US companies may finally have to admit their carbon emissions under new SEC rule

New rule could stop firms from ‘greenwashing’

Josh Marcus
San Francisco
THE INDEPENDENT

Landmark IPPC report reveals scale of the climate crisis

Some of the most powerful companies in America, and thus the world, may finally be forced to disclose how much their businesses are impacting the climate crisis, according to a proposed rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The proposal, which the SEC approved for consideration on Monday, would create a uniform framework that requires all publicly traded companies to measure their greenhouse gas emissions, evaluate the material risks they face from the climate crisis, and share that information with the public and financial regulators.

Environmental advocates hailed the new rule, which now goes into a two-month public comment period before the SEC gives it a final vote.

“Markets are an indispensable tool that we must leverage in order to make the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy at the pace scientifically necessary to prevent climate catastrophe,” representative Sean Casten, a Democrat from Illinois, who is a sponsor on the related Climate Risk Disclosure Act in the House, said in a statement. “I urge the SEC to thoroughly evaluate feedback on the proposal issued today to ensure the strongest possible final rule.”

The new rule will provide a more concrete way to get companies to go green, according to Bill Weihl, a former sustainability executive at Google and Facebook.

“It will make it possible for all interested stakeholders, including shareholders, to then push companies to take real action,” he told The New York Times on Monday.

All companies covered under the proposal, which passed with a 3-1 vote from SEC commissioners, would be required to disclose how much greenhouse gas emissions their business creates, including from the electricity they use and vehicles involved in their operations.

Larger companies are required to have their numbers vetted by an outside auditor, and to disclose so-called scope 3 emissions, which measure the carbon footprint of a company’s suppliers and customers.

Perhaps most crucially for green investors, the new rule mandates that companies that have made carbon pledges detail how they will achieve them, and disclose technical details on how much they plan to rely on carbon offsets or a specific internal benchmark to price carbon impacts.

Both of these facets have come under scrutiny from environmentalists who argue companies often engage in “greenwashing” and use these factors to overstate the impact of their environmental work.

“Our core bargain from the 1930s is that investors get to decide which risks to take, as long as public companies provide full and fair disclosure and are truthful in those disclosures,” SEC chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. “Today, investors representing literally tens of trillions of dollars support climate-related disclosures because they recognise that climate risks can pose significant financial risks to companies, and investors need reliable information about climate risks to make informed investment decisions.”

Going green may now be vogue in some corners of the corporate world, such as Silicon Valley, but a lack of uniform reporting standards has made meaningful comparisons between companies difficult.

For instance, Ford tracks the emissions from its production lines, as well as its customers on the road, while electric-vehicle maker Tesla only tracks production emissions from a single line of its cars, the Model 3.

Others have doubted whether the SEC, a financial regulator, has the appropriate expertise or legal mandate to make such a significant change to environmental policies.

“Setting climate policy is the job of lawmakers, not the SEC,” former SEC chair Jay Clayton, a Trump administration appointee, argued in an op-ed on Sunday in The Wall Street Journal. “Taking a new, activist approach to climate policy — an area far outside the SEC’s authority, jurisdiction and expertise — will deservedly draw legal challenges,” he added.

West Virginia has threatened to challenge the SEC in court if the new policy goes through, arguing the government doesn’t have a “compelling” state interest in forcing firms to make climate disclosures.

If passed, the new rules would be phased in over several years, with the largest firms facing the new requirements in 2023, and the rest the following fiscal year.

Countries like Brazil, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Switzerland are working on or already require climate disclosures, and Britain and Japan will roll out environmental reporting rules next month.

In 2024, large firms listed on the European stock exchange will also have to report their emissions.

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AUSTRALIA 

Debate escalates over controversial nuclear waste storage site

• Michele Madigan
 
• 15 March 2022

        

The long conflict between the federal government plan for a national radioactive waste facility in South Australia and the opponents of the plan has continued to escalate in the past months. On 19 November, Kimba on SA’s Eyre Peninsula was declared South Australia’s Agricultural Town of the Year. Notwithstanding this significant honour, on 29 November the federal Minister for Resources Keith Pitt finally made the formal declaration that Napandee in the Kimba district was the chosen site for the proposed federal radioactive waste dump.

