Hello everyone! And welcome back to a new season of the Burning Case podcast! We're happy to be back in your ears and hope you had a lovely summer. Today's episode is a bit of a different one as the whole Burning Case podcast team aka both Chloé and Mélissa are hosting. We'll be recapping the hot (pun intended) news that happened over the summer and give you a glimpse into what we have planned for the upcoming season! We hope you'll enjoy the episode as well as our many dad jok...
Have you ever seen an ad for Total, Shell or BP bragging about their climate commitments and thought "what the hell am I looking at and how can they be so shameless"?And those campaigns are not only designed and developed to influence individuals and convince us that the fossil fuel industry is doing a good job, they're also targetting policy makers. The very people that should lead us on a path to decarbonisation and a greener and fairer society are the targets of carefully crafted campaigns...
With #COP26 only days away, we decided to dive into the UK's government claim to "deliver the most inclusive COP ever".For a few months now, there's been a strong backlash from many activists and frontline communities on this promise as between vaccine inequality, difficult visa procedures and skyrocketing cost of travel and lodging, it's been an extremely hard journey to access the COP. To understand those challenges, who will be attending, the role of fossil fuel corporations and the conseq...
At about the same time last year, George Floyd, an African-American man was murdered in the US. His death sparked an unprecedented wave of protests against police brutality and structural racism in the US but also across the world. A year later, what's the situation like when it comes to racial justice in Europe? While some politicians at EU level seem keen to do the necessary work, countries such as France are adopting racist laws that target religious and racial minorities. But what exactly...
Oat drink in your cappuccino, soy yoghurt, creamy plant based butter. If you live in Europe, these wording might soon become illegal. And so would a tweet or an advert mentioning scientific data showing that a product causes, for example, “half the carbon emissions of dairy butter”. Why? Because the dairy industry is hard at work to pass an amendment, called amendment 171 that would effectively censor all use of dairy-related language, packaging, or imagery for plant-based foods. In...
In Brussels, politics still mean white.The European Parliament currently only has 3% MEPs of colour while there has never been a Commissioner of colour. If you look into the thousands of people who work for the EU, you won’t find many more people of colour. The issue goes beyond the institutions. Browse the websites of the hundreds of NGOs, lobbies and agencies gravitating around them and you’ll see they’re overwhelmingly white. As if the many minorities that make up Europe a...
Did you know Latin America was a biodiversity powerhouse with over 30% of the world's fauna and flora? And that about 32 million people in the region identify as Indigenous? Yet, the area has never been under more pressure. From climate breakdown of course but mostly from man-made ecosystem destruction to secure more land for agriculture. South American countries are indeed big producers of soybeans, beef and eucalyptus that require extensive amount of land to grow, sometimes at the expe...
#VoteDownThisCap, a "machine for extinction", the "worst deal possible for the planet", the recent vote in the European Parliament on the Common Agricultural Policy has been called many things. This pillar of the European Union (think €400 billion over 6 years) is not only significant financially speaking, it's also an essential tool to achieve our climate and sustainability ambitions. See, the agricultural sector is one of the worst contributor to climate breakdown and biodiversity loss...
Lobbying. A word that is often associated with corruption, conflict of interests and secrecy at the highest levels of power. Yes, almost like a spy novel!But can you really buy a vote by inviting a representative to Bali? Or influence decision making by sliding money under a desk? Rest assured, not really. While it may not be as exciting as movies and TV shows depict it, lobbying can be just as dangerous. We talk about this with Lala Hakuma Dadci, a fossil fuel campaigner at Corporate Europe ...
We've seen a big surge in awareness on plastic pollution in the past few years. So much so that living a "zero waste lifestyle" became cool and the European Commission adopted one of the fastest legislation in its history on single use plastics last year. But then, Covid-19 happened and with it, masks, gloves, single use items mainly made of... plastics!In this episode, we talk to the experts from Zero Waste Europe. We start by addressing whether lifestyle changes towards less waste are effic...
