Africa

How Napoli sensation Victor Osimhen went from humble beginnings in Nigeria to being crowned Africa's Footballer of the Year.

Lorenzo Díaz, son-in-law of José Antonio Casimiro, uses a solar oven to cook food. In the background, a windmill and a solar heater are other technologies in the clean energy mix that the family has installed at their Finca del Medio farm in central Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela and Jorge Luis Baños
TAGUASCO, Cuba, Dec 12 2023 (IPS)

The combined use of clean energies allows Finca del Medio, a farm in central Cuba, to practice a unique system of family farming production that guarantees self-sufficiency based on permaculture, agroecology and care of the environment.

For three decades, 65-year-old farmer José Antonio Casimiro and his family have been applying innovations to take advantage of the solar, wind, hydraulic and biomass potential on their 13-hectare farm in the municipality of Taguasco in the central Cuban province of Sancti Spíritus.

Casimiro and his wife Mileidy Rodríguez, also 65, settled in 1993 with their children Leidy and José Antonio – Chavely was born a year later – on their paternal grandparents’ farm and began working to reverse the deterioration of the infrastructure and soil erosion.

The family, who live on the farm except for the eldest daughter, is currently self-sufficient in rice, beans, tubers, vegetables, milk, eggs, honey, meat, fish and fruit. Of the basic foodstuffs, they only have to buy sugar and salt, and the surplus they produce is sold in surrounding areas.

They also promote education and awareness-raising on good agricultural and environmental practices, on the social networks.

At Finca del Medio, a number of daily processes are supported by clean sources such as electricity generation, lighting, water supply, irrigation and water heating, as well as cooking, dehydration and drying of foods, and baking and refrigeration of food.

The farmer commented that the farm produces the equivalent of about 20 kilowatt hours (kWh) from a combination of multiple technologies and innovations that utilize the potential of clean energy sources.

If only conventional electricity were used for their activities, it would cost them around 10,000 pesos (83 dollars) per month, he said.

Their 28 solar panels, which produce about 8 kWh, increased the power for water collection, irrigation and supply, while three solar heaters ensure hot water for domestic needs such as bathing.

The hydraulic ram uses the water pressure itself as the only energy to extract it from a dam with a capacity of 55,000 cubic meters, pipe it to a tank at the highest part of the farm, and from there the slope is used for irrigation by gravity, or to fill the animals’ water troughs.

Next to the kitchen, two fixed-dome biodigesters provide biogas, obtained from the anaerobic decomposition of animal manure, crop waste and even household sewage.

Due to a decrease in the amount of manure, only one of the biodigesters is operating, which provides about seven meters of biogas per day, enough for cooking, baking and dehydrating food.

The innovative family devised a mechanism to extract – without emptying the pond of water or stopping biogas production – from the bottom the solids used as biofertilizers, as well as hundreds of liters of effluent for fertigation (a combination of organic fertilizers and water) of the crops, by gravity.

The installation of the biodigesters, the solar panels and one of the solar heaters was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Cosude) and the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station of Pastures and Forages through its Biomass-Cuba project, Casimiro said.

The agro-ecological innovator also highlighted the link with other scientific institutions such as the Integrated Center for Appropriate Technologies, in the central province of Camagüey, which is focused on offering solutions to the needs of water supply and environmental sanitation, and played an essential role in the installation of the hydraulic ram.

The family also has two windmills and an efficient stove that uses firewood, coconut shells and other waste to cook food, dehydrate fruits and spices, heat water and treat meats for preservation.

Casimiro is in favor of incorporating renewable energy sources into agricultural processes. But in his opinion, “More incentives, better policies and financial support are needed so that farming families have sufficient energy for their work and can improve the comfort of their homes and quality of life.”

Clean sources account for only five percent of electricity generation in this Caribbean archipelago of 11 million inhabitants.

The government considers it a matter of national security to modify the national energy mix, which is highly dependent on fossil fuel imports and hit by cyclical energy deficits.

A South African court rules the president failed to comply with the law when recognising the new king.

Zahara, known for her soulful voice and hit song Loliwe, was once named in a BBC 100 Women list.

Ivory Coast will use school children and volunteers to fill some stadiums during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, which begins in January.

Jeffrey D. Sachs speaks at the ReWired Summit at COP28. Credit: X

By Joyce Chimbi
DUBAI, Dec 12 2023 (IPS)

The United State’s contribution to the Loss and Damage Fund equals nine minutes of Pentagon spending, says Jeffrey D. Sachs, a world-renowned economist, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development.

While the Loss and Damage Fund promise was made at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, this was the first major milestone announced at COP28 in Dubai. So far, pledged contributions by various countries to the World Bank-hosted Loss and Damage Fund have reached USD 700 million. While this is a major step in the right direction, there are concerns that the fund is too small and that powerful nations are not doing enough to halt the pace and rate of climate change.

“The COP process is still a formalism, not a breakthrough.  Yes, there is a new losses and damages fund, but it is tiny—USD 700 million pledged—compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars of climate-related losses each year,” Sachs says.

Estimates are that by 2030, the total estimate of loss and damage for developing countries could be between USD 290 billion and USD 580 billion; another says it is USD 400 billion per year and rising.

Africa is on the frontlines of the devastating effects of climate change, despite accounting for the smallest share of global greenhouse gas emissions—3.8 percent.

“The US pledged a measly USD 17.5 million, which equals nine minutes of Pentagon spending. All other financing remains tiny compared to the real needs.  The US and Europe are engaged in war, not in climate financing.  The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are the only things of interest to US foreign policy,” Sachs told IPS. “John Kerry is powerless in reality.  He is there to give speeches.  He has no authority to deliver any real policies.”

He says it is crucial to stop the wars; once that is done, real diplomacy could start.

“On to COP29, in a rapidly warming world of great danger.  The first priority is to stop the wars, and that requires the world community to tell the US to stop the warmongering and to force Israel to stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Gaza.  By stopping the wars, we could begin real climate diplomacy among the major fossil-fuel-producing countries.  The top three fossil-fuel-producing countries are China, the US, and Russia.  The three need to cooperate.  That depends on a fundamental change in US foreign policy.”

The Loss and Damage Fund refers to the economic, social, and cultural losses and damages caused by anthropogenic climate change to natural and human systems. It is a vehicle to deliver climate justice to communities disproportionately affected by climate change. The climate injustice lies in the fact that, despite a low carbon footprint, developing countries are facing the full force of climatic changes, slowly wiping out their biodiversity and destroying lives, livelihoods, and cultural heritage.

Climate change is the most serious threat facing culture today. Globally, World Heritage properties are bearing the brunt of climate change, from increasing ocean acidification, desertification, droughts, floods, and fires related to rising temperatures. Climate change is slowly eradicating the African coast and its cultural heritage; 20 percent of Africa’s heritage sites are in danger.

Communities uprooted by climate-induced disasters are losing their ways of life, including the preservation of traditions for future generations. This is the cultural cost of climate change for many vulnerable communities, particularly indigenous people, who are currently suffering greatly from severe and drastic changes in weather patterns.

Vulnerable developing nations face greater risk from climate change and lack the funds to recover from climate events that have become increasingly frequent and more severe. While some losses from climate-induced disasters are impossible to recover from, such as loss of life, the fund is expected to help build better infrastructure after a severe climatic event.

While there is wide applause for the loss and damage fund, there is also criticism that the fund’s contributions at COP28 thus far cover less than 0.2 percent of climate-induced losses in developing countries. Additionally, powerful nations are reluctant to address critical issues such as phasing out fossil fuels that could significantly slow down climate change, giving Africa and other vulnerable nations in the global South much-needed relief.

