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Canada's investment in the UAE triples to $6.8bn since pandemic as ties deepen

Bilateral trade is expected to rise to a record this year, surpassing highs achieved in 2022, Canadian consul general in Dubai says


Canada's consul general in Dubai, Jean-Philippe Linteau, expects DP World to continue boosting its investments in Canadian ports. Antonie Robertson / The National


Sarmad Khan
Jun 26, 2023

Canadian investors have put C$9 billion ($6.8 billion) into UAE entities in the past two years – almost tripling the previous investment figure, Canada’s consul general in Dubai has said.

This is expected to grow further as the countries deepen trade and economic ties, the official said.

Investment into the second-largest Arab economy has climbed from C$3.1 billion in 2020, driven by the UAE’s status as one of the region’s fastest growing economic, commercial and trading hubs.

“Since the pandemic, Canadian Investment into the UAE has tripled,” Jean-Philippe Linteau told The National in an interview.

“My expectation is to continue to see it growing based on the excellent economic fundamentals and welcoming environment that the UAE offers to Canadian investors.”

Investors are looking for places that are friendly to foreign capital and the UAE certainly ranks among the top of those global centres, he said.

“There's all kinds of turbulence in the world economy and this is a haven of stability, and on that basis, I expect investments to continue to grow.”

Among major Canadian investors is pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ), which has invested $5 billion in three of DP World's UAE assets – Jebel Ali Port, the Jebel Ali Free Zone and the National Industries Park.

The Montreal-based fund is taking a 22 per cent stake in the three Dubai-based assets through a new joint venture with DP World. CDPQ will invest $2.5 billion while the remainder of the transaction will be financed by debt.

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The deal made Canada “the most important investor in Dubai in 2022”, accounting for 41 per cent of foreign direct investment inflow to the emirate, Mr Linteau said.

Brookfield Asset Management is another investor that has acquired UAE-based financial services assets as part of its Middle East expansion push.

Earlier this month, it signed an agreement to acquire payments-processing company Network International for £2.2 billion ($2.76 billion). Brookfield, which took a 60 per cent stake in First Abu Dhabi Bank’s payments business Magnati last year in a $2.76 billion deal, is combining Magnati and Network International to create the biggest payments firm in Middle East and Africa.

Mr Linteau, who is taking over as Canada’s ambassador in Saudi Arabia next month, expects the scale of investments to expand further, with growing interest from Canadian companies in UAE's sustainability, decarbonisation and energy transition sectors.

“The UAE is making a big push to decarbonise its economy to grow its non-oil industrial manufacturing sector. These are areas where we're going to see more investments, [especially] clean technologies to reduce the carbon footprint,” he said.

Both Canada and the UAE are “resource intensive economies” that are looking to reach net zero by 2050 and the commonality of their goals is also a driver of investments.

“It's only natural that we would work together to reach that goal,” he said.

“We [already] see Canadian firms here that are actively working within the oil and gas sector” bringing sustainability, clean energy and energy efficiency technologies to the industry, he added.

The UAE's hosting of the Cop28 summit this year in Dubai has also opened up new avenues of investment for Canadian companies and while it's difficult to give specific numbers, “we're definitely seeing a lot of interest”, Mr Linteau said.

Sustainability is a theme so “watch for announcements between now and then”, he added.

The UAE’s economic rebound from the pandemic-driven slowdown, the continued non-oil economic growth momentum and its position as a regional hub is an added attraction for Canadian investors.

The country's economy posted about 7.6 per cent gross domestic growth last year, the highest in 11 years, after expanding 3.9 per cent in 2021. It is projected to grow 3.3 per cent in 2023 and 4.3 per cent in 2024, according to the latest UAE Central Bank data.

“The UAE is the natural jumping point for the region, and this is why for Canadian business, the UAE punches way above its weight,” he said.

Already, more than 150 Canadian businesses are operating in the UAE and some use it as their base for global exports and re-exports.

Canada is the biggest exporter of lentils globally and a number of Canadian companies are importing pulses to the UAE, processing it and then re-exporting it to more than 70 countries, Mr Linteau said.

The Emirates is the 'natural jumping point for the region, and this is why for Canadian business, the UAE punches way above its weight', Mr Linteau said. 

Antonie Robertson / The National

UAE investors are also equally interested in solidifying their presence in Canada, with Abu Dhabi's clean energy company Masdar being the latest to explore investment options in the G7 economy.

“Masdar is interested in projects around green hydrogen and renewable energy all over the world and that's what we hope that we can do in Canada with Masdar,” he said.

“We need players like them that are serious, know what they're doing, and are capable in order to achieve our energy transition goals.”

The aggregate value of the UAE’s investment in Canada has already reached $30 billion, according to the UAE Ministry of the Economy data.

Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) and DP World are among the major UAE investors that hold significant business interests in the Canadian oil and gas and petrochemicals sectors as well the country’s ports infrastructure.

Mubadala holds a stake in petrochemicals producer Novo Chemicals, while DP World has investments in the Ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Nanaimo and Saint John. Taqa holds interests in major upstream oil and gas projects in Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces through its subsidiary Taqa North America.

