Africa

Credit: IPS

By Manuel Barange
ROME, Dec 3 2019 (IPS)

This is a question we need to ask ourselves but before answering we need to acknowledge the diversity of expectations and aspirations that we all have for oceans, which cover more than two-thirds of the planet’s surface.

We all need to eat, and food does not come out of a magician’s hat. It has to be harvested on land or in water, in ways that almost always imply a level of transformation of the wild environment. Agreeing on the trade-offs so that food provision is secured for current and future generations is the panacea we all search for.

According to FAO 60 percent of all exploited fish stocks are at levels that produce their maximum yield. This is the level that countries would like all exploited fish stocks to be, as agreed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and many other international agreements. The problem is that 33 percent of fish stocks are overfished, and thus capable of producing more if they were allowed to rebuild to the appropriate biomass, while a further 7 percent of those assessed are underfished – this means that just like a forest where the trees are too close together, they would need to be fished further to ensure they produce to their full potential.

Maximizing the sustainable exploitation of our fish resources has broader considerations. 35 percent of the planet’s land surface is already devoted to agriculture, using 70 percent of all the water humans use. Land ecosystems may bear a heavy toll if demanded alone to support the 60 percent more food required to feed our growing population by 2050, So let’s ask again, what do we want from our oceans?

Sustainability is critical. FAO notes that overexploitation of fisheries is worsening in developing regions, where poverty, hunger, and inadequate investments in fisheries management systems are making things worse. In contrast, it is dramatically improving in developed regions: 91 percent of fish stocks in the United States of America are not subject to overfishing, in Australia it is 83 percent, while the reduction in fishing pressure in Europe’s Atlantic waters since 2002 has resulted in the majority of fish stocks now being fished sustainably.

With political will to support data collection, policy development, management programmes and enforcement, fisheries management can be highly effective. Without shoring these up, ocean protection will become more difficult to deliver, as will feeding the world.

We must not forget climate change, the greatest challenge of our time, and its impacts on the supply and composition of food from our ocean.

The best assessment is that maximum catch potential in the world’s fisheries are projected to decline by between 2.3 and 12.1 percent by 2050, depending on the effectiveness of greenhouse gas mitigation efforts. But that global projection obscures something we know: that the most detrimental effects are expected to happen in the tropics and in small Pacific Island states, home to some of the world’s poorest and most fish-dependent communities, and where fishing rules are patchily enforced.

As many fish species are free to migrate, ocean warming will trigger a number of distributional shifts and cause ecosystem reorganizations, some of which can lead to very negative outcomes. When lionfish moved into the Caribbean, they provoked a sharp decline in native fish populations that were the customary targets of local communities. Lionfish are now in the Mediterranean, where they prosper thanks to overfishing of a potential rival, the grouper. As species move, fisheries management systems will have to adapt and evolve. This will increasingly entail negotiations between countries to deal with resources that cross or straddle national jurisdictions, as well as adaptable fishing fleets and strategies. Hands-off initiatives such as marine-protected areas have little impact on rising temperature and acidification levels and may not boost stocks as much as hoped. We should pursue very hands-on strategies. This means more and better management, not less.

Consumers will also help make the ocean sustainable by adjusting culinary preferences. Anchovies and red mullets, beloved in the Mediterranean, are proving a hard sell in Britain, where they are increasingly available. The namesake fish of Cape Cod, an elite resort in the U.S., is now imported from Iceland while locally caught dogfish struggles for recognition and ends up exported – all while the main difference for customers is the name.

It is imperative to embrace -– as many cultures have – an open mind about what is edible. And that too is eminently possible; consider how North American lobsters evolved from “trash” fed to prisoners to an icon of upscale dining. In particular, we should foster appreciation of smaller fish, which are particularly big sources of micronutrients that paradoxically are often in short supply in the tropical countries that export them.

