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Britain-based Forster had been weary of the isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and invited his co-author to work alongside him in his Harrogate kitchen as they worked with other scientists around the world to thrash out the final version of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Being together for the last stretch of a three-year effort “made it more fun,” said Forster, a climate physicist at the University of Leeds. “My neighbours must have thought us mad though, hearing “Thank you madam co-chair,” in response to questions from St Kitts, India, or the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, coming through at 4 a.m.” When the more than 700 scientists and government delegates finally approved the last part of their 3,949-page report over the weekend, they all erupted into cheers – each separated in their own little frame, except for Forster and Rogelj. A Zoom screenshot shows the two smiling out from the same box. This year’s landmark report, warning that the world is dangerously speeding toward runaway climate change, took years of painstaking effort to pull together. Specialist scientists, all 234 of them working for free, reviewed more than 14,000 scientific studies published since 2013 to draft the latest version of what has now become the established science on climate change, before coming together – virtually – for two weeks of final checks and negotiations. Despite travel restrictions and national lockdowns that delayed the report’s completion for several months, organisers say they pulled off the effort with no notable technical glitches to meet their revised deadline. For many of the scientists, the effort came with a personal cost. "You put a lot of yourself in it," said ETH Zurich climate scientist Sonia Seneviratne, who had to skip a family holiday to help finish the report. While scientists praised the inclusion of colleagues from 65 countries across the globe, some said the resulting time-zone challenges were bad for their sleep. "We could not find any time slot that wasn't two o'clock in the morning for somebody," said Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. "I'm a night owl, but I'm not that much of one," he joked. WORKING THROUGH A CYCLONE Completing the politically sensitive "Summary for Policymakers" section, which 195 governments must approve by consensus, presented a particular challenge. Each word of each sentence needed to be scrutinised and debated. To help the effort, organisers displayed each sentence in yellow on a shared screen until it was approved, at which point it appeared in green. If it was rejected, it turned blue – signalling a revision was needed. Disputes then had to be resolved in virtual breakout sessions. "We spent sometimes hours on a footnote," said co-chair Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the University of Paris-Saclay who described work on the report as a "marathon." One scientist in India even called by phone to attend a meeting while a tropical cyclone wailed outside his window, having already cut off his electricity and internet, she recalled. But Masson-Delmotte also said the chance to work on pioneering climate research with so many scientists around the world was "one of the biggest joys of my professional life." She took strolls in a park among flowers to relax between sessions. Others said they bonded while getting to know each other's pets and kids, who frequently popped up in the background during video calls. But for some, the loneliness at times was grinding. Rogelj, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, said it was helpful to be able to work alongside Forster over the last two weeks – just to exchange ideas, or to vent. "You can do everything that makes us human, that you can't do through a screen," he told Reuters. "If I would have been alone in my room, it would have been much harder to achieve this."

JIMBARAN, Indonesia (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Finance ministers meeting on the fringes of climate talks in Bali agreed to further debate on Tuesday but little else after two days trying to find ways to fund the fight against global warming. The meeting of more than 10 finance ministers and nearly 40 governments is considered the first ever gathering of finance officials specifically about global warming. A senior US official said it was unrealistic to expect too much from the talks but Indonesia's president urged the ministers to do more. "Ministers of finance can and should play a much larger and more active role in responding to climate change, both domestically and internationally," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. Government ministries including energy, industry, forestry and agriculture also had to take part, he added. "That is why this meeting is historic and so important," he told the finance ministers, whose meeting followed trade talks at the weekend. The ministers come from countries including Indonesia, Australia, Indonesia, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand and the Netherlands. They agreed to consider further rounds of meetings, with World Bank chief Robert Zoellick offering to host talks next spring, while Poland invited finance ministers to a follow-up meeting at the next annual U.N. climate gathering. It was unrealistic to expect more at the first such meeting, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs, David McCormick, told Reuters. "If you look at practical steps that countries may take alone or together on this issue, they involve very significant questions around economic impacts and cost, clean technology... tax policy, these are core finance ministry issues." "For an issue this complex the expectation you'd have 35 finance ministers come together and come to consensus on anything in any area let alone climate change is a bit unrealistic." The United States announced on Tuesday its intention to divert $19.6 million of sovereign debt due from Indonesia into tropical forest conservation instead. RECESSION Ministers discussed climate policies ranging from carbon markets to incentives for people to install solar panels. "This (climate change) is much too important to leave to environment ministers," former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern told the meeting. "The comprehensiveness of the problem (demands) heads of state and finance ministers are involved. This is about low-carbon growth not low growth, it's not about trading growth against climate responsibility." Finance ministers had to give the private sector a better clue on what rewards they would get for investing in fighting climate change, said the head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Angel Gurria. "OK, if it's the private sector that will deal with it, what does it need foremost? Security and clear rules of the game." The 190-nation talks in Bali are meant to launch negotiations on a pact to extend or replace the Kyoto Protocol, whose first phase ends on Dec 31, 2012. A total of 36 industrialized countries are legally bound to meet emissions targets between 2008-2012 under Kyoto but developing nations are exempt.

Beijing's decision to declare an air defense identification zone in an area that includes disputed islands has triggered protests from the United States, Japan and South Korea and dominated Biden's talks in Tokyo on Tuesday.The United States has made clear it will stand by treaty obligations that require it to defend the Japanese-controlled islands, but it is also reluctant to get dragged into any military clash between rivals Japan and China.Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping he believed Xi was a candid and constructive person."In developing this new relationship, both qualities are sorely needed," Biden said during a meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of the People."Candor generates trust. Trust is the basis on which real change, constructive change, is made."Xi said the international situation and regional landscape were "undergoing profound and complex changes"."Regional issues keep cropping up and there are more pronounced global challenges such as climate change and energy security. The world is not tranquil," he added.Neither made any mention of the air defense zone in remarks before reporters. Biden flies to Seoul on Thursday.As Biden arrived, the official English-language China Daily said in a strongly worded editorial that he "should not expect any substantial headway if he comes simply to repeat his government's previous erroneous and one-sided remarks"."If the US is truly committed to lowering tensions in the region, it must first stop acquiescing to Tokyo's dangerous brinkmanship. It must stop emboldening belligerent Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to constantly push the envelope of Japan's encroachments and provocations."Under the zone's rules, all aircraft have to report flight plans to Chinese authorities, maintain radio contact and reply promptly to identification inquiries.US, Japanese and South Korean military aircraft have breached the zone without informing Beijing since it was announced on November 23.Japanese and South Korean commercial carriers have also been told by their governments to ignore the rules. Three US airlines, acting on government advice, are notifying China of plans to transit the zone.China has repeatedly said the zone was designed to reduce the risk of misunderstandings, and stressed that since it was set up there had been no issues with freedom of flight for civilian airlines.The Defense Ministry on Tuesday slammed what it said were "distortions" and "mud throwing" over the zone and China's intentions."It is not aimed at any specific country or target, and it certainly does not constitute a threat towards any country or region," ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said in a statement.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said 55 airlines from 19 countries were cooperating with China's request to report flight plans and identify themselves in the zone.Hong added that China was "willing to maintain dialogue and communication on relevant technical issues with Japan on the basis of equality and mutual respect". He did not elaborate. NERVOUS REGION Beijing's move has added to regional nerves about China's strategic intentions as it presses territorial claims in the South China Sea and ramps up an ambitious military modernization program.Wang Dong, an associate professor of international relations at Peking University, said China's restraint in the wake of flights by US, Japanese and South Korean military aircraft showed China was serious when it said the zone was defensive."However, it would have been very helpful if China had presented a coherent story and a coherent case on the zone from the very beginning, instead of waiting," Wang said.In Tokyo, Biden called on Japan and China to find ways to reduce tensions, repeating that Washington was "deeply concerned" by the announcement of the zone.However, influential Chinese tabloid the Global Times, published by the Communist Party's official People's Daily, noted that Biden had not come down heavily on Japan's side, saying he failed to "sate Japan's appetite" for strong words.White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday that China's decision was a provocative attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea.The China Daily said it was obvious Washington had taken Tokyo's side in the dispute."Biden needs to be reminded that Japan holds the key to peacefully solving the East China Sea dispute, because it is the Abe administration's recalcitrant denial of the existence of a dispute that has prevented Beijing and Tokyo from conducting meaningful communication and crisis control," it said.China wants Japan first to acknowledge that a formal dispute over sovereignty exists, experts say, a step that Tokyo has rejected for fear it would undermine its claim over the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China."Again, our timely visitor needs to be told: It is Japan that has unilaterally changed the status quo... China is just responding to Japanese provocations."

India's greenhouse gas emissions grew 58 percent between 1994 and 2007, official figures released on Tuesday showed, helped up by a largely coal-reliant power sector that nearly doubled its share in emissions. Total emissions rose to 1.9 billion tonnes in 2007 versus 1.2 billion in 1994, with industry and transport sectors also upping their share in Asia's third largest economy and confirming India's ranking among the world's top five carbon polluters. By way of comparison, between 1994 and 2007, India added more than the entire emissions produced annually by Australia. India is still low on per-capita emissions, about a tenth that of the United States. The power sector accounted for 719.30 million tonnes of emissions against 355.03 million tonnes in 1994, while the transport sector's share jumped to 142.04 million tonnes from 80.28 million tonnes during the same period. Industrial emissions rose a little more than 30 per cent during the same period. With agriculture's share in the Indian economy dropping over the past years, emissions from the sector dipped marginally during 1994-2007. The report highlights India's growing role as a key player in the U.N.-led climate negotiations on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol and the need to include big developing nations in global efforts to fight climate change. Figures in the government report, released by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh at a conference in New Delhi, show India closing in on Russia, now the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter, at nearly 2.2 billion tonnes in 2007. China is the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for heating up the planet. The United States is second. Russia's emissions have been growing at a slower pace than those of India, whose energy-hungry economy has been expanding at about 8 percent a year as it tries to lift millions out of poverty. This has propelled investment in coal-fired power stations, steel mills, cement plants and mining, as well as renewable energy. "Interestingly, the emissions of the United States and China are almost four times that of India in 2007," Ramesh told the conference. "It is also noteworthy that the energy intensity of India's GDP declined by more than 30 percent during the period 1994-2007 due to the efforts and policies that we are proactively putting into place. This is a trend we intend to continue," he said. Energy intensity refers to the amount of energy used per unit of gross domestic product. COAL REMAINS CRUCIAL India has also set a carbon intensity reduction target of 20 to 25 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. Data from 1994 was the last official report to the United Nations on India's emissions because, as a developing country, India is not obliged to make annual emissions declarations to the world body, unlike rich nations. The latest UN emissions data for industrialised nations date to 2007. Although India has announced a new climate plan which identifies renewable energy, such as solar power, as a key element, coal remains the backbone of energy supply in a country where almost half the 1.1 billion population has no access to electricity. The country has 10 percent of the world's coal reserves, and it plans to add 78.7 gigawatts of power generation during the five years ending March 2012, most of it from coal, which now accounts for about 60 percent of the nation's energy mix. Developing nations now emit more than half of mankind's greenhouse gas pollution and that figure is expected to accelerate in the short term even as poorer nations embrace renewable energy and greater energy efficiency. A government-backed report last year projected India's greenhouse gas emissions could jump to between 4 billion tonnes and 7.3 billion tonnes in 2031, but per-capita emissions would still be half the global average.

As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato -- long derided as a boring tuber prone to making you fat -- is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world. Potatoes, which are native to Peru, can be grown at almost any elevation or climate: from the barren, frigid slopes of the Andes Mountains to the tropical flatlands of Asia. They require very little water, mature in as little as 50 days, and can yield between two and four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice. "The shocks to the food supply are very real and that means we could potentially be moving into a reality where there is not enough food to feed the world," said Pamela Anderson, director of the International Potato Center in Lima (CIP), a non-profit scientific group researching the potato family to promote food security. Like others, she says the potato is part of the solution. The potato has potential as an antidote to hunger caused by higher food prices, a population that is growing by one billion people each decade, climbing costs for fertilizer and diesel, and more cropland being sown for biofuel production. To focus attention on this, the United Nations named 2008 the International Year of the Potato, calling the vegetable a "hidden treasure". Governments are also turning to the tuber. Peru's leaders, frustrated by a doubling of wheat prices in the past year, have started a program encouraging bakers to use potato flour to make bread. Potato bread is being given to school children, prisoners and the military, in the hope the trend will catch on. Supporters say it tastes just as good as wheat bread, but not enough mills are set up to make potato flour. "We have to change people's eating habits," said Ismael Benavides, Peru's agriculture minister. "People got addicted to wheat when it was cheap." Even though the potato emerged in Peru 8,000 years ago near Lake Titicaca, Peruvians eat fewer potatoes than people in Europe: Belarus leads the world in potato consumption, with each inhabitant of the eastern European state devouring an average of 376 pounds (171 kg) a year. India has told food experts it wants to double potato production in the next five to 10 years. China, a huge rice consumer that historically has suffered devastating famines, has become the world's top potato grower. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the potato is expanding more than any other crop right now. Some consumers are switching to potatoes. In the Baltic country of Latvia, sharp price rises caused bread sales to drop by 10-15 percent in January and February, as consumers bought 20 percent more potatoes, food producers have said. The developing world is where most new potato crops are being planted, and as consumption rises poor farmers have a chance to earn more money. "The countries themselves are looking at the potato as a good option for both food security and also income generation," Anderson said. AFFORDABLE RAINBOW OF COLORS The potato is already the world's third most-important food crop after wheat and rice. Corn, which is widely planted, is mainly used for animal feed. Though most Americans associate potatoes with the bland Idaho variety, they actually come in some 5,000 types. Peru is sending thousands of seeds this year to the Doomsday Vault near the Arctic Circle, contributing to a gene bank for food crops that was set up in case of a global disaster. With colors ranging from alabaster-white to bright yellow and deep purple and countless shapes, textures, and sizes, potatoes offer inventive chefs a chance to create new, eye-catching plates. "They taste great," said Juan Carlos Mescco, 17, a potato farmer in Peru's Andes who says he frequently eats them sliced, boiled, or mashed from breakfast through dinner. Potatoes are a great source of complex carbohydrates, which release their energy slowly, and -- so long as they are not smothered with butter -- have only five percent of the fat content of wheat. They also have one-fourth of the calories of bread and, when boiled, have more protein than corn and nearly twice the calcium, according to the Potato Center. They contain vitamin C, iron, potassium and zinc. SPECULATORS AREN'T TEMPTED One factor helping the potato remain affordable is the fact that unlike wheat, it is not a global commodity, so has not attracted speculative professional investment. Each year, farmers around the globe produce about 600 million metric tonnes of wheat, and about 17 percent of that flows into foreign trade. Wheat production is almost double that of potato output. Analysts estimate less than 5 percent of potatoes are traded internationally, and prices are mainly driven by local tastes, instead of international demand. Raw potatoes are heavy and can rot in transit, so global trade in them has been slow to take off. They are also susceptible to infection with pathogens, hampering export to avoid spreading plant diseases. The downside to that is that prices in some countries aren't attractive enough to persuade farmers to grow them. People in Peruvian markets say the government needs to help lift demand. "Prices are low. It doesn't pay to work with potatoes," said Juana Villavicencio, who spent 15 years planting potatoes and now sells them for pennies a kilo in a market in Cusco, in Peru's southern Andes. But science is moving fast. Genetically modified potatoes that resist "late blight" are being developed by German chemicals group BASF . The disease led to famine in Ireland during the 19th century and still causes about 20 percent of potato harvest losses in the world, the company says. Scientists say farmers who use clean, virus-free seeds can boost yields by 30 percent and be cleared for export. That would generate more income for farmers and encourage more production as companies could sell specialty potatoes abroad, instead of just as frozen french fries or potato chips.

Behavioural tools became critical in the pandemic, Carlos Scartascini, from the Inter-American Development Bank said in a panel at the Reuters Next conference. "When you say 'wash your hands' - you can say (it) 20 times, but if you don't change the way you say people basically do not react," he said. Dr Laura de Moliere, who heads up behavioural science in the UK Cabinet office, said a better understanding of human behaviour became critical to policymakers in the pandemic, and that should carry forward. "Climate change is probably quite an obvious one, where if we aren't designing rules and regulations well, we will be seeing rebound effects where people are insulating their houses, but then buying bigger houses because the energy is cheaper," she said. She said transparency of decision making, central to COVID communication, would also be important for winning support for climate change policies. "There are a lot of really interesting avenues for behavioural science application that have arisen because of the pandemic," said Mary MacLennan, the cofounder of the United Nations Behavioral Science Group.

SINGAPORE, Nov 15, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - US President Barack Obama said on Sunday the world economy was on a path to recovery but warned that failure to re-balance the global economic system would lead to further crises. Obama was addressing Asia Pacific leaders in Singapore, where officials removed any reference to market-oriented exchange rates in a communique after disagreement between Washington and Beijing over the most sensitive topic between the two giants. The statement from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum endorsed stimulus measures to keep the global economy from sliding back into recession and urged a successful conclusion to the Doha Round of trade talks in 2010. An earlier draft pledged APEC's 21 members to maintain "market-oriented exchange rates that reflect underlying economic fundamentals." That statement had been agreed at a meeting of APEC finance ministers on Thursday, including China, although it made no reference to the Chinese yuan currency. An APEC delegation official who declined to be identified said debate between China and the United States over exchange rates had held up the statement at the end of two days of talks. That underscored strains likely to feature when Obama flies to China later on Sunday after Washington for the first time slapped duties on Chinese-made tires. Beijing fears that could set a precedent for more duties on Chinese goods that are gaining market share in the United States. Obama told APEC leaders the world could not return to the same cycles of boom and bust that sparked the global recession. "We cannot follow the same policies that led to such imbalanced growth. If we do, we will continue to drift from crisis to crisis, a failed path that has already had devastating consequences for our citizens, our businesses, and our governments," Obama said. "We have reached one of those rare inflection points in history where we have the opportunity to take a different path -- to pursue a new strategy for jobs and growth. Growth that is balanced. Growth that is sustainable." Obama's strategy calls for America to save more, spend less, reform its financial system and cut its deficits and borrowing. Washington also wants key exporters such as China to boost domestic demand. YUAN ON THE AGENDA Chinese President Hu Jintao has been under pressure to let the yuan appreciate, but in several speeches at APEC he ignored the issue and focused instead on what he called "unreasonable" trade restrictions on developing countries. One of the key themes when Obama visits China for three days will be the yuan, which has effectively been pegged against the dollar since mid-2008 to cushion its economy from the downturn. Washington says an undervalued yuan is contributing to imbalances between the United States and the world's third-biggest economy. China is pushing for US recognition as a market economy and concessions on trade cases that would make it harder for Washington to take action against Chinese products. China's central bank said last week it will consider major currencies in guiding the yuan, suggesting a departure from the peg. Obama arrived in Singapore late on Saturday, missing most of that day's formal talks and speeches where several leaders suggested the world's largest economy was hampering free trade through policies such as "Buy America" campaigns. APEC is the last major gathering of global decision-makers before a UN climate summit in Copenhagen in three weeks meant to ramp up efforts to fight climate change. Those negotiations have largely stalled, but a US official said Obama had backed a two-step plan by the Danish prime minister to aim for an operational agreement and to leave legally binding details until later. The APEC statement dropped all references to emissions reductions that had been in earlier drafts.

