Amazon could owe delivery drivers as much as £140m
Online retail giant Amazon may owe drivers as much as £140.0m, according to law firm Leigh Day.
Amazon drivers who deliver via the firm's "delivery service partners" category are classed as self-employed and, as a result, are not entitled to basic employee rights like paid holidays and minimum wage as they do not have an employment contract.
Leigh Day asserts that a minimum of 3,000 drivers are affected, and may very well be entitled to roughly of £10,500 in compensation for each year they have delivered for Amazon.
The law firm stated the drivers' work has been dictated by Amazon and believes they should be afforded more rights than they presently hold, leading it to launch a group claim on behalf of two delivery drivers as it looks for more to join the legal action.
Kate Robinson, a solicitor at the firm, said: "Amazon is short-changing drivers making deliveries on their behalf. This is disgraceful behaviour from a company that makes billions of pounds a year.
"For drivers, earning at least national minimum wage, getting holiday pay, and being under a proper employment contract could be life-changing."
Leigh Day previously represented over 2,000 Uber drivers in a landmark case against the rideshare firm, which it won.
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Space, agriculture and Canadian climate change: a homecoming discussion
This map shows Earth’s average global temperature from 2013 to 2017, as compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980, according to an analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Yellows, oranges, and reds show regions warmer than the baseline. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
The role of space in helping combat climate change, along with in-situ examinations of plant response to global warming, came to the fore during a recent talk by Western University.
The one-hour livestreamed event was meant to highlight research with impact at Western, and took place during the virtual edition of the university’s homecoming Sept. 25. The featured speakers were:
Earth science professor Gordon “Oz” Osinski, interim director of the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration and director the Canadian Lunar Research Network;
Biology professor Danielle Way, associate professor and director of the Biotron Experimental Climate Change Research Centre.
Gordon Osinski: The Importance of Space
Osinski opened his talk by showing pictures of the International Space Station, the Apollo moon landings and research by the Hubble Space Telescope as common reference points as to how the public thinks of space. For him, however, he sees space as an interwoven network of different research points connecting aspects such as the ocean, the air and space – with space being “a natural progression of exploring our own planet.”
Osinski is well-known for running geology expeditions in the Canadian Arctic, often with the participation of Canadian Space Agency astronauts who are embarking on training related to future lunar surface missions, as Canada is a participant in NASA’s Artemis program that seeks to put people on the moon by 2024, if technological and funding progress allows. In preparing for these expeditions, Osinski read a lot of Arctic and Antarctic expedition literature to get into the mindset of the explorers who moved through these regions in the past century.
“We are still exploring, and trying to get to the poles of this planet,” he said. But in a century, he said, the technology has changed as we were moving into the air in the early 1900s, and now access to space is broadening. He cited the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission aboard a SpaceX spacecraft that just flew in September as one example. Next year, Canadian investor Mark Pathy will fly on the all-private Axiom Space mission that will visit the ISS, he added.
“These are totally, totally different times, where space is really opening up for non-governmental astronauts,” Osinski said. “One of the things I’m most excited about, [because] I am a geologist, we’re going to go back to the moon and hopefully it’s actually to go there to stay this time and perhaps eventually set up research stations – like we have in Antarctica – and keep learning about the moon.”
Osinski highlighted Artemis II as a seminal moment for Canada, as one of our government astronauts will be on board and circle around the moon with the crew – the first time any human has done so since 1972. Showing the iconic “Earthrise” image taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders during an orbital mission in 1968, Osinski said he is looking forward to a new version of that, “hopefully taken by a Canadian astronaut.”
A few weeks ago, Osinski travelled to northern Labrador, at the Mistastin Lake impact crater, with CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick. He characterized the crater as “an excellent analogue for the moon” and said he is looking forward to examining the samples they collected. For the two astronauts, both trained fighter pilots, Osinski said such experience shows them the value of collecting samples and allows them to start training on geology at a very early stage, before even being assigned to a mission.
While space sounds separated from Earth, Osinski argued the value in exploring is allowing spacefarers and satellites to look downward at our planet, particularly in monitoring changes on Earth such as global warming. He cited Canada’s Radarsat series of satellites as leading the effort in allowing our country to look at its own changes from orbit, to help with disaster relief and to assist with managing agriculture.
“The title of this talk was something that I borrowed from this outreach initiative that we lead here at Western, called Space Matters. In this unit, we’re trying to bring home how really space in particular today pervades all aspects of our everyday life, and the importance of satellites,” he said.
Big questions that space will help to answer, he said in concluding, include the prevalence of life – including icy moons at Jupiter and Saturn and the ongoing sample return effort at Mars – and how to ensure long-term human survival, which likely involves the “need to get off this planet.” In Canada, he said space is an innovation driver, particularly through technologies such as the Canadarm series of robotic arms that have brought about advances in robotic surgery.
“We have a new economy, it’s perhaps surprising to think about that, but space is a new economy. The fact that you can buy a ticket now to fly into space means that we have an economy there,” Osinski said. He also noted that he would be glad to sign up for a few days in space, although a long-duration mission to Mars would not be as appealing.
Danielle Way: Plant resilience to global warming
Way opened her talk by citing the overwhelming evidence that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing due to fossil fuel burning and through land use change, such as deforestation. Accurate carbon dioxide measurements only arose starting in the late 1950s, she noted, and showed numbers from Hawaii where the air is “quite pristine, relatively speaking.”
In 1976, when Way was born, carbon dioxide was at about 330 parts per million and today’s figure 45 years later (2021) is around 420 parts per million, she noted. On the longer scale, carbon dioxide is 50 percent greater than it was before the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century at which fossil fuels were burned at a large scale.
Greenhouse gas emissions have already increased global temperatures by about one degree Celsius, and the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change is trying to keep that warming below 2 degrees or 2.5 degrees Celsius. “We’re already in a future warmer world,” she warned. “If we continue on the types of trajectory that we’re on, then this is what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts for the end of the century – the fact that globally, we would have warming of sort of three to four degrees Celsius.”
Such warming disproportionately affects places in high latitudes, including in the Canadian Arctic – where certain areas could be 11 degrees to 12 degrees warmer by the end of the century, she said. This in turn would affect the distribution and productivity of plant species, which is Way’s focus. She showed a figure with the distribution of aspen, a common boreal tree species. With current projections of global warming, aspen is expected to go as far north as the Arctic Ocean.
What is less well-known among the public, however, is that plants also affect the climate. Plants take up carbon dioxide and emit carbon dioxide, which students are often taught in elementary or high school. She showed a simplified version of the global carbon cycle, taking into account this plant process.
“Plants every year absorb 123 billion tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere; it’s by far the biggest drawdown, and the biggest absorption, of carbon that you get on a global scale – and this is just land plants,” she said. “Half of that is then remitted by plants back into the atmosphere. Animals and microbes and soil processes – just like us – breathing out also emit about another 60 billion tons of carbon every year on the planet. These numbers roughly balance out normally.”
However, the dynamic changes as humans emit carbon through industrial processes and land use change, she said. “That means that you’re accumulating in this scenario, about seven billion tons of carbon every year in the atmosphere. That’s that rising CO2 [carbon dioxide] that we just talked about. But the implication is also that if you move into a warmer, drier climate in the future, plants might not absorb as much carbon.”
In other words, she said, if plants are unable to absorb as much carbon, climate change may happen more rapidly due to global inequities in carbon absorption and production. “Understanding how plants absorb carbon and these sorts of processes – how much they grow, how much they can sequester – is really important for actually predicting where we’re going with our climate,” she added.
Way then featured her team’s research concerning climate change and how northern forests respond to future climates. They compare plants grown at current carbon dioxide levels, and future carbon dioxide levels. They also combine conditions with temperature changes, to see how the plants change, if they absorb more carbon and how well they survive.