One shorthand way to achieve a better and acceptable vision of the role of the oceans as a provider of food is to consider fisheries as part of the global food system and incorporate them into coherent strategies. Once again, optimizing the required trade-offs means more and better management, not less.

Beyond capture fisheries, it’s evident that aquaculture – the fastest growing food production system over the past half a century – is a strategic and promising tool. Aquaculture fosters smart use of animals lower in the food chain, and while largely an inland activity also accounts for more than one-fourth of the fish oceans provide us.

These and related issues will be discussed at a four-day high-level international symposium hosted by FAO, and lie at the core of negotiations to take place at COP25, the UN Climate Change Conference in Spain in December.

There are an estimated 821 million undernourished people in the world today, a figure that increased in the last four years. To change this trend, we will need all the tools in our toolbox. The ocean, occupying 71 percent of the planet’s surface, provides just two percent of our calorie intake. We will not make hunger history without changing this ratio. Appropriate recognition of what the ocean can do for us should help us focus our time, money and ideas with the clarity that the challenge demands.

The author is Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Resources Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The post What Do We Want from Our Oceans? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Zimbabwe's National Sports Stadium in Harare is ruled unfit to host international matches.

Credit: UNICEF

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 3 2019 (IPS)

The greatest single climate-induced threat facing the world’s 44 small island developing states (SIDS) is rising sea waters which could obliterate some of the low-lying states, including Maldives, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Palau and Micronesia.

The Marshall Islands alone, says the UN, has seen more than a third of its population move abroad in the last 15-20 years. Many have moved for work, healthcare and education – but climate change is now threatening those who have chosen to stay.

At the Conference of Parties (COP25) on climate change in Madrid December 2, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointedly warned that rising sea levels were twice as deadly today as it was many moons ago: while oceans are rising, he said, they are also being poisoned.

“Oceans absorb more than a quarter of all CO2 in the atmosphere and generate more than half our oxygen. Absorbing more and more carbon dioxide acidifies the oceans and threatens all life within them”, he added.

But bigger cities have not been spared either.

In an article titled “Warming Ocean Waters Have Fish on the Move”, The New York Times reported December 2 that Iceland, whose economy has depended largely on commercial fishing, has discovered that warming waters associated with climate change are causing some fish to seek cooler waters elsewhere beyond the reach of Icelandic fishermen.

Pointing out the hazards of climate change, Guterres says ice caps are melting. And in Greenland alone, 179 billion tonnes of ice melted in July. Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing 70 years ahead of projections. And Antarctica is melting three times as fast as a decade ago, he told delegates at COP25 which is scheduled to conclude December 13.

But there are two proposals before the UN, both aimed primarily at safeguarding the high seas: a Global Network of Ocean Sanctuaries and a Global Ocean Treaty.

Scientific expeditions in recent years have revealed that the high seas, 200 nautical miles from coastal shores, harbor an incredible array of species that provide essential services for life on Earth. Credit: The Pew Charitable Trusts

Louisa Casson, an Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace UK, told IPS that scientists and governments have coalesced around the concept of a global network of fully protected ocean sanctuaries, covering at least 30% of the world’s ocean.

The creation of this network is not just realistic, but of fundamental importance to the health of our planet, she said.

A new report, “Greenpeace’s 30×30: A Blueprint for Ocean Protection” authored in collaboration with the Universities of York and Oxford, sets out a scientifically robust and clear vision for a global network of ocean sanctuaries, totally off limits to human exploitation, which would give oceans and the wildlife that calls it home the space needed to recover and thrive.

To deliver this network, she said, governments at the United Nations must agree on a strong new Global Ocean Treaty in 2020.

“This treaty would help fix the currently broken system of ocean governance, which has allowed our ocean to be exploited to the brink of collapse.”

Such a treaty, she said, would provide a clear legal duty and process for nations to protect and restore ocean health through a network of sanctuaries, and set out a robust institutional framework for creating and effectively managing the network through a Conference of the Parties.

