SOMO

🚨 BREAKING! We're taking #Booking2Court! 🚨 We've joined forces with Palestinian civil society and Dutch legal organisations to launch a major legal action against Booking.com for laundering profits from Israel’s war crimes in Palestine. After years of investigation, our findings reveal Booking.com’s illicit profit from listing vacation homes in illegal settlements on Palestinian land. ⚖ We've filed a criminal complaint to hold them accountable under Dutch law. It's time to stop corporations from profiting off stolen land and settler-colonial violence! ✊ Read more about the case and help us amplify ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eJZBx7BV #DontBuyIntoOccupation #Booking2Court #Palestine ‎Al-Haq Organisation | مؤسسة الحق‎ The Rights Forum European Legal Support Center The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy

🌍 As the UN Secretary General's Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals finalises its global principles, SOMO urges them to prioritise justice, equity, and human rights in the energy transition. To ensure this, we recommend the following actions: 🔋 *Implement Demand Reduction Targets & Embrace Circular Economy Strategies* Affluent nations must lead by reducing excessive resource consumption, particularly the growing demand for critical minerals. 🌱 Addressing unsustainable consumption is key to tackling the climate crisis. We must promote less resource-intensive solutions to meet our mobility and energy needs. https://lnkd.in/gJmrH_vx ⚖️ *Promote Equitable International Trade & Investment* Resource-rich countries should have the autonomy to manage their mineral exports according to their national development strategies. 🌍 Governments need to withdraw from investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) agreements and consider debt cancellation and restructuring for low and middle-income countries to eliminate debt traps. https://lnkd.in/eSw5TtMi ✊ *Centre Economic Decolonisation in the Green Transition* It’s time to remove barriers that prevent Global South countries from developing green economies on their terms. 🌿 Debt cancellation, revised trade rules, and unconditional climate finance are essential to support these nations in enhancing benefit-sharing, local value addition, and economic diversification. https://lnkd.in/gN9pXAMM 🔍 *Ensure Traceability, Transparency, & Accountability in Critical Mineral Value Chains*: Transparency and accountability are crucial at every step of critical mineral value chains. 🛡️ *Uphold Indigenous Peoples’ Rights* The energy transition must be inclusive and just, recognising the vital role Indigenous Peoples play in protecting the planet’s biodiversity and climate. No mining without FPIC 🌳 Let’s commit to an energy transition that truly advances sustainability, justice, and equity. 🌟 #JustMinerals #JustTransition #IndigenousRights #IndigenousPeoples #Sustainability #Environment #EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateJustice #HumanRights Antonio Guterres, Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-Diseko, Ditte Juul Jorgens Anabella Rosemberg Suneeta Kaimal UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) @UNEP Johana Rocha Gómez Publish What You Pay Climate Action Network International EARTHWORKS SIRGE Coalition Human Rights Watch OECD Watch

Potentially HUGE news - the Nigerian Petroleum Regulator, NUPRC, has rejected Shell's proposed sale of its Nigerian subsidiary to Renaissance, multiple sources have told The Africa Report. The deal is worth $1.3 billion, and this is unlikely to be the end of the story. The politics surrounding this sale are enormous – can regulatory action prevail? But for the communities and civil society groups who have fought to stop Shell from exiting onshore oil while leaving behind a devasting legacy of environmental and human rights abuse, this gives some hope, at least. https://lnkd.in/ejmdZCAA

📣 News from the US: Can a judge stop the biggest supermarket merger in the US? 👇 The Federal Trade Commission is asking a court in Oregon to stop the proposed merger between supermarket chains Kroger and Albertsons. A deal worth USD 25 billion. Over 100,000 people expressed concern over the deal and submitted public comments on the merger to the Federal Trade Commission. Showing that monopoly power is a matter of public concern.     In an already concentrated sector in the US, this merger could see just three supermarkets controlling 70% of the grocery market across over 150 cities, even further reducing the range of options available to consumers. There is a real concern that this merger will: 🔸 Increase food prices for consumers 🔸 Squeeze suppliers and farmers 🔸 Impact supermarket workers All over the world, market concentration and monopoly power in the food sector are increasing. Competition authorities need to let go of the longstanding narrow approach to mergers and acquisitions and look at the cumulative impacts of mergers, most recently apparent in the approval, without in-depth investigation, of the Bunge-Viterra merger earlier this month by the European Commission. 🔎 It's crucial to understand how the structural increase in monopoly power allows large corporations to expand their profit, often at the expense of smaller firms, workers, and public finance. We need to curb monopoly power and tackle profit-driven inflation. Learn more about deeper trends in monopoly power ⬇ https://lnkd.in/gnfiNdhx

