Latest news with #LondonClimateActionWeek
The Star
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Star
Ecowatch: Extreme heat is a human rights crisis
I WAS in the United Kingdom recently for London Climate Action Week and the Global Tipping Points Conference 2025 and wasn't prepared for the heat – it wasn't just uncomfortable, it was alarming. Europe has been scorched by extreme heatwaves, with temperatures reaching 46°C, triggering wildfires in Turkey and Greece and causing mass evacuations, closing 1,900 schools in France, and causing over 2,300 heat-related deaths across 12 cities. Meteorologists are calling this 'exceptional'. In reality, it's the new normal. These extremes are not seasonal anomalies. They are a sign of political failure and, increasingly, a human rights crisis. On July 23, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that countries have a legal duty to protect their citizens from climate change. Failure to regulate private companies that pollute the environment with greenhouse gas emissions may constitute a breach of international law. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights also released an advisory opinion in early July, explicitly recognising the right to life, health, food, water, and a safe environment. While not legally binding, advisory opinions carry moral and legal weight. They help shape the direction of international law and public conscience. The message is clear: climate inaction violates human rights. Malaysia has not yet classified climate change as a human rights issue, although the Malaysian Bar Council is advocating for its inclusion in the draft Climate Change Bill and as an amendment to the Federal Constitution. At the same time, we have a real opportunity to ensure the monumental adoption of the Asean Environ-mental Rights Declaration that Malaysia is leading on, recognising access to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right. The courts' opinions should add urgency. Climate justice is human rights justice. And in the court of public conscience, the fossil fuel industry is no longer just a suspect, it is guilty. Firefighters battling a wildfire in north-west Spain on Sunday. Europe has been scorched by extreme heatwaves, with temperatures reaching 46°C, triggering wildfires in Turkey and Greece and causing mass evacuations, closing 1,900 schools in France, and causing over 2,300 heat-related deaths across 12 cities. -- AP Extreme heat is one of the clearest signs of climate breakdown. And it is supercharged by fossil fuels. Every tonne of coal, oil, and gas we burn worsens the crisis. Children, the elderly, those which chronic illnesses, and people in energy poverty are suffering most – and dying. Meanwhile, those responsible continue to profit and obstruct change. A new report to the UN General Assembly by Elisa Morgera, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change, calls this out directly: We must defossilise. Fossil fuels are the primary cause of warming, but the industry has spent decades deploying a well-documented playbook of climate obstruction by denying the science, delaying regulation, and deceiving the public with false solutions. PR and advertising agencies are complicit in greenwashing and false solutions. And make no mistake, this is happening in Malaysia too with carbon capture and storage being sold as a magic bullet and liquefied natural gas being framed as 'greener' than coal. Fossil fuel subsidies continue to dwarf investment in clean energy. It's time to ask some questions. What is the cost to our rights? What is the price of inaction? Asean, home to some of the world's most climate-vulnerable populations, cannot delay. 'Cleaner alongside fossil' is not a transition – it is a trap. Net zero targets are meaningless if emissions keep rising and carbon lock-in takes hold. We must phase out fossil fuels, not accommodate them. And defossilisation must be fair. This means reskilling and training workers, redirecting subsidies towards public services, investing in development of green technologies and jobs, and calling forcibly on PR and advertising firms to cut ties with their fossil fuel clients. Clean air, liveable temperatures, and dignity in work are not luxuries – they are fundamental human rights. The heat we are experiencing is not normal; it is a warning. The science is clear. The law is catching up. Policy must move at the speed of both. For people and the planet, defossilisation is not radical. It's a moral and legal imperative. It is the only path forward. Prof Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood, a physician and experienced crisis leader, is the executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University. She is the founder of Mercy Malaysia and has served in leadership roles internationally with the United Nations and Red Cross for the last decade. She writes on Planetary Health Matters once a month in Ecowatch . The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own.
