24/06/2021

(The Guardian) Legal Experts Worldwide Draw Up ‘Historic’ Definition Of Ecocide

The Guardian - 

Draft law is intended to prosecute offences against the environment

Polly Higgins led a decade-long campaign for ecocide to be recognised as a crime against humanity before her death in 2019. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Legal experts from across the globe have drawn up a “historic” definition of ecocide, intended to be adopted by the international criminal court to prosecute the most egregious offences against the environment.

The draft law, unveiled on Tuesday, defines ecocide as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”.

The Stop Ecocide Foundation initiative comes amid concerns that not enough is being done to tackle the climate and ecological crisis.

If adopted by the ICC’s members, it would become just the fifth offence the court prosecutes – alongside war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression – and the first new international crime since the 1940s when Nazi leaders were prosecuted at the Nuremberg trials.

Prof Philippe Sands QC, of University College London, who co-chaired the panel that spent the past six months hammering out the definition, said: “The four other crimes all focus exclusively on the wellbeing of human beings.

"This one of course does that but it introduces a new non-anthropocentric approach, namely putting the environment at the heart of international law, and so that is original and innovative.

“For me the single most important thing about this initiative is that it’s part of that broader process of changing public consciousness, recognising that we are in a relationship with our environment, we are dependent for our wellbeing on the wellbeing of the environment and that we have to use various instruments, political, diplomatic but also legal to achieve the protection of the environment.”

An ecocide law has been mooted for decades, with the late Swedish prime minister, Olof Palme, pushing the concept at the 1972 UN environmental conference in Stockholm.

More recently, ecocide was considered for inclusion in the 1998 Rome statute establishing the ICC before being dropped.

The Scottish barrister Polly Higgins led a decade-long campaign for it to be recognised as a crime against humanity before her death in 2019.

The members of the panel, which also included experts from Samoa, Ecuador and the US, are hopeful that now is the right time for agreement.

The other co-chair, Dior Fall Sow, a UN jurist and former prosecutor from Senegal, said: “The environment is threatened worldwide by the very serious and persistent damage caused to it, which endangers the lives of the people who live in it.

"This definition helps to emphasise that the security of our planet must be guaranteed on an international scale.

“In the current context, where serious damage to the environment is increasingly important and affects a large number of states, their support could be gained for this new definition of the crime of ecocide.

"One can think, among others, of island developing states that are subject to ecological ecocides committed by corporations.”

Several small island nations, including Vanuatu, in the Pacific, and the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, called for “serious consideration” of a crime of ecocide at the ICC’s annual assembly of states parties in 2019.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has championed the idea, as has the Pope, and other European countries have expressed an interest.

The ICC has been criticised for not investigating major environmental crimes. In 2016, it said it would assess existing offences, such as crimes against humanity, in a broader context to include environmental destruction and landgrabs.

Sands said some panel members had pushed for the definition to explicitly mention climate change but that was rejected because of a desire to make it more difficult for countries – and corporations – to oppose the proposed new law.

Instead, it created “a definition that catches the most egregious acts but doesn’t catch the kinds of daily activity that so many of us, myself included, and regions and peoples and countries are involved in which cause significant harm to the environment over the long term”.

He cited transboundary nuclear accidents, major oil spills and Amazon deforestation as potential examples of ecocide but, on a smaller geographical scale, also the unlawful killing of a significant protected species such as the two remaining northern white rhinos.

Jojo Mehta, from Stop Ecocide Foundation, said it was a “historic moment”, adding: “The resulting definition is well pitched between what needs to be done concretely to protect ecosystems and what will be acceptable to states.

"It’s concise, it’s based on strong legal precedents and it will mesh well with existing laws. Governments will take it seriously, and it offers a workable legal tool corresponding to a real and pressing need in the world."

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(AU New Daily) Australian Farmers Line Up To Demand Action On Climate Change

New Daily - Cait Kelly | AAP

Australian farmers say they want stronger action on climate change, including from Barnaby Joyce. Photo: Getty

AUDIO
Australian farmers line up to demand
action on climate change
Hundreds of Australian farmers have called on Australia’s new Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to make serious moves on climate change, saying the cost of doing nothing has already hit hard in their communities.

Disquiet in the Nationals’ camp surrounding the Prime Minister’s softening stance on a net-zero carbon emissions target is thought to have prompted Mr Joyce’s return to the party leadership through a spill on Monday.