“The United States political class is not serious. China is more interested.  Only an end to the wars, followed by serious negotiations among the major fossil-fuel producers, will work. The top 10 fossil fuel producers are: China, US, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Iran, and Iraq. These 10 countries need to make serious, cooperative, and coordinated plans to phase out their production. They have not yet begun to hold such talks. In the meantime, funding for Africa is also seriously neglected,” Sachs says.

To reaffirm the 1.5°C-aligned energy transition, COP28 set out to firm up a number of ambitious goals, such as tripling global renewable energy generation capacity by 2030, doubling annual energy efficiency improvements by 2030, and an orderly decline in fossil fuel use demand by 2030, starting with no new coal plants.

The Summit further sought commitment from the oil and gas industry to align their strategies and investment portfolios with 1.5°C, with a focus on a 75 percent reduction in methane emissions by 2030. And financing mechanisms for a major scaling-up of clean energy investment in emerging and developing economies.

However, on Monday, December 11, 2023, the draft text of the agreement excluded the words “phase-out” or “phase-down” of fossil fuels, instead only promising to reduce oil and gas, and several countries, including Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, and Japan, said they would not sign what would essentially be “death certificates for many small island states.”

The first-ever global stocktake, released in October 2023 ahead of the Dubai Summit, revealed that the world is not on track to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement. It is the first time that a UN climate summit has surveyed progress towards achieving the goals agreed in 2015, following the landmark Paris COP.

The stocktake report is akin to an inventory, as it looked at everything related to where the world stands on climate action and support. It provides a critical turning point. At COP28, UN member states will negotiate their response to the stocktake’s findings, looking at the state of planet Earth, and chart the best course for the survival of both planet and humankind.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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In 2013, a new treaty, the Minamata Convention on Mercury, was adopted by a global community under the auspices of UNEP. The Convention is named after Minamata Bay in Japan to remember the lessons of the tragic health damage by industrial mercury pollution in the 1950s and 1960s. The aim of the treaty is to protect the environment and the human health from anthropogenic emissions and releases of the toxic heavy metal. It regulates the entire life cycle of mercury – its supply, trade, use, emissions, releases, storage, and the management of waste and contaminated sites.

By Charlie Brown
WASHINGTON, Dec 12 2023 (IPS)

As it strives to be the prototype environmental treaty of this era, the Minamata Convention on Mercury continues its razor-like focus on ending all major uses of mercury. Emerging as the force leading the charge is the Global South, particularly the Africa Region, whose proposals led to hard-charging changes addressing dental amalgam, mercury-based skin creams, and fluorescent lights.

At the Fifth Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention (“COP5”), concluding in Geneva on 3 November, countries debated the African Amalgam Amendment, calling for the phase out of amalgam. The Africa region, led by Roger Baro, the Environment Minister of Burkina Faso, strategically built alliances beforehand, starting with the crucial 27-nation European Union.

Civil society was inspired watching one delegate after another rising to support the phase out of mercury in dentistry: from West Asia (Saudi Arabia, Jordan) to South Asia (Pakistan) and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam), from Oceania (Australia, Tuvalu) to South America (Argentina) and non-E.U. Europe (Norway, Switzerland).

But several dissenters, while agreeing action is needed, were not yet amenable to a phase out date. Emerging therefore was the worldwide consensus to take three giant leaps toward mercury-free dentistry:

• For the first time, the treaty recognizes that countries can phase out amalgam – and more and more have already succeeded!
• The nations amended the treaty to add a new requirement: those countries that have “not yet phased out dental amalgam” must submit an action plan or a report on their progress.
• Most exciting of all, the nations inserted into the treaty, in brackets, a phase-out date for amalgam – an action that is not legally binding but which automatically agendizes a debate and a vote, at COP6 in 2025, on whether and when to phase out amalgam.

The Africa Region led the movement to end the use of two other mercury products, gaining phase-out dates in the Minamata Convention for mercury in skin cream (UN Convention Agrees to Phase Mercury Out of Cosmetics by 2025 – Zero Mercury) and for all fluorescent light bulbs (https://www.clasp.ngo/updates/cop5-decision/).

Africans, both government and civil society, are grimly determined to protect its people from mercury exposure and not to let its continent be made a dumping ground for toxic products, including amalgam.

In the national capitals, the march to mercury-free dentistry continues unabated. In October, Gabon decided amalgam is no longer allowed – and huge credit here goes to Serge Molly of Libreville, a long-time leader at the Minamata Convention.

This month the European Parliament and the Council of Europe debate when—not if—to phase out amalgam in all 27 member states (a dozen already have). Other Parties are ending amalgam piecemeal . . . banning its use in children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers . . . or in the military . . . or in government programs.

No consumer or parent these days wants amalgam; no one with the power to choose accepts a mercury implant in the mouth. Where choice reigns—the private sector—amalgam use is ending.

Well-ensconced inside government bureaucracies, the mercury lobby imposes amalgam outrageously on powerless consumers—the indigenous, the poor, the racial minorities, the immigrants, the institutionalized, the privates in the army and the seamen in the navy.

Unchecked by their superiors, the condemnable chief dental officers of the U.S. and Canada (1) ignore their legal duty to comply with the Minamata Convention Children’s Amendment, (2) violate their Hippocratic Oath daily by outright defiance of the recommendations against use by both Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and (3) maintain mercury-toxic workplaces for dental workers while they sit protected from mercury exposure in their plush government bureaus.

The great Minamata Convention had its genesis from studies showing mercury in the Arctic, drifting there via air or waterways, was harming indigenous peoples. In stark defiance of the spirit of Minamata, Health Canada dentists fly planeloads of mercury fillings daily into the Arctic and sub-Arctic, leaving the dental mercury behind to pollute the Tribal Lands.

Equally ignominiously, the U.S. Indian Health Service has ignored for seven years the resolution from the National Congress of American Indians to cease amalgam use on Tribal Lands.

To the profound disappointment of the environmental community, Canada’s Environment & Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault MP—despite his superb résumé fighting toxins while an NGO leader—does nothing to reduce amalgam use by Health Canada, even though his ministry is the lead at Minamata.

It is time for Minister Guilbault to condemn this wholesale usage of mercury fillings that is poisoning tribal lands. Inaction by ECC Canada portends another Grassy Narrows scandal in the making.

Rather than apply President Biden’s splendid priority of environmental justice to the U.S. Public Health Service, Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine opts for physician-to-dentist professional courtesy—giving carte blanche to the pro-mercury chief dental officers to pollute Tribal lands, prisons, Army forts, Navy bases, and minority-dominated inner cities.

By the stroke of a pen, the 4-star Admiral could order the dentists under her command at the Public Health Service to end amalgam use—and the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry calls on her to do so now.

Dentists still implanting this colonial-era primitive device do so not because they need to; but because they want to. Inaction in Ottawa and Washington must end; these two federal governments are the major reason that North American oral health care remains two-tiered: choice for the middle class and mercury for the powerless.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is President, World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry

Liane Schalatek joins demonstrators at COP28. After the initial euphoria that accompanied the announcement, questions are being asked about how it will operate and how money will be disbursed. Credit: X

By Stella Paul
DUBAI, Dec 12 2023 (IPS)

On November 30, the first day of COP28, the much-awaited Loss and Damage Fund—a landmark decision to compensate the world’s most climate-affected and climate-vulnerable people—was declared operational. Announcing the decision, COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber said, ‘the fact that we have been able to achieve such a significant milestone on the first day of this COP is unprecedented. This is historic.”

