Category: Additional Content

First Prize goes to Brazil

First place in today’s Fossil of the Week goes to Brazil, for its ghastly and unacceptable treatment of indigenous people. On Monday, indigenous activist Txai Suruí, was lauded for her powerful conference speech telling world leaders about the impact climate change is already having on her tribe.

Unfortunately, this didn’t go down too well back home where she was publicly criticized by Brazilian President Jair Bolsanaro, for “attacking Brazil”, prompting online trolls to heap abuse on the 24 year-old. Worse still, she was allegedly subjected to bullying from a Brazilian government environment ministry official, who towered over her saying she “shouldn’t bash Brazil”. Worryingly, days later, another Brazilian state representative, with ties to the rural lobby, was detained by conference security for trying to intimidate indigenous women.

Such despicable behaviour is well documented in Brazil; invasions of indigenous lands have skyrocketed; wildcat gold mining is polluting waterways, intimidation is rife and they have a vice-president who justified denying freshwater to Covid-hit villages because “the Indians drink from the rivers”. We could go on to talk about rainforests and deforestation but think you get the idea.

Bolsanaro didn’t bother to go to Glasgow, preferring to visit his ancestral home in Italy and hang out with a far right-leader instead.
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The Polish Government awarded Fossil of the Day for walking a very crooked line

It appears that the Polish government isn’t exactly telling the truth about their pledge to quit coal.

Now if you’re sitting comfortably we’ll begin this sorry tale of coal addiction:

On the 3rd of November, as part of an international agreement, Poland, along with 40 other countries and organisations, pledged to quit coal. The agreement was that major economies phase out coal in the 2030s and poorer ones in the 2040s. All fine so far.

Being based on trust, countries were able to choose which decade they would stop this nasty addiction.

But here the story gets a bit murky.

The Polish ministry of climate and environment decided that, despite being the 23^rd largest global economy, (forecast to grow further in the coming years, according to the

World Bank) and with ambitions to join the G20, to put the country in the ‘poorer’ category.

According to ministry boffins, they weren’t a “major economy” anymore and the phase out could wait until, not just the 2040’s but – wait for it- 2049!

The story ends badly (for the moment) with Poland dodging its coal commitment at a time when it’s absolutely paramount that they, and all OECD countries, stick to the 2030 deadline and keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C degrees, to avoid extreme climate breakdown.
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So the 4th of November is energy day at COP26 but is that positive or negative energy – you decide…

The First Fossil of the Day Award goes to the United States of America (USA).

United States President Joe Biden, supported by the UK Government and others, launched the new ‘AIM for Climate’ (AIM4C) initiative at the World Leaders Summit innovation event. Did Joe think we’d be stuck in the line too long to notice that this is a sneaky scheme to reframe industrial agriculture and disruptive technologies as climate action? Come on Joe, we’re not confused by lines, just frustrated. So it’s crystal clear that it’s the opposite and goes against any principles of justice, sustainable development and food security. Biden’s ‘gift’ is really part of a cunning ploy to exclude farmers from agriculture – they don’t even get a mention on AIM4C’s website – and replace them with robots, gene-edited seeds and boost technology profits for the buddies in Silicon Valley.

AIM4C could also be a poisoned chalice for food policy, increasing energy use, pollution and strengthening the very industrial food chain that is harming the climate as the agri-giants redefine themselves as ag-tech and newcomers like Microsoft and Amazon begin to shuffle into the digital agriculture arena.
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Today´s list of Fossil Award winners is as long as the queues at COP. 

1st Fossil of the Day Award goes to Norway.

Norway likes to play the climate champion but behind closed doors, new prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre is gaining a reputation as a fossil fuel cheerleader. The Labour leader, who’s only been in charge for a few weeks, has, apparently, boasted to media that “Norwegian gas is not the problem, but part of the solution for a successful transition to renewable energy” especially if combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

He positions the land of the midnight sun’s fossil fuel production as a solution for the billion people who don’t have access to electricity and has an interesting interpretation of the International Energy Agency and United Nations calls for an end to new fossil exploration. In Støreworld this only applies to large coal producers and not Norway.

Before COP, his government was caught red-handed by the media lobbying the IPCC to declare CCS a fix for continued fossil production. Alongside calling for further oil and gas development, they’ve joined Russia in arguing against the EU Commission’s potential blacklisting of drilling in the Arctic.

As if that wasn’t enough, not a single Norwegian climate target has ever been met, the petroleum industry is the largest source of domestic emissions and exported emissions of Norway’s petroleum industry are around ten times higher than national emissions.
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Well, here we are again. In for yet another roller coaster ride through the climate negotiations that are COP26. This time, direct from sunny Glasgow, with its stunning Victorian architecture, lively spirit and basically its own language and sense of humour. And so to business and back by popular demand, the first of our ‘Fossil of the Day’ Awards.

The First Fossil of the Day Award goes to the UK Presidency, in partnership with the UNFCCC secretariat, for their exceptional organisation.