With just 4.5 per cent of South Australia as arable farming, the Napandee site is on premier farming country. The Barngarla peoples are the Traditional Owners of the area.

The federal government plan is for two adjacent facilities: one for low-level radioactive waste and the other for long-lived intermediate waste (ILW) from Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). It was quite extraordinary that when interviewed then by SA ABC radio Minister Pitt said only that the facility would be used ‘for low level waste.’

In addition to the ILW already at ANSTO will be the latest shipment of two tonnes of reprocessed nuclear waste from the United Kingdom to Australia. The shipment consists of four 500kg canisters held inside a forged steel container called a TN-81.

Since the late 1990s, the supposed needs of nuclear medicine have always been promoted as key in successive government claims for hosting the nation’s radioactive waste in what understandably might be an otherwise unpalatable addition to any community. Throughout 2021, in the face of opposition, Resources Minister Keith Pitt occasionally emerged to make exaggerated claims of the necessity of the dump for the future of nuclear medicine in Australia.

In this debate around nuclear medicine, it is essential to present up-to-date facts. Nuclear expert Dr Jim Green addressed relevant facts in his paper, Nuclear waste and nuclear medicine in Australia, ‘…According to Medicare figures, nuclear medicine represents less than three percent of medical imaging. Nuclear medicine should not be confused with X-rays using iodine contrast, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, which are used much more commonly used…Nuclear medicine typically uses short-lived radioisotopes and the waste does not require special handling after a short period of radioactivity…’

 

'It would be far safer, cheaper and completely possible to keep the long lived intermediate level waste at ANSTO until a required "world’s best practice" underground site is identified and built.'

For decades, ANSTO has presented the argument that there's no more room for the storage of their own nuclear waste manufactured on site at their Lucas Heights facility. This has been supported by various governments as necessitating the creation of a federal waste facility elsewhere. 

However in the 2020 Senate Inquiry, the CEO of the federal nuclear regulator ARPANSA confirmed ANSTO has the ability to manage the waste onsite ‘for decades to come.’

The significant 2021-22 federal budget allocation of $59.8m to ANSTO for building expansion provided a forum for nuclear experts to advise government in the resultant September Public Works Committee hearings. Senator Hughes’ request to explain why Sydney is seen as a safer option for storing its nuclear waste ‘than a far less densely populated area’ gave Dr Margaret Beavis from the Medical Association for Prevention of War, a chance to make a crucial point in the debate:

‘I think the expertise and security at ANSTO is far greater. I also think the risks from this waste pale into insignificance compared to the risks of the nuclear reactor. So, if you're going to be keeping one large facility secure, you may as well keep it all there. The regulator has said quite clearly that there's sufficient space at Lucas Heights to store this waste for decades to come. If you've got to look after the reactor-which we absolutely do have to do…’

Throughout the long campaign, Traditional Owners, Barngarla women and men, exhausted by the 25 years it took to successfully establish their native title rights over their traditional areas, have been incredulous at being excluded from the vital site vote.

On 21 December, following the Minister’s official declaration, Chair of the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation Jason Bilney made the official announcement on State Parliament House steps, of the launch of their court appeal against the federal process which had denied them having a say on their own country.

Bilney faced the media flanked by Craig Wilkins and Barry Wakelin, former Member for Grey and implacable local Kimba opponent to the dump plan. Wilkins as the CEO of CCSA, South Australia’s premier conservation body, the Conservation Council of South Australia took the opportunity to announce their latest report which clearly states, ‘the planned facility is not consistent with international best practice, and waste will be placed in temporary storage without a plan for what happens next.’

In January this year, the Kimba district was affected by floods causing widespread damage to roads and infrastructure. And in February the State Greens initiated Legislative Council debate of opposition to the federal plan concluded with the Greens and Labor opposition in a tied vote with vote forcibly resolved by the Liberal Speaker.

The question remains: what are the requirements for this plan to go ahead? An historic hurdle is that the former Olsen Liberal Government passed legislation to prevent radioactive waste being brought into the state. This particular state legislation prohibited the introduction of the higher level waste ILW. Later, the Rann Labor government raised the threshold to prohibit the importation of any national radioactive waste. Thus the State Parliament must conduct a public parliamentary inquiry. 