Formed first at the 27th Conference of the Parties held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2022, the Loss and Damage Fund has been demanded for several years by climate action advocates and countries seeking financial compensation for people who are most adversely affected by climate change. Different contributors have so far pledged about $700 million to the fund.

The announcement by Al Jaber on November 30 was, as expected, overwhelmingly welcomed by parties and delegates. However, as the conference nears its conclusion, the focus has now shifted towards its implementation, and many participants are expressing their general lack of clarity on the exact next steps.

“We know that the World Bank is going to manage it, and there will be a board for basic assessment. But the money that has come in so far is very small. How this money then goes to small CSOs (civil society organizations) and women-led organizations is anyone’s guess,” says Dilruba Haider, who leads the Women’s Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Humanitarian Portfolio in Bangladesh, one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world.

The Loss and Damage Fund: A Brief History

Loss and damage refer to the negative consequences that arise from the unavoidable risks of climate change, like rising sea levels, prolonged heatwaves, desertification, the acidification of the sea, and extreme events such as bushfires, species extinctions, and crop failures. As the climate crisis unfolds, these events will happen more and more frequently, and the consequences will become more severe.

For example, in 2022, Pakistan witnessed severe flooding, now known as the ‘super flood,’ which caused damage amounting to US$30 billion. But as a nation, Pakistan only emits less than 1 percent of global emissions. Combined with Bangladesh, another highly impacted country in South Asia, in 2022 alone, climate change caused losses worth approximately USD 36 billion and the displacement of about 50 million individuals.

The core thought behind the Loss and Damage Fund is that it is necessary to tackle the gaps that current climate finance institutions such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) do not fill. The combined adaptation and mitigation finance flows in 2020 were USD 17 billion short of the total USD 100 billion pledged to developing countries. Despite the US’s current pledge of USD 1 billion, the need has since multiplied due to the rise in losses and damages brought on by numerous disasters, making USD 100 billion woefully insufficient.

Access Mechanism: What’s Clear, What’s Not

Liane Schalatek is the Associate Director of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Washington, DC, where she spearheads the foundation’s work on climate finance. Schalatek has been tracking the flow of finance into the GCF for years and is also actively following the developments at the Loss and Damage Fund since its inception.

Schalatek, who has created an infographic to explain the basic facts and characteristics of the fund, says that, like the Green Climate Fund, contributions to the Loss and Damage Fund are also voluntary and without a strict timeline for fulfilling the pledges. The World Bank will be the main facilitator of the fund, but a 26-member board will be constituted to govern it. Of them, 14 members will be from developing countries, and the members will have a rotational tenure. The remaining 12 members will be from developed countries.

The first meeting of the board, according to the COP28 document, is expected to be held in January 2024, while three meetings of the board are expected to be held before the next COP.

It is also known that the Loss and Damage Fund will have multiple modalities, meaning that the funding will be given in different ways. For example, some money may be going through the organizations that are already accredited for managing climate finance; some money may be going to the national governments; and others, like NGOs, may also receive some. So far, the developing countries are demanding that the money be given to their governments, Schalatek says.

What Most-Affected Countries Want

Mirza Shawkat Ali is one of the most senior and experienced members of the Bangladesh delegation and has represented his country at multiple COPs. Ali says that while the concept of giving communities direct access to the fund is noble, from an operational perspective, it would be far easier if the funding was channeled through the national government. The reason, explains Ali, is that it could be extremely difficult to track the flow of the fund and also coordinate with various organizations in a timely manner unless detailed information is not shared in a timely manner.

“The biggest problem we could face is while reporting to the UN on the progress achieved with the fund that has been received. How can we do that if we don’t know the details of how and how much of the fund is coming and to whom it is coming?” Ali asks.

“For us, it would be both easier and more realistic if the government received the fund. We have the infrastructure that is needed to receive, disburse, and utilize the fund. We can also track and report back to the funder,” Ali says.

Haider of UN Women appears to agree with Ali: “I think the government could take some initiatives. If the government could access the funding, it could provide some budgeted support. And if the government then comes with some policies, some directives, selection criteria, and prioritization to support women-led initiatives, then that might be one way.”

María Elena Hermelinda Lezama Espinosa, Governor of Quintana Roo Province, Mexico, also supports the channeling of loss and damage funding through the government.

“We have already been implementing so many programs to help local communities overcome climate change impacts, especially in the areas of water and land. We will be happy to receive this fund to advance our work further,” she says.

From a different perspective, many civil society leaders are strongly advocating for direct access to the fund for extremely vulnerable and highly affected communities.

Anika Schroeder, Climate Policy Officer at Germany-based environmental organization Miseroer, who works with climate-affected communities globally, including Indonesia and Nepal, says that climate vulnerabilities are also about human rights, and giving climate-vulnerable groups and communities access to the Loss and Damage Fund is important to ensure their basic human rights.

A complex and time-consuming mechanism of accessing the fund could result in the already vulnerable people suffering more, which would then mean greater violations of their human rights, Schroeder argues.

“People think that giving one-time aid support to a disaster-hit community is enough, but that is not right; the same community will keep facing more disasters. And every time they are hit, they cannot go to school, they do not have a house, and they do not have water, so it’s about meeting their basic human rights. If this is not integrated while designing the funding access, then it will not be taken seriously,” Schroeder says.

The Devil Lies in the Details

However, Schalatek reminds us that although the fund mentions direct access for affected communities (such as neighborhood non-governmental organizations), the board will likely only approve a small portion of it. In fact, at present, the money that has been contributed is for the setting up of access mechanisms such as the formation of the board, the selection of the board members, deciding the location of the fund, and other infrastructural details.

“In the jubilations of the approval of the Loss and Damage Fund, people are forgetting that the contributions that have come so far are meant for operationalizing the fund, meaning getting the system and infrastructure in place, and not really for providing to the countries right away. For that, we need more pledges to be made and fulfilled,” Schalatek says. “Will the Loss and Damage Fund go directly to small community organizations? No, we don’t have those commitments right now because none of the windows and the substructures are set up yet; the board will decide on that,” she adds.

Developments on the Green Climate Fund

The first replenishment of the fund—$100 billion—is almost complete, except for the USD 1 billion from the United States that is yet to come. The 2nd replenishment has so far seen pledges of 12.8 billion, of which USD 3.3 billion was announced since the COP28 started, according to a press statement from the Green Climate Fund.

However, there is no fixed timeframe for these pledges to be fulfilled, and contributing countries can give their shares of the money anytime between January 2024 and the end of 2027. “A pledge is as good as a fulfilled commitment, so we will know more about the status of the new pledges once we see the signed contribution agreements from those who are pledging them,” Schalatek says.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Joshua Amponsem, co-director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund, believes trusting those in the frontlines of climate change with agency and decision-making is pivotal for climate justice. Credit: Cecilia Russell/IPS

By Cecilia Russell
DUBAI, Dec 12 2023 (IPS)

During his childhood, Joshua Amponsem spent a lot of time in his dry rural community collecting water from the streams. “It was normal,” the co-director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund says in an interview on the sidelines of COP28. “We didn’t talk about climate change.”

Later, as a student at a university in Ghana, it was his love of the sea—this massive expanse of water he never experienced as a child—that led him to environmental youth activism. He would walk on the beach in awe of the sea but also notice the sand mining, plastic pollution, and mangrove deforestation.

In the classroom, Amponsem had been absorbing a lot of theory about coastal zone management and ecosystem management but saw little application of these concepts outside the university.