Business Times
31-07-2025
- Business
- Business Times
StanChart CEO says ‘shame on' big banks quitting net zero group
[LONDON] The chief executive officer of Standard Chartered, Bill Winters, has some strong words for banks that have recently walked back their commitment to achieving net zero emissions. 'Shame on them,' he said during a call with journalists after StanChart released its second-quarter results on Thursday (Jul 31). The comments follow a mass exodus by some of the world's biggest lenders from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), which is the largest climate group for the industry. Wall Street banks started defecting after Donald Trump's reelection to the White House brought with it an intensified anti-climate agenda in the US. Banks in Canada soon followed. Then in July, HSBC Holdings became the first UK bank to quit NZBA. Banks turning their backs on the alliance have said they still intend to help clients transition their businesses to adapt to a future low-carbon economy. At the same time, they have pointed to potential legal risks associated with cracking down on fossil-fuel clients, while also stating that achieving net zero is not feasible if the economies in which they operate aren't on track to hit that goal. Winters said that despite the anti-climate narrative in some parts of the world, StanChart's clients remain committed. 'Most of our clients in most of our markets haven't backed away at all,' he said. That includes clients across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, he said. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 12.30 pm ESG Insights An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues. Sign Up Sign Up Clients in Asia and the Middle East 'are as focused on their net zero transitions, or their transitions to a low carbon economy, as they were before,' Winters said. 'And that obviously is good for our business.' In Europe and even in the US, 'we've seen continued strong business,' he said. 'Because a lot of these projects just make sense economically.' Winters has previously warned that climate projects without a clear path to profits are losing investors. But he's also said he wished he'd been more vocal in supporting the green agenda. Speaking to Bloomberg Television's Francine Lacqua at London Climate Action Week in June, Winters said he 'felt ashamed' for not speaking out as decisively on the subject as he had previously. Defending climate policies 'was very politically acceptable four years ago,' but 'it's less so now,' he added. Winters said at the time that he'd 'vowed' to himself to 'be much more vocal and much more visible. So I'm trying to do that.' In connection with HSBC's interim report published earlier this week, CEO Georges Elhedery said even though Europe's largest bank has now exited NZBA, it remains 'fully committed in our ambition to become a net zero bank by 2050.' However, HSBC has walked back 2030 net zero targets and is reviewing goals to lower the emissions of sectors including aviation, automotive and cement. Deutsche Bank, which remains an NZBA member, suggested in its first-half results that there are growing risks associated with how banks approach the alliance. 'After the exit of a UK based bank recently, legal risks in connection with the NZBA membership may increase,' Deutsche said. At the same time, 'reputational risks from exiting the alliance may increase as well.' Banks to have exited NZBA since late last year include Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Royal Bank of Canada. Aside from HSBC, no other major European bank has left the alliance. BLOOMBERG
Newsweek
03-07-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
COP30 CEO Calls for 'Realistic' Expectations for UN Climate Talks
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The CEO for this year's COP30 climate talks in Brazil used an appearance at a Newsweek London Climate Action Week event to manage expectations for the highly anticipated United Nations gathering in her country in November. "We need to be realistic [about] where the geopolitics are at the moment, and the geopolitics are definitely not helping," COP30 CEO Ana Toni said in a Climate Conversation interview last week produced by Newsweek and partners at Hi Impact and London Climate Action Week. "We have several military wars, unfortunately, we have trade wars happening." Brazil will host COP30 in Belém, the capital of the state of Pará, at the mouth of the Amazon River. It will be the first UN climate negotiations convened in the Amazon, highlighting the connections between climate change and nature conservation. The talks also mark the 10th anniversary of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement and countries in the agreement are due to update their national plans for meeting greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. COP30 CEO Ana Toni in a Newsweek "Climate Conversation" interview during London Climate Action Week. COP30 CEO Ana Toni in a Newsweek "Climate Conversation" interview during London Climate Action Week. Courtesy of Hi Impact Despite strong global growth in renewable energy, EVs and other clean technologies, global emissions have reached a record high, and scientists documented that the past two years were the world's warmest on record. That combination of factors makes COP30 an especially urgent gathering. However, the global political atmosphere does not bode well for climate progress, Toni said. In addition to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, President Donald Trump has imposed steep tariffs against major trade partners around the world, undermining other multilateral talks. Trump is also undoing federal policy on climate change and announced that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris agreement, as he did in 2017 during his first term as President. Toni cautioned against hopes for a dramatic outcome from Belém. "I know there is a lot of temptation to imagine that any one meeting will solve our problems, unfortunately this is not the case," she said. "The work will not finish at COP30, it's just a very important moment." Toni is the national secretary for Climate Change at Brazil's Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced in January that she will be CEO of the COP30 talks along with André Corrêa do Lago, secretary for climate, who will be COP30 president. The host nation officials for UN climate talks typically play an important role in setting the agenda for the event and guiding negotiations toward a final agreement. She said she wants the Belém gathering to promote efforts to finance nature conservation and nature-based climate solutions. "We need to talk much more about nature finance," she said. "We talk very little about how the financial sector, the private sector, can help with that preservation." Toni said COP30 will also focus on the important role cities have to both reduce emissions and adapt to the growing impacts of climate change. "When we are getting into implementation, the topics, perhaps they are less flashy, but they are perhaps more important," she said. "Many people are suffering heat waves, fires, flooding." Newsweek's Climate Conversation also featured interviews with climate policy leader Jennifer Morgan and noted climate scientist Jim Skea. Morgan, the special envoy for international climate action for Germany's Federal Foreign Office, echoed Toni's call for greater attention to climate adaptation and the effects of climate-driven extreme weather events. "The costs are just extraordinary," Morgan said, noting that Germany's central bank is documenting the costs to GDP from climate change. "I don't think it's right to have a certain group of wealthy fossil actors have the power to destroy the earth, to make the lives of poor people and vulnerable people much worse." While costs from climate impacts are growing, so are the global investments in clean energy solutions. According to the International Energy Agency, global energy investment this year will hit a record $3.3 trillion, and clean energy and electrification projects are drawing twice the investment of fossil fuels. Sir Jim Skea, a professor emeritus at Imperial College London, chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Skea said the surging investment in clean technology comes as the costs of renewable energy and energy storage are rapidly falling. "In many parts of the world it is now cheaper to produce electricity from wind and solar than it is from fossil fuels," Skea said. "When the financial incentives and the moral incentives—you know, reducing emissions—go in the same direction it is a very, very powerful message."
