AUPE workers stage simultaneous rallies across Alberta on Saturday

Story by Ramin Ostad • 

EDMONTON JOURNAL

Sept. 7, 2024

Alberta Union of Provincial Employees members stage a rally at the legislature grounds in Edmonton on Sept. 7, 2024

The Alberta Union of Professional Employees (AUPE) members and supporters across the province participated in rallies Saturday to demand better collective agreements.

AUPE hosted three Time for Action rallies simultaneously in Edmonton, Calgary, and Red Deer on Saturday from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. to “stand together to fight for stronger collective agreements,” according to a Thursday news release.

The rallies are the culmination of AUPE’s efforts to bring awareness to what they feel has been a struggle against the UCP for better wages and working conditions. The union has 82,000 members who are engaged in ongoing collective bargaining in sectors like health care, government services, education, boards and agencies, and municipalities, said AUPE vice-president Bobby-Joe Borodey.

She said members have not received a single fair offer from employers in 2024, and the union has been offered “literally nothing” sufficient over the last eight years. She says many members have struggled to recover from lowball collective agreements signed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What we’re saying is, with the cost of inflation being what it is right now, with this push by the UCP to privatize the entire public sector in this province, we’re saying enough is enough,” Borodey said. “We need contracts that actually match the level of work that we’re currently doing and the cost of living in this province.”


Alberta Union of Provincial Employees members stage a rally at the legislature grounds in Edmonton on Sept. 7, 2024© Cindy Tran

‘Market-based compensation’

Among the union’s demands is a 26 per cent wage increase over the next three years for Alberta government workers represented by AUPE, contrasting the 7.5 per cent over four years offered by the province.

Borodey said the province has stepped in to dictate what employers can offer both unionized government employees and any companies working for the province indirectly. Borodey said the evidence is the fact that both groups have been offered the same 7.5 per cent wage increase the government has offered direct employees.

Related video: Alberta officials preparing residents for housing supports as Jasper looks to rebuild (The Canadian Press)

Duration 1:36  View on Watch

Finance Minister Nate Horner pushed back in a letter released Friday, saying “the average Albertan has not seen this kind of wage increase,” about the request for a 26 per cent increase.

“This government is not going to increase taxes or cut programs and services Albertans rely on to support pay increases that are far beyond market,” Horner said. “We must remain competitive with other public sector settlements across Canada that have achieved market-based compensation.”

Horner said 7.5 per cent over four years is still significantly higher than the two to three per cent increase most Albertans received in 2023-24, and matches other settlements AUPE has agreed to in the past.

“In light of this, it’s confusing to see the narrative AUPE’s president, Guy Smith, is trying to create through his rallies, suggesting his members are facing ‘disrespect’ in collective bargaining,” Horner said


Alberta Union of Provincial Employees members stage a rally at the legislature grounds in Edmonton on Sept. 7, 2024© Cindy Tran
‘We’re doing the right thing’

However, Borodey painted this as one of the province’s many attempts to cloud the facts. She said many members had their collective bargaining in 2020 delayed by the pandemic, and the contracts ultimately signed had very little gains for employees and even saw rollbacks during the bargaining process since the wage increases did not match the cost of living increases.

As to Horner’s claim that 26 per cent is too big of an ask, Borodey said the issue is with consistency and parity — many AUPE members have seen double-digit wage increases in their agreements while other members were forced to accept no wage increases at all. When the economy takes a hit, she says, the province encourages everyone to tighten their belts, but when the economy is booming, the province’s wealth and generosity don’t seem to trickle down to workers.

“Honestly, the fact that (Nate Horner) was rankled enough to put out a letter about what we’re planning, he felt the need to put that out, that tells me that we’re doing the right thing,”‘ she said.

