UK

Public figures oppose sentencing of ‘Whole Truth 5’ in open letter

28th July 2024Leave a Commenton Public figures oppose sentencing of ‘Whole Truth 5’ in open letter

“This new government has inherited a suite of recent legislation that conflicts with International Human Rights Law, and has put everyone’s right to peaceful protest at risk. The new government can address this now, as they have with fossil fuel licensing.”

Defend Our Juries have published an open letter on the sentences handed to the ‘Whole Truth Five’, with signatories including political representatives, campaigners, trade unionists, faith leaders and cultural figures. You can read the Open Letter for Whole Truth Five below:

Dear Attorney General, Richard Hermer KC,

This week has seen one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history. On Thursday 18th July, five people were given the highest sentences for nonviolent protest this country has ever seen. They were on trial for holding a zoom call, calling on others to take action to raise the alarm about the greatest threat humanity has ever faced: the climate and nature crises.

These sentences were handed down just days after the new government’s policy of no new licensing for oil and gas infrastructure was announced. In a world of sound, evidence-based governance, none of this needed to happen. With prisons at breaking point and the new government acting urgently to address this, how can these sentences be seen as anything other than insanity? The sentences, ranging from 4 to 5 years, are higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault. 

The defendants were denied the right to explain to a jury why they took the action they did, making a mockery of the right to a fair trial, with the judge saying that the Crown Prosecution’s agreed facts on climate collapse – including that the world has gone beyond 1.5 degrees for 12 consecutive months – were “neither here nor there”. These five brave, defiant people, like all nonviolent protestors, are fulfilling a necessary service by alerting the nation to the grave risk we all face, as scientists in their droves express their fear that many of the Earth’s systems are already at breaking point.

Immediately after the verdict, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders issued an extraordinary statement: “Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” 

According to the Office for National Statistics, 74% of people in the UK want urgent action on the climate crisis. Until a couple of weeks ago that majority was blocked by a Prime Minister who used climate – an existential threat – as a wedge issue in an election he lost. This new government has inherited a suite of recent legislation that conflicts with International Human Rights Law, and has put everyone’s right to peaceful protest at risk. The new government can address this now, as they have with fossil fuel licensing.

The world stands at a crossroads and so does our democracy. We write in support of Chris Packham and Dale Vince’s request for an urgent meeting with you, to be recorded so it is transparent to the public, to discuss the jailing of truth tellers and their silencing in court.

Sincerely, and with love for all humanity,

Rowan Williams – Former Archbishop of Canterbury
Juliet Stevenson – Actor
Chrissie Hynde – Musician
James Hansen – Climate Scientist
Ben Okri – Writer
Sandi Toksvig – Writer
Danny Boyle – Filmmaker
Brian Eno – Musician
Sir Jonathan Pryce – Actor
Peter Gabriel – Musician
Philip Pullman – Author
Greg Searle MBE – Olympic Gold Medallist – Rowing
Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC – Solicitor
Sir David King Chair – Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG)
Annie Lennox – Singer
Mick Whelan – General Secretary of ASLEF Union
Clive Lewis MP
Peter Kalmus – NASA Climate Scientist
Jolyon Maugham KC – Director, Good Law Project
Eddie Dempsey – RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary

Legal
Dr Svitlana Romanko – Lawyer and Non Profit Director
Melinda Janki – Environmental Lawyer
Lord John Hendy KC – Barrister
Michael Mansfield KC – Barrister
Prof Bill Bowring – Emeritus Professor, Barrister
Liz Davies KC – Barrister
Gregg Taylor KC – Former Barrister
Guy Linley-Adams – Solicitor, Lecturer
Renata Avila – Human Rights Lawyer
Christina Eckes – Professor of European Law

Cultural
Chris Martin – Musician
Frankie Boyle – Comedian
Steve Coogan – Actor 
Jarvis Cocker – Songwriter
Tracey Emin DBE – Artist
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – Chef, Broadcaster
Es Devlin – Artist and Stage Designer
Adam McKay – Filmmaker
Toby Jones – Actor
Adam Buxton – Podcaster
Stewart Lee – Comedian
Matilda Swinton – Actress
Lynne Ramsay – Filmmaker

Political
Yanis Varoufakis – Economist
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Lord Cashman CBE Peer of the Realm
Scott Ainslie – Actor and Politician
Prem Sikka – Member of the House of Lords
Carla Denyer – MP
Stella Assange
Iqbal Mohamed MP 
Len McCluskey – Former General Secretary of UNITE
Maryam Eslamdoust – General Secretary of The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association