Overriding this South Australian legislation is another obstacle the federal government must deal with to achieve the planned facility. As well, the Barngarla court case is in train, unlikely to be concluded before the federal election. The strong No Rad Waste opposition continues on many levels in Kimba and with their colleagues throughout Eyre Peninsula. The SA State election (on 19 March) is imminent. The regulator ARPANSA must enter into the licensing process of the project. The federal government has named ARWA Australian Radioactive Waste Agency as the department which has carriage of the nuclear facility plan; legislation must be passed for it to become an independent body.

However more than any of the serious domestic hurdles, recent weeks have brought home quite starkly the dangers of nuclear projects including this one. The Chernobyl site was among the first Ukrainian areas to be captured by invading Russian forces. The Russian seizure of Europe’s largest nuclear plant Zaporizhzhia is another cause for alarm.

The present government plan for Australia’s long-lived intermediate level waste means ongoing transportation for the 1700 kms from its present storage place in Lucas Heights, to be stored above ground for the next one hundred years. There is no dispute that this ILW is toxic and dangerous for an unimaginable 10,000 years. At least two nuclear engineers including Alan Parkinson have pointed out the dangers of this plan open as it is to terrorist attacks in this uncertain world.

It would be far safer, cheaper and completely possible to keep the long lived intermediate level waste at ANSTO until a required ‘world’s best practice’ underground site is identified and built. Whichever party is successful in the coming federal elections, it is to be hoped good sense prevails in this crucial national issue.

For further information, visit Nuclear Free Campaign.

Michele Madigan is a Sister of St Joseph who has spent over 40 years working with Aboriginal people in remote areas of SA, in Adelaide and in country SA. Her work has included advocacy and support for senior Aboriginal women of Coober Pedy in their successful 1998-2004 campaign against the proposed national radioactive dump.

Main image: Radiation sign. (Ryan McGinnis / Getty Images)

Let slip the dogs of war: A tale of futility and bloody-mindedness

• Dorothy Horsfield
 
• 22 March 2022

        

In an article published four days before the launch of his country’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow-based Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC)Dr Andrei Kortunov warned of its tragic consequences for Russia. The de facto partition of Ukraine, he said, as a result of the Kremlin’s recognition of the independence of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, will signify ‘the final formalisation of he division of Europe’ from which there may be no easy retreat. 

Even with the likelihood of a relatively rapid Russian victory on the battlefield, Kortunov was conjuring a darker and more dangerous East/West confrontational future for his homeland. It is an influential narrative that has been widely re-iterated by media spokespeople both within Russian think-tanks such as RIAC and internationally. For Kortunov, it is one to lament: Relations between Russia and the West will be clarified, he wrote, but it will be the crystal clarity of a cold January dawn, when the scorching north wind takes your breath away and squeezes involuntary tears out of your eyes.

I first met Kortunov in 2017, when he travelled to ANU to address a conference on ‘Russia in the wake of the Cold War’ that I had organized. A gentle, humane man and a formidable scholar of international relations, he has a decades-long commitment to post-Soviet integration into a globalized world. This has meant the pursuit of multilateral diplomacy, commentaries on trends in trade and investment and philanthropic engagements with a long list of organizations, including the International Crisis Group, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Oxfam in Africa.

Under his directorship, RIAC also fosters research collaborations and educational exchanges with policy forums such as the Brookings Institution and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as with American, British, European and Chinese universities, and with political leaders, not only among his country’s Eurasian neighbours, but globally. A recent Princeton study described the Council as the world’s most influential think-tank on Russian affairs.

Kortunov’s pre-invasion analysis of the impact on Russia and the West of the war in Ukraine has proven to be prescient. The Putin government has become an international pariah, with virtually no allies or, at least sympathetic observers in the West. Even China, with whom it allegedly has close ties, is currently radically reviewing its stance regarding Russia’s belligerence. Confronted with the unified global condemnation of Russia’s actions, a consensus seems to be emerging among Beijing’s policy-makers of the need to distance China from any potential economic and geopolitical impact of what is perceived as an unwinnable war. It is also argued that China may be in a unique position to leverage Putin to stop the war.

