elstel.org

Members of the European Parliament have voted for an end of palm oil in agrofuels which is known to cause destruction of rainforests. The European Council of Ministers has not brought itself to do sth. about it before but conversly wanted to increase the quota of agrofuels in diesel oil. This is a first and important step. However it does not mean an end of using food crops for gasoline. Malaysia threatens to protest and sue the EU at the WTO because of this. Greenhouse gas emissions for palm oil are three times higher than for fossile fuels.

• regenwald.org: EU Parlament stimmt für Ende von Palmöl im Biosprit
• derstandard.at: EU-Parlament will Palmöl bis 2021 aus Biosprit verbannen
• spiegel.de: Malaysia droht EU mit Klage vor WTO

Austrian finance minister Hartwig Löger wants to cut the minimum collateral while he takes stand against multinational corporations having to pay their fair share of taxes (as his German counterpart does). A stringent requirement for more tax justice would be a law that multinational corporations need to disclose how much revenue they earn in which country and how much tax they pay. This requires an exchange of information between revenue/tax authorities.

2018-03-02: David Castillo Mejía is now the ninth person arrested - and the likely person behind the murder of Berta Cáceres. Castillo Mejía is the executive president of the company building the dam which Berta campaigned against (see also message from 2016-03-08; go with the mouse pointer to 'update').

Every year more than 100 environmental activists and people defending their land are assassinated (message from 2016-06-20). Demand a better protection of indigenous environmental and human rights activists from the Foreign Secretary of the EU, Federica Mogherini.

In Hawaii Syngenta has sent 19 workers on a field where Chlorpyrifos had been applied. Chlorpyrifos was developed by the Nazis as nerve gas. Make sure that Syngenta will be punished for the assault.

Flaring natural gas which accumulateds during oil production must stay forbidden in the USA. It is a huge waste to burn natural gas unused and bad for the air of the surrounding.