Mr Linteau expects DP World to continue to boost its investment in Canada as “they're very happy with what they've achieved so far and [we] expect to see them continuing to double down”, he said.

“They have done regular investments both on the east and west coasts.”

Since the pandemic, Canadian investment into the UAE has tripled. My expectation is to continue to see it growing based on the excellent economic fundamentals and welcoming environment that the UAE offers to Canadian investors

Jean-Philippe Linteau, Canada's consul general in Dubai

In April, the two countries launched the Canada-UAE Sovereign Wealth Fund Council, with the aim of exploring investment opportunities for their state-owned funds that have an estimated $3 trillion in assets.

The SWFC is tasked with finding “synergies between Canada and the UAE’s pre-eminent institutional investors to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns”, Canada’s ambassador to the UAE, Kris Panday, said at the time.

“What they [the funds] have in common is that they are among the best in the world at doing what they do and that is deploying capital,” Mr Linteau said.

“What I expect to see is collaborations on sustainability, the green economy and energy transition … and maybe infrastructure as well.

“There are huge opportunities in the Middle East and these funds here know the region very well, much better than the Canadians, so that's another area of interest.”

While investments are on the rise, bilateral trade between the two countries has also increased over the past few years.

Since 2018, the value of bilateral trade has consistently grown, climbing 1.6 per cent year-on-year to C$2.558 billion at the end of 2022. With the value of trade reaching C$994 million in the first four months of this year, it is set to surpass the highs achieved last year.

“We've seen an increase in the trade numbers, as high as it's ever been, and I'm going to make a prediction here that in 2023 it will be the highest ever,” Mr Linteau said.

Last year, the UAE was Canada’s second-largest merchandise trade partner in the Mena region after Saudi Arabia. It was also the biggest Canadian merchandise export market in Mena, with aggregate value of exports reaching C$1.8 billion.

Canada is interested in boosting trade with the UAE further in the long term, potentially through a Comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa).

However, its current focus is to conclude negotiations on a Foreign investment protection agreement (Fipa) with the UAE that will help boost protection for investors in both jurisdictions, he said.

Once it concludes a Fipa deal, which Mr Linteau expects may happen this year, Canada will look at the potential of a broader trade deal with the UAE, which has already signed Cepa agreements with India, Indonesia, Turkey and Israel.

“Canada has free trade agreements with over 50 countries and is the only G7 country that has a trade agreement with all other G7 countries,” he said.

“The UAE is obviously a very attractive economy” with whom it can look at a potential trade deal, however, “in the short term, our priority is to conclude the Fipa”, he added.

'Relentless expansion of Israeli settlements' must end, UN envoy says

Tor Wennesland says he is 'deeply troubled' by advancement of settlement activity

 Buildings under construction in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, north of Ramallah. EPA


Adla Massoud
United Nations
Jun 27, 2023

The UN's special envoy for the Middle East said on Tuesday that Israeli settlements constitute a flagrant breach of international law, as he called for an end to their "relentless expansion".

During the monthly UN Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Tor Wennesland called on Israel to cease the advancement of all settlement activity immediately.

“I remain deeply troubled by the relentless expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, that fuels violence and is impeding access by Palestinians to their land and resources, reshaping the geography of the occupied West Bank and threatening the viability of a future Palestinian state,” said Mr Wennesland.

READ MORE

Ban Ki-moon: Israel's treatment of Palestinians may constitute apartheid

Guterres 'deeply troubled' by Israeli settlement expansion plans

Earlier this month, Israel approved legislation to speed up the construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Weeks of violence have followed the announcement, with Israel launching a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin and Palestinian gunmen killing four settlers at a petrol station near a settlement.


In response to the latter, Israeli settlers engaged in rampages in a number of Palestinian towns and villages, drawing international condemnation. The Israeli government has denounced the attacks, calling them a form of “nationalist terrorism”.

“I welcome today’s calls between senior Israeli and Palestinian officials, on the occasion of Eid Al Adha, in which, according to Israeli statements released to the media, Israel officials denounced recent settler attacks in the West Bank and recommitted to holding perpetrators accountable,” Mr Wennesland said.

But he added that the security deterioration on the ground is “extremely dangerous” and “seriously” undermines the Palestinian Authority.

“The choice is clear: either continue along the downward spiral of violence and provocations leading to a political vacuum; or turn towards constructive dialogue linked to concrete actions that can create hope and a political horizon,” he said.

Israeli army raids Jenin – in pictures














A shoe left after two Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire outside the village of Yabad, near the West Bank city of Jenin. EPA

 Mexico's Lopez Obrador has a farm problem

MEXICO CITY, June 27 (Reuters) - Escalating tensions with farmers may prove a stumbling block for Mexico's ruling party in next year's elections, experts said, as resentment builds over low grains prices, a trade conflict with the U.S., and a perceived lack of government support.

Elections in June 2024 will not only usher in a new president, but dozens of Congressional and Senate seats, as well. Gubernatorial and local municipality positions are up for grabs, too.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party is favored to hold on to presidential power, but the rising conflict with the agriculture sector is emerging as a hurdle which could impact success at state and local levels, experts said.

