Historic Vatican fraud trial to deliver its verdict

By AFP
Published December 16, 2023

Becciu is the most senior Catholic clergyman to face justice in the Vatican City State - Copyright POOL/AFP Franck ROBICHON

Clément MELKI, Alice RITCHIE

A Vatican court delivers its verdict on Saturday in a historic trial focused on an opaque London property deal, with a once-powerful cardinal among 10 defendants facing jail for alleged financial crimes.

Angelo Becciu, 75, a former advisor to Pope Francis who was once considered a papal contender himself, is the most senior clergyman in the Catholic Church to face a Vatican criminal court.

He and nine other defendants, including financiers, lawyers and ex-Vatican employees, are facing a string of accusations, from fraud, embezzlement and money laundering to extortion, corruption and abuse of office.

They all deny the charges.

At the heart of the trial is the 350-million-euro ($380-million) purchase of a luxury property in London, as part of an investment that began in 2014 and ended up costing the Vatican tens of millions of euros (dollars).

The trial, which began in July 2021, has shone a light on the Holy See’s murky finances, which Pope Francis has sought to clean up since taking the helm of the Catholic Church in March 2013.

It is also a test of his reforms.

Just weeks before the trial, Francis gave the Vatican’s civilian courts the power to try cardinals and bishops, where previously they were judged by a court presided over by cardinals.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi has requested seven years and three months in jail for Becciu, and between almost four and 13 years for the others.

Becciu has always strongly protested his innocence, denouncing the accusations against him as “totally unfounded” and insisting he never took a cent.

For its part, the Holy See views itself as “an offended party” and has asked through Secretary of State Pietro Parolin for the court to “punish all crimes”.

Four Vatican entities are civil parties. They have requested compensation from the defendants, including 177 million euros for moral and reputational damage.

– Charitable causes –

The panel of three lay judges met on Saturday morning, before retiring ahead of the verdict on Saturday afternoon.

Court president Giuseppe Pignatone read out a note of thanks to those involved, acknowledging the “complexity” of the case.

Since the trial opened, there have been more than 80 hearings in the dedicated room within the Vatican Museums, where a portrait of a smiling Pope Francis hangs on the wall.

The process has been mired by procedural wrangling, with defence lawyers complaining about a lack of access to key evidence.

Becciu, a globe-trotting former Vatican diplomat, has been a near constant presence in the courtroom.

He was number two in the Secretariat of State, the Vatican department that works most closely with the pope, from 2011 to 2018.

He was moved to lead the department that deals with the creation of saints, before abruptly resigning in September 2020, after being informed of an investigation against him.

Initially, he told the trial, this was about a probe into 125,000 euros of Vatican money he donated to a charity in his native Sardinia, which prosecutors claim benefitted his brother, who ran the organisation.

But he was later drawn into investigations into the purchase and sale of the property on London’s Sloane Avenue — resulting in losses that, according to the Vatican, dipped into resources intended for charitable causes.

When the trial opened, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight and double-dealing by both outside consultants and insiders.

Among the defendants are two brokers involved in the London deal, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, as well as Enrico Crasso, a former Vatican investment manager, and former Vatican employee Fabrizio Tirabassi.

Becciu is also accused over payments made to a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna — who is also on trial — which he claims were to help negotiate the release of a Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali.

Coal use hits record in 2023, Earth’s hottest year

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

A lignite-fired power station operated by German energy giant RWE in Germany - Copyright AFP/File -

Isabel MALSANG

Global consumption of coal reached an all-time high in 2023, the IEA energy watchdog said Friday, as Earth experienced its hottest recorded year.

The International Energy Agency reported that nations would burn even more coal this year than in 2022, the previous record for consumption of the key source of planet-warming gases.

Scientists say greenhouse gases will need to be cut almost in half this decade to meet the world’s targets of limiting global heating and avoiding catastrophic impacts on the Earth’s climate.

The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said earlier in December that 2023 will be the hottest on record after November became the sixth record-breaking month in a row.

The IEA said, nevertheless, that after peaking this year, worldwide coal consumption was expected to start declining in 2024, as renewable power generation from solar and wind continues to expand.

Its latest forecasts were published two days after the conclusion of the United Nations climate negotiations (COP28) in Dubai -– where nearly 200 countries reached a deal that the world should be “transitioning away from fossil fuels” to limit global warming.

It was the first time in the 28-year history of the annual climate negotiations that all fossil fuels were mentioned in an accord.

The disruption in the Earth’s climate has contributed to an increase in the intensity and frequency of storms, droughts and lethal wildfires around the world.