"It would be a tragedy for the United States and the people of the United States if the US becomes a kind of rogue country, the only country in the world that is somehow not going to go ahead with the Paris Agreement," Robinson said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Sunday. US President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, has promised to pull the United States out of that global climate accord, which was agreed last year by 193 countries and which came into effect earlier this month, just in advance of his election. The deal aims to hold climate change to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius of warming by moving the world economy away from fossil fuels. The agreement provides for $100 billion a year in international funding from 2020 to help poorer countries develop cleanly and adapt to the already inevitable impacts of climate change. Robinson, who now runs a foundation focused on seeking justice for people hit hard by climate impacts despite having contributed little to the problem, said she was confident other countries would continue their backing for the accord regardless of any action taken by the United States. "I don't think that the process itself will be affected (if) one country, however big and important that country is, decides not to go ahead," she said on the sidelines of UN climate talks in Marrakesh, due to end on Friday. But a pullout could mean a "huge difference" to already difficult efforts to gather enough international finance to help poorer countries develop their economies without increasing their emissions, "which is what they want to do", she said. "The moral obligation of the United States as a big emitter, and a historically big emitter that built its whole economy on fossil fuels that are now damaging the world – it's unconscionable the United States would walk away from it," she said of the threat to withdraw from the Paris deal. Life without water However, Robinson said she sympathised with Americans who had lost their jobs in polluting industries such as coal, many of whom supported Trump in his election campaign. "Clearly they're hurting at the moment," she said, calling for assistance to help such workers retrain and win new jobs in a clean energy economy. "But it's not a future to go backward into coal and have higher emissions in the United States," she warned. "The impact of that will be felt by poor communities and poor countries all over the world." As a UN envoy for El Nino and climate change, she said she had been in dry regions of Honduras where women told her they no longer had water as a result of worsening drought. "I saw the pain on the faces of those women. And one of the women said to me, and I'll never forget, 'We have no water. How do you live without water?' ... I'm hearing that all over the world," she said. If the United States backs away on adopting clean energy, it also would be handing China the leadership role in a key new industry, she said. "That's not what so many states, businesses, cities and academic communities and local communities want in the United States," she said. She urged Americans upset about the proposed changes in US policy to make their voices heard. "People in the United States have to get up and make a big noise, and business in the United States has to make a big noise about this," she said.

U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to halt a rise in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 could undermine, rather than support, efforts to combat climate change, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. "Gabriel criticises Bush's Neanderthal speech" was the title of a news release from the Environment Ministry on Thursday. "Without binding limits and reduction targets for industrial countries, climate change will not be stopped," said Sigmar Gabriel, adding the United States and Europe had to lead the way in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. "The motto of his speech is: losing instead of leading," said Gabriel, a Social Democrat in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government. Bush on Wednesday unveiled plans to cap U.S. emissions by 2025, toughening an existing target to slow the growth of emissions by 2012 but critics say the world needs tougher action to combat global warming. The United States is the world's top greenhouse gas emitter. Germany is the world's sixth largest CO2 emitter and its efforts to reduce emissions have stagnated since the mid-1990s.

The ice on Africa's highest mountain could vanish in 13 to 24 years, a fate also awaiting the continent's other glaciers, a study said on Monday. US-based researchers Lonnie Thompson and colleagues said glaciers on Kilimanjaro, Tanzania's snow-capped volcano which attracts 40,000 visitors a year, could disappear. "There is a strong likelihood that the ice fields will disappear within a decade or two if current conditions persist," said the study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal. The research blames warmer temperatures due to climate change and drier, less cloudy conditions than in the past. "The climatological conditions currently driving the loss of Kilimanjaro's ice fields are clearly unique within an 11,700-year perspective," said the study, adding that the mountain lost 26 percent of its ice cover between 2000 and 2007. At 5,896 metres high, Mount Kilimanjaro is one of the east African country's top tourism draws, offering tourists a taste of the tropical and the glacial within a five-day climb. It brings in an estimated $50 million a year. Tourism is the leading foreign exchange earner in the poor country, earning $1.22 billion in 2008. "The loss of the ice fields will have a negative impact on tourism in tropical east Africa," said Thompson in an email to Reuters. Home to elephant, leopard and buffalo, as well as expansive views of the Rift Valley, the mountain known as "the roof of Africa" was first scaled by a European, Hans Meyer, 120 years ago. While its Kibo peak rises above the clouds, it can be reached with little more than a walking stick and some puff. "The loss of the glaciers is an indicator of climate change under way in this region which impacts not only the glaciers on the summit but the weather patterns that bring rainfall to the lower slopes," said Thompson.

Over the next three years, the scheme aims to help 150 developing-world cities pull in more capital from the private sector, to cover the costs of keeping their infrastructure and communities safe from wilder weather and rising seas. "Investment in urban resilience not only avoids losses but it generates value and it catalyses growth," said Marc Forni, lead disaster risk management specialist at the World Bank. Predicted to be home to two-thirds of the world's population by 2050, many cities are struggling to pay for measures needed to guard residents and property from threats such as floods, storms and heatwaves, while improving housing and reducing inequality. Through the World Bank-led City Resilience Program, cities will be assisted to structure projects to make them more "bankable". The goal is to attract capital from heavyweight investors like pension funds, and to form partnerships with international and local companies. "What we see is an issue on the supply side of investments rather than the demand side," Forni told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Rains, high tide in adjoining river, flash floods, the rise in seawater level and silt at the bed of canals and sewerage drains cause waterlogging the port city of Chittagong. The first set of cities to take part includes Manaus in Brazil, Chittagong in Bangladesh, Accra and Istanbul. Rains, high tide in adjoining river, flash floods, the rise in seawater level and silt at the bed of canals and sewerage drains cause waterlogging the port city of Chittagong. Other elements of the partnership, launched at this week's "One Planet" summit in Paris, deal with monetising increases in land values and finding ways for cities to better use credit. "The fight against climate change is being led by cities and communities and it's essential they have the funds to continue it," Michael Bloomberg, former New York City mayor and co-chair of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, said in a statement. More than 7,400 cities in about 120 countries have joined the Global Covenant of Mayors, formed last year for cities to exchange information on developing clean energy and making ground-level changes to slow global warming. In the United States, hundreds of cities have pledged to work with states and businesses towards achieving the Paris Agreement goals to curb climate change, sidestepping President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the country out of the pact.

The world seems on track to launch negotiations on a new treaty to fight climate change this year with an end-2009 deadline for a deal, the United States said on Wednesday. "I would say consensus...emerged around 2009" as a deadline, Paula Dobriansky, US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, told Reuters from a meeting of 40 nations in Indonesia. Dobriansky leads US climate negotiations. "2009 was mentioned by many around the table, the United States included," she added in a telephone interview. The talks in Bogor, Indonesia, are preparing for a 190-nation meeting in Bali, Indonesia, from Dec. 3-14 that many nations want to launch formal negotiations on a new U.N. treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. Many experts say the end of 2009 will be a very tight deadline, largely because of the complexity of enlisting Kyoto outsiders led by the United States as well as developing nations such as China or India into a new global deal. "I came away from these discussions feeling there is a strong desire on behalf all the participants for a Bali roadmap," Dobriansky said. A "roadmap" would be the principles to guide negotiators of a new global treaty. President George W. Bush opposes Kyoto but this year agreed a need for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars. Bush, who will step down in January 2009, has said that all major economies should set long-term goals for curbs on greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2008 to feed into the UN negotiations. Dobriansky declined to predict exactly when the Bush administration would outline US cuts. "We're in that process right now in looking at some of the specifics," she said. Kyoto now obliges 36 industrialised nations to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 as a first step to avert what the UN's climate panel says will be more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas. Bush's current strategy, less stringent than Kyoto, merely seeks to brake the rise of US emissions. Dobriansky said that ministers meeting in Bogor had a "strong consensus" that any new deal should focus on "four key areas" -- curbing emissions, adapting to climate change, financing the fight against global warming and new technologies. Kyoto took two years to negotiate, from 1995-97. It only entered into force in 2005, after protracted wrangling, partly because Bush decided against implementation. Bush said it would cost too much and wrongly omitted goals for poor nations.

The opening segment of the debate was markedly calmer than the chaotic melee of the first presidential debate in late September, when Trump harangued Biden and the moderator for nearly the entire evening. The moderator Thursday, Kristen Welker of NBC News, alluded to that messy affair by reminding the candidates at the start that the point of the debate was “for the American people to hear every word.” The first 20 minutes of the debate, often the most watched, were dominated entirely by a discussion of the virus, perhaps the biggest policy vulnerability Trump is facing. Prompted by Welker to explain his plan for the coming months, Trump stuck to the sunny message he has delivered at recent campaign rallies, promising a vaccine in short order and citing his own recovery from a bout with the virus as an example of medical progress. The president boasted that he was now “immune” to the disease and insisted that states like Texas and Florida had seen the virus fade away, even as case counts are on the rise across the country. “I’ve been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what we’ve been able to do,” Trump said, without offering any specifics. Biden, in response, pressed a focused and familiar line of attack against the president, faulting him for doing “virtually nothing” to head off the pandemic early this year and heading into the coldest part of the year with no defined plan to control the disease. Holding up a face mask, Biden said he would encourage all Americans to don them and would ramp up rapid testing on a national scale. “We’re about to go into a dark winter, a dark winter, and he has no clear plan,” Biden said. Trump shot back: “I don’t think we’re going to have a dark winter at all — we’re opening up our country.” But when the president said “we’re learning to live with” the coronavirus, Biden pounced. “We’re learning to die with it,” he said. The president did, however, say for the first time, “I take full responsibility” for the impact of the virus. Then he quickly sought to skirt blame. “It’s not my fault that it came here — it’s China’s fault,” he said. “Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America,” Biden said, adding, “I will end this. I will make sure we have a plan.” The debate Thursday, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, represented perhaps the last opportunity for Trump to shake up the presidential campaign and claw his way into closer contention against Biden with just 11 days remaining. And the hour is even later than it appears: More than 47 million people have already cast their ballots through early and mail-in voting, according to the nonpartisan US Election Project. That means the pool of votes available to either candidate is quickly shrinking as millions more are tabulated daily. The forum, first planned as a foreign policy-centric event, took on broader parameters after Trump pulled out of what had been scheduled as the second debate this month. The candidates Thursday were expected to deal not only with matters of global affairs but also with subjects that included race and the condition of American families — a shift by organizers that drew angry objections from the Trump campaign. The debate commission also irritated the president with a significant change prompted by his conduct: It muted the microphone of the candidate not speaking, a drastic step taken to avoid a repeat of Trump’s constant interruptions in the first debate. Despite the broader issue agenda set for Thursday, national security figured to be a major topic, with events in just the past few days adding new urgency. On Wednesday evening, Christopher Wray, the FBI director, and John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, held an abruptly scheduled news conference in Washington to declare that Iran and Russia were seeking to inject disinformation into the US election, although both men stressed that there was no indication that voting infrastructure had been tampered with. If the second encounter between Trump and Biden had the potential to stir new conflict in the presidential race, it was far from certain that it would reshape the battle lines of a campaign that have long been fixed in place. Trump has spent the past six months at a disadvantage, and often a large one, as voters have rejected his handling of the pandemic and many have recoiled at his personal conduct and character. Biden entered the debate with a wide lead over Trump in national polls and ahead of him by meaningful margins in most of the battleground states. Still, there are some signs that the president has recovered at least some of the support he had lost after the first debate last month, in which he badgered and bullied Biden for an hour and a half, and his subsequent hospitalization for the coronavirus. Some of Trump’s own closest advisers, including his campaign manager, Bill Stepien, have privately conceded to Republicans in Washington that his path to reelection is perilously slim. Some GOP leaders are hopeful that the party’s voter-registration and turnout machinery could still deliver a few closely divided states into Trump’s hands — enough to secure a close victory in the Electoral College, although almost surely not the popular vote. But Trump’s allies also acknowledge that he must substantially strengthen his overall position in order for a muscular get-out-the-vote program to pay off. It was not clear heading into the debate that Trump had a defined strategy for improving his political standing, other than perhaps to attack Biden in harshly personal terms in the hope of provoking him into a self-defeating response. Trump did little to prepare for Thursday’s debate, according to aides, unlike in the run-up to his first forum with Biden, when the president took part in mock debates with a group of allies, several of whom tested positive for the coronavirus soon after. The president has savaged Biden and members of his family on the stump in recent days, focusing particularly on Biden’s son Hunter and his overseas business dealings. Wielding a combination of exaggerated and unsubstantiated allegations, and extensively citing the contested reporting of the New York Post, Trump has attempted to brand Biden as a self-dealing political insider and repeatedly called on the Justice Department to take action against the former vice president and other prominent Democrats. But since leaving the hospital early this month, Trump has hardly delivered a disciplined case for his own reelection, and he has made no apparent headway in changing voters’ minds about his handling of the pandemic. Indeed, he has gone out of his way to pick fights with the more popular leaders of the pandemic response, including Dr Anthony Fauci, the federal infectious-disease expert whom Trump denounced Monday, and two Democratic governors, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, who have confronted the coronavirus far more aggressively than the president has. Rather than admitting any fault in his own leadership or signalling a change in perspective after his bout with the virus, Trump has further embraced a strategy of hand waving and eye-rolling about a disease that has claimed more than 222,000 lives in the United States. A New York Times-Siena College poll this week found the public unconvinced by his stance. Voters nationwide preferred Biden to Trump as a leader on the pandemic by a 12-point margin, and a majority of voters said that they believed the worst effects of the coronavirus were still to come. Trump has also spent much of the week venting anger at CBS journalist Lesley Stahl, who interviewed him for a forthcoming episode of “60 Minutes.” The president, complaining he was treated unfairly, breached an agreement with CBS by posting a video of the interview online Thursday. The 38-minute sit-down showed the president forcefully denying the extent of the coronavirus crisis and repeatedly attacking the Biden family. Perhaps most significant, however, was Trump’s affirmation to Stahl that he hoped the Supreme Court would strike down the entire Affordable Care Act in a case scheduled to be heard shortly after the election — a possibility Democrats have put at the centre of their general-election message. The president appeared to acknowledge that he still lacked a plan to replace the law but insisted without furnishing details that there were “large sections of it already done.” “I hope that they end it,” Trump said of the ACA. “It’ll be so good if they end it.” While Trump kept to his schedule of daily rallies, eschewing any formal debate preparations, Biden largely was in seclusion this week as he practised for the final faceoff with the president. He was replaced on the campaign trail by his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, and the Democratic Party’s most high-profile surrogate: former President Barack Obama. Making his return to the 2020 campaign trail, Obama appeared Wednesday in Philadelphia, where he said Trump “is incapable of taking the job seriously” and vowed that Biden would bring a measure of normalcy back to American politics. “It just won’t be so exhausting,” he said. In a sign, however, of the pressure Biden is under from his own party’s base to act boldly and remake institutions rather than just restore them, the former vice president attempted yet again to grapple with an issue that has vexed him over the final weeks of the campaign: expanding the Supreme Court. After dodging the issue for several weeks, he said in an interview that he would appoint a blue-ribbon commission to consider overhauling the judiciary. “I will ask them to over 180 days come back to me with recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it’s getting out of whack,” he said in a “60 Minutes” interview that is scheduled to air in full Sunday. Biden previously said he opposed adding justices to the Supreme Court beyond the current nine, an idea some liberals have seized upon with gusto. Yet he has often refused to adopt a stance, only explaining that he does not want to make news on the subject before the election. His new proposal of devising a panel to study the matter — a time-honoured Washington tradition that many politicians employ to stall or develop a new position on an issue — illustrates that dodging the issue has become untenable. But for progressives hoping that Biden may become an ally on expanding the Supreme Court, his new answer amounted to an uncertain trumpet. He promised to appoint a mix of scholars from both parties and said, “The last thing we need to do is turn the Supreme Court into just a political football, whoever has the most votes gets whatever they want.” In a sign of how determined it is to remain united and defeat Trump, though, the left has largely avoided pressing Biden on expanding the court and other issues at the top of its agenda, like climate change. Democratic lawmakers and strategists are confident about victory next month, particularly as Biden garners 50% in a number of battleground state polls and early voting soars in Democratic hubs. But the trauma of 2016 is still fresh in the party, as Obama reminded his audience in an effort to drive turnout. “There were a whole bunch of polls last time,” he said. “Didn’t work out because a whole bunch of folks stayed at home and got lazy and complacent.” © 2020 The New York Times Company

The United States hopes to take the reins of international efforts to battle global warming next week with a meeting of major economies aimed at facilitating a UN pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions. President Barack Obama, a Democrat who took office in January, called the meeting last month to relaunch a process that began under his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, whose commitment to curbing climate change was viewed with skepticism by much of the world. The stakes are higher now. The Kyoto Protocol, which caps greenhouse gas emissions, runs out in 2012 and leaders from around the globe will gather in Copenhagen in December to forge a successor treaty. Environmentalists hope renewed engagement by the United States and Obama's push for U.S. leadership on the issue will result in a deal. The White House views next week's meeting in Washington, which groups 16 major economies including the European Union and the United Nations, as an avenue toward securing a broader pact -- a goal that many believed Bush did not share. "The Bush administration obviously had a completely different approach to this issue than we do," Todd Stern, the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, told Reuters, adding Obama wanted to invigorate the forum with more substance. "They were not fundamentally looking for an international agreement," he said of the Bush administration. "We are looking for an international agreement and we're looking for cooperation at a significant, we hope, transformative level." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to make opening remarks on Monday. Officials said participants would discuss cooperation on technology and other issues. Bush began the major economies forum in 2007, but the initiative was marred by concern among participating countries that he was trying to circumvent wider United Nations talks. "Nobody took him seriously because he spent eight years pretending climate change didn't exist," said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for environmental group Sierra Club, referring to Bush. "Obama, on the other hand, obviously is taking climate change very, very seriously and wants, reasonably enough, to talk to everyone about what to do ahead of Copenhagen." FACILITATING U.N. TALKS James Connaughton, a former top environmental adviser to Bush, said the former president's motives were also focused on facilitating a U.N. pact. "The point of this was to be able to inform and help accelerate progress in the UN," he told Reuters. Obama hopes to cut U.S. emissions by roughly 15 percent by 2020 -- back to 1990 levels -- tougher than Bush, who saw U.S. emissions peaking as late as 2025. European governments and many environmentalists want Obama to go further. Energy Secretary Steven Chu indicated on Saturday in Port of Spain, Trinidad, that Washington was not interested in retooling its percentage goal for 2020. "I think that rather than debating a few percent, the best thing we can do is to get started as soon as possible," he told reporters at the Summit of the Americas. But the April 27-28 meeting, and follow-ups in other countries, are expected to pave the way toward Copenhagen and work out some of the disagreements that remain. The major economies include: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Denmark, which is hosting the U.N. meeting in December, was also invited. "The presence of the major economies forum increases our chances of success for getting an agreement at Copenhagen," said Annie Petsonk, international counsel for the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund. "The more that those countries can come together around a framework, the greater likelihood that they can pour that into a larger agreement." One stumbling block, however, may lie with some poor countries and other developing nations not present and what contribution will be demanded from them. "We do not see the most vulnerable countries included in these discussions and that is what we would like to see," said Kim Carstensen, head of environmental group WWF's Global Climate Initiative.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Washington on Tuesday to lobby US congressional leaders and government officials over next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen, UN officials said. The world body wants to clinch a deal at Copenhagen to set new greenhouse gas emissions goals but hopes are fading that a legally binding treaty among all UN members can be finalized at the Dec. 7-18 UN summit in the Danish capital. Delays in passage of a US climate bill are one of the factors being blamed. A draft cleared a key US Senate panel last Thursday but the legislation is not expected to go through the full Senate before Copenhagen. Ban's climate adviser Janos Pasztor said the secretary-general would talk to senators and White House staff. "He will discuss how governments around the world are approaching the climate negotiations and what these governments expect in terms of the role of the United States," Pasztor told reporters. Although top UN climate officials have said a final deal may have to be negotiated in post-Copenhagen talks that could go on for a year, Ban has continued to say he expects the summit to be a success. "The continuing and extraordinary engagement by world leaders on the climate change issue suggests that a deal will emerge in Copenhagen that will form the basis of a treaty," Pasztor said. "It's not a question of whether or not we're going to have a deal, it's question of how we're going to make sure that we get a good deal in Copenhagen. And the secretary-general is convinced that it is possible and therefore it will happen."

