Labour would hit oil and gas companies with a windfall tax of about £11 billion in order to finance plans to tackle the climate crisis by creating a greener economy.

Jeremy Corbyn announced the “just transition tax” as part of Labour’s “green industrial revolution” when unveiling his party’s election manifesto in Birmingham on Thursday.

If Labour wins the December 12 vote, the party plans to create one million green jobs and deliver the “substantial majority” of the emissions cuts needed to tackle the environmental emergency by 2030.

Consultation

Mr Corbyn hopes the windfall tax would provide a support package for nearly 37,000 oil and gas workers, 126,000 people in jobs reliant on the sector and their communities as the nation transitions to a clean economy.

The Labour leader hopes to use the key revenue raiser to deliver on his pledge not to hang the workers “out to dry” and ensure they have new, unionised jobs.

Labour says Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas production has had a net operating surplus of £273 billion, but has been leaving workers and their communities vulnerable since its decline from 1999.

The party argues that the benefactors should now help pay for the cost to transition into a greener economy.

The size and exact mechanism of the tax will be determined by a consultation, but Labour estimates it could raise about £11 billion after looking at schemes in Germany and Spain.

Gas workers

Labour officials do not anticipate the cost of the windfall would be pushed onto consumers at the petrol pumps, saying prices are determined by the global market.

At the manifesto launch at Birmingham City University, Mr Corbyn said: “The crisis demands swift action, but it isn’t right to load the costs of the climate emergency onto the nurse, the builder or the energy worker.

“So, a Labour government will ensure the big oil and gas corporations that profit from heating up our planet will shoulder the burden and pay their fair share through a just transition tax.

“North Sea oil and gas workers have powered this country for decades, often working under dangerous conditions. We won’t hang them out to dry.

“This fund will safeguard a future for their skills and communities with new careers and secure, well-paid jobs.”

This Author

Sam Blewett is the PA political correspondent.

Labour would hit oil and gas companies with a windfall tax of about £11 billion in order to finance plans to tackle the climate crisis by creating a greener economy.

Jeremy Corbyn announced the “just transition tax” as part of Labour’s “green industrial revolution” when unveiling his party’s election manifesto in Birmingham on Thursday.

If Labour wins the December 12 vote, the party plans to create one million green jobs and deliver the “substantial majority” of the emissions cuts needed to tackle the environmental emergency by 2030.

Consultation

Mr Corbyn hopes the windfall tax would provide a support package for nearly 37,000 oil and gas workers, 126,000 people in jobs reliant on the sector and their communities as the nation transitions to a clean economy.

The Labour leader hopes to use the key revenue raiser to deliver on his pledge not to hang the workers “out to dry” and ensure they have new, unionised jobs.

Labour says Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas production has had a net operating surplus of £273 billion, but has been leaving workers and their communities vulnerable since its decline from 1999.

The party argues that the benefactors should now help pay for the cost to transition into a greener economy.

The size and exact mechanism of the tax will be determined by a consultation, but Labour estimates it could raise about £11 billion after looking at schemes in Germany and Spain.

Gas workers

Labour officials do not anticipate the cost of the windfall would be pushed onto consumers at the petrol pumps, saying prices are determined by the global market.

At the manifesto launch at Birmingham City University, Mr Corbyn said: “The crisis demands swift action, but it isn’t right to load the costs of the climate emergency onto the nurse, the builder or the energy worker.

“So, a Labour government will ensure the big oil and gas corporations that profit from heating up our planet will shoulder the burden and pay their fair share through a just transition tax.

“North Sea oil and gas workers have powered this country for decades, often working under dangerous conditions. We won’t hang them out to dry.

“This fund will safeguard a future for their skills and communities with new careers and secure, well-paid jobs.”

This Author

Sam Blewett is the PA political correspondent.

Labour would hit oil and gas companies with a windfall tax of about £11 billion in order to finance plans to tackle the climate crisis by creating a greener economy.

