Africa Business

The sound of chirping birds drowns out the noise of passing cars near a school on the southern tip of Africa, where pupils plant cabbages, mix compost and climb trees.

South Africa’s first “green school” aims to raise a new generation of environmentally-conscious citizens, fostering children’s creativity and resilience in the face of climate disruption. 

Founder Alba Brandt, said she came up with the idea in 2017 after spending six months at a similar initiative in Bali, Indonesia, for what was supposed to be a family adventure with her husband and three daughters.

“It changed our whole lives,” said the 44-year-old ex-accountant sporting a pair of Bermuda shorts and a coral hoodie, her hair pulled up in a loose bun.

“I realised there was so much more to education than to sit still, in your uniform, be quiet and regurgitate what is written on the blackboard,” she told AFP of the school, located about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Cape Town.

Unlike most other South African schools, uniforms are not required at this institute nestled in a privileged corner of the country, rich in plant life and vineyards.

– Butterflies and basil –

The school, which opened last year, is built on a former horse paddock, where the “land was dead, trampled”, said Brandt. 

“We started planting two years ago, with endemic plants, no chemicals. And biodiversity returned, butterflies and bees… and porcupines.” 

Snakes are also known to hide in some bushes where children know they should not play on hot southern spring days. 

The school grounds boast playgrounds with swings, huts and sandboxes, while the canteen’s zero-waste kitchen serves only vegetarian meals. 

When AFP visited, the menu advertised three different salads garnished with fresh basil from the school’s garden. 

Classrooms have large windows, allowing for ample natural light. 

Solar panels supply electricity and a system of underfloor water pipes provides air-conditioning. 

The school serves all grade age groups from nursery school to secondary, with about 170 pupils currently enrolled.

Classes are small, with twenty pupils and two teachers. 

Teaching is bilingual, in English and Afrikaans, reflecting regional demographics and follows a thematic approach, with the topics studied across subjects. 

“Take life on mars for instance,” said principal Andrew Wood. “We will discuss science fiction in literature, maths, astronomy, gravity in physics,” he explained. 

“There should be a coherence to what they’re learning”

– ‘Think critically’ –

The “Green School” is not about “downloading contents” into pupils’ brains, but wants them to “think critically” in line with 21st century learning skills, said the 62-year-old educator.

“This is how I used to teach behind closed doors at my old school, now I can share with parents,” said primary school teacher Esbie Binedell, laughing. “It’s somewhat messy, (but) we would dig into a subject matter until the children were done with questions”.

Fees are relatively high and the government provides no funding. A scholarship system is being planned but will take time.

Brandt said she hoped the school’s teaching would help create a more resilient community. 

The school’s founder said it was not enough to be “the quirky mum who recycles and makes homemade food”. 

“You can drive that alone but it’s hard and probably not successful. 

“Community is so much stronger”.

Despite the environmental focus, teachers opt for a light touch when discussing the ravages of global warming. 

“We introduce problems very slowly, to avoid anxiety and ecophobia. Mostly with the older kids. We start with problems the size of a village, then a town, then a whole country, progressively,” said Brandt.

The green school, with its progressive agenda and innovative approach, above all seeks to arm students with the tools to think critically while developing their creativity.

Chad has accepted the principle of an international inquiry “as soon as possible” to shed light on the deaths of some 50 people at anti-regime protests, the prime minister told AFP on Tuesday.

The authorities say the October 20 death toll included a dozen members of the security forces and accused the opposition of mounting an “insurrection”.

Opposition groups called the demonstrations to mark the date when the ruling military had initially promised to hand over power — a timeline now extended for another two years by General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. 

The 38-year-old took power after his father, president Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled for 30 years, died during an operation against rebels in April 2021.

Since the protests, which resulted in 300 wounded and hundreds more arrested, the government has suspended all party political activity.

It has also imposed a night curfew “until the total restoration of order” in the capital N’Djamena and the towns of Moundou, Doba and Koumra. 

“Various partners of Chad wanted this and we have immediately agreed,” said prime minister Saleh Kebzabo.

“The inquiry must start as soon as possible,” he added.

Kebzabo, a former opposition figure who was appointed on October 12, said further details would be provided at a press conference in the coming days.