– Asia powering coal use –

The IEA said consumption of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, rose by 1.4 percent in 2023 to a record 8.5 billion tonnes, as increases in China, India and Indonesia outweighed sharply falling demand in Europe and the United States, the IEA said.

“We expect to see a trend emerging of declining worldwide coal demand, starting in 2024,” the Paris-based energy watchdog said, as renewable power generation from solar and wind continues to expand.

The appetite for coal is strongest in Asia, it said. Consumption in China alone grew by 220 million tonnes or 4.9 percent in 2023, while in India it grew eight percent and in Indonesia by 11 percent.

Elsewhere, coal use fell 23 percent or by 107 million tonnes in Europe, while in the United States it dropped 95 million tonnes or by 21 percent, largely due to weakening industrial activity and an ongoing shift away from coal-fired generation towards renewables.

The IEA said it was difficult to forecast demand in Russia, currently the fourth-largest coal consumer, because of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and forecasts for Ukraine were equally uncertain.

While the IEA predicted a decline in coal in power stations, it said its use in heavy industries like cement production was expected to continue at high levels.

Paradoxically, the high demand for coal in Indonesia’s mining sector stems from its booming industry in extracting and refining nickel for use in electric car batteries.

China remains the world’s largest user of coal, responsible for half (54 percent) of all coal burned worldwide.

– Europe champions renewables –

More than 60 percent of coal burned in China is used to generate electricity and the country continues to build coal-fired power stations.

This year alone, the country has approved new projects totalling 52 gigawatts of new electricity-generating capacity.

The IEA nevertheless expects coal consumption in China to start declining, unless heatwaves and very cold spells lead to higher demand on its power plants.

Burning coal to generate electricity would decline in China to 2.8 billion tonnes, a drop of 175 million, over the period 2024-26.

In its place, the main demand for coal would come from India, at least as far as 2026, the IEA said.

In the European Union, an expansion of renewable energies, which generate very little greenhouse gas emissions, is curbing demand for coal.

In Germany, the use of ignite- and coal-powered power stations is expected to tail off significantly by 2025, the watchdog forecast, as solar and wind farms come on stream.

High time: Dutch savour legal pot trial

By AFP
Published December 14, 2023

A great misconception abroad is that weed is already legal in the Netherlands

Julie CAPELLE

Cannabis smokers in two Dutch cities will be able to light up legally for the first time Friday, as authorities roll out a trial decriminalising the production and supply of weed.

A great misconception abroad is that dope is already legal in the Netherlands — home to the world-famous coffee shops (which actually sell pot) and seen as a huge draw for cannabis smokers.

But in fact, the drug exists in a legal grey area, which the government hopes to stub out with the four-year trial starting in Breda and Tilburg and expanding to other parts of the country.

The consumption of small quantities of cannabis is technically illegal but police choose not to enforce the law as part of a so-called “tolerance” policy in place since the 1970s.

However, the production of cannabis and supply to coffee shops is both illegal and not tolerated, meaning producers and coffee shop owners have to operate in the shadows.

This has led to gangs getting involved, with a related rise in petty crime and anti-social behaviour that local officials hope to stop with the legal pot experiment.

Production will be limited to a handful of farms, whose cannabis will be closely monitored before supply to coffee shops.

Consumers are guaranteed a high-quality product, whereas before it was impossible to know where the cannabis came from — or whether it had been altered.

The level of THC and CBD, the active ingredients of cannabis, will also be measured, so users will know how strong their joint is.

The Dutch move comes amid a general trend of decriminalising the use of cannabis.

Neighbouring Germany has approved a law legalising the purchase and possession of cannabis for recreational use. Adults can have up to 25 grammes and grow up to three plants.

The drug is available in some pharmacies in Switzerland, which is also flirting with decriminalising its recreational use.

Adult recreational use of Cannabis is already legal in about 20 American states.

During the Dutch experiment, independent researchers will monitor the trial with a view to eventual decriminalisation.

One unknown hanging over this policy — and indeed all policies — is the Geert Wilders factor, after the far-right leader won elections last month.

His PVV Freedom Party wants to scrap the “tolerance” policy for good, close coffee shops, and push for a “drug-free Netherlands.”

They were placed bottom of the parties to vote for in the last election by “cannabis-kieswijzer.nl”, a website that ranks political parties by their cannabis-friendly policies.

PHOTO - Copyright AFP MAHMUD HAMS

Black truffle production booms in Spain

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

Jose Soriano left his job as a forest ranger to cultivate truffles full-time 

- Copyright AFP ISAAC LAWRENCE

Valentin BONTEMPS

When Jose Soriano was a child, the hills near the village of Sarrion in Spain’s remote and sparsely populated eastern province of Teruel were mostly uncultivated, covered in brush and rocks.

