Ecology

Class Struggle, Environment and the Corona Virus Pandemic

22 April 2020 - by Kunal Chattopadhyay

The Corona virus threat has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. How not to respond to it from the left is easily seen, by apparently leftist posts circulating in social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter), which suddenly wake up to how many people die because of hunger, (...)
Corporations as private sovereign powers: the case of Total

7 February 2020 - by Alain Deneault

Total is viewed as “a French oil company,” but in reality it is — like many other transnational corporations — more like a private sovereign power. Contribution of the philosopher Alain Deneault at « State of Power 2020 ». Having studied, written on and engaged in public discussion about (...)
Extractivism and resistance in North Africa

23 November 2019 - by Hamza Hamouchene

Northern African countries are key suppliers of natural resources to the global economy, from large- scale oil and gas extraction in Algeria and Tunisia, to phosphate mining in Tunisia and Morocco, to water-intensive agribusiness paired with tourism in Morocco and Tunisia. The commodification (...)
Climate change and imperialism: what connects the Amazon fires and the EU-Mercosur agreement?

2 October 2019 - by Aleksandar Matković

From the crisis to the Mercosur agreement There have been many discussions on the next global crisis (including Adam Tooze and Ann Pettifor, and the Marxist economists Michael Roberts and John Smith), and I’ve also written and talked about it at least thrice (first in November, then in (...)
Big Shift Global coalition reacts to the World Bank Group’s post-2020 climate goals announcement

5 December 2018 - by Big Shift Global coalition

On Monday, the World Bank Group released a new set of climate targets for 2021-2025, through which it aims to provide and mobilize $200 billion in support of countries’ climate action over this period. According to the Bank’s press release, it will provide $133 billion in direct finance, and (...)
Climate scheme hands $105 million profit to global insurance industry

27 November 2018 - by Jubilee Debt Campaign

Caribbean disaster insurance scheme receives $293 million in premium payments and grants, pays out $131 million in claims, with $105 million going as profit to global insurers Figures released ahead of climate change negotiations in Poland show that for the most economically damaging disasters (...)
Despotism, neoliberalism and climate change: Morocco’s catastrophic convergence

26 July 2017 - by Jawad Moustakbal

Claims of Morocco’s exceptionalism during the Arab Spring now ring hollow as protests spread in the face of elite policies that deny dignity to the majority. On Friday, 28 October 2016, a tragic fatal incident happened in Al Hoceima city in northeastern Morocco when a state official seized (...)
How TIAA Funds Environmental Disaster in Latin America

6 February 2017 - by Linda Farthing

Pension fund giant TIAA is investing its clients’ funds in farmland and agribusinesses tied to environmental and human rights abuses in Latin America. If you are in U.S. academic, research, medical, or cultural fields, your assets are likely managed by pension fund giant TIAA (formerly (...)
The rise and fall of World Bank funded megaprojects

3 February 2017 - by Bretton Woods Project

Summary World Bank confirms support for controversial Southern Gas Corridor Bank pulls out of DRC Inga hydropower project IFC to sell stake in Guinea Simandou mining project New complaint regarding Uganda Bujagali hydropower project lodged The World Bank concluded 2016 by adding a (...)
Behind the fumes: the dirty truth behind the World Bank’s commitments on climate change

3 February 2017 - by Bretton Woods Project

Summary IFC investments in FIs supported at least 41 coal power plants since 2013 Investments contravene 2013 Bank policy on coal, contribute to climate change and deforestation Lack of disclosure on FI sub-projects continues to deprive communities access to grievance mechanism The (...)
Big business in Marrakech: fertiliser industry and finance dominate COP22

9 November 2016 - by ATTAC/CADTM Maroc, GRAIN

Africa will be centre-stage at this year’s Conference of Parties on climate change (COP 22) in Marrakech. According to the Moroccan steering committee, this is the “African COP”. The event will feature an “Africa Pavilion”, with activities supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the New (...)
World Bank money is helping to finance Asia’s coal boom: report

4 November 2016 - by Isabel Esterman

Should the World Bank Group be held accountable when financial institutions it supports invest in projects that threaten forests and communities? After tracing the Group’s links to controversial projects like the Rampal coal power station, the activists behind a new report say, “Yes.” A report by (...)
Migrations – Looting and Climate

