Lord Simon Wolfson, the chief executive of the clothing and homeware retailer Next, Conservative peer and Brexit supporter, has urged the government to make it easier to allow foreign workers into the UK.
“We have got people queueing up to come to this country to pick crops that are rotting in fields, to work in warehouses that otherwise wouldn’t be operable, and we’re not letting them in,” Lord Wolfson said
More than 1,400 people around the world are still dying each day from Covid-19, and poor nations are still struggling to obtain sufficient vaccine doses and therapeutics. To date, just 23.4% of people in low-income countries have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose.
Big Pharma has made no secret of its opposition to waiving patents for coronavirus vaccines. A new investigation details the extent of the powerful industry’s behind-the-scenes lobbying push as it sought to crush an effort to ramp up global production and distribution of the lifesaving shots. The agreement the World Trade Organization finally approved in June—almost two years and millions of coronavirus deaths later—was so thoroughly gutted that it could no longer be accurately described as a waiver.
Joint reporting by Politico and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) revealed that pharmaceutical giants threatened several countries, including Belgium and Indonesia, with investment cuts if they decided to support a popular proposal to temporarily lift patent protections that have hindered vaccine production and distribution throughout the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The pharmaceutical giants directly pressured and threatened country officials over the patent waiver.
“Big Pharma used its vast lobbying and influencing efforts to try to kill a proposal that threatened the very tenets of the industry,” the outlets report. “Top industry executives enjoyed direct access to senior officials within the E.U., which was opposed to the proposal from the very start and encouraged potentially rogue member states, including Italy and France, to fall into line.”
“And the U.S., after a dramatic late intervention in favor of a waiver for vaccines eight months after the proposal had been tabled, failed to follow through as the Biden administration came under pressure from industry and Congress.”
Soon after Belgium’s development cooperation minister Meryame Kitir appeared on TV to support a lifting of vaccine IP protections in late April 2021, the adviser received a call from Janssen’s public affairs spokesperson.
“According to the adviser, [to the Belgian prime minister] the spokesperson warned them that if Belgium supported a radical proposal made by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization, then Janssen might rethink its vast billion-dollar research and development investments in Belgium,”
Between January 2020 and September 2022, 13 pharmaceutical lobby groups and companies held nearly 100 meetings with the most senior European Commission officials. In the U.K., there were more than 360 meetings between January 2020 and March 2022—equivalent to nearly one every two days. Boris Johnson personally attended 11 of them.
Max Lawson, co-chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance and head of inequality policy at Oxfam, said that “these shocking allegations are a testament to the huge unaccountable power of big business in global politics. Millions died without access to vaccines while pharmaceutical companies gouged extraordinary profits from the pandemic…” He continued, “Rich countries expressed warm words and pledged donations, but to Germany, the U.K., Switzerland, and the European Commission, it was apparently just a PR exercise. In the end, global solidarity was snuffed out by the wealthy pharmaceutical lobby…”
Outrage as Investigation Shows How Big Pharma ‘Snuffed Out’ Vaccine Patent Waiver (commondreams.org)
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said wealth had grown rapidly compared with earnings from work since the 2008 financial crisis, driven by a surge in house prices and financial assets – such as stocks and shares – at a time of flatlining progress for average wages. The IFS found wealth levels growing at much faster rates than income meant it was now harder for working families to enter the ranks of the rich in Britain through hard work alone.
Robert Joyce, the deputy director of the IFS, said: “A generation of Britons has ridden a wave of growing asset prices, pushing up the value of their houses and investments. Meanwhile, more than a decade of stagnant earnings has held back younger generations for whom earning their own economic success has become increasingly difficult.” He added, “The fact that we can no longer be sure that the young will grow up with living standards that match their predecessors is a remarkable social change.”
It said the amount of time it would take to earn enough to move from the middle wealth bracket to the top had increased by almost six years compared with a decade ago. In 2008, it took 10 years’ worth of typical full-time gross earnings to move from the middle to the top wealth bracket. By 2018, this had increased to almost 16 years.