The Nationals have flagged they are open to discussing the PM’s preference for net zero by 2050, but say they want to make sure regional Australia is kept financially comfortable in the process.

In the past, Mr Joyce has taken a somewhat stiff stance against tackling climate change – in 2013, he said: “What is this insane lemming-like desire to go to renewables going to do to our economy?”

On Monday, he was more tempered in his responses.

“It is not Barnaby policy, it’s Nationals’ policy, and Nationals’ policy is what I will be an advocate for,” he told reporters in Canberra, when asked his thoughts on a net-zero target.

Deputy Nationals leader David Littleproud told Sky News on Tuesday that his party “get it”, but they won’t be trading themselves away on climate policy until they’re assured of the detail and what’s in it for them.

“We copped it in the neck in regional Australia for everyone to sleep soundly in metropolitan Australia and it is time our mob got repaid for it,” Mr Littleproud said.

Mr Littleproud’s line seems at odds with the farmers of the country, who say they’ve already copped it in the neck thanks to climate change inaction.

Farmers react to return of Joyce

David Chadwick is a beef cattle farmer from Coonamble in New South Wales.

He said the Nationals had sold out regional Australia in favour of big fossil-fuel dollars.

“When have The Nats backed farming over mining? The answer is never,” he told The New Daily. 

“The Nationals will ride this sinking ship to the bottom of the harbour.

“The Liberals haven’t been any different. Morrison has only been dragged to the table because of global pressure to make them pull their heads in.

Beef farmer David Chadwick
“That’s the problem.”

He described the feeling in his community at the moment of being like “lambs to the slaughter” as they try to plan their future farming practices around a warming planet.

Mr Chadwick said it was disappointing to watch those who are meant to advocate for rural Australians throw their support behind new coal projects.

Prominent members within the Nationals party room have become vocal advocates for more taxpayer funding for coal-fired power stations, including a new plan in Collinsville in Queensland.

They have also called for agriculture to be left out of any net-zero policy the government develops.

This is despite the farming industry’s peak body, the National Farmers Federation, voting in favour of an economy-wide target of net-zero carbon by 2050 last year.

It called on the government to do the same. 

The industry is making strong headway in reducing its emissions, with red meat expected to be carbon neutral by 2030, pork by 2025, and work well under way for grains and dairy.

Farmers fear climate change

 Within 15 hours of Mr Joyce being sworn in, 800 farmers signed a petition run by Farmers for Climate Action asking for stronger action on climate change.

Farmers for Climate Action deputy chair Charlie Prell said Australian farmers wanted strong leadership on this issue.

“There is so much evidence now. The road to a low-carbon future will be hugely beneficial to regional Australians, particularly farmers,” Mr Prell said.

Australia was best positioned globally to lead the world in renewables. It just needed clear policy and serious investment, he said.

“It’s driving me crazy that people can’t see the opportunities that are being presented. They are being held right in our face and we keep turning our backs,” Mr Prell told The New Daily.

Many of the Nationals are opposed to any change in Australia’s current commitment of 26 to 28 per cent cut in emissions by 2030, which is only half the goal set by the United States.

Mr Morrison will now have to juggle the concerns of the Nationals and growing international pressure to act.

The United Nations has called 2021 the “the make it or break it year” for climate change, with the highly anticipated COP26 summit, which is tasked with finalising rules for the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, being held in November.

“We must achieve success at COP26,” UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said earlier in June. 

Australian farmers are calling for the government to join our major trading partners in stronger action.

One of Queensland’s major winemakers, Mike Hayes, lost nearly all of his 2020 vintage thanks to a combination of extreme weather events and the coronavirus pandemic.

Mike Hayes lost nearly all of his 2020 vintage.

“The wine industry is the canary in the coal mine,” he said.

“If there’s anything that’s so delicate to climate change, it’s Australia’s wine industry.”

Mr Hayes talks like a meteorologist when explaining the impacts of climate change on his crops.

He reels off the ice ages and the science that shows why what’s happening now is different.

“I’m disappointed with a lot of the governments. We are the greatest country on the planet for solar and wind ability,” Mr Hayes said.

“We need to wake up as a nation. If we haven’t got people in politics who want to do better there is only one answer – vote them out.”

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(AU The Conversation) Tasmania’s Reached Net-Zero Emissions And 100% Renewables – But Climate Action Doesn’t Stop There

The Conversation -   

Shutterstock
Authors
  •  is Systems Lead - Sustainable Economies, ClimateWorks Australia
  •  is Senior Analyst, ClimateWorks Australia     
Getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and 100% renewable energy might seem the end game for climate action.

