Dr Sarah Benn said that as a doctor, she had a moral duty to take action to protect life and health
A doctor, arrested and jailed for her involvement in Just Stop Oil protests, has had her medical licence suspended for five months.
Dr Sarah Benn, formerly a GP in Birmingham, was arrested after taking part in peaceful demonstrations at the Kingsbury oil terminal in Warwickshire.
Dr Benn, who had already given up practising in August 2022, said that as a doctor, she had a moral duty to take action to protect life and health.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) imposed the suspension on Tuesday after ruling last week that Dr Benn’s fitness to practise was impaired.
We need to build a firewall between politicians and the oil and gas firms driving the climate crisis.
Richard Burgon is the Labour MP for Leeds East
The same oil and gas giants behind the record energy bills that have forced so many into poverty have also brought us to the cliff edge of climate catastrophe.
If we are to have a fighting chance of preventing the worst of the climate crisis, then we need to rapidly cut fossil fuel use. Key to that is breaking the vast power that oil and gas companies have over our politics.
That’s why this week I will present a Bill in the House of Commons to ban MPs from receiving funding or any other benefit from oil and gas companies.
My Private Members Bill would stop MPs from taking any second jobs with, or receiving any donations, gifts, hospitality or benefits-in-kind from, any company that makes more than 50% of its annual revenue from oil or gas.
It would also force the Government to end investments by the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund in any oil and gas companies.
The aim of my Bill is simple: to build a firewall between our political decision-makers and the oil and gas corporations that have knowingly caused the climate crisis.
For decades, oil and gas giants used their vast financial power to confuse and undermine the science about the role of fossil fuels in driving climate change. More recently, their focus has moved on throwing huge sums at delaying, blocking and weakening global climate action.
Fossil fuel money also pollutes British politics. The Tory Party received £3.5m from donors with fossil fuel, polluter and climate denial links in 2022 according to an analysis of Electoral Commission records by DeSmog, an investigative website focused on global warming misinformation campaigns.
dizzy: Despite this article having been written by a Labour MP it should not be assumed that the UK Labour Party will be any different from the Conservatives on the climate crisis or fossil fuel industry.
A tribunal has found Dr Sarah Benn’s fitness to practise to be impaired
The British Medical Association (BMA) has said it is “very concerned” by a tribunal’s finding that a doctor’s participation in Just Stop Oil protests amounted to professional misconduct.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service ruled Dr Sarah Benn’s fitness to practise was impaired and said it must consider whether a sanction should be imposed on her registration.
The General Medical Council (GMC), which referred the case, said the hearing was convened due to the fact her actions at Kingsbury oil terminal in Warwickshire broke the law and resulted in her imprisonment.
But Dr Emma Runswick, BMA deputy chair of council, said there was “no possible public or patient interest” in such circumstances for proceedings where potential sanctions included the removal of a doctor’s licence.
Addressing the tribunal’s findings, Dr Runswick said the BMA was concerned Dr Benn’s registration as a doctor could be threatened for taking part in peaceful protests relating to the climate change emergency.
Frontline community members and environmental groups marched in Ottawa, Canada, on Sunday, April 21, 2024 to demand an ambitious Global Plastics Treaty. (Photo: Ben Powless/Survival Media Agency)
“As adults who come to Ottawa to negotiate the plastic treaty, you must protect our rights to live in a healthy and safe environment,” one young activists said.
Days before national delegates gather for the fourth and penultimate negotiations to develop a Global Plastics Treaty in Ottawa, Canada, around 500 Indigenous and community representatives, members of civil society and environmental groups, and experts and scientists gathered for a “March to End the Plastic Era” on Sunday.
The protesters, organized under the banner of Break Free From Plastic, called for a treaty that significantly reduces plastic production and centers the frontline communities most impacted by the plastics crisis.
“Delegates must act like our lives depend on it—because they do,” Daniela Duran Gonzales, senior legal campaigner with the Center for International Environmental Law, said in a statement. “Our climate goals, the protection of human health, the enjoyment of human rights, and the rights of future generations all rest on whether the future plastics treaty will control and reduce polymers to successfully end the plastic pollution crisis.”
“Short-sighted business interests must be out of the room because the only way to achieve equitable livelihoods is when we have a healthy planet.”
The official meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to craft a “international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment,” will run from April 23 to 29 in the Canadian capital.
Break Free From Plastic called the negotiations a “make or break” moment for the treaty, which is supposed to be completed in late 2024 in Busan, South Korean. However, civil society groups have expressed concern that oil-producing countries and the plastics industry will water down the agreement and steer it toward waste management and recycling, which has been revealed to be a false solution to plastic pollution knowingly promoted by the industry for decades.
The last round of negotiations concluded in late 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya, with little progress made after 143 fossil fuel and chemical lobbyists attended.