The fallout is a rare chink in Lopez Obrador's formidable popularity, steadily above 60% throughout his term.

Producers staged dramatic protests this month, shutting down an international airport in Sinaloa to pressure the government to guarantee prices for corn, wheat and sorghum. A drop in international grains prices over the last year is killing their livelihoods, they said.

The most-active corn and wheat contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) have fluctuated but are both down about 21% compared to a year ago, as global supply concerns have eased.

Protests come amid a heated trade dispute with the United States over Lopez Obrador's decree to limit the use of genetically-modified (GM) corn, particularly for human consumption. Nearly all imports come from U.S. suppliers.

Mexico's agri-food sector makes up about 14% of the country's formal workforce, according to Bosco de la Vega, former president of top farm lobby CNA - a hefty chunk of voters, particularly in states like corn capital Sinaloa.

"The sector is not with this government," De la Vega said. "It could be a relevant problem both for the elections and for major conflicts in various cities."

The pricing issue is urgent as northern corn farmers are harvesting now, many with nowhere to sell without taking a loss. For producers fortunate enough to have storage, mountains of grain are sitting in warehouses around the country.

Lopez Obrador, who has prioritized aid to the nation's poor, said protesters are mostly larger producers, not small-scale farmers his government works to help. He publicly decried the protests as "blackmail" and has refused to negotiate with producers.

Farmers are unlikely to be sweet-talked by any of MORENA's main presidential hopefuls - Claudia Sheinbaum, Marcelo Ebrard and Adan Augusto. The three are generally reluctant to challenge the policies of the popular Lopez Obrador, who is limited to one term by Mexican law.

It is not the first time that tensions have heated up between this administration and the agriculture sector. In 2020, clashes between farmers and military police in drought-prone Chihuahua led to the death of a woman during protests over a plan to divert additional water to the U.S.

The country has seen farmer protests under previous governments, but they have escalated under Lopez Obrador.

Many Mexican producers have struggled since the beginning of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, which eliminated tariffs and opened the door for cheaper imports to flow into Mexico from the U.S. and Canada.

SECTOR BENEFITS ERASED

Issues within the sector are affecting producers of all sizes, said Baltazar Valdez, a protest leader and president of the United Farm Workers of Sinaloa who farms less than 10 hectares.

Valdez estimated that commercial agriculture producers represent about 10 million votes.

"I believe that a figure of this size can move the result of an election," he said, adding that many producers used to support the president.

Farmers argue Lopez Obrador's government has eliminated important sector benefits, including loans at beneficial interest rates, which his administration says too often fell into arrears. Other initiatives, like free fertilizer programs or cash handouts, tend to benefit smaller producers.

Segalmex, an agency created by Lopez Obrador which has been the target of multiple corruption accusations, will buy some of the current corn supply above market prices.

Still, many producers are left out of the scheme, especially those farming over 15 hectares, Valdez said.

The issues put Mexican farmers at a disadvantage to weather price falls compared to U.S. producers who receive benefits through a multi-billion dollar farm bill, said Raul Urteaga of consulting group Global Agrotrade Advisors.

"Mexico must design better agriculture subsidy programs, just like many successful producing countries," Urteaga said.

A spokesmen for Lopez Obrador did not respond to a request for comment. The Agriculture Ministry referred questions to the Finance Ministry and agricultural financing agency FIRA, where spokespeople did not comment.

Producers insist they will not be ignored.

"We are going to block all the candidates wherever they arrive. We will make a scene," said farm activist Luz Maria Mendoza.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Nick Zieminski)

Africa: 'Earthing' Not Yet All It's Cracked Up to Be - More Independent Research With Large Samples Needed On the Effects of Walking Barefoot and 'Grounding'

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By Kirsten Cosser

27 JUNE 2023

Africa Check (Johannesburg)

IN SHORT: Walking barefoot and "being in touch with Mother Nature" might have its benefits. But there is little scientific evidence that the concept of "earthing" can heal various diseases.

"Modern shoes making us sick?" asks the headline of a video circulating on social media in June 2023. The video has been viewed over 14,000 times.

It shows clips from a documentary - The Earthing Movie: The Remarkable Science of Grounding - and was also posted on a Facebook page advertising the film.

Similar posts have appeared on Facebook, while one Twitter user wrote: "Yet another way that the modern world is failing our health is the shoe."

In the video clip, someone holds up a synthetic-soled shoe and claims: "This was the single thing that probably caused the proliferation of inflammation-related health disorders far and above anything else."

The idea relates to "grounding" or "earthing", a practice that centres around supposed health benefits of being in direct contact with the ground. We looked into the evidence surrounding this popular wellness trend.

'Earthing' or 'grounding' theory and physics

According to the Earthing Institute, the practice of earthing can heal disease by transferring electrons from the earth's surface to the human body. The therapy falls under the umbrella of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAMs are treatments that generally do not have a scientific basis, and are either used in addition to or instead of conventional medicine.

CAMs often, but not always, claim to be supported by some theory and evidence. Proponents of earthing suggest the therapy works because direct physical contact with the earth's surface, like when walking barefoot, balances electrical charges in the body.

