Protesters across Arab countries call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

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Original article by Peoples Dispatch republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Protesters gather in Amman in Jordan demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Photo: Al Mayadeen

People took to the streets in a number of countries across West Asia and North Africa after the UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire. However, Israel refused to heed the call and continued its attacks on Gaza on Tuesday

Large-scale protests broke out in different parts of West Asia and North Africa on Monday, March 25 in support of Palestine with people chanting slogans against the Israeli war in Gaza and demanding an immediate ceasefire. People took to the streets in a number of countries in the aftermath of the UN Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire.

Jordanian security forces fired tear gas shells to disperse protesters who tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman. Thousands of these protestors chanted slogans in solidarity with the people in Gaza and in support of the Al-Aqsa mosque. Many of them carried Palestinian flags which they hoisted in nearby buildings.

Similar protests took place in other parts of the country. A day before, Jordanian forces had prevented a large group of people from marching to the Israeli embassy.

Protests were also organized in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and Cairo in Egypt as well on Monday where hundreds gathered to chant slogans in support of Palestine and demand an immediate ceasefire.

Hundreds also gathered in Tangiers in Morocco to demonstrate against the continued Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Protests were also organized in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem and in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. Hundreds of Palestinians, defying Israeli dictates and ongoing attacks, took to the streets in the morning to call for a ceasefire.

The protests followed the UNSC resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The resolution was adopted after the US, which had blocked three similar previous resolutions, decided to abstain. All the other members of the Security Council supported the resolution.

The resolution called for an immediate ceasefire during the month of Ramadan and for working towards a permanent cessation of hostilities and the release of all hostages. It was welcomed by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas and most of the countries in the region.

Hamas reiterated its demand for a permanent ceasefire that would lead to the complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza and the return of all Palestinians displaced due to the war over five months.

Nearly the entire population of Gaza, around 2.3 million, has been displaced due to the Israeli war which has killed more than 32,000 and wounded close to 74,000 Palestinians.

The Iranian foreign ministry welcomed the UNSC resolution, calling it a positive step and demanded its immediate implementation. It also demanded the lifting of all blockades on the supply of aid to Gaza and the opening of all border crossings to the besieged territory and immediate resumption of reconstruction.

Israel has however rejected the resolution. It carried out fresh attacks on Gaza on Tuesday, killing dozens of Palestinians.

The resolution accepted by the Security Council is binding on all members of the UN. However, only a fresh vote in the Security Council can decide the future course of action in case one particular party chooses not to implement it.

Original article by Peoples Dispatch republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingProtesters across Arab countries call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

Israeli Plan to Evacuate Rafah by Force Sparks Warnings of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Palestinian children wait in line to receive food in Rafah, Gaza on February 09, 2024.  (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

One Palestinian human rights group called Israel’s evacuation orders “a pretext to push Gaza’s population closer to the border with Egypt in preparation for their mass deportation.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered the Israel Defense Forces to craft a plan to “evacuate” the population of Rafah, a small city near Gaza’s border with Egypt that’s packed with at least 1.4 million people—most of whom fled there to escape Israeli bombs and troops.

Human rights advocates immediately sounded alarm, stressing that the forcible transfer of civilians is a crime against humanity and that there’s nowhere safe for Gazans to flee as Israeli forces bomb the area and snipers fire on civilians in Khan Younis, a city to Rafah’s north.

“Make no mistake—the entirety of Gaza is a ‘combat zone,'” Frankie Leach, head of media at ActionAid U.K., wrote Friday.

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, was among those asking where the 1.4 million people currently in Rafah are supposed to move.

“Does he plan a mass deportation to Egypt (a blatant war crime)?” Roth wrote on social media.

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, a Palestinian organization, called Israel’s evacuation orders “a pretext to push Gaza’s population closer to the border with Egypt in preparation for their mass deportation.”

“Time is running out: The international community must act now to halt the ground invasion of Rafah,” the group added.