Some of the group’s major findings include:
Studies of two major species of black spruce – the most common tree in the North American boreal forest – along with Tamarack, a deciduous tree, show that in warmer conditions they have less nitrogen available to absorb carbon dioxide. “In other words, as you warm the environment of the plant, the ability to fix CO2 – to continue to take CO2 out of the atmosphere – is suppressed,” she said.
Tamarack, however, can keep its absorption levels of CO2 the same up to a point by opening its stomata (tissue openings) a little wider. This process allows this species to “offset and minimize the effect of this suppression of the biochemistry inside their leaves,” she said. Black spruce does not demonstrate as much resilience, in comparison.
Accordingly, by the year 2060, the warming trend in the Canadian Arctic may produce a shift to deciduous forests and away from boreal forests. “You might also expect to see a transition from a boreal forest that’s dominated by spruce and pine trees and evergreen conifers into a forest that’s more dominated by things like birch and poplar,” Way noted. “That has enormous implications for the sort of the ecosystem processes, and what that environment is going to look like and how it’s going to function.”
Way’s group is also involved in a major Minnesota-based experiment called Spruce, run by the U.S. Department of Energy, studying spruce and Tamarack trees in both current and future carbon dioxide conditions, experiencing warming anywhere between zero and nine degrees Western. The results from Spruce are very similar to what Western is finding at its own facilities, she said.
While Canadians often think global warming “would not be so bad”, she noted that the warming temperatures are expected to have an adverse effect on both our forests and on the crop species that we rely on for food security. To meet food security needs as a planet by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent in part to accommodate a growing population and in part because more people will move out of poverty and shift to meat-based diets. “That challenge has to be met in the face of climate change,” she warned.
Western is also examining how to identify lines of crops, like wheat, that would be resilient to future climates – growing such crops at the university’s facilities in similar conditions to the trees mentioned earlier. Plants in high carbon dioxide conditions (such as wheat, rice, or maize) tend to see a suppression of micronutrients such as zinc or iron, along with less protein. “This is really a problem when you’re thinking about the nutritional status of the global population,” she said, especially because plants tend to produce extra sugar in these conditions, which dilutes nutrients.
Way said developing the land in the future will be “a really big challenge”, even though places like Southern Ontario have soils with an extraordinary ability to grow food. As food production moves north, many of those lands are quite rocky and with poorer soils. “So you’re not actually going to be able to grow food on them,” she said. And at this time, genetic modifications to plants are in such an early stage that the results cannot be widely replicated or used, she added.
LONG READ
Elizabeth Howell October 6, 2021
Elizabeth Howell October 6, 2021
The role of space in helping combat climate change, along with in-situ examinations of plant response to global warming, came to the fore during a recent talk by Western University.
The one-hour livestreamed event was meant to highlight research with impact at Western, and took place during the virtual edition of the university’s homecoming Sept. 25. The featured speakers were:
Earth science professor Gordon “Oz” Osinski, interim director of the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration and director the Canadian Lunar Research Network;
Biology professor Danielle Way, associate professor and director of the Biotron Experimental Climate Change Research Centre.
Gordon Osinski: The Importance of Space
Osinski opened his talk by showing pictures of the International Space Station, the Apollo moon landings and research by the Hubble Space Telescope as common reference points as to how the public thinks of space. For him, however, he sees space as an interwoven network of different research points connecting aspects such as the ocean, the air and space – with space being “a natural progression of exploring our own planet.”
Osinski is well-known for running geology expeditions in the Canadian Arctic, often with the participation of Canadian Space Agency astronauts who are embarking on training related to future lunar surface missions, as Canada is a participant in NASA’s Artemis program that seeks to put people on the moon by 2024, if technological and funding progress allows. In preparing for these expeditions, Osinski read a lot of Arctic and Antarctic expedition literature to get into the mindset of the explorers who moved through these regions in the past century.
“We are still exploring, and trying to get to the poles of this planet,” he said. But in a century, he said, the technology has changed as we were moving into the air in the early 1900s, and now access to space is broadening. He cited the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission aboard a SpaceX spacecraft that just flew in September as one example. Next year, Canadian investor Mark Pathy will fly on the all-private Axiom Space mission that will visit the ISS, he added.
“These are totally, totally different times, where space is really opening up for non-governmental astronauts,” Osinski said. “One of the things I’m most excited about, [because] I am a geologist, we’re going to go back to the moon and hopefully it’s actually to go there to stay this time and perhaps eventually set up research stations – like we have in Antarctica – and keep learning about the moon.”
Osinski highlighted Artemis II as a seminal moment for Canada, as one of our government astronauts will be on board and circle around the moon with the crew – the first time any human has done so since 1972. Showing the iconic “Earthrise” image taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders during an orbital mission in 1968, Osinski said he is looking forward to a new version of that, “hopefully taken by a Canadian astronaut.”
A few weeks ago, Osinski travelled to northern Labrador, at the Mistastin Lake impact crater, with CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick. He characterized the crater as “an excellent analogue for the moon” and said he is looking forward to examining the samples they collected. For the two astronauts, both trained fighter pilots, Osinski said such experience shows them the value of collecting samples and allows them to start training on geology at a very early stage, before even being assigned to a mission.
While space sounds separated from Earth, Osinski argued the value in exploring is allowing spacefarers and satellites to look downward at our planet, particularly in monitoring changes on Earth such as global warming. He cited Canada’s Radarsat series of satellites as leading the effort in allowing our country to look at its own changes from orbit, to help with disaster relief and to assist with managing agriculture.
“The title of this talk was something that I borrowed from this outreach initiative that we lead here at Western, called Space Matters. In this unit, we’re trying to bring home how really space in particular today pervades all aspects of our everyday life, and the importance of satellites,” he said.
Big questions that space will help to answer, he said in concluding, include the prevalence of life – including icy moons at Jupiter and Saturn and the ongoing sample return effort at Mars – and how to ensure long-term human survival, which likely involves the “need to get off this planet.” In Canada, he said space is an innovation driver, particularly through technologies such as the Canadarm series of robotic arms that have brought about advances in robotic surgery.
“We have a new economy, it’s perhaps surprising to think about that, but space is a new economy. The fact that you can buy a ticket now to fly into space means that we have an economy there,” Osinski said. He also noted that he would be glad to sign up for a few days in space, although a long-duration mission to Mars would not be as appealing.
Danielle Way: Plant resilience to global warming
Way opened her talk by citing the overwhelming evidence that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing due to fossil fuel burning and through land use change, such as deforestation. Accurate carbon dioxide measurements only arose starting in the late 1950s, she noted, and showed numbers from Hawaii where the air is “quite pristine, relatively speaking.”
In 1976, when Way was born, carbon dioxide was at about 330 parts per million and today’s figure 45 years later (2021) is around 420 parts per million, she noted. On the longer scale, carbon dioxide is 50 percent greater than it was before the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century at which fossil fuels were burned at a large scale.
Greenhouse gas emissions have already increased global temperatures by about one degree Celsius, and the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change is trying to keep that warming below 2 degrees or 2.5 degrees Celsius. “We’re already in a future warmer world,” she warned. “If we continue on the types of trajectory that we’re on, then this is what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts for the end of the century – the fact that globally, we would have warming of sort of three to four degrees Celsius.”
Such warming disproportionately affects places in high latitudes, including in the Canadian Arctic – where certain areas could be 11 degrees to 12 degrees warmer by the end of the century, she said. This in turn would affect the distribution and productivity of plant species, which is Way’s focus. She showed a figure with the distribution of aspen, a common boreal tree species. With current projections of global warming, aspen is expected to go as far north as the Arctic Ocean.
What is less well-known among the public, however, is that plants also affect the climate. Plants take up carbon dioxide and emit carbon dioxide, which students are often taught in elementary or high school. She showed a simplified version of the global carbon cycle, taking into account this plant process.
“Plants every year absorb 123 billion tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere; it’s by far the biggest drawdown, and the biggest absorption, of carbon that you get on a global scale – and this is just land plants,” she said. “Half of that is then remitted by plants back into the atmosphere. Animals and microbes and soil processes – just like us – breathing out also emit about another 60 billion tons of carbon every year on the planet. These numbers roughly balance out normally.”