“…it is wealth that is increasingly at the heart of the most pressing economic inequalities today,” the report said. Average wage growth has stalled over the past decade, with typical pay worth less today than in 2007 after inflation is taken into account.
The economics thinktank said the rapid increases for those who already owned wealth had coincided with a long-term stagnation in earnings. This meant younger adults in particular could “no longer expect to see greatly improving living standards as they age” compared with the faster pay rises and access to cheaper housing enjoyed by their parents’ generation.
The IFS said only 36% of those born in the 1980s owned their own home by the age of 30, compared with 55% for those born in the 1970s and over 60% of those born in the 1950s and 1960s. Inherited wealth was becoming more important for the lifetime economic resources of younger generations.
Rising asset wealth and falling real wages ‘drive inequality in Britain’ | Economics | The Guardian
Less than three weeks to go before the Qatar World Cup kicks off. Krishna Timislina worked for several years at construction sites for the stadiums the conditions were “hell on earth”. Sometimes 18 hour working days in searing heat and powered by energy drinks), water of dubious quality, prefab housing without space or privacy, and people dying from accidents or exhaustion.
He told French journalists Sébastian Castelier and Quentin Muller for their book “Les Esclaves de l’Homme Pétrole” (“The Oil Man’s Slaves”) that with “precarious living conditions, terrible water quality and interminable shifts, we know our health is being damaged – but do we have a choice?” He explained, “So much of Qatar is being built thanks to our work – stadiums, shopping malls, bridges and roads are being constructed – but we’re not invited to share in the dream.”
Qatar has used a massive influx of foreign workers to build the infrastructure for the footballing extravaganza – with migrants building roads, a new airport, a railway network and seven new stadiums. However, the human cost has been dreadful.
In a report published in August 2022, Amnesty International said that more than 15,021 foreigners of all ages and occupations had died in Qatar between 2010 and 2019. A February 2021 investigation found that at least 6,751 migrant workers died in Qatar from 2010 to 2020. But Castelier noted the real number is likely much higher. “These figures mainly come from Asian embassies in Qatar; we don’t have the statistics for African workers there.” That figure also does not take into account workers who die after returning home. They point out that many such untimely deaths are due to kidney problems following the consumption of unsafe water. An Amnesty International investigation found that at least 6,751 migrant workers died in Qatar from 2010 to 2020 from drinking homemade alcohol and energy drinks as they struggle to keep up with the frantic work pace.
Qatar’s climate has a lot to do with the high mortality rate. “It’s very hot in the summer,” Castelier said. “It’s just hell working in the construction industry. Qatar has banned working outdoors in the open from 10:30am to 3pm, but many violations have been reported.”
Lack of training can be another cause of death. “They put people who haven’t been trained on huge machines or on scaffolding, and they often have no idea about safety measures – so there are plenty of accidents,” Castelier said. Qatar knows all this makes for bad PR: “It’s perfectly aware that the stories about migrants workers are a problem; they’re constantly trying to put forward a narrative that they’re a modernising country.”
Qatar hosts nearly 400,000 migrant workers, often in conditions of modern-day slavery.
“It’s like a disposable workforce,” Castelier said. “That’s how migration to the Gulf states works. It’s impossible for an immigrant to obtain local citizenship. So when they’re no longer working, they have to leave.” Migrants arriving in Gulf states soon fall prey to an exploitative system, with “kafala” at the heart of it. In a widely used system in the Gulf, a sponsor (or “kafeel”) is assigned to each migrant, often his or her employer. The system puts migrants at the mercy of their employers, who often confiscate their passports upon arrival.
The kafala system “gives the employer a lot of power over the employee”, Castelier said. “Everything is OK if the employer respects the rules. But if not, the employee’s life can become a living hell.”
In a public relations attempt to improve its image, Qatar officially abolished the kafala system in 2016. Yet in reality, “many aspects of it are still in force”, Castelier said. “Most notably, an employer can say that a migrant working for them is a fugitive. So if a domestic worker, for example, wants to denounce abuses by their employer, the latter can easily say that they have absconded – and instead of looking into the worker’s complaints, the police will just return them to their employer.”