“So, for me, this was a dilemma,” he says, commenting to his professor, ‘it seems that we have a lot of solutions. But yet, when I leave, when I look outside, the communities are really struggling, and there are all these issues’.”

The professor told me that it was his “responsibility as a tutor to give us the exposure, the insight, and the knowledge, and it is our role as students to then figure out all what to do with those insights and those pieces of information.”

For Amponsem, this was a turning point. That day, he mobilized a group of students and started the Green Africa Youth Organization.

Amponsem moved from grassroots activism to influencing policymaking in the climate change arena and acknowledges the difficulties.

“It’s difficult because, on one hand, I’m working with a population that needs jobs. They want their start-ups to thrive; they will need access to energy in abundance so they can do the things that they want to do,” he says, and again pointing to a dilemma, there is a need to get people access to energy quickly to break the cycle of poverty, yet sustainably, to not break the planet.

“If you look at the energy sector (you ask), do you go the efficient way in the short term, get people access to energy so they can run their company, their businesses get income, and get out of poverty, or do you go the sustainable route?” he says.

To take the sustainable route, he says he needs to go on the “international stage and really fight the good fight to get the funding that is needed to go to the sustainable route… I see it is trying to find that fine balance to the just transition.”

“For many communities, it is expensive to go the renewable, sustainable route. It’s expensive for some communities to even consider a solar rooftop, even when there are subsidies available. The community also may not benefit from the jobs in installing the systems; a foreign company may come in and install the systems.

“That’s not a just transition.”

Crucial Policy Conversation

“The policy conversation is really around trying to look at the long-term benefits of just transitioning. And how do we do it in a way that we can retain as much as possible benefit to our local communities, which means that it is not enough to just put solar on the roof of houses and have them have access to energy? It is not enough to just say, ‘Oh! We’ve increased our energy mix to 20 percent renewables.

“We need to go the extra mile to ask the question of who is doing those projects and who is being contracted to do this work. Who is being trained to do the maintenance? Who has been trained to really do this on the ground? And have those local people, who have been paid directly to do this, been trained to take this forward and scale it? That is super essential.”

Amponsem admits it’s a hard sell.

“You don’t necessarily have absolute control or the money to make a just transition. You have an agreement with a multilateral bank or development bank that sets conditions for how projects are supposed to roll out.”

On the other hand, as a developing country’s government, you want the money to come in, and you know that it would be better to do the development sustainably, but the money often comes with strings.

“Sometimes you hear the word ‘technical’ and the phrase ‘we need to build technical capacity,’ and they need ‘technical assistance.’ And it ends up just bringing in a bunch of people from somewhere to do the work that, actually, local people could be trained to do.”

“I think, as the youth movement, being able to constantly remind policymakers of the role of equity and justice in developments in the green transition is super important.”

Amponsem says he also works with the Climate Justice Fund. Philanthropic entities also “constantly need reminding on issues of equity and justice when providing support directly to governments.”

It shouldn’t be solely focused on reducing emissions.

“Putting money in the hands of local communities is one of the most powerful things that you can do. It builds trust and confidence and allows local companies to realize that they have the agency to actually drive their own growth. And I think that when that is not done, and when it is external entities coming in, you really disempower communities.”

Cyclone Kenneth hit the Macomia district in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, earlier in 2023. Credit: IPS/OCHA/Saviano Abreu

Weather-Resilient Housing

Amponsem refers back to remarks he made earlier in the conference during the Open Society Foundations-facilitated session on ‘Financing for Resilience: Overcoming Hurdles to Catalyze Regional Action and Locally-led Adaptation and Loss and Damage Finance,’ during which he questioned why weather-resilient housing in the Mozambican coastal region was not yet a reality.

Tropical cyclones have been battering this area with increasing ferocity, including Idai in 2019, which caused a humanitarian crisis in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi and left more than 1,500 people dead, and Cyclone Freddy more recently, which reportedly became the longest-lived tropical cyclone ever observed and made landfall three times.

He spent time interviewing people impacted by the cyclones in 2020, and the interviews were emotional.

“I was in tears. I spoke to teachers who had to take responsibility for the kids in their class. Trying to keep them keeping their energy up while their parents are lost and missing.”

There was one interviewee who built a classroom for the children after Cyclone Idai, and a year later it was destroyed again. Another person built a house, only to have it wrecked by flooding the next year. So, the question, says Amponsem, is: “How do we invest in “preparedness in a way that people do not have to suffer the losses?”

“We can’t stop the cycle (of climate change-induced weather) at the moment, but we can work on the exposure and the vulnerability that are attached to the hazard. But this is not being done!”

There are issues with accessibility—getting access to funding—and when it comes, it doesn’t flow to the grassroots level.

“That is what we try to do with the new Climate Justice Fund: work with micro-funders that can actually help those countries,” he says, explaining that in Mozambique, they’re very excited to work on adaptation projects dealing with building climate-resilient houses. The project is in its early stages, and they are consulting with architects and construction companies to ensure that once built, they can survive the storms.

Preparedness and Prevention

“We need to invest in preparedness and prevention because it does save lives,” he comments, saying that he admires the resilience of people.

“Every single year, the cyclone comes, and yet the community has hope that we can solve this crisis. They have hope that we can do this, and they are working with us to make sure that we really break those barriers of access to funding, access to decision-making spaces, and access to the required infrastructure that will allow them to be able to build the adaptive capacity and resilience towards these.”

Amponsem says he particularly admires the women in Africa.

“I always say that the real hustlers in this world are African women and mothers,” explaining the lengths his mother would go to ensure her family was fed and educated. Yet the funding for them isn’t there. Likewise with minorities and Indigenous people. He speaks about a disconnect in the climate debates and how, when we speak about climate finance, we often speak about climate indicators.

“This is where we have the challenge because we need to realize that we are living in a world where economics or social justice issues and environmental justice issues are just as important.”

Amponsem is clear; he says the climate conversation needs to include those feeling its impact.

“If we cannot trust the frontline communities with agency, with decision-making, and with resources, then I think we’ve gotten it wrong.”

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Excerpt:

Joshua Amponsem, co-director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund, believes it is time to ensure climate finance and social justice issues are elevated to the top of the agenda and negotiations at COP28.
 

Regional bloc Ecowas says it will maintain sanctions on Niger after military leaders refused their offer.

Mthuli Ncube is named "Best African Finance Minister of the Year" despite the nation's economic turmoil.

On Arborek Island, Indonesia, shrubs and coral blocks are planted to prevent erosion of the beach. Credit: Alain Schroeder/Climate Visuals

By Umar Manzoor Shah
DUBAI, Dec 11 2023 (IPS)

There is an irreparable connection between culture and the seas: loss of land due to rising sea levels and loss of livelihood due to changing fish migration patterns are having a massive impact on coastal communities.

This formed the core of discussions at an event titled Tackling Climate Change for Sustainable Livelihood in Island and Coastal Communities at COP28 in Dubai.

The panel included experts and climate advocates from across the globe, all sharing a common mission: to confront the intricate challenges faced by some of the world’s most vulnerable regions and explore sustainable solutions.

The Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Policy Research Institute, the Palau Conservation Society, the National Institute of Oceanography and Marine Sciences of Sri Lanka, the University of Namibia, the Maldives National University, the University of the West Indies, and the Columbian Institute for Marine and Coastal Research were all involved in organizing the event.

Together, they sought not only to dissect existing challenges but also to share successful practices and foster potential partnerships for a sustainable future.