A new treaty should also provide clear enforcement obligations for all governments, and monitoring and review mechanisms to ensure the treaty is being properly implemented by all, said Casson.

The world’s high seas, which extend beyond 200 nautical miles, are deemed “international waters” to be shared globally– but they remain largely ungoverned justifying the need for a new treaty.

The world’s oceans have steadily undergone environmental destruction, including illegal fishing and overfishing, plastics pollutions, indiscriminate sea bed mining and degradation of marine eco systems.

Dr Palitha Kohona, a former co-chair of the ‘U.N. Working Group on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity Beyond Areas of National Jurisdiction’, told IPS the concept of ocean sanctuaries and protected areas has been on the table for some time.

He said it is high on the agenda of Western NGOs and many European countries.

And there is a historic compromise in place between the Group of 77 developing countries (G77) and the European Union (EU) on the outlines of this concept and benefit sharing, he noted.

“Properly identified and policed, ocean sanctuaries and marine protected areas (MPAs) will help to protect the habitat of identified species and the breeding grounds of diverse marine life forms which took millions of years to evolve,” he said.

It is hoped that agreement on these will at least help to arrest the decline in the number of marine species, said Dr Kohona a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

However, a longstanding demand for benefit sharing by developing countries also needs accommodation. A compromise can be achieved. There are precedents which can be adapted, he said.

Biological diversity in the oceans could very well provide the impetus for the next wave of innovations in the pharmaceutical industry and the developing world is acutely conscious of being excluded from it benefits.

“We know that species extinction is occurring at an unprecedented pace, including in the seas and oceans. Global warming is contributing substantially to this phenomenon”.

At the same time, species adaptation to changing weather and climate factors is threatening the livelihood of millions who depend on the oceans and seas for their living.

He said fish swim away from familiar habitats to areas where the temperature is more conducive to their existence.

Attempts to arrest global warming have received storms of verbal support but not much by way of practical action. Some in positions of power have even challenged the overwhelming scientific view in order to cultivate uninformed electoral support, he noted.

“At COP 25 in Madrid, we need to encourage thinking that would balance economic consolidation and advancement and the conservation of the environment for our children. Our future must not be left to whims of those who thrive in ignorance,” he declared.

Casson pointed out there is wide agreement on the need for a new Global Ocean Treaty.

However, governments have been negotiating on a new treaty for years now, and as industrial vested interests step up their lobbying there is a serious risk of the treaty failing to change the status quo, leaving governments unable to deliver effective ocean protection.

She said governments that are truly supportive of proper marine protection must step up when the United Nations meets next year, and fight for the strongest Global Ocean Treaty possible.

“Without a robust new treaty, the ocean crisis will only worsen, which will have wide implications for our planet’s health and for all of humanity,” she warned.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has proclaimed a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to support efforts to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health.

The marine realm, says the UN, is the largest component of the Earth’s system that stabilizes climate and support life on Earth and human well-being.

The impact of multiple stressors on the ocean is projected to increase as the human population grows towards the expected 9 billion by 2050.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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Russia Ambassador Dmitry Maksimychev with WFP in April 2019. Credit: WFP

By PRESS RELEASE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 3 2019 (IPS-Partners)

The Government of Russia has announced a voluntary contribution of 1 million US Dollars to the World Food Programme of the United Nations for food assistance to Kenya. WFP will coordinate with the Kenyan authorities the distribution of food supplies to reach families most in need of assistance.

“This support is an expression of solidarity of the Russian people with the people of Kenya. It will contribute to the achievement by Kenya of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Government of Kenya’s Big Four Agenda in food security,” said the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Kenya Dmitry Maksimychev. It also reflects the spirit of the recent Russia – Africa Summit, he added.

H.E. Amb. Macharia Kamau, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya, said: “Kenya welcomes the cooperation and support of the Russian Federation. And particularly that this support and cooperation is in line with the Big Four priorities of the President targeting food security. This especially welcome given that it came so soon after the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, which President Kenyatta attended”.

