Environmental Justice Foundation

The destruction of the village of Lützerath for poor-quality coal symbolises a deep failure from Germany’s government to ensure a sustainable supply of energy. Germany’s government must now keep its promises and lead a rapid transition to renewables.

A small village in North Rhine-Westphalia has made global headlines in recent weeks: Lützerath is a new symbol of the climate movement. Beneath the village is a large amount of lignite – the lowest quality coal - that energy giant RWE wants to excavate and burn. This is another step on the road to climate breakdown. Instead of accelerating the climate crisis, Germany’s government must finally take strong climate action and drive a sweeping change towards 100% renewable energy.

It is inconceivable that, in 2023, climate activists are being forced to put their bodies on the line to block the huge excavators poised to rip up Lützerath. When it was elected, the German government made promises to advance climate action in the country. However, in light of the current energy crisis this push for sustainability seems to have been indefinitely postponed. Instead, the most polluting fossil fuel is resurgent. Yet a secure energy supply and a stable climate are not contradictory; in fact, they go hand in hand.

Coal that Germany does not need

Germany was supposed to finally phase out coal by 2038 and "ideally" by 2030. An agreement between the energy company RWE and German authorities agreed a phase-out of lignite in the Rhenish coalfield, in which Lützerath sits, by 2030. However, the agreement allows coal to be mined under the village of Lützerath - even though studies by Aurora Energy Research and the German Institute for Economic Research, among others, conclude that that coal is not needed for a secure energy supply.

Thousands of climate activists and organisations have fiercely opposed lignite mining under Lützerath, and several hundred scientists have spoken out in favour of a moratorium. This mine will destroy an entire village. Residents have been evicted from their homes to clear the way for massive mining equipment to tear the town apart. This is all for coal Germany does not need, but which will accelerate the climate crisis and significantly undermine Germany’s credibility on the world stage.

Renewables are the way out of the energy crisis

The previous German government introduced new climate legislation in 2021, intended to cut emissions and accelerate the green transition. However, as 2023 begins, the outlook is bleak: according to the think tank Agora Energiewende, CO2 emissions plateaued at a high level in 2022. An increased use of climate-wrecking coal and gas is partly to blame.

Climate action is not a cost; it is the greatest investment Germany, and the world, could possibly make. Avoiding the vast human and economic damage of the climate crisis would be reason enough to race to zero carbon as rapidly as possible, but this transition also offers other immediate, direct benefits. It is an opportunity for Germany to create good green jobs, boost energy security, and lead the world in exporting climate-friendly technology.

In 2021, 22.2% of the energy consumed in the EU was generated from renewable sources. According to German government plans, by 2030, at least 80% of Germany's electricity consumption should come from green energy. The German government must now invest massively in the expansion of renewables. Ending the vast subsidies given to fossil fuel companies every year – from taxpayers’ money – would provide a ready source of finance for a sustainable future.

Like other high-polluting nations, Germany’s reliance on fossil fuels is already contributing to people elsewhere losing their livelihoods, their homes and their most basic rights. Those who contribute the least to the climate crisis are suffering its worst effects, a miserable pattern we see repeated from flooding in Pakistan to severe droughts and starvation in the Horn of Africa. Every moment a wealthy nation fails to cut its emissions, these injustices worsen. Germany therefore has a responsibility to provide climate finance for those on the front lines, contributing to global climate justice.

Germany can rapidly build new energy infrastructure: a terminal for liquefied natural gas was recently built in under six months. The German government must now show the same ambition for renewables. It must keep its climate promises and take the decisive action needed to protect people around the world from climate catastrophe. We need a complete coal phase-out by 2030, without dirty deals with energy companies - this is the only way Germany can play its part to stabilise the global climate and ensure climate justice.

Cover image: mining equipment in Lützerath, courtesy of Alle Dörfer and reproduced here under a Creative Commons License.

Sanctions recently announced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on a number of Chinese fishing companies, including the Dalian Ocean Fishing Co., Ltd, are an important milestone in the fight for more sustainable and ethical fisheries. This, alongside our own investigations into the Dalian Ocean Fishing Co., Ltd, demonstrates the need for greater transparency in the sector.

The United States of America has issued sanctions against several companies that own vessels in the Chinese distant water fleet, in an effort to put an end to human rights abuses and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control placed sanctions on two individuals and the networks of entities they control. One of these entities is the Dalian Ocean Fishing Co., Ltd, a company that EJF and other groups have investigated and raised the alarm on, including in our report the “Ever-Widening Net”.

These sanctions freeze the U.S. assets of the individuals and companies and bar them from doing business in the U.S., impacting 157 vessels and the individuals running and profiting from these companies. We welcome these sanctions, as they address the wider economic footprint of rogue fishing fleets and recognise the link between environmental destruction and human rights abuses. They also show that nations can go beyond traditional penalties on individual vessels and use financial tools to address illegal fishing and associated abuses. This tangible consequence is an important step towards compelling China to rein in its distant-water fleet.

China's is the largest fleet of any country, operating across the globe with commensurately vast impacts on marine ecosystems, workers on board and small-scale fishing communities. Fish caught by vessels associated with allegations of human rights abuses and environmental crimes often make it into international markets. The complex onshore corporate structures of fishing companies make it very difficult to hold them accountable for their outsourced impact.