According to the Chadian Convention for the Defence of Human Rights, 600 people were detained and held in the Koro Toro high security prison in the north of the country.

The public prosecutor Moussa Wade has been leading an investigation at the facility for the last two weeks.

The World Organisation Against Torture, known by its French acronym OMCT, says more than 2,000 people were detained during and after the deadly clashes.

The European Union strongly condemned an “excessive use of force” and violation of the right to freedom of speech and assembly.

DR Congo’s military used newly deployed jets to bombard M23 positions in the east of the country on Tuesday, officials said, with some residents of rebel-held territory fleeing across the border. 

A mostly Congolese Tutsi group, the M23 first leapt to prominence in 2012, briefly capturing the main city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Goma, before being driven out.

After lying dormant for years, the group took up arms again in late 2021 claiming the DRC had failed to honour a pledge to integrate them into the army, among other grievances. 

M23 rebels have won a string of victories against the Congolese army in North Kivu province in recent weeks, dramatically increasing the territory under their control. 

Their resurgence has cratered relations between the DRC and its smaller neighbour Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of backing the M23. 

On Tuesday, a Congolese security official who asked for anonymity said war planes were bombarding the rebel-held Tchanzu area of North Kivu and would continue “all day”. 

A resident of the strategic town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border — which the M23 captured in June — confirmed to AFP that the aircraft were striking the area. 

“It’s every man for himself,” he said, describing how town residents were fleeing across the border into Uganda. 

Damien Sebuzanane, a local civil-society representative, also said that Bunagana residents had fled. 

The DRC deployed two Sukhoi-25 jets to the troubled east over the weekend, after the M23 captured a series of settlements along an important highway leading to Goma. 

One of the planes violated Rwandan airspace on Monday — although Kinshasa said the incident was a mistake and not intentional. 

Despite official denials from Kigali, an unpublished report for the United Nations seen by AFP in August pointed to Rwandan involvement with the M23.

The report also said the M23 plans to capture Goma in order to extract political concessions from the government in Kinshasa. 

– Diplomacy –

Neither the DRC government nor the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in the country, known as MONUSCO, had officially commented on the bombings by late Monday. 

The M23 claimed the Congolese government had sent warplanes and helicopters to bomb “heavily populated areas killing innocent people”. 

It also accused the government of trampling on dialogue efforts. 

Several diplomatic initiatives are underway to try to ease tensions in eastern DRC, including one from the seven-nation East African Community — which is due to launch its own peacekeeping mission in the region shortly. 

The regional bloc stated on Monday that East African leaders had reaffirmed their commitment to finding a political solution to the conflict in eastern Congo.   

Kenya Airways pilots will end their days-long strike and return to work on Wednesday morning, their union said, after a court ordered staff to resume operations in a breakthrough for the beleaguered airline.

The protesting pilots, who make up 10 percent of the workforce, are pressing for the reinstatement of contributions to a provident fund and payment of all salaries stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The walkout has forced hundreds of flight cancellations and left thousands of passengers stranded since Saturday morning, exacerbating the woes facing the troubled national carrier and prompting the government to threaten the pilots with disciplinary action.

Hours after a Nairobi court on Tuesday ordered the pilots to return to work, the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) said its members would “resume duty” by 06:00 am (0300 GMT) on Wednesday — the deadline stipulated in the court order.

“KALPA members will do their best to restore normalcy to operations,” the union’s general secretary Murithi Nyagah said in a statement released late Tuesday, calling the travel disruptions “regrettable”.

KALPA launched the walkout at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in defiance of a court order issued last week against the strike, prompting judges to summon union representatives to appear in court on Tuesday.

Justice Anna Mwaure ordered KALPA members “to resume their duties as pilots by 6:00 am on 9th November 2022 unconditionally”.

Kenya Airways, which is part-owned by the government as well as Air France-KLM, is one of the biggest in Africa, connecting multiple countries to Europe and Asia. 

But it has been running losses for years, despite the government pumping in millions of dollars to keep it afloat.

The court order was welcomed by the government and the airline’s management who vowed to intensify efforts to “recover the time, money and reputation lost”.