Salisa Traipipitsiriwat of Thailand, who is the senior campaigner and Southeast Asia plastics project manager for the Environmental Justice Foundation, said ahead of Sunday’s march that it was “crucial for world leaders to step up and put the people and planet at the forefront.”
“Short-sighted business interests must be out of the room because the only way to achieve equitable livelihoods is when we have a healthy planet,” Traipipitsiriwat added.
On Sunday, marchers gathered for a press conference at 10:30 am ET before marching at around 11:30 am from Parliament Hill to the Shaw Center, were negotiations will begin on Tuesday. Crowds began to disperse around 1:30 pm. Participants carried large banners with messages including, “End the plastic era,” “End multigenerational toxic exposure,” and pointing out that 99% of plastics came from fossil fuels. The gathering featured live music and art, including a giant tap pouring out plastics and a “Plastisaurus rex” with the message “Make single-use plastic extinct.”
(Photo: Break Free From Plastics)
“Now’s the time to be bold and push for a treaty that cuts plastic production and holds polluters accountable,” Julie Teel Simmonds, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a pre-march statement. “I’m inspired to be joining so many advocates in Ottawa, standing up against the enormous harm the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries are causing to people’s health and the planet. I hope to see countries showing ambition this week, and I urge them to remember what’s at stake for future generations.”
Civil society groups have compiled several demands for an ambitious and effective treaty. These are:
Centering human rights, especially those of Indigenous communities, young people, and workers most impacted by plastic pollution;
Protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples throughout the treaty process;
Dealing with plastics across their entire lifecyle;
Reducing production as a “nonnegotiable” part of the treaty;
Eliminating toxic chemicals and additives from plastics;
Bolstering reuse systems for plastics that are non-toxic;
Prioritizing first prevention, then reuse, recycling, recovery, and disposal when managing plastic waste;
Ending “waste colonialism” by strengthening regulations for trading plastics;
Guaranteeing a “just transition” for people employed across the plastics lifecycle;
Including “non-party” provisions in the treaty;
Establishing a mechanism to fund countries so they can fully implement the treaty; and
Enshrining conflict-of-interest policies as a protection against plastics industry lobbying.
The coalition emphasized the need to tackle the problem of plastic from cradle to grave.
“Plastic doesn’t just become pollution when it’s thrown away,” said Jessica Roff, the U.S. and Canada plastics and petrochemicals program manager for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. “Plastic is pollution, from the moment the fossil fuels are extracted from the ground to the eternity of waste it spawns.”
Chrie Wilke, global advocacy manager for the Waterkeeper Alliance, said “Clearly the crux of the plastic pollution crisis is too much plastic being produced. There is no way to recycle our way out of this. We must face the fact that plastic and petrochemicals, at current production levels, endanger waterways, communities, and fisheries across the globe. Cutting production and implementing non-plastic alternatives and reuse systems is essential.”
(Photo: Ben Powless/Survival Media Agency)
Activists also emphasized the environmental justice implications of plastic pollution, and how some communities and groups are more burdened than others, both from the dangers of the production process and from waste disposal.
“Children and youth like me suffer the most and are recognized as a vulnerable group,” said Aeshnina ‘Nina’ Azzahra, the founder of River Warrior Indonesia. “My playground and my future are at risk. We all want our environment to be plastic-free, but please don’t put your burden on the other side of the world—this is NOT fair. As adults who come to Ottawa to negotiate the plastic treaty, you must protect our rights to live in a healthy and safe environment.”
Jo Banner, co-founder and co-directer of The Descendants Project, said:”Frontline community members, such as myself, are participating in these treaty negotiations with heavy hearts as our communities back home are struggling with sickness and disease caused by the upstream production of plastic.”
“Although our hearts are heavy, they are full with passion urging negotiators to aim for an ambitious treaty that caps plastic production,” Banner added. “Areas such as my hometown, located in the heart of Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, need a strong treaty now. There is no more time to waste.”
Chris Packham by Garry Knight from London, England – People’s Walk for Wildlife 2018 – 04, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia image.
‘Our government’s policies.. are not only cooking the planet, they are justifying that by cooking the books’
Naturalist Chris Packham obliterated the UK Government’s climate policy achievements during a debate about the government’s record on tackling climate change.
It followed an interview with the Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho on Sunday where she defended the government’s approach to the environment and argued that Tories had a “very strong track record of delivery”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Coutinho also repeated the Conservative Party line that it is tacking a “sensible and pragmatic” approach to achieving net zero, as she argued she didn’t want to “heap costs on families”.
However environmental activist and broadcaster Chris Packham took apart the government’s rhetoric, accusing ministers of “cooking the books” over their climate policy achievements.
“Our government’s policies at the moment are not only cooking the planet, they are justifying that by cooking the books,” said Packham.
“She’s saying we’re ahead in all of our targets. That’s not actually the case, it’s the way that data is presented and analysed.