Farhana Haque Rahman, Executive Director, IPS Noram, and Masanori Kobayashi, Senior Research Fellow, Ocean Policy Research at the Institute of Sasakawa Peace Foundation, moderate a panel on the impact of climate change on coastal communities. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

The panel discussion, co-moderated by Farhana Haque Rahman, Executive Director, IPS Noram, and Masanori Kobayashi, Senior Research Fellow, Ocean Policy Research Institute of Sasakawa Peace Foundation, included a rich tapestry of insights with diverse perspectives.

Rahman stressed the need for tailored solutions, emphasizing that the vast challenges faced by coastal communities often remain obscured in the shadows of mainstream international media. She passionately urged for a collective effort to illuminate these issues globally.

Dr Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen, Director General of the Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency, offered a scientific perspective, delving into the predicted impact of climate change on fisheries. She highlighted the dual threat posed in terms of abundance and distribution, stressing that science indicated a potential shift of biomass from exclusive economic zones to high seas, signifying a significant loss for coastal nations.

For countries heavily dependent on oceans, like those in the Pacific, fisheries were not just a source of sustenance but also a lifeline for economic development and government revenue.

An artist and environmental advocate, Uili Lousi, representing the Kingdom of Tonga, infused the discourse with cultural significance. He passionately articulated the inseparable connection between their heritage and the oceans. Lousi drew attention to the existential threat that melting ice caps and the potential migration of tuna due to rising sea temperatures pose.

“Our culture and our heritage are our ocean, and as the Arctic is melting, we are sinking.”

The event showcased voices from the frontlines of climate change impacts—Rondy Ronny, acting chief of Eco Paradise in the Republic of Palau, spoke of how fisheries were not just livelihoods but the very pulse of family well-being.

Climate change was disproportionately impacting livelihoods, particularly those of women, and there was a pressing need for solutions, Amin Abdullah, the warden in charge of marine parks and reserves in Tanzania, said while highlighting the vulnerability of coastal communities in the western Indian Ocean, where 25 percent of the population lives along the coast.

Alvin S Jueseah, chair of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences at the University of Liberia, provided a stark portrayal of ground reality. He underlined the realness of climate change, with rising sea levels displacing residents, destroying fishing gear, houses, and, tragically, lives.

This had resulted in the necessity of building sea walls and implementing early warning systems to aid those facing climate change-related crises.

Collaboration was needed, Dr Hamady Diop, CEO of DnS Consulting, said, and he warned of the potential for transboundary conflicts arising from climate change, especially in regions where fishing is an industry. The industry was valued at USD 25 billion.

“With 38 coastal countries in Africa depending on fisheries, the implications of sea-level rise and temperature increases were dire,” he said.

The director of the Maldives Specie Research Agency, Ahmad Niyad, shed light on the critical importance of data availability.

Niyad stressed that one cannot manage what one cannot measure. The scarcity of data was a significant challenge faced by their organization, prompting a year-long focus on analyzing the situation and obtaining satellite monitoring data. He highlighted the unique economic reliance of island nations on tourism, an industry intricately linked with climate conditions.

“We island nations are together. We have one ocean, and we have to share it together,” was his message to COP28.

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African researchers want African issues to be front and center as the continent comes to grips with climate change-induced impacts. Credit: COP28/Neville Hopwood

By Joyce Chimbi
DUBAI, Dec 11 2023 (IPS)

African scientists and researchers are concerned that the data shows that the continent is being cornered by the spiraling effects of climate change, that the real impact of climate devastation is yet to unfold, and that the region is on the cusp of more severe and catastrophic consequences.

Given Africa’s high exposure and fragility to extreme and drastic changes in weather patterns, coupled with a low adaptative capacity, fears and concerns are rife that a failure to capture the full devastating picture on the ground could compromise Africa’s negotiating position at COP28 currently underway in Dubai.

In a session titled ‘African Science for the African Position,’ delegates heard about the mismatch between existing data and the needs on the ground and why it is critical to highlight climate change research from the continent.

“The focus of this conversation is really about data needs; the role of science from Africa but also across the global South to feed into the negotiating positions is overlooked. There is a need to improve our data and our social science in a way that provides accurate and comprehensive evidence for decision-making. Across climates—and of course here we are focusing on the UNFCCC—we are starting to look at critical inter-linkages around biodiversity, the ocean, livelihoods, justice, and equity,” said Laura Pereira, associate professor at the Global Change Institute at Wits University in Johannesburg and researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.

Dr Odirilwe Selomane, from the Department of Agriculture Economics, Extension, and Rural Development at the University of Pretoria, reflected on progress at COP28.

“Some of the issues that stood out are that there is a lack of nature-based solutions for funding on the one hand, and on the other hand, listening to those with nature-based solutions speak about a lack of funding, especially biodiversity financing. This disconnect can be bridged through scientific baselines that show what is happening on the ground to inform decision-making while designing responsive or climate action projects for Africa.”

Further emphasizing the need to “design data collection tools that can accurately capture the continent and all its ecosystems. When we look at the global soil degradation map, for instance, is it reflective of our continent and ecosystems, and how do we then improve these maps so that they give us an accurate reading of our contexts? One of the most effective and efficient approaches is to lean on African-centered science and research to give us the data needed to make decisions that match the needs on the ground.”

An open letter by 50 African scientists to African Heads of State and Government in light of COP28 reads, in part: “African citizens are feeling the heat and experiencing the drought, the instability in food supply and prices, the boiling oceans, and the impact of dwindling forests. The world is on fire, quite literally. Climate floods, cyclones, and wildfire events are becoming less predictable and more intense, destroying lives and displacing tens of thousands as the climate crisis deepens. We are in the midst of a human-made climate crisis, one that will get much more catastrophic if we fail to act.”

Odirilwe Selomane speaks about the disconnect between needs and investments and the urgent need for Africa-centered science to close the gap. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

The letter further spoke about how alarming levels of gas emissions are increasing temperatures on the continent, compounding the multiple challenges facing the continent. Between 1900 and 2000, the continent warmed by 2 °C in some regions. Stressing that Africa’s ten hottest years since records began have all been since 2005.

At the current pace of greenhouse gas emissions, the projected annual mean temperature increase for Africa is approximately 6 °C by the end of the 21st century, the scientists warned. In the coming years, climate heat waves will occur more often, at higher intensities, and last longer as greenhouse gas emissions increase.

Climate change is already multiplying threats to life on the African continent with record-breaking food insecurity and water stress levels. Poor health indicators and economic insecurities are of particular concern.

As the end beckons for the COP28 summit, these scientists are urging African leaders and negotiators to keep their eyes firmly on the African agenda and particularly focus their attentions on key areas: phase out fossil fuels, enforce the polluter’s pay principal, protect and conserve Africa’s biodiversity, and not be distracted by fraudulent carbon markets and biodiversity credit markets.

Against this backdrop, more than USD 186 million of new financing for nature and climate towards forests, mangroves, and the ocean has already been announced during Nature, Land Use, and Ocean Day. This funding builds on the USD 2.5 billion mobilized to protect and restore nature during COP28’s World Climate Action Summit.

For African leaders, this is a step in the right direction. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, said, “The COP28 Presidency, the UAE, has demonstrated real action for nature, one that is backed by significant financial commitments. The journey to 1.5°C, as we all know, is not possible without nature, and this level of action must be expedited to achieve real progress by COP30.”

From a scientific point of view, the move is similarly welcome; reversing nature loss can provide upwards of 30 percent of the mitigation action needed to keep 1.5°C within reach by 2030. Nature has a crucial role to play in reducing climate-related hazards, such as floods and fires currently ravaging poor and vulnerable countries in Africa.

