, the practice itself is not new, but it does appear to be more widespread than ever before as job openings outpace job seekers, allowing workers to reclaim a measure of the power in a situation that has favored employers for decades.

Recruiters in several industries say they've never seen anything like it.

"We are in such desperate need that I would literally hire anyone that passes the background check," said one food-service recruiter who is currently trying to staff a large food-service contract. Insider agreed to not publish her name or client.

In the past six weeks alone, she told Insider, she scheduled 58 interviews for jobs ranging from $14 to $20 per hour, of which 27 candidates actually showed up. From there she scheduled eight for onboarding after they passed a background check, only to have just five show up for work. Of those five, three have ghosted her leaving only two out of the original 58 she considered.

"We're just understaffed and barely keeping our heads above water and I'm at a complete loss as to how to fix it," she said.

The manager of a spa and fitness center at a California country club said she has had eight new hires ghost her this year so far, even after she specifically talks about ghosting in her onboarding process and asks that workers stay in communication with her, especially if they want to quit.

"They have still done it," she said.

Meanwhile, workers pushed back against the Fed's characterization that ghosting workers were somehow unqualified for the job, saying that misleading job descriptions, low pay, or inadequate training gave them little reason to stick around.

"The main reason employees are ghosting employers is they simply no longer have to put up with horrible working conditions, terrible bosses, low pay, and being overworked," said Matt Murphy, an Oregon restaurant worker who told Insider he has never seen anything like it in 25 years in the industry.

Although Murphy says he hasn't ghosted an employer, he has had to deal with the consequences when someone on his team does, especially if one ghost leads to a ripple effect of quits when colleagues get suddenly overwhelmed by the extra workload.

Even with its challenges, Murphy welcomes the disruption, especially in industries where "at-will" employment contracts give managers the legal right to terminate workers at any time and for any reason - or no reason at all.

"It is causing some positive change in our industry," he said. "Employers who would ordinarily just treat people like disposable workers are now treating them like real employees. It's definitely changed perspectives on things."

LACK OF PROVINCIAL REGULATIONS CAUSE SAFETY CRISIS ON THE ROADS
Over 50% of commercial vehicles recently inspected in Edmonton deemed a risk to others: police

Phil Heidenreich 

© Supplied by EPS The Edmonton Police Service says a recent inspection blitz on commercial vehicles in the city say 52 per cent of the checkups resulted in vehicles being declared out of service.

The Edmonton Police Service says a recent inspection blitz on commercial vehicles in the city resulted in 52 per cent of the vehicles being declared "out of service."

That designation means "the vehicle had a defect that was an immediate risk to the safety of other road users," police said in a news release issued Friday.

"Comparing these statistics to those from the 2019 inspection, the out-of-service rate has increased by 10 per cent, with a similar number of inspections conducted," police said.

Police said 30 per cent of vehicles passed their inspection and 18 per cent of the vehicles required non-urgent attention.

The EPS considers a commercial vehicle to be one that is registered commercially and that is used for the transportation of goods and services.

The vehicle inspections were conducted between Tuesday and Thursday and saw 216 commercial vehicles reviewed at three sites across Edmonton.

According to police, the "most dangerous vehicle" members came across was a semi-truck towing heavy trailers that was found to not have its cargo properly secured and which had mechanical issues relating to its brakes and trailer attachment points. Along with 27 other vehicles, the truck was towed because of its "dangerous condition."

"The bulk of our inspections this year looked at commercial vehicles travelling in and around the city of Edmonton," said Sgt. Dave Beattie, with the EPS' commercial vehicle investigation unit. "It's important to note that despite the one very dangerous semi-truck we found, most of the long-distance highway trucks we see are in safe condition.

"So while the results are not indicative of the transport industry as a whole, it shows that there is work to be done within certain sectors."

READ MORE: Nearly half of vehicles failed commercial inspection in Edmonton

In total, the EPS said the inspections resulted in 601 violations discovered, resulting in 174 tickets issued totalling $56,376. Police also said two charges were laid for suspended driving.

For more information on commercial vehicle inspections in Edmonton, click here.

Watch below: (From September 2017) A recent inspection blitz of commercial vehicles in Edmonton found that over half of the vehicles checked were deemed to be unsafe on the road. Quinn Ohler reports.

Video: Check on commercial vehicles in Edmonton raises concerns