17 February 2022 - NPWJ News Digest on Environmental Justice & Human Rights

Articles

World spends $1.8tn a year on subsidies that harm environment, study finds
The Guardian, 17 Feb 2022

The world is spending at least $1.8tn (£1.3tn) every year on subsidies driving the annihilation of wildlife and a rise in global heating, according to a new study, prompting warnings that humanity is financing its own extinction. From tax breaks for beef production in the Amazon to financial support for unsustainable groundwater pumping in the Middle East, billions of pounds of government spending and other subsidies are harming the environment, says the first cross-sector assessment for more than a decade. 

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US sea level to rise as much in next 30 years as in past century – study
The Guardian, 16 Feb 2022

America’s vast coastline is being assailed by rapidly encroaching oceans, with up to 1ft of sea level rise expected in the next 30 years – an increase that equals the total rise seen over the past century, a major US federal government report has found. The seas are rising significantly faster around the US than the global average, a situation that will cause a “dramatic increase” in the number of Americans, already numbering tens of millions, vulnerable to disastrous flooding, the anaylsis warns.

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Venezuela oil spills caused grave environmental damage over two years -report
Reuters, 16 Feb 2022

Constant oil spills in Venezuela between 2020 and 2021 have caused grave damage to the environment, the country's science academy said on Wednesday, which also called on state oil company PDVSA (PDVSA.UL) to comply with clean-up operations.
At least nine spills have occurred in the two years, the Venezuelan Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences said in a report, including 26,730 barrels of oil in July last year, which polluted Morrocoy national park located on Venezuela's northwest coast.
"Along the coast, hydrocarbon spills and the discharge of waste by the oil industry happen with greater frequency every day," the report said, adding that such incidents affect the environment and can kill life found on the sea floor. 

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Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded, a new study finds
NPR, 16 Feb 2022

Four major oil companies aren't taking concrete steps to live up to their pledges to transition to clean energy, new research has found.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, found that Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell used terms like "climate," "low-carbon" and "transition" more frequently in recent annual reports and devised strategies around decarbonization. But their actions on clean energy were mostly pledges and the companies remain financially reliant on fossil fuels.
"We thus conclude that the transition to clean energy business models is not occurring, since the magnitude of investments and actions does not match discourse," the researchers at Tohoku University and Kyoto University in Japan said. 

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White House Takes Aim at Environmental Racism, but Won’t Mention Race
The New York Times, 15 Feb 2022

As a candidate and then as president, Joseph R. Biden promised to address the unequal burden that people of color carry from exposure to environmental hazards.
But the White House’s new environmental strategy to tackle this problem will be colorblind: Race will not be a factor in deciding where to focus efforts. 

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Pollution causing more deaths than COVID, action needed, U.N. expert says
Reuters, 15 Feb 2022

Pollution by states and companies is contributing to more deaths globally than COVID-19, a U.N. environmental report published on Tuesday said, calling for "immediate and ambitious action" to ban some toxic chemicals.
The report said pollution from pesticides, plastics and electronic waste is causing widespread human rights violations and at least 9 million premature deaths a year, and that the issue is largely being overlooked. 

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Eastern Mediterranean’s climate fight can decrease tensions
Arab News, 15 Feb 2022

In a rather low-key fashion, a virtual meeting at ministerial level was this month convened by Cyprus to address climate change in the Eastern Mediterranean and discuss regional collaboration on the impacts of global warming on this part of the world in light of the COP26 summit.

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Climate change forcing Zimbabwean girls into sex work
Aljazeera, 14 Feb 2022

As global warming continues to devastate rural agriculture, young women are moving to urban centres – and into prostitution.

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