The current floods have amplified the effects of drought experienced in the earlier part of the year, which affected at least ten counties, mostly in northern and North-eastern Kenya and rendered about 3,1 million people food insecure.

“I would like to deeply appreciate the Government of Russia for this support to the people of Kenya through the United Nations World Food Programme. We stand with the people of Kenya and remain committed to relieving those suffering from hunger,” said UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya Mr. Siddharth Chatterjee when receiving the announcement from the Ambassador of Russia. He further said that in this age, no Kenyan should suffer from hunger and pledged that the UN Kenya Country Team will continue to deliver as one support the government and all its partners to transform the county into a food-basket for the region and the world.

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Serbian coach Milutin 'Micho' Sredejovic leaves Zamalek, with former Raja Casablanca and Al Ahly coach Patrice Carteron replacing him.

Rohingya after they fled Myanmar in 2017 arrive at Shahparir Dip in Teknaf, Bangladesh. On Nov. 11, the Gambia filed a lawsuit against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice for the southeast asian country’s atrocities against the Rohingya population. Credit: IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 3 2019 (IPS)

On Nov. 11, the Gambia filed a lawsuit against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice for the southeast asian country’s atrocities against the Rohingya population. 

Over the past years, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh for refuge, sparking one of the more dire refugee crises of the decade. They continue to remain in camps in Bangladesh, where they are vulnerable to human trafficking and other forms of violence.

Even though the crisis has been ongoing for decades, it’s a crucial time for the lawsuit to be filed, advocates say. And the Rohingya people’s continuing refusal to go back is only testament to the lack of security for them in Myanmar. 

“No one has been held accountable,” Akila Radhakrishnan, President of Global Justice Center (GJC), told IPS. “It’s the same forces [that] remain in Rakhine state, they remain kind of [as a] part of the military with no punishment. There’s no feeling that there’s safety and security to go back to Myanmar.”

Radhakrishnan pointed out that even though the lawsuit may be “far away” from when the crisis began, the continued fear of Rohingyas to return to their home shows how deeply the crisis persists. 

“I think there’s a recognition of the impossibility of the return of the Rohingya, a solution to the humanitarian crisis,” she said, adding that the lawsuit will push for the Myanmar government to take actions that focus on changing the laws and policies that enabled the genocide. 

The lawsuit by the Gambia is supported in large part by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is being led by Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Gambia Abubacarr M Tambadou, who decided to pursue actions after a recent visit to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, a region where about 900,000 Rohingya refugees are living in camps in that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has termed the world’s biggest refugee camp. 

Tambadou, who also worked to bring justice for the case of the Rwandan genocide, immediately recognised a similar pattern and was moved to take action, he said during an event held during U.N. General Assembly in September. 

One of the key things being asked in the lawsuit is the request for provisional measures that would require the Myanmar government, on a basis of “extreme urgency”, to set a hearing date for Myanmar government to “restrain certain conduct” by Myanmar that’s enabling the genocide, Paul Reichler, head of Foley Hoag, the law firm leading the lawsuit, explained to IPS. 

“When you file a suit, you want to make sure the very object of the suit is not destroyed while the case is pending in court,” he explained. “The Gambia will be asking the court to order Myanmar to cease all acts of genocide against the Rohingya.”

But a challenge remains here: how can Myanmar stop actions they don’t acknowledge as genocide denial? 

“The court may wish to define what kind of acts should be stopped so the order makes clear what Myanmar is prohibited from doing,” Reichler said. “[The] main thing we’re asking for is final judgment…in the interim to prevent further irreparable harm.” 

In case Myanmar does not comply with the requirements of the lawsuit, Reichler says the court can take further actions or the international community “can react with political measures”. 

Within a few days of the lawsuit being filed by the Gambia, a lawsuit was filed by Argentina against leaders in Myanmar, including Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the first Nobel peace laureate to face such legal charges.  

