Denmark – a longstanding defender of European energy security and the climate – has issued a green light to the construction of the contentious Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in its exclusive economic zone.

European institutions reaffirmed their ambition to be leaders in the fight against climate change this past September, setting the target of climate neutrality by 2050. But remarks by incoming energy commissioner Kadri Simson had already highlighted one of the major threats to the EU’s green credentials: its embrace of natural gas as a “bridge” to renewable energy.

Now, with Denmark’s go-ahead, the EU is set to greatly expand its gas consumption for the long haul. Not only is the Nord Stream 2 from Russia to Germany set to open imminently, but plans also exist to double the volume of US gas imports by 2023.

‘Bridge’ fuel

Methane emitted by natural gas consumption is over 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide. So can the EU hope to maintain its environmentally conscious pretensions while at the same time consuming an ever greater quantity of natural gas from irresponsible methane emitters? 

Ever since Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed natural gas as the bridge fossil fuel of choice to cover the potential energy gaps created by her country’s energy transition policy – which aimed to shut down German nuclear capacity in quick succession after the Fukushima disaster – it was clear that Gazprom would further expand its domination of Europe’s gas market.

The first Nord Stream pipeline, which launched in 2006, has been supplying Germany directly with Russian gas since 2012; Nord Stream 2 will now double the amount of gas that can be carried along that route.

After the completion of Nord Stream 1, predictions of increased gas use have already come to fruition.

Imported gas reached an all-time high of 77.9 percent in 2018, with 15 member states even reporting a 90 percent import dependency to meet their needs.

Moscow and Washington 

Historically, Russia has been the key supplier of natural gas to the bloc, given its proximity and its status as the largest natural gas producer in the world.

Gazprom currently supplies more than one third of gas to EU member states, a market share it hopes to secure with its new pipeline project.

Now, however, competition for the EU’s gas order is in fierce play. Not only have the Americans beaten Russia for the gold medal in global gas production following its shale gas revolution, but their efforts to overcome the technical challenges of transporting gas across the Atlantic are proving successful.

Thanks to the construction of terminals in the EU to process American liquified natural gas, or LNG, US exporters were able to direct 24 percent of their product in October 2018 to EU markets – a 14 percent increase on the previous year. This trend expected to speed up as more terminals come online.

Natural gas is not a green solution

While the EU is once again becoming the epicentre of US-Russian competition, the bigger picture is being ignored.

According to a recent Cornell University study, the production of natural gas – either by conventional methods or the hydraulic fracturing which produces shale gas –  has become the latest threat to efforts to reduce emissions and tackle climate change.

While it’s marketed as a cleaner fuel, every step of the process emits methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. As the study makes abundantly clear, methane is the “second most important greenhouse gas behind carbon dioxide’’, although it impacts the climate in a different way.

Whereas methane stays in the atmosphere for up to twelve years, CO2 emissions can last for centuries. During those twelve years, however, methane’s potency is 84 times the rate of CO2, meaning its contribution to global warming is dozens of time greater than carbon dioxide over the short term. 

Methane leaks are part of all gas processing stages from extracting to storing to burning, and are a disturbing reality of this supposedly “cleaner” fossil fuel. The true extent of leaks is consistently and grossly misreported, even in the US. It therefore stands to reason that the true volume of Russian’s “notoriously leaky Gazprom production system” is certain to be substantially worse.

Even based on official data, Gazprom  is already regarded as one of the main government-owned companies responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, partly because Russia sticks to outdated practices like oil and gas flaring.

A convenient façade?

Following the success of the shale gas industry in the USA, large reserves of shale gas were identified in Europe, leading gas companies to push hard to develop the industry on the continent.

Poland, for example, was once seen as the potential home of the gold rush of European shale gas. In November 2014, majors including Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Total cumulatively maintained 67 ongoing drilling explorations. By January 2015, however, most companies had withdrawn. 

Failed attempts by the industry’s drillers to kickstart Europe’s limited gas production were replicated in Romania, Hungry and the Czech Republic. All were put down thanks to a combination of obstacles that included legislative restrictions, public opposition, geological complications, and falling oil prices. These factors ultimately forced the energy companies driving European fracking to conclude the ventures were an ineffective use of resources. 

