Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CIRCUS

Senator slams circus use of endangered elephants

A Catalan senator has claimed that Spanish circuses are breaking international laws by using endangered Asian elephants that were captured in the wild.

Published: 24 May 2013 14:47 CEST
Senator slams circus use of endangered elephants
The commercial use of endangered species is banned under the CITES convention. Photo: Louis Engival/Flickr

Jordi Guillot, a senator for the Catalan Green Socialist party and member of the Parliamentary Association for the Protection of Animals, has slammed Spanish circuses for their use of thirteen endangered Asian elephants.

Europa Press revealed on Friday that the politician had filed an official parliamentary question calling on the government to put an end to the big top employment of the protected pachyderms, listed as a critically-endangered species in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

According to InfoCircus, a platform created by animal welfare NGOs including the Born Free Foundation, the elephants were born in the wild and as a result are not allowed to be used commercially.

Asian elephants, which can be told from African elephants by their comparatively smaller ears, have declined in number by at least 50% over the last three generations.

Guillot noted that the European Commission had confirmed circuses as a specific example of the type of "commercial use" prohibited under CITES, which is fully ratified in the EU, in response to a written question from an MEP.

In his question to parliament he argued: "If the Commission interprets the Convention in this way, member states should apply it."

He added that the use of Asian elephants should also be prohibited in advertising and requested clarification from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness on what they defined as "commercial use".

He also asked why Spain does not forbid the use of Asian elephants in circuses when the European Commission does.

                                                                                                                            

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Norway business sees ‘huge opportunity’ in green transition

Three-quarters of the leaders of big Norwegian companies now believe that the transition to a green economy represents a significant business opportunity, a new survey has found.

Published: 29 December 2020 08:45 CET
Norway business sees 'huge opportunity' in green transition
Sverre Overå, project director for Northern Lights, in front of the Northern Lights template. (Photo: Arne Reidar Mortensen)
When the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise polled business leaders ahead of its annual conference next month, 74 percent of those leading companies with more than 100 employees said they saw opportunities in the coming green transformation. 
 
“Carbon capture and storage is one example. You also see investments in batteries, hydrogen and offshore wind,” the lobby group's chief executive, Ole Almlid, told state broadcaster NRK. 
 
“I hope we end up remembering 2020 as the year when Norwegian business and industry finally properly understood the great opportunities that lie in climate change.” 
 
 
Almlid said that the coronavirus crisis promised to accelerate the shift, with 30 percent of the European Union's €750 billion coronavirus recovery package going towards European Green Deal projects. 
 
“The restructuring will go much faster, because it comes after such a crisis, and then it will go much more in the direction of a greener business community,” he said. 
 
NRK cites the the US aluminium producer Alcoa as a company which could benefit, with Norway well positioned to lead the shift towards zero-carbon aluminium. 
 
“We have two competitive advantages: We often have low prices for electricity, and we produce clean aluminium. We use renewable electricity from water and wind. The rest of the world mostly uses gas and coal,” said Ole Løfsnæs, who leads the confederation's energy department. 
 
Alcoa is working on a revolutionary smelting technology which would use renewable electricity rather than coke. 
 
On December 15th, the Norwegian Government announced its decision to fund the Northern Lights project, which will see 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 stored per year in a depleted gas field in the Northern North Sea. 
 
Across the border in Sweden, big industry is already pushing ahead, with state-owned iron ore producer LKAB planning to invest 400bn Swedish kronor (€40bn) over the next 15–20 years to switch its entire production from iron ore pellets to hydrogen-reduced sponge iron. 
 
This would preventing LKAB’s customers from releasing 35m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. 
 
Together with steel producer SSAB, LKAB aims to set up demonstration plant which by 2026 will produce one million tonnes of zero-carbon sponge iron. 
 
SHOW COMMENTS