CAN asked for a COP postponement, as we feared people from the developing world wouldn’t be able to come and advocate for climate justice in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

But the UK presidency insisted that COP26 was going ahead and was prepared to welcome the global community to ‘the most inclusive COP ever’…

This spirit of inclusivity has showcased what the Brits do best – the art of queuing for hours in some cases. People who’ve invested time and resources to travel to Glasgow have waited patiently only to find there is “no room at the inn” for civil society and told to ‘join events online’ – to then find they were offline… We might as well have stayed at home, though we would have missed the weather…

We hope this inaugural COP26 Fossil of the Day serves as a wake up call.
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Our voices are being silenced and it´s not funny. 

Despite emptier hallways this evening, we continue to hold space even as our colleagues are shut outside in the cold simply for raising their voices for a better future and climate justice.

Today, the UNFCCC security deserves a fossil but we had previously decided to give it to a few nasty countries and we won’t let the UNFCCCs bad behaviour derail us from commenting on the negotiations.

Today we award the first place fossil of the day award to Japan for rejecting the opportunity to commit to climate ambition and coal phase out.

It is hard to describe how deeply disappointed we are with Japan’s announcement — or  lack thereof — today. 

Japan’s Environment Minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, said Japan rejected yet another opportunity to improve its “highly insufficient” emission reduction target and to end financing for coal.

Since 2012, Japan has built 15 new coal plants; an additional 15 NEW domestic coal-fired power plants are currently under construction. This deadly buildout would make it impossible for Japan to achieve its already insufficient target, let alone raise ambition.

Japan also continues to be the world’s second largest financier of coal-fired power plants overseas. The country argues that its “highly efficient” coal-fired technologies contribute to the lives of people in developing countries, however,  the science is clear: coal has to be immediately phased out everywhere in the world if we are to have any hope of limiting warming to 1.5ºC. 
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The US and Russia

Looks like the US and Russia share more than the ability to bully other countries, rig elections, and lead in climate-wrecking oil and gas production! They want to make loss and damage weak again

The US gets the fossil for opposing that money reach vulnerable communities through the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) for Loss and Damage, to deal with climate change impacts, which Uncle Sam has helped cause by being a massive polluter.

Russia gets to share the fossil award with the US for having the chutzpah to try and throw out human rights and gender from the loss and damage negotiations.

The US folks seem to have a very short memory. They’re forgetting that waaaay back in 2013, countries agreed to “enhance action and support, including finance” for loss and damage via the WIM. 

And Russia, come on! A record of human rights abuses both at home and blatantly at the international level? This is an overdose of bad vodka! You cannot revoke people’s right to life, to a home, and to education, with a stroke of a pen.

Hey Russia, if you don’t understand how gender, human rights, and climate are related, maybe you shouldn’t be part of this conversation?
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At this rate, fossil awards will run out! Several countries awarded the Fossil of the Day again! 

Bosnia and Slovenia rank first! 

Slovenia wants to fund Bosnia’s coal addiction through Slovenian NLB Banka, partly owned by the government, and partly by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 

That is unheard of! If your brother suffers from drug addiction, it’s not great to offer him money to buy more drugs. 

World leaders are gathering here in Madrid to address climate change by cutting emissions, primarily through coal and other fossil fuels phase-out. As Europe prepares to pledge to be the first climate-neutral continent, it is shameful that Europe’s banks work in the opposite direction! 

The second fossil award goes to Australia! Again! 

Australia evades its responsibility as a wealthy nation and major climate polluter. It fails to do its fair share to assist Indigenous Peoples in less developed countries (LDCs) in the face of catastrophic climate impacts. And now Australia has used the vulnerability of First Peoples to claim that we need to; ‘break down the developed/developing country divide’! This would give Australia the same financial responsibility for climate action as, for example, Timor Leste, Vanuatu, Tuvalu or Bangladesh. THIS IS DISGRACEFUL! 
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It’s a tie! Three countries managed to equally rank first at being the worst!
Today’s fossil award goes to Australia, Brazil and Japan. They managed to be as bad as each other!

Prime Minister Scott Morrison enjoying a game of cricket as fires rage in Australia

As Australia has been on fire in recent weeks – literally – with an astounding 6000-kilometre front of flaming destruction killing six people, wiping out homes, forests, precious habitat and farmland. Experts, one after another, connected the dots to climate change.

But not Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison. He made his view known on national radio, declaring that Australia’s unprecedented bushfires were unconnected to climate change. He said he doesn’t think that Australia doing more on climate would have changed fire outcomes this season, despite Australia being the world’s third biggest fossil fuel exporter.

Instead of taking responsible action on climate change, the Prime Minister made clear he was sending his thoughts and prayers to those who had suffered loss. Forget climate action, just thoughts and prayers. 

The same day as fires busily destroyed people’s lives, Prime Minister Morrison went to a cricket game, and happily posed with cricketers tweeting: “Going to be a great summer of cricket, and for our firefighters and fire-impacted communities, I’m sure our boys will give them something to cheer for.”
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