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Long Excluded in Climate Conversations, Fashion's Suppliers Create Own Seat at Table
'Aren't there enough initiatives out there working on the same issues?' Matthijs Crietee, secretary general of the International Apparel Federation, asked an audience at the Conduit Club in London on Thursday. He immediately answered his own question: 'There are.' But the Apparel and Textile Transformation Initiative, which the IAF launched with its fellow trade group, the International Textile Manufacturers Federation, as part of London Climate Action Week, is different, Crietee insisted. Although the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions is generated during the resource-intensive garment production phase, manufacturers typically find themselves at the receiving end of brand commandments. More from Sourcing Journal India Eyes Top Spot in Global Apparel Race. Can It Topple Bangladesh and Vietnam? Can Fashion's Beleaguered Sustainability Sector Still 'Double Down' to Create Change? European Commission Yanks Proposed Anti-Greenwashing Rules on Eve of Final Negotiations Despite their vast experience and local expertise, suppliers are usually left to juggle two things, Crietee said: disparate slates of priorities from an assortment of buyers and the expense of delivering sometimes costly energy, water, chemical and waste improvements. Coupled with the fragmentation of a vast, globalized industry, the overall lack of national ownership and roadblocks to funding, the pace of change has been much slower than it needs to be, especially with 2030—a key climate action deadline by many measures—fewer than five years away, he added. The problem, said Miran Ali, managing director of Bitopi Group and a former vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, is that many brands make sweeping pronouncements at their shareholders' meetings and then pass the bill to their manufacturers—or worse, their workers. 'You cannot turn up in a country which is the second-largest exporter of apparel in the world, and then demand radical changes without ever expecting to spend even one penny on it; it's not possible,' he said with obvious exasperation in his voice. 'Yes, we need to make this industry more sustainable. It has to be more transformative. But you can't destroy my country to make your clothes.' As a manufacturer-led program, ATTI seeks to move suppliers from the sidelines of the conversation to its center. It will comprise multiple country chapters led by their national industry associations and overseen by a global council that will provide strategic guidance, facilitate peer-to-peer learning and create alignment across geographies. Bangladesh and Turkey have already signed on to pilot a three-phase concept that begins with an activities, needs and challenges assessment, moves into a 'solutions design' period involving the input of stakeholders like brands, governments and financial institutions, and ending in an implementation stage that rolls out targeted investments. More countries are expected to come on board in the coming months. It's the absence of a clear plan at the national level that companies can follow and support that's been a missing piece for Felicity Tapsell, head of responsible sourcing at Danish retailer Bestseller. She said that the idea for ATTI was introduced to her in early 2024 at a time of 'peak frustration' when it seemed like everyone in the sustainability community was 'running around a bit like headless chickens' despite buy-ins from senior management on ambitious targets, progress made by other industry initiatives and legislative tailwinds 'greatly moving things forward.' 'We acknowledge we were missing the manufacturers,' she said. 'We cannot fit in Copenhagen, London, San Francisco, wherever, making transition plans for manufacturing countries and then think that this will be an efficient, effective implementation. It's not that feasible. Manufacturers should not just be in an advisory role. It's their business. It's their decision-making. They really need to be in a leadership position here. Environmental transformation will only happen in collaboration with our suppliers and manufacturing partners.' But despite the frequently bandied-about talk of 'collaboration' and 'collective action,' brand requirements are still being pushed down the supply chain. (Variations of the first were uttered 23 times during the hour-long kick-off; the second, nine times.) Changing this tack would require a meaningful redistribution of long-entrenched power dynamics at a time of unprecedented geopolitical turmoil and economic uncertainty. 'It is very important to stress that ATTI, which has grown from the strengthened ties between IAF and ITMF, is not a competing initiative to combat climate change,' said Christian Schindler, the latter organization's director general. 'It is much more of an initiative to organize a group through legitimate channels that have been insufficiently represented and organized on these matters in the past. Manufacturers alone cannot and should not be solely responsible for industry transformation.' Olivia Windham Stewart, a sustainability and human rights consultant who is advising ATTI, described the initiative in a pre-event conversation as akin to a 'little hospital' for the industry, where 'you bring each country and you give the country a full health check, and you're like, 'OK, this is what's happening. We need to focus on these key areas.' But of course, we keep running a health check because we want to keep the industry healthy and productive and buoyant.' The response, so far, has been welcoming, 'even in an era of initiative fatigue,' because 'we're not duplicating anything,' she said. 