Minnesota voters have demonstrated that clean water and the Boundary Waters is a critical issue

AMERICAS

Minnesota voters have demonstrated that clean water and the Boundary Waters is a critical issue

One thing is clear, when the country still awaits the final vote count, and social media, talking heads and newspaper columnists scramble to decipher the tea leaves and what the result means: Minnesotans want politicians to advocate for the climate.

Minnesotans have been galvanized in recent years by significant environmental scandals, including the risks of two planned copper-sulfide mining, PolyMet and Twin Metals. Nearly 70% of the 54 candidates supported by the Boundary Waters Action Network's Friends of the Boundary Waters Action Network because of their unwavering advocacy for Boundary Waters and safe water won.

IT'S A MUCH SPOKEN ABOUT TOPIC

In Minnesota, the environmental movement has always been solid, but in the August DFL primaries, electorally, the bellwether really came when Jen McEwen, who was unabashedly proclean water and opposed both the PolyMet and Twin Metals schemes, beat out a staunch supporter of Erik Simonson, the copper-sulfide mining industry. Although Republicans have generally opposed tackling environmental concerns, the DFL has experienced internal divisions between proponents and opponents of copper-sulfide mining. This has led many lawmakers around the state to waffle on the issue. Indeed, it's a dilemma everyone would like to stop.

THAT'S BEEN UPDATED.

The DFL Central Committee, after McEwen's primary triumph, approved a resolution asking for a ban on sulfide mining. The will of the plurality of Minnesotans was expressed in this position.

Minnesota Public Radio and Star Tribune surveys suggest that 60% of all Minnesotans, 57% of northern Minnesotans, and 80% of DFLers are opposed to copper-sulfide mining along the BWCA.

There were many within the DFL who felt it was a political duty to take such a firm stance. Such worries should be laid to bed. This referendum shows that it's a winning problem to secure the Border Waters from copper-sulfide extraction.

IT WASN'T ONLY A WIN FOR MCEWEN.

Friends of the Boundary Waters Action Network screened and questioned various state office candidates in the runup to November, effectively supporting 54 candidates who were unabashedly proclean water, pro-Boundary Waters and ready to take a firm stand on the subject. 37 of those 54 endorsements have earned their elections. What's more of the 10 candidates that we have defined as crucial and close contests, 8 have won. Voters have indicated that they are profoundly worried about the Boundary Waters' future and about shielding our safe water from the copper-sulfide mining hazard.

The political bombast and narrow economic vision linked to the opening of these poisonous mines is dismissed. They have dismissed multinational mining conglomerates' tired falsehoods and empty claims of track records of environmental destruction and misuse of labour. Since voters approved the Clean Water, Property & Legacy Amendment in 2008, no major environmental measure has been passed in Minnesota for over a decade. Minnesotans are eager for action at a moment when safe, fresh water is becoming a global shortage, and following four years of the Trump administration waging an all-out attack on natural lands and wild spaces.

They are ready to enact legislation that preserves our environmental resources, supports the wilderness gem, the Border Waters, and offers legal safeguards against the hazards of copper-sulfide extraction for those they have selected.

GLOBAL

US, Norwegian investors pressure SBI over loan to Adani mine in Australia

India's largest bank's shareholders are posing questions over a planned loan to Adani Enterprises Ltd. to help finance the opening of the infamous Carmichael coal mine in northern Australia.

New York-based BlackRock Inc. and Norway's Storebrand ASA officials have approached the Indian government's State Bank of India, which is majorityowned, regarding the loan. According to Indian media sources, the loan's valuation is estimated to be as high as 50 billion rupees ($678 million).

Since it was proposed in 2010, the Carmichael mine has been the subject of environmental demonstrators, most notably protesting at a Nov. 27 cricket match between Australia and India in Sydney. Last month, Adani modified its trade name to Bravus Mines and Energy in Australia, likely to further dampen the uproar over the mine situated in the Galilee Basin in the province of northeastern Queensland. The initiative has been a subject of outrage from the country's climate change advocates, who this year have seen record temperatures and widespread wildfires.

"It is clearly not part of a sustainable future to finance new coal plants," Andreas Bjørbak Alnæs, Senior Sustainable Investment Advisor at Storebrand, said in an emailed comment. BlackRock, which owns both Adani and SBI securities, has spoken with the entities connected to the Carmichael project and raised its concerns because according to an individual familiar with the matter, the venture has ESG-related dangers, who refused to be named because the conversations remain private. In February, when it negotiated an 18 million euro ($21.8 million) deal to supply rail-signalling systems for the mine, BlackRock rebuked Siemens AG for similar purposes. An SBI official who refused to be named challenged the bank's critique, provided that the mine's license was officially accepted last year by the government of Queensland. The press office of the bank did not respond immediately to a request for clarification on the loan. "The State Bank of India can surely see that the time to build massive new thermal coal mines has passed for economic and climate reasons," said Pablo Brait, a campaigner for the Market Forces advocacy party. "India is already struggling with the disastrous impacts of climate change, like Australia, and Adani's mega-mine is going to make climate change worse." According to stock-exchange disclosures in India, officials from BNP Paribas Asset Management visited their SBI counterparts on Tuesday. A BNP Paribas representative refused to share the specifics of the conference.

Amundi Asset Management has stated that if the Adani loan goes forward it will sell SBI's green bonds. As recently as June, it kept around $21 million of bonds in its Amundi World Emerging Green

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