Academics
Prof Jeff Waage OBE – Ecologist
Ann Pettifor – Economist on Scottish Government’s Just Transition Commission
Terry Eagleton – Writer and Public Intellectual
Professor Jason Hickel – Author
Professor David Whyte – Poet
Professor Mike Berners-Lee – Author and Business consultant
Dr Feja Lesniewska – Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Transitions and Environmental Law
Professor Steve Keen – Economist
Kate Raworth Ecological economist
Professor Mark Maslin – Earth System Science UCL

Athletes
Etiene Stott MBE – Olympic gold medalist, London 2012
Lewis Pugh – OIG UN Patron of the Oceans
James Brown – Retired Paralympian
Laura Baldwin – Olympic Sailor
Damian Hall – Author, GB athlete

Faith Leaders
John Perumbalath – Bishop of Liverpool
Rev Vanessa Elston – Diocese of Southwark
Prof. Carmody Grey – Philosopher and Theologian
Rev Mark Hutchinson 
Rev Matthew F Smith 
Rabbi Jeffrey Newman 
Rev Andrew Allen – Academic
Elizabeth Slade – Chief Officer, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
Rev’d Hilary Bond – Church of England priest
Anne Litherland – Laudato si animator

Climate Experts
Professor James Dyke – Earth Systems Science at the University of Exeter
Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt CBE – Writer
George Monbiot – Journalist
Bill McGuire – Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards, UCL
Dr. Genevieve Guenther – Author
Prof. Kevin Anderson – Energy and Climate Change Manchester University
Bill McKibben – Writer
Judy Lin Wong CBE – Honorary President, Black Environment Network
Farhana Yamin – Climate Lawyer
Martin Spray CBE – WWT Chief Executive
Mark Lynas – Author
Luisa Neubauer – Politician and Activist

Campaigners
Helen Pankhurst – Women’s Rights Scholar
Peter Tatchell – Human Rights Activist
Tzeporah Berman – Founder Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Nick Dearden – Director of Global Justice Now
Asad Rehman – Executive Director War on Want
Joshua Wright – Forest Defense Activist
Dr Gail Bradbrook – XR cofounder and NGO consultant
Sandrine Dixson – Decleve Co President, The Club of Rome
Areeba Hamid & Will McCallum – Co-Executive Directors, Greenpeace UK
Jo Verrent – Director of Unlimited, Disability Arts Commissioning Charity

You can read the full list of 1200 public figures who’ve supported the public letter here.

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• This letter was originally published by Defend Our Juries.
• You can help get the petition against these sentences to over 50,000 signatures here, and join the demonstration in Parliament Square from 2-4pm on Saturday 3rd August 2024.

 

Peace & Justice Project International Conference 2024: how can we build a better world?

29th July 2024Leave a Commenton Peace & Justice Project International Conference 2024: how can we build a better world?

“Our movement is international and totally committed to the principle that an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us, no matter how many miles, oceans or borders come between us.”

By Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace & Justice Project

Our second international conference will continue the intensive and painstaking work of building a radical and hopeful alternative to the misery faced by millions here in Britain, as well as billions more across the world.

With countless wars raging around the world and the climate crisis threatening our very existence as a species, the need to build a progressive agenda to tackle these challenges has never been so urgent.

The recent successes of independent and Green candidates in the UK general election, as well as the resurgence of left-wing parties in the French legislative elections, show that there is both a want and a need for a different kind of politics around the globe – one that puts the needs of people and planet before profit, refuses to cede ground to the far-right and empowers all of our communities.

This conference will build on last year’s inaugural event, which laid out the Peace & Justice Project’s 5 Demands with an internationalist view, and focus on building global momentum for progressive politics against the backdrop of the rising threat of nationalism, hate and division in our society.

The leadership of the Labour Party, now in government, continues in its monumental failure to take on these challenges head on and has enabled a fertile breeding ground for far-right ideology, fear-mongering and the politics of authoritarianism.  We have seen as recently as last week, with Yvette Cooper’s announcement of Home Office immigration crackdowns on car washes and beauty salons, that this Labour government has absolutely no commitment to building a society that embraces the significant benefits of migration and will embolden the likes of Nigel Farage and the Reform Party.

Further evidence of this worrying authoritarian tendency exists with the appalling sentencing of Just Stop Oil’s ‘Whole Truth Five’, each given 4 to 5 years in prison for protesting the former government’s inaction on the climate crisis.  These sentences are significantly longer than the average time handed down to those convicted of many violent crimes and robbery.