Green industrial policies of major economic powers are an obstacle to a just transition. Here's how.👇 A just green transition cannot happen within a system where massive power disparities allow a few wealthy countries to have their cake and eat everyone else’s. 🏭 The US, EU and China ensure their industries control all green technology supply chain aspects. With deep-seated economic power rooted in historical injustices, the US and EU are advancing their industries through policies like the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and the 2023 Green Deal Industrial Plan. These economic powers are feeding key sectors enormous subsidies. The US and EU also leverage an edifice of inequitable trade, investment and tax laws written to favour Global North interests. Countries in the Global South are viewed solely as suppliers of raw materials and as markets for green technologies. The current industrial policies drive increased resource consumption and consumerism and are inherently unsustainable in any real sense. A just green transition must involve economic decolonisation and financial reparations for historical injustices. This includes: ➡️ debt cancellation ➡️ an overhaul of trade rules and ➡️ unconditional climate finance If a just transition is to be realised, we need to recognise that the green industrial approach currently embraced by the major economies is a major obstacle. Read more ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eqsPJ63X #IndustrialPolicy #ClimateFinance #EnergyTransition #TradeAgreements

Breaking!🚨Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has rejected Shell’s proposed sale of its Nigerian subsidiary. This is a major development in the right direction. Shell’s divestment must be halted until clean-up and decommissioning are addressed. Earlier this year, we published a report showing that so far, there is no plan or sufficient funds to decommission oil infrastructure safely. (https://bityl.co/Rjxh) This is a massive decommissioning problem and a notorious example of an unjust energy transition. This poses a serious long-term risk to the environment and people’s health. Oil giants like Shell must pay up for the damage as they exit countries like Nigeria! #EnergyTransition #SellingOutNigeria #ClimateJusticeNow #ShellSellingOut #JustTransition

Unrestrained concentration in the agricultural commodity market allowed a handful of companies to maximise profits during a global food crisis. In a newly published article in Green European Journal, SOMO's Vincent Kiezebrink, Çağrı Çavuş and I argue that European competition regulators should step up their efforts to rein in harmful market dominance. The failures of competition policy to prevent and address growing market concentration reflect a longstanding narrow approach to this policy domain, and an inability to properly consider the cumulative impacts of mergers, most recently apparent in the approval, without in-depth investigation, of the Bunge-Viterra merger earlier this month. https://lnkd.in/e2iiAnys

🌎 For those of you that will be attending #NYCClimateWeek next month, don't miss this important event we at SOMO are co-organizing with our partners at Climate Rights International, SIRGE Coalition, and EARTHWORKS! The session is on: Addressing the Human and Environmental Costs of Mining for EVs ⛏️🚙 Check it out! 👇

⚠️ The Netherlands is a key player in global tax evasion and is blocking a new UN tax treaty. Why does this matter? 👇 🚨 Global cross-border tax evasion costs the world a staggering USD 480 billion annually, with low-income countries hit hardest. Eastern and southern African countries lose $34 billion in revenue each year. Even the Netherlands loses $10 billion a year. That is ironic since the Netherlands is the world’s largest hub for international capital flows and co-creator of the problem. 💰 Multinationals are shifting more profits than ever to avoid paying taxes. What could be a possible solution? Since November 2023, 🇺🇳 member states have been working on a binding agreement to combat large-scale international tax evasion. This UN tax treaty could create a fair and effective system that promotes public interest and human rights, and could give countries the resources for: -         better healthcare, -         good education, and -         combatting climate change. Barbara Fienieg and Arnold Merkies urge the Dutch government to support the UN process wholeheartedly. Read their OpEd here (in Dutch) ⤵️ https://bit.ly/3WZ6sKf And learn more about the role of the Netherlands ➡️ https://bit.ly/3SZFX6b #UNTaxConvention #TaxJustice #TaxAvoidance #UNGeneralAssembly Wemos Tax Justice Network Tax Justice UK Tax Justice Network Africa