Jeremy Corbyn announced the “just transition tax” as part of Labour’s “green industrial revolution” when unveiling his party’s election manifesto in Birmingham on Thursday.

If Labour wins the December 12 vote, the party plans to create one million green jobs and deliver the “substantial majority” of the emissions cuts needed to tackle the environmental emergency by 2030.

Consultation

Mr Corbyn hopes the windfall tax would provide a support package for nearly 37,000 oil and gas workers, 126,000 people in jobs reliant on the sector and their communities as the nation transitions to a clean economy.

The Labour leader hopes to use the key revenue raiser to deliver on his pledge not to hang the workers “out to dry” and ensure they have new, unionised jobs.

Labour says Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas production has had a net operating surplus of £273 billion, but has been leaving workers and their communities vulnerable since its decline from 1999.

The party argues that the benefactors should now help pay for the cost to transition into a greener economy.

The size and exact mechanism of the tax will be determined by a consultation, but Labour estimates it could raise about £11 billion after looking at schemes in Germany and Spain.

Gas workers

Labour officials do not anticipate the cost of the windfall would be pushed onto consumers at the petrol pumps, saying prices are determined by the global market.

At the manifesto launch at Birmingham City University, Mr Corbyn said: “The crisis demands swift action, but it isn’t right to load the costs of the climate emergency onto the nurse, the builder or the energy worker.

“So, a Labour government will ensure the big oil and gas corporations that profit from heating up our planet will shoulder the burden and pay their fair share through a just transition tax.

“North Sea oil and gas workers have powered this country for decades, often working under dangerous conditions. We won’t hang them out to dry.

“This fund will safeguard a future for their skills and communities with new careers and secure, well-paid jobs.”

This Author

Sam Blewett is the PA political correspondent.

Labour would hit oil and gas companies with a windfall tax of about £11 billion in order to finance plans to tackle the climate crisis by creating a greener economy.

Jeremy Corbyn announced the “just transition tax” as part of Labour’s “green industrial revolution” when unveiling his party’s election manifesto in Birmingham on Thursday.

If Labour wins the December 12 vote, the party plans to create one million green jobs and deliver the “substantial majority” of the emissions cuts needed to tackle the environmental emergency by 2030.

Consultation

Mr Corbyn hopes the windfall tax would provide a support package for nearly 37,000 oil and gas workers, 126,000 people in jobs reliant on the sector and their communities as the nation transitions to a clean economy.

The Labour leader hopes to use the key revenue raiser to deliver on his pledge not to hang the workers “out to dry” and ensure they have new, unionised jobs.

Labour says Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas production has had a net operating surplus of £273 billion, but has been leaving workers and their communities vulnerable since its decline from 1999.

The party argues that the benefactors should now help pay for the cost to transition into a greener economy.

The size and exact mechanism of the tax will be determined by a consultation, but Labour estimates it could raise about £11 billion after looking at schemes in Germany and Spain.

Gas workers

Labour officials do not anticipate the cost of the windfall would be pushed onto consumers at the petrol pumps, saying prices are determined by the global market.

At the manifesto launch at Birmingham City University, Mr Corbyn said: “The crisis demands swift action, but it isn’t right to load the costs of the climate emergency onto the nurse, the builder or the energy worker.

“So, a Labour government will ensure the big oil and gas corporations that profit from heating up our planet will shoulder the burden and pay their fair share through a just transition tax.

“North Sea oil and gas workers have powered this country for decades, often working under dangerous conditions. We won’t hang them out to dry.

“This fund will safeguard a future for their skills and communities with new careers and secure, well-paid jobs.”

This Author

Sam Blewett is the PA political correspondent.

Labour would hit oil and gas companies with a windfall tax of about £11 billion in order to finance plans to tackle the climate crisis by creating a greener economy.

Jeremy Corbyn announced the “just transition tax” as part of Labour’s “green industrial revolution” when unveiling his party’s election manifesto in Birmingham on Thursday.

If Labour wins the December 12 vote, the party plans to create one million green jobs and deliver the “substantial majority” of the emissions cuts needed to tackle the environmental emergency by 2030.

