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☆ Philippine leader cheers EC move as job losses for 50,000 seafarers averted
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MANILA, April 2 (Reuters) - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Sunday welcomed the European Commission's (EC) decision to continue recognising certificates issued by his country for Filipino seafarers, saying it averted job losses for roughly 50,000 sailors. The EC had warned in 2021 it would withdraw its recognition of Filipino seafarers' certificates unless serious measures were taken, including compliance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for seafarers. Marcos had met with EC President Ursula von der Leyen in December, when he attended the ASEAN-EU summit in Brussels, to discuss the 15-year-old issue involving Filipino seafarers. The EC said it intends to provide the Philippines with technical assistance to further improve its education, training and certification system for seafarers. Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/5] Campaigners who have been protesting in Oslo for over a week against the wind turbines at Fosen, end the campaign with a demonstration in front of the Royal Castle in Oslo, Norway, March 3, 2023. Demonstrators had urged government action after Norway's supreme court ruled in 2021 that 151 turbines erected at Fosen in central Norway violated Sami rights under international conventions, but remained in operation 17 months later. Saying that a transition to green energy should not come at the expense of Indigenous rights, protesters blocked access to several ministries, putting the centre-left minority government in crisis mode. "We have made the government take responsibility for the ongoing violations of human rights and apologise," Sami artist and campaigner Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen told Reuters. "This case is bigger than just Fosen," Christian Rynning-Toennesen, the head of utility Statkraft and the operator of one of the affected wind farms, told reporters on Thursday.

[1/3] Greta Thunberg is carried away as activits demonstrate outside the Ministry of Finance entrance and several other ministries in protest that the wind turbines at Fosen, which the Supreme Court has said are illegal, have not been demolished. Alf Simensen/NTB/via REUTERSOSLO, March 1 (Reuters) - Norwegian police on Wednesday briefly detained environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg during a demonstration in Oslo, removing her and other activists from the finance ministry. The campaigners are demanding the removal of wind turbines from reindeer pastures on Sami Indigenous land in central Norway. Thunberg, holding a red, blue, yellow and green Sami flag, was lifted and carried away by police officers while hundreds of demonstrators chanted slogans. Activists on Tuesday said they had raised close to $100,000 in recent days to help individual demonstrators pay police fines.

☆ Thunberg, other protesters block Norway energy ministry over wind farms
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The reason for the action is that the wind turbines at Fosen, which the Supreme Court has said are illegal, have not been demolished. NTB/Ole Berg-Rusten via REUTERSOSLO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg and dozens of other activists on Monday blocked entrances to Norway's energy ministry, protesting against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders. Norway's supreme court in 2021 ruled that two wind farms built in central Norway violated Sami rights under international conventions, but the turbines remain in operation more than 16 months later. "I am here to support the struggle for human rights and indigenous rights," Thunberg told Reuters while sitting outside the ministry's main entrance with other demonstrators. The government has said the ultimate fate of the wind farms is a complex legal and political quandary despite the supreme court ruling and is hoping to find a compromise.

☆ Ukraine yet to make defence a safe investor haven
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

MUNICH, Feb 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The West’s rush to supply weapons to war-torn Ukraine looks like a golden opportunity for defence companies to exit the ESG doghouse. As with air-polluting coal, socially-minded investors including pension funds and insurers - particularly European ones - have long excluded or heavily restricted investment in defence companies on ethical grounds. Risk committees, particularly at domestic banks, are now more frequently assessing the merits of financing defence companies, two senior bankers among the 850 or so conference participants said. Proponents of the approach argue military companies that help Ukraine perform a globally valuable social function by upholding democracy. The Munich Security Index, a global risk perceptions survey conducted before the conference, showed security concerns had replaced climate challenges as the top concern.