Mwaure also ordered the airline’s management to allow the pilots “to perform their duties without harassing them or intimidating them and especially by not taking any disciplinary action against any of them”.

Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen urged the pilots and the airline’s management “to obey the court order”.

“We regret that the issues at hand were allowed to persist and escalate into a strike,” he said.

“In the past three days, this strike has disrupted travel plans for over 12,000 customers… forced the cancellation of over 300 flights, and affected 3,500 other employees who were not part of it,” he added.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, the airline’s CEO Allan Kilavuka said: “We commit to complying with the Court’s directions.”

The carrier had earlier said the strike had forced it to cancel most of its flights but Kilavuka vowed that the airline would “do everything possible to return to normalcy in the shortest time”.

– ‘Economic sabotage’ –

The dispute has added to the challenges facing Kenya’s recently elected government, with Murkomen on Sunday threatening the pilots with disciplinary action unless they returned to work.

The airline and the government have accused the union of engaging in “economic sabotage”, with Kenya Airways warning that the strike would lead to losses estimated at $2.5 million per day.

“Due to this unlawful action by KALPA, the customers of KQ both locally and globally have suffered and continue to suffer immeasurable inconvenience and losses,” Kenya Airways said in a statement Monday using the shorthand airline code.

The carrier had also announced that it was ending its recognition of the union and withdrawing from their collective bargaining deal, accusing KALPA of “exposing the airline to irreparable damage”.

The pilots in turn accused the airline’s management of making “no concessions” to end the stalemate.

The airline was founded in 1977 following the demise of East African Airways, and flies more than four million passengers to 42 destinations annually.

It has been operating in large part thanks to state bailouts following years of losses.

International pressure mounted Tuesday for the “immediate release” of Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, whose family fears for his life after he escalated his hunger strike by refusing water too as COP27 opened.

After a seven-month stint during which he consumed only “100 calories a day”, the 40-year-old British-Egyptian dissident stopped drinking water on Sunday as world leaders gathered for the opening of the global climate summit in Egypt.

On Tuesday, a day after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and raised his plight, UN rights chief Volker Turk and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz demanded his release.

Abdel Fattah, currently serving a five-year sentence for “spreading false news” after reposting a Facebook post about police brutality, has been leading headlines during the UN summit, intensifying international attention on Egypt’s rights record.

A key figure of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah gained British citizenship this year through his UK-born mother, Laila Soueif.

Soueif has warned her son many only have “a day or two or three at most”.

In a message posted on Facebook, she directed an appeal to world leaders at the COP27 summit rather than the Egyptian authorities, who she accused of already having “so much blood on their hands.”

Her daughter Mona Seif tweeted on Tuesday that the family had received “no letter, no explanation, nothing to assure us Alaa is alive and present.”

– ‘Great danger’ –

Activists at COP27 have posted prolifically on Twitter under the hashtag #FreeAlaa, and several speakers have ended their speeches with the words “you have not yet been defeated” — the title of the jailed activist’s book.

“We urge the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those held simply for peacefully exercising their human rights” including Abdel Fattah, tweeted climate activist Greta Thunberg, who did not attend the summit.

Washington has “raised repeated concerns about his case — and his conditions in detention — with the government of Egypt”, a US National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement.

Sunak said Monday that Abdel Fattah’s case is “a priority”, demanding it be “resolved as soon as possible.”

Macron said he had received an assurance that Sisi is “committed to ensuring that (the) health of Alaa Abdel Fattah is preserved” and that the situation will be resolved “in the coming weeks and months.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday that “his release must be possible, so that this hunger strike does not end in death.”

The UN’s Turk said he “deeply regrets” Egypt had not released Abdel Fattah, warning that his “life is in great danger”.

On Tuesday, a press conference led by Abdel Fattah’s sister Sanaa Seif — on the sidelines of the COP27 summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh — was disrupted by an Egyptian parliamentarian.

“We are talking about an Egyptian citizen detained for a criminal offence, he is not a political prisoner,” said pro-government lawmaker Amr Darwish, who was escorted out of a COP27 hall by UN security. “Do not try to use the West against Egypt.”