Nature preservation can also provide Africa with the answer to unemployment, as it can contribute a potential USD 10 trillion worth of new business opportunities and provide almost 400 million new jobs.
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Dr Jasdev Singh Rai brings his concepts of reforestation and diversity to COP28. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

By Umar Manzoor Shah
DUBAI, Dec 11 2023 (IPS)

Dr Jasdev Singh Rai, an accomplished ENT doctor who hails from London, is not just attending COP 28; he is representing an organization that brings a unique perspective to the global stage.

Rai is the face of the ‘Sikh Human Rights Group,’ an entity that holds United Nations Special Consultative status. The group, in collaboration with its associate, ‘Nishan-e Sikh Kaar Sewa Khadur Sahib,’ is advocating a pluralistic approach to the environment, rooted in the rich concepts embedded in the Sikh faith.

He sheds light on the fundamental difference in perspective, stating, “Indian civilization always had a lot of concepts, and many of them are within the Sikh faith, and we are promoting them.”

He draws attention to the Sikh belief system, emphasizing that, unlike the prevailing Judeo-Christian approach at the UNFCCC, Sikhs consider themselves one among a million species, not custodians of the world.

The narrative takes a fascinating turn as Rai introduces the visionary behind Nishan-e Sikh Kaar Sewa Khadur Sahib, a Sikh faith leader, Baba Seva Singh. The Baba embarked on a mission to transform the mindset of farmers in India’s Punjab, known for their deep attachment to their land.

Baba Seva Singh, armed with the teachings from holy Sikh scriptures, convinced farmers to see trees not as mere vegetation but as sacred entities. Rai elaborates on the strategy: “Whenever a farmer would go to a Sikh temple, Baba Sewa Singh would hand over to him a tree sapling as a sacred offering.”

Through this ingenious method, Baba Seva Singh managed to cultivate 285 small jungles in Punjab. He didn’t stop there; he approached landowners with vast expanses of unused land, convincing them to contribute to the cause. The project resulted in the creation of 500 forests across 550 villages, a remarkable achievement in reforesting a region where the green cover had drastically dwindled.

Rai, carrying this impactful project to COP 28, aims to showcase alternative approaches to community engagement. He underscores the importance of recognizing the indigenous knowledge that rural communities possess, stating: “There are places in South India where traditional farmers have a far better understanding of climate than science.”

He advocates for the recovery of traditional knowledge systems, especially in a country like India, where ancient civilizations thrived with coexistence at their core.

The outcomes of Baba Seva Singh’s efforts are not just anecdotal; they are scientifically verified. In the reforested areas of Punjab, temperatures have seen a reduction of 1.5 degrees, and carbon emissions have significantly decreased.

“We are bringing in trees from other parts of India that are efficient in absorbing carbon,” Rai says. The project has already witnessed the planting of 130,000 trees across 323 miles, with a target of establishing 550 mini-forests.

This groundbreaking initiative, which started in 1999 as a 20-year plan, successfully reached fruition in 2020.

Rai believes it’s time for COP 28 to embrace a more inclusive and realistic approach, one that doesn’t impose western ideals on diverse nations like India or China. He urges the global community to recognize the coexistence inherent in Indian traditions and advocates for letting people take ownership of climate initiatives.

As Rai attends COP28, he brings not just a story of reforestation but a narrative that challenges the hegemonic norms, offering a model that works with, rather than against, the diverse traditions and cultures that shape our world.

“We have been constantly engrossed in realizing the spiritual realms into practical ones. Our organization earnestly aims to maintain the balance of our mother nature and provide a clean and green environment to future generations. In the coming years, places adorned with enormous plants and trees will emerge as distinguished entities on earth. These places will for sure provide shelter to birds and living creatures and thus create an ideal place for meditation and spiritual enlightenment,” says Rai.

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Moscow continues to foster close relationships with various countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Canva/ IPS. Known for its expensive villas and numerous letterbox companies: the Cayman Islands.
 
The Global South wants to strengthen the role of the UN in global tax policy. But the North is united in its opposition
 
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By Sarah Ganter
BERLIN, Dec 11 2023 (IPS)

Champagne corks popped in New York after the majority voted in favour of a UN tax convention. The clear result paved the way for a stronger role of the United Nations in shaping more inclusive and effective international tax cooperation. This fulfils a decades-long demand by the G77 group and the international civil society.

Public Services International (PSI), the international trade union of public service providers, is also an important champion of fair international tax rules. Its General Secretary, Daniel Bertossa, commented that the UN vote stood as a confirmation of the tireless campaigning work of the trade union movement and its partners and the fact that ‘tax rules that affect us all should involve us all’.

For international tax policy is ultimately a global distribution policy that touches on issues of national sovereignty. As far back as the American Revolution, the slogan ‘no taxation without representation’ was aimed at the British Crown.

However, it’s a shame that the historic vote turned into a battle between the Global South and the Global North. On the online platform X, Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations commented on the result as the most clear-cut North-South vote he had seen in recent years.

In view of the increasing state of crisis and conflict in international relations, people often talk about the formation of global alliances and the need for partnerships on equal terms. But the refusal to release patents for vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the industrialised countries shrugging their shoulders in the face of the existential threat of the international debt crisis for many middle- and low-income countries, have long since undermined trust in the reliability of such partnerships.

A dangerous signal

The vote on the UN tax convention has become the next crucial test, with a clear result: 125 countries voted for and only 48 against the resolution introduced by the group of African countries to the Second Committee of the General Assembly. Opposing votes came from the US, Canada, Australia, all EU countries and EU accession candidates, as well as Switzerland. With the exception of Norway’s abstention, the Global North voted unanimously against the initiative.

In an open letter prior to the vote, the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) had appealed to the EU and the US. In the letter, members of the commission, which is made up of high-ranking economists from the North and South, warned of a ‘dangerous signal’ that ‘blocking the Resolution on Promotion of Inclusive and Effective International Tax Cooperation at the United Nations’ would send.

According to the experts, the suspicion would be that ‘those who most loudly tout the benefits of a rules-based international order don’t actually believe in one.’

Taxes are one of the most important sources for financing public goods and services. In the last 10 years, there has finally been some movement in the discussion about reforming the international tax system. But despite all the talks and negotiations, multinational companies are still able to avoid taxes on a large scale.

Given the ever-increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the fact that only four per cent of global tax revenue comes from wealth-related taxes, it is obvious who bears the main financial burden of financing – working people and ordinary citizens, not billionaires. Labour is taxed, not wealth and financial assets.

The call to make the United Nations the central venue for international tax cooperation is as old as the debate about reforming the international tax system itself. So far, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the club of industrialised countries, has taken a leading role in the reform process of the international tax system. On behalf of the G20, the OECD is developing proposals to curb base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

The Group of 77 and civil society organisations such as the Global Alliance for Tax Justice have long called for the United Nations to take a stronger role in shaping an international tax system aligned with the goals of the sustainable development agenda that will ensure greater international tax justice.

With the slogan ‘if you are not at the table, you are on the menu’, they criticise the fact that developing countries do not have an equal seat at the table in OECD negotiations.

Proponents are expecting the UN tax convention to not only lead to a more inclusive international tax policy but also more transparency in the process, thanks to the greater involvement of civil society. Critics, however, fear a parallel event to existing reform efforts and a dilution of the negotiation successes achieved so far at the OECD.

The need to work together

In the ICRICT Commission’s press release following the vote, former Colombian Finance Minister José Antonio Ocampo struck a conciliatory tone. He called the resolution ‘one step further towards global social justice’ and sees it as a ‘strengthening of institutions, democracy and international stability’. He asks that all ‘learn from all the efforts of the past and build this process not on antagonism but on real cooperation between countries and between global institutions’.