Ursula von der Leyen's second 'state of the union' address since she took over as European Commission president comes after two years that have tested the resilience of the bloc with the coronavirus pandemic, a sharp economic downturn, strains over Brexit and the rule of law in eastern member states. In a broad-brush speech setting out the bloc's priorities for the year ahead, von der Leyen also listed ambitious goals, including technological independence for the EU, but warned "the next year will be another test of character." At the end of August, 70% of the adult population in the 27-nation EU had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This marked a milestone after a slow start, but also masked big differences among EU countries. Announcing a new donation of another 200 million vaccine doses by the middle of next year for third countries - on top of a previous commitment for 250 million jabs - von der Leyen said she was also worried by variation of vaccination rates among the EU's member states. "Let's do everything possible (so) that this does not turn into a pandemic of the unvaccinated," she told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. 'FURTHER AND FASTER' ON CLIMATE The former German defence minister has put tackling climate change at the top of her agenda, with bold steps for the EU to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, along with a digital transformation of its economy. Von der Leyen said the EU would double its international funding to protect nature and halt the decline of the world's biodiversity, adding: "My message today is that Europe is ready to do more." "This is a generation with a conscience, they are pushing us to go further and faster to tackle the climate crisis," she said. She said the EU would increase its financial support to help poorer countries fight climate change and adapt to its impacts, announcing plans for an additional 4 billion euros until 2027. With a global chip shortage causing a major delay in manufacturing activity and forced several automakers to cut down on production, von der Leyen said the bloc must create a state- of-the-art European chip ecosystem including production. "Digital is the make-or-break issue," she said. Nineteen EU member states would have their economy back at pre-pandemic level this year, with the others following next year, she said. Von der Leyen, wore a mask emblazoned with the EU flag's circle of 12 gold stars, greeting lawmakers at the assembly ahead of her speech with fist bumps. Critics say she has fallen short of promises to make the commission more "geopolitical" as the EU struggles to assert its influence in foreign affairs.

A $6 cardboard box that uses solar power to cook food, sterilise water and could help 3 billion poor people cut greenhouse gases, has won a $75,000 prize for ideas to fight global warming. The "Kyoto Box", named after the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol that seeks to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, is aimed at billions of people who use firewood to cook. Costing 5 euros ($6.60) to make, it can also make it easier to boil polluted water. "We're saving lives and saving trees," the Kyoto Box's developer Jon Boehmer, a Norwegian based in Kenya, said in a statement. The FT Climate Change Challenge was backed by the Financial Times, technology group Hewlett-Packard, which sponsored the award, and development group Forum for the Future. The other four finalists were a garlic-based feed additive to cut methane emissions from livestock, an indoor cooling system using hollow tiles, a cover for truck wheels to reduce fuel use and a "giant industrial microwave" for creating charcoal. A statement said that Boehmer would carry out trials in 10 countries, including South Africa, India and Indonesia. He would then collect data to back an application for carbon credits. The United Nations is discussing giving credits to developing countries that preserve tropical forests, which soak up carbon as they grow. Those credits could then be traded. Many countries are looking for cheap green ways to stimulate economies mired in recession. More than 190 nations have agreed to work out a new U.N. climate pact to succeed Kyoto at a meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009.

- the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming -- would not be levied for a service and therefore violated the EU's international commitments, he said. Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States had sent a joint letter to Germany, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, outlining their concerns, Steinberg said. "The EU proposal is intent on bypassing the concerns of the rest of the world," he told a European Parliament hearing. BURDEN The EU scheme, which currently does not cover aviation, is the bloc's key tool to achieve cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases agreed under the Kyoto Protocol. It sets limits on the amount of CO2 that big industries can emit and allows companies to buy or sell emissions permits depending on whether they exceed or undercut their limits. The executive European Commission has proposed that intra-EU flights be included in the scheme from 2011, and international flights from 2012. "We hope to demonstrate the system can work," said Marianne Klingbeil of the Commission's environment directorate. "By starting (foreign flights) one year later, we sent a signal to other states on the planet -- we show you for one year that we take the burden on our shoulders." The Commission has said its scheme is compatible with international law. Steinberg said he was "struck by the oddness of requiring foreign airlines to buy permits from other EU industrial sectors" and found it unacceptable to have Europe be a "judge on what is satisfactory on emissions by other sovereign states." Washington has spoken out against the move repeatedly since the Commission unveiled its draft proposal last December. The parliament must agree on the proposal with EU governments before it can become law. It is expected to vote on its own version of the Commission's proposal in November.

The family of the accused gunman in the Arizona shooting spree expressed sorrow on Tuesday over the "heinous events" while the congresswoman who was shot in the head showed signs of improvement. In their first public statement, relatives of Jared Lee Loughner, 22, said it was a "very difficult time" and asked for privacy. "There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish there were, so we could make you feel better," read the statement, attributed to "The Loughner Family." The eight-sentence statement did not mention the young man charged in the shooting at a Tucson shopping mall that killed six people, including a federal judge, and injured 14 others. The shooting left Representative Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition but breathing on her own days after a bullet passed through her brain. "We don't understand why this happened. It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday," the family statement said. "We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so very sorry for their loss." Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat, was in critical condition at a Tucson hospital but is "holding her own," responding to simple commands and breathing without the aid of her ventilation tube, her doctor said. "She has no right to look this good. We're hopeful," said Dr. Michael Lemole, head of neurosurgery at the University Medical Center. "It's week to week, month to month," he said. "She's going to take her recovery at her own pace." President Barack Obama plans to go to Arizona on Wednesday to attend a memorial service for the dead, which included a 9-year-old girl. In Washington, the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote to condemn the bloody rampage that nearly killed one of their own and stirred debate about the angry politics of recent campaigns. PARENTS DEVASTATED Loughner is being held pending a January 24 preliminary hearing on five federal charges, including the attempted assassination of Giffords. Two young men emerged from the home of the accused gunman in a middle class neighborhood of Tucson and handed out the family's statement to a throng of media waiting outside. A neighbor earlier told local media Loughner's parents, Amy and Randy Loughner, were devastated. "Their son is not Amy and Randy, and people need to understand that. They're devastated. Wouldn't you be if it was your child?" neighbor Wayne Smith, with tears in his eyes, told Phoenix's News Channel Three. A CBS News poll released on Tuesday found a majority of Americans reject the view that inflamed political rhetoric contributed to the weekend shootings in Arizona. The poll found 57 percent of respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting, while 32 percent felt it did. The rejection of a link was strongest among Republicans, with 69 percent feeling harsh rhetoric was not related to the attack. While the motive for the attack was not apparent, politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is common may have contributed. Former President Bill Clinton cautioned that public officials should be careful about their language. "We cannot be unaware of the fact that, particularly with the Internet, there's this huge echo-chamber out there," he told BBC News. "Anything any of us says falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike, and we just have to be sensitive to it." Lawmakers in both political parties have called for greater civility in politics, and on Wednesday members of Congress will come together in a bipartisan prayer service. Giffords' colleagues in Congress put most of their work on hold after the shootings, which prompted many of them to reassess their own security. The Republican-led House has postponed a vote to repeal Obama's overhaul of the US healthcare system, which Giffords and other Democrats backed. Loughner is accused of opening fire with a semi-automatic Glock pistol while the congresswoman greeted constituents in a supermarket parking lot. "In a minute, he took away six loved ones, and took away our sense of well-being," Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said in a speech in Tucson. "There is no way to measure what Tucson and all of Arizona lost in that moment." More than 600 mourners gathered at a memorial service for the shooting victims at St. Odilia Catholic Church in Tucson. Arizona state lawmakers passed legislation on Tuesday to keep members of a Kansas fundamentalist Christian church from picketing at the funerals of the six shooting victims. Brewer quickly signed the bill into law. Members of the tiny church have gained notoriety for appearing at military funerals to declare that God had punished the troops because the United States accepts homosexuality. The church members also turned up at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards.

The British government's aim of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2050 will not be enough to stop average temperature increases above two degrees Celsius, the Opposition Conservatives said on Friday. Instead, the government should look at how to cut emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels over the same period and set an interim target to make sure it is reached. "Our understanding of the science tells us that the appropriate stabilisation target range for giving us the best chance to contain temperature increases to two degrees C is 400-450 parts per million CO2 equivalent," the party's Quality of Life Policy Group on climate change said. A report commissioned by the Treasury from former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said last month containing the rise to between 450 and 550 ppm was more likely -- suggesting temperature increases of at least three degrees. Currently atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide are around 430 ppm and rising at over two ppm a year. Scientists say average temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees this century due to carbon gases mainly from burning fossil fuels for power and transport. They say a rise above two degrees will take the planet's climate into the unknown, with potentially catastrophic floods, famines and violent storms putting millions of lives at risk. Although Britain only emits some two percent of the world's carbon dioxide, it has taken a leading role in advocating urgent action to stop and reverse the steep rise from both the industrial nations and boom economies like China and India. The government said last month it would put into law its voluntary target of cutting CO2 emissions by 60 percent by 2050, but has refused to set itself annual targets and admitted it is already set to miss its goal of a 20 percent cut by 2010. "The Stern report has been very valuable in making the economic case for taking action now," said Conservative lawmaker Nick Hurd. "However, we are concerned that his stabilisation target range lacks the necessary ambition and urgency," he added. The finding was endorsed by environment groups WWF and Friends of the Earth. The Quality of Life Policy Group is one of six bodies set up by Conservative Party leader David Cameron to draw up a new set of policies for the party he has revitalised and given a green mantle in the year since he was elected party leader. While its declaration -- the first it has made -- is not automatically party policy, it is likely that its findings will form part of it when it is formally unveiled in mid-2007.

Rich nations must take the lead in cutting carbon emissions to prevent catastrophic reversals in health and education gains and poverty reduction for the world's poor, says a major global report launched Tuesday. The UN Human Development Report (HDR) 2007-08 also asked developed countries to provide incentives to developing countries to combat the climate change challenge. The HDR 2007-08 is titled "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world". The report was prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the basis of the recently-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report. It set out a pathway for climate change negotiations next week in Bali, Indonesia, and stressed that a narrow ten-year window of opportunity remained to put it into practice. If that window is missed, temperature rises of above two degrees Celsius could see the disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers that provide water and food for over two billion people, the report warned. "The carbon budget of the 21st century -- the amount of carbon that can be absorbed creating an even probability that temperatures will not rise above two degrees -- is being overspent and threatens to run out entirely by 2032," says Kevin Watkins, lead author of the HDR 2007-08. Watkins said: "And the poor -- those with the lightest carbon footprint and the least means to protect themselves -- are the first victims of developed countries' energy-rich lifestyle." The world's richest countries have a historic responsibility to take the lead in balancing the carbon budget by cutting emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050, according to the report. "In addition, they (the rich) should support a new $86 billion global annual investment in substantial international adaptation efforts to protect the world's poor," the report said. Developed countries should also adopt a new mechanism to transfer clean energy technology to developing countries, it added. The report quoting the Bangladesh experience said, every $1 invested in this adaptation initiative protects $2 to 3 in assets that would otherwise be lost during flooding, without mention of the highly damaging implications of flooding for nutrition, health and education that can be avoided. The report argued that with the support of such measures, developing Asian countries -- especially fast growing and industrialising countries like China and India -- should also play their part with total emissions cuts of at least 20 percent by 2050. "The critical challenge for Asia in the face of climate change is to expand access to affordable energy, while at the same time decarbonising growth," says UNDP administrator Kemal Derviş, "International cooperation is vital to unlock win-win scenarios that enhance both the climate security and the energy security that are vital for growth and poverty reduction." The report recommends establishing a Climate Change Mitigation Facility financed by developed countries and designed to provide incentives, including access to clean energy technology, to guide developing countries to a greener development path. "Properly financed technology transfer from rich countries to poor countries has to be the entry price that developed countries pay for their carbon trail," says Watkins. Pathway for Bali 'Fighting climate change' lays out a definitive checklist for all political leaders meeting in Bali in December -- a pathway for a binding and enforceable post- 2012 multilateral agreement that the authors stress will be essential to support the planet and its poorest people against the worst impacts of climate change: 1. Cut emissions from developing countries by 20 percent by 2050 and from developed countries by 30 percent by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. 2. Create a Climate Change Mitigation Facility to finance the incremental low-carbon energy investment in developing countries, to give them both the means to switch to low emission pathways and the incentive to commit to binding international emission cuts. This would need an investment of $25-50 billion annually. 3. Put a proper price on carbon through a combination of carbon taxation and an ambitious global expansion of cap-and-trade schemes. 4. Strengthen regulatory standards by adopting and enforcing tougher efficiency standards on vehicle, building and electrical appliance emissions. 5. Support the development of low carbon energy provision, recognising unexploited potential for an increase in the share of renewable energy used and the need for urgent investment in breakthrough technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). 6. Allocate $86 billion or 0.2 percent of northern countries' combined GDP to adaptation of climate proof infrastructure and build the resilience of the poor to the effects of climate change. 7. Make adaptation part of all plans to reduce poverty and extreme inequality, including poverty reduction strategy papers. 8. Recognize carbon sequestration on forests and land as essential parts of a future global agreement and back international finance transfer plans on deforestation as advocated by Brazil among others.

The United Nations' weather agency will ask NASA and other space agencies next week to make their next generation of satellites available to monitor climate change, a senior official at the UN body said on Friday. The aim is to ensure that satellites launched over the next 20 years constantly record parameters such as sea levels and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said. "The main focus of the meeting next week will be the expansion of the global observing system by satellites to not only monitor severe weather, which is a core function, but also to monitor climate on a very continuous and long-term basis," WMO expert Jerome Lafeuille told a news briefing in Geneva. Senior officials from NASA, the European Space Agency, and space agencies in Japan, China, Brazil and India are due to attend the WMO meeting in New Orleans from Jan 15-16. Satellites are an essential part of efforts to track severe weather and climate change by providing a global picture of shifts in the climate system, rising ocean levels, impacts on land and in the atmosphere, says the WMO. Scientists blame climate change mainly on human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and warn it will bring extreme weather including more heatwaves, droughts, floods and rising seas. At least 16 geostationary and low-earth orbit satellites currently provide operational data on the planet's climate and weather as part of WMO's global observation system. There are also numerous experimental satellites designed for scientific missions or instrument technology demonstration -- measuring variables such as wind, precipitation and temperature -- whose data WMO wants to ensure is captured long-term. "We know there are gaps. Climate monitoring needs very long-term continuity of measurement," Lafeuille, who heads the space-based observing system division of WMO's space programme, told Reuters. "When you look at satellites programmed over the next two decades there are a number of extremely useful satellites but there is no guarantee of continuity of key measurements." High on WMO's agenda will be ensuring constant monitoring of sea levels for several decades, said the French expert. Measuring the chemical make-up of the atmosphere -- including greenhouse gases such as CO2 as well as aerosols -- is also key, Lafeuille said. A record number of 17 satellites are planned for launch in 2008 by countries from China to India and Russia, he said. "Our challenge at WMO is to make sure programmes are complementary and that all together we build an optimised system."

President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao will strive to put a rocky 2010 behind them and cast themselves as partners rather than rivals at a state visit this month between the world's two biggest powers. But a trust deficit as big as the trade gap between Beijing and Washington may hover over the visit, even as Obama fetes Hu with a black-tie dinner and a 21-gun salute and holds talks with him on issues like North Korea and the global economy. With the world still struggling with economic malaise and wrestling with grave environmental and security threats, the significance of the Chinese president's visit cannot be overstated. The January 19 event is being billed as the most important state visit in 30 years. "The goal of these meetings isn't tied to some watershed moment but toward the long-term process of deepening the relationship," said David Rothkopf, a foreign policy expert and former Clinton administration official. "Necessarily, the meeting between the heads of the two most important countries is as significant a summit as can happen." Obama has said he believes the U.S-China relationship will shape the 21st century. One long-term challenge is navigating the transition to a relationship of equals, and some experts are skeptical this can be done smoothly. One immediate aim will be to set a better tone after Washington and Beijing locked horns last year over deadly North Korean attacks on South Korea, exchange-rate policy, Internet censorship, human rights, South China Sea navigation, climate change and valuable rare earth minerals. Far-reaching breakthroughs are unlikely. DRIFT DOWNWARD "We had a drift downward in the relationship since President Obama visited Beijing in 2009," said the Brookings Institution's Kenneth Lieberthal. "Both sides see this as really setting the parameters for how to think about the relationship in both governments from now for the next several years." Obama's decision to accord Hu the pomp and circumstance of a full state visit could be a step in that direction. China views formalities like the state dinner and cannon salute as acknowledgments of its growing stature. But there are risks. U.S. officials are taking pains to avoid the glitches of Hu's 2006 visit to Washington when a shouting protester from the Falun Gong spiritual movement interrupted the Chinese president's remarks on the South Lawn. Under Obama's tenure in 2009, the Group of 20, which includes fast-growing economies like China and India, replaced the Group of 8 as the global economic steering committee. Twenty years after the end of the Cold War and almost a decade since September 11, the United States must "make adjustments for the G20 world and this is a very important visit in terms of setting the ground rules for that," said Douglas Paal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Deliverables best are seen in the perspective of two or three years from now -- what really got settled," he said. But Paal said the looming fact of the summit was an "action-forcing event" that has brought gains on some fronts. It seems to have paved the way for the 5 percent rise in the value of China's yuan currency as well as a resumption of long-frozen U.S.-China military ties and a pause in bellicose actions and words from North Korea. In the clearest sign that military-to-military ties are back on track, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is heading to Beijing on Sunday. One big question ahead of Hu's visit is whether stalled six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear program could restart but U.S. officials emphasized they do not view that as a measure of the success or failure of the U.S.-China summit. NO BIG GIFT BASKET On trade, where the U.S. chafes at an ever-widening annual trade deficit approaching $270 billion, China made proposals last month on purchases of U.S. beef and intellectual property rights. Still, Washington would be wrong to expect a "big gift basket" from China on exchange rates, North Korea or Iran, said Sun Zhe, an expert at Beijing's Tsinghua University. "China hopes that such visits can help achieve overall stability in relations, not necessarily specific outcomes," Sun said. As China racks up world-beating economic growth, the United States is fretting about lackluster growth and weak job creation after the 2008-2009 financial meltdown. That means that economic frictions are unavoidable. Indeed, two weeks before the summit, Sen. Charles Schumer, a top proponent in Obama's Democratic Party of pressing China to revalue its yuan, vowed in an interview with Reuters to revive legislation that would punish Chinese exports if the yuan did not rise. Beijing loathes the bill. Beyond specific bilateral issues, one obstacle to deepening ties is wariness on both sides about each other's intentions. Chinese nationalism is rising as rapidly as Beijing's global clout, but Paal said Hu would try to convey to the United States that Beijing is "comfortable with America's lead in the world" and is not trying to displace it. Obama has work to do in allaying China's worries, too. "They have a very hard time believing that number one will not try to keep number two from catching up, because they know that's what they would do if they were number one," Lieberthal said.

