It is a pity that the corporate responisbility initiative in Switzerland has lacked the majority of cantons although a majority of people voted in favour of the initiative. If we look for France then a binding supply chain law is already reality. Even the European Union has announced to publish a draft law for 2021.
As the following article from the Guardian shows it is a real threat that Joe Biden could hire fossil fuel cronies to implement climate protection. That sounds weird and would fail for sure. The linked petition tells Joe Biden to nominate a fossil free cabinet which then needs to be confirmed by the Senate. Leaders should ideally be free of corporate influence, especially from the fossil fuels. The petition embraces the nominees for key positions like the Secretaries of Agriculture, Interior, and Energy, as well as who will lead the EPA under Biden.
The EU wants to burn our forests for energy production. This is madness. There is already not enough sustainably harvestable wood for furniture and construction, which is why plastic is used more often. The wood to be burned would then come at least indirectly from the clear cutting of primary forests from abroad. The boreal forests also know other enemies such as toilet paper, which is made from paper that has not been recycled. The loss, especially that of primeval forests, is a big problem for climate protection and not its solution! Stop felling Canada’s centuries-old forest giants for lumber!
There has been a globalization due to the rise and pervasiveness of new communication techniques, especially the internet. We see this type of globalization in a very positive way as it interconnects people from different parts of the world and can raise awareness for the living circumstances of people from elsewhere. It can be used to communicate important information globally and rapidly. — However there has also been a globalization due to the proliferation of the neoliberal economic model. As we know it fosters inequality and environmental destruction. Neoliberalism can be seen as “greed by ideology”. Unfortunately the spread of neoliberalism is so often sugarcoated as “globalization” that both words are nowadays most often used as synonyms.
In our last message we reported about Adani´s mega-coal mine in Australia to make profits from the export of coal energy from India to Bangladesh, which could sink into the sea due to climate change. The project shows once again how extremely reckless the neoliberal model student India behaves when it comes to its economic policy. With such a project, compliance with the 1.5° target is probably not possible worldwide, which means that all coral reefs, as they have been around for millions of years, would die off. Due to ongoing protests, one private donor after the other has withdrawn, but now the Indian state wants to step in for its Adani group. India does not have the right to point with the finger at others. You need to consider on how recklessly India acts with neo-colonial behavior against the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands. Their own indigenous people are no better off; they are expropriated and evicted from their land to create reservations.