But rather than taking this as a warning and abandoning natural gas altogether, EU leaders have opted instead for the next worse option, making the EU dependent on Russian and American exporters whose emissions records, environmental regulations, and future production plans are worse for climate change than what the EU would allow within its own borders. 

This Author 

Louise Montgomery is a freelance writer on environmental and climate change affairs. She previously worked as a legal consultant on pesticides law in Vietnam and as a policy official for the Scottish Government relating to marine legislation. She holds an LLM in Global Environment and Climate Change Law from the University of Edinburgh.

Image: NCPA, Flickr. 

The Green Party has promised to end the “throwaway economy” with a new suite of policies designed to encourage repair and reuse.

The launch took place at the Goodlife Centre, Southwark, a community focused studio and workshop space. The Party will announce two key policies: enacting a “Right to Repair” and developing “Repair Cafes”.

A comprehensive “Right to Repair” will require manufacturers to keep goods operational for years after purchase and encourage repair and reuse. The practice of producing goods with the deliberate intention that they will become obsolete within a few years time will be banned.  

Right to Repair

“Repair Cafes” will give local communities the skills and tools to repair, upgrade and customise their belongings. Using and borrowing equipment will give people access to expensive items such as power tools and sewing machines. 

Based on figures from WRAP, this policy could save the average UK household around £800 a year, which is the value of electrical equipment thrown out and replaced.

Green Party Co-Leader, Sian Berry, and Deputy Leader, Amelia Womack, will deliver a keynote speech.

Sian Berry, Co-Leader of the Green Party, said: “From the coffee cup you chuck in the bin, to the smartphone you upgrade year after year, disposability is at the heart of our economic model. And we all know it’s not right. It doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t make us happy. Nobody wants to add to the mountains of junk choking our natural world

“We are pleased to propose a real Right to Repair, which would make it a legal requirement for companies to lengthen the lifespan of their products, make spare parts available, and build them in ways which can be fixed by everyday tools.

“This is an essential step towards cutting waste and going net-zero by 2030, and none of the other parties are even talking about it.”

Rebuilding

Amelia Womack, Deputy Leader of the Green Party, will say: “Today, we’re excited to pledge that Greens will support the creation of a repair cafe on every high street in Britain.

“Our high stress have been devastated over the last ten years. We need to rebuild the fabric of our communities. Repair cafes are just one step to deliver innovative ideas that support people’s needs and save people money, while helping the environment.”

This Article

This article is based on a press release from The Green Party UK. 

Image: Karen Blakeman, Flickr. 

Record levels of greenhouse gases are already leading to killer floods, droughts and famines which are disproportionately affecting some of the poorest people in the world. The response of rich developed countries has failed to reduce emissions or address the systemic inequalities and injustices at its core, despite the countless warnings by climate scientists.

Climate talks are entering a critical phase before the Paris Agreement formally comes into force in 2020. COP25 talks will focus on strengthening the weak pledges that will lead to a warming of at least 3°C, preventing governments and the private sector from trading their emissions, and delivering climate finance to address loss and damage caused by global heating.

War on Want will highlight the work of our partner organisations in the Global South on the front lines of climate violence, and put forward the case for a justice-oriented approach to the climate crisis, as part of a Global Green Deal for People.

Scrutiny

War on Want’s executive director, Asad Rehman, will participate in COP25 talks and the Social Summit for Climate in Madrid.

War on Want’s Senior International Programmes Officer for Latin America, Sebastian Ordoñez Muñoz, will participate in the People’s Summit in Santiago.

COP25 talks were moved to Madrid in early November after President Sebastian Piñera’s government announced Chile’s withdrawal from hosting the summit in late October, after massive anti-austerity and anti-government protests across Chile.

Campaigners condemned the decision as an attempt to evade scrutiny on policies that have led to widespread economic and climate injustice.

Asad Rehman, Executive Director at War on Want, said: “With the cost of climate damages racking up to a possible $4 trillion by 2030, the time for warm words about the climate emergency is over. We are in the last chance saloon.

“Governments such as the UK’s can no longer claim they are acting on the climate crisis whilst trying to shift the burden to act onto poorer countries, and whilst UK companies continue to profit from environmental injustices. The UK must show real leadership by committing to its fair share of the global effort, by paying its climate debt and by holding UK companies to account for the damage they are causing.”