Dozens of Chinese scientists and support staff left Shanghai on Monday for the country's 24th scientific expedition to Antarctica in which they will expand two research stations and build a third. The 91-strong team and 40 crew were given a rousing farewell as the vessel "Xue Long", or Snow Dragon, left port to a rousing send-off by a military brass band, the beat of traditional dancers and the customary fireworks. The rest of the explorers will arrive in Antarctica by air. The third station is a planned observatory with seven telescopes and an acoustic radar at Dome A, the highest point on the continent at 4,100 metres (13,400 ft) above sea level. "Even though our country has had numerous expeditions in Antarctica, overall we still do not have a full understanding of the place," said expedition member Cui Jianjun, 34. "So there are indeed many uncertain factors and also great risks involved." The explorers will also research bio-diversity, the ice shelf, climate change, Antarctic ice algae and environmental monitoring, Xinhua said. "We have made preparations to build a third station and once the site is located, construction will start soon. The whole project is expected to be completed by 2010," Xinhua news agency quoted Xu Xiaxing, a veteran of the expedition team on his eighth trip to the continent. Several nations eager to tap mineral resources in Antarctica have been outlining their case before the United Nations in what some experts are describing as the last big carve-up of territory in history. Some areas of the continent are disputed by Chile, Argentina and Britain. The claims come amid growing interest in the potential for mineral exploitation at both the North and South Poles. For now, though, all such claims are theoretical because Antarctica is protected by a 1959 treaty which prevents mineral exploitation of the continent except for scientific research.

Coral growth since 1990 in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has fallen to its lowest rate for 400 years, in a troubling sign for the world's oceans, researchers said on Thursday. This could threaten a variety of marine ecosystems that rely on the reef and signal similar problems for other similar organisms worldwide, Glen De'ath and colleagues at the Australian Institute of Marine Science said. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral expanse, and like similar reefs worldwide is threatened by climate change and pollution. "These organisms are central to the formation and function of ecosystems and food webs, and precipitous changes in the biodiversity and productivity of the world's oceans may be imminent," the researchers wrote in the journal Science. Coral reefs, delicate undersea structures resembling rocky gardens made by tiny animals called coral polyps, are important nurseries and shelters for fish and other sea life. They also protect coastlines, provide a critical source of food for millions of people, attract tourists and are potential storehouses of medicines for cancer and other diseases. De'ath and his team studied 328 large coral colonies from 69 reefs and found the skeletal records indicate that calcification -- or the deposit of calcium carbonate -- by these creatures has declined by 13.3 percent throughout the Barrier Reef since 1990. The researchers blamed a combination of global warming, ocean acidity level and decreasing carbonate content in seawater for the decline, unprecedented over the past 400 years. "Verification of the causes of this decline should be made a high priority," the researchers said. Coral covers about 400,000 square km (154,000 sq miles) of tropical ocean floor, but needs sustained sunlight, warmer waters and high levels of carbonate to flourish. The biggest is Australia's Great Barrier Reef, a collection of 2,900 reefs along 2,100 km (1,300 miles) of Australia's northeast coast in a marine park the size of Germany.

Obama announced the appointment of McDonough, who had been widely tipped to fill the vacancy created by Jack Lew's nomination as Treasury secretary, at a ceremony in the White House's ornate East Room.McDonough, a deputy national security adviser, takes on what is a mostly behind-the-scenes job but still considered one of Washington's most influential. The chief of staff acts as Oval Office gatekeeper and is a coordinator of domestic and foreign policymaking.In more than half a dozen other high-level staff changes, Obama also moved White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer to the job of senior adviser and replaced Pfeiffer with his deputy, Jennifer Palmieri.Pfeiffer is taking on the new role with Obama's announcement of the expected departure on Friday of senior adviser David Plouffe, a chief architect of the president's 2008 White House victory and his 2012 re-election.Obama's choice of McDonough - whom the president lauded as "one of my closest and most trusted advisers" - holds to a pattern of picking confidants and allies as he shuffles his inner circle for his second-term.McDonough, 43, started out with Obama when he was a freshman US senator from Illinois and just beginning his rapid ascent on the national political scene.McDonough, whose expertise is mostly in foreign policy, worked on Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and became a senior aide at the National Security Council when the president took office."Denis has played a key role in every major national security decision of my presidency: ending the war in Iraq, winding down the war in Afghanistan, and from our response to natural disasters around the world like Haiti and the tsunami in Japan, to the repeal of ‘Don't Ask Don't Tell'," Obama said.There had been some concern that McDonough's lack of a deep domestic policy background might be a handicap for him as chief of staff when fiscal matters, gun control and immigration are shaping up as Obama's top priorities. Obama has also signalled a possible push in the fight against climate change.But McDonough's experience as a congressional staffer and the close contacts he retains on Capitol Hill were seen as a plus. He served as foreign policy adviser to former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle."Denis understands the importance of reaching across the aisle to deliver results for the American people," Obama said just four days after laying out an ambitious liberal agenda in his second inaugural address.GENDER ISSUEThe promotion of Palmieri, who was a staffer in President Bill Clinton's White House, marks one of the first second-term appointments of a woman for a senior job as Obama has faced criticism for giving his most recent top nominations to men.Pfeiffer, a long-time Obama aide, helped shape the president's public relations strategy in his first term and the re-election campaign, and is expected to remain a key tactician.Another woman named was Assistant Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco, who was tapped to replace John Brennan as Obama's chief White House counterterrorism adviser, pending his confirmation as CIA director.Rob Nabors, White House director of legislative affairs and a negotiator in last year's "fiscal cliff" talks with Congress, was named deputy White House chief of staff for policy. Tony Blinken, Vice President Joe Biden's national security adviser, was appointed one of Obama's deputy national security advisers.McDonough's main competition for the chief of staff job was Ron Klain, former chief of staff to Biden.The chief of staff job is a high-pressure one, and Obama's has been a through a series of them since taking office.Rahm Emanuel, now mayor of Chicago, led Obama's White House in the first half of his first term during fights over the economic stimulus package and healthcare reform.Bill Daley, a Commerce secretary under Clinton, served as Obama's second chief of staff, after an interim filled by aide Pete Rouse. Daley was not a part of Obama's campaign-connected inner circle, however, and left after a year in the job.Lew took over from Daley, who returned to Illinois. A popular and low-key chief, Lew served as a deputy to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and as a budget director for Obama before taking his position in the West Wing.

A Reuters/Ipsos online poll this month asked 2,809 Americans to rate how much of a threat a list of countries, organizations and individuals posed to the United States on a scale of 1 to 5, with one being no threat and 5 being an imminent threat. The poll showed 34 percent of Republicans ranked Obama as an imminent threat, ahead of Putin (25 percent), who has been accused of aggression in the Ukraine, and Assad (23 percent). Western governments have alleged that Assad used chlorine gas and barrel bombs on his own citizens. Given the level of polarization in American politics the results are not that surprising, said Barry Glassner, a sociologist and author of "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are afraid of the wrong things." "There tends to be a lot of demonizing of the person who is in the office," Glassner said, adding that "fear mongering" by the Republican and Democratic parties would be a mainstay of the US 2016 presidential campaign. "The TV media here, and American politics, very much trade on fears," he said. The Ipsos survey, done between March 16 and March 24, included 1,083 Democrats and 1,059 Republicans. Twenty-seven percent of Republicans saw the Democratic Party as an imminent threat to the United States, and 22 percent of Democrats deemed Republicans to be an imminent threat. People who were polled were most concerned about threats related to potential terror attacks. Islamic State militants were rated an imminent threat by 58 percent of respondents, and al Qaeda by 43 percent. North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un was viewed as a threat by 34 percent, and Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by 27 percent. Cyber attacks were viewed as an imminent threat by 39 percent, and drug trafficking was seen as an imminent threat by a third of the respondents. Democrats were more concerned about climate change than Republicans, with 33 percent of Democrats rating global warming an imminent threat. Among Republicans, 27 percent said climate change was not a threat at all. The data was weighted to reflect the US population and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points for all adults (3.4 points for Democrats and 3.4 points for Republicans.)

Trump, tapping into the "America First" message he used when he was elected president last year, said the Paris accord would undermine the US economy, cost US jobs, weaken American national sovereignty and put the country at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world. "We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us any more. And they won't be," Trump said. "The same nations asking us to stay in the agreement are the countries that have collectively cost America trillions of dollars through tough trade practices and in many cases lax contributions to our critical military alliance," Trump added. Supporters of the accord, including some leading US business figures, called Trump's move a blow to international efforts to curb the warming of the planet that threatens far-reaching consequences for this century and beyond. Former Democratic President Barack Obama expressed regret over the pullout from a deal he was instrumental in brokering. "But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got," Obama added.   "Today's decision is a setback for the environment and for the US's leadership position in the world," Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein wrote on Twitter. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, said his administration would begin negotiations either to re-enter the Paris accord or to have a new agreement "on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers." He complained in particular about China's terms under the agreement. International leaders including the pope had pressed Trump not follow through on an election campaign promise to abandon the accord, and they lamented his decision. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in a rare joint statement the agreement could not be renegotiated and urged their allies to hasten efforts to combat climate change. They pledged to do more to help developing countries adapt. "While the US decision is disheartening, we remain inspired by the growing momentum around the world to combat climate change and transition to clean growth economies," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. China's state news agency Xinhua published a commentary on Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, describing it as a "global setback."   China overtook the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2007. With Trump's action, the United States will walk away from nearly every other nation in the world on one of the pressing global issues of the 21st century. Syria and Nicaragua are the only other non-participants in the accord. Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who is the incoming head of the U.N. Climate Change Conferences, which formalized the 2015 Paris accord, said Trump's decision was "deeply disappointing". Fiji, like many other small island nations, is seen as particularly vulnerable to global warming and a possible rise in ocean levels as a result of melting polar ice. The United States was one of 195 nations that agreed to the accord in Paris in December 2015. Under the pact, which was years in the making, countries both rich and poor committed to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases generated by burning fossils fuels and blamed by scientists for warming the planet. "We're getting out," Trump said at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden under sunny skies on a warm June day. "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," the Republican president said. Pittsburgh's mayor, Democrat Bill Peduto, shot back on Twitter that his city, long the heart of the US steel industry, actually embraced the Paris accord. The spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the action a "major disappointment." The UN body that handles climate negotiations said the accord could not be renegotiated based on the request of a single nation. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in Singapore on Friday that the US decision was "disappointing... but not at all surprising," adding that Australia remained "committed to our Paris commitments." Green climate fund Trump said the United States would stop payments to the UN Green Climate Fund, in which rich countries committed billions of dollars to help developing countries deal with floods, droughts and other impacts from climate change. The White House said it would stick to UN rules for withdrawing from the pact. Those rules require a nation to wait three years from the date the pact gained legal force, Nov 4, 2016, before formally seeking to leave. That country must then wait another year. Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger said they would leave White House advisory councils after Trump's move. "Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Musk said in a Twitter post. Trump withdrawal from climate deal gets mixed response from US companies In an email to Apple employees, CEO Tim Cook expressed disappointment and said he spoke with Trump on Tuesday to try to persuade him to stay in the Paris accord. "It wasn't enough," he said. General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt said he was disappointed, adding: "Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government." Republican US congressional leaders backed Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell applauded Trump "for dealing yet another significant blow to the Obama administration's assault on domestic energy production and jobs." Democrats blasted the president's move. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the decision "one of the worst policy moves made in the 21st century because of the huge damage to our economy, our environment and our geopolitical standing." US Senator Bernie Sanders, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year, said: "At this moment, when climate change is already causing devastating harm around the world, we do not have the moral right to turn our backs on efforts to preserve this planet for future generations." The United States had committed to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. The United States accounts for more than 15 percent of total worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, second only to China. Leading climate scientists say greenhouse gas emissions trap heat in the atmosphere and have caused a warming planet, sea level rise, droughts and more frequent violent storms. A "Global Trends" report prepared by the US Director of National Intelligence's office, released on Jan 9, warned that climate change posed security risks because of extreme weather, stress on water and food, and global tensions over how to manage the changes. Last year was the warmest since records began in the 19th Century, as global average temperatures continued a rise dating back decades that scientists attribute to greenhouse gases. Energy industry analysts said the US withdrawal would result in closer cooperation between the European Union and China, potentially at the cost of jobs in the United States. "We are going to see closer cooperation between China and the European Union in accelerating the energy transition into a low-carbon economy. The US withdrawal of the Paris accord will offer an unprecedented opportunity for China... to ascend in leading global climate affairs," said Frank Yu of energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

China’s assistant foreign minister, Xie Feng, told Sherman that the United States’ “competitive, collaborative and adversarial rhetoric” was a “thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China,” according to a summary of Xie’s comments that the Chinese foreign ministry sent to reporters. Sherman’s meetings offered the latest gauge of the Biden administration’s strategy of stepping up pressure against the Chinese government on several fronts, including human rights and internet hacking, while seeking to work together on global problems like climate change and international health threats. Xie’s remarks underscored the anger that has been building in China toward the United States, undermining the chances that the approach will work. “It seems that a whole-of-government and whole-of-society campaign is being waged to bring China down,” Xie told Sherman, according to the summaries of his comments, which were also issued on the Chinese foreign ministry website. “Do bad things and get good results. How is that ever possible?” The Chinese foreign ministry’s volley of combative comments, issued before and during Sherman’s talks in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, suggested that her visit was unlikely to ease the disputes that have festered between Beijing and Washington. The State Department said last week that she would discuss Washington’s “serious concerns” about Chinese actions, as well as “areas where our interests align.” But Chinese people “feel that the real emphasis is on the adversarial aspect; the collaborative aspect is just an expediency,” Xie told Sherman, according to the summary. The acrimony echoed the opening of high-level talks between senior Chinese and Biden administration officials in March, when Beijing’s top foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, delivered a 16-minute lecture, accusing them of arrogance and hypocrisy. Sherman rose to prominence during the Obama administration as a leading negotiator of a nuclear agreement with Iran reached in 2015 after years of contentious talks. Now as the No. 2 in the State Department, she is focused on managing tense relations with China. While President Joe Biden has largely avoided the heated ideological sparring with the Chinese Communist Party that the Trump administration pursued in its final year, relations remain strained. Washington has drawn in allies to press Beijing over mass detentions and forced labor in Xinjiang and the rollback of freedom in Hong Kong. The Chinese government has also bristled at calls from the United States, the World Health Organisation and others for a fresh examination of whether the coronavirus may have slipped out of a lab in China, igniting the pandemic. Last week, Chinese officials said they were “extremely shocked” by a WHO proposal to take a fresh look at the lab leak theory. A report in March from an initial WHO inquiry stated that it was “extremely unlikely” that the coronavirus had jumped into the wider population through a lab leak. The Biden administration and a coalition of other governments, including the member states of NATO, last week also asserted that Chinese security services and their contract hackers were behind widespread breaches of Microsoft email systems. Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has expressed impatience with criticism and demands from Washington, especially over what Beijing deems internal issues like Hong Kong, Xinjiang and human rights. “We’ll never accept insufferably arrogant lecturing from those ‘master teachers!’” Xi said in a speech on July 1 marking 100 years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. He also warned that foes would “crack their heads and spill blood” against a wall of Chinese resolve. Beijing has repeatedly retaliated against sanctions over Hong Kong and Xinjiang with its own bans on Western politicians, human rights groups and academics. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who was also scheduled to meet Sherman in Tianjin, said over the weekend that the United States needed to be taught some humility. “If the United States still hasn’t learned how to get along with other countries in an equal manner, then we have a responsibility to work with the international community to give it a good catch-up lesson,” Wang said in talks Saturday with his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. © 2021 The New York Times Company

Besides protecting wildlife and water supplies, the ruling could force the plant that makes 75 percent of Sweden's cement and is the country's second biggest carbon emitter to slash output while it finds raw materials elsewhere, or even shut altogether. That might be good for Sweden's emissions targets, but not such good news for the rest of the planet. A government-commissioned report seen by Reuters said it could force Sweden to import cement from countries that pump out more emissions in the overall manufacturing process - or risk massive job losses in the construction industry at home. "Imports from countries outside the EU would probably lead to larger environmental impacts as a result of lower standards related to CO2 emissions and lower standards in land use," the report, obtained via a freedom of information request, said. Sweden's dilemma encapsulates one the challenges facing nations meeting in Glasgow for the UN COP26 climate talks: how to show they are not cutting emissions by simply exporting the problem elsewhere - a phenomenon known as "carbon leakage". A rich, stable Nordic democracy, Sweden has long topped international environmental rankings and has managed to cut back on greenhouse gases for years while preserving economic growth on a path towards its target of net zero emissions by 2045. It has the world's highest carbon tax at $137 per tonne and is a leader in the use of renewable energy. In 2018, its carbon emissions per head stood at 3.5 tonnes, well below the European Union average of 6.4 tonnes, according to World Bank data. But the stand-off over the Slite cement plant epitomises the growing tension between local environment goals and the 2015 Paris Agreement signed by nearly 200 countries to try to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius. "We have to weigh up the global focus - doing the most for the climate - but also maintain our high ambitions when it comes to our local environmental problems," Sweden's Minster for Environment and Climate Per Bolund told Reuters. "These two things can be balanced." ALTERNATIVE FUELS Much of Europe's imported cement comes from Turkey, Russia, Belarus and countries in North Africa. They don't have anything like the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), the world's largest carbon market and one that sets the price of carbon permits for energy-intensive sectors, including cement, within the 27-nation bloc. The World Bank says only 22 percent of global emissions were covered by pricing mechanisms last year and the International Monetary Fund put the average global price of carbon at $3 a tonne - a tiny fraction of Sweden's carbon tax. While the Swedish court's decision was not linked to Slite's carbon footprint, but rather the risks its quarry poses to local groundwater, the impact from an emissions point of view depends on the efficiency and energy mix of the producers likely to supply Sweden with cement to plug any shortfalls. Slite's owner, Germany's HeidelbergCement, also plans to make it the world's first carbon neutral cement factory by 2030, but the uncertainty over its future following the court ruling may delay or even scupper the project. "We need a decision soon on the long-term basis for these operations if that is not to be delayed," Magnus Ohlsson, chief executive of HeidelbergCement's Swedish subsidiary Cementa, said last month. Koen Coppenholle, head of European cement lobby group Cembureau, said he was confident European plants were "cleaner" overall because high EU carbon charges on producers had encouraged them to invest in reducing their emissions. "In Europe, right now, we are replacing 50 percent of our primary fuel needs by alternative fuels," he said According to Cembureau data, however, imports of cement from outside the EU have jumped by about 160 percent in the last five years, even though total volumes remain relatively small. But carbon leakage, where emissions are shifted from countries with tight environmental rules to ones with laxer and cheaper regimes, is an issue for dozens of industries and policymakers are trying to tackle it. In July, the EU unveiled plans for the world's first carbon border tax to protect European industries, including cement, from competitors abroad whose manufacturers produce at lower cost because they are not charged for their carbon output. Europe's cement industry supports the move, but warns it is fraught with difficulties, such as how to measure emissions in different countries given varying processes and fuels. If you impose strict requirements on CO2 and emissions, you have to make sure you do that in a way that you don't push companies outside the EU," said Coppenholle. "That's the whole discussion on carbon leakage." For a country such as Sweden, which has cut its emissions by 29 percent over the last three decades, the issue of domestic action versus global impact goes beyond cement. The country's already low, and declining, emissions from domestic production dropped to just under 60 million tonnes of carbon equivalent in 2018. But if you measure what Swedes consume, including goods and services produced abroad, the figure is about a third higher, according to Statistics Sweden, which put so-called consumption-based emissions at 82 million tonnes that year. CLIMATE IS GLOBAL The local versus global perspective also raises questions about which type of industrial policy is ultimately greener. Sweden's leading steel firm SSAB, state-owned miner LKAB and utility Vattenfall, for example, have invested heavily in developing a process to produce steel without using fossil fuels. They say switching to so-called green hydrogen power would reduce Sweden's emissions by about 10 percent, a big step towards reaching the country's 2045 net zero emission goal. But for researchers Magnus Henrekson at the Research Institute for Industrial Economics, Christian Sandstrom at Jonkoping International Business School and Carl Alm at the Ratio Institute, this is an example of the "environmental nationalism" that benefits one country, but not the world. They estimate that if Sweden exported the renewable energy it would use to make hydrogen to Poland and Germany instead - so they could cut back on coal-fired power - overall CO2 emissions would fall by 10 to 12 times more than by making "green" steel. The EU's carbon border levy, meanwhile, is only due to be phased in from 2026, potentially too late to have a bearing on the fate of Cementa's Slite limestone quarry. Sweden's parliament has agreed to a government proposal to tweak the country's environmental laws to give Cementa a stay of execution, but no long-term solution is in sight. Environmentalists such as David Kihlberg, climate head at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, say easing regulations gives industries an excuse to put off changes that need to happen now. "It would be incredibly destructive for climate diplomacy if Sweden came to the top climate meeting in Glasgow and said our climate policy is to increase emissions and the local environmental impact in order to pull the rug from under Chinese cement producers," he said, referring to a hypothetical scenario that is not Swedish policy. "The climate question is global and has to be solved by cooperation between countries."