Make no mistake, these insidiously harsh sentences are a completely concerted attempt by the political establishment to protect themselves and those responsible for the climate breakdown.  It is telling that most Western governments, our own included, are more than happy to lock up a group of people largely in their early twenties for causing delays on a motorway but are totally unwilling to legislate or appropriately tax those literally threatening our future on this planet, such as fossil fuel giants and the wider billionaire class.

The left must mount its fight back or face the prospect of missing this genuinely once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape and rebalance the scales of power and the redistribution of wealth.

With the likes of Jeremy Corbyn being sensationally re-elected to Parliament, we have shown that grassroots action and people-powered campaigns can win against the corporate-sponsored, lobbyist-backed machine favoured by the political establishment and its depressive status quo.

Those are the building blocks that our second international conference will lay down as we unite the peace and social justice movement to create a genuinely progressive alternative to the Western political dogma that has effectively signed the death warrants of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and every corner of the world.

It is this vision and direction that will bring about the victories of the future, inspired by those that have come generations before us and those fighting for a fairer world now.  Our movement is international and totally committed to the principle that an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us, no matter how many miles, oceans or borders come between us.

We stand as ferociously steadfast with the food workers of Leicestershire and Cornwall as we do the garment workers of Bangladesh.  We stand as tirelessly with the displaced people of Palestine as we do with the people of West Papua.  We stand with the whole world’s growing movement for climate justice and will continue to do so until we have secured our sustainable future on Earth.

With speakers such as our founder Jeremy Corbyn, ShadowWorld Investigations director and former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein and Founder of the Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, Gender Justice & Peace, Binalakshmi Nepram, joining conference panels on the day, we are bringing together some of the most acclaimed individuals in the world on issues surrounding peace and social justice to support and equip our movement for many years to come.

We have made history before- and there is absolutely nothing stopping us from doing it again.

• Tickets for the Peace & Justice Project International Conference 2024 are on sale now and available here.
• You can follow Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace & Justice Project on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X and TikTok. 

‘Warning sign to us all’ as UK butterfly numbers hit record low

Helena Horton Environment reporter

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 29 July 2024 

A large white butterfly. Many people have noticed the lack of fluttering insects in their gardens.Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex/Shutterstock

Butterfly numbers are the lowest on record in the UK after a wet spring and summer dampened their chances of mating.

Butterfly Conservation, which runs the Big Butterfly Count, sounded the alarm after this year’s count revealed the worst numbers since it began 14 years ago.

Many people have noticed the lack of fluttering insects in their gardens. Experts say this is due to the unusually wet conditions so far in 2024. Climate breakdown means the UK is more likely to face extremes in weather, and the natural rhythms of the seasons that insects such as butterflies are used to can no longer be relied on.

The UK had its wettest spring since 1986 and the sixth wettest on record, as an average 301.7mm (11.87in) of rain fell across March, April and May, nearly a third (32%) more than usual for the season. The Met Office has said recent decades have been warmer, wetter and sunnier than those of the 20th century.

Dr Dan Hoare, the director of conservation at Butterfly Conservation, said: “Butterflies need some warm and dry conditions to be able to fly around and mate. If the weather doesn’t allow for this there will be fewer opportunities to breed, and the lack of butterflies now is likely the knock-on effect of our very dreary spring and early summer.”

The extra rain is not the only problem; the charity said 80% of butterfly species in the UK had declined since the 1970s, with habitat loss, climate breakdown and pesticide use being the main causes. Butterfly populations already hit by these issues would be less likely to be able to cope with extreme weather.

“The lack of butterflies this year is a warning sign to us all,” said Hoare. “Nature is sounding the alarm and we must listen. Butterflies are a key indicator species. When they are in trouble we know the wider environment is in trouble too.”

Butterfly Conservation said there was still a chance of some butterflies emerging late if the weather got drier and sunnier.

There is one week left of the 2024 Big Butterfly Count, which asks people to go outside for 15 minutes and record the number and type of butterflies they see – and to submit their results even if they see very few or no butterflies.

Record low butterfly numbers so far in annual count as wet weather hits breeding

Emily Beament, 

PA Environment Correspondent
Mon, 29 July 2024 

Record low numbers of butterflies have been spotted so far in an annual citizen science survey, as a charity warns the weather this year may have affected the insects.

People taking part in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count are seeing just over half the number of butterflies they were spotting this time last year, the charity said.

As the count enters its final week, members of the public are being urged to get outside for 15 minutes and record the number and type of butterflies they see – and to enter their results even if they see very few or none – to help experts understand more about how the insects are faring.

