September, 22 2015, 10:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sujata Dey
Larry Brown
Trade Justice Network
Â
Harper undermines TPP negotiations with careless remarks
OTTAWA
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has shown reckless incompetence with his recent remarks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and Canada now has no choice but to step away from the table, says the Trade Justice Network.
The TJN, a coalition that includes labour unions - organizations with tremendous experience in negotiating - says Harper's ill-advised comments on the auto industry have left Canada with no room to manoeuvre.
"Mr. Harper has already publicly conceded that Canada is prepared to accept a bad deal for Canada's auto parts manufacturers," said TJN spokesman Larry Brown.
"Canada's negotiating team now has no leverage whatsoever with which to defend this crucial industry at the TPP talks. Every other country knows that Mr, Harper has publicly conceded on this point - he will accept a deal that does not protect the industry and its workforce."
"No one should ever go to a negotiating table saying that reaching a deal is absolutely crucial; the other side knows that they can extract the maximum concessions because you've already implied that you will accept pretty much anything to get this 'crucial' deal."
The TJN also questions whether the current government has any moral authority to reach an agreement on such a major issue as the TPP. It is unheard of for an outgoing government to conclude an international treaty of such scope during an election campaign, when they should be just caretakers.
"With no moral authority to conclude a deal and with Canada's negotiators being completely painted into a corner by Mr Harper, the only sensible option for Canada is to stand aside, at least until the federal election is concluded," Brown said.
"At that point our negotiators may get the kind of mandate from a new government that will allow them to actually bargain in Canada's best interests, instead of having their position completely undercut by an incompetent negotiator like Mr. Harper."
You can find the Trade Justice Network on Twitter (@TradeJusticeNet) and on Facebook.
Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada's leading social action organization, mobilizing a network of 60 chapters across the country.
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COP28 Stocktake Draft Reveals Vital Battle Over 'Unabated' Fossil Fuels
The draft offers "the fossil fuel industry a lifeline with dangerous distractions, like carbon capture and storage, and other abatement technologies," said one campaigner.
Dec 05, 2023
With a week left until the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference wraps up with a long-awaited "Global Stocktake" that will measure countries' progress towards the objectives of the Paris climate agreement, a draft of the document released Tuesday revealed a strong push to include a major loophole for the biggest fossil fuel producers—in the form of language that would allow so-called "abated" emissions.
More than 100 countries reportedly support a clause in the Global Stocktake that would call for "accelerating efforts toward phasing out unabated fossil fuels"—emissions that are not "captured" through technological fixes like carbon capture and storage (CCS) before they reach the atmosphere. That option in the text also calls on countries to "rapidly" reduce unabated fossil fuels "so as to achieve net zero CO2 in energy systems by or around mid-century."
The Biden administration, among other wealthy governments, has backed an expansion of CCS, offering $1.2 billion in grants for two projects this year. Analysts warn the technology would actually increase energy consumption by 20%, ultimately increasing the carbon emissions that CCS proponents claim are "abated" by the technology, as well as worsening environmental injustice by ramping up smog, benzene, and formaldehyde emissions in fenceline communities.
Other options in the draft text include a call for "an orderly and just phaseout of fossil fuels," which more than 25 countries support, according toBusinessGreen, and no mention at all of a phaseout.
Another paragraph in the draft included an agreement that countries will rapidly phase out "unabated coal power this decade" and ban the building of new coal power plants, and a second option would omit any mention of phasing out coal.
Romain Ioualalen, global policy manager for Oil Change International, acknowledged that just "three years ago, it would have been unimaginable to see governments consider an inclusion of fossil fuel phaseout in any [Conference of the Parties] agreement," which organizers and governments in the Global South have aggressively campaigned for in recent years.
The ultimate goal for the Global Stocktake, however, said Ioualalen, is "an agreement to immediately decline fossil fuel production and use... as well as a full, fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phaseout."
The draft released on Wednesday goes in the opposite direction, he said, giving "the fossil fuel industry a lifeline with dangerous distractions, like carbon capture and storage, and other abatement technologies."
"We urge parties to hold a strong line against these failed technologies and refuse any language that allows fossil fuel companies to justify continued oil and gas extraction," said Ioualalen.
Pivoting to technologies like carbon capture and storage instead of focusing on sharply dialing down all carbon emissions, he added, would "blow us well past 1.5°C [in planetary heating], and lead to catastrophic climate consequences."
As author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben wrote in a column earlier this week, countries that are embracing technologies like CCS are playing into the hands of fossil fuel giants.
"It's abundantly clear that coal, oil, and gas are breaking the climate system; it's also abundantly clear that the people who own coal, oil, and gas reserves don't care," wrote McKibben. "In an effort to keep burning them, so they can continue to collect the returns, they propose building vast engineering projects alongside fossil-fuel generating plants, to capture the carbon dioxide from the exhaust stream. That is, they want to 'abate' the damage of their product."