"It's like taking handfuls of antioxidants, but you're getting it through the feet," a narrator in the clip explains.

Chad Orzel wrote about the physics involved in the practice of earthing back in 2014. He's an associate professor in the physics and astronomy department at Union College in the US.

According to Orzel, the theory of grounding proposes that when we don't have contact with the ground, our bodies "pick up a positive charge relative to the Earth", causing illness. But connection to the ground, like being barefoot, equalises this potential difference.

This is important, according to the Earthing Institute, because this process neutralises the damaging "free radicals", unstable molecules in the body that could damage cells and trigger inflammation, causing a range of illnesses.

But Orzel criticised the physics underlying this idea. He said there was no difference between the electrons that come from the earth and electrons that come from a synthetic material you touch. "Electrons are electrons," he said, and if there was a difference, "chemistry would be a mess".

But proponents have responded to such criticisms by saying that "standard scientific models can't account for the details of this transfer". So maybe science just doesn't yet understand the mechanisms of how it works. What about if it works?

Grounding: concrete evidence?

Scientists have conducted limited research on the effects of grounding on human health, with some positive results. For example, some studies suggested earthing could help balance circadian rhythms, the cyclical 24-hour period of biological activity, or could help thin the blood, which might in turn lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

But these studies have been small, and were not placebo-controlled or double-blinded. This means that the placebo effect or other factors could explain these results.

Other research has been more rigorous. Some studies with placebo conditions have suggested grounding could have positive effects including body relaxation, enhanced mood, or reduced muscle damage.

But before you ditch the shoes and buy expensive earthing mats and other products, it is important to note that this research might not be all that water-tight.

These studies have also been conducted on very small samples of people, and were largely funded and conducted by earthing companies and people affiliated with them.

For instance, Gaeten Chevalier, director of the Earthing Institute, authored many of the studies available. There is a need for independent studies, to reduce the chances of anything biassing the results.

There have also been mixed results when studies are replicated. Replication is an important part of scientific research - a study that yields the same results when it is repeated is much more trustworthy than a once-off investigation.

But, for example, a 2010 study found large differences in white blood cell count, signalling inflammation, and pain in earthing versus control groups, but a similar 2015 study found no significant differences.

All in all, there needs to be independent, rigorous research with large samples to test the idea before anything can be concluded about the effects of grounding on human health.

Inflammation, shoes and disease

Inflammation is part of the body's natural immune response to infection or injury. But sometimes inflammation can last for a long time or be triggered when there is no injury or infection. This is when it can be damaging, according to the US-based National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

This damaging inflammation is linked to a range of diseases, like asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, as well as some types of mental illnesses and cancers.

Inflammation can have a variety of causes. Chemicals in the environment, as well as diet, stress, exercise, microbiome imbalances and prenatal conditions all have links to inflammation, according to the NIEHS.

But there is no scientific evidence backing the idea that wearing synthetic-soled shoes, and so not being in direct contact with the ground, "caused the proliferation of inflammation-related health disorders", or is making us sick.

As experts have pointed out, there isn't any convincing theoretical basis for the idea either.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

Victory in Peru as corporations denied right to exploit Indigenous lands

June 27, 2023 

 BY ROGER MCKENZIE

PEOPLES WORLD

Ashaninka Indigenous men, armed with shotguns and bows and arrows, force a truck transporting logs cut down in the Amazon forest to turn back around.

 | Franklin Briceno / AP

Activists welcomed on Saturday the decision by lawmakers to drop plans for a new law labelled a “Genocide Bill” by Peru’s Indigenous people. The bill would have opened up Indigenous lands for industrial exploitation by domestic and foreign capital—particularly for the extraction of lithium, copper, and other precious minerals.

In a dramatic reversal of fortune on Friday, the country’s Decentralization Committee blocked the law, which had been drafted by politicians with close ties to the powerful oil and gas industry.

Teresa Mayo of Survival International described this as “a huge victory for Peru’s Indigenous peoples, their organizations, and for thousands of ordinary people around the world who had joined the campaign against the proposals.”

Related Stories:

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> Indigenous rebellion continues as post-coup Peruvian government flounders

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Indigenous organizations in Peru, such as the Inter-ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP) and the Regional Organisation of the Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO), had lobbied intensively to stop the bill, and more than 13,000 Survival supporters had written to the committee, urging them to block it.

Tabea Casique of AIDESEP said: “The scrapping of the draft bill protects our uncontacted relatives, their rights, and their lives, and avoids the genocide and ecocide that it would have unleashed.”

Roberto Tafur of ORPIO said his organization intended to “continue fighting for our brothers and sisters in the jungle, who don’t know that we’re fighting for them.”

Morning Star

Haiti power broker sanctioned by Canada says his blacklisting will cost thousands of jobs

Jacqueline Charles
Tue, June 27, 2023 

DANIEL MOREL/AP


A prominent Haitian power broker says a decision by Canada to impose sanctions on him “is a serious blow” to his efforts to help bring jobs and social development to one of Haiti’s more neglected regions.

Andre “Andy” Apaid also said it’s incomprehensible that he would be placed “on a list of sanctioned individuals accused of ‘human rights violations, including sexual violence.’ ”

“I categorically reject all accusations and suspicions of contributing to the climate of insecurity or corruption,” Apaid said, asking Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly to “verify her sources and the facts.”

