Thomas Cook axes trips to SeaWorld over animal welfare concerns
Holiday giant Thomas Cook has announced it will stop selling trips to animal parks that keep killer whales. The firm said more than 90% of its customers were concerned about animal welfare. The two parks it will stop selling tickets to as a result are SeaWorld, in Florida, and Loro Parque in Tenerife. Chief executive Peter Fankhauser acknowledged that both parks had met standards and had made improvements to how animals were kept. But, he said: “From next summer, we will no longer sell any animal attractions that keep orcas in captivity”. Last year, Thomas Cook began an audit of 49 animal parks to see if they met its policy on animal welfare, based on standards set by ABTA (the Association of British Travel Agents). Some 29 failed, and the travel firm stopped selling tickets. (BBC News)
Waste / Policy
UK plastic bag sales plummet 86 percent
Single-use plastic bag sales have fallen by 86 per cent since the 5p charge was introduced, new figures have revealed. Seven major retailers issued 7.6 billion single-use bags in 2014 but that figure was down to just over a billion in 2017-18, estimates suggest. The figures suggest that in total Asda, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, the Co-operative Group, Waitrose and Morrisons sold the equivalent of 19 5p bags per person across the UK, down from 24 in 2017. Donations from the bag levy to good causes amounted to more than £58.5 million, based on figures from two-thirds of the retailers who voluntarily reported the information. Campaigners are now calling for charges on plastic bottles and disposable coffee cups in the hope of producing a similar effect. (Independent)
Waste / Innovation
Chilean company creates water-soluble bag to fight plastic pollution
With a slight change in the formula of plastic, which allows oil to be replaced by limestone, a group of Chilean entrepreneurs has managed to manufacture plastic bags and reusable cloths that are water soluble and do not pollute. Roberto Astete and Cristian Olivares, the two architects of this product, began with experiments to manufacture biodegradable detergent, but at the end they found the chemical formula based on PVA (polyvinyl alcohol, soluble in water) and which replaces petroleum derivatives (the cause of the indestructibility of plastics that have been integrated into the food chain of animals that inhabit the oceans and deteriorate the environment). The general manager and the commercial manager of SoluBag expect to market its products from October in Chile, one of the first countries in Latin America to ban the use of conventional plastic bags by stores. (The Santiago Times)
Climate Change / Policy
EU energy chief pushes for tougher emissions targets
The EU’s energy chief is pushing for member states to adopt a more aggressive carbon reduction target ahead of UN climate talks later in 2018. The EU already has some of the most ambitious carbon emission reduction targets in the world but Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU energy commissioner, wants the bloc to go further. Under the new target, proposed by Mr Cañete, the EU would increase its carbon reduction target to 45 percent by 2030, up from the current target of 40 percent, relative to 1990 levels. However, some argue the EU should be much more ambitious, given the substantial fall in the costs for wind and solar energy and the need to keep temperature rises below 1.5 degrees. Energy ministers from 14 member states — including France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands — wrote to the commission in June requesting it raise its ambitions, some for as much as a 55 percent reduction by 2030. (Financial Times*)
Lawsuits
Australian super fund REST being sued for not having a plan for climate change
23-year-old Mark McVeigh is suing a $50 billion super fund for failing to provide details on how it will minimise the risk of climate change. Experts say the case could force super funds to do more to protect people’s savings from the impacts of climate change. In Australia, super funds are legally required to pass on information that members need to make decisions about their investments, however nobody has ever tested whether strategies to deal with climate-related risks is information covered by that section. “There’s inherent risks to investing in companies that aren’t sustainable and contribute to climate change, which will be phased out [in] the next couple of decades,” Mr McVeigh said. In a statement, REST said it considered “environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in order to deliver competitive long-term investment returns for our members”. (ABC)
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