Against the backdrop of the enormous financing challenges of our time, it is crucial that common solutions be quickly found for better international taxation of multinational corporations, without getting lost in institutional disputes. A UN tax convention offers the opportunity to give the negotiation successes of the OECD process a universal basis of legitimacy and also to build on important preparatory work by the United Nations Committee of Experts on international tax matters, such as the framework on double taxation developed by the UN.

The OECD’s Inclusive Framework on BEPS has undoubtedly achieved a historic negotiation success with the agreement on a global minimum tax. The minimum rate is intended to put a stop to international competition between locations for ever-lower taxes.

Nevertheless, from the perspective of the Global South, the rate of 15 per cent is clearly set far too low to achieve the hoped-for positive revenue effects. There is even concern that countries with higher tax rates will have an incentive to adjust them downwards. For this reason, the ICRICT Commission has been long calling for a rate of 22–25 per cent.

Structural injustices, such as the distribution of taxation rights, are hardly addressed in the OECD’s two-pillar approach. Critics see the linking of taxation rights to the registered domicile of the parent company as posing a disadvantage for the countries in which the actual value creation takes place along production networks. Therefore, criticism is being levelled that the OECD-led reform process has little to offer the countries of the Global South, while at the same time preventing them from taking their own initiatives, for example in the taxation of the digital economy.

It is hoped that the United Nations could facilitate a more effective reconciliation of interests, while at the same time placing taxation issues in the larger context of financing the transformation towards a sustainable global development model. Along those lines, preparations for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), which will take place in Madrid in 2025, are set to begin in early 2024.

Ten years after the last major conference in Addis Ababa, the FfD4 conference is to provide the much-needed framework to create coherence between the various reform agendas, especially in the areas of taxes, debt and investment.

The demand for the creation of a universal and intergovernmental tax institution under the auspices of the United Nations was already on the agenda in Addis Ababa but was rejected by industrialised countries.

In the final statement of the accompanying Civil Society Forum, more than 600 non-governmental organisations from around the world expressed their disappointment at the lost opportunity. With the new vote on the UN tax convention behind it, the Global South is now in a significantly better negotiating position for FfD4 in Madrid 2025

Sarah Ganter is a political scientist and heads the Globalisation Project of the Global and European Politics Department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Source: International Politics and Society (IPS) is published by the Global and European Policy Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin.

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By Timothy A. Wise
CAMBRIDGE, MA., Dec 11 2023 (IPS)

The dispute mounted by the U.S. government over Mexico’s policies to restrict the use of genetically modified corn is the latest example of the misuse of a trade agreement to impede social programs in Mexico and other countries. The U.S. government has been doing this for years.

It’s all about boosting exports. U.S. agricultural policies favor and encourage the overproduction of crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat. They depress prices, with supply regularly exceeding demand. It serves the interests of agribusiness, which benefits from high demand for its seeds, agrochemicals, and machinery, and low prices for livestock feed, for its ethanol factories, and for its highly processed food.

But farmers suffer from low crop prices and high input costs, kept high by corporate concentration. As the graph shows, between 1980 and 2020, U.S. farmers suffered losses in sales in 33 of the 40 years. The bottom line represents their profits without subsidies, in the negative in every year save the 2007-2013 period of the so-called “food crisis.”

(Source: FarmDoc Daily, December 9, 2022.)

The top line represents their earnings with subsidies. Even with subsidies, in many years, most still lose. But the subsidies themselves do not cause this overproduction. Rather, they are a response to losses which maintains the system for agribusiness.

For a time in the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. had a policy of supply management to reduce overproduction and achieve a balance between supply and demand to keep prices at a more appropriate level for producers. Not anymore, and the resulting expansion of production requires the U.S. to open international markets to sell the excess, usually at prices below production costs. This is known as “agricultural dumping.”

Timothy A. Wise

The U.S. has for years used NAFTA and now the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA) to try to weaken or end a successful supply-management program in Canadian dairy. Canada recently won a dispute with the U.S., but U.S. officials promise to keep trying to open the Canadian dairy market for U.S. farmers, who are suffering a wave of overproduction.

U.S. dairy exports to Mexico under the USMCA have driven down milk prices there. Milk is one of the Mexican government’s priority products to recover a margin of self-sufficiency, but that is very difficult with dumping-level prices.

In May of this year, I published a report on U.S. dumping, particularly for Mexico’s priority products – corn, wheat, rice, beans, and milk. In each case, we see a dramatic expansion in exports under NAFTA/USMCA and a drop in domestic prices under competition from dumped imports, while domestic production stagnates or falls.

In wheat, for example, imports rose by 68% after NAFTA took effect in 1993, and prices to Mexican producers fall by more than 60%. Domestic production suffered. Before NAFTA, Mexico produced 80% of the wheat it consumed. Now it imports more than 60% from the U.S.

In corn, after NAFTA, exports surged by more than 400% in the first few years at prices 19% below production costs. That produced a drop in Mexican farm prices of 66%. Mexico has maintained its production of white and native corn, but so far has failed to stimulate the dramatic expansion sought by the government. Much of this is due to U.S. agricultural dumping.

Now the U.S. government is using the USMCA to undermine the Mexican government’s policies in the GM corn dispute. A presidential decree barely restricts U.S. exports, prohibiting GM corn in tortillas to protect human health. But the U.S. still seeks to impose its industrialized agricultural regime and its narrow view of science over Mexico’s precautionary science and food sovereignty.

Mexico has dramatically moderated its policies to reduce impacts on international trade. Even the USMCA itself recognizes the right to take precautionary measures, based on science and with transparent processes. And by taking the “least trade distorting” actions.

What measures can Mexico take that are less trade-distorting than its current actions? It does not restrict imports, only the use of GM corn in the tortilla chain. The borders are open to any non-transgenic corn, even from the U.S.

But more to the point, why doesn’t Mexico deserve the right to take precautionary measures to advance public health and protect the diversity of its precious corn?

The U.S. has a long history of misusing trade agreements to undermine anti-hunger programs. Since 2013 at the World Trade Organization the U.S. government has pursued a dispute against India over its national food security program, which was established through the efforts of a national movement for the right to food. India is the hungriest country in the world with hundreds of millions of people lacking sufficient food.

The program guarantees a minimum distribution of basic foodstuffs to the poor, free of charge, through public distribution centers. The government collects rice, wheat, and other crops from small and medium-scale producers at fixed and fair prices, somewhat higher than free market prices. Purchases go for distribution to the poor. It has been a great success, reducing poverty and food insecurity both for the farmers because of the fair prices and for the hundreds of millions of poor people who receive the benefit.

Using outdated rules under the WTO agreements, the U.S. filed a formal dispute arguing that the guaranteed prices offered by the government to Indian farmers violate the agreement. It said India is harming exporters who do not receive the same price, that its above-market prices represent an excessive subsidy to farmers.

Imagine the hypocrisy! The U.S., even with its billions of dollars of subsidies to farmers, most of whom are not going hungry, accuses India of providing excessive subsidies to its small-scale farmers, who are poor. This is a guaranteed price, not a direct subsidy, and it is part of the largest anti-hunger initiative in the world. So far, the dispute remains unresolved. Fortunately, the program continues to expand in India.

Mexico has every right to defend its policy of restricting GM corn in the tortilla chain. Hopefully the arbitration panel will recognize the hypocrisy and cynicism of the U.S. in trying to apply the USMCA rules to an initiative that barely affects its exports. Mexico gets to decide if it wants tortillas free of GM corn.