But early warnings and a swift evacuation just before the storm struck saved the island's entire population of 1,000 people from one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever, which left a trail of destruction across the Asian country. Now some experts are pushing for more recognition of such efforts to avert disasters, or at least their worst effects - which they say would help the world prepare better for accelerating climate change impacts and ease rising eco-anxiety. "People don't highlight it when 'nothing happens', but even if nothing happens, it is in itself extraordinary," said David Lallemant, a disaster risk expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU). "These are invisible (successes). We want to change that; we want to bring visibility," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. From retrofitting schools to withstand earthquakes to installing irrigation that saves crops from drought, Lallemant said there have been many effective early interventions that should be lauded but have gone largely unnoticed by the public. Recognising these achievements is crucial to encouraging policymakers to invest in similar measures, he added, as leading scientists last week warned in a new UN report that climate change losses are becoming hard to avoid and will likely worsen. TOO MUCH BAD NEWS? From searing heat to floods and drought, global warming is affecting the world faster than anticipated and on a more intense scale, according to the flagship report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Approved by 195 governments, the report urged policymakers to step up initiatives to adapt to more extreme weather and rising seas, and to limit the vulnerability of their people. Climate change has also "adversely" affected mental health, from the stress of rising heat and trauma from weather disasters to loss of livelihoods and culture, the IPCC said, in its first formal acknowledgement of the growing problem. Despite the bleak outlook, the head of the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned against creating more "apocalyptic fears", especially among younger generations. "We have to be careful how we communicate the results of our science, tipping points and when we talk about the collapsing of the biosphere and the disappearance of mankind," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. "We have to be careful not to cause too much fear among the young people. The fear should be targeted towards decision-makers," he told the approval meeting for the IPCC report. The broader negative narrative around climate change could be balanced partly by showcasing more "averted disasters", especially in news reports that are often dominated by catastrophes, said NTU's Lallemant. He and a team of researchers have been studying how disasters would have cost far more lives and damage without anticipatory action - and trying to quantify the benefits. They found that when Cyclone Fani struck the state of Odisha on India's east coast in 2019, more than 10,000 deaths were prevented thanks to a prompt evacuation of coastal communities and some 9,000 shelters built during the previous two decades. In Nepal, a seismic strengthening of schools that started in 1997 is thought to have saved hundreds of lives when a massive earthquake struck in 2015, killing some 9,000 people overall. None of the 300 retrofitted schools under the programme collapsed or needed major repairs, according to the researchers. "We spend all our time thinking about disasters - it's quite depressing," said Lallemant, who is also a principal investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, a research centre focused on natural hazards. "But there are a lot of things that we're already doing all over the world in addressing some of our disaster and climate risks. The problem is we never heard about it," he added. 'MULTIPLE TRUTHS' A growing mental health crisis linked to climate change - often dubbed "eco-anxiety" - has come under the spotlight in recent years, from heat-linked suicides in Mexico and the United States to people who fear the future is too uncertain to have children. To help combat this, discussions around climate issues should hold "multiple truths together", said mental health specialist Emma Lawrance, who studies the phenomenon at Britain's Imperial College London. This would include showing both better and worse future paths in messages aimed at spurring action and optimism. "If coupled with hopelessness and powerlessness, climate anxiety may worsen our mental health and wellbeing, and hamper our ability to act," added Lawrance. Other advocates argue that giving more recognition to averted disasters could push policymakers - in both developed and developing nations - to increase investment in disaster prevention measures, and to do so sooner rather than later. The IPCC report estimates that 3.3 billion to 3.6 billion people live in places that are highly vulnerable to climate change, including Africa, South Asia and small island states. But many developing countries are struggling financially to adapt to the pressures of a warming world, as wealthier nations responsible for most past carbon emissions have fallen short on commitments to provide finance to help the poor and vulnerable. Maricar Rabonza, a disaster risk researcher also from Singapore's NTU, said elected politicians are often reluctant to make bold moves as positive results could take years to become evident - by which time most of them are no longer in office. "So how do we incentivise that? The benefits should be quantified as early as possible," said Rabonza. "If we just shift our perspective a little bit, we can take advantage of the lessons from positive actions and not only ... the failures in disasters," she said.

Millions of the world's poorest children are among the principal victims of climate change caused by the rich developed world, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, calling for urgent action. The UNICEF report "Our Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility" measured action on targets set in the UN Millennium Development Goals, aimed at halving child poverty by 2015. It found failure on counts from health to survival, education and gender equality. "It is clear that a failure to address climate change is a failure to protect children," said UNICEF UK director David Bull. "Those who have contributed least to climate change -- the world's poorest children -- are suffering the most." The report said climate change could add 40,000-160,000 child deaths a year in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa through lower economic growth. It also noted that if temperatures rose by two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, up to 200 million people globally would face hunger -- a figure that climbs to 550 million with a temperature rise of three degrees. The UNICEF report said economic damage due to climate change would force parents to withdraw children from schools -- often the only place they are guaranteed at least one meal a day -- to fetch water and fuel instead. Environmental changes wrought by climate change will also expand the range of deadly diseases such as malaria, which already kills 800,000 children a year and is now being seen in previously unaffected areas. Scientists predict global average temperatures will rise by between 1.6 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, causing floods, famines, violent storms and droughts. An international agreement is being sought on action to ensure temperatures do not rise more than 2.0 degrees. INEVITABLE But some environmentalists say a 2.0 degree rise is inevitable whatever action is taken now. That is partly because of the 30-year time lag in climate response to emitted carbon, and partly because nations like China, which opens a new coal-fired power station a week, cannot and will not stop burning carbon. China, with vast coal reserves and an economy growing at 10 percent a year, is set to overtake the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter. Developing nations, under pressure to sign up to new curbs on carbon emissions at the end of next year, say there is no reason they should keep their people in poverty when the problem has been caused by the developed world. "Rich countries' responsibility for the bulk of past emissions demands that we give our strong support," said Nicholas Stern, whose 2006 report on the economic implications of the climate crisis sparked international concern. "Business-as-usual or delayed action would lead to the probability of much higher temperature increases which would catastrophically transform our planet," he wrote in a foreword to Tuesday's report. "It will be the young and the poor and developing countries that will suffer earliest and hardest. "We cannot allow this to happen."

Toyako, Japan,july 08 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The G8 rich countries want to work with the nearly 200 states involved in UN climate change talks to adopt a goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a draft communique showed. The communique, obtained by Reuters ahead of its formal approval by Group of Eight leaders at a summit in northern Japan, also said mid-term goals would be needed to achieve the shared goal for 2050. The statement puts the focus of fighting global warming on UN-led talks to create a new framework for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and papers over differences inside the G8 itself. The UN talks are set to conclude in Copenhagen in December 2009. The careful wording of the climate statement -- always the most contentious part of summit negotiations -- was also unlikely to satisfy those seeking much more specific targets. Last year, the G8 club of rich nations -- Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the United States -- agreed merely to "seriously consider" a goal of halving global emissions by mid-century. The European Union and Japan have been pressing for this year's summit to go beyond that, and Brussels wanted clear interim targets as well. But US President George W Bush has insisted that Washington cannot agree to binding targets unless big polluters such as China and India rein in their emissions as well. The European Union's executive welcomed the deal on climate change, saying it represented a "new, shared vision" and kept negotiations on track for a global deal in 2009. "This is a strong signal to citizens around the world," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Tuesday, adding the EU's benchmark for success at the G8 summit in northern Japan had been achieved. Global warming ties into other big themes such as soaring food and fuel prices being discussed at the three-day meeting at a plush mountain-top hotel on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, where 21,000 police have been mobilized. In another statement released on the second day of the summit, the leaders noted that the world economy faces uncertainty and downside risks, including that posed by a sharp rise in oil prices. The group also made a thinly veiled call for China to let the yuan's tightly controlled exchange rate appreciate to help reduce global financial imbalances. "In some emerging economies with large and growing current account surpluses, it is crucial that their effective exchange rates move so that necessary adjustment will occur," the G8 said in the statement. The leaders also agreed to bring major oil producers and consumers together in a world energy forum to discuss output and prices. The price of food and of oil, which hit a record high of $145.85 a barrel last week, is taking a particularly heavy toll on the world's poor. A World Bank study issued last week said up to 105 million more people could drop below the poverty line due to the leap in food prices, including 30 million in Africa. "How we respond to this double jeopardy of soaring food and oil prices is a test of the global system's commitment to help the most vulnerable," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Monday. "It is a test we cannot afford to fail." To help cushion the blow, officials said the G8 would unveil a series of measures to help Africa, especially its farmers, and would affirm its commitment to double aid to give $50 billion extra in aid by 2010, with half to go to the world's poorest continent. The summit wraps up on Wednesday with a Major Economies Meeting comprising the G8 and eight other big greenhouse gas-emitting countries, including India, China and Australia.

Global temperatures may be 4 degrees Celsius hotter by the mid-2050s if current greenhouse gas emissions trends continue, said a study published on Monday. The study, by Britain's Met Office Hadley Center, echoed a U.N. report last week which found that climate changes were outpacing worst-case scenarios forecast in 2007 by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "Our results are showing similar patterns (to the IPCC) but also show the possibility that more extreme changes can happen," said Debbie Hemming, co-author of the research published at the start of a climate change conference at Oxford University. Leaders of the main greenhouse gas-emitting countries recognized in July a scientific view that temperatures should not exceed 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, to avoid more dangerous changes to the world's climate. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its fourth assessment report, or AR4. One finding was that global temperatures could rise by 4 degrees by the end of the 2050s. Monday's study confirmed that warming could happen even earlier, by the mid-2050s, and suggested more extreme local effects. "It's affirming the AR4 results and also confirming that it is likely," Hemming told Reuters, referring to 4 degrees warming, assuming no extra global action to cut emissions in the next decade. One advance since 2007 was to model the effect of "carbon cycles." For example, if parts of the Amazon rainforest died as a result of drought, that would expose soil which would then release carbon from formerly shaded organic matter. "That amplifies the amount of carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere and therefore the global warming. It's really leading to more certainty," said Hemming. DRASTIC Some 190 countries will try to reach an agreement on how to slow global warming at a meeting in Copenhagen in December. Chinese President Hu Jintao won praise for making a commitment to limit emissions growth by a "notable" amount, at a UN climate summit in New York last week. Other leaders made pledges to agree a new climate pact. Temperature rises are compared with pre-industrial levels. The world warmed 0.7 degrees last century, scientists say. A global average increase of 4 degrees masked higher regional increases, including more than 15 degrees warmer temperatures in parts of the Arctic, and up to 10 degrees higher in western and southern Africa, Monday's study found. "It's quite extreme. I don't think it's hit home to people," said Hemming. As sea ice melts, the region will reflect less sunlight, which may help trigger runaway effects. Such higher Arctic temperatures could also melt permafrost, which until now has trapped the powerful greenhouse gas methane, helping trigger further runaway effects, said Hemming. "There are potentially quite big negative implications." The study indicated rainfall may fall this century by a fifth or more in part of Africa, Central America, the Mediterranean, and coastal Australia, "potentially more extreme" than the IPCC's findings in 2007. "The Mediterranean is a very consistent signal of significant drying in nearly all the model runs," said Hemming. A 20 percent or more fall is "quite a lot in areas like Spain already struggling with rainfall reductions in recent years."

Climate scientists from around the world urged delegates at UN-led talks in Bali on Thursday to make deeper and swifter cuts to greenhouse emissions to prevent dangerous global warming. In a declaration, more than 200 scientists said governments had a window of only 10-15 years for global emissions to peak and decline, and that the ultimate goal should be at least a 50 percent reduction in climate-warming emissions by 2050. "We appreciate this is a significant challenge for the world community," Professor Andy Pittman, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, told reporters in Bali. "But it is what is required to reduce the risks of dangerous climate change, and that is what we are all trying to do here." The meeting in Bali, involving about 190 nations, aims to initiate a two-year dialogue leading to a broader climate pact by 2009 to replace or upgrade the Kyoto Protocol. The goal is to find a formula that will bring outsiders such as the United States, China and India into a global compact to fight growing emissions of carbon dioxide, which is produced from burning fossil fuels in power stations, industry and transport. The United States, the world's top carbon emitter, has come under intense pressure from all sides at the Bali meeting to curb its emissions and on Wednesday US lawmakers moved a step closer to approving caps. A Senate committee approved legislation outlining a cap-and-trade system for industry, power generators and transport. The bill is headed for debate in the full Senate. "The United States simply has to take a leadership role," Senator John Warner, a Virginia Republican and the bill's co-sponsor told the committee. "We are the superpower in the world and we've got to utilise our status to try and help correct a situation I think all of us acknowledge is causing hardships ... that are really without precedent." TIME TO ACT US President George W. Bush pulled America out of the Kyoto Protocol saying it threatened the economy and unfairly excluded big developing nations such as China and India from binding emissions cuts. In turn, China and India say rich nations must do more to cut emissions and that caps would hurt their economies as they try to lift millions out of poverty. "If we don't act, China and India will simply hide behind America's skirts of inaction," Warner said. A group of US scientists in Bali welcomed the committee's move. "This is a very welcome development. It shows the increasing isolation of the US administration," said Alden Meyer of the US Union of Concerned Scientists. Professor Diana Liverman of Britain's Oxford University said the world was already seeing substantial impacts from global warming, but a warming of 2 degrees Celsius would have severe impacts in Africa, Australia, the polar regions and the Pacific Islands. The UN climate panel, which released a series of reports on climate change this year, says the world is at risk from rapidly melting glaciers, vanishing sea ice and loss of icesheets. Polar bears have become an iconic symbol of climate change because the area of Arctic sea ice they rely for hunting has shrunk to record lows during the summer. Outside the Bali conference centre, eight activists dressed as polar bears added a twist to the climate debate by holding banners reading: "Humans need help too". Separately, the WWF conservation group said that 55 percent of the Amazon rain forest could be wiped out or severely damaged by 2030 by a "vicious feedback loop of climate change and deforestation". It said the effects of warming could cut rainfall and aggravate current trends in farming, fires, droughts and logging in the world's largest tropical forest. The Amazon's forests are a giant store of carbon dioxide -- trees soak up the main greenhouse gas as they grow and release it when they rot or are burnt. -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/

But nearly all their diplomatic efforts at a pared-down UN General Assembly were shadowed — and complicated — by the legacy of President Donald J. Trump. Biden soothed strained relations with France in a call with President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday. Blinken met in New York with his French counterpart on Thursday. But French officials openly likened the Biden administration to Trump’s in its failure to warn them of a strategic deal with Britain and Australia that they said muscled them out of a submarine contract. In a fiery address to the global body on Wednesday, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran suggested that there was little difference between Biden and his predecessor, invoking their respective foreign policy slogans: “The world doesn’t care about ‘America First’ or ‘America is Back.’” And in response to the ambitious targets Biden offered in his address to reduce global carbon emissions, an editorial in Beijing’s hard-line Global Times newspaper raised an all-too-familiar point for Biden officials: “If the next US administration is again a Republican one, the promises Biden made will be very likely rescinded,” the paper wrote — a point the Iranians also made about a potential return to the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump abruptly exited. In a news conference capping the week of diplomacy, Blinken offered a positive assessment. He said US officials had met with counterparts from more than 60 countries and emphasised American leadership on climate and the coronavirus. Asked about several recent criticisms of US foreign policy, such as the Afghanistan withdrawal, stalled nuclear talks with Iran and diplomatic offense in Paris, the secretary of state said he had not heard such complaints directly in New York this week. “What I’ve been hearing the last couple of days in response to the president’s speech, the direction that he’s taking us in, was extremely positive and extremely supportive of the United States,” Blinken said. He spoke before departing a weeklong diplomatic confab that had cautiously returned in-person after the coronavirus pandemic forced a virtual UN event last year. Many foreign leaders skipped this year’s gathering, including the presidents of Russia, China and Iran. Their absences precluded the drama of previous sessions around whether the president of the United States might have an impromptu encounter with a foreign rival. Biden made only a brief appearance, departing a few hours after his address on Tuesday. In that speech, he depicted an America whose withdrawal from Afghanistan had turned a page on 20 years of war after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Now, he said, the United States was embarking on a new era of cooperative diplomacy to solve global challenges, including climate change, the coronavirus and rising authoritarianism. The speech was a grand homage to internationalism and a stark contrast to Trump’s undiplomatic bluster. But it came amid growing complaints that some of Biden’s signature policy moves carried echoes of Trump’s approach. French officials said they were blindsided by the US submarine deal with Australia, a complaint for which Biden officials had no easy answer. “This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do,” Jean-Yves Le Drian, the foreign minister, told a French radio outlet, according to Reuters. “I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies.” That had eased some by Thursday, after Biden’s call with Macron and Blinken’s meeting with Le Drian. But the French diplomat’s statement suggested that the matter was not quite forgotten. “Getting out of the crisis we are experiencing will take time and will require action,” he said. The flare-up with Paris might have been dismissed as an isolated episode but for its echoes of complaints by some NATO allies that Biden had withdrawn from Afghanistan without fully consulting them or alerting them to Washington’s timeline. Trump was notorious for surprising longtime allies with impulsive or unilateral actions. Blinken protested that he visited with NATO officials in the spring to gather their views on Afghanistan, but officials in Germany, Britain and other countries said that their counsel for a slower withdrawal was rejected. Biden allies say they find the comparisons overblown. But some admit that global concerns about whether Trump, or someone like him, might succeed Biden and reverse his efforts are valid. “It’s absurd on its face for allies, partners or anyone to think that there is any continuity between Trump and Biden in terms of how they view allies, negotiate internationally or approach national security,” said Loren DeJonge Schulman, who worked at the National Security Council and the Pentagon during the Obama administration. “It’s a talking point, and it’s a laughable one.” But Schulman added that other nations had valid questions about how, in the shadow of the Trump era, the Biden administration could make sustainable international commitments like a potential nuclear deal with Tehran and build more public support for foreign alliances. “This can’t be a matter of ‘trust us,’” said DeJonge Schulman, who is an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. It is not just irritated allies that have embraced the notion of a Biden-Trump commonality; adversaries have found it to be a useful cudgel against Biden. The Global Times, which often echoes views of the Chinese Communist Party, has said that Biden’s China policies are “virtually identical” to those of Trump. They include Biden’s continuation of Trump-era trade tariffs, which Democrats roundly denounced before Biden took office but his officials quickly came to see as a source of leverage in their dealings with China. Similarly, Iranian officials complain bitterly that Biden has not lifted any of the numerous economic sanctions that Trump imposed after he withdrew from the nuclear deal. Early in Biden’s presidency, some European allies urged the administration to lift some of those restrictions as a way to jump-start nuclear talks, but Biden officials declined to do so. Last month, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, charged that “America’s current administration is no different from the previous one, because what it demands from Iran on the nuclear issue is different in words but the same thing that Trump demanded,” Khamenei’s official website quoted him as saying. Now, after a monthslong pause in negotiations and the election of a new, hard-line government in Tehran, Biden officials are warning Iran that time is running out for a mutual return to the nuclear agreement. Trump was criticised by countless foreign policy veterans of both parties. But critiques of the Biden team’s management are also growing, particularly after the US military’s erroneous drone strike in Kabul last month killed 10 civilians, including seven children and an aid worker. Some Biden officials, without admitting much fault, say the work of diplomacy has been particularly difficult given that scores of experienced Foreign Service officers retired during the Trump administration. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has also blocked dozens of Biden nominees to senior State Department positions and ambassadorships. Biden is also encountering the Trump comparison in other settings, including on immigration. “The question that’s being asked now is: How are you actually different than Trump?” Marisa Franco, the executive director of Mijente, a Latino civil rights organisation, told The New York Times this week. ©2021 The New York Times Company

