“European countries must end the repression and criminalization of peaceful climate protests”

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European countries must end the repression and criminalization of peaceful climate protests and act urgently to reduce emissions in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C, he has declared the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders, Michel Forst.

At the end of a year-long investigation, which included gathering evidence from several European countries, Forst said the crackdown on peaceful environmental activists around the world poses a grave threat to democracy and human rights.All states involved in the UN expert's investigation into environmental defenders have joined the Aarhus Convention, which holds that peaceful environmental protest is a legitimate exercise of the public's right to participate in decision-making processes and that those who participate must be protected.Yet the response to peaceful environmental protests has been repression rather than protection.

Forst's role was established in 2022 under the provisions of the Aarhus Convention, an international framework that is legally binding for the countries that have signed it, most, but not all, of which are in Europe.The Convention, ratified in 2001, protects the right to peaceful environmental protest and prohibits the persecution, criminalization or harassment of any member of the public who seeks to protect their right to live in a healthy environment.

“Forst's investigation is of great importance given the global context of violence against environmental activists who they are killed at a rate of approximately two to four people per week,” commented to Inside Climate News Sébastien Duyck, senior lawyer at the Center for International Environmental Law. According to Global Witness, 177 environmental activists were killed worldwide in 2022 and 200 in 2021.

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“The environmental emergency that we are collectively facing and that scientists have documented for decades cannot be addressed if those who raise the alarm and call for action are criminalized for doing so,” explains Forst.“The only legitimate response to peaceful environmental activism and civil disobedience at this point is for the authorities, the media and the public to realize how essential it is for all of us to listen to what environmental defenders have to say” .

States should urgently reduce emissions to comply the Paris Agreement, act for restore 30% of all degraded ecosystems by 2030 and work to substantially reduce deaths and illnesses caused byair pollution.

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“To date, governments continue to make decisions that directly contradict the clear and urgent recommendations of climate scientists,” Forst added, and this will lead to increased protests.

It is very worrying, continued the UN rapporteur, that in the 2023 EU Terrorism Situation & Trend Report (TE-SAT), environmental activism has been classified under "extremism" and that being concerned about climate change is considered a extremist point of view.

In Spain, the 2022 report of the public prosecutor's office classified Extinction Rebellion as “international terrorism”.New laws in many countries, such as the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the UK Public Order Act 2023, the so-called “eco-vandals” law in Italy and the German law prohibiting any form of peaceful protest, including sit-ins, are all repressive towards peaceful protestors.

“By classifying environmental activism as a potential terrorist threat, limiting freedom of expression, and criminalizing some forms of protest, these new laws contribute to restricting civic space and seriously threaten the viability of democratic societies,” explains Forst.

In the UK, environmental defenders have been denied the right to speak to juries and have been subjected to harsh pre-trial detention conditions, including curfews, electronic monitoring, GPS tracking and multi-year bail.Forst also expressed concern about the use of civil injunctions to preemptively ban protests and condemned the derision of environmental defenders by media and political figures:“During my visit, I saw first-hand that this is exactly what is happening in the UK right now.This has a chilling effect on civil society and the exercise of fundamental freedoms."

Climate crisis, arresting peaceful activists fighting for their and our future is sacrilege

In Portugal, peaceful protesters were arrested and detained by the police for “disturbing traffic” after taking part in a legal protest, the itinerary of which had been notified to the authorities in advance.In France, people who attempted to join an authorized demonstration were subjected to widespread identity checks, vehicle searches and confiscation of personal items by the police.

In Italy, the conviction of three Last Generation activists who more than a year ago smeared the facade of Palazzo Madama in Rome with washable paint is news in recent days.The three they were sentenced to 8 months on charges of aggravated damage and the payment of a provisional amount of 60 thousand euros in favor of the civil parties constituted:the State Attorney's Office, the representation of the Senate and the Ministry of Culture, and the Municipality of Rome.The damages caused by the raid, according to the experts, were quantified at around 40 thousand euros while the defense lawyer pointed out to the judge that the costs incurred for removing the paint and cleaning did not exceed 1,400 euros.The aggravating circumstance, introduced with the second security decree approved in 2019 by the then Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, was applied despite the fact that the walls of the building were cleaned again within a few hours.