 

'There has been some talk of the need for bringing a mediator to the negotiation table. Both China and India have been suggested as candidates.' 

 

Kortunov’s other predictions add up to a catalogue of human misery, in which Russia is relegated to the role of an isolated rogue state. These include an expanded, very costly and protracted arms race, both nuclear and conventional, in which over time a wealthier and more advantaged Western alliance inevitably would surpass the formidable Russian arsenal; the impoverishment of the economy, not only through draconian sanctions; European countries, the UK and the US already are seeking out alternative sources, for example of hydrocarbons and agricultural imports; and the exclusion of Russian research scientists from participation in the further development of the 4th Industrial Revolution technologies of a world economy already in transition. In other words, the brutality and cruelty of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been deservedly described as an abomination which will mark the country’s relations with the West for decades to come.

What continues to be an enigma is that, despite his high-profile analyses of his country’s foreign policy challenges, Kortunov’s bleak warnings went unheeded behind the closed doors of Putin’s inner circle. In contrast, anecdotally, it has been repeatedly claimed there was a shared assumption among Russia’s intellectual and business elite that any plan to conquer Ukraine was geostrategic insanity. Among many long-term Russia watchers in the West, it was also assumed that geopolitical commonsense would prevail.

Four weeks into the war it is hard not to share Kortunov’s poetic lament. As the humanitarian catastrophe intensifies and murderous devastation is wrought on cities across Ukraine, diplomatic solutions remain as elusive as ever. At this stage, carrying only a modicum of hope, there has been some talk of the need for bringing a mediator to the negotiation table. Both China and India have been suggested as candidates. 

What remains uncertain is how intransigent is Putin’s commitment to his conditions for peace-making. There is the question too of the extent to which America’s long-standing diplomatic obtuseness, warmongering and self-righteousness, of which its dominant role in NATO is emblematic, will undermine any diplomatic attempt to bring to an end the conflict. To paraphrase geopolitical realist Henry Kissinger’s resonate observation, the vilification of Putin and by implication post-Soviet Russia is not a constructive policy. It is the alibi for not having one. Or as Kortunov put it, what is needed now is empathy, flexibility and compromise.

 

 

---

Dr Dorothy Horsfield is currently a Foundation Fellow at the ANU's Australian Studies Institute. Her most recent book is titled Russia in the Wake of the Cold War Perceptions and Prejudices. 

Main image: People stand in front of a school hit by a Russian attack in March, 2022 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. (Chris McGrath / Getty Images)

China, Africa continue to jointly promote common progress

March 22, 2022 Liu Yuxi World Stage 



This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the African Union (AU). Recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping extended his warm congratulations to African countries and people in a congratulatory message to the AU Summit, which mirrored the unbreakable and everlasting friendship between China and Africa.

The AU, as a successor of the Organization of African Unity founded in 1963, officially replaced the latter in July 2002 when it held its first summit, and has become the most representative and authoritative intergovernmental organization in Africa.


Over the past 20 years, the AU has stayed committed to seeking strength through unity, actively explored a development path suited to Africa, facilitated important progress in regional integration and coordinated a concerted response from African countries to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Such efforts have proven effective in maintaining peace, stability and development in Africa, and have won Africa growing influence and stature in the world
China and the AU are important partners in promoting high-level China-Africa community with a shared future and safeguarding international equity and justice.


China is the world’s largest developing country, and Africa is the continent with the largest number of developing countries. Shared past experiences and similar aims and goals have brought China and Africa close together.

Since the founding of the AU, China-AU relations have been constantly developing. The two sides have maintained frequent high-level mutual visits. In 2008, they established a strategic dialogue mechanism, and their political mutual trust has been continuously deepened.

he China-aided AU headquarters’ building, which was completed in 2012, became a new monument of China-Africa cooperation. In 2015 and 2018, the Chinese Mission to the AU and the AU Representative Office in Beijing were respectively launched, further consolidating their bilateral relationship.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and the AU have helped each other and fought side by side to defeat the pandemics.

In February 2020, the AU issued a communiqué in support of China’s anti-pandemic efforts, being the first international organization to offer China such support.