Last week, while attending the General Assembly of the Organization of American States in Washington, Joly announced that Ottawa had imposed sanctions against Apaid and three well-known gang leaders, two of whom were involved in the abductions of 17 American and Canadian Christian missionaries in the fall of 2021. As with previous sanctions, she did not give specifics on why the people were blacklisted. The sanctions bans an individual from traveling to Canada and freezes any assets one may hold in the country.

Haitian banks, fearful of losing correspondent banking relationships with U.S. and Canadian banks, have responded to sanctions by closing accounts, making it difficult for individuals to do business in Haiti.

READ MORE: How U.S. sanctions turn people into ‘economic pariahs’ and why some call it a civil death

Apaid, a U.S. citizen who has enjoyed both warm and contentious relations with various Haitian leaders over the years, said the decision by Canada has serious repercussions on his business dealings, including an ambitious agricultural project he’s launching in Haiti’s Central Plateau region with foreign partners.

“I am a dedicated Haitian-American citizen who strongly supports a peaceful resolution to the serious crisis our country is facing. This is well known among political and civil society members,” he said.

Apaid is the latest member of Haiti’s business and political elite to push back on the sanctions designations, which so far have been issued by Canada, the United States and the Dominican Republic after the United Nations last year voted unanimously to clamp down on illicit arms sales and violent criminal armed groups in Haiti.

The U.N., which sanctioned former cop-turned-gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, has a team investigating who it will add to its list, including individuals already blacklisted by other foreign governments. The European Union is also expected to begin issuing sanctions soon.

While the sanctions policies have elicited fear in Haiti, they have also raised questions about how far foreign governments are willing to go to target members of Haitian society and where are they willing to draw the line in a country where businesses have survived because of extortion payments and ties to gangs. Questions have also been raised about how countries choose who they sanction.

For example, a sanctions list put out by the Dominican Republic is controversial because of who is included and who is not, and privately some diplomats don’t give it much credence.

In the case of Canada, the lack of details about what individuals are accused of, has raised concerns in diplomatic circles. The Canadian government has been asked to provide more details but so far has rejected the request.

Instead, Ottawa has criticized other countries, including the United States, for not following its aggressive approach to target individuals involved in corruption and fanning instability in Haiti.

U.S. State Department officials, who have been criticized for the lack of business people on the American list, have said they remain committed to issuing tough financial sanctions.

A longtime industrialist, Apaid rose to prominence in the early 2000s as the leader of the civil society organization known as Group 184, which launched a social movement and organized in opposition to Jean-Bertrand Aristide when he was president.

In a press statement, Apaid said that with the exception of current Canadian ambassador to Haiti, Sébastien Carrière, whom he has not met, “almost all of Canada’s ambassadors since 2004…have witnessed my efforts and contributions” to persuade gangs to disarm.

“As a team, including human rights advocates, religious leaders, and credible and courageous individuals from civil society, we have made four attempts to persuade gangs to participate in a disarmament process,” he said.

As a businessman, Apaid said, he has worked tirelessly to create tens of thousands of jobs in Haiti despite the challenges. He and his family, which operates a factory, adhere “to a strict and courageous policy” of not providing money or goods to armed groups, he said. “This commitment came with enormous risks for our collaborators and my sons.”

Apaid is currently involved in a major agricultural project in the Central Plateau to benefit farmers and inhabitants of the region. It is being carried out on land belonging to the Déjoie family that was confiscated in 1957 and handed over to the Haitian government. Under a deal with former President Jovenel Moïse, Apaid now has control of the land and says his project will create more than 20,000 jobs over seven years.

The project includes donations of land to farmers, a high school and a public market financed by the World Bank in Saint-Michel-de-l’Attalaye. The plan also includes a construction school with scholarships for 250 individuals.

“The announcement of this incomprehensible measure by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada will harm the development of this project, of expected jobs and will deepen the suffering of the most vulnerable,” Apaid said. “Unfortunately, this is a serious blow to the job creation and social efforts that motivate us.”

 

Myanmar military kills 17 People's Defense Force members

Troops also killed 3 civilians and burned homes in the Sagaing region raid, locals said.

By RFA Burmese
2023.06.27

The People’s Defense Force camp near Kin Taw village, Sagaing township, Sagaing region that was raided by junta troops on June 25, 2023.

 Citizen journalist

Junta troops killed 20 people in a raid on a People’s Defense Force camp in Sagaing region and neighboring villages, locals and a militia official told RFA Tuesday.

A column of around 50 troops raided the camp east of Kin Taw village in Sagaing township on Sunday morning.

They killed 17 defense force members, according to a leader of the local PDF.

“The junta troops came by boat and raided the camp early in the morning … when there were no guards, and all the PDF members were killed,” the leader, who declined to be named, told RFA.

He added that the 14 men and three women aged between 20 and 30 had been tortured, with their faces disfigured.

A Sagaing resident, who did not want to be named for security reasons, confirmed to RFA that the temporary camp was raided and 17 bodies were found near the camp and on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River. 