‘Just hell’: New book shines light on migrant deaths ahead of Qatar World Cup (france24.com)
COP27
Climate in crisis, temperatures soaring,
Hurricanes vying with droughts to be worse
And humanity’s primary curse,
As sea levels rise. It’s worth restoring
Equilibrium surely? And yet,
Perhaps the problem is just too intense:
The only response, another conference
For politicians to attend by jet.
Banquets are arranged, discussions begun,
Though radical measures are rejected
If it seems profits might be affected,
Even though all say something must be done.
A strong resolution, they’re all for it,
Until they fly home and then ignore it.
D. A.
A new draft US federal report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation, and NASA notes that the country, the largest emitter of carbon in history, is warming faster than the Earth as a whole, with the continental U.S. 1.3°C (2.5°F) warmer than it was in the 1970s. The planet has warmed 1.1°C or 2°F above preindustrial temperatures.
Millions of people in the U.S. have already had firsthand experience with the impacts of the climate crisis, says the report. More than 3,000 homes and other structures were destroyed by wildfires in California in 2021, and a heatwave across the Pacific Northwest last year killed 229 people. As climate scientists have consistently warned, hurricanes are growing more severe. According to the report. “Many of the harmful impacts that people across the country are already experiencing will worsen as warming increases, and new risks will emerge.”
The report warns that “more severe wildfires in California, sea level rise in Florida, and more frequent flooding in Texas are expected to displace millions of people” in the United States.
Four decades ago, disasters costing $1 billion or more took place roughly once every four months, but 20 such events were recorded in 2021, averaging about one every three weeks.
“Compound events—combinations of weather or climate events affecting one location back-to-back or multiple locations at the same time—are already occurring in every region of the country and are projected to become more frequent as the world continues to warm,” the draft report reads. “These events have cascading effects through supply chains, food networks, and other interdependent systems that typically cause greater harm than isolated events.”
Some climate harms facing Americans that have been covered less frequently than extreme weather, including threats to drinking water supplies as rising sea levels send saltwater into aquifers and flooding pollutes wells and other sources. Other public health risks include rising tick populations and the spread of Lyme disease amid warmer weather, increased transmission of mosquito-borne illnesses, and the inhalation of toxic wildfire smoke in communities across the West.
“Faster, deeper cuts” to fossil fuel emissions that are needed to see a 6% annual reduction, which the report says is necessary to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
“A growing number of governments and nonstate actors are pledging to be carbon-free—and obviously that’s good news,” Guterres said while introducing a report, entitled Integrity Matters: Net-Zero Commitments by Businesses, Financial Institutions, Cities, and Regions, “The problem is that the criteria and benchmarks for these net-zero commitments have varying levels of rigor and loopholes wide enough to drive a diesel truck through.”
“We must have zero tolerance for net-zero greenwashing,” he continued. “Today’s expert group report is a how-to guide to ensure credible, accountable net-zero pledges. Let’s tell it like it is. Using bogus ‘net-zero’ pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. It is rank deception. This toxic cover-up could push our world over the climate cliff. The sham must end. “
“We urgently need every business, investor, city, state, and region to walk the talk on their net-zero promises,” Guterres added. “We cannot afford slow movers, fake movers, or any form of greenwashing.”
“This analysis only scratches the surface of how deeply conflicted these ‘net-zero’ initiatives are,” Sara Shaw, climate justice and energy international program coordinator for Friends of the Earth International, said in a statement. “It paints a picture of how this isn’t just about polluters trying to build ‘green credibility,’ but of how they position themselves to shape and obstruct policy progress.”
Greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas facilities around the world are about three times higher than their producers claimed. Under the UN system, countries are responsible for reporting their own greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate Trace, a project to measure at source the true levels of carbon dioxide and other global heating gases, published a new report on Wednesday showing that half of the 50 largest sources of greenhouse gases in the world were oil and gas fields and production facilities.