China has provided more than 100 batches of medical supplies to African countries and the AU. The China-aided headquarters of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commenced its phase-1 project ahead of schedule and was topped-out at the end of the last year.

China and the AU signed a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a coordination mechanism for Belt and Road cooperation. It marked that the China-Africa joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative has entered a new phase of implementation, and has injected new impetus into China-Africa win-win cooperation and common development.

At the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in November 2021, President Xi announced ‘nine programs’ for future cooperation with Africa, including a donation of another 1 billion doses of vaccines to Africa aiming to help Africa strengthen capacity building in public health.

With profound changes and a pandemic unseen in a century, the global governance system is undergoing unprecedented adjustments. To respond to new challenges brought about by COVID-19, President Xi put forward the Global Development Initiative (GDI), and the initiative has been well received by African countries.

China welcomes the AU and African countries to join the initiative, and is willing to further synergize the GDI with the AU Agenda 2063. The GDI will become another powerful booster to promote China-Africa cooperation and play a positive role in Africa’s economic recovery and sustainable development.

Both history and reality prove that the close relationship between China and Africa is not forged within a day, nor was it bestowed by others. Instead, their relationship was a hard-won result of the two sides’ long-term mutual assistance offered through thick and thin.

The majestic strength of the 2.7 billion people in China and Africa is unstoppable. China-Africa cooperation will continue to enhance the welfare of the Chinese and African peoples, and create a bright future featuring common development and prosperity.

Finance Industry’s Climate Promises Leave Plenty of Room for Oil and Gas

Eric Roston, Bloomberg News

A pumpjack is silhouetted as it operates in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday, March 18, 2018. Two years after descending into junk, Azerbaijan's shortest path to winning back its investment grade is by rebuilding the stash of petrodollars it raided during a recession and a banking meltdown, according to Fitch Ratings. Photograph: Taylor Weidman/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Fewer than half of 150 major financial institutions have restricted their business with the oil-and-gas sector, even though many of them have made high-profile pledges to reduce their contribution to climate change, according to new research by the Paris-based nonprofit Reclaim Finance.

The analysis, called the Oil and Gas Policy Tracker, looked at governance policies at 60 banks, 60 investment institutions and 30 insurers. Of the whole group, 74 belong to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero(1), an initiative that requires members to end their contribution to global heating by mid-century. More than half of the companies—including 20 of the GFANZ members—have no policies governing their oil-and-gas business. 

Among the companies with policies in place, the most popular restrictions are bans on several kinds of unconventional oil. More than a third of the firms limit Arctic and oil-sands work, with fewer prohibitions on shale and ultra-deepwater oil. Many of these policies are weak or flawed, according to Reclaim Finance and more than 15 NGO partners in the analysis. Forty-six of 54 rules governing Arctic oil and gas, for example, fail to use the common guidelines developed by a unit of the Arctic Council, a group of countries and peoples with land in the far north.

Just five companies, all banks, have quit or limited financing oil and gas expansion, according to the research.

“We wanted to have a better understanding about how it is possible to have—on one side—financial institutions that are claiming to be willing to do what it takes to limit global warming to 1.5°C and adopting policies on the most polluting sectors, while at the same time it seems like it doesn’t change,” said Lucie Pinson, director of Reclaim Finance. 

The analysis publishes at a moment when the chasm is widening between economic business-as-usual and the health of the climate. The latest report from climate science’s most authoritative body concluded that without a comprehensive, all-inclusive and collaborative effort among governments, the private sector, civil society and beyond, humanity “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.”

(1) The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero is co-chaired by Michael R. Bloomberg, the owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Russia billionaire Dmitrievich Pumpyansky's superyacht detained after docking in Gibraltar

TV footage showed 'Axioma' moored at Gibraltar flying a Maltese flag

The Axioma superyacht, believed to be owned by oligarch

 Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, 

who is on the EU's list of sanctioned 

Russians, docked at a port in Gibraltar on March 21. Reuters

The National

Mar 21, 2022

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

A luxurious superyacht linked to a Russian billionaire was detained by authorities after docking in Gibraltar on Monday.

Western sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine have forced the relocation of many luxury yachts from Europe in recent weeks.

Several have headed to the Maldives, which has no extradition treaty with the US.