This is the effect of the bill against "eco-vandals", definitively approved by the Chamber on 24 January 2024, proposed by the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, to punish damage, defacement, soiling and illicit use of cultural and landscape assets with more severe penalties.The newly approved law provides, in addition to criminal sanctions, an autonomous administrative sanction imposed by the prefect for a sum between 20 thousand and 60 thousand euros.Just over a year ago, at the end of 2022, the so-called “anti-rave” decree.And even before that there had been Salvini's safety decrees, which in addition to having aggravated the crime of damage, reintroduced the crime of road blocking.Meanwhile the tractors they could travel the streets of the historic center of Rome escorted by the police amid greetings from tourists.

The policy that criminalizes nonviolent civil disobedience by climate activists

Forst also documented the use of measures usually adopted against organized crime.These include early morning raids by counter-terrorism units and the use of undercover police to infiltrate groups.

Rather than repression, the UN expert concluded, states should address the root causes of environmental mobilization, namely the triple environmental crisis of pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate change.

EU approves law to restore marine and terrestrial ecosystems despite farmers' protests.What does this mean for biodiversity?

Despite the continuous farmers' protests, last week the European Union has approved an important law to restore 20% of terrestrial and marine ecosystems by 2030.To come into force it will now have to be approved by member states, usually a simple formality.

The European Parliament adopted the law with 329 votes in favour, 275 against and 24 abstentions, despite last-minute opposition from the European People's Party, following farmers' protests against the EU's green policies, pressure on prices and competition from imports from third countries.While the vote was taking place, farmers "blocked" the European Quarter in Brussels.

The EU gives in to farmer protests and an unsustainable and failing agri-food system

The measure aims to reverse the decline of Europe's natural habitats - 81% of which are in a bad state - although it has been significantly scaled back compared to the initial version.Since it was proposed in 2022, centre-right MEPs have tried several times to scuttle the law and ultimately managed to weaken some parts, such as the aim of introducing more trees, ponds and other aspects that favor the restoration of the biodiversity in agricultural land.

At the beginning of February, the European Commission withdrew a bill to reduce pesticides and postponed the obligation for farmers to dedicate more land to nature.

Based on international commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Diversity Framework (GBF), we set ourselves the goal to “halt and reverse” biodiversity loss by 2030, conserving 30% of emerged land and 30% of oceans.As mentioned, the law adopted by the EU aims to restore a fifth (20%) of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

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According to a European Environment Agency (EEA) 2020 report, around 80% of habitats in the EU have a “bad” or “poor” conservation status and only 15% are in “good” condition.More than half of peatlands - including bogs, swamps and marshes - and half of dune habitats are in poor condition.Coastal habitats have the smallest area remaining in good condition.

From this map, contained in the EEA report, it is possible to observe the conservation status of the EU's habitats.

Due to habitat degradation, many species in the EU are in decline.Like pollinators, fundamental for food production:one in three bee and butterfly species is in decline.Advice points out that although five billion euros of the EU's annual agricultural production “can be directly attributed” to these species, around half of the areas where pollinator-dependent crops are grown “do not offer suitable conditions for pollinators”.This is why it is essential to invest (and not sink) in the restoration of natural habitats.

“There is a lot of work to do:it is very important to protect nature...but it's not enough", commented to Carbon Brief Sabien Leeman, Senior Biodiversity Policy Officer at WWF Europe.

Healthier ecosystems would provide broader benefits, including a greater capacity to adapt to climate change, a reduction in the impact of extreme weather phenomena and a contribution to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to an impact assessment study published by the Commission earlier this year, the economic benefits of restoring several EU ecosystems - including peatlands, forests and lakes - are close to €2 trillion by 2050, against an estimated cost of 154 billion euros for these actions.“The climate mitigation benefits alone outweigh the cost of the necessary restoration actions,” the report adds.

Recycling plastic is not a long-term solution and the petrochemical industries knew it

For 40 years, plastic and petrochemical companies have tried to convince the public that plastic can be recycled.But they have known for just as long that recycling plastic is not a realistic solution to reducing pollution.

This is what emerges from a relationship published last week by the non-profit Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) which demonstrated how, through a “decade-long campaign of fraud and deception,” Big Oil and the plastics industry have promoted recycling as a solution to the crisis of plastic pollution despite knowing since the 1980s that it “could not be considered a permanent solution for solid waste" and that recycled plastic would never be able to compete economically with virgin material.

