The Burning Case

The climate crisis is a crisis against humanity.

These are the first words of the summary of a new report published by NGO Global Witness on the state of violence against land & environment defenders across the world, those who are defending their homes, land and livelihoods, and ecosystems vital for biodiversity and the climate.

In 2020, 227 murders have been reported, the worst year ever recorded with over half of attacks took place in just three countries: Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines.

To better understand what's causing these attacks, who's behind them and Europe's key role in defending the defenders and holding business accountable, we spoke to Rachel Cox, campaigner at Global Witness.

Did you know that on the 31st of March 2021, 0.1% of Covid vaccines administrated worldwide had gone to low income countries? While 86%of doses had gone to high and upper income countries? 

That estimates show that many countries in South East Asia, Africa and South America won't achieve widespread vaccination coverage until late 2022 or even 2023 while in Europe this is planned for later this year? 

You guessed it, in today's episode, we're talking about the hot potato in most of our lives these days: Covid 19 vaccines and most specifically vaccine inequality or vaccine apatheid as one of our guests called it.

With our guests, Mthandazo Ndlovu from Oxfam South Africa, Aruna Kashyap from Human Rights Watch and Marcin Rodzinka from Global Health Advocates, we discuss how rich nations are hoarding more vaccines that they need, what concretely needs to happen to allow everyone to have access to vaccine and why Europe is the bad guy here by blocking a waiver on intellectual property rights for vaccines.

Whether you're a newbie on the vaccine issue or an expert, this one's for you. We also discuss what YOU can do to influence this profoundly unfair situation:

Sign one of the many petitions on the issue: 

• No Profit on Pandemic
• We need a people vaccine now
• A people's vaccine

Get involved in the People's Vaccine campaign and hold your leaders accountable!

At about the same time last year, George Floyd, an African-American man was murdered in the US. His death sparked an unprecedented wave of protests against police brutality and structural racism in the US but also across the world.

A year later, what's the situation like when it comes to racial justice in Europe? While some politicians at EU level seem keen to do the necessary work, countries such as France are adopting racist laws that target religious and racial minorities.

But what exactly needs to happen? Why is it so essential to have movements advocating for change that are led by racialised people? Can we really expect change from a continent that has such a hard time acknowledging its colonial history?

To understand where we're at and where we need to go, we discuss with Claire Gilder, one of the co-founder of recently launched Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice, a people of colour-led initiative working to advance rights and justice for all people in Europe.

As always, don't forget to rate the podcast if you liked it and follow us on social media!

Ever hear of the Uighur community?

There are about 12 million Uighurs, mostly Muslim, living in north-western China in the region of Xinjiang. 

Human rights groups believe China has detained more than a million Uighurs over the past few years in what the state defines as "re-education camps".  There is evidence of Uighurs being used as forced labour and of women being forcibly sterilised.

Recently, the US and other countries have accused China of committing genocide and crimes against humanity through its repression of the Uighurs. Europe was the latest to do so by imposing sanctions on few Chinese officials linked to the Uighur repression. Moments later China retaliated. 

This is a historic situation and we talk to Shada Islam, a well known Brussels based commentator and analyst on all things EU-Asia relation to understand why this is extremely important, what is a sanction in international law and what is the role of fast fashion brands who source cotton from the Xinjiang province!

Oat drink in your cappuccino, soy yoghurt, creamy plant based butter. If you live in Europe, these wording might soon become illegal. 

And so would a tweet or an advert mentioning scientific data showing that a product causes, for example, “half the carbon emissions of dairy butter”. Why? Because the dairy industry is hard at work to pass an amendment, called amendment 171 that would effectively censor all use of dairy-related language, packaging, or imagery for plant-based foods. 

In this new #TooHotToHandle episode, we listen from Proveg International head of communication Lara Pappers where we are now, why is this essential from a sustainability perspective and what can we done to prevent this censorship from becoming reality ahead of crucial negotiations next week. 

You can sign the petition here: https://stopam171.com

In Brussels, politics still mean white.

The European Parliament currently only has 3% MEPs of colour while there has never been a Commissioner of colour. If you look into  the thousands of people who work for the EU, you won’t find many more people of colour. 

The issue goes beyond  the institutions. Browse the websites of the hundreds of NGOs, lobbies and agencies gravitating around them and you’ll see they’re overwhelmingly white. As if the many minorities that make up Europe are simply forbidden from entering the sacred grounds of the EU bubble in any capacity. 

This is problematic for many reasons. Not only does it mean racialised communities do not have access to these organisations, the lack of representativity has an impact on the policies adopted here in Brussels. When it comes to the green sector for instance, environmental NGOs play a key role in influencing policies, especially at a time where the climate and environmental crisis are some of the top priorities of the EU. Yet, we know that a lack of diversity in decision-making leads to policies that easily ignore the needs of marginalised communities.

Racial and ethnic minorities and BIPOC communities carry the heaviest burden of the climate and ecological crisis and should not only be at the centre of the climate action work but also leading it. Yet, in Brussels, these spaces are occupied by white people.

To better understand  the roots of this issue, highlighted in the past by many activists through the #BrusselsSoWhite movement, we've talked to Alice Bah Kuhnke, Green MEP from Sweden (03:35), Sarah Chander, racial justice activist working for Edri (23:45) and Yasmine Ouirhane a peace and human rights activist and former Young European of the year (49:35). 

