Obama is going to Copenhagen

President Obama will be attending the Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December. This is great news.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/boost-for-copenhagen-as-obama-sets-target-for-emissions-cut-1827635.html

30th June 2009

Fairtrade Beauty Products

On the 24 June 2009, the Fairtrade Foundation announced the first beauty products to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark in the UK.

You will be able to buy products including lip balms, face masks, body butters and shower gels from 5 companies including Boots, Bubble & Balm, Essential Care, Lush and Neal’s Yard. Each beauty product contains one or more Fairtrade certified ingredient such as cocoa butter, shea nut butter, sugar or brazil nut oil, benefiting disadvantaged producers from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  To date, 57 beauty products have been licensed by the Fairtrade Foundation and it is expected that many more will follow. Beauty products, toiletries and fragrance products play an important part in our lives. In Europe at least 5 billion units of cosmetics are sold each yearusing around 1.5 million tonnes of ingredients. In a recent survey by Globescan, 31% of people in the UK said they are interested in purchasing cosmetics carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark. There is huge potential within the beauty and cosmetics sector for producers of existing Fairtrade certified ingredients and also of potential new ingredients or their derivatives to benefit from this new market opportunity.

Through Fairtrade labelled beauty products, producers will benefit in three ways.

1.     Producers will get the Fairtrade minimum price plus a premium, a bit extra to invest in community projects such as schools and healthcare.

2.      The companies behind the products will have a partnership plan in place showing how they will additionally support producers to develop their businesses and communities.

3.     The Fairtrade Foundation has worked hard to set minimum thresholds of Fairtrade ingredients at levels which allow best selling volume lines of beauty products containing natural ingredients to be certified.

12th June

Peace Centre to be demolished

In April Church leaders from the United Reformed Church visited the Peace Centre
in Anata. They heard the history of the Centre and the effect four demolitions have had on Salim and Arabiya Shawamreh and their children. Salim spoke of the struggle for a just peace and a future for his family and all Palestinians. He said, I am 53 years old, I would like one good day in my life."

An extremely useful article  by Jewish camaigner Jeff Halper can be found on the ICAHD site. Please do let your MP know what is happening as the international voice is vital.

6th May

Sally Keeble MP  led a group of 12 cross-party MPs proposing legislation in Parliament to stop vulture funds profiteering from poor country debt.

The Developing Country Debt (Restriction of Recovery) Bill seeks to ban hedge funds and other creditors from taking legal action to make large profits out of the debts of some of the poorest countries in the world. A new Early Day Motion in support of the Bill will be tabled in Parliament later this week.

Commitment for Life were there to hear International Development Minister Gareth Thomas call vulture funds “the unacceptable face of capitalism”.

He said that by working together we can ensure that those who seek to profit from the debts of the poorest are driven out.

He also spoke of the need to be part of the consultation process for DIFID's white paper on development. he said," We need to rebuild political interest in development"

www.jubileedebtcampaign.org

Christian Aid welcomes the UK government’s surprise decision to rule out new unabated coal-fired power stations – one which energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, says camapigners influenced. 

The government made its announcement on 23 April, adding that all new coal-fired power stations must use new emissions-reducing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology by 2025.

This represents an advance in UK power policy that ‘could only have happened with public support,’ according to a letter Miliband has written to Christian Aid supporters.

To carry on the lobbying Ed Miliband  click here

April 2009 Church Leader's trip

Read all about the Church leader's trip to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Get their first impressions of what life is like out there.

http://blog.urc2.org.uk/