Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information or to customize your cookie preferences.

Darwin’s ‘sustainable’ Middle Arm development is key to huge fossil fuel projects, documents show

News Feed
Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Exclusive: Middle Arm has been sold as ‘sustainable’ but papers reveal the Albanese government was briefed on the project’s links to new fossil fuel developments, including fracking in the Beetaloo basinFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe proposed Middle Arm industrial development on Darwin harbour, in which the Albanese government is taking a $1.5bn stake, is “seen as a key enabler” for the export of gas from the Beetaloo basin, according to a federal government document released under freedom of information.This is despite the project being labelled a “sustainable development precinct”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Middle Arm has been sold as ‘sustainable’ but papers reveal the Albanese government was briefed on the project’s links to new fossil fuel developments, including fracking in the Beetaloo basinFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe proposed Middle Arm industrial development on Darwin harbour, in which the Albanese government is taking a $1.5bn stake, is “seen as a key enabler” for the export of gas from the Beetaloo basin, according to a federal government document released under freedom of information.This is despite the project being labelled a “sustainable development precinct”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Middle Arm has been sold as ‘sustainable’ but papers reveal the Albanese government was briefed on the project’s links to new fossil fuel developments, including fracking in the Beetaloo basin

The proposed Middle Arm industrial development on Darwin harbour, in which the Albanese government is taking a $1.5bn stake, is “seen as a key enabler” for the export of gas from the Beetaloo basin, according to a federal government document released under freedom of information.

This is despite the project being labelled a “sustainable development precinct”.

Continue reading...
Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Monteverde Leads the Way in Sustainable Waste Management

Monteverde ranks among the most popular destinations in the country, attracting over 200,000 tourists annually due to its robust conservation efforts. In response to the large number of people who visit, Monteverde is starting a project aimed at gathering and processing organic waste, particularly leftover food from restaurants, with the aim of utilizing it to […] The post Monteverde Leads the Way in Sustainable Waste Management appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Monteverde ranks among the most popular destinations in the country, attracting over 200,000 tourists annually due to its robust conservation efforts. In response to the large number of people who visit, Monteverde is starting a project aimed at gathering and processing organic waste, particularly leftover food from restaurants, with the aim of utilizing it to enhance the local ecosystem. The project involves the Association for the Administration of Community Water and Sewage Systems (ASADA) of Santa Elena, Monteverde, which collects more than six tons of waste per week from 100 businesses and transports it to a processing plant to produce organic fertilizer. In this region, 450 tons of organic waste are produced annually, of which 333 tons are composted and returned to the environment. According to the Directorate of Radiological Protection and Environmental Health of the Ministry of Health, composting organic waste in the country increased as a method for recycling organic waste, going from 4,700 tons of waste in 2018 to 42,580 in 2020. The compost is sold in sacks to businesses and individuals for the maintenance of their gardens and green spaces, and as a complement, native trees from the area are given as gifts for the conservation of the forest. This also ensures the project is self-sufficient and provides income to families. At the same time it addresses an initial problem that was the contamination of Monteverde’s watersheds, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint, maintaining a cleaner Monteverde. The ASADA in the area incorporates the businesses that participate in the waste collection program into the water bill, thus simplifying the project’s contribution procedures. There is currently a large waiting list of businesses looking to join this project that positively impacts social and environmental wellbeing, and which is gradually growing to meet the needs of the entire community. ASADA and the Monteverde Municipal Council are leading a macro-project called the Monteverde Environmental Technology Park (PTAM), which will include a Wastewater Treatment Plant, a Solid Waste Transfer Center, and a Productive Treatment Plant to transform various organic wastes into value-added products. “Composting on a large scale generates benefits for an entire community. However, people can also implement it at home to responsibly dispose of their organic waste and in this way we all contribute to the environment,” said Aura Sandí, administrator of ASADA Santa Elena, Monteverde. The post Monteverde Leads the Way in Sustainable Waste Management appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Dutch airline KLM misled customers with vague green claims, court rules

Operator also found by Amsterdam court to have painted ‘overly rosy picture’ of sustainable aviation fuelThe Dutch airline KLM has misled customers with vague environmental claims and painted “an overly rosy picture” of its sustainable aviation fuel, a court has found.In a greenwashing case brought by the campaign group Fossielvrij, the district court of Amsterdam ruled on Wednesday that KLM had broken the law with misleading advertising in 15 of the 19 environmental statements it assessed. They include claims that the airline is moving towards a “more sustainable” future and statements on its website about the benefits of offsetting a flight. Continue reading...