Experts say the unusually wet and windy spring, coupled with colder than usual temperatures so far this summer could be contributing to the absence of butterflies.

While they say there could be a late emergence of the insects if there is a prolonged sunny spell, numbers are currently the lowest recorded in the 14 years of the Big Butterfly Count.

And it is not just the weather this year that is a problem, with 80% of butterfly species declining in the UK since the 1970s, mainly due to habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change.

Because populations are already depleted, they are less resilient to bad weather, Butterfly Conservation warns.

Peacock butterflies are usually seen throughout Europe (Andrew Cooper/Butterfly Conservation/PA)

Dr Dan Hoare, director of Conservation at Butterfly Conservation, said: “Butterflies need some warm and dry conditions to be able to fly around and mate.

“If the weather doesn’t allow for this there will be fewer opportunities to breed, and the lack of butterflies now is likely the knock-on effect of our very dreary spring and early summer.”

And he said: “The lack of butterflies this year is a warning sign to us all. Nature is sounding the alarm and we must listen.

“Butterflies are a key indicator species. When they are in trouble we know the wider environment is in trouble too.”

He urged people to record what they were or were not seeing in the way of butterflies as part of the annual count to give experts the evidence to take “vital action” to conserve species.

The Big Butterfly Count ends on Sunday August 4. For more information and to take part people can download the free Big Butterfly Count app or visit www.bigbutterflycount.org

Israel-Gaza: some vital context

 

Mike Phipps review Deluge: Gaza and Israel from crisis to cataclysm, edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner, published by OR Books.

July 29, 2024 Labour Hub Editors

For most of this century, Israel’s approach to the Palestinians has been to keep the West Bank and Gaza Strip divided. It relied on the Palestinian Authority to maintain Israel’s security in the West Bank, while periodically launching military offensives against Gaza in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Israeli leaders called this ‘mowing the lawn’. “It was a strategy of managing the conflict, of avoiding peace talks,” writes Avi Shlaim in the Foreword to this book. But the strategy lay in tatters following the Hamas attack on October 7th 2023.

From then on, the Israeli government adopted a major change in policy – destroying Hamas and preventing Gaza from ever again being a threat. “What has not changed is the Israeli addiction to occupation, its hugely exaggerated trust in the utility of military force.”

The chapters in this collection aim to place the war in its proper historical context. Israel’s siege of Gaza is not new. After Hamas won democratic elections in the territory in 2006, Israeli sanctions reduced its inhabitants to penury. Western governments followed Israel in refusing to recognise the election results and joined its economic warfare against Gaza.

In 2008, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, noted: “Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution, with the knowledge, acquiescence and – some would say – the encouragement of the international community.” Later, as Sara Roy points out, a Wikileaks cable would confirm this was the Israeli intention: “to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge.”

Military offensives added to the agony. 1,600 civilians were killed in the 2014 assault alone.

But Israel’s response to October 7th was unprecedented for the scale of killing and destruction. Israel evidently wants to render the territory uninhabitable. This may be more achievable than eradicating Hamas, whose slaughtered members are likely to be quickly replaced by new, more militant, recruits.

To those in the international community who insist that Hamas is the principal obstacle to peace, Colter Louverse shows how Israeli military action has repeatedly been used to sabotage genuine peace efforts and marginalise moderate Palestinian voices, thus helping to foment rather than combat Palestinian terrorism. Insofar as that has resulted in making a lasting peace process more unlikely than ever, the strategy could be considered successful.

If provocation is a driver of Israeli strategy, then the high number of civilian casualties is a logical consequence rather than an unfortunate by-product, argues Yaniv Cogan. An Israeli general admitted this as far back as 2008 when he said of any Palestinian village from which Israel is shot at: “We will subject it to disproportionate force and cause enormous damage and destruction. We don’t consider them to be civilian villages but military bases.”

Dehumanisation is an essential ingredient of this approach. “We are fighting human animals,” announced Israel’s Defence Minister in October 2023, as native Gazan Ahmed Almaouq points out in a powerful personal memoir. His entire family – father, three sisters and two brothers – were wiped out by an Israeli bomb two weeks into the onslaught.

Others have argued that wreaking deliberate devastation acts as a deterrent to neighbouring countries getting involved. This seems to have had some effect; not only have other states in the region been feeble in offering support to the people of Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has also been slow to react, in the eyes of Musa Abuhashhash. He argues that its “unwarranted complacency” has not protected it from increasingly murderous attacks by Israeli settlers, supported by the IDF.