However, the dynamic changes as humans emit carbon through industrial processes and land use change, she said. “That means that you’re accumulating in this scenario, about seven billion tons of carbon every year in the atmosphere. That’s that rising CO2 [carbon dioxide] that we just talked about. But the implication is also that if you move into a warmer, drier climate in the future, plants might not absorb as much carbon.”
In other words, she said, if plants are unable to absorb as much carbon, climate change may happen more rapidly due to global inequities in carbon absorption and production. “Understanding how plants absorb carbon and these sorts of processes – how much they grow, how much they can sequester – is really important for actually predicting where we’re going with our climate,” she added.
Way then featured her team’s research concerning climate change and how northern forests respond to future climates. They compare plants grown at current carbon dioxide levels, and future carbon dioxide levels. They also combine conditions with temperature changes, to see how the plants change, if they absorb more carbon and how well they survive.
Some of the group’s major findings include:
Studies of two major species of black spruce – the most common tree in the North American boreal forest – along with Tamarack, a deciduous tree, show that in warmer conditions they have less nitrogen available to absorb carbon dioxide. “In other words, as you warm the environment of the plant, the ability to fix CO2 – to continue to take CO2 out of the atmosphere – is suppressed,” she said.
Tamarack, however, can keep its absorption levels of CO2 the same up to a point by opening its stomata (tissue openings) a little wider. This process allows this species to “offset and minimize the effect of this suppression of the biochemistry inside their leaves,” she said. Black spruce does not demonstrate as much resilience, in comparison.
Accordingly, by the year 2060, the warming trend in the Canadian Arctic may produce a shift to deciduous forests and away from boreal forests. “You might also expect to see a transition from a boreal forest that’s dominated by spruce and pine trees and evergreen conifers into a forest that’s more dominated by things like birch and poplar,” Way noted. “That has enormous implications for the sort of the ecosystem processes, and what that environment is going to look like and how it’s going to function.”
Way’s group is also involved in a major Minnesota-based experiment called Spruce, run by the U.S. Department of Energy, studying spruce and Tamarack trees in both current and future carbon dioxide conditions, experiencing warming anywhere between zero and nine degrees Western. The results from Spruce are very similar to what Western is finding at its own facilities, she said.
While Canadians often think global warming “would not be so bad”, she noted that the warming temperatures are expected to have an adverse effect on both our forests and on the crop species that we rely on for food security. To meet food security needs as a planet by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent in part to accommodate a growing population and in part because more people will move out of poverty and shift to meat-based diets. “That challenge has to be met in the face of climate change,” she warned.
Western is also examining how to identify lines of crops, like wheat, that would be resilient to future climates – growing such crops at the university’s facilities in similar conditions to the trees mentioned earlier. Plants in high carbon dioxide conditions (such as wheat, rice, or maize) tend to see a suppression of micronutrients such as zinc or iron, along with less protein. “This is really a problem when you’re thinking about the nutritional status of the global population,” she said, especially because plants tend to produce extra sugar in these conditions, which dilutes nutrients.
Way said developing the land in the future will be “a really big challenge”, even though places like Southern Ontario have soils with an extraordinary ability to grow food. As food production moves north, many of those lands are quite rocky and with poorer soils. “So you’re not actually going to be able to grow food on them,” she said. And at this time, genetic modifications to plants are in such an early stage that the results cannot be widely replicated or used, she added.
Chile opposition moves to impeach president over Pandora leaks
President Sebastian Pinera rejcts Pandora Papers report linking him to controversial 2010 sale of a mining company.
The move comes after Chile’s public prosecutor said this month it would open an investigation into possible bribery-related corruption charges, as well as tax violations related to the 2010 sale of the Dominga mine, which took place during Pinera’s first term in office.
The probe was prompted by the Pandora Papers leaks, a vast trove of reports on the hidden wealth of world leaders researched by the International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ).
The Pandora Papers linked Pinera to the sale of Dominga, a sprawling copper and iron project, through a company owned by his children, to businessman Carlos Delano – a close friend of the president – for $152m.
It said a large part of the operation was carried out in the British Virgin Islands.
In addition, it said a controversial clause was included that made the last payment of the business conditional on “not establishing an area of environmental protection in the area of operations of the mining company, as demanded by environmental groups”. That decision falls within the remit of the Chilean president.
Pinera, one of the richest people in Chile, has denied any wrongdoing, saying the sale had previously been examined and dismissed by courts in 2017. “As president of Chile, I have never, never carried out any action nor management related to Dominga Mining,” he said last week.
But another opposition Chilean legislator, Jaime Naranjo, one of the drivers of the impeachment proceeding, said Pinera had “openly infringed the Constitution … seriously compromising the honour of the nation”.
Now Chile’s Chamber of Deputies, controlled by the opposition, will have to decide whether to approve or reject the indictment. A vote that will take place the first week of November, congressional sources explained to the AFP news agency.
If it receives the go-ahead, the case would pass to the Senate, which would have to act as a jury to seal Pinera’s fate.
The controversy came in advance of presidential and legislative elections in November.
Pinera’s second term, which began in March 2018, is set to end next March. He will be leaving office deeply unpopular after his right-wing coalition suffered a shock defeat in an election in May for a constituent assembly tasked with re-writing the country’s constitution.
The impeachment push came a day after Pinera declared a state of emergency in two southern regions of Chile where a conflict with Indigenous Mapuche people – who are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and more autonomy – is intensifying.
“We have decided to call a state of exception” in four provinces of the southern regions of Biobio and Araucania, as well as deploy troops to help control “the serious disturbance of public order” there, the president said in a speech on Tuesday.
Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Santiago, said armed Mapuche groups “have become more and more bold” and have been “carrying out acts of arson, sabotage, [and] taking over land”.
“The president has been under tremendous pressure for months now from conservatives within his own party, and other groups including truck drivers, to call a stage of siege in the Araucania, but he has been reluctant to do so until now,” Newman said.
President Sebastian Pinera rejcts Pandora Papers report linking him to controversial 2010 sale of a mining company.
Chile's President Sebastian Pinera's second term, which began in 2018,
is set to end next March [File: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters]
13 Oct 2021
Opposition lawmakers in Chile have launched impeachment proceedings against President Sebastian Pinera over the controversial sale of a mining company through a firm owned by his children, after new details emerged in the Pandora Papers leaks.
Pinera used “his office for personal business”, Congressman Tomas Hirsch said on Wednesday as he presented the accusation in the lower house of Congress, the first step in an impeachment process that could last for several weeks.
13 Oct 2021
Opposition lawmakers in Chile have launched impeachment proceedings against President Sebastian Pinera over the controversial sale of a mining company through a firm owned by his children, after new details emerged in the Pandora Papers leaks.
Pinera used “his office for personal business”, Congressman Tomas Hirsch said on Wednesday as he presented the accusation in the lower house of Congress, the first step in an impeachment process that could last for several weeks.
The move comes after Chile’s public prosecutor said this month it would open an investigation into possible bribery-related corruption charges, as well as tax violations related to the 2010 sale of the Dominga mine, which took place during Pinera’s first term in office.
The probe was prompted by the Pandora Papers leaks, a vast trove of reports on the hidden wealth of world leaders researched by the International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ).
The Pandora Papers linked Pinera to the sale of Dominga, a sprawling copper and iron project, through a company owned by his children, to businessman Carlos Delano – a close friend of the president – for $152m.
It said a large part of the operation was carried out in the British Virgin Islands.
In addition, it said a controversial clause was included that made the last payment of the business conditional on “not establishing an area of environmental protection in the area of operations of the mining company, as demanded by environmental groups”. That decision falls within the remit of the Chilean president.
Pinera, one of the richest people in Chile, has denied any wrongdoing, saying the sale had previously been examined and dismissed by courts in 2017. “As president of Chile, I have never, never carried out any action nor management related to Dominga Mining,” he said last week.