The Dutch airline KLM has misled customers with vague environmental claims and painted “an overly rosy picture” of its sustainable aviation fuel, a court has found.In a greenwashing case brought by the campaign group Fossielvrij, the district court of Amsterdam ruled on Wednesday that KLM had broken the law with misleading advertising in 15 of the 19 environmental statements it assessed. They include claims that the airline is moving towards a “more sustainable” future and statements on its website about the benefits of offsetting a flight.“Today’s judgment is a landmark victory in the fight against greenwashing,” said Hiske Arts, a campaigner at Fossielvrij. “The court could not have been clearer: companies are not allowed to claim they are tackling dangerous climate change when in reality they are fuelling the crisis.”Several of the claims KLM made about its environmental ambitions were declared misleading because they were too vague. In relation to a billboard at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport showing a child on a swing, the court ruled that KLM’s statement “join us in creating a more sustainable future” did not explain how flying with it related to any environmental benefit. The impression was reinforced by the background of sky, mountain and water, it said.The court also took aim at the airline’s presentation of its policies on sustainable aviation fuels, a vital but fledgling solution to the sector’s emissions, and tree-planting, which is sold as a way to offset the emissions from a flight. “These measures only marginally reduce the negative environmental aspects and give the wrong impression that flying with KLM is sustainable,” it ruled.Four statements that campaigners had criticised were deemed fair to use. The court also said the airline did not have to rectify the incorrect statements or warn customers that aviation is currently not sustainable. But it said that when KLM informed its customers about ambitions to reduce emissions, it must do so “honestly and concretely”.Campaigners said the court’s verdict was an important victory against greenwashing. but warned it was not enough. “Tackling greenwashing is currently a cat-and-mouse game,” said Rosanne Rootert, a campaigner at Reclame Fossielvrij. “If one misleading campaign is stopped, 10 new ones emerge. And you can only respond once the damage has already been done: people have already seen the commercials.”A similar point was made by KLM’s lawyer Branda Katan, a professor of corporate litigation at Leiden Law School, ahead of the verdict.Katan, who is scheduled to give an inaugural lecture at Leiden University on Friday titled: “Sustainability through liability? Don’t get your hopes up”, saidcivil lawsuits were slow and the results only said something about a specific case. “With climate litigation, you grab attention – media attention – and, at least that is the hope, you instil fear in other companies. So interest groups are using it to try to bring about behavioural change.”Though the air transport sector accounts for only a small fraction of greenhouse gas emissions today, its contribution to climate breakdown is on course to soar as demand rises. The International Energy Agency found last year that growth in aviation activity has historically outpaced improvements in efficiency.skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionRootert said the “next logical step” was for the EU to restrict fossil fuel adverts as it had done with tobacco. “A complete ban of fossil advertising, such as for air travel, is the only way to truly eliminate greenwashing by these companies.”A KLM spokesperson, Marjan Rozemeijer, said the airline had not used the 19 communications addressed in the court case for some time. “We are pleased that the court has ruled that we can continue to communicate with our customers and partners about our approach to making aviation more sustainable. We are continuously learning how best to include them in this.”She added: “It is good that the court gives us more clarity about what is possible and how we can continue to communicate transparently and honestly about our approach and activities.”

Cocoa beans are in short supply: What this means for farmers, businesses and chocolate lovers

". . . continuing to cultivate cocoa under current conditions is unsustainable"

