The November 2011 edition of AEFJN's Forum for Action is now online. It contains articles on the ethical responsibility of the Church on the climate issue, on the clean up of the Ogoniland oil spills, which will take decades, on the spread of Libyan arms in the Sahel, on the production of medicines in Africa and on the EU's attempt to force African countries to sign EPAs.
The national election campaign officially started the 28th October in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), exactly one month ahead of historic presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for November 28 2011. 41 humanitarian and human rights organizations, among them AEFJN, have expressed concern about the high political tension and deteriorating security situation. They have called upon all Congolese and international actors involved to take urgent measures to prevent electoral violence, better protect civilians and ensure credible, free and fair elections.EU Commissions of climate and of energy in disagreement
DG Climate would like to see an ILUC factor introduced to penalise agrofuels that are more environmentally harmful. While DG Energy resists such a measure. DG Energy is known to be influenced by the arguments put forward by agrofuel producers. Mr Barroso's cabinet had to arbitrate this ongoing rift to ensure the coherence of a forthcoming legislative proposal that will be accompanied by an impact assessment. Danish presidency of the EU hopes that the legislative proposal on ILUC will be ready for a meeting of environment ministers in Brussels on 9 March but, due to the process, the ILUC proposal may not emerge until as late as June. Sources predict the EU executive will come forward with a mix of measures, rather than one of the four it originally proposed, which included setting an ILUC factor.