EXCL: The UK Government has been accused of turning COP26 into a “greenwashing platform” after partnering with a firm condemned by environmental groups for sourcing palm oil products from businesses accused of widespread deforestation activities. Thread👇
scotsman.com/news/politics/…
Reckitt, the government’s latest ‘top tier’ sponsor of the upcoming COP26 climate change summit, may not be a familiar name, but it owns household brands like Dettol, Vanish and Nurofen. It uses more than 134,000 tonnes of palm oil products to make its goods every year.
Its suppliers include Wilmar International, the world’s largest palm oil trader, which has been implicated in deforestation activity and human rights abuses by groups including Amnesty International.
In December, Mighty Earth, the environmental campaign group, claimed an area of natural forest the size of 1,500 football fields had been cleared in eastern Indonesia by one of Wilmar’s suppliers.
Jhonlin, another mill firm named Reckitt’s own supplier list as recently as 2019, has been accused of clearing around 5,900 hectares of forest that year, and approx 5,000 hectares the previous year. Reckitt says Jhonlin is no longer one of its suppliers.
Reckitt has also been adjudged by @WWF to be “lagging behind” in its duties as a responsible user of palm oil, scoring just 6.8 out of a possible 22 in an analysis by the leading conservation organisation.
.@GreenpeaceUK told me that for any COP26 sponsor to be involved in “climate wrecking activities” suggested “greenwash is at play.” @FoEScot told me such an important climate change summit can’t be allowed to become “a shop window for greenwashing.”
.@DeidreBrock, the SNP’s COP26 spokeswoman, told me: “Reckitt is knee-deep in the deforestation accompanying palm oil production ... Greenwashing reputations is pretty much always distasteful, but using an international climate change conference for it is a step beyond.”
.@MarkRuskell from the Scottish Greens said: “The UK Government seems determined to use COP26 as a greenwashing platform for planet-wrecking companies to try and claw back some credibility.”
Reckitt said zero deforestation was key to its palm oil strategy, and that it was “working with suppliers to reduce their environmental footprint, to prevent deforestation and progressively regenerate key ecosystems.”
The UK government said COP26 sponsors like Reckitt had met its “robust sponsorship criteria,” and ensured the Glasgow summit “will provide value for money to the UK taxpayer.” It won't tell me how much £££ Reckitt is paying to become a COP26 'principal partner'.
I asked the Cabinet Office if it had made any representations to Reckitt about deforestation in its supply chain prior to confirming its appointment as a principal partner in the summit. I'm still none the wiser.
Thanks for reading. I’m off for a break, but if you have a tip off or info about COP26, or indeed any other issue, my DMs are open, or you can email martynmcl at protonmail dot com 🐇🐰🥚

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More from @MartynMcL

4 Apr
EXCL: The SNP has been accused of spurning evidence-based policy after striking a £56m deal to renew its flagship baby box scheme two days before the pre-election recess - and before an independent evaluation of the initiative has been completed. Thread👇scotsman.com/news/politics/…
The baby box is a widely popular and inclusive policy, but it’s sold as more than a feel-good initiative. The problem is there’s no evidence of how it’s helping address child health, poverty, inequality, or engagement with hard to reach families.
The SNP continues to claim that the Finnish baby box model - the blueprint for the Scottish scheme - reduces infant mortality. There is not a fleck of evidence to support this claim.
Read 7 tweets
28 Mar
EXCL Children as young as 11 - under the age of criminal prosecution - are among 5,996 youngsters held overnight in police custody across Scotland since 2018. A leading children’s rights academic said children’s rights are being breached. Thread👇scotsman.com/news/politics/…
These figures emerged following a carefully tailored freedom of information request I sent to Police Scotland, seeking breakdowns by age / location of children being detained in police custody. The fact this info isn’t proactively or publicly published is a prob I’ll return to.
I found that 95 children aged 13 or under were among those held overnight in police custody. But the figure jumps to 827 among 14 and 15 year-olds, and even higher (5,074) among those aged 16 and 17.
Read 21 tweets
3 Feb
A short thread on an interesting day covering the Holyrood vote on Trump: I'm perhaps more interested than most in obtaining answers to Qs surrounding Trump's finances. I never thought they'd arrive via a legislature, whether in Scotland or the US. Today confirmed that.
The courts, whether via criminal or civil cases, is the likeliest avenue for transparency. The multiple cases involving Trump's firms may yet reveal that, but the progress is glacial.
After years of obfuscation and by the Scottish Govt, I thought @HumzaYousaf made a strong argument in his amendment and debate. It didn't adequately address the fact that a UWO is a civil power and an investigative tool, but the principle he set out is important.
Read 8 tweets
3 Feb
NEW: MSPs have rejected calls for the Scottish Government to go to court in order to investigate the source of financing for Donald Trump’s Scottish properties. scotsman.com/news/politics/…
The central argument which defeated the motion was that were ministers to go to court, it would constitute an abuse of power, and undermine the criminal justice system.
.@patrickharvie, who brought the motion, said an application for an UWO would not constitute a prosecution, but rather "asking for information" about Mr Trump's finances.
Read 6 tweets
3 Feb
Here's a quick thread on the chronology leading up to today's vote in the Scottish Parliament on whether ministers should go to court to investigate the finances of Donald Trump's Scottish resorts via a legal mechanism known as an Unexplained Wealth Order.👇
Intrigue surrounding the source of Trump's finances here is by no means new. An editorial in @TheScotsman questioned where the money was coming from back in *2008*. But the UWO issue came to prominence last Feb during exchanges in the Scottish Parliament. scotsman.com/news/politics/…
The issue returned to parliament last November, when First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said any consideration or application for an UWO were "properly matters for the Crown Office, not for the Scottish ministers."
Read 9 tweets
2 Feb
EXCL: On the eve of a parliamentary vote on whether ministers should go to court to investigate the finances behind Donald Trump's resorts, the Trump Org has accused politicians of pursuing "personal agendas" and neglecting their response to the pandemic. scotsman.com/news/politics/…
In a statement, Eric Trump, executive vice-president of his father's company, said: "At a critical time when politicians should be focused on saving lives and reopening businesses in Scotland, they are focused on advancing their personal agendas."
Eric also reserved criticism for @patrickharvie, who is bringing the debate to the Scottish Parliament. "Patrick Harvie," he said, "is nothing more than a national embarrassment with his pathetic antics that only serve himself and his political agenda."
Read 7 tweets

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