Now they are home to rows of oak trees, where large quantities of black truffles — one of the most exclusive and expensive delicacies on the planet — grow underground, nestled in their roots.

“Here everything revolves around truffles,” said Soriano, who owns 30 hectares (74 acres) of land near Sarrion, which is home to some 1,200 people.

This athletic 38-year-old left his forest ranger job a few years ago to dedicate himself full time to cultivating black truffles, which grow among the roots of trees planted two decades ago by his father-in-law.

“It was complicated doing both things at the same time,” said Soriano as he petted his dog, Pista. “In the end you earn more with truffles.”

The setter has been trained to hunt for the underground fungi, which look like knobbly balls of damp mud and offer a unique taste when added to dishes.

Production of “tuber melanosporum”, the scientific name for black truffles, has soared in recent years in Spain, which is now the world’s leading producer of the delicacy.

Often called “black diamonds”, the truffles can fetch up to 1,500 euros ($1,600) per kilogramme.

“The land here is very poor. Not much grows. But paradoxically this type of terrain appeals to the truffle,” Daniel Brito, head of the Teruel Association of Truffle Growers, said of the province’s limestone terrain.

– ‘It’s a lifeline’ –

Spain produced around 120 tonnes of black truffles in 2022.

That is four times more than the 30 tonnes harvested in Italy and three times the 40 tonnes produced in France, which until recently was the world’s top producer.

And roughly 80 percent of Spain’s black truffles come from the area around Sarrion, which has 8,000 hectares of black truffle cultivation, making it the world’s biggest source.

The village holds an annual fair dedicated to black truffles, which Brito said were exported from the region to the “whole world”.

Extensive irrigation is behind this success, he said, along with the widespread use of controlled mycorrhisation — a technique that creates a symbiotic association between the truffle fungus and the root of the tree.

The truffles extract sugar and water from their host tree’s roots and in return feed soil nutrients back into the tree.

Under the right conditions this allows “for a much bigger crop” of black truffles, Brito said.

For villages in the area, which like much of the Spanish interior have struggled with a shrinking population as people move to urban areas in search of more opportunity, the boom in truffle production has been something of a miracle.

“For those who want to stay here, it’s a lifeline,” said Sarrion’s 32-year-old mayor, Estefania Donate.

– ‘A lot of work’ –

Before the truffle boom began in the 2000s, the village was losing its younger inhabitants due to a lack of jobs and prospects.

Now the population is inching up, with the village school experiencing a jump in enrolment.

“There is very little unemployment here… It’s more housing that we’re short of,” Donate said.

“The truffle brings life… We even attract a few tourists,” she added.

The success of the truffle sector remains fragile, though.

Truffles can not go for long without water and “love the cold”, so changing weather patterns — with warmer winters and less rain — are “worrying”, Brito said.

“We have managed to stabilise production thanks to irrigation,” he added.

Truffle cultivation “requires a lot of work and investment” because trees only begin to produce them after 10 years and, like all fungi, truffles are “unpredictable”.

Lafarge faces civil suit in US led by Yazidi Nobel laureate

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

Attorney Amal Clooney (L), co-Founder is part of a legal team representing Nadia Murad (R)and some 430 Yazidi Americans in a suit against French company Lafarge

 - Copyright AFP/File TIMOTHY A. CLARY

Some 430 Americans of Yazidi background and Nobel laureate Nadia Murad accused French conglomerate Lafarge of supporting brutal attacks on the population through a conspiracy with the Islamic State, according to a complaint reviewed Friday by AFP.

The civil suit, filed in a New York court by attorneys that include human rights lawyer Amal Clooney references a $778 million US Department of Justice fine and guilty criminal plea in October 2022 by Lafarge, which was acquired by Swiss company Holcim in 2015.

Yazidi plaintiffs asked the court to find Lafarge liable for violations of the US Anti-Terrorism Act and assess compensatory damages, plus attorneys fees.

Lafarge considers the matter “a legacy issue, which Lafarge SA is managing responsibly, a Lafarge spokesperson said.

The lawsuit recounts horrors inflicted by ISIS in a 2014 siege in which thousands of Yazidis were murdered and kidnapped, causing hundreds and thousands to flee and subjecting remaining Yazidi women to sales as sex slaves — a fate that befell Murad, who won the Nobel Prize in 2018.

The Kurdish-speaking Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority found mainly in Iraq that has over time absorbed elements of Islam and Christianity. Jihadists view the population as heretics.