But another opposition Chilean legislator, Jaime Naranjo, one of the drivers of the impeachment proceeding, said Pinera had “openly infringed the Constitution … seriously compromising the honour of the nation”.
Now Chile’s Chamber of Deputies, controlled by the opposition, will have to decide whether to approve or reject the indictment. A vote that will take place the first week of November, congressional sources explained to the AFP news agency.
If it receives the go-ahead, the case would pass to the Senate, which would have to act as a jury to seal Pinera’s fate.
The controversy came in advance of presidential and legislative elections in November.
Pinera’s second term, which began in March 2018, is set to end next March. He will be leaving office deeply unpopular after his right-wing coalition suffered a shock defeat in an election in May for a constituent assembly tasked with re-writing the country’s constitution.
The impeachment push came a day after Pinera declared a state of emergency in two southern regions of Chile where a conflict with Indigenous Mapuche people – who are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and more autonomy – is intensifying.
“We have decided to call a state of exception” in four provinces of the southern regions of Biobio and Araucania, as well as deploy troops to help control “the serious disturbance of public order” there, the president said in a speech on Tuesday.
Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Santiago, said armed Mapuche groups “have become more and more bold” and have been “carrying out acts of arson, sabotage, [and] taking over land”.
“The president has been under tremendous pressure for months now from conservatives within his own party, and other groups including truck drivers, to call a stage of siege in the Araucania, but he has been reluctant to do so until now,” Newman said.
Demonstrators face off riot police during a protest march by Mapuche Indian activists against Columbus Day in downtown Santiago, Chile October 10, 2021. © Ivan Alvarado, REUTERS
Text by:NEWS WIRES
Issued on: 13/10/2021 -
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Tuesday announced a state of emergency and deployed troops to two southern regions where clashes have broken out between Mapuche indigenous people and security forces.
The Mapuche are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and self-determination.
"We have decided to call a state of exception" in four provinces of the southern regions of Biobio and Araucania and the deployment of troops to help control "the serious disturbance of public order" there, Pinera said in a speech.
The billionaire right-wing president addressed the nation on a controversial national holiday that marks the "discovery" of the Americas by Christopher Columbus.
It is a day in history that is viewed as a disaster by many indigenous peoples throughout the Americas due to the colonisation that followed.
A protester is detained by police during a protest for Mapuche self-determination in Santiago on October 10, 2021 - Copyright AFP AHMAD AL-RUBAYE
Pinera, 71, said that the four provinces in question have seen "repeated acts of violence linked to drug-trafficking, terrorism and organised crime committed by armed groups," and that innocent civilians and police officers have been killed in the violence.
The state of exception is initially due to last two weeks in the provinces of Biobio and Arauco in the Biobio region, and in Malleco and Cautin in La Araucania.
The Mapuche are Chile's largest indigenous group numbering 1.7 million out of the country's 19 million population and live mostly in the south.
Their leaders are demanding that land currently owned by farms and logging companies be restored to them.
The lack of a solution to Mapuche demands has prompted radical groups to carry out attacks on trucks and private property over the last decade.
One person was killed and 17 injured on Sunday when clashes broke out in Santiago between security forces and protesters marching for Mapuche autonomy.
Possible escalation
Political analyst Lucía Dammert criticized Pinera's decision, saying that the deployment of troops could further intensify the Mapuche conflict.
"The government has been unable to generate an effective and fair policy to solve the problems that exist in Araucania," Dammert, a professor at the University of Santiago, told AFP. She added that sending troops to the region could lead to "an escalation of violence."
But Luciano Rivas, the ruling party's governor of Araucania, backed the deployment saying there is "a very deep security crisis" in the region.
"Today we are living in a very complex situation where the police are overwhelmed by groups with heavy caliber weapons," Rivas told CNN Chile.
(AFP)
Olympics VP says China human rights 'not within' IOC remit
By AFP
By AFP
October 13, 2021
A senior member of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday swatted aside suggestions China should be challenged over its human rights record ahead of the Beijing Winter Games.
When asked about the treatment of the Uyghur minority in China, IOC Vice President John Coates said the body has no mandate to act.
“We are not a world government. We have to respect the sovereignty of the countries who are hosting the games,” Coates told an event in his native Australia.
Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in the northwestern Xinjiang region, and Beijing has also been accused of squeezing human rights in Hong Kong.
“We have no ability to go into a country and tell them what to do… it’s not our remit.”
The IOC and its members choose who hosts the Games and help run the event.
The body styles itself as the “guardian” of the Olympics and vows to “build a better world through sport”.
The Beijing Winter Olympics take place next February, but there have been calls for sponsors and others to boycott them or to find a way to protest the state of human rights in China.
The United States Congress has grilled five major sponsors — including Visa and Airbnb — accusing them of supporting the alleged genocide of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
In response, Beijing has accused US politicians of “politicising sports” and of slandering China.
China has been ruled by the Communist Party since 1949 and has hosted the Olympics once before — the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
That event was widely viewed as a showcase for China’s growing wealth and status as a rising power.
This time around, foreign fans will be banned due to coronavirus restrictions and the Winter Games will take place after several crackdowns — including in Hong Kong — designed to consolidate President Xi Jinping’s power.
A senior member of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday swatted aside suggestions China should be challenged over its human rights record ahead of the Beijing Winter Games.
When asked about the treatment of the Uyghur minority in China, IOC Vice President John Coates said the body has no mandate to act.
“We are not a world government. We have to respect the sovereignty of the countries who are hosting the games,” Coates told an event in his native Australia.
Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in the northwestern Xinjiang region, and Beijing has also been accused of squeezing human rights in Hong Kong.
“We have no ability to go into a country and tell them what to do… it’s not our remit.”
The IOC and its members choose who hosts the Games and help run the event.
The body styles itself as the “guardian” of the Olympics and vows to “build a better world through sport”.
The Beijing Winter Olympics take place next February, but there have been calls for sponsors and others to boycott them or to find a way to protest the state of human rights in China.
The United States Congress has grilled five major sponsors — including Visa and Airbnb — accusing them of supporting the alleged genocide of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
In response, Beijing has accused US politicians of “politicising sports” and of slandering China.
China has been ruled by the Communist Party since 1949 and has hosted the Olympics once before — the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
That event was widely viewed as a showcase for China’s growing wealth and status as a rising power.
This time around, foreign fans will be banned due to coronavirus restrictions and the Winter Games will take place after several crackdowns — including in Hong Kong — designed to consolidate President Xi Jinping’s power.
FOSSIL FUEL STATES WANT INDEPENDENCE
Nigeria tax spat reignites federalism debateBy AFP
October 13, 2021
A legal battle between Nigeria’s government and states over sales tax is fueling fierce debate about federalism in Africa’s most populous country as politicians jockey for position before 2023 elections.
The spat –- whether federal or state governments have the right to collect value-added tax (VAT) –- may be about money, and the sum at stake runs into billions of dollars.
But the squabble also reflects long-standing questions about how Nigeria is governed and how wealth is shared in the continent’s top oil producer.
How the dispute ends may open up more state autonomy, analysts say, as wealthier southern regions test federal management of issues from oil resources and security policing to cattle grazing rights.
In August, a court in southern Rivers State, Nigeria’s petroleum heartland, ruled states should be responsible for collecting VAT and not the Federal Inland Revenue Service or FIRS.
Rivers State Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, a staunch opposition Peoples Democratic Party leader, pushed through a law authorising local collection of VAT, warning FIRS against any “sabotage.”
Southern Lagos State, the nation’s economic powerhouse including the commercial capital Lagos, quickly followed with its own law to collect VAT.
After a federal government appeal, the dispute is caught up in competing demands, with Abuja considering a Supreme Court challenge.
Attorney General Abubakar Malami last week told reporters that only the national assembly could legislate on how VAT is levied.
“The federal government is looking at all options at its disposal, including the possibility of involving the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court,” he said.