Many are underreporting their emissions, and there are few means of calling them to account. Atmospheric levels of methane, a greenhouse gas about 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, have been rising strongly in recent years, but countries’ reported emissions of the gas have been found to be much lower than the reality.
Under-reporting emissions, Al Gore, explained, “For the oil and gas sector it is consistent with their public relations strategy and their lobbying strategy. All of their efforts are designed to buy themselves more time before they stop destroying the future of humanity.”
Saudi Arabia has reported its oil and gas production emissions. We have measured them empirically and we find a huge gap, that the emissions are larger than those that have been reported. When we look more carefully at the emissions we find from their refining centre, it turns out that the volume of emissions from their refining centre, that have not been reported, exactly match the amount by which their reported admissions are undercounted.
The Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) launched by more than two dozen nations at the COP27 was denounced by Greenpeace as unlikely to stop deforestation.
“…this partnership is nothing but a green light for eight more years of forest destruction, with little respect for the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities,” Victorine Che Thōner of Greenpeace International said. According to Thōner, the alliance “gives polluters a license to do more business as usual through carbon trickery instead of advancing true climate action.”
Notably, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo are not part of the FCLP.
At last year’s COP26 meeting in Scotland, 145 governments signed the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration “to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation” by the end of the decade. However, as the annual Forest Declaration Assessment showed two weeks ago, “not a single global indicator is on track to meet these 2030 goals of stopping forest loss and degradation and restoring 350 million hectares of forest landscape.” Only 22% of the $12 billion in public money pledged for forests by 2025, funds committed in Glasgow, had so far been disbursed. This sum pales in comparison to the $460 billion per year that is needed to protect, restore, and improve forests on a global scale.
26,000 square miles of forest—an area roughly equivalent to Ireland—were destroyed around the world in 2021, harming biodiverse ecosystems and releasing into the atmosphere 3.8 billion tons of greenhouse gas pollution, or about as much as the European Union generates each year.
Scientists warned that averting the worst consequences of the climate and biodiversity crises hinges in part on putting an end to clear-cutting, which is being driven by corporations looking to make space for cattle ranching, monocropping, and other harmful practices.
Greenpeace said the new pact “was mainly a progress review from 2021 in support of carbon markets as a mechanism for funding investment in protecting existing carbon sinks.”
Thōner explained that “…we must look beyond the needs of greedy businesses to effectively deliver on non-market approaches for nature protection…Real commitments are needed now to protect and restore nature along with the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities.”
Greenpeace Dismisses COP27 Deforestation Pact as ‘Carbon Trickery’ (commondreams.org)
The chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), Andy Haldane, has warned more than a century of progress on health and wellbeing was going into reverse, with a direct impact on the economy and the cost of living emergency. “We’re in a situation for the first time, probably since the Industrial Revolution, where health and wellbeing are in retreat,” he said. “Having been an accelerator of wellbeing for the last 200 years, health is now serving as a brake in the rise of growth and wellbeing of our citizens.”
Haldane said the economy was being held back after a sharp fall in the number of people in the British workforce since the onset of the Covid pandemic. However, the former chief economist at the Bank of England said the global health emergency had only served as a “tipping point”. “Spending on healthcare systems, at least by G7 comparisons, the UK sits towards the bottom of the pack,” he said. “It should come as no surprise that we therefore see macroeconomic headwinds such as a record number of unfilled vacancies. We haven’t got enough people.”
About 600,000 workers have dropped out of the workforce, including 200,000 out of work for five years or more due to ill health. 30,000 more people with long Covid and are unable to work. About 50,000 more people have retired early in the last two years, while the number of people who have never worked swelled by 250,000 with two-thirds of this group accounted for by students and a third by people with ill health or disabilities not being able to get into work rather than leaving it.
The situation is made worse by the baby boomer generation taking retirement and lower migration – “with half a million fewer non-UK born workers than there would have been on the pre-2016 trend”.