Consultation

Mr Corbyn hopes the windfall tax would provide a support package for nearly 37,000 oil and gas workers, 126,000 people in jobs reliant on the sector and their communities as the nation transitions to a clean economy.

The Labour leader hopes to use the key revenue raiser to deliver on his pledge not to hang the workers “out to dry” and ensure they have new, unionised jobs.

Labour says Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas production has had a net operating surplus of £273 billion, but has been leaving workers and their communities vulnerable since its decline from 1999.

The party argues that the benefactors should now help pay for the cost to transition into a greener economy.

The size and exact mechanism of the tax will be determined by a consultation, but Labour estimates it could raise about £11 billion after looking at schemes in Germany and Spain.

Gas workers

Labour officials do not anticipate the cost of the windfall would be pushed onto consumers at the petrol pumps, saying prices are determined by the global market.

At the manifesto launch at Birmingham City University, Mr Corbyn said: “The crisis demands swift action, but it isn’t right to load the costs of the climate emergency onto the nurse, the builder or the energy worker.

“So, a Labour government will ensure the big oil and gas corporations that profit from heating up our planet will shoulder the burden and pay their fair share through a just transition tax.

“North Sea oil and gas workers have powered this country for decades, often working under dangerous conditions. We won’t hang them out to dry.

“This fund will safeguard a future for their skills and communities with new careers and secure, well-paid jobs.”

This Author

Sam Blewett is the PA political correspondent.

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price has said Labour must back a green investment programme for Wales if it is to secure his party’s support in the event of a hung parliament following the general election on December 12.

The party is launching its manifesto on Friday with a call for the Westminster government to allocate an additional one percent of GDP to invest in “green infrastructure” over the next decade, allowing Wales to spend an additional £15 billion on green jobs, transport and energy.

Monopolies

Mr Price said Jeremy Corbyn would have to adopt the programme if Plaid Cymru – which had four MPs in the last parliament – were to help him enter No 10.

“It has to be this investment programme. That has to be the key. Fair funding for Wales,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“We want to make those investments in Wales. We don’t want them done by, as Labour is suggesting, creating state-owned monopolies based outside of Wales. This is not much better than privately-owned monopolies based outside of Wales.”

This Author

Brendan Montague is the editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on copy from PA.

A hyena, two Endangered Lappet-faced Vultures, and three critically endangered Rüppell’s Vultures were confirmed dead at the scene of an illegal poisoning event on Wednesday in Ol Kinyei Conservancy in the northeast Maasai Mara.

Five vultures were found poisoned, but still alive, including three Rüppell’s, one juvenile White-backed, and one Lappet-faced Vulture. Sadly, one Rüppell’s Vulture died overnight.

This poisoning incident is one of many that has drastically decreased populations of vultures throughout Kenya and across the continent of Africa, including incidents that have killed hundreds of vultures at one time.

Wildlife poisoning

Fortunately, due to the training, organization, and quick thinking of one woman, Valarie Nasoita, and a network of Vulture Protectors, this situation did not become an even larger tragedy.

NGOs throughout the region have been collaborating and working hard to stop the scourge of retaliatory wildlife poisoning in southern Kenya that has devastated populations of critically endangered vultures and other scavengers.

Retaliatory poisoning usually occurs when predators such as lions, hyenas, and leopards attack livestock. Without compensation in place, livestock farmers resort to lacing their dead livestock with easily accessible agro-chemicals with the intention to kill predators.

Vultures that scavenge in large numbers on dead animals often succumb to the poison and hundreds can die as a result.

Nasoita, a vulture liaison officer for The Peregrine Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to the global conservation of birds of prey, has been working diligently with communities throughout the region to help them understand the value of protecting wildlife and the dangers that using poisons pose for wildlife, livestock, and human health.