The Yazidis suit points to $6 million in payments from Lafarge to ISIS in 2013 and 2014 to purchase raw materials from a Lafarge cement plant in Syria that continued to operate during the Syrian Civil War.

The plaintiffs’ complaint also references some $80.5 million that US prosecutors found benefited participants in the conspiracy, including ISIS and Lafarge.

“The money and cement defendants supplied ISIS went directly to ISIS’s operations at precisely the time it was committing acts of international terrorism, including the slaughter of innocent people such as the Yazidis,” the complaint said.

Plaintiffs in the case “are Yazidis who are US citizens,” according to the complaint.

“Many of them were, or had relatives who were, translators for the US. Army and served the United States. They are farmers, schoolteachers, housewives, and small business owners whose lives were upended on that fateful day in August 2014.”

Lafarge also faces a case in France dating to 2018 over charges of complicity in crimes against humanity.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YEZEDI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YAZEDI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YAZIDI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YEZIDI 

Op-Ed: The Great Rental and Mortgage Gouge 101 — Where economics, numbers, and money don’t mix well.

By Paul Wallis
Published December 15, 2023

Even New Yorkers lucky enough to live in rent-stabilized apartments -- approximately one million units and two million tenants, according to city data -- are not immune to the growing housing crisis in their city. — © AFP

Welcome to 2008 again. Interest rates are the easy excuse for gouging the world’s property markets. This disaster is getting plenty of negative headlines, but no positive actions are visible, and mortgagees and renters are just trying to survive.

The lessons here are simple:

Governments do not govern.

Markets are not regulated.

Suicidal economics is fun!

It’s not so much a market as a cartel, the classic anti-trust scenario. Everybody put their prices up to unaffordable levels at the same time and there’s no comeback for consumers. Result, “chaos as usual”, at the public’s expense, as usual.

In America, the scenario is an unrelieved catastrophe. The rest of the world isn’t doing much better. It’s anyone’s guess how much money has been ripped out of the global economy in this one sector.

For the purpose of narrative, I’ll use the Australian market as an example, because that’s the one I know best historically.

The Great Australian Rental and Mortgage Gouge started in 2022 with the interest rate rises. Interest rates do play a role in the property market, usually on margins. The rapid rate rises caused adjustments, as you’d expect.

However – That’s also where things stop making any dollar sense at all.

Property markets all have one thing in common – Incessant euphoria about their prices. Nobody cares about affordability. It’s all about “great numbers”. Nobody was complaining about profitability well before the rate rises.

The property market was doing quite well, with post-pandemic and pre-interest rate rises. There were no real issues. The market was blasé at best. Everyone’s a zillionaire and a shrewd investor, according to the markets. Then the market decided everyone could afford massive hikes.

Suffice to say that’s not exactly the case.

The Australian property market has never been accused of being a charity. Rentals were however usually affordable. Now they’re usually unaffordable, and the rent vs income numbers are truly bizarre.

Mortgages are stretcher cases in many ways, over a huge demographic. Pre-pandemic, the mortgages were in a rather iffy state. 30% of mortgages were interest-only, an expensive form of rent with no equity gains.

The main reason for this was high property prices and a market infatuated with home ownership. That figure also meant that 70% of the market was more or less OK with the situation. Things have changed. Australia is now under more mortgage stress than any other nation, according to The Guardian.

The Australian economy is basically three sectors with about 30% of the economy in the high, middle, and low brackets. The financial economics would be laughable if they weren’t so destructive. The economic realities are unambiguous. According to news.com.au, the minimum income for renting a house in Perth will be circa $108,000 and $95,000 for a unit.

The problem with that is that median income in Australia is actually about $69,000 across the spectrum. If you want a fan-hitting exercise, try getting the same numbers out of all the different sources. That number is probably reliable and in keeping with historical trends.

Also note the inexcusable tendency to use numbers without demographic specifics. “John and Tom make $1,000,000 per year between them. Therefore, the median income is $500,000”, whereas John makes $40, 000 and Tom makes the rest of the million. This is obfuscation, not demographics.

This is also where the economics seem to deliberately miss the realities. It’s all about looking good, not reality in any known form. The Reserve Bank of Australia, the equivalent of the Federal Reserve, published a nice snapshot of the economy as it affects renters.

The rental market is “growing”, the number of owners is dropping significantly, and “median net wealth” for renters is appalling. None of this information addresses fixing the rental chaos in any form whatsoever.

Also, note how much property underpins “wealth” in this woeful tale. The “wealth” of housing has been backed up by soaring property prices for decades. Australian media sells real estate as much as it sells news.