Humanitarian aid organizations and United Nations officials have been bracing for an Israeli invasion of Rafah for weeks, warning that any large-scale attack on the densely populated city would be a grave violation of international law.

“A full-scale military operation in Rafah would have devastating consequences for civilians in Gaza who have endured more than four months of trauma, extreme hunger, lack of water, disease, and extremely limited medical resources due to the conflict and siege of the enclave,” CARE International said Friday. “Such an escalation would also bring existing humanitarian operations to a standstill, impacting all of Gaza. The limited aid that is currently able to trickle into the enclave does so from Rafah, and most humanitarian organizations currently operate from there.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said late Thursday that an Israeli ground assault on Rafah “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.”

“The only thing that will stop this situation spinning even further out of control is an immediate and permanent cease-fire.”

Netanyahu’s office claimed in a statement Friday that “it is impossible to achieve the war objective of eliminating Hamas and leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah.”

“On the other hand, it is clear that a massive operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zones,” the statement continued. “That is why the prime minister directed the IDF and the defense establishment to bring to the cabinet a dual plan for both the evacuation of the population and the disbanding of the battalions.”

Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian American political analyst, wrote in response that “the Israeli PM is ordering ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian refugees amassed in Rafah.”

During the first week of its latest assault on the Gaza Strip, Israel instructed the entire population of northern Gaza—roughly 1.1 million people—to evacuate to the south, then proceeded to bomb evacuation routes and supposed “safe zones.”

Now Israel’s military is preparing to move on the enclave’s last-remaining refuge for displaced people. In recent days, Israeli forces have ramped up airstrikes on the Rafah, destroying houses and killing civilians—including children.

Overcrowding in Rafah, a city that’s about a quarter the size of Baltimore, has become so severe that many people are sleeping on the streets and outside of hospitals in makeshift tents. Hundreds of people have been forced to share a single toilet, and many are starving.

“Now, they may be forced to flee once more as Israeli forces prepare to invade the area. A military assault on the city would lead to thousands of new civilian deaths and injuries,” Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said in a statement Friday. “Urgent action must be taken now if this new crisis in Rafah is to be averted. World leaders need to use all tools at their disposal to demand an immediate and permanent cease-fire, and protection for civilians in Gaza. We reiterate our continuous warnings about the very real prospect of mass displacement of Palestinians into Egypt.”

Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at MAP, wrote in response to Netanyahu’s order that “we’ve warned of this since week one.”

“This is what impunity gets you,” Talbot added.

The U.S., Israel’s top ally and arms supplier, has said it would oppose an Israeli military incursion into Rafah unless adequate steps were taken to protect civilians.

But aid groups warned that it’s impossible to protect civilians without an immediate end to Israel’s bombing and ground assault.

“Where on earth is Gaza’s exhausted and starving population supposed to go?” asked Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, in a statement on Friday. “People are now so desperate that they’re eating grass in a last attempt to stave off hunger. Meanwhile, infections and diseases are running rampant amid such overcrowded conditions.”

“The only thing that will stop this situation spinning even further out of control,” Jafari added, “is an immediate and permanent ceasefire—it’s the only way to stop more lives being lost and to allow enough lifesaving aid to enter the territory.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingIsraeli Plan to Evacuate Rafah by Force Sparks Warnings of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

Fossil Fuel-Linked Companies Dominate Sponsorship of COP27

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From software giants to soft drinks makers, the vast majority of partners at climate talks in Egypt are enmeshed with the oil and gas industry, researchers find.

Republished from DeSmog according to their republishing guidelines.

Stella Levantesi

ByStella Levantesi

onNov 16, 2022 @ 09:05 PST

Series: COP27 COVERAGE

Eighteen of the 20 companies sponsoring U.N. climate talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh either directly support or partner with oil and gas companies, according to a new analysis shared with DeSmog. 

