Subject: This month: Climate Crossfire | Blue Finance | Coca Chronicles | Disastrous Capitalism

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Should the world’s richest countries be spending money on wars or on keeping the planet alive? This new report by TNI, Stop Wapenhandel and Tipping Point North South finds that NATO’s goal of spending 2% of GDP on the military will accelerate climate breakdown and can cost us the planet.

This year alone, NATO members spent $1.26 trillion on their militaries. This amount could have paid for 12 years of promised—and still not delivered—climate finance to impoverished countries to help them deal with the climate crisis. And the spend amount get’s even more surreal, as for the next five years, NATO members will increase their spending to 2% GDP. As a result, US$2.57 trillion will be diverted away from climate spending by 2028. This would be enough to pay for climate adaptation costs for all low- and middle-income countries for seven years.

Read the full report

Publications

Blue Finance: How much debt can the ocean sustain?

Conservation finance claims that the climate and biodiversity crisis must be solved through private financial investors. But can debt save the oceans? This brief looks at what is taking place in bond markets, including blue and sustainability-linked bonds, as well as debt swaps. Although most people have heard about these instruments, many are unsure how they work and their implications. It uncovers that blue financial instruments are far from solving the climate and biodiversity crisis while, instead, exacerbating the debt crisis for already indebted countries.

Read more

Longreads

Coca Chronicles: Monitoring the UN Coca Review

As the United Nations prohibitionist drug control system comes under renewed criticism from Latin American leaders and from UN human rights bodies, TNI together with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) have launched the first issue of the Coca Chronicles.

This first issue of the new series outlines how the coca leaf came to be banned under UN drug treaties and highlight the opportunity to lift the ban, now that Bolivia has initiated a long overdue UN review. Coca has been cultivated by Indigenous communities in the Andes and Amazon region for thousands of years, and has come to play a central role in regional customs and traditions.

On 8 September 2023, a devastating earthquake hit Morocco killing over 3,000 people and injuring thousands more. While grassroots solidarity initiatives mushroomed, the state’s relief response has been sorely lacking with deadly consequences. The impact of the earthquake was most severe in the most marginalised and poorest areas, especially in the countryside.

In this article, Ali Amouzai analyses the roots of this predicament, which lies, according to him, in the neoliberal hollowing out of the state, the privatisation of public services, the liberalisation of the insurance sector and the commodification of relief efforts, policies that have been dictated and encouraged for decades by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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The Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in Myanmar

Credit:Xinhua/Alamy

15 October 2023 marked the eighth anniversary of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, which the State Administration Council and few remaining ethnic armed organisations in the accord are honouring in Nay Pyi Taw. On this anniversary, the NCA’s vestigial institutions remain without public legitimacy, manipulated as part of the SAC’s strategy to divide, confuse, and manipulate national and international actors. The NCA’s basic principles remain valued by various actors, but would be more likely to be practised through new and different approaches and processes. Drawn from an analysis of the NCA published by TNI earlier this year, this summary highlights how the accord was never inclusive, effectively developed or truly implemented and is not fit for purpose in a political and conflict landscape greatly changed since the 2021 coup.

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BLOG: Cannabis policy in Thailand – a way forward

Last year on 9 June 2022 the Thai government implemented what can be considered a u-turn in cannabis policy. After decades of strict control the government removed the cannabis plant from the list of controlled narcotics. One year into the new Thai cannabis policy and with return of the conservative Pheu Thai party to government, it is hoped the Thai change in cannabis policy will not back track. What would be the best way forward?

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Dismantling Green Colonialism

Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region

Edited by Hamza Hamouchene and Katie Sandwell

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Events

Photo exhibition: Guardians of seed, land and life

24 October - 5 November Geneva

This week the photo-documentary exhibition “Guardians of Seed, Land and Life: The Seed Journey of the Southern African Rural Women's Assembly (RWA)” launched in Geneva, in the context of the Binding Treaty on TNCs - Week of Mobilization (23-28 October 2023). A delegation of the women of the RWA was there in person to bring alive their work as Seed Guardians. After Geneva, the exhibition will travel to several European and African countries, organised by RWA and supported by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies of the University of Johannesburg.

The exhibition opened October 24rd at the lobby of the Ecumenical Centre of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and will run until November 5th.

Webinar: Tax for global justice

2 November, 15:00 - 16:00 CET

Tax is key for redistributing wealth within borders - but could it also move money beyond borders, to return wealth to the Global South? And could radical taxation go further still, to tackle the contradictions within capitalism and achieve system change?

In this seminar, we explore two proposals for radical international taxation:

International wealth tax - Laura Bannister from Equal Right
International financial transactions tax - Keval Bharadia from Revolutionary Reparations

Register here

March for climate and justice on November 12

12 November - Amsterdam

The March for Climate and Justice will take place on Sunday, November 12, ten days before the crucial Dutch Second Chamber elections.

The Climate March is an initiative of the Climate Crisis Coalition, a collaboration of Oxfam Novib, Fridays For Future Nederland, Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion, FNV, Fossielvrij NL, Milieudefensie, De Goede Zaak, and Transnational Institute.

We hope to see you 12 November at our TNI-stall along the route of the march in Amsterdam.

Find out more

Webinar: Reclaiming Energy

21 November, 15:00 - 16:00 CET

The planet is likely to surpass the 1.5C global warming threshold. At the same time, Bloomberg New Energy Finance has recently stated that “the outlook for energy transition (looks) extremely bright.” What’s going wrong?

This webinar will expose the business models of “green” multinationals, alongside the private market model that underpins them. Join us, and find out how these companies are wrecking the climate and preventing policy makers, social movements and communities from building real solutions: public power systems that can democratically decarbonise society.

Register here

Online course

Digital Capitalism: Six week course for activists

AI and digitalisation has become a topic of everyday discussion and debate, but what are its implications for activists fighting for social and environmental justice? This six week course will explore what digital capitalism is, how and by whom is being shaped, its implications for our economy, society and environment, and the possibilities for transformation. If you want to penetrate behind the jargon and hype to properly understand the digital economy, then this course is for you!

What we're reading

Israel’s war on Gaza: A reading list

Since the deadly attacks by militant group Hamas on 7 October, Israel has launched an indiscriminate bombing campaign of the besieged enclave of Gaza and imposed collective punishment on its 2.3 million residents cutting off water, food and vital fuel supplies – acts that constitute war crimes under international law. UN experts, Genocide and Holocaust scholars, legal practitioners and academics from around the world have urgently sounded the alarm on genocide and crimes against humanity. This war forms part of a decades long colonialist system of apartheid, violent occupation and oppression, imposed by Israel on the people of Palestine to dispossess them of their homeland.

The following content sheds light on the most recent developments from Gaza, while also providing context through articles, reports and videos from our archive.

View reading list

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Subject: This month: Climate Crossfire | Blue Finance | Coca Chronicles | Disastrous Capitalism

Dismantling Green Colonialism

Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region