The international response

“Just eight days before Hamas launched its attack, US national security advisor Jake Sullivan declared that ‘[t]he Middle east region is quieter today than it has been in two decades’,” notes Mitchell Plitnick. “Sullivan’s boast reflected the Biden administration’s indifference to both the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and the escalating attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank.” In the seven months before the October 7th attack, 237 Palestinians had been killed.

The US response since then has been utterly supportive of Israel, while affecting to maintain an indifferent detachment regarding the future. There hasn’t been the smallest sign of how the administration might even begin to use its considerable leverage over Israel.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s talk of an “effective and revitalised Palestinian Authority” governing Gaza in future ignores the Authority’s long-term ineffectiveness and Israel’s opposition to it, suggests Nathan J. Brown. Planning for the “day after” assumes Hamas will soon be gone – it won’t – or that international agencies will be willing to provide a form of governance. But why would they, when UNRWA alone has seen more than 130 of its workers killed? The most likely form of future government could be self-appointed gangs.

It’s been left to ordinary people across the world, taking part in solidarity protests in their millions, to lay down some basic principles in relation to the conflict – an immediate ceasefire, respect for civilian life and an end to arming what has become a genocidal regime.

These simple demands are beginning to influence the political elites – impacting for example on the UK’s general election, with the election of several Independent MPs who highlighted the plight of Gaza, and on President Biden’s base of support in the US.

Initially, Biden’s staff dismissed concerns about alienating  Muslim and Arab-American voters on the smug rationale that they would be unlikely to vote for Trump. But as the scale of Israel’s murderous bombardment increased, wider sections of the Democratic vote have begun to peel away. Some 70% of younger voters said they disapproved of Biden’s policy on Gaza.

Any book about such a volatile political situation is likely to feel out of date as soon as it leaves the printers and this is reflected particularly in the chapters on international solidarity, the scale of which continues to grow and impress. But this collection remains  an excellent introduction to the underlying issues and provide vital context to this much-misreported war.

Mike Phipps’ book Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: The Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2022) can be ordered here.

Millions of Brits could be forced to turn to A&E as GPs threaten to ‘bring NHS to standstill’ with industrial action

29 July 2024,

GPs are likely to take industrial action. Picture: Getty


By Kieran Kelly@kellyjourno

Industrial action by GPs could have a ‘catastrophic’ impact on the NHS, health leaders have warned.

Family doctors who run GP surgeries will vote by noon today on whether they reduce the care they provide, including by limiting the number of patients they see every day.

The British Medical Association (BMA) launched the vote in protest against the previous government increasing their budget by 1.9% for this year.

Doctors are expected to vote in favour of taking industrial action, without partaking in full-scale strikes.

A General Practitioner's Surgery In North London. Picture: Getty

“If all GPs implemented the patient cap, that could have a catastrophic effect on the entire healthcare system”, Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told The Guardian.

“General practice is now supporting more patients than before the Covid pandemic, so any reduction in their activity will put more pressure on other services, including A&E.”

Dr Dave Triska on being 'brought to tears' as an NHS GP

Some GPs see as many as 50 patients a day, though the average is around 37. Industrial action would involve capping that figure at 25.

Three million GP appointments could disappear every month as a result of the industrial action, heaping pressure on A&E, 111 and mental healthcare services.

Read More: England’s health and social care watchdog ‘not fit for purpose’, says Streeting as hospital goes unchecked for 10 years

Read More: 'People have died avoidably': Wes Streeting tells LBC as he declares NHS watchdog 'not fit for purpose'

GPs could also refer patients to hospital rather than giving them an appointment at their surgery.

Despite the impact on the wider healthcare system, the BMA is urging GPs to vote in favour of the industrial action.

“We need all GP contractors/partners to vote Yes to send a message to the government that we are ready to stand up for a better service for our patients and to protect our practices,” they told members.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Picture: Getty

A source close to the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “This is just the latest example of the mess left by the Conservatives.

“We are determined to work with the profession to rebuild general practice, which is critical to making the NHS fit for the future.

“We will increase the proportion of resources going into primary care over time and help address the issues GPs face.”

US, UK called out on hypocrisy on climate pledges as they ramp up oil and gas exploration to record levels

Wealthy nations are ignoring the Paris Agreement and are ramping up oil production. The US alone has issued 1,453 new licences, constituting half of the global total and 83% of those issued by wealthy nations. The UK has issued more licences than any other country this year. / bne IntelliNews

By Ben Aris in Berlin July 29, 2024


The US and UK have been accused of hypocrisy as they blow through their carbon budget allowances and issue record amounts of oil and gas exploration licences, The Guardian reports, according to a new report from energy consultant Rystad and the IISD.