20 October 2016 - by Nicolas Sersiron

With its 1.79 children per household, Germany is in demographic decline. The production of its wealth relies on wage earners. It must import a workforce for which it does not have to provide care for the first few years and which it hopes will depart before retirement. The resulting (...)
On the perspective of ruling classes and the elite in Morocco on global environmental issues

12 October 2016 - by Jawad Moustakbal

The dominant neo-colonial thinking represents the biggest hardship that we face in this country. We were a colony controlled by the French state that left behind some traditions: achieving success and happiness in life is embodied in the attempt to live as in France, as the richest people of (...)
Tata Mundra Project: Time to End World Bank Immunity

21 September 2016 - by Sushovan Dhar

Fisher-folks, farmers and marginal wage earners in Gujarat, India were shocked to hear about the US federal district court ruling in March this year that the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank Group, enjoys absolute immunity and therefore cannot (...)
Kerkennah: on the frontline of resistance to the fossil fuel industry in Tunisia

26 July 2016 - by Hamza Hamouchene

The effects of climate change and neoliberalism converge in Kerkennah in the worst possible way – but the islands are fighting back. Kerkennah is a group of islands lying off the east coast of Tunisia in the Gulf of Gabès, around 20km away from the mainland city of Sfax. The two main islands (...)
ATTAC/CADTM Morocco quits the moroccan climate justice coalition

17 June 2016 - by ATTAC/CADTM Maroc

On February 7, 2016, our organization attended the constitutive meeting of the Moroccan Coalition for climate Justice in Rabat. Our objective is to collaborate with all organizations aiming to struggle against environmental injustice as well as economic and social injustice suffered by large (...)
Investment Court System put to the test

26 May 2016 - by Transnational Institute, Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, Forum Umwelt und Entwicklung , Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

The European Commission says that its new investment proposal –the Investment Court System - will protect governments’ abilities to regulate on crucial matters such as public health and environmental protection. But analysis of five of the most controversial arbitration cases in recent years (...)
For Indigenous Peoples, Megadams Are ‘Worse than Colonization’

16 March 2016 - by Philippa de Boissière , Sian Cowman

These mega-projects expropriate land, spoil environments, and pollute democracies. Berta Cáceres gave her life resisting them. Early in the morning of March 3, Berta Cáceres was assassinated as she slept. A world-renowned environmental activist, Berta had been a driving force in protecting (...)
Recent Developments of the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power

14 March 2016 - by Radio Mundo Real

Real World Radio has interviewed Brid Brennan from the Transnational Institute (TNI) to discuss recent works of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) in Geneva, including side events of acknowledgement for Berta Caceres, and the proposals provided by the Global Campaign to Dismantle (...)
Videos: Documentary series about the TTIP

10 February 2016 - by Art.35 Films

Documentary series about the TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which the United States and the European Union are negotiating. TTIP: The privatizacion of justice TTIP: Energy and climate change TTIP: A corporate governance TTIP: The countryside gone into (...)
Three reasons why the Paris climate deal is a fraud

15 December 2015 - by Jerome Roos

World leaders are congratulating themselves on a set of promises they will never be able to keep without taking on the immense power of the fossil fuel industry. World leaders and the international media are hailing the deal struck in Paris as a “major leap for mankind” in the fight against (...)
Paying climate debts for global climate justice

4 December 2015 - by Helmut Selinger

The issue of worldwide climate injustice has been high on the agenda of the global climate movement for several years. This injustice stems from the fact that many countries of the Global South are suffering the worst effects of anthropogenic climate change even though they themselves played a (...)
SDG Indicators and Data: Who collects? Who reports? Who benefits?

3 December 2015 - by Barbara Adams

As part of its mandate to develop an indicator framework by which to monitor the goals and targets of the post-2015 development agenda, the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDGs (IAEG-SDGs) held its second meeting in Bangkok, 26-28 October 2015. The objective was to seek agreement on the (...)
Cooking the planet

17 November 2015 - by Corporate Europe Observatory

One year on from the appointment of Cañete and Šefčovič, Corporate Europe Observatory takes a look at who the commissioners responsible for climate and energy policies are meeting, and finds Big Energy dominating the agenda. According to data extracted from the Commission itself, 80 per cent of (...)