Suu Kyi, however, has not budged from her position. She continues to justify the torture of Rohingyas while branding them as “terrorists” owing to a 2017 attack that sparked the most recent exodus. 

In the aftermath of the lawsuit, her government has set up a legal unit while she aims to lead the country’s defence at the ICJ, with a hearing expected on Dec. 10.  

“Aung San Suu Kyi and the civilian government failed to act against genocide in Rakhine State with any level of urgency and have taken no steps to hold the military to account,” Radhakrishnan said in a statement for Suu Kyi’s announcement.

“Now, they are going to defend the military and government’s genocidal actions on one of the world’s largest and most influential stages. The international community should no longer have illusions where Suu Kyi and the civilian government stand and must act to support the Gambia and take other measures to hold Myanmar accountable.”

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• Little Hope of Justice for Rohingya, Two Years after Exodus
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• Damning U.N. Report Outlines Crimes Against Rohingya As Children Suffer from Trauma One Year Later

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He has worked with the likes of Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard, and now Ryland Morgans' sights are set on the World Cup.

By External Source
MADRID, Dec 2 2019 (IPS)

A green economy is “not one to be feared but an opportunity to be embraced”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, in a keynote speech to delegates at the opening of the COP25 UN climate conference in Madrid on Monday.

The tasks are many, timelines are tight, every item is important

Mr. Guterres outlined the work programme for what will be a busy two-week event covering multiple aspects of the climate crisis, including capacity-building, deforestation, indigenous peoples, cities, finance, technology, and gender. “The tasks are many”, he said, “our timelines are tight, and every item is important”.

“Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned?”

António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

The conference must convey a firm determination to change course, demonstrate that the world is seriously committed to stopping the “war against nature”, and has the political will to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, he continued.

COP25 marks the beginning of a 12 month process to review countries’ “Nationally Determined Contributions” or NDCs (the commitments made under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement), and ensure that they are ambitious enough to defeat the climate emergency.

 

Overcome divisions, put a price on carbon

Encouraging signs of progress, noted Mr. Guterres, came out of the UN’s Climate Action Summit, held in September, which saw initiatives proposed by small island nations and least-developed countries, major cities and regional economies, as well as the private and financial sectors.

The stated intention of some 70 countries to submit enhanced NDCs in 2020 – with 65 countries and major economies committing to work for net zero emissions by 2050 – while governments and investors are backing away from fossil fuels, were also cited as positive signs.

The UN chief called for leaders to end division over climate change, and reach consensus on carbon pricing, a crucial tool for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Doing so, he said, will “get markets up and running, mobilize the private sector, and ensure that the rules are the same for everyone.”

 

Is this the generation that ‘fiddled while the planet burned?’

However, failing to decide on a price for carbon will, warned Mr. Guterres, risk fragmenting the carbon markets, sending a negative message that can undermine efforts to solve the climate crisis.

Throughout his speech, the Secretary-General was crystal clear about the urgent, existential level of the climate crisis. Failure to act, he said, will be the path of surrender: “Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned?”

The signs of potential disaster are unmissable, he declared. For example, the current concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is comparable to that seen between 3 and 5 million years ago, when the temperature was between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius warmer than now and sea levels were 10 to 20 metres higher than today.

Other indicators include the fact that the last five years have been the hottest on record, and have seen extreme weather events and associated disasters, from hurricanes to drought to floods to wildfires. Ice caps are melting at a rapid rate, sea levels are rising, and oceans are acidifying, threatening all marine life.

Meanwhile, coal plants continue to be planned and built, and large, important parts of the global economy – from agriculture to transportation, from urban planning and construction to cement, steel and other carbon-intensive industries – are still run in ways that are unsustainable.

“There is no time and no reason to delay”, concluded Mr. Guterres. “We have the tools, we have the science, we have the resources. Let us show we also have the political will that people demand from us. To do anything less will be a betrayal of our entire human family and all the generations to come”.