READ MORE

Roman Abramovich docks luxury superyacht in Turkey's Bodrum

Reuters TV footage showed the Axioma, believed to belong to Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, owner of Russia's largest steel pipe maker, moored at Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, flying a Maltese flag.

Mr Pumpyansky, who is currently under UK and EU sanctions, owns steel group TMK. The UK imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian citizens and entities last week, enabling authorities to freeze their assets.

Refinitiv data shows the 72-metre vessel is owned by a British Virgin Islands holding company called Pyrene investments, Reuters reported. An article published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists as part of the Panama Papers leaks names Pumpyansky as a beneficiary of the holding.

Forbes and specialist publication Superyacht Fan also list him as the Axioma's owner.

Dmitrievich Pumpyansky owns steel group TMK. Reuters

The Gibraltar government confirmed that the Axioma had arrived in port after asking permission to enter and "was confirmed to be the subject of an arrest action by a leading international bank in the Supreme Court of Gibraltar".

"The vessel is now subject to arrest by the Admiralty Marshal until further order," it said, without specifying the legal claims from creditors against the vessel or the vessel's owner.

Refinitiv shipping data showed the Axioma left the Caribbean island of Antigua on February 27 and spent the past three weeks crossing the Atlantic before reaching Gibraltar.

Earlier on Monday, a vessel linked to Roman Abramovich, the sanctioned owner of Chelsea football club, docked in the seaside city of Bodrum in south-west Turkey.

Kazakhstan reveals amount of direct investments from US

Kazakhstan Materials 22 March 2022 


BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 22. The US is the second largest investor for Kazakhstan after the Netherlands, Trend reports via the Kazakh Invest national company.

Over the past 17 years, direct investment inflows in Kazakhstan from the US have exceeded $47.2 billion, making up nearly 13.5 percent of the total foreign direct investments.

Currently, 414 legal entities, branches and representative offices are operating in the country with the participation of the US companies. For nine months of 2021, the volume of the US investments amounted to $3.2 billion. Thus, the inflow of investments has doubled compared to the same period of 2020.

According to the company, four projects - in the oil and gas industry, agricultural machinery, real estate and renewable energy sources - with the participation of investors from the US are at the implementation stage.

One of them is a project on building a plant for the production of sprinklers with a total investment of $50 million, implemented by the US Valmont company.

Besides, the US Freedom Builders company is implementing a project on building a multifunctional retail and residential complex worth $57.6 million on the territory of the Khorgos International Center for Border Cooperation.

Another project - the construction of the first and second phases of a 48 MW wind farm worth $200 million - is being jointly implemented by the Italian ENI and the US General Electric companies, added Kazakh Invest.

Reducing plastic waste to get “clean and green” in Lao PDR

MAURICE ANDRES RAWLINS|

MARCH 22, 2022
THE WORLD BANK

Plastic trapped in an abandoned structure on the Mekong River, Laos.

 Photo: Xaisongkham Induangchanthy/World Bank

Over the past 20 years, Lao PDR has had one of the fastest growing economies in East Asia and the Pacific. Rapid economic growth has led to a huge increase in waste produced, but systems for dealing with this have not kept pace. Rapid urbanization and changing lifestyles have led to a doubling of waste over the past 20 years in some areas. This has short- and long-term health and economic implications.

What kind of waste is development bringing?

As much as 24% of the waste found in Lao cities is plastic. As our new video shows, plastic waste is now found everywhere in the environment, affecting fish catches, blocking drains, causing air pollution and health issues, and decreasing the value of tourism destinations. The increase in single-use plastics due to COVID-19, and the escalating plastic waste imports since 2018, are making the problem worse.

A 2020 World Bank study of six Lao cities found that 95% percent of plastic pollution is caused by only 10 items — all single-use plastics. Single-use food and drink packaging is the top plastic product category, accounting for nearly half of this pollution — the hospitality and tourism sectors have been identified as key contributors.
Location-specific details on survey findings can be found at https://bit.ly/3iokodu
Data source: World Bank. 2021. Supporting Lao PDR in Development of a Plastic Action Plan—Plastic Diagnostics)


As Laos does not yet have a specific regulatory framework on waste management, or clearly defined responsibilities, much of this rubbish is not disposed of properly. Waste management is largely limited to urban centers, and even there only 40-60% of waste is collected — and then taken to landfill sites that are mostly poorly managed. Uncollected waste is burned or openly dumped, often into waterways.