Green colonialism

Rehman continued: “Despite countless UN reports warning of the need for urgent action, the climate crisis is already devastating the lives and livelihoods of millions, plunging the poorest into yet another crisis of hunger and poverty.

“An opportunity exists to tackle both the climate crisis and the crisis of inequality with a Global Green Deal for People that guarantees everyone the right to dignified life. Our political leaders will not be forgiven if they fail to grasp it.”

Sebastian Ordoñez Muñoz, Senior International Programmes Officer – Latin America at War on Want, said: “The Chilean government’s decision to withdraw Santiago as the host city of COP25 is a desperate attempt to divert attention away from the social inequalities and environmental injustices harming communities across the country, and the state’s violent repression against the uprising.

“The crisis unfolding in Chile cannot be isolated from the country’s water crisis – a mega-drought caused by the overexploitation of resources by industrial agriculture and mega-mining industries. Meanwhile, the global mining industry is using the climate crisis as an opportunity to greenwash its image and carbon emissions, while increasing its destructive extraction of ‘green’ or ‘critical’ metals such as copper.

“To resist Green Colonialism, we need to embrace grassroots-led transformations towards post-extractivism.”

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from War on Want. 

Regulated rail fares in England will be slashed by a third from next month if Labour wins the General Election, the party has pledged.

Jeremy Corbyn intends to re-nationalise the railways when contracts expire if he wins the December 12 vote and has announced plans to cut regulated rail fares by 33 percent from January 2020.

The party estimates the policy would save the average commuter more than £1,000 a year, and says it would represent the biggest ever reduction in rail fares. The policy is likely to encourage people out of their cars, reducing carbon emissions and contributing to efforts to prevent climate breakdown. 

£1.5 billion

It comes after Britain’s train companies confirmed over the weekend that they will hike prices by an average of 2.7 percent next year.

Children aged 16 and under would receive free rail travel under the party’s plans, while part time workers would be guaranteed “fair” fares.

Labour has also pledged to deliver a simple, London-style ticketing system across the nation – with “islands” within which zonal rail fares will apply across all modes of public transport.

There would be a daily price cap so travellers can pay as they go using bank cards or mobile phones.

Labour estimates that the policy will cost £1.5 billion per year and would come from existing Department for Transport budgets, drawn from Vehicle Excise Duty.

Young

Mr Corbyn said: “Travelling by train is my favourite way of getting around the country but for too long a fragmented and privatised rail system has ripped-off passengers.

“Taking back control of our railways is the only way to bring down fares and create a railway network that is fit for the future.

“Labour will bring about real change on the railways because we are on the side of passengers.”

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald added: “Privatisation has created one of the most complex, exploitative and expensive ticketing systems in the world.

“Labour will scrap the bewildering and outdated fares and ticketing system that discriminates against part-time workers, discourages rail travel and excludes the young and low paid.

Punctuality

“Labour is on the side of passengers which is why we will introduce a simpler, fairer and more affordable system for all, integrated with other forms of public transport.

“Rail passengers who want to save hundreds or thousands of pounds next year need to vote Labour on December 12.

“Labour will deliver a railway in public ownership for the many, not the few.”

Responding to the announcement, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “This is another desperate attempt from Labour to distract from their inability and unwillingness to be straight with people on where they stand on Brexit, and the fact they would raise taxes on low and middle income workers across the country.

“The Conservatives will improve punctuality by integrating parts of the rail network, make ticketing and pricing more transparent and will invest £500 million in reopening branch lines closed under Labour.

Ownership

“You simply cannot trust Corbyn to deliver what he claims. His ideological plans would wreck our economy, cost people their livelihoods and with the help of Nicola Sturgeon would waste the whole of next year on two more chaotic referendums.”

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, commenting on behalf of train operators, said: “Rail companies have been calling for some time for changes in regulation to enable an easier to use, better value range of fares but it’s a red herring to suggest that reforming fares needs a change of ownership.

“Overall fare levels will always be a matter for elected politicians in deciding the balance of farepayer and taxpayer funding.

“Train companies would obviously support a reduction for passengers as long as it is funded on an ongoing basis so that investment to improve the railway can continue.”

Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union said: “A third off fares in the new year and making travel free for under 16s will not only save passengers thousands of pounds, it will transform travel for the future, increasing rail passenger numbers and rail jobs to help fight the climate crisis.

“This is rail public ownership that delivers real change to benefit everyone.”

This Author

Harriet Line is the PA deputy political editor. 

England would become one of the best countries in the world for walking and cycling if Labour wins the general election, the party has promised.

A new healthy streets programme, modelled on towns in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, would aim to make towns and cities cleaner and greener.

Labour pledged yesterday to double cycling journeys by both adults and children, build 5,000km of cycleways, and create safe cycling and walking routes to 10,000 primary schools.

Pleasant

The party said it will also deliver universal affordable access to bicycles and grants for e-bike purchase, as well as providing cycle training for all primary school children and their parents.

There are also plans to extend training to secondary schools and make it available for all adults.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Sunday: “I love walking and cycling so I’m proud of the policies we’ve announced today to give millions of people the freedom to walk and cycle along convenient, attractive routes, safe from traffic danger.

“These policies will slash carbon emissions, tackle air pollution, save our NHS billions and boost our high streets by making towns and city centres more pleasant.

Dutch

“Our plans will transform opportunities so that travelling actively and healthily is an option for the many, not just the bold and fearless.”

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: “Walking and cycling are essential forms of transport, but have been neglected by nine years of Tory Britain.

“Making more of our everyday trips by walking and cycling is crucial to reducing transport emissions and tackling the climate emergency.

“We could cut up to one third of carbon emissions from car journeys if we had the same quality of segregated cycle infrastructure and cycling culture as the Dutch, and simultaneously we would cut the obesity and diabetes crisis that is threatening to overwhelm the NHS.

“Labour’s plans will make England one the best countries in the world for walking and cycling.”

This Author

Catherine Wylie is a reporter with PA.

Regulated rail fares in England will be slashed by a third from next month if Labour wins the General Election, the party has pledged.

Jeremy Corbyn intends to re-nationalise the railways when contracts expire if he wins the December 12 vote and has announced plans to cut regulated rail fares by 33 percent from January 2020.

The party estimates the policy would save the average commuter more than £1,000 a year, and says it would represent the biggest ever reduction in rail fares. The policy is likely to encourage people out of their cars, reducing carbon emissions and contributing to efforts to prevent climate breakdown. 

£1.5 billion

It comes after Britain’s train companies confirmed over the weekend that they will hike prices by an average of 2.7 percent next year.

Children aged 16 and under would receive free rail travel under the party’s plans, while part time workers would be guaranteed “fair” fares.

Labour has also pledged to deliver a simple, London-style ticketing system across the nation – with “islands” within which zonal rail fares will apply across all modes of public transport.

There would be a daily price cap so travellers can pay as they go using bank cards or mobile phones.

Labour estimates that the policy will cost £1.5 billion per year and would come from existing Department for Transport budgets, drawn from Vehicle Excise Duty.

Young

Mr Corbyn said: “Travelling by train is my favourite way of getting around the country but for too long a fragmented and privatised rail system has ripped-off passengers.

“Taking back control of our railways is the only way to bring down fares and create a railway network that is fit for the future.

“Labour will bring about real change on the railways because we are on the side of passengers.”

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald added: “Privatisation has created one of the most complex, exploitative and expensive ticketing systems in the world.

“Labour will scrap the bewildering and outdated fares and ticketing system that discriminates against part-time workers, discourages rail travel and excludes the young and low paid.

Punctuality

“Labour is on the side of passengers which is why we will introduce a simpler, fairer and more affordable system for all, integrated with other forms of public transport.

“Rail passengers who want to save hundreds or thousands of pounds next year need to vote Labour on December 12.

“Labour will deliver a railway in public ownership for the many, not the few.”

Responding to the announcement, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “This is another desperate attempt from Labour to distract from their inability and unwillingness to be straight with people on where they stand on Brexit, and the fact they would raise taxes on low and middle income workers across the country.

“The Conservatives will improve punctuality by integrating parts of the rail network, make ticketing and pricing more transparent and will invest £500 million in reopening branch lines closed under Labour.

Ownership

“You simply cannot trust Corbyn to deliver what he claims. His ideological plans would wreck our economy, cost people their livelihoods and with the help of Nicola Sturgeon would waste the whole of next year on two more chaotic referendums.”