 

Time for politicians to lead, not follow

Speaking at a roundtable with Heads of State and government attending COP25, Mr. Guterres urged them to lead, and not follow, at a time when public opinion over the environment is evolving very quickly, and cities, regions and the business community are taking action to tackle the climate crisis.

The Secretary-General reminded them that at the recent G20 meeting of the world’s leading economies in Osaka, a group of asset management companies, representing some $34 trillion dollars had asked political leaders to enhance climate action, end subsidies to fossil fuels, and put a price on carbon.

The private sector, he added, is increasingly demonstrating a strong commitment to move forward, and complaining that it’s governments who are lagging behind: regulation is inadequate, fiscal systems are not favourable, subsidies are still going to fossil fuels, and companies face obstacles to climate action.

With a head of steam building for action, it is for political leaders to “to be able to take profit of this movement and to lead, for us to be able to defeat climate change”.

 

Climate crisis mostly affecting ‘those least responsible for it’

The Secretary-General also addressed a forum of “climate vulnerable” countries, where he pointed out the “great injustice” of climate change: its effects fall most on those least responsible for it.

He cited examples, including Mozambique and the Caribbean, ravaged by storms that cause devastation, in terms of lives lost, communities uprooted, and economies crippled; and drought in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

Nevertheless, some of the most vulnerable nations are in the forefront of climate action, showing leadership at September’s Climate Action Summit: Mr. Guterres expressed his hope that their example will be followed by the world’s big emitters.

 

This story was originally published by UN News

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Family photo at the opening of the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) on climate change, taking place in Madrid Dec. 2 to 13. Credit: UNFCCC

By Emilio Godoy
MADRID, Dec 2 2019 (IPS)

Tens of thousands of delegates from state parties began working Monday Dec. 2 in the Spanish capital to pave the way to comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change, while at a parallel summit, representatives of civil society demanded that the international community go further.

Calls to combat the climate emergency marked the opening of the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in light of the most recent scientific data showing the severity of the crisis, as reflected by more intense storms, rising temperatures and sea levels, and polar melting.

Pedro Sánchez, acting prime minister of Spain – selected as the emergency host country after the political crisis in Chile forced the relocation of the summit – called during the opening ceremony for Europe to lead the decarbonisation of the economy and move faster to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the greenhouse gas generated by human activities.

“Today, fortunately, only a handful of fanatics deny the evidence” about the climate emergency, Sánchez said at the opening of the COP, held under the motto “Time to act” at the Feria de Madrid Institute (IFEMA) fairgrounds.

COP25 is the third consecutive climate conference held in Europe. The agenda focuses on issues such as financing for national climate policies and the rules for emission reduction markets – outlined without specifics in the Paris Agreement, which was agreed four years ago and is to enter into force in 2020.

It will also address the preparation of the update of emissions reductions and funding of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, designed to assist regions particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

In the 1,000 square metres where COP25 is being held, 29,000 people – according to estimates by the organisers – including some 50 heads of state and government, representatives of the 196 official delegations and civil society organisations, as well as 1,500 accredited journalists, will gather until Dec. 13.

But the notable absence of U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not give cause for optimism.

These include the leaders of the countries that produce the most greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making their lack of interest in strengthening the Paris Agreement more serious.

On Nov. 4, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he submitted a formal notice to the United Nations to begin the process of pulling out of the climate accord.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said during the opening ceremony that “The latest, just-released data from the World Meteorological Organisation show that levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high.

“Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned?”

In its Emissions Gap Report 2019, the U.N. Environment Programme warned on the eve of the opening of COP25 of the need to cut emissions by 7.6 percent a year between 2020 and 2030 in order to stay within the 1.5 degree Celsius cap on temperature rise proposed in the Paris Agreement.