He said three civilians were also shot dead at their homes when the junta raided nearby villages in the township.

The three men killed were 37-year-old Myint Kyaw Thu and 50-year-old Maung San from Kin Taw village, and 69-year-old Pauk Sa from Myin Se village. 

The local said that Pauk Sa’s wife is also missing and a 50-year-old man is suffering from gunshot wounds.

Nearly 100 houses were burned down when neighboring Let Pan Taw village was also raided on Sunday, according to locals.

Calls to the junta spokesperson for Sagaing region, Aye Hlaing, went unanswered. 

On Tuesday junta-controlled newspapers confirmed the raid on PDF camps near Kin Taw and U Yin villages, saying15 guns and ammunition were seized.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

Air pollution: Environment Committee MEPs push for tougher rules


Stricter 2030 limits for several pollutants compared to Commission proposal

Air quality indices across Europe to be harmonised

EU countries must prepare air quality roadmaps

Around 300.000 premature deaths per year in the EU due to air pollution


Parliament’s Environment Committee today adopted its position to improve air quality in the EU to create a cleaner and healthier environment.

The report, adopted with 46 votes in favour, 41 against and 1 abstention, sets stricter 2030 limit and target values for several pollutants including particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), SO2 (sulphur dioxide) and O3 (ozone) to ensure that air quality in the EU is not harmful to human health, natural ecosystems and biodiversity (CA 1, 1). MEPs also say that upcoming reviews of this directive shall ensure full and continuous alignment with the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines.

More air quality sampling points

The Environment Committee underlines the need to increase the number of air quality sampling points. In locations where high ultrafine particles (UFP), black carbon, mercury and ammonia (NH3) concentrations are likely to occur there should be one sampling point per one million inhabitants, higher than the Commission’s originally proposed one per five million and then only for UFP. (CA6) In urban areas, there should be at least one monitoring supersite representative of the exposure of the general urban population per two million inhabitants compared to the one per 10 million proposed by the Commission. (CA9)

Better information to citizens

MEPs want to harmonise currently-fragmented and unintuitive air quality indices covering sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and ozone across the EU.

Indices must be clear, publically available and with hourly updates so citizens can protect themselves during high levels of air pollution (and before alert thresholds are reached). (CA13) They shall be accompanied by information about symptoms associated with air pollution peaks (page 99) and the associated health risks for each pollutant, including information tailored to vulnerable groups.

Air quality plans and roadmaps

MEPs propose that in addition to air quality plans, which are required when EU countries exceed limits, all member states would also have to create air quality roadmaps that set out short- and long-term measures in order to comply with the new limit values.

Quote

After the vote, rapporteur Javi López (S&D, ES) said: “Addressing air pollution in Europe demands immediate action. This slow-motion pandemic takes a devastating toll in our society, leading to premature deaths and a multitude of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. We must follow science and align our air quality standards with WHO guidelines and re-inforce some of the provisions in this directive. We need to be ambitious to safeguard the well-being of our citizens and create a cleaner, healthier environment.”

Next steps

Parliament is scheduled to adopt its mandate during the 10-13 July 2023 plenary session. Once Council has adopted its position, negotiations on the final shape of the law can start.

Background

Air pollution continues to be the number one environmental cause of early death in the EU with around 300.000 premature deaths per year with the most harmful being particulate matter, NO₂ and ozone (O₃), according to the EEA. In October 2022, the Commission proposed a revision of the EU air quality rules with more ambitious targets for 2030 to achieve the zero pollution objective by 2050 in line with the Zero Pollution Action Plan.

Lula Faces Powerful Opposition as He Seeks To Protect the Amazon and Recognize Indigenous Rights

Brazil’s president is determined to save his country’s rainforest but agribusiness and its political supporters stand in his way

Farai Shawn MatiasheFarai Shawn Matiashe is an award-winning journalist based in Mutare, Zimbabwe

June 27, 2023

Brazil’s President Lula (right) and Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara (left) attend a ceremony in Brasilia on April 28, 2023. (Andressa Anholete/Getty Images)

Surrounded by thousands of supporters, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (known simply as “Lula”) was sworn into office on Jan. 1, 2023, at a colorful inauguration ceremony held at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. It was not Lula’s first time assuming the highest office of Latin America’s largest country. He was first sworn in two decades ago and served two terms as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010. The 67-year-old is a true veteran of Brazilian politics: He was the presidential candidate of the leftist Workers’ Party in 1989, 1994 and 1998, losing each time. In the October 2022 elections, he narrowly defeated the right-wing populist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, with 50.9% of the vote.

In his third term as president, Lula faces the formidable task of uniting a deeply polarized Brazilian society. Bolsonaro, a close ally of Donald Trump, did not attend the traditional handover of the presidential sash to his successor. Instead, he repaired to Florida after his defeat and sat out the inauguration. Just a week after Lula assumed the presidency, pro-Bolsonaro militants stormed the Congress in Brasilia in a manner reminiscent of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

During his campaign, Lula promised to combat deforestation in the Amazon, which worsened under Bolsonaro’s presidency. Brazil is home to nearly 60% of the Amazon, the largest tropical rainforest on the planet. (The remainder is shared by eight other South American nations, principally Peru and Colombia.) Bolsonaro, a consistent defender of Brazil’s powerful agricultural industry, backed farm and ranching expansion in the Amazon.