The findings underscore concerns over the role of the fossil fuel industry at the negotiations, known as COP27, which have become a focal point for deals to exploit African natural gas

“These findings underline the extent to which this COP has never been about the climate: It’s been about rehabilitating the gas industry and making sure that fossil fuels are on the agenda,” said Pascoe Sabido of Brussels-based Corporate Europe Observatory, which co-produced the analysis with Corporate Accountability, a nonprofit headquartered in Boston. 

“These talks are supposed to be about moving us away from fossil fuels, phasing them out,” Sabido told DeSmog. 

A previous analysis by the two organisations and research and advocacy group Global Witness identified at least 636 fossil lobbyists who have been granted access to COP27 – an increase of more than 25 percent compared to the previous COP26 talks held in Glasgow a year ago; and twice the number of delegates from a U.N. body representing indigenous peoples.  

“This is part of the bigger problem which is linked to the overall corporate capture of the U.N. climate talks,” Sabido said. “We need to kick big polluters out.” 

Social license

As documented in the latest edition of DeSmog’s Gaslit column, fossil fuel sponsorship of COP27 represents an extension of a decades-long effort by oil and gas companies to buy social legitimacy by bankrolling sports, arts, and education around the world. 

COP27 partner Hassan Allam Holding, one of the largest privately owned corporations in Egypt, has announced plans to invest  $17.1 billion to turn North Africa into a regional natural gas hub, and $830 million in oil projects over the next two years, the analysis found. 

Sponsors also include Cairo-based Afreximbank, which plans to finance new oil and gas projects through the creation of a multi-billion dollar “energy bank”, and Mashreq, the oldest private bank in the United Arab Emirates, which refinances oil and gas projects. 

Microsoft, which uses cloud-based artificial intelligence to help companies such as Chevron optimize oil and gas extraction, is a partner at COP27, along with rival Google. 

Google says it has cracked down on climate misinformation on its platforms. But the company is still taking money from oil and gas companies to place adverts in search results that present their industry as environmentally friendly, a report found.

German engineering company Siemens, another COP27 sponsor, services firms such as Cairo-based Orascom Construction, which built one of the world’s biggest gas power plants in Egypt in 2018. IBM, also a sponsor, works with pesticide and fertiliser companies to promote “carbon farming” – a carbon offsetting technique that generates carbon credits for storing carbon in soils. Many climate groups believe such practices will provide an excuse for big companies to continue polluting. 

Conflict of interest

The predominance of fossil fuel sponsorship at COP27 cuts a stark contrast with demands from countries facing an existential threat from climate change for urgent action to cut emissions.

Last week, the island states of Vanuatu and Tuvalu became the first countries to back calls to cut greenhouse gas emissions at source by developing a treaty modeled on Cold War-era nuclear arms control agreements to wind down oil, gas and coal production.

Advocates of the campaign for such a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, including a growing number of cities and municipalities, also want to ban fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship. 

“We’ve got numerous countries calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and yet COP27 is sponsored by the same companies either directly funding them [fossil fuels], facilitating the extraction of oil and gas, or using their products,” Sabido said. 

The Boston Consulting Group, an American consulting firm and one of the main COP27 partners, works with Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell. COP27 lead partner Coca-Cola, which relies on plastic bottles derived from hydrocarbons, was named the world’s top plastic polluter for five years in a row by the Break Free From Plastic movement in its annual brand audit. The oil industry is banking on expanding production of plastics and other petrochemicals for its future growth. 

Only two out of the 20 COP27 sponsors, renewable energy provider Infinity Power and real estate developer Sodic, have no strong ties to the fossil fuel industry, the analysis  found. 

Corporate Europe Observatory and Corporate Accountability are calling for the U.N. body that organises the annual climate negotiations to adopt a conflict of interest policy that would exclude fossil fuel companies and their partners from attending or sponsoring the events. 

More than 450 organizations have already supported a campaign to Kick Big Polluters Out of COP27.

“What we need to do is end big polluter sponsorships of the talks, they shouldn’t be allowed to bankroll this process,” Sabido said. “They shouldn’t be allowed to greenwash their image through their presence at COPs.” 