Many delegations admitted that the world is off track to achieving the proposed 45 percent reduction in GHG by 2030 and to becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

In fact, delegates pointed out on Monday, emissions reached an alarming 55.3 billion tons in 2018, including deforestation.

One of the hopes is that more countries, cities, companies and investment funds will join the Climate Ambition Alliance, launched by Chile, the country that still holds the presidency of the COP, and endorsed by at least 66 nations, 10 regions, 102 cities, 93 corporations and 12 large private investors.

More than 70 countries and 100 cities so far have committed to reaching zero net emissions by 2050.

Social summit

Parallel to the official meeting, organisations from around the world are gathered at the Social Summit for Climate under the slogan “Beyond COP25: People for Climate”, which in its statement to the conference criticises the economic model based on the extraction of natural resources and mass consumption, blaming it for the climate crisis, and complaining about the lack of results in the UNFCCC meetings.

“The scientific diagnosis is clear regarding the seriousness and urgency of the moment. Economic growth happens at the expense of the most vulnerable people,” says the statement, which defends climate justice “as the backbone of the social fights of our time” and “the broadest umbrella that exists to protect all the diversity of struggles for another possible world.”

The first week of the COP is expected to see the arrival of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has unleashed youth mobilisation against the climate crisis around the world.

In terms of how well countries are complying, only Gabon and Nepal have met their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the mitigation and adaptation measures voluntarily adopted, within the Paris Agreement, to keep the temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But these two countries have practically no responsibility for the climate emergency.

The plans of Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and the Philippines involve an increase of up to 2.0 degrees, while the measures of the rest of the countries range from “insufficient” to “critically insufficient”.

Latin America “has to be more ambitious: although progress has been made, the measures are insufficient. We need a multilateral response to the emergency. We have only 11 years to correct the course and thus reach carbon neutrality in 2050 and meet the goal of keeping the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees,” said Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, global head of Climate and Energy at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The Marshall Islands already submitted their NDCs 2020, while 41 nations have declared their intention to update their voluntary measures and 68 nations – including those of the European Union – have stated that they plan to further cut emissions.

In its position regarding the COP25, consulted by IPS, Mexico outlined 10 priorities, including voluntary cooperation, adaptation, climate financing, gender and climate change, local communities and indigenous peoples.

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Daniel Foote faces a backlash after calling a 15-year jail term given to a gay couple "horrifying".

Rain-triggered disasters have killed at least 250 people and affected some three million people across East Africa.

Kenyan police airlift the man who was stranded on a patch of land with no food or water.

The Malagasy tree boa is under threat from poaching and fires.

A Kenyan fisherman is airlifted from an island where he was marooned since Friday because of heavy flooding.

Eswaitini and Sudan are looking for new coaches after poor starts to the group stage of qualifying for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

Climate change effects, such as extreme weather events, drive up environmental remediation costs. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Farhana Haque Rahman
ROME, Dec 2 2019 (IPS)

Mass public pressure backed by the weight of scientific reports is starting to bring governments to their senses as the annual UN climate summit kicks off in Madrid today.

But despite warnings that the planet is reaching critical tipping points, the two weeks of talks with nearly 30,000 participants and dozens of heads of government attending may still end in that familiar sense of disappointment and an opportunity missed.

The annual Conference of the Parties, this year being COP25, was to have been a highly arcane if crucial process of finding agreement on carbon markets, known in the jargon as Article 6 of the ‘rulebook’ to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement on stopping the planet from overheating.

Highly contentious, and in part pitting developing countries like Brazil, China and India against others, the Article 6 debate could not be resolved at last year’s summit – COP24 in Katowice, Poland – nor at meetings in Bonn in June and hence was left for COP25 to try and fix. The other big elephant in the room – setting more ambitious national targets to reduce carbon emissions – was conveniently going to be left to be settled at next year’s COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

But action is needed now, and senior officials representing nearly 200 countries have been put on notice that the climate emergency in all its forms is dominating the public sphere across the world. Just last week we saw student-led demonstrations and strikes in many places that appropriately fell on Black Friday, delivering a broadside against rampant consumerism as well as government inaction.

