The Burning Case

In just a couple of months European citizens will be heading to vote in both national elections  and the 2024 European elections - and the stakes have never been higher!

Hence, we are on a mission to try and figure out how to stop the far right from picking up a wave of parliamentary seats across the EU. And in today's episode, which is the first of our "far right" mini-series, we had the privilege to speak to Nika Kovač, the Founding Director of the 8th of March Research Institute.

In the episode, we talk about the truly inspiring work Nika and her movement carried out in Slovenia, showing how civil society can truly create change and make an impact.

We also discuss how to concretely defeat the far right, namely by connecting with people on positive topics that all the political spectrum can agree on, by using tools of democracy such as referendums to truly show what a population thinks/wants, sparking joy and amusement among people, and searching for allies where one doesn't usually expect to find allies...

Nika is a truly inspiring hero and her story will hopefully fill you with enthusiasm to hit the streets and make your voice heard against those threatening our rights and values.

We hope you enjoy the episode! 

Find out more about the 8th March Institute. 

Hello everyone! And welcome back to a new season of the Burning Case podcast! 
We're happy to be back in your ears and hope you had a lovely summer. 

Today's episode is a bit of a different one as the whole Burning Case podcast team aka both Chloé and Mélissa are hosting. We'll be recapping the hot (pun intended) news that happened over the summer and give you a glimpse into what we have planned for the upcoming season! 

We hope you'll enjoy the episode as well as our many dad jokes! Don't hesitate to rate and review - it really, really helps us get noticed. 

Have a great day! 

Did you know that about 8 percent of the world’s oil production is used to make plastic and power the manufacturing of it? And what's even more frightening is that figure is projected to rise to 20 percent by 2050.

With our guest, Delphine Lévi Alvarès, Global Petrochemicals Campaigner Coordinator for #BreakFreeFromPlastic, Center for International Environmental Law, we deep dive into what’s going on with plastic. 

We discuss:

• How about 90% of plastic is made from fossil fuel and that plastic is the next frontier for the fossil fuel industry
• Where are we in terms of tackling plastic pollution? 
• What is the Plastic Treaty? Where are we at with the negotiations?
• What can we expect for our future?

We hope you enjoy the episode! Don't hesitate to rate and review. 

Some useful resources: 

• latest report by the team of Fredric Bauer at Lund University 
• https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2020-12/still-one-earth-plastic-pollution.pdf
• https://www.ciel.org/reports/winter-is-coming-plastic-has-to-go/
• https://www.ciel.org/reports/airborne-microplastics-briefing/

Did you know that some studies have shown that individuals that are exposed to several hours of news coverage on a specific event have experienced more physical and mental issues than those who directly witnessed said event?

In today’s episode our wonderful guest Seden Anlar, Climate Communicator, Climate Action Network Europe joins us to discuss how toxic our relationship with the news has become… As a media professional herself, Seden explains how the media landscape is shifting following the overwhelming number of crises that have been covered in the last few years.

Together we discuss:

• How entangled media and politics are. And how one can destroy the other.
• How we can explain the sharp decrease in interest in the news.
• How to fight active avoidance by developing new ways of telling the news.
• What is the relationship between the media and the climate crisis coverage and how it has evolved. 
• How we can change the way we consume the news and get behind slow journalism.
• And so much more…

We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we did recording it.

Don’t hesitate to rate and review!

Read the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022

To round off our two-episode series on the state of the fashion industry today, we are taking a deep-dive into the current policies being discussed at EU level to tackle the environmental and social impacts of the industry. 

We welcome three amazing guests, Valérie Boiten, Senior Policy Officer, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Saskia Bricmont, MEP, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Katya Kruk, Impact & Innovation Director, Armed Angels, to discuss: 

• What major environmental and social legislations are on the EU table
• How we desperately need to shift our linear economic model to a circular one 
• How we must urgently discuss the overconsumption crisis we are facing 
• What tools we have to make such changes (EU directives, trade agreements, tariffs etc.)