Republished from DeSmog according to their republishing guidelines.

Continue ReadingFossil Fuel-Linked Companies Dominate Sponsorship of COP27

‘Abdication of Responsibility’: Fury as COP27 Draft Omits Oil and Gas Phase-Out

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Republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

“At a COP shaped by more than 600 fossil-fuel lobbyists roaming the halls, parties fighting for progress must push back against weak language that allows the fossil fuel industry to continue its deadly expansion,” said one campaigner.

Julia Conley November 17, 2022

Climate action groups were outraged Thursday as global policymakers released a draft agreement making clear that dire warnings from energy experts and scientists regarding fossil fuel extraction have not gotten through to them, with the document failing to endorse a phase-out of oil and gas use.

The draft agreement was published as the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) comes to a close in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and is expected to be heavily revised in the coming days.

“As climate impacts and injustice accelerate, lives, livelihoods, cultures, and even whole countries are lost, the latest draft cover note from the COP27 presidency pushes the pedal to the metal on the highway to climate hell.”

The absence of crucial language regarding oil and gas left campaigners concerned that the conference, where hundreds of fossil fuel lobbyists were present, will ultimately fail to produce an agreement that treats the climate crisis with the urgency needed.

“We came to Sharm el-Sheikh to demand real action on meeting and exceeding climate finance and adaptation commitments, a phase-out of all fossil fuels and for rich countries to pay for the loss and damage done to the most vulnerable communities within developing countries by agreeing a Loss and Damage Finance Fund,” said Yeb Saño, Greenpeace International’s head of delegation at the summit. “None of that is on offer in this draft. Climate justice will not be served if this sets the bar for a COP27 outcome.”

The draft agreement “encourages the continued efforts to accelerate measures towards the phase-down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

It also echoes the call in last year’s document out of COP26 to emphasize “the importance of exerting all efforts at all levels to achieve the Paris agreement temperature goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”

But the omission of a phase-out of all fossil fuel extraction, which delegates from India have lobbied for at COP27 and which the U.S., U.K., and European Union expressed conditional support for in recent days, denotes a draft document that “ignores the science of 1.5°C” even as it pledges to limit the temperature increase, said Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

https://twitter.com/Tzeporah/status/1593133296032321536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1593133296032321536%7Ctwgr%5E0d500ce1290cab834608ce2c4bc4f201018236b2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2022%2F11%2F17%2Fabdication-responsibility-fury-cop27-draft-omits-oil-and-gas-phase-out

“Acknowledging only the need to phase down coal while ignoring oil and gas is hugely problematic. This predatory delay is out of line with the science and with 1.5 degrees,” Collin Rees, campaign manager at Oil Change International, told Bloomberg. “At a COP shaped by more than 600 fossil-fuel lobbyists roaming the halls, parties fighting for progress must push back against weak language that allows the fossil fuel industry to continue its deadly expansion.”

The draft is the first agreement out of an annual U.N. climate conference to address “loss and damage”—the harms already suffered by countries in the Global South due to the climate crisis and the need for wealthy governments to help finance their recovery.

The document does not provide details about how a loss and damage fund would operate, saying only that it “welcomes” the inclusion of the issue in the final agreement.

“More than 40 million people in the Horn of Africa are currently experiencing climate-induced hunger crisis,” said Nafkote Dabi, climate change policy lead for Oxfam, on Wednesday. “Pakistan is faced with $30 billion worth of loss and damage from the recent mass floods that left a third of the country under water. It is crucial that developing countries can access a formal fund to pay for the damages and losses they are already suffering today.”

Rich countries must meet their $100 billion annual goal for climate finance in addition to establishing a new Loss and Damage fund that is fit for purpose, accessible and gender responsive,” Dabi added. “Rich countries must heed the urgent call and deliver a loss and damage fund at COP27.”