Farhana Haque Rahman

“Striking is not a choice we relish; we do it because we see no other options,” youth leaders Greta Thunberg of Sweden, Luisa Neubauer of Germany and Angela Valenzuela of Chile declared in a joint statement.

“We have watched a string of United Nations climate conferences unfold. Countless negotiations have produced much-hyped but ultimately empty commitments from the world’s governments—the same governments that allow fossil fuel companies to drill for ever-more oil and gas, and burn away our futures for their profit.”

UN Secretary General António Guterres has told COP25 that “the point of no return is no longer over the horizon”.

“In the crucial 12 months ahead, it is essential that we secure more ambitious national commitments – particularly from the main emitters – to immediately start reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a pace consistent to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. We simply have to stop digging and drilling and take advantage of the vast possibilities offered by renewable energy and nature-based solutions,” Guterres said.

Just last month the UN Environment Programme’s annual Emissions Gap Report warned that the Paris Agreement ambition of keeping average temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times was “on the brink of becoming impossible”.

Global greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 would have to be under 25 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent to reach that target but, at current rates of growth, emissions are projected to reach more than double that level. Clearly drastic action is needed.

Reinforcing the sense of emergency, the World Meteorological Organization reported that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases reached new record highs in 2018. China is the world’s largest emitter.

Spain stepped in to offer Madrid as a venue for COP25 after Chile withdrew as host because of mass anti-government unrest. However Chile is still leading the conference and together with Spain will be pushing countries to act quickly to raise the ambition of their carbon emission reduction targets. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says the goal is for “the largest number of countries” to commit to net zero emissions by 2050.

From 2020 to 2030, emissions must be cut 7.6% a year to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal, the UNEP says.

However the main negotiation process in Madrid is expected to focus on the unfinished business of the market-based mechanisms to create and manage new carbon markets under the Paris Agreement. This would allow countries and industries to earn credits for above-target emission reductions that can then be traded. Big developing countries have already accumulated huge amounts of carbon credits under the previous but now largely discredited carbon credit scheme. It is a highly complex tangle of interests.

Carbon Brief, a UK-based climate website, says the Article 6 debate has the potential to “make or break” implementation of the Paris Agreement which comes into force next year.

“To its proponents, Article 6 offers a path to significantly raising climate ambition or lowering costs, while engaging the private sector and spreading finance, technology and expertise into new areas. To its critics, it risks fatally undermining the ambition of the Paris Agreement at a time when there is clear evidence of the need to go further and faster to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” Carbon Brief explains.

While Article 6 is a highly technical area, the underlying issues are political, with some countries forming unofficial alliances to defend their own interests rather than the common good of the planet. But politicians have been put on notice that this time the world’s public is watching closely. Horse-trading cannot be allowed to put our futures at risk.

The post Under Pressure. Can COP25 Deliver? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Farhana Haque Rahman is Senior Vice President of IPS Inter Press Service; a journalist and communications expert, she is a former senior official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The post Under Pressure. Can COP25 Deliver? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Nigeria Football Federation president says persuading England under-21 player Ebere Eze to play for the Super Eagles would improve the squad.

Egyptian clubs Pyramids and Al Masry begin their Confederation Cup Group A campaigns with wins away from home.

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The post Care for Economic Development, Then Care for Food Nutrition, Food Researcher Tells Africa’s Politicians appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Inter Press Service (IPS) journalist Busani Bafana sat down with Busi Maziya-Dixon, a Senior Food and Nutrition Scientist at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) ahead of the 10th International Forum on Food and Nutrition. Maziya-Dixon warns there is no country which will achieve economic development with an undernourished population.

The post Care for Economic Development, Then Care for Food Nutrition, Food Researcher Tells Africa’s Politicians appeared first on Inter Press Service.