– ‘Force fed’? –

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the COP27 president, told CNBC television that Abdel Fattah — whose dual citizenship Cairo does not recognise — has access to “all the necessary care in prison”.

Sanaa Seif said Shoukry’s talk of “care” raises concerns her brother is potentially being “force fed” with intravenous drips.

“Is he handcuffed to a bed, on IVs against his will?” she said.

Cairo has faced intensifying criticism of its long deplored human rights record since it was announced as the host of the climate summit last year, a move rights groups said “rewards the repressive rule” of Sisi.

Three Egyptian journalists continued a hunger strike for a second day, demanding “the release of all political prisoners in Egypt”. 

Rights groups say such prisoners number some 60,000, a claim denied by Cairo.

Activist Hossam Bahgat has called on COP27 attendees to wear white — the colour of prison uniform in Egypt — on Thursday in a sign of solidarity.

Abdel Fattah’s continued detention comes despite Egypt having granted presidential pardons to a total of 766 political prisoners since the reactivation of a pardon policy in April this year, according to data compiled by Amnesty. 

But over the same period close to double that number have been jailed for their activism, Amnesty says.

The United States sought to reassure the UN climate summit in Egypt on Tuesday that it will stick to its energy transition even if Republicans triumph in midterm elections.

The COP27 talks have been dominated by calls for all nations to step up their commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and for rich ones to fulfil pledges to financially help the developing world to green their economies and build resilience.

Poor and climate-vulnerable economies devastated by natural disasters have demanded compensation for damages already incurred, with calls for a windfall tax on the profits of oil companies to help pay.

But stiff international criticism of Egypt’s treatment of hunger-striking activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and the US midterm election also loomed large over the summit.

US President Joe Biden’s Democrats face a tough battle to hang on to their majority in Congress against Republicans, who are less favourable to international climate action.

A Republican victory could be a boon to the ambitions of former president Donald Trump, who is expected to make another bid for the White House.

Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. Biden returned the United States — the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China — to the pact on his first day in office in 2020.

Biden won a major victory earlier this year when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which will channel hundreds of billions towards green energy initiatives.

– ‘More determined than ever’ –

The “climate crisis doesn’t just threaten our infrastructure, economy and security — it threatens every single aspect of our lives on a daily basis,” US climate envoy John Kerry said on the sidelines of the summit, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

He said that even if Democrats lose the election, “President Biden is more determined than ever to continue what we are doing.” 

“And most of what we are doing cannot be changed by anybody else who comes along,” Kerry said. “The marketplace has made its decision to do what we need to do to respond to the climate crisis.”

Some 100 world leaders were attending the summit on Monday and Tuesday, but Biden will only come on Friday after the midterms.

Nations worldwide are coping with increasingly intense natural disasters that have taken thousands of lives this year and cost billions of dollars, including devastating floods Pakistan, droughts in Africa and unprecedented heatwaves across three continents.

The world is “burning up faster than our capacity for recovery,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told fellow leaders.

Fallout from the energy crunch caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also cast a shadow on the summit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an appearance via video-link, warning that Russia’s war was “destroying the world’s ability to work united for a common goal”.

– ‘Planet is burning’ –

Countries are under pressure to step up efforts to reduce emissions to meet the most ambitious Paris Agreement goal of preventing temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.

China’s climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, told the summit that his country’s commitment to global efforts “will not retreat” — a day after UN chief Antonio Guterres urged Beijing and Washington to step up their efforts.

The leaders of Colombia and Venezuela, meanwhile, launched a call for a wide-ranging alliance to protect the Amazon, a crucial lynchpin of the global climate system.

A UN-backed report said developing countries and emerging economies, excluding China, need investments well beyond $2 trillion per year by 2030 if the world is to stop the global warming juggernaut.

One after the other, leaders of developing nations called for the establishment of a “loss and damage” fund that would compensate them for the here-and-now destruction caused by natural disasters, arguing that rich nations are responsible for the biggest share of planet-heating emissions.

Sharif pleaded for help after the recent floods in Pakistan had cost his country more than $30 billion in loss and damage: “How on earth can one expect from us that we will undertake this gigantic task on our own?”