Scientists have warned that eight years after the Paris climate agreement was finalized with a goal of limiting planetary heating to 1.5°C—or as far below 2°C as possible—the world is currently on track to warm by 3°C this century.
Global carbon emissions have continued to rise in recent years as countries including the U.S. and the U.K. have approved major fossil fuel projects despite warnings from energy and climate experts that oil, gas, and coal extraction have no place on a pathway to 1.5°C.
The final Global Stocktake, said Shirley Matheson, the World Wildlife Fund's global nationally-determined contribution enhancement coordinator, must force governments to "face up to the consequences of their collective inaction, and commit to strengthen climate ambition and action in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C."
Matheson called the current draft "bloated" and expressed hope that countries in attendance at the conference (COP28) will adopt a Global Stocktake with the best options included in the draft.
"Good language on phasing out fossil fuels is included as an option, and new text options have been added that call for stronger ambition in the national climate plans, and a new collective goal for 60% emissions cuts by 2035," she said. "These signals are essential to create the conditions for more ambitious commitments and more international cooperation to achieve them."
"Time is running out for negotiators to agree on a draft text with clear political options for ministers later in the week," she added. "Countries must work together to achieve science-aligned guidance and ways forward for a dramatic course correction of climate action. This will give us the best chance of securing a livable planet."
As Common Dreamsreported Wednesday, a record number of fossil fuel industry lobbyists are also attending COP28, leaving campaigners concerned that the final agreements out of the summit will include significant loopholes for the industry.
“Global leaders have to deliver a full package," said Ioualalen. "We will not accept weak outcomes only on coal or renewables, and without addressing the primary driver of the climate crisis, fossil fuels."
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Israel Used US-Made Munitions to Massacre Two Gazan Families, Including 19 Kids
Amnesty International's findings "should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration," said the group's secretary-general.
Dec 05, 2023
An Amnesty Internationalinvestigation published Tuesday found that the Israeli military used U.S.-made munitions in a pair of illegal airstrikes on homes in the occupied Gaza Strip in October, killing more than 43 people from two families—including 19 children.
Photographs taken by Amnesty fieldworkers show two fragments of what appear to be Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM), the most common kind of weaponry that the U.S. has provided to Israel in recent years. The group noted that codes on the plates of the munition scraps "are associated with JDAMs and Boeing, the manufacturer."
The codes indicate that the munitions were manufactured in 2017 and 2018. JDAM kits are ostensibly designed to turn unguided bombs into GPS-guided weapons.
"The photos of the metal fragments from the weapons clearly show the distinctive rivets and harness system that indicate they served as a part of the frame that surrounds the body of the bomb of a JDAM," Amnesty said.
The two strikes that the organization examined, carried out on October 10 and October 22, killed 43 civilians—14 women, 10 men, and 19 kids. Survivors told Amnesty that they were not warned of an imminent strike.
"Both homes were south of Wadi Gaza, within the area where, on 13 October, the Israeli military had ordered residents of northern Gaza to relocate to," Amnesty said.
Agnès Callamard, the organization's secretary-general, said in a statement that the revelations "should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration."
"The U.S.-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families," said Callamard. "In the face of the unprecedented civilian death toll and scale of destruction in Gaza, the U.S. and other governments must immediately stop transferring arms to Israel that more likely than not will be used to commit or heighten risks of violations of international law."
"To knowingly assist in violations is contrary to the obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law," she added. "A state that continues to supply arms being used to commit violations may share responsibility for these violations."
The two airstrikes came in the early stages of an Israeli bombing campaign that has killed nearly 16,000 people in less than two months and displaced roughly 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people.
The U.S.—Israel's primary arms supplier—has urged its ally in recent days to take steps to limit civilian deaths, but Israel's bombardment and ground assault have intensified since a seven-day pause ended last week, killing at least 900 people in just several days.
Even as Israel ignores its tepid calls to protect civilians, the Biden administration has continued to send weaponry to the Israeli military, deepening its complicity. Citing unnamed U.S. officials, The Wall Street Journalreported last week that the Biden administration has transferred more than 100 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs to Israel as part of the flow of weapons that started soon after the October 7 Hamas-led attack.
According to the Journal, the U.S. has thus far provided Israel with roughly 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells. The Biden administration is currently pushing Congress to approve an additional $10 billion in military aid for Israel.
Based on the amount of damage inflicted, Amnesty estimates that the munition that hit the al-Najjar family home—killing 24 people—likely weighed 2,000 pounds, while the bomb that struck the Abu Mu'eileq home likely weighed at least 1,000 pounds.
"Our lives have been destroyed in a moment. Our family has been destroyed. Something that was unthinkable is now our reality."
Suleiman Salman al-Najjar told Amnesty that he was returning from the hospital after receiving treatment for kidney problems when he learned that his home had been bombed. The Israeli strike killed his wife, two daughters, and two sons as well as three neighbors.