Related

Wildland firefighters raise alarm over lack of preparedness: AUPE

Union warns of Alberta Wildfire staffing crisis ahead of season

 

Do not investigate: The hobbling of the B.C. forestry policing service sets a troubling precedent

Story by Bryce J. Casavant, Royal Roads University

 • THE CONVERSATION 

The British Columbia forestry policing services (officially known as the Compliance and Enforcement Branch (CEB) is the province’s primary environmental policing service. Like other Canadian provinces’ environmental policing services, the officers in B.C. are tasked with investigating wildfire causes, forestry offences and other violations of laws designed to protect water and heritage sites.

Unfortunately, however, the forestry policing service in B.C. is facing critical challenges. Staffing is at historic lows, while officers are ill-equipped to do their jobs and are poorly supported.

The issues facing B.C. forestry policing also come at a time when recent revelations about “secret” forestry maps in the province point to the prioritization of industry interests and the flouting of the B.C.’s own forestry rules — all while severe forest fires grow ever more commonplace.

Read more: The 2024 Jasper Fire is a grim reminder of the urgency of adopting a Canadian national wildfire strategy

I previously worked as a provincial constable in B.C. both as a senior forestry investigator and an armed conservation officer. I have also provided testimony in the legislature, with my work published. In my current academic role, I study environmental policing systems and lecture in the legal aspects of environmental management and legal philosophy.

In my view, the hobbling of forestry policing services and timber management laws raises the important question: who polices the government itself?

General Order #5

In 2023, the B.C. government’s CEB executive issued a document titled General Order 5. General orders are internal agency directives issued to policing personnel and form the basis of operating procedures. They are not normally released publicly, unless requested. A copy of General Order #5 was provided to me in mid-May 2024 by a senior government official who requested to remain anonymous.

In essence, General Order #5 is an instruction to the forestry policing service that the B.C. government would prefer the service not to conduct investigations into any potential government wrongdoing. In one particularly revealing statement, the order declares that:

“Pursuing enforcement action against government bodies creates a legal risk for government and it is an inefficient use of CEB resources that should be allocated to other high priority legislative investigations.”

What exactly constitutes the alternative “high priority” investigations is never explicitly defined.

General Order #5 was issued without public consultation on the apparent advice of the Attorney General’s Office — a highly unusual situation because it has no authority to direct the actions of provincial policing services.

If government wrongdoing is found, the order includes direction to “communicate the incident to the responsible government entity” and to “provide the responsible government entity with all appropriate documentation related to the alleged issue” — potentially disclosing sensitive investigative materials to those personnel under investigation.

Meanwhile, two B.C. government investigations I led in 2018 as a senior compliance and enforcement specialist with the province found worrying evidence of the systemic flouting of forestry rules by B.C. Timber Sales, the government-owned and controlled entity responsible for managing 20 per cent of the annual allowable cut and other logging-related authorizations for industry. These matters were later confirmed by the Forest Practices Board.

I contacted media relations at the RCMP’s E Division Headquarters to ask about the status of the federal Forest Crimes Unit in B.C. In an email response from the RCMP in May, they confirmed the B.C. branch of the RCMP forest crimes unit was shut down in 2021. This move has left the compliance and enforcement branch as the only remaining forestry policing service in the province, a concerning matter as General Order #5 restricts investigative authorities.

Flouting international standards

When the B.C. Great Bear Rainforest protection agreement was signed in 2016, it was heralded as an effective and modern approach to balancing timber harvesting with conservation objectives. Yet loopholes in policy remained and many old-growth areas of the rainforest were still subject to clear-cutting activities.

Another troubling example of forestry mismanagement can be seen in Fairy Creek, an area the B.C. government opened up to old-growth logging. Timber practices in Fairy Creek and the resultant protests have been described as one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history, with more than 1,000 people arrested, including the deputy leader of the federal Green Party.

Members of the public had expressed concerns with the B.C. government’s approval process for the Fairy Creek logging operations and many charges against the protesters were later withdrawn. At least one RCMP officer quit in the wake of the Fairy Creek scandal as enforcement actions against protesters continued into 2023.

Read more: Why people are risking arrest to join old-growth logging protests on Vancouver Island

If policing services are being disbanded and directed not to investigate government wrongdoing, how can the public be sure industry and government actions are lawful?