'Most brands and manufacturers would like a mechanism for manufacturers to participate and lead, and they would like a mechanism through which to understand better country context and strategies and priorities.' For Andrew Martin, executive vice president of Cascale, the multi-stakeholder organization formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, ATTI is a 'dream come true' for someone who has realized that a business case for manufacturers needs to be at the heart of the industry's sustainability efforts. 'It's not us going, 'Can you do it?'' he said. 'It's you going, 'We're taking leadership. We're taking ownership of this. We want this to be manufactured. We want this to be country-focused. We're avoiding duplication of work.' And we can carry on doing what we're doing. We can bring data, we can bring some of our brand members to start to look at aligning our programs, but you can lead the country-based initiatives. You can lead that focus.' Martin was in Vietnam last month for Cascale's largest forum to date. There, in the middle of Ho Chi Minh City, 600 attendees, most of them manufacturers, participated in a poll about the biggest barriers to driving decarbonization at their factories. The responses, he said, were surprising. 'The No. 1 wasn't finance, neither was it technical solutions; in reality, a lot of the manufacturers were saying, 'We know what's needed,'' Martin said. 'The No. 1 that came out significantly, at 42 percent, was brand alignment. Stop duplicating work. Give us something that's aligned, consistent. And work with us because we can deliver those solutions. So I think collectively, this is a great opportunity to drive that.' Windham Stewart took a quick stock of her surroundings. 'There's a lot of heavy nodding from the manufacturers in the room,' she observed with a laugh. 'So I think we've got a bit of an agreement on that front.'
The Star
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
London climate week receives boost as Trump policies weigh on New York event
LONDON (Reuters) -London's climate week attracted record attendance, bolstered by the cloud hanging over its sister event in New York in September as the U.S. government turns its back on efforts to stop global warming and tightens entry requirements. The annual London Climate Action Week (LCAW), which ends on Sunday, more than doubled in size compared to the 2024 edition, hosting 700-plus events and more than 45,000 attendees. That was helped by the UK's more robust stance on climate action and support for visitors from developing countries, two dozen business, political and civil society sources told Reuters. "We have gone much bigger on LCAW this year - we are hosting several events and putting considerably more effort (in) than in the past. If we do send someone to New York, it will almost certainly just be an American citizen member of our team," said Alexis McGivern, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at Oxford Net Zero. Under President Donald Trump, the United States has left a global deal to lower climate-damaging carbon emissions, cut development aid, rowed back on environmental standards and moved to slash support for green technologies. By contrast, the British government was present across multiple events during LCAW, with energy secretary Ed Miliband saying he wanted Britain to be a "clean energy superpower" and to "get off the roller coaster of fossil fuel markets". 'YOU CAN TALK FRANKLY' Given the U.S. pushback, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, a U.N. Indigenous Peoples representative and climate change expert, said London offered more freedom to discuss climate change, diversity and human rights. "You can talk frankly with the government of the UK or any government here in London without being afraid of how you get treated, or targeted," she said. Philanthropists and private investors, too, are able to speak more openly without being targeted politically, or risking damaging business interests, she said. "This year the New York Climate Week is going to be very challenging," she said. "Not only to indigenous peoples, but even to governments. There are so many barriers that are making people say, let's act now in London." Among steps taken in London was a push by governments for indigenous peoples' land rights to be better protected and a plan to encourage companies to buy more carbon credits. Chief among the concerns about New York, particularly for civil society representatives, was whether they could even get in. TRAVEL BANS This month, the U.S. banned travellers from countries including Afghanistan, Congo Republic and Somalia - many exposed to rising extreme weather events and in need of the most help - and may yet add more. Ibrahim, whose home country Chad is also on the list, said she would travel using her diplomatic passport but was uncertain if she would be allowed in - a concern flagged by half a dozen other LCAW attendees. Helen Clarkson, CEO of Climate Group, which runs New York Climate Week, said she understood it would be harder for participants from certain countries to attend but that many businesses, governments and civil society were planning to come and were "super up for New York." " is shaping up similar to other years," she said. "This is a critical moment before COP." COP30 will take place in Brazil in November. (Reporting by Virginia Furness and Simon Jessop; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