"I rushed home and saw a scene of utter destruction. I could not believe my eyes. Everybody was under the rubble. The house was completely pulverized. The bodies were reduced to shreds," he said. "Our lives have been destroyed in a moment. Our family has been destroyed. Something that was unthinkable is now our reality."
Samaher Abu Mu'eileq, a survivor of Israel's October 22 strike, told Amnesty, "I had just left the house where my sisters-in-law and my nephews and nieces were sitting, a minute before the house was bombed."
"I walked downstairs and just as I was opening my front door, my brother's house next door was bombed," Abu Mu'eileq said. "I was thrown against the door by the force of the explosion and was injured in my face and neck. I can't understand why the house was bombed. My sisters-in-law and their children and my stepmother were killed, all of them women and children… Others were injured. What is the reason for such crime against civilians?"
Amnesty said the strikes should be investigated as war crimes and argued that the Biden administration "may share responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel with U.S.-supplied weapons, as all states have a duty not to knowingly contribute to internationally wrongful acts by other states."
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'Parasitic Influences': Record 2,400+ Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Attend COP28
"The sheer number of fossil fuel lobbyists at climate talks that could determine our future is beyond justification," said one campaigner.
Dec 05, 2023
A record number of fossil fuel lobbyists have inundated the COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, with new research released Tuesday showing that more than 2,400 industry influence-peddlers were granted access to the critical U.N. talks—a 400% increase over last year.
The Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition tallied 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists on the provisional list of COP28 participants, a likely undercount as the estimate doesn't include those who are attending the talks under a different professional title. A new U.N. rule approved earlier this year requires lobbyists at COP28 to declare their affiliation.
Representatives from ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and other oil and gas firms outnumber the delegations of nearly every single country at the summit except Brazil and the UAE, according to the new analysis. KBPO said that more fossil fuel lobbyists received attendance passes than all of the delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined.
"You don't bring arsonists to a firefighting convention—or the climate talks, for that matter—but that's precisely what is happening here at COP28."
"The sheer number of fossil fuel lobbyists at climate talks that could determine our future is beyond justification," said Joseph Sikulu, pacific managing director at 350.org. "Their increasing presence at COP undermines the integrity of the process as a whole. We come here to fight for our survival and what chance do we have if our voices are suffocated by the influence of Big Polluters? This poisoning of the process needs to end, we will not let oil and gas influence the future of the Pacific this heavily."
Climate Action Network International added that "you don't bring arsonists to a firefighting convention—or the climate talks, for that matter—but that's precisely what is happening here at COP28."
"Big Polluter interference in climate negotiations is costing millions of people their homes, livelihoods, and lives," the group wrote on social media.
Many of the lobbyists were granted access to #COP28 via fossil fuel trade groups.
👎 Nine out of 10 the largest hail from the Global North; notably the Geneva-based @IETA, which brought 116 people, including representatives from Shell and TotalEnergies. #KickBigPollutersOut
— Climate Action Network International (CAN) (@CANIntl) December 5, 2023
Ahead of COP28, KBPO estimated that fossil fuel lobbyists from some of the world's top oil and gas firms attended past U.N. climate summits more than 7,000 times.
Advocates said the sharp increase in lobbyist attendance at COP28 underscores the industry's commitment to preventing substantive climate action as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, imperiling hopes of preventing catastrophic warming.
"Their agenda is crystal clear: safeguarding their profits at the expense of a livable future for all of us," Kathy Mulvey, accountability campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. "The urgency of phasing out fossil fuels demands a unified, unwavering commitment from global leaders, unencumbered by the fossil fuel industry's self-serving agenda."
Industry influence could help explain the inadequacy of climate commitments that have emerged from the summit this far. The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, spearheaded by the UAE and Saudi Arabia—two leading petrostates—has been called a "dangerous distraction" from efforts to phase out fossil fuels, and a new agreement on a global loss and damage fund has been criticized as badly inadequate to meet the needs of frontline nations.
COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber—who is also CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company—has dismissed calls to phase out fossil fuels as his company plots a massive expansion that could make it the second-largest oil producer on the planet. Al Jaber has also used his role as the head of the summit to pursue new oil and gas deals.
"Oil and gas companies and their enablers—the climate arsonists fueling climate chaos—cannot be trusted to help put out the fire or deliver what we need: a full, fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phaseout," said David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International.
KBPO noted in its new analysis that lobbying at COP28 is hardly limited to the fossil fuel industry, pointing to the presence of finance, agribusiness, and transportation representatives.
"To share seats with the Big Polluters in climate change conversations is to dine with the devil," Ogunlade Olamide Martins, program manager at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, said in a statement. "This unholy matrimony will only endorse 'conflict of interest' and further facilitate the silence of honest agitation. COP's conclusions must be independent of industries' parasitic influences and must only address the concerns of the vulnerable masses."
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