"A new normal", "green recovery", "bailout people". These calls from activists, scientists and citizens to radically change our societies and economies post coronavirus have been heard all around the world. At a time when billions are literally poured into world's economies to prevent them from collapsing could this be an "opportunity" to radically change and finally put sustainability for the planet and people at the heart of our concerns? But where does this money come from? How is it going...
In just a couple of months European citizens will be heading to vote in both national elections and the 2024 European elections - and the stakes have never been higher! Hence, we are on a mission to try and figure out how to stop the far right from picking up a wave of parliamentary seats across the EU. And in today's episode, which is the first of our "far right" mini-series, we had the privilege to speak to Nika Kovač, the Founding Director of the 8th of March Research Institute. In t...
Did you know that about 8 percent of the world’s oil production is used to make plastic and power the manufacturing of it? And what's even more frightening is that figure is projected to rise to 20 percent by 2050.With our guest, Delphine Lévi Alvarès, Global Petrochemicals Campaigner Coordinator for #BreakFreeFromPlastic, Center for International Environmental Law, we deep dive into what’s going on with plastic. We discuss:How about 90% of plastic is made from fossil fuel and that plast...
Did you know that some studies have shown that individuals that are exposed to several hours of news coverage on a specific event have experienced more physical and mental issues than those who directly witnessed said event?In today’s episode our wonderful guest Seden Anlar, Climate Communicator, Climate Action Network Europe joins us to discuss how toxic our relationship with the news has become… As a media professional herself, Seden explains how the media landscape is shifting following th...
To round off our two-episode series on the state of the fashion industry today, we are taking a deep-dive into the current policies being discussed at EU level to tackle the environmental and social impacts of the industry. We welcome three amazing guests, Valérie Boiten, Senior Policy Officer, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Saskia Bricmont, MEP, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Katya Kruk, Impact & Innovation Director, Armed Angels, to discuss: What major environment...
Ten years ago today, 1,134 workers lost their lives in the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh. It is considered the deadliest garment-factory disaster in history. To commemorate this tragic event, we are publishing a two-episode series on the fashion industry today.In today’s episode, we are joined by Delphine Williot, Policy and Campaigns Manager, Fashion Revolution and Nazma Akter, Founder and Executive Director of Awaj Foundation to discuss:Whether the fashion industry has changed in the la...
Today we take a deep-dive (yes, pun fully intended) into the ocean and more specifically into what lies under it. We are joined in this episode by Anne-Sophie Roux, Deep Sea Mining Campaign lead to discuss the following:What is deep sea mining?What mining corporations are hoping to find?Whether deep sea mining is truly essential to power the energy transition?What impacts could it have?What is the International Sea Authority?What the obscure July 2023 deadline means in the current conte...
$200 billion dollars. This is how much profit the big 5 fossil fuel companies have made in 2022.Shocked? Disgusted? Angry? Join the club… While major corporations are announcing record-breaking profits in 2022, more and more people are falling behind having to make difficult choices such as heating or eating.Clearly, corporations are not reading the room and in today’s episode we discuss how creating a windfall tax on such profits would be a way of better redistributing wealth rather than con...
Did you know that there has been a 13% per cent rise in mental health conditions and substance use disorders in the last decade? And that 20% of the world’s children and adolescents nowadays have a mental health condition? Sadly, when it comes to the topic of mental health, the list of grim facts is long. In light of the European Commission's President, Ursula Von der Leyen announcing a new strategy for mental health, in today’s episode we take a deep dive into understanding how we...
Did you know that 600 million Africans are currently left without access to modern clean renewable energy and that this number is likely to increase if further gas and oil projects are undertook. To ensure that Africa is not locked into further fossil gas production a campaign led by activists across Africa ahead of COP27, is demanding "an end to fossil gas and other dirty dangerous, obsolete and inappropriate energy systems.” This campaign is the topic of today's episode. With our wonderful ...