With them we discussed about what the situation is like in the European Parliament and why politics is still dominated by white men in their 50s, how colonialism affects everything we do today and how the lack of diversity and inclusion in green NGOs means policies are automatically less ambitious than they should be. Finally we dive into the lack of opportunities for people of colour to enter the policy world and how these barriers can be addressed.

This might be our most important episode so far! Stay tuned as we have something coming up where you can get involved and ask the green movement to do better on these issues!

Welcome to #TooHotToHandle, the new format of episodes by the Burning Case that aims to bring you the hottest campaigns and political news on climate breakdown and environmental justice in less than 20 minutes!
 
 Our first edition is about ending corporate impunity.
 
 Imagine this: a world where companies could not hide behind "complex supply chains" or their suppliers anymore and were actually held accountable when violating human rights and destroying environment, even on the other side of the world?
 
 Companies today are operating with impunity around the world. But this could change!
 The European Commission is finally considering a new law to hold businesses accountable for their impact on people and the planet.
 
 This would mean all companies, from fossil fuel giants and agribusiness to fashion retailers and electronics makers would need to establish effective policies to make sure human rights and the environment are not being harmed in their global operations and supply chains.
 
 But to ensure this legislation is as ambitious and comprehensive as possible, it needs your voice. Right now, the Commission wants to hear your opinion on how to design new corporate due diligence rules that would hold business accountable.
 
 In this episode, we unpack why this could be one of the most important law of the decade and how you can add your voice to it here: https://www.enforcinghumanrights-duediligence.eu/

Did you know Latin America was a biodiversity powerhouse with over 30% of the world's fauna and flora? And that about 32 million people in the region identify as Indigenous? 

Yet, the area has never been under more pressure. From climate breakdown of course but mostly from man-made ecosystem destruction to secure more land for agriculture. South American countries are indeed big producers of soybeans, beef and eucalyptus that require extensive amount of land to grow, sometimes at the expenses of the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado or other fragile ecosystems, home to countless species of fauna and flora and indigenous communities.

But an already worrying situation (millions of hectares of the Amazon disappear every year to make room for cattle, farming, mining and extractive industries) situation could become even worse if a trade deal between Europe and the countries in the region was implemented, increasing the demand for certain products from the area including beef and soy.

This EU-Mercosur trade deal (with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) has been in the making for the past 20 years. Often negotiated behind closed doors, it's entering the final stages of ratification in 2021, awaiting approval from European countries and the European Parliament.

To better understand what's at stake with this trade deal, what would concretely be the impacts on the local environment but also on indigenous communities right, who are the winner of this trade deal and the role far right politicians have played in it, we've talked to Alberto Villarreal who is a regional coordinator at Friends of the Earth in Uruguay and Azul Schvartzman, a youth climate activist from Argentina. We've also discussed the role of trade agreements in general in a sustainable society and the myths attached to them (more jobs, more economic power) to investigate who they really benefit to.

But as the other negotiating member of this deal is Europe, we've had the pleasure to chat with Anna Cavazzini, who is an MEP with the Greens but also the Vice President of the Brazil delegation. With her we discussed the role of Europe and citizens and what could come next for the agreement now that some countries are starting to refuse to ratify it.

 We apologise for the quality of the sound as some of our guests were very far from us but we hope it won't prevent you from enjoying the content!

The fashion industry has a really large and often negative impact on the environment and on people. 

Between the Rana Plaza disaster, in 2013, that killed over a 1000 textile workers to regular scandals about wages and working conditions and the environmental impact that range from extreme freshwater pollution to being responsible for 8% of the world's green house gas emissions, let's just say "it's not nothing". 

And the world is starting to realise. But the growing awareness seems to be focused mainly on the responsibility of fashion brands and consumers: "changing our consumption habits" to asking brands for more transparency and accountability. 

Not much is said though about the role of policies! It sometimes feel like this globalised industry who has many big players based in Europe is flying completely under the radar of policy makers, including here, in Europe. 

So why is that the case? What can decision makers really do to address the impacts of fashion? And how would these choices impact the sector? So many questions,  very  little answers. 

That's why we asked Sarah Ditty, head of policy at Fashion Revolution, the founders of Sorry it's Vintage and Lara Wolters, socialist MEP in the European Parliament to share their insights with us. It's a long one but it's a good one as they say! 

#VoteDownThisCap, a "machine for extinction", the "worst deal possible for the planet", the recent vote in the European Parliament on the Common Agricultural Policy has been called many things. 

This pillar of the European Union (think €400 billion over 6 years) is not only significant financially speaking, it's also an essential tool to achieve our climate and sustainability ambitions. See, the agricultural sector is one of the worst contributor to climate breakdown and biodiversity loss in Europe. Meanwhile, farmers are struggling to make a living across the continent without turning to intensive farming. 

So in a context of Green Deal and ecological crisis, the vote on the proposed new CAP was crucial. Unfortunately, the deal that was approved by MEPs was heavily criticised by Greens, NGOs, activists, scientists and some farmers alike and led to an unprecedented social media campaign to vote it down. 

So to understand better what's at stake with this CAP, why the proposed policy was so terrible for people and the planet and what are the next steps to ensure agriculture is fully part of the solution to the ecological crisis, we rushed to talk to Harriet  Bradley at BirdLife Europe and Adélaide Charlier, a youth climate activist and initiator of the #VoteDownThisCap campaign alongside Greta Thunberg.

In this episode we talk about what led to this deal being proposed, what does it include, how influential lobbies were but we also talk about hope, what could come next and why citizen power is needed more than ever!