The grid failures were most severe in Texas, where more than 4 million people woke up Tuesday to rolling blackouts. Separate regional grids in the Southwest and Midwest also faced serious strain. As of Tuesday afternoon, at least 23 people nationwide had died in the storm or its aftermath. Analysts have begun to identify key factors behind the grid failures in Texas. Record-breaking cold weather spurred residents to crank up their electric heaters and pushed power demand beyond the worst-case scenarios that grid operators had planned for. At the same time, a large fraction of the state’s gas-fired power plants were knocked offline amid icy conditions, with some plants suffering fuel shortages as natural gas demand spiked. Many of Texas’ wind turbines also froze and stopped working. The crisis sounded an alarm for power systems throughout the country. Electric grids can be engineered to handle a wide range of severe conditions — as long as grid operators can reliably predict the dangers ahead. But as climate change accelerates, many electric grids will face extreme weather events that go beyond the historical conditions those grids were designed for, putting them at risk of catastrophic failure. While scientists are still analysing what role human-caused climate change may have played in this week’s winter storms, it is clear that global warming poses a barrage of additional threats to power systems nationwide, including fiercer heat waves and water shortages. Measures that could help make electric grids more robust — such as fortifying power plants against extreme weather or installing more backup power sources — could prove expensive. But as Texas shows, blackouts can be extremely costly, too. And, experts said, unless grid planners start planning for increasingly wild and unpredictable climate conditions, grid failures will happen again and again. “It’s essentially a question of how much insurance you want to buy,” said Jesse Jenkins, an energy systems engineer at Princeton University. “What makes this problem even harder is that we’re now in a world where, especially with climate change, the past is no longer a good guide to the future. We have to get much better at preparing for the unexpected.” A System Pushed to the Limit Texas’ main electric grid, which largely operates independently from the rest of the country, has been built with the state’s most common weather extremes in mind: soaring summer temperatures that cause millions of Texans to turn up their air conditioners all at once. While freezing weather is rarer, grid operators in Texas have also long known that electricity demand can spike in the winter, particularly after damaging cold snaps in 2011 and 2018. But this week’s winter storms, which buried the state in snow and ice, and led to record-cold temperatures, surpassed all expectations — and pushed the grid to its breaking point. Texas’ grid operators had anticipated that, in the worst case, the state would use 67 gigawatts of electricity during the winter peak. But by Sunday evening, power demand had surged past that level. As temperatures dropped, many homes were relying on older, inefficient electric heaters that consume more power. The problems compounded from there, with frigid weather Monday disabling power plants with capacity totalling more than 30 gigawatts. The vast majority of those failures occurred at thermal power plants, like natural gas generators, as plummeting temperatures paralysed plant equipment and soaring demand for natural gas left some plants struggling to obtain sufficient fuel. A number of the state’s power plants were also offline for scheduled maintenance in preparation for the summer peak. The state’s fleet of wind farms also lost up to 4.5 gigawatts of capacity at times, as many turbines stopped working in the cold and icy conditions, although this was a smaller part of the problem. In essence, experts said, an electric grid optimised to deliver huge quantities of power on the hottest days of the year was caught unprepared when temperatures plummeted. “No one’s model of the power system envisioned that all 254 Texas counties would come under a winter storm warning at the same time,” said Joshua Rhodes, an expert on the state’s electric grid at the University of Texas, Austin. “It’s putting major strain on both the electricity grid and the gas grid that feeds both electricity and heat.” While analysts are still working to untangle all of the reasons behind Texas’ grid failures, some have also wondered whether the unique way the state manages its largely deregulated electricity system may have played a role. In the mid-1990s, for instance, Texas decided against paying energy producers to hold a fixed number of backup power plants in reserve, instead letting market forces dictate what happens on the grid. On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott called for an emergency reform of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the nonprofit corporation that oversees the flow of power in the state, saying its performance had been “anything but reliable” over the previous 48 hours. ‘A Difficult Balancing Act’ In theory, experts said, there are technical solutions that can avert such problems. Wind turbines can be equipped with heaters and other devices so that they can operate in icy conditions — as is often done in the upper Midwest, where cold weather is more common. Gas plants can be built to store oil on-site and switch over to burning the fuel if needed, as is often done in the Northeast, where natural gas shortages are common. Grid regulators can design markets that pay extra to keep a fleet of backup power plants in reserve in case of emergencies, as is done in the Mid-Atlantic. But these solutions all cost money, and grid operators are often wary of forcing consumers to pay extra for safeguards. “Building in resilience often comes at a cost, and there’s a risk of both underpaying but also of overpaying,” said Daniel Cohan, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University. “It’s a difficult balancing act.” In the months ahead, as Texas grid operators and policymakers investigate this week’s blackouts, they will likely explore how the grid might be bolstered to handle extremely cold weather. Some possible ideas include: Building more connections between Texas and other states to balance electricity supplies, a move the state has long resisted; encouraging homeowners to install battery backup systems; or keeping additional power plants in reserve. The search for answers will be complicated by climate change. Overall, the state is getting warmer as global temperatures rise, and cold-weather extremes are, on average, becoming less common over time. But some climate scientists have also suggested that global warming could, paradoxically, bring more unusually fierce winter storms. Some research indicates that Arctic warming is weakening the jet stream, the high-level air current that circles the northern latitudes and usually holds back the frigid polar vortex. This can allow cold air to periodically escape to the South, resulting in episodes of bitter cold in places that rarely get nipped by frost. But this remains an active area of debate among climate scientists, with some experts less certain that polar vortex disruptions are becoming more frequent, making it even trickier for electricity planners to anticipate the dangers ahead. All over the country, utilities and grid operators are confronting similar questions, as climate change threatens to intensify heat waves, floods, water shortages and other calamities, all of which could create novel risks for the nation’s electricity systems. Adapting to those risks could carry a hefty price tag: One recent study found that the Southeast alone may need 35% more electric capacity by 2050 simply to deal with the known hazards of climate change. The task of building resilience is becoming increasingly urgent. Many policymakers are promoting electric cars and electric heating as a way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. But as more of the nation’s economy depends on reliable flows of electricity, the cost of blackouts will become ever more dire. “This is going to be a significant challenge,” said Emily Grubert, an infrastructure expert at Georgia Tech. “We need to decarbonise our power systems so that climate change doesn’t keep getting worse, but we also need to adapt to changing conditions at the same time. And the latter alone is going to be very costly. We can already see that the systems we have today aren’t handling this very well.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

Turnbull, a multi-millionaire former tech entrepreneur, won a secret party vote by 54 to 44, Liberal Party chief whip Scott Buchholz told reporters after the meeting in Canberra. Australia is set to hold elections before the end of next year, and Turnbull, expected to be sworn in as prime minister on Tuesday, told reporters he had no intention of calling an early poll to cement his legitimacy. "I'm very humbled by the great honor and responsibility that has been given to me today," an ebullient Turnbull told reporters during a late-night press conference. "This will be a thoroughly liberal government. It will be a thoroughly liberal government committed to freedom, the individual and the market." Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was re-elected deputy leader of the party which, with junior coalition partner the National Party, won a landslide election in 2013. Abbott had earlier pledged to fight the challenge from Turnbull, but was ultimately unsuccessful in overcoming the "destabilisation" that he said had been taking place within the party for months. He walked stony faced out of the party room following the vote and did not speak to reporters. Abbott ousted Turnbull as leader of the Liberal Party in 2009, though Turnbull has consistently been seen as a preferred prime minister. However, Turnbull's support for a carbon trading scheme, gay marriage and an Australian republic have made him unpopular with his party's right wing. The challenge came as Australia's $1.5 trillion economy struggles to cope with the end of a once-in-a-century mining boom and just days before a by-election in Western Australia state widely seen as a test of Abbott's leadership. Abbott emerged badly weakened from a leadership challenge in February, which came about after weeks of infighting, and pledged a new spirit of conciliation. But he and his government have since consistently lagged the centre-left opposition Labor Party in opinion polls, helping fuel speculation over how long his party would give him to turn things around. "GOSSIP, GAMES" Abbott earlier dismissed reports about a challenge as "gossip", saying he refused to play "Canberra games". Abbott has continued to defy popular opinion inside and outside his party, despite pledging to be more consultative, blocking his MPs from supporting same-sex marriage and announcing an emissions reduction target criticized as inadequate by environmental groups. Turnbull declined to say whether he would honor Abbott's pledge to hold a public referendum on gay marriage. On climate change, a prickly issue within the Liberal Party, he told reporters he supported the emissions target set by Abbott. Abbott agreed last week to take in 12,000 Syrian refugees, but that news was overshadowed by rumors of a cabinet reshuffle and an insensitive gaffe about climate change, caught by a microphone at a meeting, by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. A Fairfax-Ipsos poll published on Monday showed that voters in the seat of Canning in Western Australia could deliver a swing of up to 10 percent against the government in Saturday's by-election. The outcome of that vote, which had been expected to be a referendum on Abbott's leadership, will now be closely watched as a sign of Turnbull's chances of reversing the government's fortunes. AUSTRALIA NEEDS A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT The change of leaders is the latest sign of political instability in Australia, which has in recent years been convulsed by backroom machinations and party coups that have shaken public and business confidence in government. Labor's Kevin Rudd, elected with a strong mandate in 2007, was deposed by his deputy, Julia Gillard, in 2010 amid the same sort of poll numbers that Abbott is now facing. Gillard was in turn deposed by Rudd ahead of elections won by Abbott in 2013. Abbott has now become the shortest reigning first-term prime minister to be overthrown, Rod Tiffen, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Sydney, told Reuters. "It's pretty amazing to think that we will have had two prime ministers overthrown in their first terms, which hasn't happened since World War Two. This shows the degree of instability within parties that we now have," he said. Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, in a scathing press statement following Turnbull's announcement, dismissed the idea that Turnbull was capable of changing the government's trajectory. "Australia does not need another out of touch, arrogant, Liberal leader. Australia needs a change of government," Shorten told reporters in Canberra.

In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly since his resounding election victory in May, Modi also invoked India's Hindu and ascetic traditions, saying they might provide answers to climate change. Modi appeared to chastise Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had used his own General Assembly address on Friday to blame India for the collapse of the latest talks over Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed in full by both countries. "By raising this issue in this forum," Modi said in Hindi, "I don't know how serious our efforts will be, and some people are doubtful about it." Last month, India announced it was withdrawing from the planned peace talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbors because of plans by Pakistan to consult Kashmiri separatists beforehand. India was willing to discuss Kashmir with Pakistan, Modi said, so long as those talks are in "an atmosphere of peace, without a shadow of terrorism." India says Pakistan supports separatist militants that cross from the Pakistan-controlled side of Kashmir to attack Indian forces. Pakistan denies this, saying India's military abuses the human rights of Kashmiris, most of whom are Muslim. Modi is India's first Hindu nationalist prime minister in a decade, embracing a strain of politics that maintains that India's culture is essentially Hindu, although his Bharatiya Janata Party says such a culture is welcoming to other religions. He has said fears that he will favor India's Hindu majority over its large religious minorities, including some 170 million Muslims, are unfounded, and his comments on spirituality in his address are likely to be scrutinized for evidence of this. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat when religious riots raged across the northwestern state in 2002 after a Muslim mob set alight a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, killing 59 people. More than 1,000 people were killed in the riots, most of them Muslims. Critics have accused Modi of allowing or even encouraging the riots to happen, but courts have found no evidence to indict him. In his address on Saturday, Modi invoked the "ancient wisdom" of India's Vedic era, during which Hinduism's most sacred texts were written. He also encouraged more people to take up yoga, the spiritual practice that predates the arrival of Islam in India. "Yoga should not be just an exercise for us, but it should be a means to get connected with the world and with nature," he said, calling on the United Nations to adopt an International Yoga Day. "It should bring a change in our lifestyle and create awareness in us, and it can help fighting against climate change." Modi is due to have private meetings with the prime ministers of Nepal and Bangladesh and the president of Sri Lanka on Saturday in New York. No meetings are planned with Sharif or other Pakistani officials, according to the Indian delegation. Next week, less than a decade after the United States banned him from visiting the country in 2005 under a law barring entry to foreigners who have severely violated religious freedoms, Modi is due to meet with US President Barack Obama at the White House. Modi will not eat at the state dinner, however, as he will be fasting for the Hindu festival of Navratri, his delegation has said.

More than 2,500 cities have issued plans to cut carbon emissions to the United Nations since late 2014, setting an example to almost 200 nations that reached a Paris Agreement in December 2015 to fight global warming. Although there are no officially collated statistics available, many city targets are more ambitious than those set by governments under the Paris accord, which imposes no obligations on cities, regions or companies to define goals. Just over half the world's population lives in urban areas, meaning municipalities will help to determine whether the historic shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy agreed in Paris succeeds or fails. But as many cities become more assertive, governments are reluctant to cede control. "Cities are starting to encroach past their boundaries on policies at a national level," said Seth Schultz, director of research at the New York-based C40 climate group that includes most of the world's megacities, from Tokyo to Los Angeles. "There will be more and more conflicts," he said, over defining policies to curb local air pollution and help wider aims to limit droughts, mudslides, heat waves and rising seas. The trend is clearest in rich cities, which are more able to cut emissions to meet the demands of affluent, environmentally-conscious voters than fast-expanding cities such as Bangkok, Nairobi or Buenos Aires. One example of the growing friction: Oslo, where left-wing authorities are at odds with Norway’s right-wing government over their push to more than halve the capital's greenhouse gas emissions within four years to about 600,000 tonnes, one of the most radical carbon reduction intentions in the world. The plan for the city of 640,000 people includes car-free zones, "fossil-fuel-free building sites", high road tolls and capturing greenhouse gases from the city's waste incinerator. In a sign of city power, a 2016 study projected that climate plans by cities and regions could cut an extra 500 million tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 - equivalent to the emissions of France - beyond cuts pledged by governments. "The benefits are very local in cities - less air pollution, better public transport," said Niklas Hoehne, one of the authors at the NewClimate Institute think-tank in Germany. Diesel pollution But that doesn't always sit well with central governments. Many of Oslo's green ideas are anathema to voters of the populist right-wing Progress Party, which together with the Conservatives forms the coalition government. Deputy Mayor Lan Marie Nguyen Berg said the government was delaying Oslo's plan for new road tolls which reach 58 crowns ($7) for diesel cars in rush hour. "The Transport Ministry is dragging its feet", by demanding large, new road signs to explain the varying costs and to modify computer systems to register passing vehicles, she said. Norway's Transport Minister Ketil Solvik-Olsen, of the Progress Party, said the ministry was cooperating. Berg "is making an invalid argument," he said. Still, a Nov. 4 letter from the ministry obtained by Reuters told the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to design a national computer system for the environmental road tolls rather than one just for Oslo - the only city that wants the system. The letter said the extra work would delay the project by three months, until October 2017. "That's convenient for the Progress Party," one government official said, because national elections are due in September and the party will not be associated with unpopular tolls. The city has also been slow to submit detailed plans. Buses vs trains Cities in other parts of the world also face hurdles as they step up actions to press on with their own targets for carbon emissions that often exceed their governments' goals under the Paris accord. In Australia, Sydney is in a dispute with the national government in Canberra because the city wants to generate more electricity locally, without paying high charges for using the national grid, Lord Mayor Clover Moore said. Sydney is now a local energy generator through its solar initiatives but has to pay "the same charges as a remote coal or gas station that exports its power hundreds of kilometers," she said. But the government's Australian Energy Market Commission said in December that Sydney's plan for "local generation network credits" would be too costly to implement. It cited an estimate of A$233 million ($176.12 million) in extra costs for consumers by 2050. Moore dismissed the findings, saying credits would mean a fairer system overall. And Copenhagen Lord Mayor Frank Jensen said colleagues “in cities around the globe are demanding more legislation ... to transform our cities to be more green".  He complained that fees paid to the government for electricity from the national grid used by green buses in Denmark - often under city control - were too high compared to those for trains that are controlled by the government on a countrywide network. Trump factor Perhaps nowhere in the world is the difference between government and city more stark than in America. US President Donald Trump rejects the scientific consensus that climate change is man-made and said during his election campaign that he would "cancel" the Paris Agreement and favor domestic fossil fuel production. But Trump's plans are unclear - the president has since said he has an "open mind" about Paris. On Thursday, Scott Pruitt, the new head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, said he is unconvinced that man-made carbon dioxide is the main driver of climate change, a conclusion widely embraced by scientists. If Trump relaxes standards for clean air, power plants or vehicles "there would be a greater burden on cities to implement programs to fill the gaps," said Amy Petri of the office of sustainability in the Texas city of Austin. That would make it hard for Austin to reach its goals to cut emissions by 2020, she said. Still, mayors in 12 big US cities including Austin, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston this week reaffirmed a commitment to the Paris deal.