The Dalian Ocean Fishing Co., Ltd is subject to a wide range of allegations of human rights abuses against Indonesian migrant workers – many of whom EJF interviewed in our investigations. Some of the reported abuses workers told us about included multiple deaths of workers denied access to hospitals, violent physical assault, average working days of 18 hours, deduction of wages, confiscation of passports and being forced to drink unclean water.

Their environmental impact is also incredibly devastating, including reports of shark finning, dumping juvenile fish, the use of prohibited gear and underreporting gross tonnage. The U.S. Department of the Treasury refers to many of these practices in their statement about the Dalian vessels, citing them as reasons for their sanctioning.

These vessels have taken advantage of both inadequate controls from fisheries authorities and an acute lack of transparency in the sector as a whole. It is critical that we now see a rapid improvement in China’s oversight over its fisheries sector. To address the issues highlighted by these sanctions, China needs to reform its fisheries governance framework and to increase monitoring, control and surveillance to ensure its global fleet operates legally, sustainably and ethically.

Transparency across the global fisheries sector is key to prevent further harm and to create a safer, more sustainable industry and ocean. By changing the opaque environment which allows vessels responsible for IUU fishing and human rights abuses to thrive, we can advance sustainable and ethical fisheries to the benefit of the entire world.

The tides are turning for illegal operators at sea – before these sanctions, President Joe Biden signed a national security memorandum to fight illegal fishing. The EU is committed to maintaining a zero-tolerance approach to IUU fishing, underpinned by a ‘carding scheme’ that warns and sanctions poorly-performing nations.

The steps taken by the USA and EU are a signal for the broader international community: it’s time to commit to stronger action to stamp out IUU fishing and human rights abuses at sea. We therefore call on countries who import seafood from China and other high risk flag states to commit to more transparency and traceability measures and stronger sanctions when offences are detected. Only then can we deter further abuse and protect people, wildlife and the ocean.

The appointment of oil executive Dr Sultan Al Jaber as President of COP28 signals that the corporate capture of the COPs is complete. The power big polluters wield at COPs has continued to grow even as the climate crisis has worsened - the time has come to end this malevolent influence and protect our planet.

This year’s COP28 conference is a crucial opportunity for global governments to avert climate catastrophe by committing to rapid emissions cuts. But the UAE's appointment of Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber – CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the 14^th most polluting oil company in the world – as COP28 president makes a mockery of the entire COP process and likely renders any real climate action impossible.

Allowing a sitting oil company CEO to run the world’s biggest climate conference presents an irreconcilable conflict of interest. The most recent IPCC report reiterated that fossil fuels are completely incompatible with any pathways to remain within 1.5C of warming. Contrast that with the following quote from ADNOC’s website and it is clear that Al Jaber cannot be trusted to advocate for a fossil-free future:

"We are an emerging upstream company… with a mandate to stay focused on exploring the UAE's undeveloped oil and gas potential."

Beyond the words and intentions of individuals, ADNOC is one of the world’s deadliest historic emitters, emitting 13.84 billion tonnes of CO2 between 1965 and 2019. Last year they produced 2.7 million barrels of oil per day and they aim to increase this to five million barrels per day by 2027.

Al Jaber’s appointment is the disastrous final step in the fossil fuel industry’s gradual but systematic capture of the COP process. Despite irrefutable evidence that fossil fuel interests are antithetical to all life on Earth, their influence has been growing each year, as evidenced by the steadily increasing number of fossil fuel delegates at COPs.

A staggering 636 fossil fuel lobbyists attended COP27 in Egypt last year, up from the 503 delegates at COP26, and more than any national delegation aside from COP28 hosts the UAE. Their presence allowed fossil fuel delegates to spread misinformation about the climate crisis, delay essential action on emissions mitigation, rebrand gas as a transitional fuel and make new fossil fuel deals behind closed doors.

If the UAE allows a fossil fuel CEO to be president, COP28 will become a farcical sideshow allowing companies to auction off fossil fuel contracts in secret. COP27’s move to rebrand gas as a transitional fuel is likely to be revived despite overwhelming evidence that new gas projects would threaten the economic stability of many African countries and exacerbate the impact of the climate crisis for the most vulnerable.

Previous COPs have been notorious for choosing high-polluting companies as sponsors, despite the hypocrisy of these choices and public backlashes against them. Last year Coca Cola, the world’s biggest corporate plastic polluter, sponsored the event in a dismal demonstration of corporate greenwashing.

While fossil fuel producers and other high polluting companies are buying their way into the corridors of power, marginalised people are being systematically shut out of the COP process.

Many African activists were excluded from COP27 – supposedly the ‘African COP’ – as other activists were forced to adhere to protest restrictions. Inside COP27 things were no better. Despite 300 Indigenous delegates attending COP27, they were largely sidelined when it came to including Indigenous rights in the final agreement.

For COP28 to offer a strong programme of climate justice, it must redress the balance of power. The only way to do that is by removing the distorting influence of fossil fuel interests that is now at the core of COP and giving real, decision-making influence to the people most affected by the climate crisis.

However, there is no need for world leaders to wait for the COPs to introduce climate action - it is the greatest investment they could make. Rapidly cutting emissions now is imperative, actively beneficial and relatively straightforward. Key policies to make public finance readily available for a renewable energy transition, invest in nature-based solutions and transfer climate finance to the global South will help ensure a just, sustainable transition. We have the solutions to transform our world with or without COP. Now is the time for action.