Temperature check – good news for the climate
Temperature check – good news for the climate
Danny Chivers has some good news for the climate.
Artists and activists from BP or not BP? at the BP Portrait Award in London, England, on 10 June 2019. MARK KERRISON/ALAMY
Oil extraction blocked in Ecuador
Indigenous communities won a 12-month delay on all new oil and gas projects in Ecuador. This is after a year of struggle between President Guillermo Lasso and a movement led by Indigenous communities. President Guillermo Lasso is trying to get more oil extraction and mining in the Amazon. The Indigenous communities are protesting with strikes and blockades. In February 2022, help came from a Supreme Court to say that Indigenous communities need to agree before new development on their territories can begin. There were mass protests over the summer, led by groups including the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). The success of the protests mean that in September there was an agreement that there will be no new oil extraction projects for at least one year.
Leonidas Iza, president of CONAIE, said that the government needed to agree to many more demands by the community but the new agreement came from ‘the pressure and force of the people in the streets.’
Countries leave a bad deal
The Energy Charter Treaty is an international agreement that allows fossil fuel companies to sue national governments. There was good news in October 2022 when Spain and the Netherlands said they are leaving the deal. Oil, gas, and coal companies are using the treaty’s ‘shadow courts’ more and more to block climate action. These companies are also forcing governments to pay ‘compensation’ to polluting corporations when they lose their profits because of cleaner energy policies. Italy has already left the treaty and Poland is planning to leave. The good news is that the treaty may not continue.
No more money for oil and gas
UK-based Lloyds Banking Group said in October 2022 that it will no longer invest in new oil and gas extraction. Dutch bank ING said the same thing in March. Lloyds’ decision comes after years of protests from climate campaigners. It should stop millions of dollars from reaching new oil and gas fields.
The sustainable investment group ShareAction says that European banks gave over $400 billion to big oil and gas companies between 2016 and 2021. But only 8 per cent of this came from direct finance, and 92 per cent from corporate loans to fossil fuel companies. Lloyds is still providing the loans.
Indigenous islanders win
Torres Straits Islanders won an important legal ruling in September 2022, when a UN tribunal said that the Australian government did not support their human rights when it did not take action on climate change. This put them at risk of serious climate impacts. Australia must now pay compensation to the islanders and take action to protect their lands. In the same week, Indigenous leaders from the Tiwi islands off the north coast of Australia won a federal court case against the big gas company Santos. They blocked the company’s plans to drill in their waters.
Success against the big oil companies
It’s another successful year for the Fossil Free Culture movement. The UK’s National Portrait Gallery and Scottish Ballet ended their partnerships with the big oil company BP. And the fossil fuel companies Chevron and Santos will no longer support Perth and Darwin arts festivals in Australia. Companies spent many years supporting arts and culture in order to ‘artwash’ their brand, stop public criticism, and make it easier for them to ask for help from political leaders. Artists, activists, and culture workers have ended oil, gas, and coal company partnerships at many arts institutions in a lot of countries. This helps to reduce the companies’ power and influence.
NOW TRY THE ORIGINAL:
https://newint.org/features/2022/12/05/temperature-check
(This article is in easier English so it is possible that we changed the words, the text structure, and the quotes.)