Lula hit the ground running by appointing the longtime environmentalist Marina Silva as his environment and climate change minister. Silva’s mission is to rebuild Brazil’s environmental protection agencies and stanch the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Lula also appointed the first-ever Indigenous woman elected to Brazil’s Congress, Joenia Wapichana, as leader of the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, popularly known as FUNAI.

This is a landmark achievement for Brazil’s Indigenous communities, which Bolsonaro went out of his way to antagonize — slashing FUNAI’s budget, cutting its staff and crippling its authority after he assumed the presidency in 2019. Vanda Witoto, an Indigenous leader and activist who in 2022 ran for federal deputy for the state of Amazonas (as a candidate of the Sustainability Network, an environmentalist party in Brazil), took to Twitter to voice her joy. FUNAI will be “chaired by an Indigenous woman for the first time in history,” she tweeted. “We trust you, [Wapichana].”

The Bolsonaro administration’s policies threatened the existence of many Indigenous communities within Brazil’s Amazon region. One youth activist fled his home in an Amazonian Indigenous community out of fear for his life, following his tribe’s resistance to the incursion of an agribusiness firm. “They killed two of my friends. I had to run away,” he tells New Lines, speaking in Portuguese through a translator.

The Indigenous activist, who preferred not to be named for security reasons, is now seeking refuge in Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, where he is continuing his university education. “Our territory is wanted by the government. They want it for timber logging and cattle ranching. My people have been receiving threats,” he says. “I am fighting to protect our land. I am here on the front line. I am in fear. I don’t even know if I am going back there or not.” He says all the companies threatening his community and exporting timber should be investigated and held accountable for the crimes they are committing.

The lives of Indigenous community activists and leaders have been under threat throughout the Amazon. In 2020 alone, more than 260 human rights defenders were murdered in Latin America, 202 of them in countries of the Amazon Basin, with Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia representing 77% of the cases, according to a report by the Confederation of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, known as COICA. Roughly 69% of those murders were against leaders working to defend the territory, environment and rights of Indigenous peoples.

Brazil and Bolivia are responsible for close to 90% of deforestation and degradation in the Amazon, according to “Amazonia Against the Clock,” a September 2022 report by scientists from the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information, in collaboration with COICA. According to the report, agribusiness is responsible for 84% of deforestation in the region, and the amount of land given over to farming has tripled since 1985. Indigenous organizations are calling for a global pact for the permanent protection of 80% of the Amazon rainforest by 2025.

The rainforest plays a significant role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which reduces the effects of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions from around the world. There are over 390 billion trees in the Amazon, helping it to retain some 123 billion tons of carbon dioxide. But over the years, increasing deforestation and land degradation have impeded the forest’s absorption of carbon dioxide and contributed to global warming through both human-caused and natural fires.

The Amazon has also been experiencing droughts and floods. In thick, untouched forests like the one where Camp 41 (a unit of the Thomas Lovejoy Amazon Biodiversity Center) is located, scientists are noticing changes, such as the decline of insect and bird species. Mario Cohn-Haft, a researcher from the National Institute of Amazonian Research, which is funded by Brazil’s federal government, says that on his patrols in the forest he is observing the decline of some sensitive species, and climate change cannot be ruled out as a cause. Cohn-Haft is a research ornithologist and curator of birds who has spent decades conducting studies in this part of the Amazon, which has not yet been devastated by human activities such as mining, agriculture or logging.

Another activist based in Manaus, whose life is in danger from powerful people and who preferred not to be named for security reasons, says that deforestation in the Amazon worsened under Bolsonaro. “He reduced the number of protected areas in the Amazon. He weakened the laws that protect the forest.” During Bolsonaro’s presidency, this activist explains, the rates of deforestation and biodiversity loss increased, while incursions into Indigenous communities in the Amazon rose. Agribusinesses and extractive industries also used pesticides and chemicals that have contaminated bodies of water in the rainforest, putting the lives of many people and animals in danger.

Rafael Ioris, a historian of modern Brazil who teaches at the University of Denver, tells New Lines that, while the Amazon rainforest has been under attack for a long time, Bolsonaro exacerbated the process and reversed the progress made during Lula’s presidency in the 2000s. “The process of exploitative occupation of the Amazon regions dates back decades, but it was accelerated from the 1970s and 1980s, all the way into the agriculture expansion of the last 25 years,” says Ioris, who is also a co-editor of the recent book “Frontiers of Development in the Amazon: Riches, Risks, and Resistances.”

“Under Lula’s first time in power,” Ioris says, “significant rates of reduction of deforestation were seen, but this trend was reversed dramatically under Bolsonaro, who incentivized illegal logging and mining even into protected areas of Indigenous lands.”