But what if, like Tasmania, you’ve already ticked both those goals off your list?

Net-zero means emissions are still being generated, but they’re offset by the same amount elsewhere.

Tasmania reached net-zero in 2015, because its vast forests and other natural landscapes absorb and store more carbon each year than the state emits.

And in November last year, Tasmania became fully powered by renewable electricity, thanks to the island state’s wind and hydro-electricity projects.

The big question for Tasmania now is: what comes next? Rather than considering the job done, it should seize opportunities including more renewable energy, net-zero industrial exports and forest preservation – and show the world what the other side of net-zero should look like.

Hydro-electric power and wind energy mean Tasmania runs on 100% renewable energy. Shutterstock

A good start

The Tasmanian experience shows emissions reduction is more straightforward in some places than others.

The state’s high rainfall and mountainous topography mean it has abundant hydro-electric resources. And the state’s windy north is well suited to wind energy projects.

What’s more, almost half the state’s 6.81 million hectares comprises forest, which acts as a giant carbon “sink” that sucks up dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere.

Given Tasmania’s natural assets, it makes sense for the state to go further on climate action, even if its goals have been met.

The Tasmanian government has gone some way to recognising this, by legislating a target of 200% renewable electricity by 2040.

Under the target, Tasmania would produce twice its current electricity needs and export the surplus. It would be delivered to the mainland via the proposed A$3.5 billion Marinus Link cable to be built between Tasmania and Victoria. The 1,500 megawatt cable would bolster the existing 500 megawatt Basslink cable.

But Tasmania’s climate action should not stop there.

The Marinus Link would provide a second electricity connection from Tasmania to the mainland. www.marinuslink.com.au

Other opportunities await

 Tasmania can use its abundant renewable electricity to decarbonise existing industrial areas. It can also create new, greener industrial precincts – clusters of manufacturers powered by renewable electricity and other zero-emissions fuels such as green hydrogen.

Zero-emission hydrogen, aluminium and other goods produced in these precincts will become increasingly sought after by countries and other states with their own net-zero commitments.

Tasmania’s vast forests could be an additional source of economic value if they were preserved and expanded, rather than logged. As well as supporting tourism, preserving forests could enable Tasmania to sell carbon credits to other jurisdictions and businesses seeking to offset their emissions, such as through the federal government’s Emissions Reduction Fund.

The ocean surrounding Tasmania also presents net-zero economic opportunities. For example, local company Sea Forest is developing a seaweed product to be added to the feed of livestock, dramatically reducing the methane they emit.

Retaining, rather than logging, Tasmania’s forests presents an economic opportunity. Shutterstock

Concrete targets are needed

 The Tasmanian government has commissioned a review of its climate change legislation, and is also revising its climate change action plan.

These updates give Tasmania a chance to be a global model for a post-net-zero world. But without firm action, Tasmania risks sliding backwards.

While having reached net-zero, the state has not legislated or set a requirement to maintain it. The state’s current legislated emission target is a 60% reduction by 2050 on 1990 levels – which, hypothetically, means Tasmania could increase its emissions in future.

Also, despite reaching net-zero emissions, Tasmania still emits more than 8.36 million tonnes of CO₂ each year from sources such as transport, natural gas use, industry and agriculture. Tasmania’s emissions from all sectors other than electricity and land use have increased by 4.5% since 2005.

Without a net-zero target set in law – and a plan to stay there – these emissions could overtake those drawn down by Tasmania’s forests. In fact, a background paper prepared for the Tasmanian government shows the state’s emissions may rise in the coming years and stay “positive” until 2040 or later.

The legislation update should also include a process to set emissions targets for each sector of the economy, as Victoria has done. It should also set ambitious targets for “negative” emissions – which means sequestering more CO₂ than is emitted.

Tasmania must cut emissions from industry and other sectors. Shutterstock

Action on all fronts

 Under the Paris Agreement, the world is pursuing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5℃ this century. For Australia to be in line with this goal, it must reach net-zero by the mid-2030s.

Meeting this momentous task requires action on all fronts, in all jurisdictions. Bigger states and territories are aiming for substantial emissions reductions this decade. Tasmania must at least keep its emissions net-negative, and decrease them further.

Tasmania has a golden opportunity. With the right policies, the state can solidify its climate credentials and create a much-needed economic boost as the world transitions to a low-carbon future.

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