I reached out to the B.C. Government, Communications, Public Engagement team and asked if provincial forestry officers are investigating allegations of government wrongdoing in the forest sector. In May, a branch director at the CEB responded in writing and confirmed that provincial officers “do not investigate government non-compliances as that is not the current mandate.”

Setting a poor example

General Order #5 is an unprecedented move that undermines constabulary independence and the abilities of police services to apply the rule of law fairly and without fear or favour. Moreover, its stipulations that investigating officers hand over files and investigative information to parties under investigation presents troubling implications for transparent governmental oversight.

B.C. forests are in crisis and in this era of climate change and wildfires, it is essential the province ensures its timber laws are applied equally to all, especially in recently announced old-growth conservancies.

Read more: The Jasper fire highlights the risks climate change poses to Canada's world heritage sites

The practical effect of General Order #5 is to handcuff our forestry officers. An accountable forestry industry cannot exist without a robust and properly equipped enforcement service that acts independently from government under its constabulary authorities.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Bryce J. Casavant, Royal Roads University

Read more:

• Poor compliance and broad exemptions mean land clearing continues apace in northern Australia – despite our laws and pledges
• Trees compete for space, light and resources, and those clashes can leave battle scars

Bryce J. Casavant has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

'It's morally wrong': A rural Alberta town reacts to homeless shelter closure

Story by Aaron Sousa • 

Lynn Bowes, a resident of Slave Lake, Alta., poses for a portrait at a trail near a shuttered homeless shelter on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. She is one of many who called on the town to close the shelter due to a perceived spike in crime. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Sousa© The Canadian Press

SLAVE LAKE, Alta. — At the end of a side street in Slave Lake, Alta., Lynn Bowes looks at a grey job-site trailer with boarded-up windows and doors that once operated as her town's only homeless shelter.

Once housing upwards of 20 people, it now sits empty behind overgrown grass and chain-link fence in the town of nearly 7,000 people northwest of Edmonton. Town council halted operations in May to slow a perceived spike in crime that residents said stemmed from the space.

Three months later, councillors voted it be closed for good, citing continued safety concerns.

“Thank God,” Bowes said. “So many people are so happy.”

Bowes, a member of Citizens On Patrol, said residents have reported cut fences, tents on sidewalks, drug abuse, verbal threats and trespassing near schools and other private property — including an RV resort where Bowes owns a lot.

“There were people that were having stuff taken from their campers,” she said.

Those petty crimes haven’t happened as much with the shelter’s closure and increased patrols by a private security firm hired by the town, she said.

However, figures show Slave Lake's crime rate didn't change after the shelter closed, said Slave Lake RCMP Sgt. Casey Bruyns. The only notable change is a slight uptick in suspicious person calls, he said.

Several town councillors, like Steven Adams, say it’s "morally wrong" not to offer shelter.

Related video: City of Edmonton looks at where homeless shelters belong (Global News)  Duration 2:03  View on Watch

But others, including Mayor Francesca Ward, say the town isn’t capable of running the space, citing a lack of supports for homeless people struggling with mental health and addictions.

“We went into it with the best intentions, but I'm willing to admit that it did not work,” Ward told councillors in August.

In an email, Ward said past iterations of the shelter saw groups scramble to find a space before winter. The town had hoped it could find a permanent space that was properly funded and had "regulatory stability."

In November, Slave Lake got $900,000 from the province to operate the temporary trailer year-round. With the closure, any unspent money would be returned, she said.

Bruyns, who sits on a social issues committee with the province and the town, said there’s an appetite to get homeless residents proper support, but what that looks like remains a wild card.

“I've dealt with the homeless population for the nine years I've been here,” he said. “It's a lot of the same people and (the town) is home for them."

Ward said she’s not opposed to something like an emergency winter shelter, but it should be run by another group.

Barb Courtorielle is hoping a solution comes before the snow flies.