ANKARA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Turkey summoned ambassadors of nine Western countries including the United States and Sweden on Thursday to criticise their decisions to temporarily shut diplomatic missions and issue security alerts following Koran-burning incidents in Europe. The envoys of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Britain were also summoned, according to foreign ministry sources in Ankara. Germany, France and the Netherlands were among countries that temporarily closed diplomatic missions in Turkey for security reasons this week. The source added that the security of all diplomatic missions is ensured in accordance with international conventions and "allies should cooperate with" Turkish authorities. The U.S. embassy confirmed its Ambassador Jeffry Flake attended a meeting at Turkey's foreign ministry on Thursday.

☆ Italy's rightist government tightens rules for migrant rescues
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ROME, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Italy's rightist government has approved measures to fine charities who rescue migrants at sea and impound their ships if they break a new, tougher set of rules - a move that one campaign group said could threaten lives. The NGOs' ships must also inform those onboard that they can ask for international protection anywhere in the European Union, the decree said. Captains breaching these rules risk fines of up to 50,000 euros ($53,175), and repeated violations can result in the impoundment of the vessel, it added. Since taking office in October, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has targeted the activities of sea rescue charities, accusing them of facilitating the work of people traffickers amid a surge in arrivals. The rules making it more difficult to carry out multiple rescues may flout international conventions and were "ethically unacceptable," he said.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court on Wednesday, pressuring the U.S. government to sanction Mexico for failing to protect the critically endangered vaquita, the world's smallest porpoise, according to court documents. The lawsuit seeks to pressure the U.S. government to sanction Mexico under a fisheries law called the "Pelly Amendment" to the Fishermen's Protective Act, which authorizes the U.S. President to embargo imports of wildlife products, including fish, from another country. The vaquita porpoise, found in Mexico's upper Gulf of California, has over the last five years seen its population devastated to the point that it is now considered in "serious danger of extinction." The other organizations that joined the lawsuit are the Animal Welfare Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In mid-November, CITES - an international convention to protect endangered species - told Mexico it must protect the vaquita or face sanctions early next year.

Tiny fragments of plastic have been found in blood samples, stools and placentas of unborn babies, recent studies have shown. Scientists are trying to understand the health risks of this new phenomenon, but concerns range from the impact on organs to how some plastic additives might disrupt hormonal systems. Jodie Roussell, public affairs lead for packaging and sustainability at Swiss consumer goods giant Nestle (NESN.S), told the panel she hoped the treaty would help establish global quality controls for plastic, especially recycled plastic. Roussell said in lieu of such standards, Nestle has established its own quality controls and a black list for certain materials. International standards would help with "levelling the playing field and ensuring a fair distribution of responsibility across the value chain," Roussell said.

☆ UN committee urges China to free Xinjiang detainees, recommends reparations
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

GENEVA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A United Nations committee urged China on Thursday to release people held in detention facilities in its Xinjiang region and recommended that it provide victims with "remedies and reparation". China denies any rights abuses. The 18-member committee regularly monitors countries' compliance with a 1965 international convention on racial discrimination which China and some 180 other countries are party to. The committee said the "lack of improvement in the human rights situation in Xinjiang" spurred it to adopt the recommendations, known as a decision. The document also called for China to "undertake a full review of its legal framework governing national security, counter terrorism and minority rights in (Xinjiang)" to ensure compliance with the convention.

[1/3] German climate activist Luisa Neubauer takes part in a protest demanding climate justice and human rights at the Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre, during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 19, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El GhanySHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The United Nations climate agency on Saturday published a draft proposal for a deal to tackle the issue of "loss and damage" that said the COP27 summit would agree to launch a new fund to help countries cope with the cost of climate damage. The draft - which the nearly 200 countries at the COP27 summit in Egypt will now consider, and potentially change, before deciding whether to approve - would agree to "establish a fund for responding to loss and damage". "Everybody was flexible for the cause of loss and damage and the disasters and people dying and the economy being lost. I thank all the parties ... who were not flexible initially but who were flexible now," Kunal Satyarthi, India's negotiator on loss and damage, told Reuters.