They found evidence of 41 cases of regional abrupt changes in the ocean, sea ice, snow cover, permafrost and terrestrial biosphere. “The majority of the detected abrupt shifts are distant from the major population centres of the planet, but their occurrence could have implications over large distances,” said Martin Claussen, director of Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) in Germany and one of the study co-authors. In the new study, the scientists analysed the climate model simulations on which the recent fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports are based. Many of these events occur for global warming levels of less than two degrees, a threshold sometimes presented as a safe limit. “Our results show that no safe limit exists and that many abrupt shifts already occur for global warming levels much lower than two degrees,” lead author Sybren Drijfhout, from the Ocean and Earth Science department at the University of Southampton, pointed out. Examples of detected climate tipping include abrupt shifts in sea ice and ocean circulation patterns, as well as abrupt shifts in vegetation and marine productivity. Abrupt changes in sea ice were particularly common in the climate simulations. However, various models also predict abrupt changes in Earth system elements such as the Amazon forest, tundra permafrost and snow on the Tibetan plateau. “Interestingly, abrupt events could come out as a cascade of different phenomena,” study co-author Victor Brovkin from Max Planck Institute for Meteorology noted. “For example, a collapse of permafrost in Arctic is followed by a rapid increase in forest area there. This kind of domino effect should have implications not only for natural systems, but also for society,” Brovkin explained. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

CANBERRA Mon Dec 15,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Australia vowed on Monday to push ahead with the most sweeping carbon trade scheme outside Europe in 2010, resisting calls for a delay, but some feared the plan would fall far short of what's needed to combat global warming. As part of the plan, Canberra set a target to cut emissions by at least 5 percent of 2000 levels by 2020, rising to 15 percent if world governments reached an ambitious agreement next year in talks for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the scheme was vital for Australia, which has the fourth-highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and five times more per person than China, due to its reliance on coal for electricity. "These are hard targets for Australia," Wong told reporters, adding that the policy was designed to ease the economic impact of the scheme in light of the global financial crisis. "Our economy, including food production, agriculture and water supplies, is under threat. If we don't act now, we will be hit hard and fast. We will lose key industries and Australian jobs." The plan allows for prices to be set by the market, first under auctions to be held in the first half of 2010, abandoning an earlier idea of a fixed price. The government expects a price of about A$25 ($16.70) a tonne, below the European emission allowances, which are trading around 15 euros (A$30) a tonne. But the government said it would also impose an interim price cap of A$40 a tonne, a move that analysts said could limit the market's development initially. "It seems a bit like the old game of one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator, having a bet each way and I'm not sure the numbers add up," said Brett Janissen, executive manager of the consultancy Asia-Pacific Emissions Trading Forum. By allowing polluters to import carbon permits from green projects abroad but barring potential exports from Australia, participants will have their pick of the cheapest price. Scientists and green groups wanted cuts of at least 25 percent but the carbon scheme comes at a politically sensitive time for the government, with the mid-2010 start date set only months before it is due to hold elections to seek a second term. "It's a total and utter failure," Greenpeace climate campaigner John Hepburn said. The government said the scheme would trim about 0.1 percent off annual growth in gross national product from 2010 to 2050, with a one-off increase in inflation of around 1.1 percent. "BUY THEIR WAY OUT" Wong said carbon trading would cover 75 percent of Australia's carbon emissions and involve 1,000 of the nation's biggest firms, although big-polluting exporters would receive up to 90 percent of carbon permits for free. The rapidly growing liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, which had been excluded from an earlier draft plan in July, was pleased to be given exemptions in the final version. "There's no doubt that this has come a long way since the model was outlined in the Green paper," said Belinda Robinson, CEO, Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. "For that the LNG (liquefied natural gas) industry is very pleased and for that, we think Australia should be pleased, because it's the LNG industry that represents Australia's best chance for assisting the rest of the world reduce its greenhouse gas emissions." But by global standards the targets were cautious. Europe has pledged a 20 percent reduction by 2020 and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recommended rich nations back reductions of 25 up to 40 percent by then. "The proposed scheme is disappointing in terms of the levels of reductions required as set down by the IPCC," said Martijn Wilder, partner at Baker & McKenzie in Sydney. "By adopting a A$40 price cap, it will provide companies with certainty as to their compliance cost but it also enables companies to buy their way out of compliance, in circumstances where the carbon price breaks the $40 ceiling," he added. Janissen described the scheme as a soft start with a tougher downward trajectory on emissions occuring beyond the 2012-2013 financial year. But he said it also appeared to be "providing a high degree of shielding key industries that are concerned about their emissions intensity", referring to subsidies for emissions intensive and trade exposed industries. Under the scheme, participating firms will need to surrender a permit for every tonne of carbon emitted. The auction of permits is expected to raise A$11.5 billion in 2010/11, which will all be used to compensate business and households for higher costs for electricity and transport. Australian farmers, who have suffered more than seven years of severe drought, will be spared from taking part in carbon trading for at least five years. Agriculture accounts for about 16 percent of Australian emissions. But transport and fuel will be included in the scheme. The government will introduce carbon-trading laws into parliament in 2009, where it needs the support of the Greens and two independent senators, or the conservative opposition, which want the scheme delayed due to the global economic downturn. ($1 = A$1.49)

World leaders meeting in Germany have sealed an agreement which foresees them making "substantial" cuts in greenhouse gases and securing a post-Kyoto deal by 2009, Chancellor Angela Merkel said. "In terms of targets, we agreed on clear language ... that recognises that (rises in) CO2 emissions must first be stopped and then followed by substantial reductions," Merkel told reporters at a G8 summit in the Baltic coast resort of Heiligendamm. She said G8 countries agreed to "consider" her aim for a 50 percent cut in emissions by 2050, but leaders do not appear to have committed to any specific targets. Previously, World leaders meeting in Germany have agreed to pursue "substantial" cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and integrate US climate plans within the established UN process, an EU source said. "They agreed on the need for substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions," the source told Reuters. The United States resisted attempts by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, host of the Group of Eight (G8) summit, to set a firm goal for cuts needed to fight dangerous climate change. But the EU source said that in the final G8 text, leaders would acknowledge the desire of the European Union, Canada and Japan to cut emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 -- in line with Merkel's stated target. Earlier, US President George W. Bush sought to calm tensions with Moscow ahead of a highly anticipated face-to-face meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin at the summit. "I repeat Russia's not a threat, they're not a military threat, they're not something that we ought to be hyperventilating about," Bush said. "What we ought to be doing is figuring out ways to work together." Security remains tight around the summit venue, a luxury hotel in the small seaside town of Heiligendamm. On Thursday morning police power boats chased down several smaller Greenpeace craft trying to break through the security cordon, ramming one and dumping its occupants into the Baltic. At a morning session focused on economic issues, Merkel sat between Bush and Putin, who have exchanged public barbs on U.S. missile shield plans in the run-up to the summit. The two presidents, smiling and looking relaxed, have not met face-to-face since before Putin launched a verbal attack on the Bush administration in February, accusing it of trying to force its will on the world and become its "single master". Bush said he would reiterate to Putin his proposal to have Russia send generals and scientists to the United States to reassure them on his plans to put a radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland. Washington says the shield is intended as a defence against "rogue" states like Iran and North Korea and has urged Russia to cooperate. Moscow, which suspects it could be outfitted with attack missiles or used for spying, has rejected the overtures. As leaders met in an elegant 19th century hotel in Heiligendamm -- a resort in the former east which has struggled to recover from the ravages of the communist era -- relations between Russia and the West are at a post-Cold War low. The missile shield is not the only issue dividing Russia, the United States and fellow G8 members Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. Other topics include aid to Africa and foreign policy issues ranging from Iran to Kosovo.

The European Union is to set tougher environmental criteria for biofuels after acknowledging that the drive for transport fuels produced from crops has done unforeseen damage, the European Commission said on Monday. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a BBC interview the EU had initially underestimated the danger to rainforests and the risk of forcing up food prices from its policy of setting binding targets for the use of biofuels. "We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought they were. So we have to move very carefully," he said. "We have to have criteria for sustainability, including social and environmental issues, because there are some benefits from biofuels," Dimas said. EU leaders set a mandatory target last March that at least 10 percent of transport fuel should come from biofuels by 2020. Dimas told the BBC it would be better to miss the target than meet it by harming poor people or damaging the environment. EU energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny told a news conference the Commission would stick to the 10 percent target in implementation proposals to be unveiled on Jan. 23 because it was an obedient servant of the bloc's political masters. "However, certainly we will do that in a way that's going to cause no damage or at least less damage than if we used fossil fuels to achieve the same target," he said. Tarradellas said the biofuels used would have to achieve a net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for global warming, and not damage rainforests, as well as meeting other unspecified criteria which would be announced next week. Biofuels that failed to meet the standards would not be allowed on the European market, he said. DAMAGE EU officials said commissioners were still wrangling over the issue, part of a comprehensive package of energy and climate change legislation designed to make the 27-nation EU a world leader in the fight against global warming. A coalition of environmental and development pressure groups wrote to EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs last week asking him to set much tougher standards for biofuel production or abandon the mandatory transport fuel target altogether. "Large-scale biofuel production can cause negative indirect or knock-on impacts such as increasing food and feed prices and increasing water scarcity, which would lead to negative impacts on the world's poor," the 17 non-government organisations, including Oxfam and Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. Dimas said the EU would introduce a certification scheme for biofuels and promised a clampdown on biodiesel from palm oil, which is leading to forest destruction in Indonesia. Among issues still being debated within the Commission are to what extent the EU should favour imports of biofuels from countries such as Brazil and to what extent it should use agricultural subsidies to produce them at home, officials said. Crops grown to make biofuels include corn, soybeans, rapeseed and sugar cane. Economists have said subsidies to grow crops for biofuels could further increase the rising cost of food, while scientists say the benefits are not properly measured. Scientists at Britain's Royal Society said in a report on Monday that a directive requiring fuel suppliers to use more biofuels will do little to combat climate change because it is not linked to targets for reducing greenhouse gases.

Biden, speaking at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, said the climate team will be “ready on Day One, which is essential because we literally have no time to waste.” A top lieutenant will be Gina McCarthy, former President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator who Biden has tapped to head a new White House Office of Climate Policy. The group includes progressives like Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico, Biden’s choice to lead the Department of the Interior and a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, and establishment figures like Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, who Biden selected to be energy secretary. Michael Regan, North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, was named to lead the EPA, and Brenda Mallory, a longtime environmental attorney, will chair the Council on Environmental Quality. McCarthy’s deputy will be Ali Zaidi, who currently serves as the deputy secretary for energy and environment for New York state. And last month Biden named former Secretary of State John Kerry as an international presidential envoy on climate change. “Folks, we’re in a crisis,” Biden said Saturday. “Just like we need to be a unified nation to respond to COVID-19, we need a unified national response to climate change.” Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect and California senator, said the state had endured the worst wildfire season on record this year. Calling wildfires “just one symptom of our growing climate crisis” along with historic flooding in the Midwest and a record hurricane season, she said, “Our climate crisis is not a partisan issue and it is not a hoax. It is an existential threat to all of us.” Citing the costs and loss of life from wildfires that raged across the West this year, Biden vowed to restore the regulations that President Donald Trump rolled back and said, “We will set new ambitious standards that our workers are ready to meet today.” When Biden takes office in January he will inherit a government still struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic and a shattered US economy that has suffered millions of job losses. He also faces a monumental rebuilding effort after four years in which the Trump administration reversed more than 100 environmental regulations, mocked climate science and championed the production of the fossil fuels chiefly responsible for warming the planet. On Saturday, Biden said he intends to make tackling climate change a cornerstone of his coronavirus recovery action, calling for 500,000 new electric vehicle charging stations, the construction of 1.5 million new energy-efficient homes and public housing units, and the creation of a “civilian climate corps” to carry out climate and conservation projects. He said he will prioritise environmental justice and restore the regulations that President Donald Trump rolled back. And he delivered a direct appeal to federal scientists and other career staff members saying his administration will “honor the integrity of the office” in which they work. Climate policy is expected to play a critical role in the Biden administration, the president-elect said. He also highlighted the role of Granholm, the former Michigan governor who is credited with getting the state’s first renewable energy portfolio standard through a divided legislature, and working with the auto industry to develop electric vehicles. While curbing carbon emissions is expected to create friction with leaders of fossil fuel-dependent states, members of the team sought to cast fighting climate change as an effort that will create jobs. Over the next decade countries and companies intend to invest trillions of dollars in electric vehicles, grid technology, wind turbines and other clean energy components. The team includes a number of historic firsts. Haaland, Biden’s choice to lead the Interior Department, would be the first Native American cabinet secretary in history and would helm an agency responsible for managing the United States’ relationship with hundreds of recognised tribes. The Interior department manages the nation’s vast natural resources as well as millions of acres of federal lands that include national parks and wildlife refuges. The agency also oversees the listing of endangered and threatened species. Haaland opposed several Trump administration policies related to federal lands, including his efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling. “Growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce,” Haaland said. She vowed to protect public lands from oil and gas drilling, saying, “I’ll be fierce for all of us.” Regan, who leads North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, would be the first Black man to lead the EPA. Regan said growing up hunting and fishing in North Carolina with his family made him curious about the environment, and experiencing asthma drove him to understand the link between pollution and public health. Biden called Regan “a leader who will respect EPA’s place” as the lead agency charged with protecting the air and water of the United States. Brenda Mallory, a longtime environmental lawyer who spent more than 15 years at the EPA, will be the first Black woman to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality. All four positions must be confirmed by the Senate. So far, none of Biden’s selections have met with Republican resistance, although some groups that oppose action on climate change have called Haaland a “radical” on energy issues. And North Carolina’s Republican senators did not respond when asked if they intend to support Regan’s nomination. Daniel Keylin, a spokesman for Sen. Thom Tillis, said in a statement that the senator “expects the EPA to balance the promotion of clean energy with the unique needs of America’s farmers and small businesses, and not return to the Obama administration’s crushing regulation-first approach.” Details about how Biden intends to coordinate the team around climate change remain unclear. In a letter to the new administration, four Democratic senators led by Ed Markey of Massachusetts asked Biden to create an overarching entity that reports directly to the president, to elevate interagency councils designed to address environmental justice, and to ensure that climate-focused leaders are given authority within key economic agencies like the Treasury and within the office of the US Trade Representative. The lawmakers urged Biden to “adopt the approach of past mobilisations against major national threats, just as the Roosevelt Administration did to coordinate the executive branch during World War II.”   c.2020 The New York Times Company

African leaders on Monday told rich countries to honor their aid commitments to help it tackle hunger and poverty, even as a financial crisis threatens to cut into the aid budgets of its biggest donors. Speaking during a U.N. meeting on Africa's development needs, Africa Union Chairman and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said he was concerned the financial turmoil in global markets would escalate, but rich countries had made aid promises to Africa that they should keep. "We want the developed nations to perform their moral obligation of assisting the poor," Kikwete told a news conference. "We want the developed countries to deliver on the rest of their commitments that they have not honored." He said money was especially important at a time when many African economies are growing strongly and need to build transport routes and increase power supply to get products to international markets. "Where there is a will, there is always a way," Kikwete said. "There may not be easy answers but I believe the U.S. will overcome the crisis." U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged concerted global action, warning that Africa was falling behind in goals to drastically reduce poverty by 2015 under the Millennium Development Goals, set by world leaders in 2000. He said soaring food and fuel prices and the effects of climate change were new challenges facing Africa and its efforts to tackle poverty, hunger and disease. Ban, who has chosen the poverty goals as the keynote theme of the annual General Assembly gathering of leaders of the 192 U.N. member states, said it would take $72 billion a year to help Africa. "This price tag may look daunting but it is affordable and falls within existing aid commitments," he said, noting that the world's industrialized countries spent an estimated $267 billion last year on agricultural subsidies alone. A $700-billion rescue plan by the U.S. government for troubled Wall Street firms amounts to 10 times the aid Ban called for in his speech. The financial crisis pushed global oil prices up by over 20 percent -- its biggest one-day gain on record -- to more than $120 a barrel on Monday. UNDEVELOPED WEALTH Kikwete said while Africa may be rich in oil resources, much of that wealth had not yet been developed. "We will plan our own development, but we have inadequate resources to be able to implement those plans ... and we want our efforts complimented by the developed countries," he said. African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka said a slowdown in growth in developed countries would impact Africa, especially if demand for its commodities declined sharply. "This crisis is serious, but frankly, I hope it doesn't lead to reduced efforts to help developing countries because that would be a disappointment," said Kaberuka. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Africa was at a turning point but its governments needed to guard against running up more debts that would require further debt cancellation by rich countries. "In future let us guard against too rapid and too costly public re-indebtedness," Sarkozy said. "Let us not set the stage today for a new debt crisis in 2030." He questioned why some lenders restricted funding to investment in projects when Africa needed budget support. Large emerging lenders like China are ramping up financing for power and transport projects in Africa, most of it in countries endowed with natural resources, while turning a blind eye to human rights abuses and corruption. "Europeans and Africans have agreed on untying aid. Why then go back on this principle with donors from other continents," Sarkozy said, without naming China. Kikwete said China, India and Brazil were investing in needed infrastructure projects but their capacities to help Africa were limited. Jeffrey Sachs, a development campaigner and professor at New York's Columbia University, said the $72 billion a year needed for Africa "is not an outlandish price tag". "The U.S. Congress is about to vote $1 trillion for Wall Street this week. That is no joke, and shows money is there when it's an emergency," he told a panel on African development at the U.N. "Some people might have thought 10 million dying every year is an emergency, some people might have thought a food crisis is an emergency, but no it is not an emergency. Africa needs a failing bank, clearly, then we might get a response."

As residents of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, complained of shortness of breath, stinging eyes and nausea from thick, acrid smog that they compare to living in the smoke of a camp fire, the country’s minister of state for climate change smelled a conspiracy. “Misinformation is being spread about Lahore air quality,” the minister, Zartaj Gul Wazir wrote on Twitter, before going on to blame India for the majority of the air pollution afflicting Pakistan. “It is nowhere as bad as being asserted by vested elements.” The term “vested elements” is code for Pakistan’s enemies, India chief among them. On many winter days, Lahore competes with India’s capital, Delhi, for the unflattering distinction of the world’s most polluted city. But while Delhi has slowly awakened up to the danger of its hazardous air quality and put in place some — although not enough — government action to tackle it, Lahore has been much slower to respond, let alone recognize the problem. On Friday, Amnesty International issued an “urgent action” for Lahore, its first ever appeal for the population of an entire city. The rights group rebuked the Pakistani government for denying Lahore’s 11 million residents the ability to live in a healthy environment. “The government’s inadequate response to the smog in Lahore raises significant human rights concerns,” said Rimmel Mohydin, a South Asia analyst at Amnesty International, in a statement. “The hazardous air is putting everyone’s right to health at risk.” The Pakistani government must “stop downplaying the crisis and take urgent action to protect people’s health and lives,” the statement said. The Pakistani government does not publish hourly updates on air pollution levels, and it has lowered its standards for what constitutes dangerous levels of air pollution, often citing as healthy levels that are considered dangerous internationally. On Friday morning, Lahore’s air quality index level peaked at 385; any reading above 50 is considered to be unhealthy. In her Twitter messages late last month, Wazir, the country’s minister of state for climate change, appealed to Pakistanis to “only use our data for information.” She added, “Lahore is not at all ranked the most polluted city in the world.” But many of Lahore’s residents have little faith in the government’s numbers. And when Wazir in the same breath downplayed Pakistan’s air pollution and then blamed it on India, their suspicion and anger only deepened. “The environment minister’s statements are immature and defensive,” said Sarah N. Ahmad, a Lahore-based urban policy consultant. “Smog is not a political issue. It is a climate and policy issue. To politicize people’s health and well-being is very immature.” Like many in Pakistan’s government, Wazir has blamed crop burning by north Indian farmers for sending toxic smog rolling across the border into Pakistan. But Pakistani farmers also burn their crops, and Lahore is dotted with factories that emit dirty fumes while vehicular diesel fuel sends air pollution levels skyrocketing like clockwork every autumn and winter. Every year, as the weather cools, dangerous air particles known as PM 2.5 that are absorbed in the bloodstream and lung tissue sit thick in the atmosphere, the cold weighing them down to trap them above cities like Lahore. This is when Lahore’s dreaded “fifth season” kicks in. The World Health Organization has said Pakistan’s air pollution likely causes 22,000 premature adult deaths every year. Lahore’s residents say that in the absence of government action, the air pollution is getting worse. This year, for the first time, the government shut schools in Pakistan’s Punjab province because of the thick smog encircling many of the province’s cities, including Lahore. So far this month, the government has closed schools three times. Three teenage students were so incensed by the lack of action, they filed a lawsuit against the government this month, accusing officials of “underreporting the severity of the situation.” “I feel this is the worst year — so far,” said Aatekah Mir-Khan, a resident of Lahore, adding that she no longer allows her son to play outdoors. “The next year might even be worse, and that’s the more disturbing thought.” She added: “At the end of the day, when you take your clothes off, they smell of soot and smoke. Your eyes and the inside of your throat burn. You have perennial headaches and nausea. The government needs to take responsibility.”   © 2019 The New York Times Company

The Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth's eldest son, Charles was born at Buckingham Palace on Nov 14, 1948, four years before his now 92-year-old mother ascended to the throne following the death of her father George VI. To mark his birthday, he was attending a special tea party heralding 70 inspirational people who also turned 70 this year, before later heading to a private function at Buckingham Palace for friends and family hosted by the queen. As Britain's heir apparent, Charles has waited longer than any of his predecessors to become monarch and would be the oldest-ever king in a lineage that dates back 1,000 years. Prime Minister Theresa May paid tribute to Charles in parliament on Wednesday. "Throughout the Prince of Wales' life his commitment to public service has been total," she said. "The more one looks at (his) life, the more one sees a man who has spent 70 years defying expectations and refusing to be categorised." Charles has used his unique position to campaign on issues including climate change, architecture and farming, often challenging orthodox views. "You have to make of it what you feel is right - there's nothing laid down so that's what makes it so interesting, challenging and of course complicated," he said in a BBC documentary aired last week. His supporters say the prince has often raised prescient concerns, citing how he began campaigning about the overuse of plastic in the 1970s, long before it became a mainstream issue. However, critics accuse him of inappropriate interfering because British monarchs are bound by Britain's unwritten constitution to stay out of politics. In last week's documentary, Charles said he would stop "meddling" in campaigns which he felt strongly about. "I'm not that stupid," he said. "I do realise that it is a separate exercise being sovereign." The idea of a new king ascending the throne at an age when most men have retired has prompted calls in the past for his elder son Prince William to succeed the queen instead. "The coronation of an elderly King Charles promises to be a distinctly backward-looking event, with none of the new-era excitement of the Queen's in 1953," wrote the left-leaning Guardian newspaper in an editorial on Wednesday. "The royal baton, though not the crown itself, has already skipped a generation," it added. NEW PHOTOGRAPHS The new photographs show Charles in the garden of his London home Clarence House together with his second wife Camilla, sons William and Harry, their wives Kate and Meghan along with William and Kate's children, George, Charlotte and Louis. In the BBC film, William said he hoped his hard-working father would spend more time with his grandchildren and ease up on his busy schedule. "He's the fittest man I know but equally I want him to be fit so he's 95 going on, so having more time with him at home would be lovely," William said, although he acknowledged that Charles still believed he had much to achieve. "He hasn't even reached the point that his natural progression should do - ie being monarch - so he's still got his job to do," he said. Charles's office also released 70 facts about the prince to mark the occasion, which included the detail that he has a frog named after him - the Prince Charles Magnificent Tree Frog - and that at tree-planting ceremonies, he gives a branch a friendly shake to wish them well.