This article summarizes the author’s presentation November 30, 2023 at the International Conference on Food Self-Sufficiency and Agroecology held in Oaxaca City, Mexico.

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Philip Mpango resurfaced on Sunday after not being seen for a month, leading to rumours about his health.

Kenya has experienced three nationwide blackouts in the last four months, the latest on Sunday evening.

On Oct. 19, 2023, Ahmad, 9, stands in the ruins of his house, destroyed by an aerial bombardment in Rafah city. “Here was my room, my bed, my toys, and my clothes," he said. "I cannot see anything now except rubble and traces of the fire that destroyed everything.” Credit: UNICEF/UNI457839/El Baba

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2023 (IPS)

As the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to rise to unprecedented heights —reaching over 17,000 since October 7, with more than 46,000 injured – one of the most distressing reports to come out of the war zone is the use of excessively heavy weaponry by Israel.

The Hamas attack on October 7, which killed 1,200 inside Israel, has resulted in a disproportionate number of Palestinians killed so far—and rising.

In a report last month—comparing Israeli bombings with US attacks in Middle East conflicts—the New York Times pointed out that the aerial bombs used by American forces against the Islamic State (ISIS) in urban areas in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria were 500-pound weapons.
But, in contrast, “Israel’s liberal use of very large weapons in dense urban areas” included American-made 2,000-pound bombs that flattened buildings, houses and an apartment tower in Gaza while killing thousands of Palestinians.

“It’s beyond anything that I’ve seen in my career” Marc Garlasco, a former intelligence analyst at the Pentagon, was quoted as saying.

Which triggers two questions: would Israel have survived without the $130 billion in weapons and military assistance provided by the US since Israel’s creation in 1948. And should Israel be charged with war crimes, along with US, the primary arms supplier to Israel?

https://www.ipsnews.net/2023/11/us-provided-130-billion-dollars-aid-weapons-israel-largest-ever/

But both scenarios are not likely to happen. Any such attempts in the Security Council—either against the US or Israel will be vetoed by the Americans—as it happened last week on a resolution for cease-fire in Gaza.

The resolution suffered a US veto (even though it had the support of 13 of the 15 members in the Security Council, with one abstention by UK.

According to a December 1 report in the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. last week provided Israel with additional 2,000-Pound bombs for the Gaza War.

The U.S. has provided Israel with large bunker buster bombs, among tens of thousands of other weapons and artillery shells, to help dislodge Hamas from Gaza, U.S. officials were quoted as saying.

The surge of arms, including roughly 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells, began shortly after the Oct. 7 attack and has continued in recent days, the officials said. The U.S. hasn’t previously disclosed the total number of weapons it sent to Israel nor the transfer of 100 BLU-109, 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs.

After sending massive bombs, artillery shells, U.S. also urged Israel to limit civilian casualties: a warning ignored by Israel.

According to Wikipedia, the Mark 84 or BLU-117 is a 2,000 pounds (907 kg) American general-purpose bomb. It is the largest of the Mark 80 series of weapons. Entering service during the Vietnam War, it became a commonly used US heavy unguided bomb (due to the amount of high-explosive content packed inside) to be dropped.

Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy and National Director, RootsAction.org, told IPS military aid from the U.S. government has been essential for Israel to maintain itself as an expansionist country during the last several decades.

“That assistance has enabled Israel to systematically crush the human rights of Palestinian people while continuing to violate international law with occupations of Gaza and the West Bank. Israel has used its military might to, in effect, sadistically turn Gaza’s residents into abused prisoners,” he said.

He pointed out that much of the strength of the Israeli armed forces has been due to Washington’s extraordinary quantities of support with military aid. Recent events have underscored how the U.S. government is willing to step up military assistance with massive amounts of weaponry and other war material while Israel continues to slaughter civilians in Gaza.

“The wanton and purposeful killings of more than 15,000 civilians during the last two months are war crimes that deserve unequivocal condemnation and prosecution. What’s more, the U.S. government is more than complicit – it is an accomplice in these crimes against humanity. The same standards that should emphatically condemn Hamas’ murders of civilians on October 7 should also emphatically condemn Israel’s murders of civilians since then,” said Solomon, author, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.”

In recent days, a pair of developments involving the United States government have underscored its direct complicity in the ongoing mass murder by Israel in Gaza.

On December 8, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution for a ceasefire. The next day, the Biden administration disclosed that it is bypassing Congress to sell 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel. Overall, in Washington, bipartisan zeal is persisting to actively support the slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“Propaganda efforts to equate calls for a single standard of human decency with antisemitism are specious and demagogic”.

“Like a growing number of other Jewish Americans, I reject any and all efforts to equate Judaism with the state of Israel. The government of Israel continues to be engaged in large-scale war crimes, with the support of the U.S. government. They should be unequivocally denounced and opposed,” declared Solomon.

Dr Ramzy Baroud, author, a syndicated columnist, editor of Palestine Chronicle & a Senior Research Fellow at Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), told IPS a long-term narrative has served to explain Washington’s relationship with Tel Aviv: that the former is the latter’s benefactor and main backer, whether financially, military or politically.

“The latest war on Gaza and the direct US involvement in this war are forcing us to rethink our perception of the US-Israeli relationship”, he said.

“If we list everything that Washington has done to help Israel in carrying out and sustain its ongoing genocide in Gaza, we would need many hours explaining the degree of US involvement”.

This includes the immediate blank check signed by Washington to justify any Israeli response to the October 7 operation, the dispatching of aircraft carriers, of hundreds of military airplanes, along with seemingly endless financial and other forms of support.

So, this is no longer about a certain, fixed amount of money that Washington sends to Tel Aviv. It is also about 2,000 pounds bombs with the full knowledge of how and when these bombs would be used, with intelligence information as to where these bombs would be dropped, and the full political backing in justifying the devastating outcome once the bombs are dropped, he argued.

“In other words, Washington is a direct partner in the Israeli war on Gaza. This realization shall have direct consequences, not only to US reputation in the Middle East, but in the short and even long-term US-Middle East strategies, including its military presence in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.”

Palestinians, and millions around them, understand that they are also fighting a war against the US. They are not wrong, he said.

Meanwhile, according to a breaking story in the New York Times last week, the US State Department is pushing through a government sale to Israel of 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition, bypassing a congressional review process that is generally required for arms sales to foreign nations.

The State Department notified congressional committees at 11 p.m. last Friday that it was moving ahead with the sale, valued at more than $106 million, even though Congress had not finished an informal review of a larger order from Israel for tank rounds.

The department invoked an emergency provision in the Arms Export Control Act, the State Department official and a congressional official told The New York Times. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities over the sales. The arms shipment has been put on an expedited track, and Congress has no power to stop it.

The Defense Department posted a notification of the sale before noon on Saturday. It said Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken had informed Congress on Friday that “an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale.”

It is the first time that the State Department had invoked the emergency provision for an arms shipment to the Middle East since May 2019, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approved weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a move that was criticized by lawmakers and some career officials inside the State Department, according to the Times.

The State Department has used the emergency provision at least two times since 2022 to rush arms to Ukraine for its defense against Russia’s invasion.

But in the case of the Israel-Gaza war, there has been growing condemnation in the United States and abroad of the way Israel is carrying out its offensive. The State Department’s decision to bypass Congress appeared to reflect an awareness of some Democratic lawmakers’ criticism of the Biden administration for supplying arms to Israel with no conditions or scrutiny, the Times said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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