The documents that ended up in the hands of the CCI suggest that the plastics and petrochemical industries saw recycling as little more than a way to tame public outrage and ward off tougher anti-plastic laws.Davis Allen, CCI investigative researcher and lead author of the report, said many of the documents came from a former employee of the American Plastics Council.Others come from databases of plastics industry documents maintained by Columbia University, New York University and the University of California, San Francisco.

One document discovered by CCI – a 1986 report from the plastics industry trade group the Vinyl Institute – found that “the purity and quality requirements required for many applications preclude the use of recycled material.”Ultimately, the report concluded that recycling “does nothing more than extend the disposal time of an item.”

In response to the request for comment from Grist, the Vinyl Institute did not respond to the contents of the CCI report, but simply said that it was “committed to increasing” the amount of polyvinyl chloride – a type of plastic – that is recycled each year.Eastman Chemical and Exxon Mobil did not respond to Grist's requests for comment.

California will not issue new gasoline and gas licenses

In recent years, California has seen catastrophic wildfires, exhaust pollution and wild swings between droughts and sudden heavy rains, all fueled by climate change.Cities in Sonoma and Napa counties in northern California have declared a “climate emergency.”Pressure from activists pushed cities in the two counties to ban the construction of new petrol stations of petrol and gas.California plans to phase out sales of gas-powered cars by 2035 and net zero carbon emissions by 2045.

The movement to ban new gas stations began in 2021, when Petaluma, California, in Sonoma County, became the first U.S. city to ban new gas stations.From there, the bans spread throughout Sonoma and Napa counties.The idea has also been proposed in Los Angeles and Sacramento, in Eugene, Oregon, and as far north as Kelowna, Canada.

Activists oppose petrol stations not only to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases but also because of the associated pollution risks.Underneath each petrol station are underground tanks that store thousands of liters of petrol and diesel.These tanks are a source of toxic vapors that are expelled to the surface through pipes.And there could be leaks that could pollute the surrounding soil and groundwater with a variety of contaminants.

The oil industry is obviously taking countermeasures.Petrol stations are crucial:they are the end of a long supply chain that begins in the oil fields and ends with vehicle refueling.“We are paying attention across the state where these types of bans are being proposed,” he has declared to Grist Kevin Slagle, spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association.For Slagle it is “a mix of symbolic bans and bans that would actually limit fuel supplies in the community”.

Limiting the supply of gas stations would lead to increased costs for consumers, Slagle continues.To support these claims, the trade group spokesperson cited a not yet peer-reviewed University of California, Berkeley study in which economists studied more than 1,000 gas stations in Mexico and found that the adding nearby gas stations has led to slightly lower gasoline prices.The same Berkeley study is also cited in the text of a bill presented at the end of January by Aisha Wahab, a Democratic senator representing the district east of the Bay Area.The bill, in its current form, calls for the California Energy Commission to conduct a study of gas stations and alternative fueling infrastructure, such as chargers for electric vehicles.If enacted, it would block local governments from imposing bans starting in January 2025 and until the study is completed, potentially until January 1, 2027.

The oil industry's reaction and the spread of bans to other cities means "we hit the nail on the head," said Jim Wilson, a longtime Napa County climate activist.“Maybe we have taught ourselves”.

Taranto, the Calliope probe positioned in the Mar Grande to monitor the marine ecosystem

The multi-sensor probe buoy that monitors the marine ecosystem, the result of the Calliope project, developed by the House of Emerging Technologies of Taranto, has been positioned in the Mar Grande (Gulf of Taranto).

The probe buoy will acquire data in the open sea to identify environmental risks and evaluate the impact of human activity on biodiversity.The data and information collected will be made available to the scientific community and the territory through an open access web platform.

"For one year - explains Carmelo Fanizza, founder and president of the Jonian Dolphin Conservation which, together with Tilebytes, participates in the Calliope project - the sounding buoy will collect a series of continuous data which, analyzed and processed by our technicians, will allow the development of dynamic models on the conditions of the marine ecosystem.Furthermore, this system will allow us to identify possible in real time alert for the marine environment and probable threats".

The objective of the Calliope project, financed by the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy and by the Fund for Development and Cohesion, is to acquire as much data as possible to understand the interactions between the environment (and its exploitation), the health of humans and animals, and evaluate the impacts of human action on ecosystems.

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