A shortage of cocoa beans has led to a near shutdown of processing plants in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, the two countries responsible for 60% of global production. With chocolate makers around the world reliant on west Africa for cocoa, there is significant concern about the impact on the prices of chocolate and the livelihood of farmers. Cocoa researcher Michael Odijie explains the reasons for the shortage.   Why has cocoa production declined sharply in west Africa? Three factors are at play: environmental, economic cycle related and human. One environmental factor is the impact of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which has caused drier weather in west Africa. It has contributed to problems on farms, such as the swollen shoot virus disease. As a result, Ghana has lost harvests from nearly 500,000 hectares of land in recent years. The economic cycle of cocoa production refers to the inherent patterns of expansion and contraction in cocoa farming. For example, as cocoa trees age, they become susceptible to diseases, requiring high maintenance costs. Historically, farmers have tended to abandon old farms and start anew in fresh forests. Unfortunately, finding new forests is now increasingly difficult. Perhaps the most severe issue of all is the lack of fair compensation for sustainable cocoa production The human factor includes challenges such as illegal mining, which has overtaken numerous farms in Ghana. Sometimes, farmers lease their land to illegal miners in exchange for payment. These mining activities degrade the quality of the land, making it unsuitable for cocoa cultivation. The global market for chocolate and chocolate products is on the rise. It is projected to grow faster than 4% annually over the next few years. This growing demand for cocoa underscores the urgency in addressing the intertwined issues that relate to the industry's sustainability.   Have west African governments intervened to help cocoa farmers? In February 2024, the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), regulator of the country's cocoa sector, secured a World Bank loan of US$200 million to rehabilitate plantations affected by the cocoa swollen shoot virus. The board will take over the disease-ridden farms, remove and replace the afflicted cocoa trees, and nurture the new plantings to the fruiting stage before returning them to the farmers. This practice of Cocobod taking out loans to assist farmers is a longstanding one in Ghana. For instance, in 2018, Cocobod used part of a $600 million loan from the African Development Bank to rehabilitate aging plantations and those hit by diseases. And at the start of the current harvest season in October, the producer price was raised: farmers are paid more, a move made inevitable by the surge in global prices. Also, Ghana Cocobod has established a task force to shield cocoa farms from the harmful impacts of mining. It has cooperated with police to stem the smuggling of cocoa to neighboring countries, particularly those that offer a stronger currency. In Côte d'Ivoire, relatively little action has been taken. It appears the government is still assessing the situation. But there have been measures to curb smuggling of cocoa, prompted by the fact that the shortage is driving up prices in neighboring countries. Côte d'Ivoire does benefit from numerous sustainability programs initiated by multinational corporations. The current shortage has accelerated these initiatives. Regrettably, some of the programs do not disclose their data, making it difficult for academics to access and analyze their information. African governments have yet to address significant structural issues in their interventions.   How have cocoa farmers and cocoa-producing countries' economies been affected? At the farm level, although the rise in prices may initially appear beneficial to farmers, the reality is not straightforward. A decrease in output leads to fewer harvests on average, which means that, overall, farmers are not earning more. This issue is compounded by recent economic challenges in west Africa, such as high inflation and currency devaluation, particularly in Ghana. These factors have resulted in farmers becoming poorer. Another impact of the output decline is a reduction in local processing. Major African processing facilities in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana have either ceased operations or reduced their processing capacity because they cannot afford to purchase beans. This likely means that chocolate prices worldwide will surge. This, in turn, adversely affects the local production units that have been emerging in recent years. However, the bargaining power of west African cocoa-producing countries seems to have increased. Now is an opportune moment for these nations to unite and negotiate more favorable terms for their cocoa farmers.   Will chocolate makers eventually turn to cocoa alternatives? It's inevitable because continuing to cultivate cocoa under current conditions is unsustainable. I don't perceive this negatively; I hope it occurs sooner rather than later. In fact, it is already underway with the rise of cocoa butter equivalents, cocoa extenders and artificial flavors (synthetic or nature-identical flavors that mimic the taste of chocolate without the need for cocoa). The German company Planet A Foods is a leader in this area. It produces cocoa-free chocolate, using technology to transform ingredients such as oats and sunflower seeds into substitutes for cocoa mass and butter. Overall, this is beneficial for everyone. The demand for cocoa has resulted in mass deforestation and significant carbon emissions, issues that are likely to worsen due to climate change. Moreover, the push for cultivation has led to various forms of labour abuses. Exploring cocoa alternatives is certainly part of the solution. Michael E Odijie, Research associate, UCL This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Firms That Once Called Themselves “Sustainable” Are Now “Greenhushing”

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For years, eagle-eyed environmentalists have called out banks and consumer businesses—from Barclays to fashion brand ASOS—for making misleading claims that their practices or products are sustainable, otherwise known as greenwashing.  However, lately there has been an uptick in “greenhushing,” a […]