She studied wildlife management in Kenya’s Wildlife Service Training Institute and attended trainings for responding to and managing wildlife poisoning incidents and crime management. All of the training and hard work paid off when she arrived to the site of the poisoning and leapt into action – an exhausting eight hour effort to save nature’s treasures.

Recovery

Nasoita initially heard about the incident from the Ol Kinyei conservancy manager, Simon Nkoitoi, who quickly reached out to Nasoita for help.

When Nasoita arrived at the scene of the poisoning she recalls: “I was worried that there would be no one to help me capture and care for the vultures that were poisoned but still alive. Fortunately I was able to find two rangers from the conservancy who helped me catch each vulture and move them to the shade.”

Once in the shade, under the guidance of chief veterinarian Dr. Limo of Kenya Wildlife Service and Shiv Kapila from the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust via a special WhatsApp group of trained Vulture Protectors, Nasoita began administering first aid care to the birds.

Kapila stated: “Those five birds still alive have a good chance of survival because of the quick response and teamwork that got the birds stabilised and in our care. However, the hard part is only just beginning. The birds will take weeks to recover, and only with our 24 hour attention and care. The challenge for us remains huge.”

The coordination between the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Mara ranger staff, The Peregrine Fund and its partners not only gave this case a positive outcome, but has improved the number of birds saved and incidences quickly resolved at other poisoning scenes over the past few years.

Kapila added: “The quick decontamination of this scene has certainly stopped more deaths and shows how effective trained local ground teams are.” Kapila expects some of the sick birds will be healthy enough to release back to the wild once they have fully recovered.

Population crash

Ralph Buij, director of Africa Programs for The Peregrine Fund, is hopeful for the future. He said: “In the short term I hope that we can stabilise vulture populations after this continent-wide population crash.

“In the end, I hope we can convince people of the importance of vultures and their conservation and cause a shift in awareness and attitude toward wildlife poisoning.

“Also, more emphasis than now needs to put on the criminal persecution of those who now get away with killing these critically endangered birds.” With teammates like the Ol Kinyei rangers, Kapila and the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, and dedicated staff like Nasoita, conservation efforts are on the right track.

Buij wants the world to understand that vultures are “beautiful creatures and exquisitely effective scavengers.” However, they are also on the brink of extinction in many parts of Africa: “I have seen vulture-less skies in West Africa where only 1-2 percent of former populations remain.

“It’s depressing and we need to do all that’s in our power to prevent that from happening elsewhere. Extinction is forever, yet avoidable if we care. We have no alternative. We must care.”

Conservation heroes

Reflecting on the exhausting day of work, trying to save five of these incredible birds and preventing the death of an untold number, Nasoita said: “I grew up in the Mara when the wildlife were so many. I hope that I can be one of the few who are educating and teaching the community about the benefits of the vultures.

“I want to encourage my community to stop poisoning and help us increase the numbers once again.”

With conservation heroes like Valerie Nasoita and all of the Vulture Protectors working to rescue this special group of birds on the brink, we can win this fight.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from The Peregrine Fund. 

Global Justice Now campaigners have called for the minutes from six sets of US-UK trade talks to be made public, following trade secretary Liz Truss’ pledge in an interview on today’s Daily Politics to walk away from a US trade deal that would lead to higher medicine prices. 

Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said: “If Liz Truss wants us to believe that she will ‘walk away’ from trade talks with the US, she needs to release the secret papers detailing the talks so far.

“We can hardly have faith in her to keep her word when Donald Trump has called us ‘freeloaders’ for our medicine pricing regime, when US business had demanded a change in drug pricing as part of these talks, and when the British government refuses to publish its negotiating objectives or give us any details at all as to what they’ve been talking about.”

Informed choice

Dearden continued: “When they were negotiating TTIP, the EU-US trade deal, the British Government repeatedly told us that the ‘NHS was not for sale’. Lawyers told us this wasn’t true. They will have to do better this time if they want to convince the public that we can trust them.”

Truss’s comments follow the highlighting of heavily redacted documents relating to US-UK trade talks by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday night’s ITV Leaders Debate.