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, commenting on behalf of train operators, said: “Rail companies have been calling for some time for changes in regulation to enable an easier to use, better value range of fares but it’s a red herring to suggest that reforming fares needs a change of ownership.

“Overall fare levels will always be a matter for elected politicians in deciding the balance of farepayer and taxpayer funding.

“Train companies would obviously support a reduction for passengers as long as it is funded on an ongoing basis so that investment to improve the railway can continue.”

Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union said: “A third off fares in the new year and making travel free for under 16s will not only save passengers thousands of pounds, it will transform travel for the future, increasing rail passenger numbers and rail jobs to help fight the climate crisis.

“This is rail public ownership that delivers real change to benefit everyone.”

This Author

Harriet Line is the PA deputy political editor. 

England would become one of the best countries in the world for walking and cycling if Labour wins the general election, the party has promised.

A new healthy streets programme, modelled on towns in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, would aim to make towns and cities cleaner and greener.

Labour pledged yesterday to double cycling journeys by both adults and children, build 5,000km of cycleways, and create safe cycling and walking routes to 10,000 primary schools.

Pleasant

The party said it will also deliver universal affordable access to bicycles and grants for e-bike purchase, as well as providing cycle training for all primary school children and their parents.

There are also plans to extend training to secondary schools and make it available for all adults.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Sunday: “I love walking and cycling so I’m proud of the policies we’ve announced today to give millions of people the freedom to walk and cycle along convenient, attractive routes, safe from traffic danger.

“These policies will slash carbon emissions, tackle air pollution, save our NHS billions and boost our high streets by making towns and city centres more pleasant.

Dutch

“Our plans will transform opportunities so that travelling actively and healthily is an option for the many, not just the bold and fearless.”

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: “Walking and cycling are essential forms of transport, but have been neglected by nine years of Tory Britain.

“Making more of our everyday trips by walking and cycling is crucial to reducing transport emissions and tackling the climate emergency.

“We could cut up to one third of carbon emissions from car journeys if we had the same quality of segregated cycle infrastructure and cycling culture as the Dutch, and simultaneously we would cut the obesity and diabetes crisis that is threatening to overwhelm the NHS.

“Labour’s plans will make England one the best countries in the world for walking and cycling.”

This Author

Catherine Wylie is a reporter with PA.

The latest round of United Nations climate talks get under way on Monday with governments facing pressure to ramp up action to cut emissions.

The meeting of 196 countries, and the European Union, comes in the wake of increasingly dire warnings about the state of the climate and at the end of a year which has seen severe weather extremes and increasing calls for action.

UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa (pictured) said: “This year, we have seen accelerating climate change impacts, including increased droughts, storms and heatwaves, with dire consequences for poverty eradication, human health, migration and inequality.

Extreme

“The world’s small window of opportunity to address climate change is closing rapidly.”

She said the conference must be the “launchpad” for more climate ambition.

It was due to be held in Santiago, Chile, but was moved at short notice to Madrid, Spain, because of ongoing civil protests in the Chilean capital.

In the week leading up to the start of the talks, the World Meteorological Organisation revealed levels of climate-warming greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide had hit record levels in 2018.

And the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) exposed a dramatic “emissions gap” between the action countries had pledged to curb emissions that drive global warming and what is needed to avoid the worst of climate change.

UNEP said emissions would have to fall by 7.6 percent per year up to 2030 to keep the world on track to limit temperature rises to no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – beyond which there will be severe impacts of rising seas, extreme weather and threats to water and food security.

Curb

Further reports released during the talks will reveal how hot the world has been in 2019, and the amount of carbon pollution countries have pumped into the atmosphere this year.

Despite the growing public concern over climate change, which saw millions of people take to the streets in September to demand urgent action on the crisis as part of the school strike movement, few new climate plans are expected.

But there will be pressure at the talks – attended by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres – on governments to signal that they will be unveiling more ambitious targets and plans in 2020.

Next year sees the next major round of UN climate talks, which are set to be held in Glasgow towards the end of the year.

The Paris Agreement on tackling climate change comes into force in 2020 and countries are expected to come forward with more ambitious plans to meet their commitments under the deal to curb global warming.