Under Nigeria’s system, FIRS collects VAT centrally and the resources are distributed across federal, state and local governments.
VAT receipts in 2020 were 1.5 trillion naira or $3.6 billion. Under the current system the federal government gets 15 percent, with the rest split between states and local governments.
But richer southern states like Lagos and Rivers — Lagos alone produces around half of Nigeria’s VAT — have long complained they end up paying for poorer states mostly in the agricultural north but also some southern ones.
They want more “fiscal federalism,” meaning getting a bigger share of the VAT they collect and more responsiblity to manage their own affairs.
“What we are after is to ensure that this money is used for the people of Lagos State, and that is exactly what we have achieved,” Setonji David, a Lagos assembly lawmaker, told Channels TV.
– ‘Restructuring’ Nigeria –
The “restructuring” debate often resurfaces during election times in Nigeria, which became a single entity under British colonial rule in 1914 when the mainly Muslim north was joined with the mostly Christian south.
Regional identities for Nigeria’s major ethnic groups are often fiercely guarded — sometimes with separatist rhetoric — even as the federal government promotes national unity.
“We will see more of these scenarios, where different constituent entities will try to assert more control economically using political means over what is extracted or generated from their territories,” SBM Intelligence analyst Tunde Ajileye said of the VAT fallout.
The tax debate is especially sensitive after the coronavirus pandemic that battered Nigeria’s oil revenues and pushed Africa’s largest economy into its second recession in five years.
During the pandemic, the federal government increased VAT from five percent to 7.5 percent, providing much-needed revenue.
Eurasia Group’s Amaka Anku said decentralisation of tax management is unlikely, as most states lack expertise or willingness.
“Outside Lagos and the federal capital territory (Abuja), states are likely to be negatively affected by a decentralization of VAT collection, making the proposition politically unfeasible.”
But the VAT fight also plays into the heated tones before the 2023 election to replace President Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim in power since 2015.
– Election tensions –
Critics of Buhari say since he came to power he has favoured northeners in a way that has intensified calls for more autonomy for states and even calls for separatism by some southern agitators.
Officials of the All Progressives Congress’ ruling party dismiss such claims and point to government investments across north or south.
But mass kidnappings, attacks and insecurity have also prompted calls from some southern leaders to have control over their own security forces.
VAT has joined a list of disputes where southern and northern leaders appear to be digging in on rival sides.
One of those is “zoning” — an unofficial power-sharing deal that rotates the presidency between candidates from the north and the south.
After two terms with northern Buhari, many southern leaders want a president from their region. Many leaders from the north disagree.
But despite the squabbling, analysts say a compromise on VAT is the likely outcome.
“The good thing about this is there has not been a use of violence or rhetoric, it is more the use of the court process,” said SBM’s Ajileye.
“I expect there will be some political settlement ultimately.”
STATE SANCTIONED MURDERS
Sri Lanka drops charges against admiral over killingsByAFP
October 13, 2021
Sri Lankan Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda (R) with the country's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa - Copyright AFP Lakruwan WANNIARACHCHI
Sri Lankan authorities have dropped charges, including conspiracy to murder, against a former navy chief linked to 11 killings that drew international condemnation, the country’s attorney general announced Wednesday.
The investigation against Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda was part of a case that cast a spotlight on extrajudicial killings during Sri Lanka’s 37-year ethnic war that ended in 2009.
Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam told the Court of Appeal that the state will not pursue charges against Karannagoda, who was first indicted in 2019.
A court official told AFP that a lower court would soon discharge Karannagoda, one of 14 people accused of abducting the teenaged children of wealthy families in 2008 and 2009 and killing them after extorting money.
Four charges had been laid against Karannagoda including conspiracy to murder, which carries the death penalty.
Rights watchdog Amnesty International urged Sri Lankan authorities to explain why they dropped the case.
The killing of the 11 youths has been raised at the UN Human Rights Council which has called for independent investigations into atrocities during the separatist war.
Police told a court in 2019 that the 11 victims were killed while in the illegal custody of the navy, although their bodies have never been found.
Investigators believe the true number of victims from the abductions and killings to be at least three times higher.
Police said the victims were not linked to ethnic Tamil separatist rebels and were kidnapped purely to extort money from families. Some were killed even after cash was handed over.
Military figures have been widely accused of extrajudicial killings during the war.
The final days of the offensive against the Tamils were marked by serious abuses, according to rights groups. A UN panel has said 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final stages of the conflict.
People are preparing for a final showdown to stop coal extraction in the German Rhineland
A small earth wall separates the tiny village of Lützerath from the enormous diggers operating in Garzweiler II, one of three opencast lignite coal mines operated by energy company RWE in the German Rhineland.
The mine is 235 metres away, and coming closer every day. A number of houses in Lützerath have already been torn down, the area covered with gravel, grass, and some wildflowers. It’s hard to imagine that people lived here just a couple of years ago. Other houses are fenced off, with RWE security in front, twenty-four hours a day. Most people have resettled and have moved away.
Challenging eviction
But one farmer is holding out. Eckhard Heukamp is challenging the imminent eviction from his farm in the courts, arguing that the coal mining plans from the 90s should no longer allow for continued extraction in the light of climate change and coal phaseout. He was already displaced once, 15 years ago –when his farm in Borschemich was demolished, the land long dug up. Now he is fighting for his parents’ house and farm, which dates back to the 18th century.
He is not alone – citizens initiatives and groups are organising regular demonstrations, events, and a permanent vigil at the edge of the village facing the mine. Activists have set up a permanent occupation on Heukamp’s land – the ZAD Rhineland. The term ZAD comes from the French Zone à défendre – a militant occupation to stop big development projects. The most well-known ZAD is probably the ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes that stopped a new airport being built near Landes, France, and famously resisted militarised eviction by the French state.
The ZAD Rhineland was set up to defend Lützerath against RWE and the police, and to stop coal extraction in the Rhineland. People are ready to put their bodies in the way in what might be the final showdown, the decisive battle. “If Lützerath stays, they won’t be able to get to the next five villages”, someone tells me. “But it will be hard”.
We spend all day building defence structures. Treehouses, barricades, lock-ons, and towers are popping up everywhere. People are giving climbing workshops and sharing blockading skills, discussing police repression and state violence, building up solidarity structures and a new kitchen, plotting and planning for day X – when RWE comes to cut trees or police show up to evict the camp.
Police violence and repression
The last big eviction in the Rhineland – the eviction of Hambacher Forst, which was recently declared illegal – ended up lasting five weeks before it was stopped by the courts. Thousands of police officers were brought in, but many more people came to defend the forest. Police were heavily criticised for the brutality with which they treated activists and the little regard they showed for their safety. One journalist died during the police operation, many ended up in precarious and unsafe situations.
This is happening all over Germany – only last year, during the eviction of the Dannenröder forest in central Germany, a protester was seriously injured when he fell four meters from a tripod after police officers cut the safety rope which held the tripod in place. The occupation was set up to stop another ecologically destructive infrastructure project – the new A49 motorway. Another protester, Ella, was sentenced to over 2 years in prison for allegedly injuring a police officer during the eviction – despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The collaboration between police and private security services in the Rhinish coal mining area has been well documented; repression, criminalisation, and violence go hand in hand. Few companies are as powerful as RWE. It’s structurally entrenched in the local political economy, and protected by German police forces who frequently act as private security. Many villages and towns are themselves RWE shareholders, and numerous politicians are on RWE’s payroll. In 1979, the German news magazine Spiegel warned:
Unrivalled and barely manageable, RWE is ruling over one of the largest monopolies of the Western world.
Today, Europe’s largest emitter continues to lobby for continued lignite coal mining – the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. If successful – the German government’s coal phase-out is set for 2038, much too late. Meanwhile, RWE is suing the Netherlands for 1.4 billion Euro compensation for phasing out coal by 2030.