The documents were obtained following a Freedom of Information request by Global Justice Now. They are the subject of a legal challenge at the Information Tribunal due to be heard on 12 and 13 December.

Campaigners are calling for the government to release the documents ahead of the general election, so that the public can make an informed choice about the prospects of a US-UK trade deal.

This Author 

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Global Justice Now. (Note: Brendan has worked with Global Justice Now in making the Freedom of Information request featured in this story). 

A new exhibition curated by Thyago Nogueira for the Instituto Moreira Salles in Brazil will focus on Claudia Andujar’s photography over five decades, bringing together over three hundred photographs, her audiovisual installation as well as a series of Yanomami drawings.

The exhibition will explore Andujar’s extraordinary contribution to the art of photography as well as her major role as a human rights activist in the defence of the Yanomami. It is divided into two sections reflecting the dual nature of a career committed to both art and activism.

The exhibition’s first section presents the photographs from her first seven years living with the Yanomami, showing how she grappled with the challenges of visually interpreting a complex culture. The second features the work she produced during her period of activism, when she began to use her photography as a tool among others for political change.

Experiment 

Claudia Andujar was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1931 and currently lives and works in São Paulo. She grew up in Transylvania, which at the time had recently been incorporated to Romania after years of Hungarian domination.

During WWII, Claudia’s father, a Hungarian Jew, was deported to Dachau where he was killed along with most of her paternal relatives.

Claudia Andujar fled with her mother to Switzlerand, immigrated first to the United States in 1946, then to Brazil in 1955 where she began a career as an artist and a photojournalist.

Claudia Andujar first met the Yanomami in 1971 while working on an article about the Amazon for Realidade magazine. Fascinated by the culture of this isolated community, she decided to embark on an in-depth photographic essay on their daily life after receiving a Guggenheim fellowship to support the project.

From the very beginning, her approach differed greatly from the straightforward documentary style of her contemporaries. The photographs she made during this period show how she experimented with a variety of photographic techniques in an attempt to visually translate the shamanic culture of the Yanomami.

Turning point 

Andujar created visual distortions, streaks of light, and saturated colors, imbuing her images with a feeling of the otherworldly by applying Vaseline to the lens of her camera, using flash devices, oil lamps, and infrared film.

Andujar also developed a series of sober black-and-white portraits that capture the grace and dignity of the Yanomami. Focusing closely on faces and body fragments, she tightly frames her images, using a dramatic chiaroscuro to create a feeling of intimacy and draw attention to individual psychological states.

Alongside the many photographs taken during this period, the exhibition will also present a selection of Yanomami drawings.

After years photographing the Yanomami herself, Claudia Andujar felt it was important to provide them with the opportunity to represent their own conceptions of nature and the universe. She thus initiated a drawing project, equipping members of the community with markers and paper. A selection of these drawings representing Yanomami myths, rituals, and sha- manic visions will be presented in the exhibition.

By the late 1970s, Claudia Andujar had reached a turning point in her career. The construction of a transcontinental highway in the Amazon, initiated by Brazil’s military government, opened up the region to deforestation as well as invasive agricultural programs, bringing epidemics to the Yanomami and leading to the annihilation of entire communities.

Survival

This situation reminded her of the genocide in Europe, and its impact on her was such that she decided to deepen her commitment to the Yanomami struggle. In 1978 she founded, with the missionary Carlo Zacquini and the anthropologist Bruce Albert, the Commissão Pro-Yanomani (CCPY) and began a fourteen-year-long campaign to designate their homeland.

At this point in her career photography, she put her artistic project aside and used photography primarily as a means to raise awareness and support her cause.

In the early 1980s, Claudia Andujar took a series of black-and-white portraits of the Yanomami as part of a vaccination campaign. They are wearing numbered labels to help identify them for their medical records. The artist was struck by how these labels recalled the numerical tattoos of those ‘branded for death’ during the Holocaust.