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The document includes some areas of improvement over the agreement written at COP26 last year, such as a call for multilateral development banks to scale up climate finance “without exacerbating debt burdens” for countries in the Global South, but leaves out details on how wealthy countries must strengthen their emissions-slashing targets.

“There should be a clear road map by those who are emitting a lot to start reducing their emissions,” Collins Nzovu, Zambia’s environment minister, told Bloomberg. “We are headed completely in the wrong direction—driving very, very fast into a ditch.”

Saño condemned the draft as “an abdication of responsibility to capture the urgency expressed by many countries to see all oil and gas added to coal for at least a phase-down.”

“As climate impacts and injustice accelerate, lives, livelihoods, cultures, and even whole countries are lost,” he added, “the latest draft cover note from the COP27 presidency pushes the pedal to the metal on the highway to climate hell.”

Republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Continue Reading‘Abdication of Responsibility’: Fury as COP27 Draft Omits Oil and Gas Phase-Out

‘Not Yet Defeated’: 1,000+ March for Climate Justice at COP27

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Republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

People participate in the Global Day of Action Climate Justice March at COP27 on November 12, 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. (Photo: Gertie Goddard/Greenhouse Communications via Twitter)

“COP27 needs to be a turning point for the climate crisis,” said one activist.

KENNY STANCILNovember 12, 2022

Hundreds of people rallied Saturday at the United Nations COP27 summit in Egypt to demand the fundamental political-economic transformations required to achieve climate justice.

“There can be no climate justice without human rights,” declared the COP27 Coalition, an alliance of progressive advocacy groups that planned the protest as part of its push for “an urgent response from governments to the multiple, systemic crises” facing people around the world. “We are not yet defeated!”

“We march today as part of the global day of action,” Janet Kachinga, spokesperson for the COP27 Coalition, said in a statement. “Solidarity is the cornerstone of climate justice.”

https://twitter.com/ActionAid/status/1591409380007858177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1591409380007858177%7Ctwgr%5Ee407071973c19dd5d7c81054882853c69c37bfee%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2022%2F11%2F12%2Fnot-yet-defeated-1000-march-climate-justice-cop27

“We are marching inside the U.N. space to highlight that our movements are unable to march freely on the streets of Egypt,” said Kachinga.

Ahead of COP27, human rights groups denounced Egypt’s repression of dissidents, including hunger-striking political prisoner Alaa Abd El Fattah. Since the conference began last week in the resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egyptian officials have been accused of spying on and otherwise intimidating participants.

“We refuse to greenwash the Egyptian government’s denial of the right to freedom of association, assembly, and speech by marching in a government-controlled march in the streets of Sharm El-Sheikh,” Kachinga continued.

Instead, from inside a designated Blue Zone governed by U.N. rules, activists sought “to lift up the voices and demands of all our frontline communities and movements facing repression because they dream of a better world,” said Kachinga.

https://twitter.com/EarthRightsIntl/status/1591385029166628865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1591385029166628865%7Ctwgr%5Ee407071973c19dd5d7c81054882853c69c37bfee%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2022%2F11%2F12%2Fnot-yet-defeated-1000-march-climate-justice-cop27

“We are at a crossroads of overlapping crises and governments are not on track to stop the worst of the climate crisis,” said Kachinga. “COP27 needs to be a turning point for the climate crisis, and not a moment to silence people.”

The U.N. recently published a series of reports warning that as a result of woefully inadequate emissions reductions targets and policies, there is “no credible path to 1.5°C in place,” and only “urgent system-wide transformation” can prevent temperatures from rising a cataclysmic 3°C by century’s end.

“Solidarity is the cornerstone of climate justice.”

According to the latest data, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—the three main heat-trapping gases fueling global warming—hit an all-time high in 2021, and greenhouse gas emissions have only continued to climb this year.

Despite overwhelming evidence that new fossil fuel projects will lead to deadly climate chaos, oil and gas corporations are still planning to expand dirty energy production in the coming years, including in Africa.

