IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2021)
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released its latest report, ‘Sixth Assessment Report: Working Group 1 – The Physical Science Basis’, in August. The report states that it is now “unequivocal” that human activity is warming the planet. Eight years of research went into the creation of the report which also says that global average temperature will likely “reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming” by 2040.
The Plant Based Treaty is a new initiative by members of the Animal Save Movement whichis due to launch on the 31st of August. 10 million individuals, 10,000 organizations and businesses, and 50 cities are invited to endorse the call to action and put pressure on national governments to negotiate an international Plant Based Treaty.
EU continues with massive supports for Animal Agriculture
This month, the European Court of Auditors, the EU spending watchdog, pointed out that just from 2014 – 2020 over €100bn of CAP funds, assigned to address agricultural emissions, had no impact on emissions from the sector. It added that the CAP does not seek to limit or reduce livestock, which account for up to 50% of agricultural GHG emissions, and supports farmers who cultivate drained peatlands, which account for a further 20% of emissions.
A Green Criminology Perspective on Hare Coursing Hare coursing is one of the last bloodsports which is still legal in Ireland. About a month before a hare coursing event, coursing club members will go into the countryside in order to trap wild hares by forcing terrified hares into a net. Hares, which are delicate, shy animals, are then transported via boxes to the club – many of them are injured in the trapping and transport process.
The Vegan Society launched its report Planting Value in the Food System at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Vegetarianism and Veganism (VegAPPG) on the 15th of July 2021. The meeting was chaired by the vegan Labour MP for Neath, Christina Rees, and featured the report’s author, Dr. Alex Lockwood from the University of Sunderland, Vegan Society CEO Louise Davies, Dr. Helen Harwatt, senior research fellow in the Energy, Environment and Resources programme at Chatham House, and Alexandra Clarke, an advisor at Veg Capital.
Business as usual and mass funding of nature destruction under new European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund.
EU global food emission inventory The EU Joint Research Commission has produced a new global food emission database (EDGAR-FOOD) estimating food system greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 1990-2015. It found that 34% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are generated by the food system.
As of June 30th, the EU Commission agreed to begin the process of phasing out cages for farmed animals in the EU. Over 170 different organisations from across the European Union worked together to form the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative and worked for three years in order to make the campaign a success. The End the Cage Age ECI opened for signatures on 11 September 2018 and closed a year later with 1.6 million signatures. The ECI process requires 1 million validated signatures to be considered; after the required signature validation period, it was found that the End the Cage Age ECI had a total of 1,397,113 validated signatures – thus surpassing the threshold by nearly 400,000 signatures.
