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The Journal
2 hours ago
- Politics
- The Journal
Oceans get their day in the sun at UN summit in French Riviera
PROTECTING THE RICH undersea wildlife in our oceans – like the kind brought to life in David Attenborough's recent 'Ocean' film release – is the focus of an international conference taking place in France this week. Environment activists are watching to see whether countries will use the UN Ocean Conference as a platform to ratify the High Seas Treaty – a legal framework to protect biodiversity that is only open to signatures from states for a few more months. Ireland signed the treaty in 2023 when it was introduced but has not yet ratified it – that is, agreed to be bound by it internationally. A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed to The Journal that Ireland intends to ratify it later this year pending an EU Directive. Taoiseach Michéal Martin is representing the Irish government at the conference, where a political declaration that has been drafted for countries to consider will focus on ocean conservation and using oceans for economic activities in ways that are sustainable. Advertisement It aims to put countries on track to comply with a 2022 agreement that set a target of protecting at least 30% of the world's marine ecosystems by 2030. New polling by Red C for campaign group Fair Seas last week found 72% of people agree the Irish government needs to do more to show leadership on ocean environmental issues, while 82% said a healthy marine environment is essential for Ireland's long-term food security. French President Emmanuel Macron, who is pushing to reach the necessary threshold of 60 countries ratifying the High Seas Treaty to bring it into force, said in the lead-up to the conference in the French Riviera that the world's future 'depends on protecting our oceans'. The UN Ocean conference meets only once every three years and it's hoped that the gathering of leaders this week will lead to countries pledging funding for measures to protect the oceans. Ahead of the conference, the European Commission revealed a new 'Ocean Pact' on Thursday. It includes measures like fighting illegal fishing, restoring degraded coastal marine habitats, and supporting coastal and island communities. Tom Pickerell of the World Resources Institute's Ocean Program said the pact 'rightly places the ocean at the heart of Europe's environmental, economic, and geopolitical future' and that its 'push for ocean innovation, from offshore renewables and blue biotech to circular economy solutions and zero-carbon shipping, marks real progress toward a sustainable blue economy'. Related Reads Ireland just had its warmest spring in at least 126 years Storm warning: Extreme wind is now 'priority' climate risk for Ireland However, he cautioned that 'bold words must be backed by results' and that 'many commitments lack clear timelines, targets and accountability'. 'As leaders meet in Nice next week for the UN Ocean Conference, this is a vital moment for countries to restore the ocean's health,' Pickerell said. 'Governments must ratify the High Seas Treaty, protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 and back efforts to manage all national waters sustainably.' Oceans are under mounting pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to contain some emissions that would otherwise contribute to global warming, but increasing volumes of these emissions are raising acidification levels in the water, threatening marine life. Economic activities linked to oceans are worth an estimated $2.5 trillion globally but the impacts of climate change on marine life are a threat to the sectors that rely on the blue economy. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Examiner
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Sarah Harte: Surrogacy situation threatens to end up like the Handmaid's Tale
I watched the movie Private Life at the weekend, a brilliant film on Netflix about the complications of assisted parenthood. Rachel and Richard, played by Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti, are desperate to have a much-longed-for child. This poignant, sometimes hilarious comedy drama makes astute yet non-judgmental observations about the deep biological urge to have a child and the lengths to which a couple failing at expensive $10,000- a-pop IVF may go. Rachel and Richard enlist the services of Richard's stepniece, Sadie, a floundering college dropout who agrees to act as an egg donor, but lacks the emotional maturity to understand the implications of this decision. The film is particularly good on the ethics of the fertility industry, which may profit from people desperate to have a baby. It also subtly raises points about the quagmire of ethical issues around egg donation and, in an indirect way, surrogacy, which is back in the news here. This month, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill announced in the Dáil that there is no fixed timeline for the commencement of the Assisted Reproduction Act (AHR), due to concerns of a clash between the act and an EU Directive aimed at preventing human trafficking involving surrogacy which must be transposed into Irish law by 2026. The act was passed in 2023 but has not yet come into force. This will be incredibly disappointing to surrogacy campaigners and to parents of around 1,000 children, neither of whom has legal rights to their children until legislation retrospectively amends the situation The lack of legislation affects children regarding birth registration, citizenship entitlements, and access to health care. Apparently, a new piece of legislation is being worked on to take account of the EU directive, and it is clear to me that there is still much to work out due to inconsistencies and deficits in the AHR. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has expressed concerns about the 'highly unusual' approach taken by Irish legislators to commercial global surrogacy. Many European countries have a complete ban on surrogacy. Surrogacy allows either a couple or an individual to have a child using a surrogate mother who agrees to carry a child to term with the intention that the intended parents (or parent) become the legal parents after the child is born. The medical possibilities vary depending on whether a surrogate carries the baby to full gestation using the couple's sperm and ova, the surrogate donates the ova, and the biological father's sperm is used, or both donor ova and donor sperm are used, with the surrogate carrying the child. In many ways, the law, which is by its nature slow to develop, has not kept pace with lightning speed changes in medical and reproductive advances and perhaps social attitudes. In a 2014 case, the then Chief Justice Susan Denham said nothing in the Constitution prevented the Oireachtas from legislating for surrogacy. She noted that surrogacy laws 'affect the status and rights of persons, especially those of the children.' We are obliged to protect Irish children's rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which includes guaranteeing rights to all without discrimination of any kind. This affects the 1000 children with a right to identity from birth, which arguably includes the interpretation of the right to your birth family. Last year, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children asked legislators to incorporate the 'best interest of the child' principles into the act to avoid sidelining children's rights. Unfortunately, this has not happened. Whether it's a human right to have a child is a thorny question. It's not an explicitly named right. Yet, even if it is like all rights, it can be curtailed and limited by other rights. Culturally, we've evolved from seeing children as property whom we can raise as we wish to viewing them as independent beings within their own set of distinct rights. With the current lack of legislation, some Irish children are effectively legally left stateless and parentless, with the intended parents often seen as legal strangers to their children. This is to nobody's benefit Imagine a situation where a child was hospitalised, then the intended parents would not be legally entitled or able to give medical consent for a life-saving procedure or care. Surrogacy, however, is a highly complex area both legally and ethically. Under the new act, an Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority is proposed to be established, which will regulate a wide range of complex reproductive practices within Ireland and potentially surrogacy and donor-assisted decisions undertaken in other jurisdictions. One of the functions presumably of the authority would be to ensure that Irish couples or individuals do not become involved even indirectly in surrogacy arrangements involving human trafficking, which is key when an increasing number of Irish people are availing of surrogacy arrangements abroad, in countries such as Ukraine and India. It's evident that we need to set up a functioning framework as quickly as possible for properly regulated legal arrangements. Currently, most commercial surrogacy remains unregulated, underregulated or wrongly regulated, and it's always better to face up to reality. Concerns around surrogacy at the EU level, with a widened EU Directive introducing new penalties next year for those who participate in the exploitation of surrogacy, centre on the vast potential for the exploitation of poorer women as surrogates as well as the commodification and trafficking of children. As in many countries, you cannot pay for surrogacy in Ireland beyond a surrogate's reasonable expenses, but the new AHR, when it comes into force, will allow Irish parents to engage in commercial surrogacy abroad, provided they do so within the terms of the Act. First, there seems to be an ideological lack of cohesion here. Why should commercial surrogacy be domestically prohibited while allowing Irish couples to engage in commercial international surrogacy? It reminds me of the Irish solution to the Irish problem approach we once took to abortion. We had no abortion here, but we turned a blind eye to the thousands of women forced to go abroad for an abortion. It was a deep-seated form of hypocrisy. Secondly, if you drill into the details, while commercial surrogacy is allowed abroad under the act, only reasonable expenses to the surrogates are permitted, although many other payments are permissible, including payments of intermediaries' fees, which I would have thought is potentially red-flag territory where trafficking and exploitation are concerned. The categorisation of surrogacy as either 'altruistic' or 'commercial' is interesting. Often, only the surrogate is expected to act altruistically, while doctors and lawyers (and presumably shadowy others in some instances) involved in the process can legally be paid. Why should surrogates not be properly compensated? Naturally, altruistic surrogacy is often something by another name, in that altruism is a façade with actual compensation concealed within 'reasonable expenses.' But how on earth are you protecting