“The call for greater oil and gas production is completely out of step with climate science,” Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, said Friday in a statement. “Presented as a necessity for development, new investments in fossil fuel infrastructure would instead simply lock a new generation into these dirty fuels, at a time when clean energy is viable and ready to be scaled.”

“The rightful need of people in low- and middle-income countries for access to energy—for clean cooking, for healthcare, for education, for jobs, and many other key determinants of health—must not bring with it the health costs associated with fossil fuels,” Miller added. “It is vital that high-income countries provide financial support for the transition in low- and middle-income countries.”

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Among the key demands of the COP27 Coalition is that the rich nations most responsible for causing the climate crisis “fulfill their obligations and fair shares by reducing their emissions to zero and providing poorer nations the scale of financial support needed to address the crisis.”

The coalition argues that “repayment should include adaptation, loss and damage, technology transfer, and factor in debt cancellation for vulnerable countries [that] have been impoverished while dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis.”

A recent U.N.-backed report estimates that poor nations will need a combined total of $2.4 trillion per year by 2030 to fight the climate emergency—including funding for mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage.

“Unless more urgency is shown, marches will only be the start.”

A separate analysis from Carbon Brief reveals the extent of wealthy countries’ failures to mobilize far smaller sums of money to support sustainable development and enable equitable responses to escalating extreme weather disasters.

Since the COP15 meeting in 2009, developing countries have been promised that rich nations would provide at least $100 billion in climate aid each year by 2020. However, just over $83 billion was delivered in 2020, the most recent year for which data is available. The Global North is not expected to hit its annual target, widely regarded as insufficient, until 2023.

The U.S. is most responsible for the shortfall, providing less than $8 billion toward the $100 billion figure in 2020. That constitutes a mere 19% of the country’s approximately $40 billion “fair share,” or what it should be paying based on its cumulative contribution to global greenhouse gas pollution.

U.S. President Joe Biden has vowed to allocate $11.4 billion per year toward international green finance by 2024—less than 2% of the annual Pentagon budget and still far less than Washington’s fair share—but congressional lawmakers approved just $1 billion in a $1.5 trillion spending bill passed earlier this year.

When it comes to the U.N.-backed loss and damage fund, just a handful of high-polluting countries have pledged a combined total of around $250 million so far, a tiny fraction of the $31.8 trillion that the world’s 20 wealthiest economies collectively owe the Global South, according to the Climate Clock, a recently unveiled display at COP27.

“The science of climate breakdown has never been clearer, and seeing the suffering of my fellow Africans facing drought and famine, the impacts have never been more painful,” said Mohamed Adow, a representative of the COP27 Coalition.

“It’s no wonder that people are rising up across the world to make their voices heard that they will not stand for inaction from their leaders,” Adow continued. “Unless more urgency is shown, marches will only be the start.”

“Today we rise as a people, despite the restrictions, to demand our collective rights to a livable future,” said environmental justice champion Nnimmo Bassey. “We demand payment of the climate debt accumulated by centuries of dispossession, oppression, and destruction.”

“We need a COP led by the people and not polluters,” Bassey continued, alluding to the massive presence of fossil fuel lobbyists at the meeting. “One that rejects ecocidal, neocolonial false solutions that will widen the emissions gap, burn Africa and sink small island states, and further entrench environmental racism and climate injustice!”

Republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Continue Reading‘Not Yet Defeated’: 1,000+ March for Climate Justice at COP27

COP26 News review day 13

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COP26 overran into it’s thirteenth day today and produced the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Cop26 ends in climate agreement despite India watering down coal resolution

The negotiations carried on late into Saturday evening, as governments squabbled over provisions on phasing out coal, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and providing money to the poor world.

The “Glasgow climate pact” was adopted despite a last-minute intervention by India to water down language on “phasing out” coal to merely “phasing down”.