She ran an out-of-the-cold program for five winters at the Slave Lake Native Friendship Centre, where she works as executive director. Funding issues and dwindling donations meant the program had to shut down.

With the centre's program, she said people got warm food, clean clothes and mats to sleep on. In exchange, they’d carry in groceries and donations and help weed the garden.

“I've been looking after the homeless since 2017," she said. "Never once did I feel I was going to be harmed."

Courtorielle said those who drop by the friendship centre are like family; many even call her Mom. Centre staff take time to connect with the homeless — something she felt was missing from the town's shelter space.

She sometimes volunteered at the shelter and felt it was mismanaged by overly strict staff.

There was only one shower. Food was microwaved. People were bored, she said. It forced many to make their way to the friendship centre.

“We still have them," said Courtorielle. "They've never left.”

She believes much of the town's crime is blamed on the homeless. There are one or two bad apples, she said, but most are good people.

A woman Courtorielle helped get off the streets is studying to be a carpenter. Some who were helped by the friendship centre are now donating back.

“It's nice when you have those (success) stories,” said Courtorielle.

Some aren’t so lucky. Since 2018, she said 21 homeless Slave Lakers have died, including a few who froze to death.

She said she doesn’t know what the answer is, but she hopes whatever solution comes to town will be run by people who understand how to work with the homeless.

“What's going to happen this winter?” said Courtorielle. “I'm scared to think about what's going to happen.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2024.

Aaron Sousa, The Canadian Press

Despite union protest, new hybrid work rules for federal employees kick in Monday

Story by Anja Karadeglija • 

Jennifer Carr, PIPSC President, speaks as Chris Aylward, PSAC National President looks on during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024., On Monday, federal public servants will return to the office a minimum of three days a week. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick© The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — On Monday, federal public servants will return to the office a minimum of three days a week— if grudgingly.

Public service unions will start the week with an early-morning rally opposing the policy. But despite the unions’ "summer of discontent" and an ongoing court challenge, the new rules will still kick in on Sept. 9.

The unions are pledging to keep fighting, even as they acknowledge it will take time.

"We may not win this tomorrow. We may not win this next week. But if we continue to fight, this is the new future of work for federal public servants and for workers everywhere," Jennifer Carr, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, told an earlier rally on Thursday.

Ottawa announced the policy, which also stipulates that executives will have to be in the office at least four days a week, in May. The unions responded by pledging a "summer of discontent."

That included moves by the Public Service Alliance of Canada to file unfair labour practice complaints and policy grievances, as well a Federal Court application. Just before the Labour Day weekend, Federal Court agreed to hear the case.

That decision by the court "does not affect the decision on increased in-person presence," the Treasury Board said in a statement, noting both parties will have a chance to present their arguments to the court.

Related video: 'No real plus value': Public servants protest in-office mandate 

(Global News) Duration 1:48  View on Watch

Global News'We have to fight': Canada seeing renewed public support for unions
1:57

cbc.caCanadian public servants fight back-to-office order
2:00

Treasury Board President Anita Anand has maintained Ottawa has the jurisdiction to make the changes and hybrid work arrangements aren’t in the collective agreements with the unions.

Previously, most federal public servants had to be in the office at least two days a week. Those rules were put in place March 2023, two years after people began working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the union pledges to fight the new rules, public servants will have to abide by them. "The rule from a union is always obey and then grieve," Carr said in an interview.

Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, declined to specify the exact tactics the unions will urge members to use, but said they could include petitions demanding an exemption from the policy and moves to exploit contradictions in various government policies.

One of the concerns the unions have flagged is that there won’t be enough space for everyone in the office, saying workers already struggle to find available desks and meeting rooms.

In a statement, Public Services and Procurement Canada said it is working with federal departments and agencies to ensure sufficient office space is provided.

Alex Silas, national executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, predicted "a lot of chaos on Monday."

"I think a lot of people are unfortunately going to be showing up to offices that aren't ready to accommodate that return," either because the offices themselves won’t be ready or because there’s just not enough space for everyone to work.