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne — speaking on behalf of a group of small island nations endangered by rising sea levels and tropical storms — said it was time to tax the windfall profits of oil companies to pay for loss and damage.

“While they are profiting, the planet is burning,” Browne said.

International pressure mounted Tuesday for the “immediate release” of Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, whose family fears for his life after he escalated his hunger strike by refusing water too as COP27 opened.

After a seven-month stint during which he consumed only “100 calories a day”, the 40-year-old British-Egyptian stopped drinking water on Sunday as world leaders gathered for the opening of the global climate summit in Egypt.

On Tuesday, a day after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and raised his plight, UN rights chief Volker Turk and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz demanded his release.

Abdel Fattah, currently serving a five-year sentence for “spreading false news” for reposting a Facebook post about police brutality, has been leading headlines during the UN summit, intensifying international attention on Egypt’s rights record.

A key figure of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah gained British citizenship this year through his UK-born mother, Laila Soueif.

– ‘Dreadful consequences’ –

Soueif — who has been camped out in front of the prison for two days in the hope of receiving a letter as proof of life, according to daughter Mona Seif — warns her son many only have “a day or two or three at most”.

In a message posted on Facebook, Soueif directed an appeal to world leaders at the COP27 summit rather than the Egyptian authorities, who she accused of already having “so much blood on their hands.”

Seif tweeted on Tuesday that the family had received “No letter, no explanation, nothing to assure us Alaa is alive and present.” 

Activists at COP27 have posted prolifically on Twitter under the hashtag #FreeAlaa and several speakers have ended their speeches with the words “you have not yet been defeated” — the title of his book, prefaced by Canadian author Naomi Klein.

Sunak said Monday that the case is “a priority”, demanding it be “resolved as soon as possible.”

Macron said he had received an assurance that Sisi is “committed to ensuring that (the) health of Alaa Abdel Fattah is preserved” and that the situation will be resolved “in the coming weeks and months.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday said that “his release must be possible, so that this hunger strike does not end in death,” adding that “we should be afraid that this could lead to dreadful consequences”.

Turk said he “deeply regrets” Egypt had not released Abdel Fattah, warning that his “life is in great danger”.

UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association Clement Voule echoed calls for Abdel Fattah’s immediate release, noting his “life is at risk”.

“I remind Egypt authorities that civic participation is key to advancing climate justice,” Voule said.

On Tuesday, a press conference led by Abdel Fattah’s sister Sanaa Seif — on the sidelines of the COP27 summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh — was disrupted by an Egyptian parliamentarian.

“We are talking about an Egyptian citizen detained for a criminal offence, he is not a political prisoner,” said pro-government lawmaker Amr Darwish, who was escorted out of a COP27 hall by UN security. “Do not try to use the West against Egypt.”

– ‘Force fed’? –

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the COP27 president, told CNBC television that Abdel Fattah — whose dual citizenship Cairo does not recognise — has access to “all the necessary care in prison”.

Sanaa Seif said Shoukry’s talk of “care” raises concerns her brother is potentially being “force fed” with intravenous drips.

“Is he handcuffed to a bed, on IVs against his will?” she said.

Cairo has faced intensifying criticism of its long deplored human rights record since it was announced as the host of the COP27 climate summit last year, a move rights groups said “rewards the repressive rule” of Sisi.

Three Egyptian journalists also continued a hunger strike for a second day, demanding “the release of all political prisoners in Egypt”.

Rights groups say such prisoners number some 60,000, a claim denied by Cairo.

Abdel Fattah’s continued detention comes despite Egypt having granted presidential pardons to a total of 766 political prisoners since the reactivation of a pardon policy in April this year, according to data compiled by Amnesty. 

But over the same period close to double that number have been jailed for their activism, Amnesty says.

A Nairobi court has ordered striking Kenya Airways pilots to return to work by Wednesday morning, a breakthrough for the beleaguered carrier after the days-long walkout forced flight cancellations and left thousands of passengers stranded.

The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) launched the strike at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Saturday morning, defying a court order issued last week against the industrial action.

Justice Anna Mwaure on Tuesday ordered “the Kenya Airways pilots to resume their duties as pilots by 6:00 am on 9th November 2022 unconditionally”.

