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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
The Irish diaspora setting up and running businesses abroad
Setting up or taking over a business anywhere is bound to have it's challenges, let alone doing it away from home. But these Irish abroad have done just that. Along the narrow, cobbled streets of the artisanal quarter of Cusco, Peru, is an atelier called Hilo, home to a slow fashion brand founded by Irishwoman Eibhlin Cassidy in 2003 in the historical centre of this ancient Inca capital high up in the Andes. 'Being part of a supportive community has helped me build a local client base, which adds to the many international clients who visit the store,' she says. The Fermanagh woman's business, which she describes as 'elevated everyday wear with a twist', was the only creative business on the street at one stage. 'It's now where Cusco and international creatives open up shop. It is full of little cates and artisan boutiques.' READ MORE Mark Saunders is known for rescuing Laulhère , the oldest and last authentic French company making berets who supply the hats to French military, armies in Senegal, Chad and Kurdistan and police in Dubai – and that's not including the berets sold in the fashion industry. The Dublin man has lived in France for the last 30 years and has settled in the southwest of the country. The most recent step in his career has been to take over Christy Hats, the oldest and largest hat-making company in the world with a history dating back to 1773. 'We made all the Peaky Blinders hats and 250 for all the crew members (of the drama series). We made hats for Downton Abbey and more than 30 movie productions,' he says. Saunders says brands like his are 'on the verge of extinction, but I hope Christys will see another 250 years. I love what I do and taking on these challenges is how I keep motivated. I am 56 now and see this as the last chapter in my career.' Beijing Correspondent Denis Staunton recently spoke to the Irish companies based in China, as well as Peter Markey, who chairs the Irish Chamber of Commerce in China. Markey first went to China 30 years ago and has spent much of the past two decades in Shanghai, where he was a partner at EY until he retired in 2018. He says the attitudes of the two nations can often benefit off one another in unexpected ways. 'The Chinese have this reputation of working crazy hours and all the rest of it but that's not the whole story. They quite like going out for a nice dinner and having fun with people. 'That's really when the Irish attitude to having fun and letting the hair down a bit can really help with developing relationships.' Ruairí Doyle has settled in Canada, though he had no intention to move from Ireland again after a three-year spell working for Google in London. That was, however, until an opportunity arose with Press Reader in Dublin in 2017 and the rest, as they say, is history. The job brought him to Vancouver and, in 2022, the Rathnew native was appointed chief executive. Now, he is enjoying the outdoor lifestyle in the thriving west-coast port city with his wife, Kim, and their two sons. 'It can be challenging at times, with me being from Ireland and Kim being from Quebec. We don't have the support network of grandparents around. We do our best to instil a bit of Ireland and a bit of Quebec into the boys. We have hurleys and sliotars in the garden and maple syrup and cretons in the fridge.' Meanwhile, columnist Laura Kennedy, who is based in Canberra, Australia, writes about the age-old saying that absence – or in this case, distance – makes the heart grow fonder and how she has relearned to be Irish and how to value the places she didn't appreciate before. This bittersweet part of emigration is shared by the expats down under that Padraig Collins spoke to. Fildelma McCorry has been in Adelaide since 1999 and says she is there to stay. During last November's election campaign in the Republic, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris said during a debate that he was 'gonna get people's children back from Australia'. McCorry was not impressed, though: 'They always say that.' She says one of her daughters could spend a year studying in Dublin as part of her course, but the cost would be far too high, as despite having an Irish passport, she would still be considered a foreign student. 'Until they make those things open for diaspora children, it [everything the Government says] is just rhetoric, it's just talk.' And, for the few weeks it was, Patsy McGarry l ooked at the role of the Irish diaspora in electing Pope Leo XIV. Sure you'll find the Irish everywhere!
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
German court rejects Peruvian farmer's climate case against RWE
A German court has thrown out a Peruvian farmer's lawsuit seeking damages from RWE for the German energy utility's alleged role in putting his hometown at risk through climate change. The higher regional court in the western city of Hamm on Wednesday blocked the landmark complaint brought by Saul Luciano Lliuya, 44, who argued that RWE's historical emissions meant it was responsible for the higher flood risk caused by the melting of the Andean glaciers his hometown was facing. 'This is an extraordinary case,' said Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from Hamm, Germany. 'For the first time, a person from the Global South is filing a legal case against a company from the Global North, holding it responsible, accountable for global warming and effects of it' on their home country. 'What is interesting in this case is what will be the legal reasoning' as to why the presiding judge decided to throw out this case, said Vaessen. Presenting data from the Carbon Majors database, which tracks historical emissions from chief fossil fuel producers, Lliuya said RWE, Germany's largest energy company, is responsible for nearly 0.5 percent of global man-made emissions since the industrial revolution and must pay a proportional share of the costs needed to adapt to climate change. For a $3.5m flood defence project needed in his region, RWE's share would be about $17,500, according to Lliuya's calculations. The Peruvian farmer, whose family grows corn, wheat, barley and potatoes in a hilly region outside northern Peru's Huaraz city, has said he decided to sue RWE because it is one of Europe's biggest polluters – rather than any particular company projects near his home. RWE, which is phasing out its coal-fired power plants, has said a single emitter of carbon dioxide cannot be held responsible for climate change. Prior to Wednesday's decision, the farmer's lawyer had previously said 'this was a historic verdict' regardless of outcome, as the case notes consisted of 180 pages, meaning the judges took the case 'very seriously', travelling to the affected area in Peru with experts to examine the 'exact effects of global warming on this particular community', said Vaessen. The presiding judge told RWE it 'should have been aware of the effects of their emissions', Vaessen added. This trial 'could be a serious precedent for other people living in the Global South who are suffering a lot more from climate change than in other parts of the world to potentially file cases in the future'.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Court rules against Peruvian farmer in landmark climate lawsuit against RWE