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For years, eagle-eyed environmentalists have called out banks and consumer businesses—from Barclays to fashion brand ASOS—for making misleading claims that their practices or products are sustainable, otherwise known as greenwashing.  However, lately there has been an uptick in “greenhushing,” a seemingly counterintuitive practice in which companies intentionally don’t publicize their climate-friendly actions and goals.  For example, investment firm BlackRock has removed several references to its commitment of helping reach net zero emissions by 2050 from its website, though its CEO said the firm would continue to discuss climate issues with the companies it invests in, reports the Washington Post. Consumer goods companies, including those that sell food and beverages or clothes, are also hopping on the “greenhushing” bandwagon, despite taking steps toward sustainability, reports Grist.  “If you’re a CEO who has all the right intentions, you might get sued from both sides—from the left and from the right.” At the same time, public demand for environmentally friendly goods and services has surged in the past few years as the fight against climate change has ramped up. So what’s behind this paradox? Experts say there could be a few factors at play.  In the past few years, liberal activists and organizations have sued companies for rampant greenwashing campaigns, including H&M, Nike, Allbirds shoes and apparel company Canada Goose. Though many of these companies won their suits, they still suffered copious amounts of bad PR.  On the other side of the aisle, right-wing politicians and thought leaders are speaking out against “woke” eco-campaigns and business decisions made with climate change in mind, reports the Post.  “If you’re a CEO who has all the right intentions, you might get sued from both sides—from the left and from the right,” Renat Heuberger, the co-founder and CEO of South Pole, a climate consultancy that released a survey on greenhushing trends, told the Post. “And that is not good news if you want to convince more CEOs to get active on climate.” In the face of this criticism, some companies have simply stopped publicly speaking about the steps they are taking to curb emissions or reduce their environmental footprints, according to South Pole’s report.  On Monday, Uber launched a new feature that gives riders insight into how many emissions they could avoid by choosing electric vehicle or hybrid options, Axios reports. This is part of a growing trend in the consumer space; just this week, I was searching for a flight on Skyscanner and the app offered information about which options emit the lowest amount of CO2.  Even though these features are increasingly available, do people actually use them when making their final purchase? I asked Xavier Font, a professor of sustainability marketing at University of Surrey who advises companies like Booking, Google, Expedia and Skyscanner.  “The labeling of products as sustainable raises skepticism,” and “raises perceptions of potential greenwashing.” “At the moment, nobody has done a study—including the companies themselves—that is publicly available that says, ‘does this have an impact or not?’” he told me over the phone. “The thing is, we don’t really know what difference they make. And when companies like these go to great lengths to create a system, I think we could do better testing.” In a similar vein, research shows that consumers’ behaviors when presented with “eco-friendly” products can be mixed. In a 2022 survey, 78 percent of US consumers responded that a sustainable lifestyle is important to them and 30 percent of them would be more likely to buy products with sustainable advertising.  However, some experiments show that the opposite can happen, as well. For example, in a 2020 study, researchers asked more than 250 Americans their thoughts on two ads for laundry detergent: one with a label stating that it is sustainable, and another without this language. In this case, the majority of participants perceived the more sustainable product to be less effective, without even trying it.  “The labeling of products as sustainable raises skepticism, raises perceptions of information overload [and] raises perceptions of potential greenwashing,” Font says.  To combat this, companies can tap into social influence to get people to buy with sustainability in mind, or focus on other positive attributes of the product, such as innovation and safety, writes Katherine White, a sustainable business researcher at University of British Columbia, and co-authors in the Harvard Business Review.  Overall, there are some risks to greenhushing. As banks and consumer retailers downplay or eliminate their public sustainability pledges, progress can become harder to track, some experts say.  “We really, really, really need a lot more disclosure of all the environmental actions that companies are taking, and we need it to be disclosed regularly and transparently, and we need it to be disclosed quantitatively,” Austin Whitman, the CEO of Climate Neutral, a nonprofit that monitors climate pledges, told Grist.  

Banks driving increase in global meat and dairy production, report finds

Financiers providing billion-dollar support for industrial livestock companies to expand leading to unsustainable rise in productionBillion-dollar financing is driving unsustainable increases in global meat and dairy production, a report has found.Global meat production rose 9% between 2015 and 2021, the report said, while dairy production increased 13% in that time. Continue reading...

