Sustainable Switch-Flood leaves 85 dead in Brazil

May 7 - Sharon Kimathi Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

This week starts off on a devastating note as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva asked Congress on Monday to recognize a state of public calamity after heavy rains killed at least 85 people in the country's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.

More than 130 people are still missing after flooding that has affected more than two-thirds of the nearly 500 cities in the state, leaving about 150,000 people displaced, the state civil defense authority said.

Floods have destroyed roads and bridges in several cities, triggering landslides and leaving a path of destruction.

‘I've seen other floods, but nothing like this’

Lula's measure asks Congress to declare a public calamity in the state, which would authorize extra government spending with no need to comply with a spending cap stipulated by fiscal rules approved last year.

Expenses and tax waivers related to the state's recovery would also not be counted in the government's fiscal result under the measure.

Flavio Rosa, 72, from the small city of Canoas says it is the first time he has seen destruction of this scale in Rio Grande do Sul caused by the rains, which are a common annual occurrence in this part of Brazil.

"I've seen other floods, but nothing like this," Rosa said.

Intense rains and droughts

In Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the Guaiba river broke its banks and flooded streets blocked access to the city's historic central neighborhoods.

The state is at a geographical meeting point between tropical and polar atmospheres, which has created a weather pattern with periods of intense rains and others of drought.

Local scientists believe the pattern has been intensifying due to climate change.

Heavy rains had already hit Rio Grande do Sul last September, as an extratropical cyclone caused floods that killed more than 50 people.

That came after more than two years of a persistent drought due to the La Nina phenomenon, with only scarce showers.

Weather conditions improved on Monday, but showers are expected to return at lower volumes this week and could pick up again between May 10 and 15, according to local weather forecaster MetSul Meteorologia.

Haiti’s heavy rains

Over in Haiti, heavy rains hit the Caribbean country over the weekend, the national weather service said, killing at least 13 people in the north and damaging thousands of homes.

"If you live by a river, ravine or mountainside, move," Haiti's civil protection body warned.

Outside of the northern town of Cap-Haitien, rains caused a landslide which led several houses to collapse and killed 12, Haiti's disaster agency said.

More than 2,000 houses were flooded with water runoffs overflowing and sewers clogged.

The north is Haiti's agricultural breadbasket, although gangs have strengthened their hold over the region in recent years and damaged or stolen crops and demanded bribes from farmers.

Talking Points

* Gaza protests: British students set up pro-Palestinian protest encampments on Oxford and Cambridge universities' historic campuses on a cloudy spring Monday, in a show of solidarity with their American peers. Click here for the full Reuters report.

* Chinese provinces are urging companies to offer women flexible job roles called "Mama's Posts" that make it easier to balance work and childcare, the official Xinhua news agency said. Authorities are trying to encourage more women to have children after China's population fell for a second consecutive year in 2023 and births touched a record low.

* Three of the biggest global health funders have joined forces for the first time in a $300 million partnership aimed at tackling the linked impacts of climate change, malnutrition, and infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance.

* Corporate governance: Berkshire Hathaway shareholders overwhelmingly rejected six proposals addressing environmental and social policy issues at Warren Buffett's conglomerate, all of which the billionaire investor and his board opposed.

* Journalists at Italian state broadcaster RAI staged a one-day strike on Monday, accusing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government of stifling free speech. Heavy-handed political influence over RAI is a long-standing issue in Italy, but the journalists' union Usigrai says the situation has worsened since Meloni took office in late 2022.

* LGBT rights: Aetna will pay $2 million and update its coverage policies to settle a lawsuit claiming the health insurer required LGBTQ beneficiaries to pay more out of pocket for fertility treatments than heterosexual people, according to a Friday court filing.

In Conversation

Friends of the Earth lawyer, Katie de Kauwe, shares her thoughts on the UK's High Court finding the government's new

climate action plan unlawful

:

“This is another embarrassing defeat for the government and its reckless and inadequate climate plans.

“It shows the strength of the Climate Change Act – brought into force after a successful campaign led by Friends of the Earth and the backing of an overwhelming majority of MPs – to hold the government of the day to account for meeting its legal requirements to cut emissions.

“We’ve all been badly let down by a government that’s failed, not once but twice, to deliver a climate plan that ensures both our legally binding national targets and our international commitment to cut emissions by over two thirds by 2030 are met.

“Cutting emissions isn’t only essential to avert the worst of climate breakdown, it will create long term jobs in green industries of the future, boost energy security, bring down our bills and end our reliance on costly fossil fuels.

"We urgently need a credible and lawful new action plan that puts our climate goals back on track and ensures we all benefit from a fair transition to a sustainable future. Meeting our domestic and international carbon reduction targets must be a top priority for whichever party wins the next general election.”

ESG Spotlight

From earthquake warning apps in Taiwan to eco-villages in Hungary, today’s spotlight focuses on future-proofing initiatives amid extreme weather and climate change.

Earthquake warning smartphone apps have surged in popularity in Taiwan due to high demand from people eager to get a few extra seconds to take cover after more than 1,300 aftershocks rattled the island in the past month following a large temblor.

Taiwan's east coast was struck by a 7.2 magnitude quake on April 3, killing 17 people. The frequent aftershocks since then – including more than 200 tremors in a 24-hour period starting April 22 – have unnerved many.

While the government has an automated quake warning system, sent in the form of a text message accompanied by a loud alert sound meant to sound a few seconds before the shaking starts, it can be patchy. In the capital Taipei it did not sound before the April 3 quake, prompting criticism of the system.

That, along with the rising demand to stay more informed about forthcoming earthquakes, have helped a surge in popularity in privately-developed quake warning apps.

Over in Hungary, Laszlo Kemencei lives as sustainably as possible on his small farm in the eastern region of the nation. He believes the land is effectively borrowed from his young daughter, so he must do all he can to preserve it for the future.

Kemencei, 28, wife Cintia and Boroka, almost 2, moved to the farm outside Ladanybene three years ago. They keep horses, pigs and chickens on an area of 4.5 hectares (11 acres), which they partly lease for grazing.

“This land, we have not inherited from our fathers, but we have it on a lease from our children ... so we try to live and farm the land in a sustainable way,” he says, sitting in their cozy kitchen where a chunk of pork sizzles in the oven.

While there are no statistics on how many families are following a similar lifestyle in Hungary – part of their choice is not necessarily to engage with central institutions – anecdotal evidence suggests it is a growing trend.

Some want to rein in the costs of living, while for others it is to escape a consumer-driven society or live a more environmentally friendly life.

Kemencei estimates there are around 1,000 families trying to embrace some form of sustainability, either alone or as part of more structured eco-villages.

Today’s Sustainable Switch was edited by Christina Fincher

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