Both Valérie Boiten and Saskia Bricmont take us through the policy work happening behind the scenes and it's so fascinating to hear both from civil society and political actors and how they are both striving in their own way to create impactful change. 

Katya Kruk gives us some interesting insight in what it's like to be a sustainable brand today, what challenges they face, what it means to be sustainable etc. and she also takes us through the concepts of "handprint" and "footprint" in the fashion industry.

Sign the European Citizens Initiative: Good Clothes, Fair Pay
 
This episode is kindly sponsored by Armed Angels a German lifestyle apparel brand that is made to make a difference by making products that are least harmful to the planet and by enabling people to fight climate change. Their garments are timeless and made with the highest respect for people and the planet. 

Ten years ago today, 1,134 workers lost their lives in the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh. It is considered the deadliest garment-factory disaster in history. To commemorate this tragic event, we are publishing a two-episode series on the fashion industry today.

In today’s episode, we are joined by Delphine Williot, Policy and Campaigns Manager, Fashion Revolution and Nazma Akter, Founder and Executive Director of Awaj Foundation to discuss:

• Whether the fashion industry has changed in the last decade?
• Whether actual social and sustainability commitments have been taken by brands or if it’s  just all greenwashing?
• How we are tackling the overproduction and waste crises?
• What’s needed from the consumer market for conditions to improve?
• And much more!

Sign the European Citizens’ Initiative “Good Clothes Fair Pay”

More information on Fashion Revolution Belgium and Fashion Revolution

More information on Justice is Everybody Business

Today we take a deep-dive (yes, pun fully intended) into the ocean and more specifically into what lies under it.  

We are joined in this episode by Anne-Sophie Roux, Deep Sea Mining Campaign lead to discuss the following:

• What is deep sea mining?
• What mining corporations are hoping to find?
• Whether deep sea mining is truly essential to power the energy transition?
• What impacts could it have?
• What is the International Sea Authority?
• What the obscure July 2023 deadline means in the current context?
• And so much more…

It was such an inspiring conversation, which filled us with hope and motivation to stop deep sea mining from starting in July 2023. 

For information on how to take action: 

• https://www.instagram.com/look_down_action/
• https://linktr.ee/look_down_action

We hope you enjoy the episode! 

$200 billion dollars. This is how much profit the big 5 fossil fuel companies have made in 2022.

Shocked? Disgusted? Angry? Join the club… While major corporations are announcing record-breaking profits in 2022, more and more people are falling behind having to make difficult choices such as heating or eating.

Clearly, corporations are not reading the room and in today’s episode we discuss how creating a windfall tax on such profits would be a way of better redistributing wealth rather than condoning greed and exploitation.

Our two incredible guests: Jayati Ghosh, Chairperson of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Chiara Putaturo, EU Inequalities and Tax Policy Advisor, Oxfam EU explain why windfall taxes are so important and can be used as a tool:

• To  provide governments with revenue to reinvest fairly
• To deter corporations from manipulating prices
• To stop inflation

We take a look at what implementing windfall taxes could actually look like, while also debunking all the reasons currently put forward to fight such measures.

At the end of this episode we hope you will better understand what power windfall taxes hold!

Did you know that 600 million Africans are currently left without access to modern clean renewable energy and that this number is likely to increase if further gas and oil projects are undertook.

To ensure that Africa is not locked into further fossil gas production a campaign led by activists across Africa ahead of COP27, is demanding "an end to fossil gas and other dirty dangerous, obsolete and inappropriate energy systems.”

This campaign is the topic of today's episode. With our wonderful guest, Dean Bhekumuzi, Don't Gas Africa Campaigner, we discuss the roots and objectives of the campaign, the recent "dash for gas" European powers are leading, why it is so important for Africa to turn away from gas and so much more!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Learn more about the Don't Gas Africa Campaign here.

Sign the Global Citizen Petition here.