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04 May 2023 - NPWJ News Digest on Environmental Justice and Human Rights
Articles
Heavy rain, floods kill at least 136 in Rwanda and Uganda
Reuters, 04 May 2023
Flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain have killed at least 129 people in Rwanda and six in Uganda, authorities said on Wednesday, as rescuers hunted survivors trapped in homes. In chaotic scenes after weeks of rain in the region, one video clip posted by the state-owned Rwanda Broadcasting Agency showed muddy water gushing down an inundated road and destroying houses.
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N.Y. ditches gas stoves, fossil fuels in new buildings in first statewide ban in U.S.
The Washington Post, 03 May 2023
New York has become the first state in the nation to pass a law banning natural gas and other fossil fuels in most new buildings, a move that could inspire other states and further erode the residential future of the gas industry. The state ban on gas in new buildings could face legal challenges, but it marks a milestone in the energy transition sought by climate activists.
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‘A New Spike’ in Global Temperatures in the Forecast
The New York Times, 03 May 2023
The World Meteorological Organization reports increased odds that El Niño, the global weather pattern often tied to intense heat, will arrive by fall. While there is not yet a clear picture of how strong the El Niño event will be or how long it might last, even a relatively mild one could affect precipitation and temperature patterns around the world.
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Exclusive: US climate envoy Kerry says China has invited him for talks
Reuters, 03 May 2023
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said on Wednesday China has invited him to visit "in the near term" for talks on averting a global climate change crisis even as diplomatic relations between the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters remain tense. The United States and China must work together to address climate change, Kerry said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of a conference on global warming in Berlin.
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Italy – Evacuations and Rescues After Floods in Emilia-Romagna
Floodlist, 03 May 2023
On 03 May 2023, Vigili del Fuoco, the fire and rescue department in Italy, reported 400 interventions due to flooding and landslides in the Emilia Romagna region in the north of the country. News agency ANSA reported over 250 people have evacuated their homes in affected areas, including in Faenza in the province of Ravenna after an embankment along the Lamone River failed. Homes were also evacuated after flooding in the Monzuno and Castel San Pietro communes in the Metropolitan City of Bologna. Twelve residents of homes in the Dovadola comune in the Province of Forlì-Cesena were evacuated as a precaution due to a landslide.
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EU mulls partial exit from energy treaty over climate concerns
Reuters, 03 May 2023
The European Union is considering a proposal to quit an international energy treaty that has become mired in climate change concerns, but leave an option for individual countries to stay in an updated version of the accord, a document showed. The 1998 Energy Charter Treaty lets energy companies sue governments over policies that damage their investments, a system initially designed to support investments in the sector. But in recent years it has been used to challenge climate policies that require fossil fuel projects to shut - raising concerns that the treaty is undermining efforts to address global warming.
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French oil giant TotalEnergies sues Greenpeace over emissions report
The Guardian, 03 May 2023
The French oil major TotalEnergies has sued the environmental group Greenpeace France and the climate consulting firm Factor-X over a report claiming that the company massively underestimated its 2019 greenhouse gas emissions, Total said on Wednesday. The civil complaint, served on 28 April, seeks a ruling that the November publication contains “false and misleading information”, a judicial order to withdraw the publication and cease all references to it under penalty of €2,000 a day in fines, plus a symbolic €1 in damages.
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Next UN climate summit to consider health issues in depth for first time
The Guardian, 02 May 2023
Sultan Al Jaber, the president of Cop28, which will take place in Dubai this November, said on Tuesday: “We will be the first Cop to dedicate a day to health and the first to host a health and climate ministerial. And we need to broaden our definition of adaptation to enable global climate resilience, transform food systems and enhance forestry land use and water management.”
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Brazil: Illegal gold miners fatally shot in Indigenous territory
Al Jazeera, 01 May 2023
Illegal gold miners ambushed Brazilian police and environmental protection agents on sprawling Indigenous territory in the Amazon rainforest, and four miners were shot dead in an exchange of gunfire, the government said. The Ministry of the Environment said on Monday that its team was attacked a day earlier when they moved to dismantle a wildcat mining camp run by an organised crime gang on the Yanomami reservation.
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