The federal government said in this year’s federal budget it plans to cut its office portfolio in half and turn "vacant government offices" into housing.

Silas argued when it comes to "forcing people back to the office while also planning to convert some of those offices, there's a dissonance there. Those plans don't work together."

Unions are also flagging concerns about transportation, given Ottawa’s public transit system recently announced service cuts during non-peak hours.

"Most federal public servants living in the Ottawa area in particular don't trust that the transit system here is credible," Prier said.

Thursday’s rally featured bumper stickers saying: "Sorry about the traffic, I have to commute to a video call."

Carr said it’s going to "take people longer to get to work…imagine that you have all this turmoil that's happened before you get to the office, and then you sit at the office and do exactly the same thing you could have done from home. It's just going to breed resentment and anger."

Pat Scrimgeour, director of transit customer systems and planning, said the city’s public transit system can handle the increase.

"There is sufficient capacity on the O-Train and bus network to support public servants as they return to the office more often. We will continue to monitor ridership demand in case there is any location or time when ridership increases more than we expect," he said in a statement.

A date for when the court case will be heard has not yet been set. Silas said the union is looking forward to "finally hearing from the employer as to the reasoning for this return to office policy."

Ultimately, the issue may end up in collective bargaining negotiations. Silas pointed out PSAC’s next round of bargaining with the Treasury Board starts in 2025.

"If this doesn't get resolved willingly by the federal government, if they don't come to the light on their own terms and see the positives about remote work, then this will certainly continue to be a priority for us in bargaining."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press

Rebuilding slow in Morocco a year after deadly quake

Rabat (AFP) – Reconstruction has been slow in the year since a deadly earthquake struck Morocco's High Atlas region, with only a fraction of the damaged homes rebuilt, authorities said.

Issued on: 08/09/2024 -

More than 55,000 permits have been issued but just 1,000 homes have been rebuilt 

© - / AFP

The 6.8-magnitude September 8, 2023 quake shook the remote mountainous area some 300 kilometres (185 miles) south of the capital Rabat, killing nearly 3,000 people and destroying or damaging around 60,000 homes.

More than 55,000 permits have been issued but just 1,000 homes have so far been rebuilt, the authorities said this week.

They urged those affected to "speed up their work to be able to benefit" from the financial aid available.

Such grants are conditional, however, on obtaining the necessary permits, technical studies and validation by a project manager of the various phases of construction.

Last month villagers in Talat N'Yaaqoub near the epicentre took to the streets to demand "the speedy unblocking of aid, non-compliant alternatives (to traditional building methods) and medical facilities", a representative said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"A large number of victims are still living in tents or have been forced to leave their villages and rent elsewhere," Mohamed Belhassen told AFP in another village, Amizmiz, some 60 kilometres from Marrakesh.

He criticised what he called the "dismal failure" of reconstruction efforts.

In the Taroudant region some 60 kilometres from Agadir things are little better.

"The situation hasn't changed much," said Siham Azeroual, who founded an NGO to help villagers in the North African country hit by the quake.

"Reconstruction is proceeding very slowly," she said. Quake victims "are exhausted, and find themselves caught up in an administrative spiral".

Nearly 58,000 people affected by the quake have received the first of four instalments of state aid of up to 140,000 dirhams ($14,500) but just 939 families have received the final payment.

The authorities say monthly grants to more than 63,800 affected families of 2,500 dirhams ($260) have also been made.

An $11-billion aid programme over five years has also been released for reconstruction and developement in the six provinces affected.

© 2024 AFP

Myanmar armed group says 11 civilians killed in junta air strikes

By AFP
September 6, 2024

Myanmar military air strikes in northern Shan state killed 11 civilians and wounded 11 more, a spokeswoman for an ethnic minority armed group battling the junta told AFP - Copyright Courtesy of Facebook user Mai So Jar/AFP MAI SO JAR

Myanmar military air strikes in northern Shan state killed 11 civilians and wounded 11 more, a spokeswoman for an ethnic minority armed group battling the junta told AFP on Friday.