Billion-dollar financing is driving unsustainable increases in global meat and dairy production, a report has found.Global meat production rose 9% between 2015 and 2021, the report said, while dairy production increased 13% in that time.Over almost the same time period, 2015 to 2022, financiers provided the world’s top 55 industrial livestock companies with average annual credit injections of $77bn (£60bn), and some appeared to compromise their own anti-deforestation policies to do so, according to the report.Credit, the report said, “is designed to help companies expand … and has helped drive a huge and unsustainable increase in global meat and dairy production”.Martin Bowman, policy and campaigns manager for Feedback, the UK-based campaign group that produced the report, said: “We’re calling for financial institutions to defund industrial livestock companies as soon as possible.”The sprawling risks of industrial animal agriculture catalogued in the report include its contributions to the climate crisis, deforestation, pollution, animal abuse, biodiversity loss, worker exploitation, human sickness and antibiotic resistance.Eating less animal protein and farming fewer animals, especially in richer countries, is the best way to reduce livestock emissions, the report said, referencing a survey of more than 200 climate scientists and food and agriculture experts.The survey found that to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, global livestock emissions need to peak by 2025 and fall 61% by 2036, with faster and deeper reductions in richer countries.The banks offering the most support to the world’s top 55 industrial livestock companies were Bank of America, which provided almost $29bn, Barclays with just over $28bn and JPMorgan Chase with almost $27bn, the report found. Barclays was the biggest lender to the Brazilian meat firm JBS, “the world’s highest-emitting livestock company”, it said.Big dairy financiers named in the report include Wells Fargo, which was the top creditor to Dairy Farmers of America, and ANZ bank, the biggest creditor to New Zealand’s Fonterra. In 2021, Dairy Farmers of America emitted more greenhouse gases than Denmark, and Fonterra was responsible for about 45% of New Zealand’s total emissions that year, it said.The report also found some banks compromising their own anti-deforestation policies to fund the Brazilian meat companies Minerva Foods, Marfrig and JBS. All three are frequently linked to deforestation.HSBC policy documents promise it will “not knowingly provide financial services to high-risk customers involved directly in or sourcing from suppliers involved in” deforestation. But, between 2015 and 2022, HSBC was the second largest creditor to Minerva and fourth largest to Marfrig, the report said.Bank of America was the fifth largest creditor globally to Minerva during the same period, the report said, despite a policy that says “lending proceeds are not used to finance commercial projects or operations” which lead to deforestation.Rabobank says it does “not finance any deforestation, even if legally allowed” in Brazil. However, the report found it provided credit to JBS and Minerva between 2015 and 2022.A Barclays spokesperson said its financial policies “were updated in April 2023 to include restrictions on beef production and primary processing in high deforestation risk countries in South America [and require companies] to respect human rights across their operations and supply chain”.Rabobank said in an email it was “actively combatting illegal deforestation” but did not comment on individual cases. When it received Feedback’s report it would “review its findings attentively”, it said.HSBC said it was “important [to] distinguish between entities that are [banking service] customers of HSBC … and other companies to whom we may appear to be linked to via shareholdings”, and that it had “a stewardship plan and engagement policy” for raising concerns with companies “including deforestation risk”.Marfrig rejected any connection with deforestation, saying its “entire production undergoes third-party audits of international recognition” with zero non-conformities found over the past 11 years. Until it had access to the full report, it was “impossible to provide” detailed responses, the company said, adding that defunding would hinder sustainable food system developments which depend on new investments “in technology, innovation, technical assistance, and training”.An 18-page Minerva statement said its efforts to protect the ecosystem on which it depends included the recent suspension of 414 Brazilian suppliers for illegal deforestation and other environmental issues, and a range of anti-deforestation successes in its direct cattle supply chain. However, it said, the monitoring of indirect supplier farms remained the “biggest challenge facing the entire sector”. It further detailed animal welfare policies, emission reduction projects and sustainability and human rights initiatives.Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase declined to comment. Others did not respond to requests for comment.The International Meat Secretariat said livestock businesses “are very aware of the need to develop and grow in a responsible way to provide the necessary essential protein for an increasing population”. It added that the commercial livestock sector “seeks growth to support growing demand” and was bound by “increasing controls, regulation” and corporate social responsibility requirements.

Suggested Viewing

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

Our team is always growing.
Become a partner, volunteer, sponsor, or intern today.
Let us know how you would like to get involved!

CONTACT US

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Subscribers receive a free day pass for streaming Cinema Verde.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.