It’s up to all of us to stop climate catastrophe
As politicians are getting ready for the next round of COP negotiations in Glasgow in November – where they’ll talk and achieve little to nothing – people in the ZAD Rhineland know that it’s up to them – to all of us – to stop climate catastrophe.
It might well be that this time, too, the courts will rule that the eviction of Luetzerath was illegal. But by then, the trees will have been cut, the land dug up, the village destroyed.
It’s windy at the edge of the mine where I’m sitting. I’m told this has been the case ever since RWE cut down the trees that once protected the village. And yet, the windmills next to the mine are not moving – the powergrid is overloaded – there’s too much wind, and coal power stations take too long to switch on and off.
The digger keeps moving towards us, ruthlessly. The power stations in the background keep burning coal, generating electricity for a system that requires abundant cheap energy to power endless growth, to generate profit for those in power at enormous ecological and social costs.
Another world is possible
The ZAD Rhineland shows that a different system is possible – a system that operates on the basis of solidarity, not competition; of degrowth, not growth; on climate justice, not green capitalism or ecological modernisation. True sustainability needs not just an end of coal, but the abolishing of those who protect coal interests – police, security, prisons – and of the economic and political system they are part of.
Joining the ZAD Rhineland is a good place to start this fight. From 29 October, the ZAD invites all of us to come to the anti-eviction skill share and protest camp, and to stop RWE. Whether you want to sit in a treehouse, build barricades, or cut veggies – please join, if you can. Every body counts.
Featured image via Andrea Brock
A small earth wall separates the tiny village of Lützerath from the enormous diggers operating in Garzweiler II, one of three opencast lignite coal mines operated by energy company RWE in the German Rhineland.
The mine is 235 metres away, and coming closer every day. A number of houses in Lützerath have already been torn down, the area covered with gravel, grass, and some wildflowers. It’s hard to imagine that people lived here just a couple of years ago. Other houses are fenced off, with RWE security in front, twenty-four hours a day. Most people have resettled and have moved away.
Challenging eviction
But one farmer is holding out. Eckhard Heukamp is challenging the imminent eviction from his farm in the courts, arguing that the coal mining plans from the 90s should no longer allow for continued extraction in the light of climate change and coal phaseout. He was already displaced once, 15 years ago –when his farm in Borschemich was demolished, the land long dug up. Now he is fighting for his parents’ house and farm, which dates back to the 18th century.
He is not alone – citizens initiatives and groups are organising regular demonstrations, events, and a permanent vigil at the edge of the village facing the mine. Activists have set up a permanent occupation on Heukamp’s land – the ZAD Rhineland. The term ZAD comes from the French Zone à défendre – a militant occupation to stop big development projects. The most well-known ZAD is probably the ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes that stopped a new airport being built near Landes, France, and famously resisted militarised eviction by the French state.
The ZAD Rhineland was set up to defend Lützerath against RWE and the police, and to stop coal extraction in the Rhineland. People are ready to put their bodies in the way in what might be the final showdown, the decisive battle. “If Lützerath stays, they won’t be able to get to the next five villages”, someone tells me. “But it will be hard”.
We spend all day building defence structures. Treehouses, barricades, lock-ons, and towers are popping up everywhere. People are giving climbing workshops and sharing blockading skills, discussing police repression and state violence, building up solidarity structures and a new kitchen, plotting and planning for day X – when RWE comes to cut trees or police show up to evict the camp.
Police violence and repression
The last big eviction in the Rhineland – the eviction of Hambacher Forst, which was recently declared illegal – ended up lasting five weeks before it was stopped by the courts. Thousands of police officers were brought in, but many more people came to defend the forest. Police were heavily criticised for the brutality with which they treated activists and the little regard they showed for their safety. One journalist died during the police operation, many ended up in precarious and unsafe situations.
This is happening all over Germany – only last year, during the eviction of the Dannenröder forest in central Germany, a protester was seriously injured when he fell four meters from a tripod after police officers cut the safety rope which held the tripod in place. The occupation was set up to stop another ecologically destructive infrastructure project – the new A49 motorway. Another protester, Ella, was sentenced to over 2 years in prison for allegedly injuring a police officer during the eviction – despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The collaboration between police and private security services in the Rhinish coal mining area has been well documented; repression, criminalisation, and violence go hand in hand. Few companies are as powerful as RWE. It’s structurally entrenched in the local political economy, and protected by German police forces who frequently act as private security. Many villages and towns are themselves RWE shareholders, and numerous politicians are on RWE’s payroll. In 1979, the German news magazine Spiegel warned:
Unrivalled and barely manageable, RWE is ruling over one of the largest monopolies of the Western world.
Today, Europe’s largest emitter continues to lobby for continued lignite coal mining – the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. If successful – the German government’s coal phase-out is set for 2038, much too late. Meanwhile, RWE is suing the Netherlands for 1.4 billion Euro compensation for phasing out coal by 2030.
It’s up to all of us to stop climate catastrophe
As politicians are getting ready for the next round of COP negotiations in Glasgow in November – where they’ll talk and achieve little to nothing – people in the ZAD Rhineland know that it’s up to them – to all of us – to stop climate catastrophe.
It might well be that this time, too, the courts will rule that the eviction of Luetzerath was illegal. But by then, the trees will have been cut, the land dug up, the village destroyed.
It’s windy at the edge of the mine where I’m sitting. I’m told this has been the case ever since RWE cut down the trees that once protected the village. And yet, the windmills next to the mine are not moving – the powergrid is overloaded – there’s too much wind, and coal power stations take too long to switch on and off.
The digger keeps moving towards us, ruthlessly. The power stations in the background keep burning coal, generating electricity for a system that requires abundant cheap energy to power endless growth, to generate profit for those in power at enormous ecological and social costs.
Another world is possible
The ZAD Rhineland shows that a different system is possible – a system that operates on the basis of solidarity, not competition; of degrowth, not growth; on climate justice, not green capitalism or ecological modernisation. True sustainability needs not just an end of coal, but the abolishing of those who protect coal interests – police, security, prisons – and of the economic and political system they are part of.
Joining the ZAD Rhineland is a good place to start this fight. From 29 October, the ZAD invites all of us to come to the anti-eviction skill share and protest camp, and to stop RWE. Whether you want to sit in a treehouse, build barricades, or cut veggies – please join, if you can. Every body counts.
Featured image via Andrea Brock
Damning revelations emerge about the UK’s clean energy claims ahead of COP26
New research suggests that a tree-burning power plant, which the UK heavily subsidises and categorises as ‘clean energy’, is the country’s biggest emitter of carbon pollution.
According to climate and energy thinktank Ember, Drax power station in North Yorkshire is the country’s biggest single source of CO2 emissions. Moreover, it claims that Drax is among the top three coal plant emitters in the whole of the EU.
Biomass giant
Drax used to be an exclusively coal-fired plant. In the last couple of decades, however, it has switched a number of its units to burn biomass – namely wood – rather than coal. People in the UK pay a levy on fuel bills, massive subsidies from which go towards propping up the plant. And it’s now expanded, becoming the second largest manufacturer of its main feedstock – wood pellets – for producing bioenergy.
According to Ember, with its biomass and coal energy production combined, Drax was the third biggest coal plant emitter of CO2 in the EU in 2020. Its CO2 emissions totalled 14.8 million tonnes (Mt), with 13.3Mt coming from bioenergy. The think tank also calculated that the plant was the EU’s fourth largest power plant emitter of PM10 in 2019. This is particulate matter that is below 10 micrometers in diameter. It’s a pollutant that can contain toxins and impact human health, particularly among vulnerable people.
A Drax spokesperson said that Ember’s figures were:
completely at odds with what the world’s leading climate scientists at the UN IPCC say about sustainable biomass being crucial to delivering global climate targets
A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesperson commented that the department “did not recognise” the figures.
Carbon neutral?
The Conservative government, and seemingly Labour too, accept the idea that biomass energy is carbon neutral. Globally, a number of policymakers and institutions also appear to endorse the premise. Its alleged carbon neutrality centers around the notion that we can plant further trees to replace the trees cut down for burning.
