Chinese premier vows tougher regulation on air pollution
Premier Li Keqiang of China said on Sunday that the government was failing to satisfy public demands to stanch pollution and would impose heavier punishments to cut toxic smog. “This is a concern that is uppermost on all people’s minds,” Mr Li said in response to a reporter’s question at the end of the annual full meeting of the National People’s Congress. The reporter mentioned the smog documentary, Under the Dome, which was this month banned by censors after becoming an online sensation. Mr Li pointedly made no mention of the film, but acknowledged some of the problems it raised. “We need to make businesses that illicitly emit and dump pay a price too heavy to bear. We must ensure that the enforcement of the environmental protection law is not a stick of cotton candy but a powerful mace,” he added. (New York Times)
UN backs fossil fuel divestment campaign
The UN organisation in charge of global climate change negotiations is backing the fast-growing campaign persuading investors to sell off their fossil fuel assets, because it shared the ambition to get a strong deal to tackle global warming at a crunch UN summit in Paris in December. “We support divestment as it sends a signal to companies, especially coal companies, that the age of ‘burn what you like, when you like’ cannot continue,” said a spokesman for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The World Coal Association has criticised the UNFCCC’s decision, saying it threatened investment in cleaner coal technologies. Divestment campaigners argue that the trillions of dollars companies continue to spend on fossil fuel exploration is a danger to both the climate and investors’ capital. (Guardian)
Corporate Reputation
Train operator pledges staff training after lesbian couple’s “humiliation”
Rail consortium Thalys International has suspended a train guard who allegedly shouted at a lesbian couple that their farewell embrace “cannot be tolerated”, and has promised to improve its staff training. One of the women, unsatisfied with the company’s response to her initial complaint, started a petition on campaign site All Out which has been signed by nearly 70,000 people. Thalys’s CEO responded to the petition, pledging that the incident would be used in future training. In 2013, Thalys launched an advertising campaign showing couples, including a same-sex couple, embracing. Guillaume Bonnet, of All Out France, said: “The object of this campaign is to say to this company that they can’t run a very gay-friendly marketing campaign and at the same time offer a service that does not treat all customers in the same way.” (Guardian)
Transparency
Facebook report shows rise in government requests for data
Facebook recorded a slight increase in government requests for account data in the second half of 2014, according to its Global Government Requests Report, which also includes information about content removal. Facebook said it restricted 9,707 pieces of content for violating local laws, with access restricted to 5,832 pieces in India and 3,624 in Turkey. “We will continue to scrutinize each government request and push back when we find deficiencies,” said Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management. The technology industry has pushed for greater transparency on government data requests, following revelations about their involvement in government surveillance programmes. Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google last year began publishing details about the number of government requests for data they receive. (Reuters)
Natural Capital
Report: Indonesian peatland fires inflict billions of dollars in losses
A study conducted by the Forestry School of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture and the Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI Warsi) has estimated that peatland fires in Indonesia in 2014 caused $3.4 billion in losses. The study makes use of a methodology set out by ministerial decree in 2011 to estimate the economic costs of impacts on air quality, water management, soil formation and biodiversity. While the researchers say the methodology is debatable, it could be used to make stakeholders more aware of the importance of sustainable peatland management. KKI Warsi executive director Diki Kurniawan said that peatland and forest fires are often dealt with as incidental occurrences. He said that “definite, concrete and sustainable measures” were needed to prevent losses, drawing on standards such as the Climate Smart Agriculture concept. (Eco-Business)
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