Oceans

The UK’s former clean growth minister, Claire Perry O’Neill, who is set to be president of next year’s talks, will be attending the meeting in Madrid, along with Lord Duncan and delegates from government and devolved administrations.

But the UK is unlikely to play a particularly high-profile role as the general election takes place on what is scheduled to be the penultimate day of the meeting.

Meanwhile Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist who inspired the global school strike movement, is sailing back across the Atlantic for the talks.

She had travelled to New York by yacht with plans to make her way down to Chile to attend the talks in Santiago without flying, but had to find a way home when the meeting was moved.

In the nitty-gritty of the negotiations, countries are trying to finalise rules around carbon markets, and agree how to help at-risk countries such as low-lying island nations cope with climate impacts they cannot adapt to.

And they will look at how to use recommendations in recent UN science reports on the world’s land and oceans.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Living within 50 metres of a major road in may increase your risk of developing lung cancer by up to 10 percent, a new report written by King’s College London has found. The report was released by a coalition of fifteen health and environment NGOs, including ClientEarth, the British Lung Foundation, and the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change which represents 650,000 health professionals in the NHS.

The levels of recorded roadside air pollution stunt lung growth in children by  approximately 14 percent in Oxford, 13 percent in London, 8 percent in Birmingham, 5 percent in Bristol, 5 percent in Liverpool, 3 percent in Nottingham, and 4 percent in Southampton. One third (33 percent) of Londoners – around 3 million people – are estimated to live near a busy road. 

The new research shows an increased risk of cardiac arrest, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and  bronchitis as well as reduced lung function in children. 

Reducing emissions 

Ahead of the General Election on 12 December, the group is calling for all political parties to commit to adopting a legally-binding target to meet World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for particulate matter pollution by 2030 and take steps to immediately reduce illegal air pollution across the UK.

The existing UK legal limits for particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) are still more than double the WHO guideline levels.

To date, none of the political parties have explicitly committed to meet the guidelines by 2030. The fear is that without a clear deadline and timetable, many more people will die and face debilitating health conditions. 

The group are also urging the introduction of a national network of Clean Air Zones across the UK.

London’s own clean air zone, the Ultra Low Emissions Zone, launched earlier this year has already had an impact on reducing air pollution, with levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) falling by 29 percent. 

Lung cancer

This is the first time that such a wide range of health conditions and cities have been analysed in one report, with the research comparing 13 different health outcomes including heart disease, lung cancer, strokes and bronchitis across 13 cities in the UK and Poland.

Previous research has tended to concentrate on deaths or hospital admissions, but this report also includes symptoms that affect a larger number of people such as chest infections (‘acute bronchitis’) and reduced lung function in children.

The report shows that cutting air pollution by one-fifth would reduce the number of lung cancer cases by 7.6 percent in London, 6.4 percent in Birmingham, 5.9 percent in Bristol, 5.3 percent in Liverpool, 5.6 percent in Manchester, 6.7 percent in Nottingham, 6 percent in Oxford and 5.9 percent in Southampton. 

Living near a busy road can trigger bronchitic symptoms amongst children with asthma. If pollution was reduced by one-fifth, there would be 3,865 fewer cases of children with bronchitic symptoms every year in London, 328 in Birmingham, 94 in Bristol, 85 in Liverpool, 85 in Manchester, 134 in Nottingham, 38 in Oxford and 69 in Southampton. 

‘Deeply worrying’

Andrea Lee, clean air campaigns and policy manager at ClientEarth, said: “Toxic air puts an unfair burden on people’s lives. The good news is that solutions are available. The UK’s first clean air zone in London is already having an impact. But much more needs to be done to help people across the country move to cleaner forms of transport.

“To better protect people’s health, the next UK Government also needs to raise the bar by making a binding commitment to meet stricter WHO guidelines by 2030.

“If politicians were not already convinced by the abundant evidence that air pollution seriously harms our health, could this new research be the tipping point?” 

The call is being echoed by parents and leading health professionals who are warning of the “unsustainable burden on the NHS” of air pollution. A group of parents from across the country affected by air pollution, the Clean Air Parents’ Network, are writing to general election candidates asking them to commit to urgent action to protect children’s health as well as meeting WHO targets and setting up Clean Air Zones in the most polluted towns and cities. 