Both countries will see a significant increase in oil and gas exploration in 2024. The world is set to produce nearly 12 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, predominantly driven by the wealthiest nations such as the US and the UK, already two of the world’s biggest emitters of CO₂, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), shared exclusively with The Guardian.

As bne IntelliNews reported, the US has blown through its carbon budget allowance and emitted twice as much CO₂ as it is allowed under allocations granted as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The US is all but ignoring its climate targets and ramping up oil and gas production and exports to record levels.



The US, the EU and Russia have already burnt through their carbon budget allowance under the Paris Agreement obligations, whereas China and India are still in surplus, according to a study by Scientific American.

Conversely China and India, the biggest and third biggest emitters of CO₂, remain well within their carbon budget allowances, set by the Paris Agreements to allow a 50% chance of staying within the 1.5C increase in temperatures above the pre-industrial benchmark.

Both China and India are investing heavily into green energy and are increasingly looking like the grown-ups in the room. Indeed, China has emerged as the green energy global champion: two thirds of deployed solar panels are in China; in May alone China generated more green energy than any other country in the world produced in all of 2023; and China is rapidly approaching peak emissions, well ahead of any other country in the world.

The Paris Agreement set a 500 gigatonne allowable CO₂ emissions budget to keep temperature rises below 1.5C, but half of that has already been spent ahead of schedule. Last year was the hottest year ever, and this year has already recorded the hottest day since records began as the climate crisis accelerates faster than scientists were expecting.

The IISD reports the projected emissions from new oil and gas field licences to be awarded globally this year are anticipated to be the highest since 2018, coinciding with severe climate events worldwide.

The estimated 11.9 gigatonnes of emissions over the lifetime of these fields equates to the annual carbon output of China and twice that of the US. This includes licences issued as of June 2024, as well as those open for bidding, under evaluation, or planned for future licensing.

Despite a pledge to seek to reduce emissions and the use of fossil fuels at the COP28 last year, that summit, hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was deemed a failure as energy companies did little more than play lip service to the crisis. Little is expected from this year’s COP29 summit, which is being hosted by Azerbaijan, another big oil and gas producer that is also ramping up production.

Fossil fuel companies intend to invest more in new developments this year than at any time since the 2015 Paris Agreement, the IISD reports.

Despite their wealth and pro-active green policies, countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Norway and Australia are collectively responsible for two thirds (67%) of all the new exploration licences issued since 2020 and lead the new wave of exploration.

IISD policy adviser Olivier Bois von Kursk criticised the continuation and increase in exploration activities, especially by countries with relatively low dependence on fossil fuel revenues. "Rich countries should be the first to stop issuing new licences," he told The Guardian. Study after study has criticised the slow pace of climate action. Scientists are now warning the world is on course to see temperatures rise by a catastrophic 2.5% and that the 1.5C goal has probably been already missed.

Under the Biden administration, the US alone has issued 1,453 new licences, constituting half of the global total and 83% of those issued by wealthy nations. This marks a 20% increase from the Trump era, despite Trump's pledge to intensify drilling activities. And if Trump wins re-election he is likely to take the US out of the Paris Agreement for a second time and is currently campaigning on a platform that includes a policy of “drill baby, drill”, to use his words.

The UK has issued more licences than any other country this year, with the potential to add 101mn tonnes of emissions. Despite the new Labour government’s pledge to halt new drilling, the status of licences granted by the previous Conservative government is still uncertain.

The political influence wielded by the oil and gas industry remains substantial, with over $1bn spent on lobbying and campaign contributions in the past decade, The Guardian reports.

Third union ballots ScotRail workers on strike action



A third union is to ballot ScotRail workers on strike action after failing to receive what it describes as a "credible" pay offer.

Unite, which represents more than 300 workers at the publicly-owned railway operator, said its members could walk out in September.

The Aslef and RMT unions recently announced they will also be balloting their ScotRail staff on industrial action in a dispute over pay.

Unite said its members, who include train cleaners, engineers, ticket agents, hospitality assistants and conductors, were yet to receive a formal and fair pay offer from the employer.


ScotRail travel misery over double disruption to trains

Why a lack of train drivers is causing a problem for ScotRail


The ballot will open on Wednesday and run until 20 August, the union said.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Unite has no option but to ballot our members across all grades. Disgracefully, ScotRail has not even made a formal pay offer let alone a fair one for our members.