The junta is battling widespread armed opposition to its 2021 coup and its soldiers are accused of bloody rampages and using air and artillery strikes to punish civilian communities.

“They bombed at two areas in Namhkam” town on Friday around 1:00 am local time (1830 GMT), Lway Yay Oo of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) said.

The strikes killed 11 and wounded 11, she said, adding that the office of a local political party had been damaged.

The dead were five men, four women and two children, she said.

Namhkam is around five kilometres (three miles) from the border with China’s Yunnan province, with TNLA fighters claiming control of the town following weeks of fighting last year.

Images on social media showed people sifting through rubble and carrying a young person who appeared to be wounded.

One video showed several destroyed buildings. AFP reporters geolocated that video to a site in Namhkam and said it had not appeared online before.

One resident said she had seen 13 wounded people in the local hospital.

“I heard they will hold funerals this evening,” she told AFP, asking for anonymity for security reasons.

The TNLA had warned residents of the danger of further airstrikes and said people would be allowed to leave the town for safety, she added.

AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment.

Since last year the military has lost swaths of territory near the border with China in northern Shan state to an alliance of armed ethnic minority groups and “People’s Defence Forces” battling to overturn its coup.

The groups have seized a regional military command and taken control of lucrative border trade crossings, prompting rare public criticism by military supporters of the junta’s top leadership.

Earlier this week junta chief Min Aung Hlaing warned civilians in territory held by ethnic minority armed groups to prepare for military counterattacks, state media reported.

The junta also announced this week that it had declared the TNLA a “terrorist” organisation.

Those found supporting or contacting the TNLA and two other ethnic minority armed groups, the Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), can now face legal action.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021 and launched a crackdown that sparked an armed uprising.

Conflict since the coup has forced more than 2.7 million people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

WHILE STILL UNDER ARREST

Telegram chief Durov announces ‘new features’ to combat illicit content

By AFP
September 6, 2024

Founder and chief executive Pavel Durov lashed out at claims that 'Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise' - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Steve Jennings

Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov on Friday announced a range of new features aimed at combating illicit content, bots and scammers, a week after he was arrested and charged by French authorities over violations on the messaging app.

Durov had on Thursday broken his silence with his first public comments following his arrest, which he slammed as “misguided” and “surprising”.

But he had also acknowledged that Telegram was “not perfect” and would take more action against illegal content which he argues comes from a tiny proportion of its 950 million users.

“While 99.999 percent of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001 percent involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk,” he wrote in his new statement on Telegram Friday.

“That’s why this year we are committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise,” he added.

Durov said Telegram had removed the “people nearby” feature, which allowed users to locate other Telegram users but he said “was used by less than 0.1 percent of Telegram users, but had issues with bots and scammers.”

In its place, Telegram is launching “businesses nearby” to showcase “legitimate, verified businesses.”

He said Telegram had also disabled new media uploads to Telegraph, its standalone blogging tool, “which seems to have been misused by anonymous actors”, he said.

Following four days of detention, Durov, 39, was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on Telegram.

He had been arrested August 24 at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after arriving aboard a private jet and was questioned in the subsequent days by investigators.

Durov was granted bail of five million euros ($5.5 million) on the condition that he must report to a police station twice a week as well as remain in France.

On Thursday, he defiantly said that France was wrong to hold him accountable for “crimes committed by third parties on the platform”.

An enigmatic figure who rarely speaks in public, Durov is a citizen of Russia, France and the United Arab Emirates, where Telegram is based.

Forbes magazine estimates his current fortune at $15.5 billion, though he proudly promotes the virtues of an ascetic life that includes ice baths and not drinking alcohol or coffee.

The Body Shop rescued from administration after deal


By AFP
September 7, 2024


The Body Shop was founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick and has become a staple of the British high street - Copyright AFP Daniel LEAL

Growth capital firm Aurea on Saturday announced the completion of its acquisition of UK-based cosmetics group The Body Shop, renowned for ethical hair and skin products.