Trees store carbon, which is released when companies like Drax burn them. Ember points out that wood has a “lower energy density” than fossil fuels like coal. It says this means companies have to burn it “in higher volumes than coal to produce the same amount of energy”. As such, wood emits more carbon per unit of electricity than coal.
Because we can, in theory, plant further trees that will suck that carbon back out of the atmosphere, the fuel has attracted the ‘neutral’ characterisation. However, trees take time to grow and store carbon. Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which is part of the Cut Carbon Not Forests coalition, asserts that Drax and others in the business “routinely” source wood from whole and mature trees.
So bioenergy appears to be driving the destruction of longstanding, carbon-holding forests. And its ‘neutrality’ is based on the assumption that at some point newly planted trees will be capable of storing that carbon instead.
Other issues
In short, the timelines don’t stack up in terms of the carbon accounting. Indeed, hundreds of scientists voiced their opposition to bioenergy in an open letter earlier in 2021 due to its contribution to global warming, among other things. Moreover, the European Academies Science Advisory Council has also pointed out that oftentimes:
the type of forest biomass harvested and its use causes harm to biodiversity while also failing to deliver climate benefits
A study released in July, meanwhile, asserted that in relation to water and irrigation, growing biomass at scale for burning cannot be achieved sustainably.
Drax also aims to develop the ability to capture and store the carbon produced in its burning of biomass. This is known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and it will be largely funded by UK consumers. Drax says this would make the fuel carbon negative rather than carbon neutral. But efforts to capture and store carbon (CCS) around the world so far haven’t inspired confidence in CCS as a viable, smooth, or secure route towards cleaner energy or a cooler world.
Despite all these issues, the UK government counts Drax’s bioenergy as a renewable – and therefore ‘clean’ – energy source. So it doesn’t count emissions from bioenergy in its CO2 totals. Meanwhile it does count bioenergy in its totals for renewable energy production. Bioenergy amounts for around 30% of the UK’s renewable energy. This means that, overall, bioenergy production reflects well on the government’s climate record, not badly, despite not being very ‘clean’ or sustainable.
The government also subsidised the company’s operations by over £2m a day in 2020 and 2017 according to Biofuelwatch.
Fails on every count
The NRDC’s Sasha Stashwick recently told The Canary that there are three key things the world needs prioritise to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. They are:
Quickly ceasing to load the atmosphere with carbon.
Transitioning to real sources of renewable energy.
Protecting nature.
Doing the latter will both stem biodiversity loss and help to store carbon.
Despite its ‘neutral’ and ‘negative’ promises, bioenergy doesn’t appear to assist in any of these goals. In fact, on most counts, it seems to be making matters worse.
New research suggests that a tree-burning power plant, which the UK heavily subsidises and categorises as ‘clean energy’, is the country’s biggest emitter of carbon pollution.
According to climate and energy thinktank Ember, Drax power station in North Yorkshire is the country’s biggest single source of CO2 emissions. Moreover, it claims that Drax is among the top three coal plant emitters in the whole of the EU.
Biomass giant
Drax used to be an exclusively coal-fired plant. In the last couple of decades, however, it has switched a number of its units to burn biomass – namely wood – rather than coal. People in the UK pay a levy on fuel bills, massive subsidies from which go towards propping up the plant. And it’s now expanded, becoming the second largest manufacturer of its main feedstock – wood pellets – for producing bioenergy.
According to Ember, with its biomass and coal energy production combined, Drax was the third biggest coal plant emitter of CO2 in the EU in 2020. Its CO2 emissions totalled 14.8 million tonnes (Mt), with 13.3Mt coming from bioenergy. The think tank also calculated that the plant was the EU’s fourth largest power plant emitter of PM10 in 2019. This is particulate matter that is below 10 micrometers in diameter. It’s a pollutant that can contain toxins and impact human health, particularly among vulnerable people.
A Drax spokesperson said that Ember’s figures were:
completely at odds with what the world’s leading climate scientists at the UN IPCC say about sustainable biomass being crucial to delivering global climate targets
A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesperson commented that the department “did not recognise” the figures.
Carbon neutral?
The Conservative government, and seemingly Labour too, accept the idea that biomass energy is carbon neutral. Globally, a number of policymakers and institutions also appear to endorse the premise. Its alleged carbon neutrality centers around the notion that we can plant further trees to replace the trees cut down for burning.
Trees store carbon, which is released when companies like Drax burn them. Ember points out that wood has a “lower energy density” than fossil fuels like coal. It says this means companies have to burn it “in higher volumes than coal to produce the same amount of energy”. As such, wood emits more carbon per unit of electricity than coal.
Because we can, in theory, plant further trees that will suck that carbon back out of the atmosphere, the fuel has attracted the ‘neutral’ characterisation. However, trees take time to grow and store carbon. Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which is part of the Cut Carbon Not Forests coalition, asserts that Drax and others in the business “routinely” source wood from whole and mature trees.
So bioenergy appears to be driving the destruction of longstanding, carbon-holding forests. And its ‘neutrality’ is based on the assumption that at some point newly planted trees will be capable of storing that carbon instead.
Other issues
In short, the timelines don’t stack up in terms of the carbon accounting. Indeed, hundreds of scientists voiced their opposition to bioenergy in an open letter earlier in 2021 due to its contribution to global warming, among other things. Moreover, the European Academies Science Advisory Council has also pointed out that oftentimes:
the type of forest biomass harvested and its use causes harm to biodiversity while also failing to deliver climate benefits
A study released in July, meanwhile, asserted that in relation to water and irrigation, growing biomass at scale for burning cannot be achieved sustainably.
Drax also aims to develop the ability to capture and store the carbon produced in its burning of biomass. This is known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and it will be largely funded by UK consumers. Drax says this would make the fuel carbon negative rather than carbon neutral. But efforts to capture and store carbon (CCS) around the world so far haven’t inspired confidence in CCS as a viable, smooth, or secure route towards cleaner energy or a cooler world.
Despite all these issues, the UK government counts Drax’s bioenergy as a renewable – and therefore ‘clean’ – energy source. So it doesn’t count emissions from bioenergy in its CO2 totals. Meanwhile it does count bioenergy in its totals for renewable energy production. Bioenergy amounts for around 30% of the UK’s renewable energy. This means that, overall, bioenergy production reflects well on the government’s climate record, not badly, despite not being very ‘clean’ or sustainable.
The government also subsidised the company’s operations by over £2m a day in 2020 and 2017 according to Biofuelwatch.
Fails on every count
The NRDC’s Sasha Stashwick recently told The Canary that there are three key things the world needs prioritise to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. They are:
Quickly ceasing to load the atmosphere with carbon.
Transitioning to real sources of renewable energy.
Protecting nature.
Doing the latter will both stem biodiversity loss and help to store carbon.
Despite its ‘neutral’ and ‘negative’ promises, bioenergy doesn’t appear to assist in any of these goals. In fact, on most counts, it seems to be making matters worse.
Boris Johnson did not understand his own Brexit deal, says Dominic Cummings
Boris Johnson never understood what his Withdrawal Agreement with the EU really meant, his former chief adviser has said in a series of typically rambling tweets.
“Babbling”
Dominic Cummings said that he had always intended to get “the trolley” – his derogatory nickname for the prime minister – to “ditch the bits we didn’t like” after beating Labour in the 2019 general election.
His latest intervention came after Brexit minister lord David Frost set out the UK’s demands for fundamental changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol contained in the agreement which Johnson signed in January 2020.
Dominic Cummings said that he had always intended to get “the trolley” – his derogatory nickname for the prime minister – to “ditch the bits we didn’t like” after beating Labour in the 2019 general election.
His latest intervention came after Brexit minister lord David Frost set out the UK’s demands for fundamental changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol contained in the agreement which Johnson signed in January 2020.
Cummings said:
What I’ve said does NOT mean ‘the PM was lying in General Election 2019’, he never had a scoobydoo what the deal he signed meant.