Meanwhile – Population growth is now slowing. Demand for properties will ease over time. Everyone knows that.

Australia’s elegant solution has been to increase migration and foreign student intake and then blame migrants and students and bystanders for housing prices. It hasn’t worked. It hasn’t even begun to solve the problems.

What about rent controls, you may well ask. The quick answer is that rent control theory apparently has no constructive ideas. On the one hand, rent control “disincentivizes” property owners. On the other hand, the market has somehow decided rent control reduces the supply of houses.

The market is doing a great job of reducing supply all by itself. These mortgage and rental price rises have put the market at risk. Nobody can really maintain rents or mortgages which are so far beyond their means.

Every boom in a market causes a bust. The next one will be entirely self-inflicted

Leaks show McKinsey pushed fossil fuel agenda at Africa climate summit

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

'Undue influence': McKinsey & Company helped set the agenda for the UN Africa Climate Summit

 - Copyright AFP Thomas COEX

Roland LLOYD PARRY, Marlowe HOOD

Consulting giant McKinsey & Company sought to place controversial carbon market schemes favoured by its fossil fuel clients at the heart of the Africa Climate Summit, according to internal documents and sources who talked to AFP.

The documents reveal that the firm worked behind the scenes to shape the agenda of September’s Nairobi gathering, a key event in the run-up to the UN’s COP28 talks in Dubai.

McKinsey’s clients include some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, from ExxonMobil to Saudi Arabia’s state-run Aramco.

A nine-page confidential “position paper” seen by AFP also touted the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), which McKinsey has publicly said it helped develop, and called for the building of a $6 billion market for carbon offsets on the continent.

Carbon offsets are billed as a way for big polluters like oil companies to make up for their CO2 emissions by supporting green projects like those that claim to safeguard forests. But experts dispute their worth and have warned of greenwashing.

More than 500 civil society groups signed a protest letter to Kenyan President William Ruto in the run up to the meeting saying McKinsey “unduly influenced” the summit through key documents it drafted on behalf of the host country.

“When McKinsey got involved in the planning of the summit, they sought to benefit from commercial deals that would emerge,” said Mohamed Adow, head of research group Power Shift Africa.

Adow was among three dozen African and global advisors from research groups, foundations and international organisations asked by the organisers to review the “position paper” to set the agenda for the talks.

He said McKinsey played a leading role in drafting the document, which was sharply criticised by several advisors as overplaying the role of carbon markets, according to comments they shared seen by AFP.

– Carbon markets hype –

McKinsey denied any wrongdoing, with Kenya’s environment minister Soipan Tuya insisting it is “extremely far from the truth” to say that the firm held too much sway at the summit.

McKinsey told AFP it was a “technical partner” to the summit, one of many that contributed to preparations, and that all documents were “approved by the Africa Climate Summit and the Government of Kenya.”

Archived web pages indicate that a mention of the company as a partner was removed from the event’s website. McKinsey said it had been included in error.

Two members of the advisory group formed at the request of Ruto, who asked not to be named, said they were unaware of McKinsey’s role.

“Given their client list, McKinsey had an undeniable conflict of interest,” Adow told AFP.

In one confidential document promoting its expertise in carbon markets, the firm listed companies it had advised, including Chevron, BP and Tata Steel.

It also flagged McKinsey’s work on solar, wind and gas power and electrification, as well as “performance transformation” work for firms operating coal- and oil-fired power plants.

Critics of carbon markets say they do not live up to their hype and allow polluters to offset the damaging greenhouse gas they produce too cheaply.

A study earlier this year found only a tiny fraction seemed to deliver, and last year a major UN report concluded that “too many non-state actors are engaging in a voluntary market” marked by “low prices and a lack of clear guidelines”.

– McKinsey drafted climate summit plans –

The two experts in Ruto’s advisory group said the paper diverged from long-standing positions of the 54-nation African Group and disregarded top African priorities such as money to help the continent’s economies cope with climate impacts.

McKinsey said the documents “were for use by the president of Kenya and they reflect his ambitions, not McKinsey’s.”

In the end, the summit drew hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges for carbon projects, including $450 million from COP28’s oil-rich hosts the UAE, which is seeking to secure vast tracts of land in Africa — reportedly the size of Britain — to develop carbon-offsetting projects.

With their worth increasingly questioned, the price of carbon credits for nature conservation projects nosedived from $16 per tonne in January 2022 to about $1 last month.

In October, South Pole, the biggest seller of carbon offsets, pulled out of a huge scandal-hit forest protection programme in Zimbabwe. McKinsey was among companies that had purchased credits from the scheme.