The 50-year-old business entered administration in February, which led to FRP Advisory being brought in to try to salvage part of the group.

Soon after, The Body Shop announced it would shutter almost half of its 198 stores in Britain. On collapsing, it employed about 1,500 staff across its UK stores, and a total 7,000 worldwide.

“This investment demonstrates Aurea’s focus on backing purpose-led and differentiated brands in the Beauty, Wellness and Longevity sector and represents its largest transaction to date,” Aurea said in a statement.

Remaining stores are expected to continue trading under the new deal.

German private equity firm Aurelius had bought The Body Shop in November, but the retailer ran into trouble in a tough economic climate over the key Christmas trading period.

The Body Shop was founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick and has become a staple of the British high street, but it has been under various owners since she sold it to French cosmetics giant L’Oreal in 2006.

Roddick, who died in 2007 from a brain haemorrhage, rapidly expanded the business from modest beginnings with a determination to offer products that had not been tested on animals.

She also set out to make her business environmentally friendly, with customers encouraged to return empty containers for refilling at the original shop in Brighton on England’s south coast.

Mike Jatania and Charles Denton will serve as executive chairman and CEO respectively.

“With The Body Shop, we have acquired a truly iconic brand with highly engaged consumers in over 70 markets around the world,” said British tycoon and Aurea co-founder Jatania.

“We plan to focus relentlessly on exceeding their expectations by investing in product innovation and seamless experiences across all of the channels where customers shop while paying homage to the brand’s ethical and activist positioning.”

US climate envoy says discussed plans for summit on methane at Beijing talks

By AFP
September 6, 2024

Copyright POOL/AFP Andy Wong

United States climate envoy John Podesta said on Friday that plans were moving forward for a summit with China on reducing emissions of methane and other highly polluting non-CO2 gases.

China is the world’s leading emitter of climate change-inducing greenhouse gases, including methane, followed by the United States.

Podesta’s visit to Beijing comes as experts say China could be near or already at peak emissions — a potentially watershed moment in international efforts to keep global temperatures below targets set by the 2016 Paris Agreement.

While acknowledging “some differences”, Podesta said he had held “excellent” talks with Chinese counterpart Liu Zhenmin and foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing.

The two sides had “made plans to hold a summit on non-CO2 gas — methane, N2O, hydrofluorocarbons”, he said.

“They get less attention but they’re fully half of what’s causing global warming,” he said.

Wang said on Friday the talks in Beijing had gone “smoothly”, hailing “pragmatic results in cooperation”.

“Both sides engaged in further dialogue and clarified the direction of our joint efforts,” Wang said.

This sends “a positive signal to the outside world that as two major powers, China and the United States not only need to cooperate but can indeed work together”, he said.

Climate talks often revolve around reducing the most dangerous greenhouse gas, CO2.

But methane — which is particularly potent but relatively short-lived — is a key target for countries wanting to slash emissions quickly and slow climate change.

That is because large amounts of methane simply leak into the atmosphere from oil and gas projects.

Methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry have risen for three consecutive years, according to the International Energy Agency, hitting near-record highs in 2023.

The United States has expressed intentions to hold a summit with China on these types of gases at the upcoming United Nations COP29 climate summit hosted by Azerbaijan in November.

China has stopped short of signing a global pledge led by the United States and the European Union to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030.

Previous US climate envoy John Kerry, a former secretary of state, developed a friendship with Xie Zhenhua, the veteran Chinese climate negotiator, with the two holding extended, secluded talks in California ahead of last year’s COP28 in Dubai.

Their unusually close relationship helped bring consensus at that summit.

Before the Dubai meeting, China promised a broad plan to tackle methane — an especially touchy political issue because methane comes mostly from its coal mining.

Heat pumps are key to home electrification — but will Americans buy in?