"Unite's members are essential to keeping the trains running, yet many of them struggle to survive financially as they don't earn huge sums of money. They have Unite's full backing in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions."

The pay dispute comes as rail customers face continued disruption due to a pay dispute between ScotRail and its train drivers.

A reduced timetable is already in place - with only about 50% of services running on Sundays after drivers declined to work overtime.

Transport Scotland said negotiations were a matter for ScotRail and the unions, but Scottish government ministers were being kept informed.

A spokesperson said it acknowledged the desire of rail unions to "negotiate a fair settlement for their members".

"Aslef's recent confirmation it will return to the negotiating table later this week is welcome." they said. "We would encourage all unions to do the same to engage in meaningful dialogue so that a mutually agreeable outcome can be reached as soon as possible.

ScotRail has been contacted for comment.

Hundreds more ScotRail workers to ballot on strike action in pay row

By PA News Agency

Hundreds of ScotRail workers could walk out in September unless they receive a “credible” pay offer, a union has warned.

Unite, which represents more than 300 workers at the publicly-owned railway operator, has become the latest union to announce a strike ballot for its ScotRail workers in a dispute over pay.


It says its members, who include train cleaners, engineers, ticket agents, hospitality assistants and conductors, are yet to receive a formal and fair pay offer from the employer.

The ballot will open on Wednesday and run until August 20, the union said.

ScotRail must formally table a credible pay offer which our members can seriously consider before this dispute escalates into nationwide strike actionUnite industrial officer Pat McIlvogue

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite has no option but to ballot our members across all grades. Disgracefully, ScotRail has not even made a formal pay offer let alone a fair one for our members.

“Unite’s members are essential to keeping the trains running, yet many of them struggle to survive financially as they don’t earn huge sums of money. They have Unite’s full backing in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.”

Unite industrial officer Pat McIlvogue called on ScotRail and the Scottish Government to take action to avert potential strike action.

“ScotRail must formally table a credible pay offer which our members can seriously consider before this dispute escalates into nationwide strike action,” he said.

“The Scottish Government, who are the ultimate paymasters, and ScotRail need to get their heads together and quickly. There is still a window of opportunity to resolve this dispute through negotiation. If they fail to grasp this chance, then it will be full steam ahead towards autumn strike action.”

The Aslef and RMT unions recently announced they will also be balloting their ScotRail staff on strike action in a dispute over pay.

A Transport Scotland spokesperson said: “While pay negotiations are for ScotRail, as the employer, and the unions concerned, we acknowledge the desire of rail unions to negotiate a fair settlement for their members.

“Aslef’s recent confirmation it will return to the negotiating table later this week is welcome. We would encourage all unions to do the same to engage in meaningful dialogue so that a mutually agreeable outcome can be reached as soon as possible.

“Train planning and staff rotas are operational matters for ScotRail.

“However, we fully expect any timetable to give the best reliability and availability for passengers and that changes are communicated well in advance to enable effective journey planning.

“Although the Scottish Government is not at the negotiating table, Ministers are being kept informed of progress.”

ScotRail has been contacted for comment.

 

Steel industry’s net zero drive could make lower-grade iron ore viable

Heriot-Watt University

 

image: 

Slag deposit at Scunthorpe Steel Work.

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Credit: Phil Renforth

A decarbonised steel industry that includes carbon dioxide removal techniques in its net zero arsenal could use lower-grade iron ore, according to a new study. 

Steel accounts for 5-8% of carbon dioxide emissions globally. Its total emissions have risen over the past decade, largely due to increased demand. 

The International Energy Agency has stated that, without innovation, the scope to limit emissions is ‘limited’. Therefore, the commercialisation of new zero-emission production processes is critical. 

Innovative processes are the focus of the new research from Heriot-Watt University’s Research Centre for Carbon Solutions, published in the academic Journal of Cleaner Production. 

Professor Phil Renforth and team describe in the study how deep emissions mitigation in the steel industry, combined with financial levers, could not only result in steel becoming carbon negative - it could also make the use of lower-grade iron ore feasible. 

Professor Renforth said: “This could be the cherry on the cake for the steel industry and open up new opportunities for investment in the UK. 

“We developed a bespoke techno-economic model that stimulates scenarios where steel production is enhanced with climate change interventions. 

“We focused on measures like directly reduced iron, biomass-based reductants and carbon capture and storage, as they’ve been identified as the most likely net zero pathways by the International Energy Agency. 