He never understood what leaving Customs Union meant until November 2020.
When the prime minister did finally comprehend, “he was babbling ‘I’d never have signed it if I’d understood it’ (but that WAS a lie)”.
Cummings, who was credited with masterminding the successful Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum, said that, when Johnson entered No 10 in 2019, the country was facing the “worst constitutional crisis in a century” with much of what he called the “deep state” angling for “Bino” (Brexit in name only) or a second referendum.
International law
Cummings also argued that “getting Brexit done” was more of a priority than allegedly breaking international law:
Our priorities meant e.g. getting Brexit done is 10,000 times more important than lawyers yapping re international law in negotiations with people who break international law all the time
EU membership infantilised SW1 (Westminster) as yapping re ‘international law’ clearly shows.
Until November 2020, Cummings was the most senior adviser in the country. Johnson defended the man many times before eventually dropping him. Former PM David Cameron once described Cummings as a “career psychopath”.
Our priorities meant e.g. getting Brexit done is 10,000 times more important than lawyers yapping re international law in negotiations with people who break international law all the time
EU membership infantilised SW1 (Westminster) as yapping re ‘international law’ clearly shows.
Until November 2020, Cummings was the most senior adviser in the country. Johnson defended the man many times before eventually dropping him. Former PM David Cameron once described Cummings as a “career psychopath”.
Countries failing to protect forests, 7 years after New York declaration
Of the 32 biggest forest nations, only India has set an ambitious tree planting target and others are falling far short, according to analysis of their latest climate pledges
Published on 12/10/2021
Forest cleared for palm oil plantation, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
Forest cleared for palm oil plantation, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
(Photo: Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR/Flickr)
By Isabelle Gerretsen
Seven years after a major international pact to halt deforestation by 2030, most governments are not translating that ambition into domestic policy.
In 2014, more than 200 governments, companies, civil society and indigenous organisations signed up to the New York Declaration on Forests, promising to halve tropical deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030.
A progress report on the declaration found that a majority of forest nations have not embedded those goals in their latest climate pledges to the UN.
The report analysed the climate plans of the 32 countries with the greatest potential to reduce carbon emissions through three activities: curbing deforestation, improving forest management and restoring or planting new forests. Twelve of the 32 had signed up to the NY declaration. Just 10, including Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, set explicit targets for forest protection.
“We found that they cover approximately half of the [combined mitigation] potential with their ambition. If we take out India, which has a very ambitious target for tree planting, it’s only 16%,” Franziska Haupt, lead author of the report and managing partner at Climate Focus, told Climate Home News. India has pledged to increase its forest cover by 95 million hectares by 2030.
Green Climate Fund: Board fights over net zero condition for accessing finance
There have been some successful policies, such as moratoria on timber exports and palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Laos, but much bolder reforms are needed to prevent further forest loss, the report says.
“It is clear that all these positive steps have not been able to curb the powerful drivers of unsustainable land use,” said Haupt. In several countries, such as Brazil and Peru, the government has rolled back environmental safeguards and monitoring in recent years, leading to an increase in deforestation, she added.
Land use change, including deforestation and degradation, accounts for around 10-12% of global emissions, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Around 12.2 million hectares of tropical forests were lost in 2020, an increase of 12% compared to the previous year, according to data from the University of Maryland and Global Forest Watch.
“Forests have not been recognised for their potential. They offer an essential climate solution, we cannot miss them. That has not really arrived in mainstream policymaking,” said Haupt.
Between 2001-2020, forests removed up to 7.35 gigatonnes of CO2 a year from the atmosphere, according to the report. Forests managed by indigenous communities in Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia are net carbon sinks and can play a key role in helping these countries meet their climate goals, it says.
UAE sets net zero by 2050 target, promises renewable investments
One major obstacle to ramping up global forest protection is the lack of finance, said Haupt.
Since 2010, countries have spent an average of $2.4 billion a year on national and international forest and climate goals. That is between 0.5%-5% of what is needed to protect and restore forests, estimated to be as high as $460 billion per year. Around a quarter of the 32 countries analysed say that their forest targets can only be met if they have access to international finance.
“Forests offer the third highest mitigation potential, after the industry and energy sectors, yet they receive only a fraction of climate finance,” Haupt told Climate Home. “In 2017 and 2018 the land use sector – including forests and agriculture – received only 21 billion annually in public and private climate finance. The energy sector received 16 times as much.”
“When it comes to protecting forests, there is a yawning gap between where governments are and where they need to be. We won’t tackle climate change without looking after forests and the people who depend on them,” said Allison Hoare, senior research fellow on forest governance at Chatham House.
“We have the solutions to tackle deforestation, but they are still not being implemented at scale. Land use decisions are often made by the elite who prioritise short-term economic interests,” said Hoare, adding that forest-dependent communities must be included in consultation processes.
By Isabelle Gerretsen
Seven years after a major international pact to halt deforestation by 2030, most governments are not translating that ambition into domestic policy.
In 2014, more than 200 governments, companies, civil society and indigenous organisations signed up to the New York Declaration on Forests, promising to halve tropical deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030.
A progress report on the declaration found that a majority of forest nations have not embedded those goals in their latest climate pledges to the UN.
The report analysed the climate plans of the 32 countries with the greatest potential to reduce carbon emissions through three activities: curbing deforestation, improving forest management and restoring or planting new forests. Twelve of the 32 had signed up to the NY declaration. Just 10, including Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, set explicit targets for forest protection.
“We found that they cover approximately half of the [combined mitigation] potential with their ambition. If we take out India, which has a very ambitious target for tree planting, it’s only 16%,” Franziska Haupt, lead author of the report and managing partner at Climate Focus, told Climate Home News. India has pledged to increase its forest cover by 95 million hectares by 2030.
Green Climate Fund: Board fights over net zero condition for accessing finance
There have been some successful policies, such as moratoria on timber exports and palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Laos, but much bolder reforms are needed to prevent further forest loss, the report says.
“It is clear that all these positive steps have not been able to curb the powerful drivers of unsustainable land use,” said Haupt. In several countries, such as Brazil and Peru, the government has rolled back environmental safeguards and monitoring in recent years, leading to an increase in deforestation, she added.
Land use change, including deforestation and degradation, accounts for around 10-12% of global emissions, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Around 12.2 million hectares of tropical forests were lost in 2020, an increase of 12% compared to the previous year, according to data from the University of Maryland and Global Forest Watch.
“Forests have not been recognised for their potential. They offer an essential climate solution, we cannot miss them. That has not really arrived in mainstream policymaking,” said Haupt.
Between 2001-2020, forests removed up to 7.35 gigatonnes of CO2 a year from the atmosphere, according to the report. Forests managed by indigenous communities in Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia are net carbon sinks and can play a key role in helping these countries meet their climate goals, it says.
UAE sets net zero by 2050 target, promises renewable investments
One major obstacle to ramping up global forest protection is the lack of finance, said Haupt.
Since 2010, countries have spent an average of $2.4 billion a year on national and international forest and climate goals. That is between 0.5%-5% of what is needed to protect and restore forests, estimated to be as high as $460 billion per year. Around a quarter of the 32 countries analysed say that their forest targets can only be met if they have access to international finance.
“Forests offer the third highest mitigation potential, after the industry and energy sectors, yet they receive only a fraction of climate finance,” Haupt told Climate Home. “In 2017 and 2018 the land use sector – including forests and agriculture – received only 21 billion annually in public and private climate finance. The energy sector received 16 times as much.”
“When it comes to protecting forests, there is a yawning gap between where governments are and where they need to be. We won’t tackle climate change without looking after forests and the people who depend on them,” said Allison Hoare, senior research fellow on forest governance at Chatham House.
“We have the solutions to tackle deforestation, but they are still not being implemented at scale. Land use decisions are often made by the elite who prioritise short-term economic interests,” said Hoare, adding that forest-dependent communities must be included in consultation processes.
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