This pollution can have devastating effects. A World Bank study published in 2021 found that 10,000 deaths each year in Laos stem from environmental health factors, with almost half these deaths attributable to air pollution. Environmental risks also resulted in more than 100 million days of illness, costing the economy dearly.

What can Laos do?

The Lao government has expressed a commitment to addressing the solid waste and plastics challenge. Its vision for green economic growth, laid out in the National Green Growth Strategy 2030, is centered on reforms that aim to use natural capital sustainably while reducing environmental costs. Environmental degradation will otherwise make it difficult to achieve economic diversification and allow the Lao economy to become more competitive.

The government is developing a National Plastics Action Plan with support from the World Bank and the EU Switch Asia Facility. Laos has also signed the ASEAN Bangkok Declaration on Marine Plastics, and ratified the amended Basel Convention, which focuses on control of transboundary plastics. The policy framework taking shape will complement and help coordinate ongoing community-level efforts around the country to manage plastics.

A new World Bank report, Get CLEAN and GREEN—Solid Waste and Plastic Management in Lao PDR, supported by the Korean Green Growth Trust Fund and PROBLUE, offers recommendations on how to better control solid waste and plastic pollution and is being used by the government as a key input for the National Plastic Action Plan. The report summarizes the findings of plastic and solid waste studies in Laos and assesses different ways of combating plastic pollution. The report is designed as a tool for planning and decision-making to reduce plastic pollution and provides a basis for better solid waste management. Recommendations include:
• Adopt a mix of regulatory and economic instruments, voluntary agreements, and awareness-building activities for plastics management.
• Focus on the top 10 plastic product items, which represent 95% of plastic found in rivers.
• Introduce measures gradually, starting with simple, low-cost actions that have wide political and public support and can be readily monitored and enforced.
• Focus on the hospitality and tourism sectors, where many measures are immediately feasible and impact can be significant.
• Engage the private sector and retail businesses in plastic reduction, collection, and recycling.

To reduce plastic pollution, behavior change will be needed. Consumers and retailers can play key roles in preventing and managing of waste. Regulations can help people with the necessary changes by making it easier for them to identify, separate, reuse and, recycle waste. Retailers can provide environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic food packages, while consumers can bring reusable containers when shopping.

As the Lao economy develops and towns continue to grow, proactive steps are needed to prevent further plastic pollution and ensure sustainable economic development. The World Bank brings continued support to the government’s efforts to reduce plastic pollution and develop the country’s solid waste sector.


Author

Maurice Andres Rawlins
Senior Environmental Specialist
MORE BLOGS BY MAURICE

HAPPY NEW YEAR /NORWUZ

Iraqi Kurds mark Nowruz amid dire economic conditions

Dana Taib Menmy
IRAQI KURDISTAN
22 March, 2022

Iraqi Kurds celebrated the Nowruz feast amid growing frustrations with local authorities and dire economic conditions.

Thousands of men, women, youth and children wearing colorful traditional Kurdish clothes gathered at Salim Street, in Sulaimaniyah city to express their pleasure, p

hoto by Dana Taib Menmy for TNA, March 20, 2022.

Kurds across the Iraqi Kurdistan region celebrated Nowruz, but increasing concerns over the indifference by local authorities to tackle the dire economic conditions have put a damper on the festivities.

Kurds celebrate Nowruz between March 21-23, which marks the beginning of the Kurdish New Year. Nowruz, a Persian word meaning "a new day'', is celebrated by many countries across the Middle East, the Caucauses, Central Asia, and particularly by the Kurdish communities in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria.

Celebrations include going out for picnicking and lighting bonfires with family and loved ones.

Kurdish youth joined hands to the traditional Kurdish dance and music in Sulaimaniyah city, as others were taking photos of them, 20 March 2022.

 [Dana Taib Menmy/TNA]

On Sunday afternoon, thousands of men, women, youth and children wearing colourful traditional Kurdish clothes gathered at Salim Street in Sulaimaniyah city. A number of young residents joined hands to the traditional Kurdish dance and music, while others eagerly took photos.