“The UK has around 180 million tons of slag byproduct from steel production. If the industry used this material to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide, for example, coupling direct air capture with a mineral reaction system, it could remove up to one gigatonne of carbon dioxide per year by 2050. 

“This would need to be supported by strong government incentives -around 200-500 USD per tonne.  

“Decarbonising will drive up the cost of steel, so there has to be a driver for change. 

“Also, these are nascent technologies that require significant investment if they’re to be implemented on any meaningful scale. 

“Adding an incentive for carbon removal may offset the cost of decarbonisation.” 

Renforth’s model threw up one big surprise for the carbon researchers. 

“Surprisingly, the model shows that once financial incentives and carbon removal technologies are in place, lower-grade ores become commercially viable. 

“Current production favours higher purity ore, which is cheaper to use because it requires less energy and materials. 

“The UK doesn’t have any commercial-grade ore, and it’s becoming incredibly hard to find around the world. That’s a problem that’s not going away. 

“Our model shows that by integrating advanced emission reduction technologies and using lower-grade iron ore, we can create a sustainable, economically viable path towards a carbon-negative steel industry. 

“This is a critical step in addressing climate change while supporting industrial growth.

Slag deposit at Scunthorpe Steel Work.

Credit

Phil Renforth

Journal

Journal of Cleaner Production

Article Title

Carbon dioxide removal could result in the use of lower-grade iron ore in a decarbonized net-negative emission steel industry

 

Health: Short-term vegan diet associated

 with reductions in biological age estimates

BMC (BioMed Central)

Eating a vegan diet for eight weeks is associated with reductions in biological age estimations based on levels of DNA methylation — a type of chemical modification of DNA (known as an epigenetic modification) that alters gene expression but not DNA itself. Previous research has reported that increased DNA methylation levels are associated with ageing. The findings, which are based on a small randomised controlled trial of 21 pairs of adult identical twins, are published in BMC Medicine.

Varun Dwaraka, Christopher Gardner and colleagues investigated the molecular effects of a short-term vegan diet by instructing one half of each twin pair to eat an omnivorous diet for eight weeks — including between 170 and 225 grams of meat, one egg, and one and a half servings of dairy each day — and the other half to eat a vegan diet for the same length of time. The sample was 77 percent women (32), and participants were 40 years old on average and had an average body mass index of 26 kilograms per metres squared. For the first four weeks of the study participants ate meals that had been prepared for them and for the second four weeks participants ate meals that they had prepared themselves, after receiving nutrition classes from health educators.

The authors investigated the impacts of diet on levels of DNA methylation by analysing blood samples collected from participants at baseline, week four, and week eight of the study. They used DNA methylation levels to infer the biological ages of participants and their organ systems.

By the end of the study the authors observed decreases in estimates of biological age — known as epigenetic ageing clocks — in participants who ate a vegan diet but not among those that ate an omnivorous diet. They also observed decreases in the ages of the heart, hormone, liver, and inflammatory and metabolic systems of participants who ate a vegan, but not an omnivorous diet, for eight weeks.

The authors caution that the extent to which the differences observed between participants who ate different diets can be attributed to their dietary compositions is unclear. They note that participants who ate a vegan diet lost two kilograms more on average than those who ate an omnivorous diet due to differences in the calorie contents of meals provided during the initial four weeks of the study. They suggest that these weight loss variations could have contributed to the observed differences in epigenetic age between both groups. Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between dietary composition, weight and ageing, in addition to the long-term effects of vegan diets, they add.

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1. Authors Dr. Dwaraka, Dr. Carreras-Gallo, Aaron Lin, Logan Turner, Dr. Mendez, Hannah Went, and Ryan Smith are all employees of TruDiagnostic Inc. Dr Gardner reported receiving funding from Beyond Meat outside of the submitted work. Dr J. L. Sonnenburg is a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator. No other disclosures were reported.

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Article details

Unveiling the epigenetic impact of vegan vs. omnivorous diets on aging: insights from the Twins Nutrition Study (TwiNS)

DOI: 10.1186/s12916-024-03513-w

Corresponding Author:

Varun Dwaraka
TruDiagnostic Inc., Lexington, KY, USA
Email: varun@trudiagnostic.com

Christopher Gardner
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Email: cgardner@stanford.edu

 

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Journal

BMC Medicine

DOI

10.1186/s12916-024-03513-w 

Article Title

Unveiling the epigenetic impact of vegan vs. omnivorous diets on aging: insights from the Twins Nutrition Study (TwiNS)