That and other damaging reports have thrown the entire sector into turmoil.

“Carbon offsets rarely achieve the climate benefits they claim,” researchers led by Danny Cullenward of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy in Washington reported last month.

Countries risk ‘paying polluters’ billions to regulate for climate: UN expert

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

Countries are under growing pressure to regulate to protect the environment - Copyright AFP JUSTIN TALLIS

Kelly MACNAMARA

An “explosion” of multibillion-dollar claims by fossil fuel and extractive firms through shadowy investment tribunals is blocking action on climate and nature, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and Environment has warned, with developing nations increasingly targeted.

After countries agreed this week at UN climate talks on a “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, governments are likely to come under heightened pressure to boost regulation and reject further expansion of oil, gas and coal projects.

But that could leave them open to litigation under a secretive arbitration process called investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS), according to UN rights expert David Boyd, who has called it a “major obstacle” to environmental action.

“When governments bring in these stronger laws and policies, they’re ending up paying millions — and sometimes billions — of dollars in compensation,” Boyd told AFP.

Denmark, France and New Zealand have all backed off from stronger regulation on fossil fuel exploration because of ISDS fears, he said.

In a report called “Paying Polluters”, presented to the UN General Assembly earlier this year, Boyd warned that the number of claims — and the size of the payouts — were soaring.

“The explosion of ISDS claims in recent years, and the threat of such claims, is led by fossil fuel, mining and other extractive industry corporations,” Boyd said in his report.

ISDS cases targeting actions to protect the environment rose from 12 initiated before 2000, to 37 from 2000 to 2010, and 126 between 2011 and 2021, it said, adding fossil fuel and mining industries have won over $100 billion in awards.

That could rise substantially, as “sunset clauses” mean even if a state pulls out of a treaty it could still face litigation for some two decades.

– ‘Hypocrisy’-

ISDS mechanisms built into thousands of international treaties have roots in the global reconfiguration after World War Two, as investors based often in former colonial powers sought to protect assets in newly-independent countries.

Lukas Schaugg, an international law analyst with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said the tribunals had historically operated with a “lack of public scrutiny”.

“People are increasingly talking about the duty of states to regulate with regard to climate,” said Schaugg, who used to work at the International Chamber of Commerce’s arbitration court.

Now, “the clash with the investment treaty regime is increasingly visible”, he said.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says ISDS poses a particular challenge for the energy transition.

In an August report, UNCTAD said of 1,257 publicly-known ISDS claims made by early 2023, 15 percent were initiated by fossil fuel investors.

Even renewable companies have filed substantial claims, as countries change investment incentives.

The Energy Charter Treaty is the most frequently-invoked international investment agreement in these claims.

It “can amplify existing burdens on countries that are trying to shift from traditional fossil fuel projects to renewable energies”, UNCTAD said.

Several wealthy nations have moved to pull out of the ECT, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, while the European Parliament has called for withdrawal of the entire EU.

Boyd said even as richer nations reduce their exposure, investors continue to use their territory to target poorer nations.

“It’s absolutely gross hypocrisy, it’s unjust and it’s definitely unequal,” he said, adding that “jurisdiction shopping” also allows foreign companies to open offices in treaty countries to launch claims.

According to UNCTAD, 65 percent of cases in 2022 were brought by investors in richer nations — and 65 percent of cases were against developing countries.

– ‘Dustbin of history’ –

Examples of claims include two Australian mining corporations seeking nearly $37 billion from the Republic of Congo — more than twice its 2022 gross domestic product.

“It’s obvious that there’s no way on earth the Republic of Congo could pay that kind of compensation, if they were unsuccessful in these claims,” Boyd told AFP.

Often, he said, “governments just capitulate”.

Last year, Pakistan agreed an out-of-court settlement with a foreign firm, which waived penalties that had ballooned to $11 billion in exchange for the reopening of an open-pit copper mine.

It was seen as the only solution for the debt-stricken country after a World Bank arbitration tribunal imposed a $5.8 billion penalty in 2019.

The Tethyan Copper company told the tribunal it had spent over $240 million on the mine.

Boyd said the case illustrates inconsistencies in tribunal awards.

Payouts are sometimes based on investors’ actual spending on a project, but at other times use a method estimating future earnings.

Boyd called for the investment treaty system to be reimagined to align with rights and environmental priorities — and for ISDS to be “relegated to the dustbin of history”.

“We’ve known there’s been a climate crisis for 30 years (but) we have companies operating coal fired power plants, saying: ‘We had a legitimate expectation we’d be able to continue burning coal forever’,” he said.

“Those arguments are being accepted by these arbitration tribunals.”