She later revisited these portraits and created the Marcados series, which reveal the ambiguity inherent in this act of labelling even if it is ultimately for their survival. The exhibition will present previously unseen photographs from this series.

‘Explosive’

One of the other major works presented in this section is Genocide of the Yanomami: Death of Brazil (1989/2018). This audiovisual installation, which has been recreated specifically for the exhibition, was originally made in reaction to the decrees signed in 1989, which broke up Yanomami territory in nineteen separate reservations.

Produced with photos from Claudia Andujar’s archive, re-photographed using lights and filters, the projection leads the visitor from a world of harmony to one devastated by the progress of Western civilization. A soundtrack composed by Marlui Miranda combining Yanomami chants and experimental music accompanies this installation.

In 1992, The Brazilian Government agreed to legally demarcate Yanomami territory following the campaign led by Claudia Andujar, Carlo Zacquini, Bruce Albert, and the Yanomami shaman and spokesman, Davi Kopenawa. Recognized on the eve of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, this territory is still threatened by illegal mining and logging.

The work of Claudia Andujar provides both an unparalleled glimpse into the complex cosmological worldview of the Yanomami and a powerful political indictment of the violence perpetrated against them.

The explosive force of her photography remains relevant today in view of the renewed threats facing the Yanomami and the Amazon basin.

Participation  

The Fondation Cartier is pleased to announce the presence of Claudia Andujar, Davi Kopenawa, Bruce Albert, and Thyago Nogueira at the exhibition’s opening events. They will also participate in the Nuit Yanomami, which will be hosted by Cédric Villani.

The Fondation Cartier will present Claudia Andujar, The Yanomami Struggle at Triennale Milano, Italy, from Fall 2020 onwards, as part of the joint partnership between the two institutions.

The exhibition will also travel to the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, from June 6, 2020, and to Foundation Mapfre, Madrid, Spain, from February 11, 2021.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. 

Claudia Andujar, The Yanomami Struggle | 30 January – 10 May 2020

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain | 261 Boulevard Raspail, 75014 Paris, France

Image: Antônio Korihana thëri, a young man under the effect of the hallucinogenic powder yãkoana, Catrimani, Roraima, 1972–1976. © Claudia Andujar.

Jeremy Corbyn today announced a plan to create one million new jobs to tackle the climate emergency, reboot British industry and end inequality.

Labour said its plan will bring new wealth to the UK’s regions and nations which it said had been starved of investment following a lost decade of it described as Conservative austerity and Tory deindustrialisation in the 1980s.

Labour has already set out detailed plans to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in upgrading the nation’s homes, rolling out offshore wind at scale and kick starting an electric vehicle revolution.

Vital action

Additional jobs unveiled in the 2019 manifesto including those in researching carbon capture and storage (CCS) and delivering hydrogen, tidal energy, the expansion of port infrastructure, tree planting, flood defences and plastics recycling.

The global green economy is currently valued at $4 trillion, and is projected to grow to $9 trillion in value by 2030. Labour said its plans will put UK companies and workers in pole position to benefit from the new economy.

Labour said it will make sure people are able to access these jobs by creating 320,000 climate apprenticeships and giving everyone the right to upskill and retrain throughout their lives, including in higher level technical qualifications.

Jeremy Corbyn, speaking ahead of the manifesto launch, said: “This election is the last opportunity to take the vital action to head off runaway climate change.

Cutting edge

“The next Labour government will lead the world in tackling the climate and environmental emergency with a plan to create a low-carbon economy with well-paid jobs we can be proud of.

“Labour will bring the country together to face a common challenge and mobilise all our national resources, both financial and human, to kick-start a Green Industrial Revolution.

“Just as the original Industrial Revolution brought cutting edge industry and jobs to our towns, Labour’s world-leading Green Industrial Revolution will create rewarding, well-paid jobs and whole new industries to revive parts of our country that have been neglected for too long.”

Labour is promising to deliver the “substantial majority” of the emissions cuts needed to tackle the climate emergency by 2030.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on information provided in a press release from the Labour Party and Press Association.