{"id":13145,"date":"2026-01-12T15:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leedsjp.org.uk\/?p=13145"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:46:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:46:00","slug":"12-jan-global-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/2026\/01\/12\/12-jan-global-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Jan – Global Good News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\nby Kathy Shaw, SPARK manager<\/em>

Workers Rights in the UK

Landmark employment laws set new legal rights for employees. The Employment Rights Bill<\/a> includes changes to the exploitative zero hours contracts, sick pay, protection for expectant and new mothers and new requirements for unfair dismissal to be implemented by next year. One Union describes this as \u201ca bright new era for workers\u2019 rights in Britain. This is going to change working lives for the better.\u201d The UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the bill was the \u201cbiggest upgrade to workers\u2019 rights in a generation\u201d.

\n\"Hovis-Premier-Foods-baker-014\"\n\nPublic backing to protect original artists from AI

People in the UK overwhelmingly support artists demanding action to protect their work from AI bots, with 88% of respondents wanting tougher copyright laws. Performing arts union Equity said the result was a vindication for the creative industries and there was a clear consensus on the need for protections.

\n\"support\n\nNew satellite data monitoring climate change

New satellite data is pinpointing emissions hotspots for methane, the second-largest contributor to climate change after CO2. Greenhouses Gases are responsible for around 30% of the rise in global temperatures. 14 new satellites operated by a Canadian space firm will be evaluating emissions for the first time as collaboration with a nonprofit Carbon Mapper and Space Research organisation. The satellites have detected methane plumes from existing fossil fuel facilities, estimating that the 3114 identified sites released up to 8.54m tones of methane in 2023. This information will be useful to improve understanding and predictions of methane emissions in order to understand and reduce warming trends.

\n\"methane\n\nHistoric change in animal protection

Poland has become the 18th country in the European Union to ban fur farming, after President Karol Nawrocki officially signed a ban into law in December. This decision further isolates the remaining countries which include Finland, Denmark, Spain, Hungary and Greece. This has been welcomed as \u201dan historic moment for animal protection in Poland\u201d by Humane World for Animals Europe<\/a>, as Poland is the largest fur-producing country in Europe, second globally only to China in size. 1.5 million people have signed a further petition calling for an EU-wide ban. The European Commission considers the case for banning fur farming EU-wide and plans to respond in March.

\n\"fox\n\nWildlife is flourishing on ex-oil sites

Abandoned oil refineries in the UK are emerging as unlikely wildlife havens. At Canvey Wick in Essex<\/a>, a barren industrial wasteland has been transformed into a wildlife oasis. The oil refinery project was shelved in the 1970\u2019s and has now become a mosaic of flower-rich grassland, home to rare insects and wildflowers.

\n\"Canvey-Wick-the-Essex-oasis-home-to-more-than-3200-species\"\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,5,39],"tags":[513,510,514,515,516],"class_list":["post-13145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic-social-thought","category-climate-change","category-uk-poverty","tag-fur","tag-good-news","tag-methane","tag-oil","tag-zero-hour-contract"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19946,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145\/revisions\/19946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}