More shipping giants suspend passage via Red Sea after attacks

By AFP
Published  December 16, 2023

The US guided-missile destroyer USS Carney shot down more than a dozen drones in the Red Sea launched from Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen, defense officials say - Copyright AFP Brendan SMIALOWSKI

Yann SCHREIBER, Myriam LEMETAYER

Two more major shipping firms, Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM, said Saturday they were suspending passage through a Red Sea strait vital for global trade after Yemeni rebel attacks in the area.

The announcement by Italian-Swiss giant MSC and France’s CMA CGM follows a similar decision Friday by two of the world’s largest shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.

The announcements were in response to a warning by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally.

The Huthis said they were targeting vessels near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait to pressure Israel over its devastating war with Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of ships every year transit through the strait, which runs between Yemen, on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and the African continent.

The tensions have added to fears that the Gaza conflict could spread.

Ships belonging to Israel or heading to its ports “will remain vulnerable to targeting until the aggression stops, the siege on Gaza is lifted, and humanitarian aid continues to flow” to Gaza, Huthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam said on X, formerly Twitter.

Oman was sponsoring discussions “with a number of international parties” regarding operations in the Red and Arabian Seas, he added.

An American destroyer on Saturday shot down more than a dozen drones in the Red Sea launched from Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

The UK government said one of its destroyers had also brought down a suspected attack drone in the area.

– ‘Situation continues to deteriorate’ –

MSC, one of the world’s largest freight shipping lines, said one of its container vessels had been targeted in the Red Sea on Friday and it was halting traffic through the strait until it was safe.

No one on the MSC Palatium III was wounded but the ship suffered fire damage, the company said.

CMA CGM said it had ordered all its vessels to leave the area and stay there until further notice.

“The situation continues to deteriorate and there are increasing concerns about security,” it said.

On Friday, the International Chamber of Shipping condemned the Huthi attacks which “threaten the lives of innocent seafarers and the safety of merchant shipping”.

The incidents breached international law and states in the region should work to de-escalate the situation, it said.

Diverting Asia-bound shipping from the Red Sea to South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope would increase costs and delays, the body noted.

Consultancy S&P Global estimated that the detour would increase the distance between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Singapore by 40 percent.

Russia’s isolation takes toll on Arctic climate science


By AFP
Published December 17, 2023

A monument to Lenin in Barentsburg in Norway's Svalbard Archipelago, where Russians have been mining coal for decades

 - Copyright AFP PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA

Viken KANTARCI with Pierre-Henry Deshayes in Oslo

Glaciologist Andrew Hodson used to collaborate with his Russian colleagues in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, but snowmobile excursions to see them have come to a halt since the war in Ukraine.

“We used to work with Russian permafrost scientists and hydrologists in the Barentsburg region. This doesn’t happen now,” the British scientist told AFP.

“We’re sad that we can’t use this basis for collaboration, but we’re not at all happy with the actions of the Russian government, obviously,” he said at his office at Longyearbyen University in the archipelago’s capital.

Although a part of Norway, the islands have long had a strong Russian presence. But the frequently-cited diplomatic mantra of cohabitation there — “High North, low tensions” — no longer applies.

In the Arctic, as in the rest of the world, Western and Russian researchers have cut almost all ties since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Moscow’s February 2022 invasion was the final nail in the coffin of their cooperation, already in decline in recent decades amid President Vladimir Putin’s more aggressive policies.

The deep freeze has significantly affected scientific research in a region warming around four times faster than the planet as a whole, and which is therefore crucial to climate studies — and where Russia plays a major role due to its vast size.

– Missing data –

“It’s damaging because Russia is more than half of the Arctic,” said Rolf Rodven, executive secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). ]

The exchange of data from Russia has now completely dried up.

“We do not know what’s happening on the ground there and of course, what’s happening there will also affect the European, US and Canadian part of the Arctic,” he said.

This deprives scientists of crucial information about permafrost — present predominantly in Russia and a ticking time bomb for the climate of the entire planet — and recent wildfires, which are believed to have been as devastating as those in North America.

Some data can be obtained through international databases such as the World Meteorological Organization or through satellite observations, but those are incomplete.

“We know that there will be more uncertainty in our estimates and as a consequence also more uncertainties in projections for the future,” Rodven said.

Studies written by AMAP — one of the Arctic Council’s six working groups — are all the more important since they are used in reports by the UN’s IPCC climate panel.

The Arctic Council is a regional forum long held up as a model of cooperation, but now stands divided between the West (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United States) and Russia.

A number of projects have been suspended and some studies have been delayed.