The pledges on emissions cuts made at the two-week long Cop26 summit in Glasgow fell well short of those required to limit temperatures to 1.5C, according to scientific advice. Instead, all countries have agreed to return to the negotiating table next year, at a conference in Egypt, and re-examine their national plans, with a view to increasing their ambition on cuts.

Continue ReadingCOP26 News review day 13

FAKE MANUFACTURED TERRORISM: Corporate Media’s Deluge of BS: Syria plane crash

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FAKE MANUFACTURED TERRORISM: Cameron government spins like Blair with Sharm el Sheikh BS

http://sputniknews.com/world/20151108/1029785601/a321-crash-investigation-media.html

A321 Crash investigators Call on Media to Stop Using Anonymous Sources

On Saturday, the Egypt-led investigation committee issued a statement, according to which the reason for the Russian Kogalymavia plane crash in Sinai is yet to be determined. The following day, Reuters reported, citing a unidentified member of the inquiry, that investigators into the plane crash in Egypt were “90 percent sure” the noise heard on the final seconds of a cockpit recording was an explosion caused by a bomb.

“News and media claims, quoting an anonymous source, allegedly one of the members of the Commission, are incorrect, and should not prevail,” Ayman Muqaddam was quoted in the statement published by the Egyptian Ministry of Civil aviation.

We’ve had an absolute deluge of bullshit from corporate media about the Sinai plane crash being a terrorist act. It appears that it was aided by UK authorities claiming that “chatter” was identified. This incident has been a wonderfull illustration of deliberate deception, of fake, manufactured terrorism.

Metrojet Flight 9268

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations sent three of its aircraft to the crash site. The Investigative Committee also started a legal case against Kogalymavia under legislation regulating “violation of rules of flights and preparations.”[55]

Natalya Trukhacheva, the ex-wife of co-pilot Sergei Trukachev, said in an interview with NTV that her ex-husband had complained to their daughter about the aircraft’s technical state.[52][65]

The aircraft involved in the crash had suffered a tailstrike while landing in Cairo fourteen years earlier.[30][64][66] Some have drawn comparisons to Japan Airlines Flight 123, which crashed into a mountain in 1985, seven years after the plane had suffered a tailstrike while landing.[64] Flight 123 suffered catastrophic damage in mid-air while climbing to its cruising altitude. The crash of Flight 123 was caused by an incorrect repair of the aircraft’s tail section following the tailstrike, which left the rear pressure bulkhead of the plane vulnerable to metal fatigue and ultimately resulted in explosive decompression.[64] Reports on the wreckage of Flight 9268 have suggested that a “clear break” occurred near the plane’s rear pressure bulkhead, possibly indicating failure of the bulkhead.[66]

Doesn’t the Wikipedia entry strongly suggest the real cause of this accident? Why is corporate media so keen to deliberately deceive and support governments in their bullshit terrorism narrative? Is it that they are partners in the deception – two cheeks of the same arse?*

TBC

*(George Galloway)

Continue ReadingFAKE MANUFACTURED TERRORISM: Corporate Media’s Deluge of BS: Syria plane crash

FAKE MANUFACTURED TERRORISM: Cameron government spins like Blair with Sharm el Sheikh BS

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David Cameron greets Egyptian dictator al Sisi at Downing St

UK media is consumed with the baseless manufactured news that UK has stopped flights from Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt).

This fake, manufactured BS nicely excludes the fact that UK Prime Minister David Cameron is hosting Egyptian repressive dictator al Sisi, the second repressive dictator to be hosted by Cameron in as many weeks. al Sisi staged a military overthrow of the first democratically-elected president of Egypt , President Morsi. Cameon is following his hero Blair in his distain for democracy.

The baseless, fake manufactured BS is also useful in scaring people sh**less to manufacture support for the Snooper’s Charter.

Continue ReadingFAKE MANUFACTURED TERRORISM: Cameron government spins like Blair with Sharm el Sheikh BS

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A selection of recent UK and international political articles.

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UK politics

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A few recent UK (& other) politics articles

Continue ReadingUK politics