Climate

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60079712

A new report by Urgewald, a Germany-based NGO, combines two assessments of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s (AIIB) transparency performance. The first draws on the 2025 DFI Transparency Index by Publish What You Fund (PWYF), which compares AIIB’s transparency policies with those of other multilateral development banks (MDBs). The second is based on findings from the AIIB Watch, a civil society initiative monitoring environmental and human rights risks in AIIB-financed infrastructure projects.

Here is the full report: Billions Beyond Control – AIIB's Disclosure Deficit (pdf).

Archived

• The AIIB is performing worse then comparable organziations, the Germany-based NGO Urgewald says in a report. AIIB does not disclose indirect investments (sub-investments) made through financial intermediaries, in contrast to several other entities that provide such key information.
• The precise number of people affected by resettlement due to AIIB projects is frequently not disclosed. When data is available, documentation is inconsistent, varies widely in quality, and contains contradictory information about resettlement impacts.
• Key environmental and social documents are repeatedly published after project approval. Prior to approval, documentation often does not include a full risk assessment based on field visits.
• AIIB continues to finance fossil fuel projects. Projects that appear to be clean energy finance, such as the proposed China Inner Mongolia Clean Energy Transition Project, are in reality financing fossil fuel infrastructure – in this case, a coal project.

[...]

• AIIB’s transparency framework looks stronger on paper than it is in practice [...] The policy sets out a standard, but broad exceptions make circumventing it possible. For instance, the policy establishes minimum disclosure periods, but management can waive these requirements at its discretion without disclosing the reasons to the public.
• The new lending instruments, Climate Policy-Based Financing (CPBF) and Nature Finance, are AIIB’s two newest and very well-funded vehicles. Both reproduce the same weakness this report identifies elsewhere, lacking disclosure or safeguarding regulations that match their scale.
• CPBF projects are disclosed inconsistently, circumvent AIIB’s own safeguards [...] Additionally, CPBF is counted as 100% climate finance without clear disclosure, monitoring and exclusion regulations.

[...]

The AIIB is a international development bank headquartered in Beijing, China, and launched by the head of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping.

At its inception, the AIIB was explicitly linked to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but now also included investments with states that are not involved with the BRI. The bank is headed by Zou Jiayi, a Chinese politician and economist, who previously served as a vice minister of the Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China from 2018 to 2021.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60078343

Archived

• Large volumes of critical minerals are being imported from Myanmar into Thailand and then mostly resold to China.
• At least six Thai rivers have been found to be contaminated with heavy metals linked to mining operations in Myanmar.
• Data suggests companies in Myanmar, Thailand and China are profiting from an industry that has created a public health crisis, impacting food and water security for hundreds of thousands across eastern Myanmar and northern Thailand.
• Civil society and Thai political groups are calling for an end to imports of minerals mined in Myanmar in response to the ongoing river pollution crisis.

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The rapid growth of unregulated mining operations across Myanmar in recent years has also led to a pollution that knows no borders, with heavy metal toxins floating through rivers from mining sites in Myanmar to Thailand. To date, Thai authorities have identified arsenic, cadmium, lead and other contaminants in the Kok, Sai and Ruak rivers, which feed into the Mekong River, as well as in the Mekong itself, the Salween River along the Thai-Myanmar border and the Kraburi River in Ranong province.

Despite widespread public outrage at the unmitigated spread of toxins through Thai rivers, Mongabay has found more than 50 Thai-registered companies importing critical minerals from Myanmar.

[...]

A trilingual trader, who spoke [...] on condition of anonymity owing to their ongoing work in the trade, explained that mines in Myanmar are rarely run by companies. Instead, they said, mines are known by the names of the landowners who lease their land to Chinese investors that bring in the mining equipment and facilitate the sale of minerals from Myanmar to Thailand.

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As the trade has rapidly increased, so has water pollution in the region.

For more than 18 months, a waterborne polycrisis has left tens of thousands of people in Thailand without access to clean water, depriving them of livelihoods and food traditionally derived from rivers, as well as poisoning both farmers and farmland. Public discontent has risen with the Thai government’s interventions widely seen as inadequate and the Myanmar government yet to take meaningful action. At the same time, anger has more recently been directed at the Chinese government because of the role played by Chinese investors and companies in fueling the mining boom in Myanmar that has poisoned Thailand’s rivers.

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archived copy of the article

Faced with a president who has called global warming a hoax, officials have filed dozens of suits against oil companies to try to cover the costs of extreme weather.

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Global campaign group 350.org urges Cop31 hosts to announce a coal phase-out date and national roadmaps to get off fossil fuels

The justices are about to hear a lawsuit that could determine whether the oil industry faces billions of dollars in liability for damages caused by global warming.

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Solidarity prepping is different from individualistic prepping in that it focuses on social relations. And this is not just a bunch of anarchists saying that. A general in the Swedish military said exactly the same thing: in a catastrophe, the most important thing is social relations. So anything that builds resilient social relations is a step towards having agency in a catastrophe.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/canada@lemmy.ca/p/991210/canada-s-first-national-interest-project-is-an-oil-pipeline-which-means-bye-bye-orcas-and-h

Under pressure from Congress, a network of ocean monitors that provides vital data to meteorologists, climate scientists, oceanographers and the fishing industry is being restored.

Archived copy of the article — archive.is is not a good actor, but they don't require registration, and NYT gift links do now.

The states say that the Trump administration’s standards are less stringent than what automakers have already achieved, and that federal agencies had ignored recent advances in electric vehicle technology when setting the rules. They also contend that the administration overlooked the costs of oil price shocks and climate pollution.

Archived copy of the article — decidedly hostile archive site, but gift links require registration on the NYT now.

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A report from Durham and Lancaster universities describes the US military as “one of the largest climate polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more CO2e (carbon-dioxide equivalent) than most countries.”