Lucy Harbor, mum, and founder of Clean Air 4 Schools, who lives in North London, said: “These findings are deeply worrying, as me and my family live by the A10 and my kids go to a school on a busy main road. Sadly, this report confirms many of my worst fears – that where we live and go to school could seriously be affecting our health.

“We are these statistics – one of my  children was hospitalised with pneumonia and has had asthma. That my children’s lung growth could be stunted by 12.5 percent makes me seriously question whether enough is being done to urgently bring pollution levels down on main roads in London.”

Unsustainable burden

Dr Sandy Robertson, Emergency Medicine Registrar at the Homerton University Hospital London and Council Member of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, said: “It’s clear to see the effect of air pollution on the demand for emergency care in A&E waiting rooms. This study from Kings College quantifies the staggering scale of that link.

“Children in London are 4.2 percent more likely to be hospitalised by asthma on days of high pollution – resulting in an extra 74 child admissions.

Air pollution is not only an individual tragedy for those whose health suffers, it is also an unsustainable burden on our NHS. But we can make a difference. In the lead up to this General Election, it’s essential that all political parties commit to supporting a legally binding target to meet WHO air quality limits by 2030.”

Dr Rob Hughes, Senior Fellow at the Clean Air Fund, said: “Air pollution makes us, and especially our children, sick from cradle to grave, but is often invisible.

“This impressive research makes this public health crisis – which affects people all across the UK – visible, and shows the urgency with which all political parties must prioritise cleaning up our air.”

This Author

Marianne Brooker in The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from King’s College London. 

Social movements were organising their opposition to COP25 – in which those most affected by climate violence would be sidelined – even before the popular mobilisation started in Chile and Sebastián Piñera suspended the talks. 

A gathering in Chile in September brought together frontline defenders to discuss the climate crisis, a just energy transition from the mining extractivist model that is killing Chileans and people all over the global South.

Now, following the brutal repression of the uprising and Piñera’s attempts to avoid scrutiny, their analysis is more important than ever.

In the declaration that follows, Latin American climate justice movements and their allies state their opposition to the neoliberal extractivist model, and propose a justice-oriented approach to solving the climate crisis that will not sacrifice the peoples of the global South.

Declaration 

The ‘Regional Gathering: Climate crisis, energy transition and mining extractivism in Latin America’ was held from September 26 to 28 in Santiago, Chile.

Faced with the undeniable climate crisis and the false solutions proposed by multilateral spaces that have been co-opted by the transnational business sector and supported by governments, the meeting was organised by the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA), the Observatory of Mining Conflicts of Latin America (OCMAL) together with War on Want and Mining Watch Canada.

We consider:

That national and transnational companies and governments, mainly of the industrialised North, are those truly responsible for environmental breakdown due to their extractive activities in search of capitalist accumulation and the promotion of consumerism.

That the current discourse around the climate crisis places the blame on individual responsibility, thereby distracting the attention from those most responsible.

That the peoples, communities and organisations that resist these extractive activities – in defence of life, water and territories – are stigmatised, repressed, criminalised and murdered.

That companies and extractivist governments are the ones who commit true criminal acts against all forms of life, violating Human Rights and the Rights of Nature.

That mining extractivism in all its phases causes ecocide and ethnocide in the different territories where it operates. 

That hidden behind the discourse of the ‘energy transition’ is a program of economic growth for the Global North which threatens to exponentially increase sacrifice zones under the auspices of guaranteeing the supply of minerals for so-called ‘green’ technologies. This will come at the cost of the exploitation of our territories and communities, all while intensifying the ecological crisis. 

That the recent panic surrounding the climate crisis in the Global North can only ever be understood in the context of the struggles present in our urban and rural communities of the Global South, who have been resisting the intersecting social and ecological crises since the inception of colonialism. This panic cannot impose false solutions or reproduce extractivism.

That the climate crisis, as part of an ecological crisis, is a condition of the capitalist world development model.

We denounce:

Any attempt by mining companies to benefit from the climate crisis using deceptive initiatives such as: “inclusive tailings”, and the ‘adoption’ of environmental liabilities, Responsible Mining, Green Mining, Sustainable Mining, Ecological Mining, Clean Mining, Climate Smart Mining, Future Smart Mining, offsetting mechanisms for social and environmental damages, Green Economy and any other concept that seeks to wash its image or perpetuate impunity.