By AFP
September 6, 2024

Technicians install a heat pump that replaces the furnace and air conditioner at Su Balasubramanian's home in Washington, DC - 

Copyright AFP ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS

Becca MILFELD

On a hot summer day, contractors snake wiring through the basement of a townhouse in southeast Washington to install a heat pump, a key component of the United States’ multi-billion dollar push towards greater home electrification.

Less sexy than an electric car, more obscure than solar panels, heat pumps are an energy-efficient system for replacing both a heater and air conditioner in one appliance. Heat pump hot water heaters also exist.

And the clunky looking machines are seen as a crucial weapon in the war to maneuver the United States into more climate-friendly habits.

Common in Asia and Europe, the technology has had slow uptake in the United States — something the White House is hoping to fix as part of a multi-billion-dollar spending and subsidies plan.

Su Balasubramanian, who spoke as contractors drilled in her home below, told AFP she previously “didn’t really know much about it,” despite being environmentally minded.

In 2023, residences accounted for some 18 percent of energy-related US CO2 emissions, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) — a number that less gas and greater electrification can reduce.

Hoping to spur heat pump uptake, the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s 2022 landmark climate bill, provides up to $2,000 in tax credits for those installing either type.

Thousands more IRA dollars in rebates are additionally being rolled out for low- and middle-income households purchasing a heat pump. On top of that, individual states provide their own incentives.

Balasubramanian qualified for Washington’s Affordable Home Electrification program, which provided her with total home electrification at no cost.

The 44-year-old social worker is receiving a heat pump air source, heat pump hot water heater, induction stove and a “heavy up” electrical panel amperage upgrade, worth about $27,000.

Balasubramanian said she would “definitely not” have been able to afford the project on her own.

Rather than tackling so much electrification at once, which can be financially prohibitive, advocates recommend electrifying one appliance at a time when it breaks.

Heat pumps can, in many instances, be more affordable than a gas furnace or hot water heater.

In fact, an April report published in the scientific journal Joule estimated that heat pump air systems would be cost effective without subsidies in 59 percent of US households.

“Within the early adopters, those who are very motivated by climate, I think electrification is really taking off,” Rebecca Foster, CEO of the energy-focused nonprofit VEIC, told AFP.

But she added, there is still “a lot of work to do to raise awareness.”

In Balasubramanian’s program, for example, participants are more often “seniors on fixed incomes,” Kalen Roach, marketing and communications manager for the DC Sustainable Energy Utility program, told AFP.

“I would say a decent bit of customers do need some convincing,” he added.

Full adoption of heat pump air systems in the United States would reduce national greenhouse gas emissions by five to nine percent, according to the April Joule report.



– ‘Role to play’ –



Heat pumps have outsold gas furnaces in the United States in 2022 and 2023, according to the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute.

A heat pump air system, which is placed outside, uses electricity to transfer heat rather than generate it. During winter, hot air is transferred from outside into a home. During summer, hot air is transferred outdoors.

Southeastern states have had greatest adoption, with South Carolina in the lead at 40 percent penetration as of 2020, according to EIA data.

The key for those states’ high uptake is cheap electricity, low gas infrastructure, and the need for air conditioning, Panama Bartholomy, executive director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition nonprofit, told AFP.

Meanwhile some of the greatest heat pump sales are happening in new construction, he said.

Deane Coady, a retired teacher, lives in a leafy, historic district in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, a state that has only six percent heat pump penetration.

“I am horrified and petrified thinking of the future,” she told AFP just before having a heat pump installed in the second unit of her two-unit home.

“I decided to electrify for climate reasons, primarily,” she said, adding that the solar panels she already installed will keep the electric bill low.

Last year, more than 267,000 US tax returns were filed claiming a credit for an air system heat pump, and more than 104,000 for a heat pump hot water heater.

Also critical for uptake are informed contractors who encourage heat pumps, but Bartholomy warned there is sometimes “a lot of institutional inertia.”

The IRA additionally offers states money to train contractors on electrification.

“Everybody has their role to play,” said Balasubramanian, who as a social worker said she believes progress happens when “there’s impact at all levels.”