Indigenous leader and activist Vanda Witoto at her home in Manaus, capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, in October 2022. (Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation)

Ioris says this motivated Indigenous leaders, including many women in public positions, to resist by calling the attention of domestic and international audiences to the crimes being committed by loggers, miners and farmers under Bolsonaro’s push for massive and unregulated occupation of the Amazon. Vanda Witoto, the Indigenous leader, says that multinational companies and agribusinesses were funding illegal operations such as logging in the Amazon during the Bolsonaro era.

“I visited some communities in the Amazon. There was illegal gold mining. Sadly there is less reporting because the locals are being threatened. Big companies are investing a lot in illegal mining and deforestation in the southern part of the Amazon,” says Witoto, lowering her voice and holding back her tears during an interview at her home in the neighborhood of Parque das Tribos just outside Manaus.

“I saw this with my own eyes,” Witoto continues, noting that poverty and unemployment push many Indigenous people into working for these companies. “We are against this. We have always been fighting to stop it.”

Adriano Karipuna, who represents the Karipuna people, an Indigenous group that has inhabited the Amazon rainforest for centuries, explains that law enforcement agents in the Bolsonaro administration did nothing to stop loggers and miners from committing crimes against his community. “Our people have been struggling with deforestation. We have been reporting for the past years. But it worsened under Bolsonaro,” he says.

“We have been receiving threats. Bolsonaro’s government [took] our land and [donated] it to the invaders. We reported this to Geneva and the United Nations General Assembly. Environmental criminals are going unpunished,” he continues. Karipuna says the group even filed a petition at the German Embassy in Brazil to help push Bolsonaro’s government to protect the Amazon forest.

Witoto says Bolsonaro’s Amazon policies turned the clock back to the 1970s. “It was nothing but promises. Many Indigenous people lost their lives; they were killed because they were simply Indigenous people,” she says.

Indigenous people have a central role to play in safeguarding the Amazon rainforest. According to the “Amazonia Against the Clock” report, Indigenous territories and protected areas represent nearly half the Amazon. About 86% of deforestation has taken place outside these areas. Amazonia is home to at least 16,000 tree species and Indigenous peoples safeguard 80% of the world’s biodiversity, according to data cited in Australia’s newly released “State of the Environment” report.

Lula made environmental issues central to his campaign against Bolsonaro. In June 2022, he published a political plan outlining how his government would preserve the environment through his commitment to the “relentless fight against illegal deforestation” and the restoration of degraded areas to achieve “net zero deforestation.”

Lula pledged to revive the Amazon Fund set up in 2008, a project that is critical to the protection of the rainforest but that Bolsonaro set aside during his four years as president. On his first day in office in January, Lula reinstated the $1.2 billion fund. Norway and Germany, the biggest donors to the fund, had pulled out in 2019, citing Bolsonaro’s rampant deforestation policies.

Ioris says the challenge of turning things around in the Amazon is immense, but Lula has appointed knowledgeable people to important positions, such as Marina Silva as his environment and climate change minister and Sonia Guajajara, an Indigenous and environmental activist, who was named the head of the newly established Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. This body was created on the same day Lula declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami Indigenous peoples. Reports show that, under Bolosonaro’s government, there was a rise in the number of children dying of diseases caused by toxic chemicals from illegal mining in the Yanomami rainforest reserve in northern Brazil, which stretches across the states of Roraima and Amazonas and is home to about 30,000 Indigenous people.

“They will need to rebuild the government’s environmental protection agencies that were dismantled under Bolsonaro. And in this task, they will also need support from international actors, such as the Amazon Fund from European countries that promised to help fund new protective initiatives,” Ioris says. He adds that Lula’s government will need to be bold to face powerful economic interests that favor continuing to explore the Amazon forest in an unsustainable way.

Witoto says she is hopeful that the predicament of Indigenous people will change under Lula’s regime. “Our hopes are in Lula. He supports the rights of Indigenous peoples. I believe he will put in place policies that protect us,” the activist tells New Lines. According to a joint study by researchers at the University of Oxford, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the National Institute for Space Research, deforestation could fall by 89% by 2030 if Lula reinstates the policies introduced during his first term in office, which would save 28,957 square miles of the Amazon rainforest. Yet he faces an enormous challenge: to empower environmental agencies and Indigenous communities that safeguard the Amazon, while resisting powerful multinational companies operating in the tropical rainforest.

In March, lawmakers approved Bill 490, which limits the recognition of new Indigenous territories and threatens to reverse Lula’s measures to protect the environment. To pass, the bill still needs the approval of the Senate (the upper house of Congress) and the president.

The new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples is also being threatened and its powers weakened. Under new measures passed by the Senate in May, land decisions are being transferred instead to the Justice Ministry, which was previously in charge. But Indigenous peoples — many of them now in positions of power, thanks to Lula’s efforts — are fighting back. The opposition to Lula’s environmental agenda is spearheaded by the pro-agribusiness faction of Brazil’s Congress, which numbers 347 of the body’s 594 total members. Some are farmers themselves, and some are Bolsonaro allies. They are keen to return to the modus operandi under Bolsonaro, which served their economic interests.

Given the role the Amazon plays in absorbing greenhouse gas emissions from around the planet and thus in reducing the effects of climate change, the battle over the fate of the rainforest is not only national but global.

Reporting for this story was supported by the United Nations Foundation.