The walkout has exacerbated the woes facing the troubled national carrier, which has been running losses for years, despite the government pumping in millions of dollars to keep it afloat.

There was no immediate response from KALPA to the court order, which was welcomed by the government and the airline’s management who vowed to intensify efforts to “recover the time, money and reputation lost”.

The carrier on Monday announced that it was ending its recognition of the union and withdrawing from their collective bargaining deal, accusing KALPA of “exposing the airline to irreparable damage”.

Mwaure said the court would now consider the issue and ordered the airline’s management to allow the pilots “to perform their duties without harassing them or intimidating them and especially by not taking any disciplinary action against any of them”.

Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen urged the pilots and the airline’s management “to obey the court order”.

“We regret that the issues at hand were allowed to persist and escalate into a strike,” he said.

“In the past three days, this strike has disrupted travel plans for over 12,000 customers… forced the cancellation of over 300 flights, and affected 3,500 other employees who were not part of it,” he added.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, the airline’s CEO Allan Kilavuka said: “We commit to complying with the Court’s directions.”

The carrier had earlier said that the strike had forced it to cancel most of its flights but Kilavuka vowed that the airline would “do everything possible to return to normalcy in the shortest time”.

– ‘Economic sabotage’ –

Kenya Airways, which is part owned by the government as well as Air France-KLM, is one of the biggest in Africa, connecting multiple countries to Europe and Asia. 

The dispute has added to the challenges facing Kenya’s recently elected government, with Murkomen on Sunday threatening the pilots with disciplinary action unless they returned to work.

Mwaure had summoned KALPA officials to appear in court on Tuesday for disobeying last week’s injunction against the strike.

The airline and the government have accused the union of engaging in “economic sabotage”, with Kenya Airways warning that the strike would lead to losses estimated at $2.5 million per day.

“Due to this unlawful action by KALPA, the customers of KQ both locally and globally have suffered and continue to suffer immeasurable inconvenience and losses,” Kenya Airways said in a statement Monday using the shorthand airline code.

The pilots in turn have accused the airline’s management of making “no concessions” to end the stalemate.

The protesting pilots, who make up 10 percent of the workforce, are pressing for the reinstatement of contributions to a provident fund and payment of all salaries stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was founded in 1977 following the demise of East African Airways, and flies more than four million passengers to 42 destinations annually.

It has been operating in large part thanks to state bailouts following years of losses.

Spain’s former king, Juan Carlos I, on Tuesday appealed to a UK court to grant him immunity from harassment allegations by his former lover, just as a new podcast featuring her claims is released.

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, 57, is seeking personal injury damages from the 84-year-old, who ruled Spain from 1975 until his abdication in 2014.

The British resident has accused Juan Carlos, who now lives in the United Arab Emirates, of spying on her and harassing her after their relationship soured in 2012.

She filed a harassment suit in London in 2020, alleging he pressured her to return gifts worth 65 million euros ($65 million), including works of art and jewellery. She is seeking an injunction and damages.

Juan Carlos has not appeared at any hearings so far and strenuously denies any wrongdoing.

Three judges at the Court of Appeal in London heard legal arguments from both sides on Tuesday and said that they would deliver a ruling at a later date.

Juan Carlos is appealing after the High Court in March threw out his claim that a 1978 UK law meant English courts had no jurisdiction to hear the case because he has state immunity as a royal.

Judge Matthew Nicklin ruled that Juan Carlos “was no longer a ‘sovereign’ or ‘head of state’ so as to entitle him to personal immunity”.

– ‘Ruling date’ –

The former king’s lawyers appealed and won permission for a legal challenge concerning the period when Juan Carlos was on the throne.

Setting out his position, Juan Carlos’s lawyer, Tim Otty, argued that immunity is “a procedural bar” and says “nothing about the lawfulness or the morality of the conduct alleged”. 

However, zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s lawyer, James Lewis, argued the appeal should be dismissed, claiming the alleged harassment had involved “intelligence and surveillance” personnel acting as the former king’s “agents”.

The hearing came as zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, who was also not present in court on Tuesday, has been discussing the relationship in a new podcast series called “Corinna and the King”.