A German court has thrown out a Peruvian farmer's landmark climate lawsuit, which sought damages from energy company RWE, claiming its historical greenhouse gas emissions put his home at risk. Farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya claimed that Andean glaciers above his hometown of Huaraz, Peru, are melting, increasing the risk of catastrophic flooding to his home. The 44-year-old farmer, whose family grows corn, wheat, barley and potatoes, said he chose to sue RWE because it is one of the biggest polluters in Europe, rather than any particular company projects near his home. Using data from the Carbon Majors database, which tracks historic emissions from major fossil fuel producers, Lliuya has said that RWE is responsible for nearly 0.5 per cent of global man-made emissions since the industrial revolution and must pay a proportional share of the costs needed to adapt to climate change. For a $3.5 million flood defence project needed in his region, RWE's share would be around $17,500, according to Lliuya's calculations. RWE, which has never operated in Peru and is phasing out its coal-fired power plants, denies legal responsibility and argues that climate change is a global issue caused by many contributors. The state court in Hamm, in western Germany, dismissed the lawsuit on Wednesday and said no appeal was possible in the decade-old case. Presiding judge Rolf Meyer said the experts' estimate of the 30-year damage risk to the plaintiff's house of 1 per cent was not enough to take the case further. Had there been a larger adverse effect, a polluter could have been made to slash emissions or pay damages, Meyer said. Meyer said the plaintiff's case was argued coherently and that it was "like a microcosm of the world's problems between people of the southern and the northern hemisphere, between the poor and the rich." Experts said that the case had the potential to set a significant precedent in the fight to hold major polluters accountable for climate change. RWE argued that the lawsuit is legally inadmissible and that it sets a dangerous precedent by holding individual emitters accountable for global climate change. It insists climate solutions should be addressed through state and international policies, not the courts. Judges and experts from Germany visited Peru in 2022 as part of the case.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
German court throws out Peruvian farmer's climate case against RWE
HAMM, Germany May 28 (Reuters) - A German court on Wednesday threw out a Peruvian farmer's lawsuit seeking damages from RWE ( opens new tab for the German energy utility's alleged role in putting his home at risk through climate change. The court said no appeal was possible in the decade-old case of farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya claiming that RWE's emissions have contributed to the melting of Andean glaciers and to higher flood risk to his home. Using data from the Carbon Majors database which tracks historic emissions from major fossil fuel producers, Lliuya has said that RWE is responsible for nearly 0.5% of global man-made emissions since the industrial revolution and must pay a proportional share of the costs needed to adapt to climate change. For a $3.5 million flood defence project needed in his region, RWE's share would be around $17,500, according to Lliuya's calculations. The 44-year-old farmer, whose family grows corn, wheat, barley and potatoes in a hilly region outside Huaraz, has said he chose to sue RWE because it is one of the biggest polluters in Europe - rather than any particular company projects near his home. RWE, which is phasing out its coal-fired power plants, has said a single emitter of carbon dioxide cannot be held responsible for global warming.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
German court to rule on Peruvian farmer versus RWE climate case
May 28 (Reuters) - A German court is due to decide on Wednesday whether a lawsuit brought by a Peruvian farmer against German energy giant RWE ( opens new tab can continue, in a landmark case that is setting a precedent for future climate change litigation. In a case that began a decade ago, farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya argues that RWE's emissions have contributed to the melting of Andean glaciers, increasing the flood risk to his home. Using data from the Carbon Majors database, which tracks historic emissions from major fossil fuel producers, Lliuya says RWE is responsible for nearly 0.5% of global man-made emissions since the industrial revolution and must pay a proportional share of the costs needed to adapt to climate change. For a $3.5 million flood defence project needed in his region, RWE's share would be around $17,500, according to Lliuya's calculations. The 44-year-old farmer, whose family grows corn, wheat, barley and potatoes in a hilly region outside Huaraz, says he has chosen to sue RWE because it is one of the biggest polluters in Europe - rather than any particular company projects near his home. RWE, which is phasing out its coal-fired power plants, says a single emitter of carbon dioxide cannot be held responsible for global warming. In two days of hearing in March, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm examined a 200-page report by experts it had appointed to determine whether melting glaciers were raising the water levels in Lake Palcacocha and posing a direct risk to Lliuya's home in Huaraz over the next three decades. Lliuya's lawyer Roda Verheyen in March raised concerns about the assessment of risks by the court experts, who found a 3% flood risk, and said she was ready to challenge their findings. The verdict was originally due in April, but the court had to postpone it because Verheyen filed a motion to disqualify one of the court's experts. Verheyen said the arguments were clear. "In my view, we cannot lose," she told a media briefing last Thursday. The amount that industrialised countries should contribute to mitigating the effects of global warming, including rising sea levels, extreme storms and heatwaves, has been fiercely debated at successive U.N. climate summits. If the court on Wednesday finds a specific flooding risk to Lliuya's home, it will then examine the impact of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions on Andean glaciers melting and increasing the risk. Whatever the outcome on Wednesday, climate academics said the case was a game-changer as the court's legal reasoning would be used by future cases. "Even if the case is dismissed, we expect to get this legal precedent, which would be a massive step forward," Noah Walker-Crawford, a researcher at London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute, said. ($1 = 0.8809 euros)