[1/5] A general view of the entrance to the Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre grounds, during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 19, 2022. Kunal Satyarthi, a negotiator for India, said he thought the loss and damage deal would "certainly" pass, and thanked other countries for their flexibility. Norway's climate minister, Espen Barth Eide, meanwhile, said his country was happy with the agreement to create a loss and damage fund. But the possible breakthrough on loss and damage was significant, and "I don't think that should be lost in the mix," he said. For daily comprehensive coverage on COP27 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here.

☆ Take a look inside the United Nations climate summit in Egypt: luxury resorts, world leaders, bad food, and long lines
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

There are some 35,000 people attending the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest on the culture & business of sustainability — delivered weekly to your inbox. Long stretches of highway separate the luxury coastal resorts, with their green grass and water fountains, from the dusty desert and many half-constructed buildings. Small protests are allowed inside, where UN rules apply, but outside and across the rest of Egypt, political dissent is effectively banned. Take a glimpse inside before the summit comes to a close on Friday.

☆ Curbs on rights weaken Egypt's climate talks, campaigners say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Dominic Evans | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/2] People walk outside of the Sharm El Sheikh International Convention Centre during the COP27 climate summit opening in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 6, 2022. Climate action "requires more people on the street, more voices, more independent research, more independent reporting, more accountability when climate obligations are not met," said Tirana Hassan, Human Rights Watch's acting Executive Director. "That's not going to happen under governments such as the Egyptian government which is excluding civil society, independent journalism and academia," she told a meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh this week. Despite those criticisms some delegates argued that there was a benefit to holding the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh to shine a light briefly on Egypt's record. "This is a huge opportunity," Egyptian journalist and human rights advocate Hossam Bahgat said.

☆ Climate advocates win key governors races as Democrats defy 'red wave' in midterm elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

This year, state laws could have the greatest implications for climate action since state officials can accelerate their own climate agendas even in a divided Congress, advocates say. Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty ImagesClimate action could also move forward in Maryland and Minnesota after environmental victories in those two gubernatorial races. Ahmad Gharabli | AFP | Getty ImagesThe climate victories in gubernatorial races have notable implications for national and local climate policies, advocates say, especially with respect to deploying funding from Biden's climate legislation. Still, climate groups are concerned for provisions within the climate bill if Republicans do seize control of one or both chambers of Congress. Biden, who will attend the summit on Friday, said he is eager to work with congressional Republicans after the midterm elections but emphasized he would not compromise his climate agenda.

☆ U.S. launches carbon offset program to help developing countries speed clean energy transition
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Climate Envoy John Kerry on Wednesday unveiled a carbon offset plan that would allow corporations to fund renewable energy projects in developing countries that are struggling to transition away from fossil fuels. Officials argue it could funnel billions of dollars from the private sector into the economies of developing countries working to shift to renewable power sources like wind or solar. The plan will create a new class of carbon offsets that represent investments in projects that help accelerate renewable energy projects or build climate change resilience in a developing country. Chile and Nigeria are among the developing countries interested in the program, the State Department said, and Bank of America, Microsoft, PepsiCo and Standard Chartered Bank have "expressed interest in informing the ETA's development." Voluntary carbon offset programs have been widely criticized as insufficiently regulated schemes that allow governments and corporations to undermine net-zero emission targets.

☆ Explainer: COP27: what's on the U.N. climate talks agenda
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Valerie Volcovici | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

FOSSIL FUELS AND BACKSLIDINGCountries at last year's COP26 talks agreed for the first time to "phase down" coal production and trim other fossil fuel subsidies. Voluntary side deals also touted plans to curb fossil fuel financing and to limit planet-warming methane emissions, chiefly from the fossil fuel and agriculture industries. Following a breakthrough at the weekend as this year's summit began, the issue for the first time is part of the U.N. talks' formal agenda. ADAPTING TO A WARMER WORLDHigh-income countries have yet to meet their pledge to deliver $100 billion a year in climate finance. Low-income and climate-vulnerable countries want to ensure that the share spent on adaptation is doubled by 2025 - a pledge made at last year's U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland.

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