a surrogate by making it a criminal offence for her to accept more than reasonable expenses, while other professionals and third-party intermediaries involved in the chain between intended parents and surrogate can profit handsomely? I would have thought regulating these parties was precisely where the focus should be. One stomach-churning development has been high-profile, vastly wealthy celebrities turning to surrogacy, like Kim Kardashian, who effectively rented another woman's womb. We live in a crazy world where, increasingly, the rich can buy anything they want. Outsourcing gestation requires careful legal and ethical consideration if we are to avoid a scenario like The Handmaid's Tale. Children's rights should be paramount in this debate, and that includes the 1000 children effectively in legal limbo. However, the murky international surrogacy racket needs to be spotlighted so that poor women are not used and abused, and children are not bought and sold. Read More Terry Prone: We recall Ronald Reagan fondly but he was every bit as bad as Donald Trump
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Solvay publishes notice of 2025 Annual General Meeting
Brussels, April 10, 2025, 6:00pm CEST – Regulated information Solvay today published materials for its next Ordinary General Shareholders' Meeting, which will be held on Tuesday May 13, 2025 at the Event Lounge Conference Center, Boulevard Général Wahis 16/F, 1030 Brussels, at 10.30 am CEST. All documents relating to this meeting are now available on Shareholders will be asked to vote on a number of resolutions, among others: the approval of the financial statements for the financial year 2024; the approval of a total gross dividend of €2.43 per share; the approval of the updated remuneration policy; the renewal of the mandate, for a four-year period, of Mr. Wolfgang Colberg, as Director of the company; the confirmation of Mr. Wolfgang Colberg as independent Director; the term renewal of the Statutory Auditor EY for a three-year period; the renewal of the appointment of EY regarding the assurance of sustainability information imposed by the EU Directive on sustainability reporting (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive); the approval of the annual fees for EY. Meeting information: Only shareholders of Solvay SA who are officially recorded as such on Tuesday 29 April 2025 at 11.59 pm CEST will have the right to participate and vote at the meeting on May 13, without taking into account the number of shares they hold on the day of the meeting. The meeting will be organized in person. If shareholders are unable to attend the Shareholders' Meeting in person, they may exercise their rights either by granting a proxy or by voting by correspondence, no later than Wednesday 7 May 2025. Shareholders who wish to participate at the meeting should declare their intentions no later than May 7, 2025. All questions can be addressed to by May 7, 2025 the latest. Visit the Shareholders' Meeting dedicated page for more details regarding the agenda, the admission conditions and voting methods. Contacts Media relations Investor relations Peter Boelaert+32 479 30 91 59 Laetitia Van Minnenbruggen+32 484 65 30 47 Valérie Goutherot+33 6 77 05 04 79 Boris Cambon-Lalanne+32 471 55 37 49 Geoffroy d'Oultremont+32 478 88 32 96 Vincent Toussaint+33 6 74 87 85 65 Safe harbor This press release may contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements describe expectations, plans, strategies, goals, future events or intentions. The achievement of forward-looking statements contained in this press release is subject to risks and uncertainties relating to a number of factors, including general economic factors, interest rate and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, changing market conditions, product competition, the nature of product development, impact of acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings, products withdrawals, regulatory approval processes, all-in scenario of R&I projects and other unusual items. Consequently, actual results or future events may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Should known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, or should our assumptions prove inaccurate, actual results could vary materially from those anticipated. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. About Solvay Solvay, a pioneering chemical company with a legacy rooted in founder Ernest Solvay's pivotal innovations in the soda ash process, is dedicated to delivering essential solutions globally through its workforce of around 9,000 employees. Since 1863, Solvay harnesses the power of chemistry to create innovative, sustainable solutions that answer the world's most essential needs such as purifying the air we breathe and the water we drink, preserving our food supplies, protecting our health and well-being, creating eco-friendly clothing, making the tires of our cars more sustainable and cleaning and protecting our homes. Solvay's unwavering commitment drives the transition to a carbon-neutral future by 2050, underscoring its dedication to sustainability and a fair and just transition. As a world-leading company with €4.7 billion in underlying net sales in 2024, Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels and Paris (SOLB). For more information about Solvay, please visit or follow Solvay on Linkedin. Ce communiqué de presse est également disponible en franç persbericht is ook in het Nederlands beschikbaar. Attachment Press releaseSign in to access your portfolio