Not only have relations with Russian research institutes — almost all state-run bodies — been halted, but even the few independent researchers are reluctant to cooperate for fear of being accused of treason or espionage.

Already in 2019, Russian scientists expressed concern about restrictions imposed on their contacts with foreign colleagues, raising fears of a return to conditions that existed during the Soviet era.

– Brain drain –

Russia’s research community has been plagued by a “brain drain” — which began even before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — and funding that has been slashed in order to pay for the war effort.

“It’s a double whammy,” said Salve Dahle, a marine biologist at Norway’s independent Akvaplan-niva institute.

“Not only do we no longer benefit from the exchange of data, but the collection of data in Russia itself is also cut back.”

Dahle, who used to frequently work on projects in Russia, said his primary concern was for Siberia’s main rivers, the Arctic Ocean’s biggest source of freshwater.

Without being present in the field, it’s impossible to measure the effects on the rivers of oil and gas drilling, industrial activities and mining.

“Everything that can be dissolved in water or be captured in ice is transported into the transpolar drift stream (an ocean current that flows from east to west) and flows out between Greenland and Svalbard,” he said.

In Longyearbyen, British glaciologist Andrew Hodson is trying to be pragmatic.

“There’s much to be gained from working with the expertise there,” he said of his Russian research colleagues.

“But I won’t pretend that it was ever easy… So no, I’m not that sorry.”

Native oysters return to Belfast after a century’s absence

By AFP
Published December 17, 2023

The Belfast Lough was once home to large oyster reefs but overfishing, disease and pollution decimated the population 

- Copyright AFP HAZEM BADER

Peter MURPHY

Long gone from Belfast’s famed harbour where the Titanic was built, oysters are making a comeback thanks to a nursery installation project aimed at boosting marine life and water quality.

Until the early 1900s, the narrow Belfast Lough channel was home to large oyster reefs but overfishing, disease and pollution gradually decimated the population, according to the Ulster Wildlife group.

“We’re bringing back a lost habitat,” the group’s marine conservation manager David Smyth told AFP on a harbour quay in the shadow of a noisy downtown highway and towering commercial buildings.

Extensive native oyster beds were abundant in European seas, and humans have been harvesting them since the Stone Age.

But the group estimates that oyster populations have declined by 95 percent since the 19th  century, with native oyster reefs now one of the most threatened habitats in Europe.

– ‘Coral reef’ –

Last month a nursery comprising some 700 of the molluscs — brought from Scotland by van, and measured and screened for disease — were lowered into Belfast Lough in over a dozen cages fitted with shelves.

It should eventually create a local “equivalent of a coral reef”, said Smyth during a check of the oysters’ health with a team of researchers tracking their progress.

After hoisting the metal oyster homes from the water, the team carefully removed each animal and placed them on the pier for measurement and weighing.

Pairs of oysters already conjoined are the early stages of forming a reef, said Smyth holding two aloft.

“Imagine 100,000 of these all stuck together, this is what we are after, from them millions of larvae will settle around the shore and on the seabed,” he told AFP with a satisfied smile.

Among the ecological benefits of a restored habitat are boosted marine biodiversity and better water quality, according to Ulster Wildlife.

“Just as with a coral reef, once these animals start forming their beds then small fish and crustaceans like mussels, barnacles, worms, snails, and algae will come to live and feed there,” said Smyth.

Oysters are also “supreme water filters” he noted, with just one animal able to filter over 200 litres of seawater a day.

– Encouraging signs –

With cargo ships and passenger ferries manoeuvering in and out of docks not far away, pollutants in the waterway make habitat rehabilitation a challenge.

Shipbuilding was one of Belfast’s largest industries for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, with the yellow gantry cranes of the shipyard that built the Titanic still defining Belfast’s skyline beside a new museum celebrating the doomed liner.

A coalyard and tannin works also contributed to long decades of environmental degradation.

“It’s very difficult for oysters’ larvae to settle and become adults if they are exposed to the sort of pollutants present in an industrial shipping lane,” said Smyth.

But the resilient nursery animals have “performed impressively” so far with just two mortalities from the 700 oysters installed, with many more planned to be installed in the coming years, he added.

Similar projects have got under way recently around Europe but the Belfast nursery aims at replicating a successful effort in New York, begun a decade ago with the goal of restoring millions of oysters to replicate conditions there in the 1800s.

“New York’s the shining example of how well these animals can do in an industrial area,” said Smyth.

“There were dolphins swimming around the Statue of Liberty for the first time in years recently, we don’t know if we will ever have dolphins swimming in Belfast but you never know,” he laughed, before letting a cage drop back below the water.