On Monday, thousands of families picnicked at the region’s beautiful resorts, and thousands of tourists from the other parts of Iraq flocked to the Kurdistan region to celebrate Nowruz.

"As a Kurdish youth, I congratulate all Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdistan region as well as in all the four parts of the greater Kurdistan on this Nowruz national feast. I am expressing my delight by wearing traditional Kurdish clothes, in order to resurrect our national culture and pass it on to the next generations," Bawan Rizgar, 30, from Sulaimaniyah told The New Arab.

"Unfortunately, I see a coldness in marking Nowruz by locals in the city this year because of the current dire economic and living conditions of the people of Kurdistan," Rizgar added.

Bawan Rizgar, 30, from Sulaimaniyah in traditional Kurdish garment, 20 March 2022. [Dana Taib Menmy/TNA]

Early on Sunday, Kurdish citizens in Iraq were angry over the news of two elderly retirees who had died while waiting to receive their delayed salaries. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which administers the region, previously promised to pay more than one million employees in the public payroll on time, but as of yet has not paid out the salaries for February.

Moreover, alarming hikes in the prices of foodstuff and fuel due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, coupled with rising unemployment rates in the private sector, have exacerbated the woes of the poorer and the middle classes.

Ahmed Mira, a Kurdish university lecturer, told The New Arab, "Indeed the Kurdish governance destroyed all the ceremonies as the principles of being a Kurd or the Kurdish nationality have been negatively affected as a result of the bad ruling of the Kurdish parties since the 1991 uprising."

"The passion for celebrating Nowruz is not as it was in the past," Mira added.

Ahmed Mira, a Kurdish university lecturer, 20 March 2022.
[Dana Taib Menmy/TNA]

The university lecturer also said, "Being happy in this country has become very unique because of the bad governance in the region. Poverty is a big misfortune that makes people feel unable to celebrate the feasts."

In 2020, a total lockdown was imposed by Kurdish authorities in Nowruz as the region was trying to restrict the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, on Wednesday, announced March 20-21, as an official holiday across the country in celebration of the Kurdish New Year. In two separate tweets in Kurdish and Arabic languages, he also congratulated all the Iraqi people, especially Kurds on Nowruz, emphasizing the need to reinforce Iraq's stability, security and integrity.

AIPAC defends list of far-right endorsements to members

ZIONIST ALLIES AGAINST BDS, FREE PALESTINE AND THE LEFT

In a long letter to its members, AIPAC has attempted to defend to its members its list of far-right candidates, doubling down on its identity as a single-issue organisation.

Brooke Anderson
Washington, D.C.
22 March, 2022

AIPAC has sent a letter to its members defending its recent choice of political endorsements. [Getty]

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has issued a letter to its members in an effort to defend its endorsements of far-right candidates, more than a quarter of whom deny the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"This is no moment for the pro-Israel movement to become selective about its friends," reads the letter, written by AIPAC President Betsy Berns Korn and CEO Howard Kohr, obtained by Jewish Insider and published last Friday morning.

"The one thing that guarantees Israel's ability to defend itself is the enduring support of the United States. When we launched our political action committee last year, we decided that we would base decisions about political contributions on only one thing: whether a political candidate supports the US-Israel relationship."

The endorsements earlier this month caused a stir, particularly in the Israeli and Jewish-American press, including from conservative-leaning voices, who believed AIPAC had gone too far in endorsing far-right candidates, some of whom have endorsed openly white supremacist and anti-Semitic views.

Most have pointed out that Jewish voters choose Democratic candidates by three to one. AIPAC, by far America's largest pro-Israel lobby group, however, appears to be cementing its role as a single-issue organisation.

"We can never let the things that divide Americans politically determine whether the United States will support Israel," the AIPAC leaders wrote in their letter. "We must be willing to stand with those who stand with Israel."

The letter concluded, "Israel can't afford to wait for such a moment of peril. Our job is to make America's friendship with Israel so robust, so certain, so broadly based, and so dependable that even the deep divisions of American politics never imperil that relationship and the ability of the Jewish state to defend itself."