The actions of governments and corporations that dismember, divide, privatise, auction-off  and commercialise nature and our territories to turn them into resources, merchandise or environmental services. 

Visions of a transition which reproduce extractivist capitalism, including those focused on the nationalisation of minerals and oil and do not guarantee structural changes.

Any appropriation of local knowledge, expertise and wisdom by mining companies and governments to encourage extractive activities.

That extractivist companies, in addition to exploiting the environment, also engage in widespread corruption, eliminating trust in public institutions and the functioning of the judicial system.

That to date, the COPs have failed to provide real solutions to address climate injustice and inequality caused by predatory extractivism. Instead they have, under the pressure of Northern countries, made decisions in the interests of the economic model which is responsible for the ecological and climate crisis.

We recognise:

That the strength to face this crisis lies with young people, women, communities and organisations, movements and territories. 

That our anti-capitalist struggle is also a decolonial, anti-patriarchal and anti-racist struggle.

That the true knowledge-keepers of territories are those who have historically inhabited them.

That nature is a subject of rights and recognition of this is a global necessity. 

The self-determination of peoples to resist and say “no” to the invasion of mining companies in their territories.

We will fight

So that ecological justice emerges from the territories where the processes to protect life, water, ecosystems and Mother Earth are increasingly threatened and impacted by predatory extractivist capitalism.

To strengthen and respect the autonomy of communities and their organisations to define solutions in the framework of justice and equity based on nature, the planet and humanity.

For the respect of the Indigenous peoples, peasants and other communities, who are the guardians of their territories. 

To cease the auctioning of mining and oil concessions in our territories.  

Alongside frontline resistance to mega-mining and processes which seek mining-bans.

To ensure that mining companies which have benefited from the looting of nature are fully liable for mine-closure processes, and that integral repair of the territory arises from collective and participatory processes led by affected communities.

So that environmental catastrophes, pollution, murders and any other violation in territories affected by mining companies are recognised for what they are: crimes. It is urgent to develop binding policies and mechanisms to confront the generalised impunity enjoyed by companies, their owners, their executives and their financial centres.

To strengthen organisations and movements that fight in defence of the territories.

To develop regional solidarity and agreements to ensure food, energy and economic sovereignty.

To defend water in all its states as a source of life.

To sow, celebrate and strengthen territories free of mining.

Signatories:

Asamblea en Defensa del Elki (Chile/Elqui)
Acción Ecológica (Ecuador/Quito)
Asamblea por el Agua del Guasco Alto (Chile/Huasco)
Belén dice NO a la minería (Chile/Arica)
CENSAT Agua Viva (Colombia/Bogotá)
Centro de Documentación e Información Bolivia (CEDIB) (Bolivia/Cochabamba)
Centro de Investigación sobre Inversión y Comercio (CEICOM) (El Salvador/ San Salvador)
Centro Ecológico Churque (Chile/Santiago/Lo Barnechea)
Codemaa (Chile/Atacama)
Comunidad Indígena Diaguita Patay Co (Chile/Huasco)
CooperAcción (Perú/Lima)
Coordinadora Penco-Lirquén (Chile/Penco-Lirquén)
Coordinadora por la Defensa del Río Loa y la Madre Tierra (Chile/Calama)
Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN) (Argentina/Buenos Aires)
London Mining Network (Reino Unido/Londres)
Mega Comunal de Turismo Monte Patria y Limarí (Chile/Monte Patria – Limarí)
Mining Watch Canada (Canadá/Ottawa)
Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros en América Latina (OCMAL) (Chile/Santiago)
Observatorio Conflictos Mineros de Zacatecas (OCMZAC) (México/Zacatecas)
Observatorio de Ecología Política de Venezuela (OEPV) (Venezuela/Caracas)
Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales (OLCA) (Chile/Santiago)
Observatorio Plurinacional de Salares Andinos (OPSA) (Chile/Atacama)
Putaendo Resiste (Chile/Putaendo)
Red de Afectados por la Vale (Brasil/Minas Gerais, Brumadinho)
Red de Mujeres El Loa (Chile/Calama)
War on Want (Reino Unido/Londres)

Click here to read the original version in Spanish.