Its release has stirred fresh controversy in Spain. Its creators — two London-based journalists — defend its timing and independence from zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn.

“Imagine that someone who says they love your children — and that you’re the love of their life — would frame you in a criminal investigation,” she alleges in the first episode, released Monday.

– Shots fired –

Court submissions have claimed that Juan Carlos, who is married, was in an “intimate romantic relationship” with the divorcee of a German prince from 2004 to 2009 and showered her with gifts.

Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn has alleged that Juan Carlos began harassing her after their relationship broke down.

Juan Carlos “demanded the return of gifts”, she claimed, and she suffered “trespass and criminal damage” at her home in rural central England.

Gunshots were fired at and damaged security cameras at her front gate, she alleged, accusing the former king of being angry at her refusals.

Her lawyers argued that Juan Carlos had a “more sinister” motive — transferring money to her from secret bank accounts, on the understanding he could still access it.

The couple’s relationship became public knowledge in 2012, when the monarch broke a hip while on holiday in Botswana with zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn and had to be flown home. 

The revelation of the luxury trip, which came at the height of a recession in Spain, sparking public anger there.

Two years later, dogged by scandals and health problems, Juan Carlos abdicated at the age of 76 in favour of his son, Felipe VI, who has distanced himself from his father.

Juan Carlos went into self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates in 2020. 

He and his son attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September and were seated together.

Juan Carlos was protected for decades by his huge popularity as a key figure in Spain’s transition to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

The excesses of the monarch only came to light in the last years of his reign, triggering a string of investigations over corruption scandals.

Small island nations led calls at the UN climate summit Tuesday to tax oil companies’ windfall profits to pay for damages caused by natural disasters and enact a “non-proliferation treaty” to halt fossil fuel production.

Developing nations have pressed their case at the COP27 summit in Egypt for the creation of a “loss and damage” fund, arguing that rich nations are to blame for the biggest share of greenhouse gas emissions.

Oil companies have scored tens of billions of dollars in profits this year as crude prices have soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global COP carbon tax on these profits as a source of funding for loss and damage,” the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, told fellow leaders at the summit in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

“While they are profiting, the planet is burning,” said Browne, who was speaking on behalf of the 39-nation Alliance of Small Island States, many of whose very existence is threatened by rising sea levels and increasingly intense tropical storms.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called Monday for a 10 percent tax on oil companies to fund loss and damage.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, however, told reporters “here is not the place… to develop fiscal rules.”

The contentious question of loss and damage was added to the COP27 agenda after intense negotiations.

The United States and European Union have dragged their feet on the issue in the past, fearful of creating an open-ended reparations regime.

Browne later told reporters that China and India, while not considered developed countries, should also fund loss and damage as they are the world’s top and third biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, respectively.

“China and India are major polluters, and the polluter must pay. I don’t think there is any free pass for any country,” he said.

The goal was to “accelerate” discussion on a loss and damage fund at COP27, he said, with the aim of having a mechanism in place at the next summit and for it to be “truly” operational by 2024.

– ‘Can’t sink our dreams’ –

Another island nation, Tuvalu, announced it was joining calls for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, an initiative that seeks to stop new investments in coal, oil and gas globally and phase out production.

“The warming seas are starting to swallow our lands –- inch by inch,” Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Kausea Natano said in a statement.

“But the world’s addiction to oil, gas and coal can’t sink our dreams under the waves,” he said.

A Pacific neighbour, Vanuatu, was the first nation to join the treaty in September.

“Vanuatu and Tuvalu are the first countries to call for a new treaty as a companion to the Paris Agreement to align oil, gas and coal production with a global carbon budget,” said Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative.

“We will look back on this in history as the moment of reckoning, with overproduction that is locking in further emissions and holding us back from bending the curve,” Berman said.

Browne also recalled that his country and Tuvalu are among four island nations that have had registered a commission with the UN to “explore the responsibility of states for injuries arising from their climate actions and breaches in the obligations”.

“As small countries this is a new dynamic pathway of justice where the polluter pays,” he said.

Browne said small island states “will fight unrelentingly this climate crisis, and this includes fighting in the international courts and under international law”.