The damage to forests was particularly high during the first few weeks of the strict lockdown, which began on March 25 and has been eased since late May. “There was a spike in incidents of timber-smuggling because of the lockdown, but it doesn’t mean our staff completely failed to act,” said Mohit Gera, principal chief conservator of forests, speaking by phone from his office in Jammu. “In the first few weeks, timber smugglers took advantage as our staff could not reach far-flung areas and our workers have also been busy with helping the government in the fight against COVID,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Jammu and Kashmir has so far reported about 4,500 cases of COVID-19 infection and at least 50 deaths. Forest department workers seized 4,342 cubic feet of timber from smugglers in the past two months, as well as confiscating 13 vehicles and 41 horses, and filing 103 police reports against 306 perpetrators, Gera added. Those responsible included habitual timber-smugglers who take the wood to sell for construction and other private uses, as well as people who recently turned to felling trees because they lost their work during the pandemic, officials said. On World Environment Day, June 5, the forest department launched a mobile app and toll-free number so that local people could report timber theft in real-time, Gera said. In early April, Kashmir’s Wildlife Department put out a circular asking people living near forests not to visit them, in a bid to avoid transmission of the novel coronavirus. “We felt the need to issue the circular after we learned that a tiger was found COVID-19 positive in the United States,” said Rashid Naqash, Kashmir’s wildlife warden. But the warning did not deter timber-smugglers, it seems. 'DESPERATE' Nazir Ahmad, president of the Kashmir forest employees' union, said more than 320 colleagues had been injured during the lockdown in attacks by smugglers using their hands or sticks. “The forest guards and officers bear the brunt when it comes to protecting forests,” Ahmad said by phone. A forest official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said not only sawn timber had been smuggled from forests, but also small trees and the tops of trees. Some people were taking them to sell as firewood to families for the winter, he added. Gera said that with most people having no work during the COVID-19 lockdown, "a few of them get so desperate that they think of smuggling forest products". The state forest services are in the process of regenerating forest areas such as Tosamaidan and Sitaharan in central Kashmir that were denuded by timber-smugglers when armed violence in the region was at its peak in the 1990s and early 2000s. The Kashmir forest department says that, in the past five years, it has been successful in restoring and protecting the region's forests, which cover about 816,400 hectares, even achieving a small net increase in its forested area. Experts, however, have queried the figures, saying they include horticultural areas with trees, as well as forests that fall outside the line of control, in the part of Kashmir claimed by Pakistan. Scientists say forests are vital for curbing climate change as they suck planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while regulating the water cycle and helping prevent floods. Kashmir's forest department had planted 73,000 trees just in the past few months, Gera said. “The region can’t afford to lose more forest trees,” he added. Feroz Ahmad, a teacher at a government-run school in Lolab in northern Kashmir, said harming the region's forests was like "harming our existence". He noted that people in the Himalayan region often cite a saying attributed to 16th-century saint Sheikhul Aalam that "food will last as long as forests last". “Kashmir is called a paradise on Earth because of our forests and water bodies. And more importantly, our food supply is dependent on forests,” Ahmad told the Thomson Reuters Foundation during a visit to the Lolab forest. But that message may be lost on people who need to feed their families at a time when the COVID-19 outbreak has cut off their livelihoods. TOURISM CRASH Irfan Rasool, forest conservator for north Kashmir, said some daily wage labourers working in tourism or construction, who had lost their incomes in the past three months, may have taken to timber-smuggling "as a last resort". His team had confiscated dozens of ponies normally used for tourist rides at mountain resorts that were discovered transporting timber instead, he said. There are nearly 11,000 people who own ponies and work at Kashmir's resorts such as Gulmarg, Sonamarg and Pahalgam, as well as 3,700 tourist guides and sledge drivers. At the start of May, the local government said each worker would be given 1,000 rupees (about $13.20) per month for three months to make up for lost revenues. But some in the tourism industry scoffed at the gesture. Farhat Nayek, who runs a tour agency in Gulmarg, said in the summer season, workers would earn 1,500 rupees per day on average, bringing in at least 45,000 rupees a month. “Every person has to feed about six family members. How can a person do so if he has just 1,000 rupees a month?" Nayek asked.

While Ukraine was able to hold a largely peaceful presidential election last month, the situation in the east near the Russian border remains volatile, with armed groups attacking Ukrainian government forces and occupying state buildings."We stand ready to intensify targeted sanctions and to consider significant additional restrictive measures to impose further costs on Russia should events so require," the G7 said in a statement after evening talks in Brussels.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Western powers would check "again and again" to verify that Russia was doing what it could to stabilize the situation, which erupted in March after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and annexed it."We cannot afford a further destabilization in Ukraine," Merkel told reporters."If we do not have progress in the questions we have to solve there is the possibility of sanctions, even heavy sanctions of phase 3 on the table," she said, referring to restrictions on trade, finance and energy.So far, the United States and European Union have imposed relatively minor travel bans and asset freezes on dozens of Russian officials in reaction to the seizure of Crimea.Further steps were threatened if the May 25 elections were affected. However, they went smoothly and new President Petro Poroshenko will be sworn in on Saturday.Some saw that as an indication that Russia was being more cooperative, reducing the threat of further sanctions. But Wednesday's statement suggests the West is not yet satisfied that President Vladimir Putin is doing enough to calm the situation.Russia denies it is behind the revolt in eastern Ukraine, where militias allied to Moscow have seized buildings, attacked Ukrainian troops and declared independence. Putin has also defended his right to protect Russian-speaking people.While Putin has been cut out of the G7 - this is the first meeting without Russia since it joined the club in 1997 - he will hold face-to-face meetings with Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Britain's David Cameron at a D-Day anniversary gathering in France later this week.Asked about those bilateral meetings and whether they raised any concerns for President Barack Obama, who has pointedly avoided any contact with Putin, a U.S. official said it wasn't important who Putin met but "what people say in those meetings". Ahead of the G7 summit, Obama met Poroshenko for talks in Warsaw and declared him a "wise choice" to lead Ukraine, part of efforts by the EU and the United States to provide moral and financial support to the new leadership.Poroshenko, a chocolate-industry billionaire, said he would be willing to meet Putin for peace talks on the sidelines of the D-Day commemorations in Normandy although no meeting has been set up."As things stand now, a meeting between me and Putin is not envisaged, but I do not rule out that it could take place in one format or another," he told reporters, adding that he was working on a peace plan for Ukraine that would involve the decentralization of power, local elections and an amnesty.ECONOMICS AND TRADEAs well as foreign policy, the two-day G7 summit will cover economics, trade, climate and energy policy.One of the most sensitive discussions will be over energy security, particularly in Europe, which relies on Russia for around a third of its oil and gas - a fact that gives Moscow leverage over the EU and its 500 million people.European leaders have committed themselves to diversifying away from Russia but doing so will take time and be costly, and may in part depend on the willingness of the United States to supply liquified natural gas to Europe.A separate communique will be released by the G7 leaders after talks on Thursday which will highlight the need to prioritize security of energy supplies."The use of energy supplies as a means of political coercion or as a threat to security is unacceptable," a draft of that statement, seen be Reuters, said."The crisis in Ukraine makes plain that energy security must be at the center of our collective agenda and requires a step-change to our approach to diversifying energy supplies."The economic discussion is not expected to break new ground, instead reiterating that all the G7 members - the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Japan and Italy - must focus on sustaining economic recovery and tightening regulations to prevent future banking sector problems.The leaders will reaffirm a commitment to completing financial reforms this year including ending "too-big-to-fail" banking.

US foe Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad courted leftist Latin American leaders on Thursday, visiting Bolivia and Venezuela to strengthen ties in a region where anti-American sentiment is on the rise. Ahmadinejad said the two host nations, as well as others in the area that are led by leftists, such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador, were united with Iran in a worldwide revolutionary movement. "When we stand together, without doubt we multiply our powers," he said in a speech in Caracas with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at his side. Deeply at odds with the West over its nuclear program, Iran has won influence in Latin America as leftists have gained some momentum in the region and railed against Washington on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to free trade to climate change. This week at the United Nations, Ahmadinejad defended Iran's nuclear development as major powers debated imposing further sanctions to isolate the Islamic republic for refusing to curb its activities. Iran says its programs are to generate electricity. The United States accuses it of enriching uranium in pursuit of an atomic bomb, raising fears the West might use military force to thwart Iran's ambitions if diplomacy fails. Chavez is also a US antagonist. He skipped the UN meeting in New York this time but a year ago he mocked President George W. Bush as the devil in his speech to the General Assembly. PRAISE FOR STATESMANSHIP Chavez, who says Iran's nuclear programs are peaceful, praised his visitor for showing brave statesmanship in leading the struggle against the US "empire." "We felt like you were our representative," he said. Bolivian President Evo Morales also showered Ahmadinejad with compliments in a show sure to rile Washington. "Bolivia has the right to have diplomatic relations with Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. We will never promote war ... but nor do we accept that in the name of peace, the criteria of the strongest (nation) prevails," Morales said, in an apparent reference to the United States. Bolivia's first indigenous leader, Morales often lashes out at what he calls US imperialism and accuses Washington of funding the political opposition, which US officials deny. For years, Venezuela and Iran have been signing scores of accords ranging from car and tractor factories to agreements giving Tehran access to Venezuelan oil fields. Venezuelan is also supplying gasoline to Iran as it struggles with domestic rationing. The Bolivian-Iranian cooperation is nascent. But Bolivian officials say Iran can help their country better exploit its vast natural gas reserves, at a time when the state-run energy company is struggling to position itself at the helm of the nationalized energy industry. The two governments agreed to design a five-year industrial cooperation plan with a $1 billion investment. They also agreed to spend up to $100 million on technology, trade and industrial promotion, Bolivia's presidential spokesman Alex Contreras said. "The people of Iran and Bolivia have decided to build their countries together, hand in hand," Ahmadinejad said.

Today, with his home ruined and much of his land vanished or still flood-threatened, he is living with his family in a shack on a raised embankment near his former home in Hajatkhali, in southwest Bangladesh’s Khulna district. “At one time I had everything. I used to make a living by working agriculture on my own land. But now there is nothing,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “I live with my family on this embankment. I get food for five members of my family through daily wages. But there is no work in the area now. It is very difficult to get food three times a day,” the 45-year-old said. A year after Amphan roared through South Asia, killing more than 100 people and causing more than $13 billion in damages, an estimated half-million people in southern Bangladesh’s Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat districts are still struggling to recover. Many in Mandal’s area are living on embankments and roadsides, or in cyclone shelters or school buildings, while others have left to try to find work elsewhere. Most have sold off family assets to survive or taken out loans, unsure how they will repay them. The broken embankment near Mandal's former home has now been repaired – but for many like him there is little left behind it to go home to, local families said. Bangladesh has worked hard to slash once-huge death tolls from powerful cyclones, through greater use of storm shelters, early warning systems and other interventions, officials said. “Our efforts have greatly reduced the amount of damage and deaths in cyclones,” said Enamur Rahman, Bangladesh’s state minister for disaster management and relief. He noted that after Amphan, “damage to the embankment and polders could not be completely recovered – but that work continues”. Mohammad Mohsin, secretary of the disaster management ministry, said the recovery effort was particularly impressive in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit budgets and limited safe movement in the country. But in areas hardest hit by Cyclone Amphan, many people are still struggling, with homes ruined and former farms and shrimp ponds still empty. 'I HAVE NOTHING' On Bangladesh’s southwest coast, the village of Kurikahunia remained underwater until recently. Mohammad Mafuar Rahman, 39, who once farmed there, now lives on a relative's land and drives a van he bought with a loan to try to earn an income. “I had a house, I had agricultural land,” he said. "I have nothing now.” He estimates the storm cost him about 15 lakh taka ($17,600) in lost assets and income. Bhabatosh Kumar Mandal, chairman of a local council in Satkhira District working on cyclone preparedness, said big advances in preparing for storms now needed to be matched with equally strong efforts to help those hit by them recover, especially as climate change brings worsening storms. In particular, work is needed to rebuild and strengthen the embankments families rely on, he said. “There are many initiatives to reduce the amount of damage and deaths before the cyclone. But there are very few initiatives to rehabilitate the people affected,” he said. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) noted that the COVID-19 pandemic made rebuilding efforts particularly difficult in 2020. FOCUS ON RECOVERY Sanjeev Kumar Kafle, acting head of the IFRC’s Bangladesh office, said that with climate change expected to bring ever-strengthening cyclones, more pre-emptive action to help families not just prepare but recover was needed now. “We need to invest more in these programs,” he said. “Countries like Bangladesh need more discussions globally and nationally to push for more funding to help the affected communities.” Efforts were needed more generally as well to cut poverty and boost access to social safety nets to build communities better able to stand up to worsening stresses, he added. M Zakir Hossain Khan, executive director of the Change Initiative, a Bangladesh non-profit working on equity and justice issues, said reducing cyclone impact on the country’s most vulnerable would require bringing together government and grassroots efforts in a “whole-of-society” approach. That might mean engaging young local IFRC volunteers to make sure community-led disaster responses work alongside government-led programmes, while making sure governments listen to and integrate local efforts to reduce disaster risks. “The decentralized, bottom-up approach would be integrated and would be obligatory for all public agencies,” he said. Rahman, Bangladesh’s state minister, said the country’s existing mechanisms – including the Disaster Management Act and Disaster Management Standing Order - were strong and notably automatically set in motion the action needed in the face of cyclones. "No one has to command when disaster strikes. On the basis of this order, works can be done properly,” he said. Still, "we have taken steps to further strengthen the ongoing mechanism", he said. That is of little comfort, however, to families still struggling to get by on embankments, some displaced now for a year. Shifting weather patterns are bringing ever stronger storms, higher tides and more regular and severe losses, said Mandal, who lost his home and farm to Cyclone Amphan. "If this situation continues we will not be able to live here," he said. "How many times can we build a house in one life?"

Time may be running out for polar bears as global warming melts the ice beneath their paws. Restrictions or bans on hunting in recent decades have helped protect many populations of the iconic Arctic carnivore, but many experts say the long-term outlook is bleak. An estimated 20,000-25,000 bears live around the Arctic -- in Canada, Russia, Alaska, Greenland and Norway -- and countries are struggling to work out ways to protect them amid forecasts of an accelerating thaw. "There will be big reductions in numbers if the ice melts," Jon Aars, a polar bear expert at the Norwegian Polar Institute, said by the fjord in Longyearbyen on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, about 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole. Unusually for this time of year, the fjord is ice free. Many restaurants and shops in Longyearbyen, a settlement of 1,800 people, have a stuffed polar bear or pelt -- often shot before a hunting ban from the early 1970s. Self-defence is now the only excuse for killing a bear. Many scientific studies project that warming, widely blamed on emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, could melt the polar ice cap in summer, with estimates of the break-up ranging from decades to sometime beyond 2100. Bears' favourite hunting ground is the edge of the ice where they use white fur as camouflage to catch seals. "If there's no ice, there's no way they can catch the seal," said Sarah James of the Gwich'in Council International who lives in Alaska. "Gwich'in" means "people of the caribou", which is the main source of food for about 7,000 indigenous people in Alaska and Canada. US President George W Bush's administration is due to decide in January 2008 whether to list polar bears as "threatenend" under the Endangered Species Act. That would bar the government from taking any action jeopardising the animals' existence and environmentalists say it would spur debate about tougher U.S. measures to curb industrial emissions. The World Conservation Union last year listed the polar bear as "vulnerable" and said the population might fall by 30 percent over the next 45 years. Bears also suffer from chemical contaminants that lodge in their fat. Some indigenous peoples, who rely on hunts, say many bear populations seem robust. "The Russians thought there's more polar bears that they're seeing in their communities, so they felt that it's not an endangered species," said Megan Alvanna-Stimpfle, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Youth Council, of an area of Arctic Russia. "But if we're talking about the future and there's no ice, then they are," she said. And some reports say the melt may be quickening. "Arctic sea ice is melting at a significantly faster rate than projected by most computer models," the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre said in a report on April 30. It said it could thaw earlier than projected by the UN climate panel, whose scenarios say the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summers any time between about 2050 to well beyond 2100. An eight-nation report by 250 experts in 2004 said "polar bears are unlikely to survive as a species if there is an almost complete loss of summer sea-ice cover." Paal Prestrud, head of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo who was a vice-chair of that study, said there was no Arctic-wide sign of a fall in numbers. But there were declines in population and reduced weights among females in the Western Hudson Bay area in Canada, at the southern end of the bears' range where summer ice has been breaking up earlier. Mitchell Taylor, manager of wildlife research at the Inuit-sponsored environmental research department in Nunavut, Canada, said some bears in region had simply moved north. "Hunters in many regions say they are seeing increases," he said. "It's clear that the ice is changing but it's not at all clear that the trend will continue." Prestrud said the fate of polar bears may hinge on whether they adapt to survive longer on land in summers. In the Hudson Bay, bears often go for months without food, scavenging on birds' eggs or even on berries and roots. "Otherwise they will end up in zoos," he said. Aars, however, said the bears had survived temperature swings in the past: "I hear far too often that within 100 years polar bears could be extinct," he told a group of climate students in Longyearbyen. "You will still have bays with ice for many months a year where polar bears can live," he said. On Svalbard, bears may have become less scared of people since the hunting ban, and are more likely to see them as a meal. Aars' recommendation: don't show you are scared. "You start shouting, or use flare shots to make a noise. Most polar bears get scared if you behave in the right way. But you have to act from the start. If you show weakeness you are in trouble."

A new science that seeks to fight climate change using methods like giant space mirrors might not work on its own, but when combined with cuts in greenhouse gases it may help reverse global warming, a research report said. In the report published on Wednesday, researchers at Britain's University of East Anglia assessed the climate cooling potential of "geoengineering" schemes that also include pumping aerosol into the atmosphere and fertilising the oceans with nutrients. "We found that some geoengineering options could usefully complement mitigation, and together they could cool the climate, but geoengineering alone cannot solve the climate problem," said Professor Tim Lenton, the report's lead author. Geoengineering involves large-scale manipulation of the environment in an attempt to combat the potentially devastating effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. "Strong mitigation...combined with global-scale air capture and storage, afforestation, and (enhanced CO2 sinks) might be able to bring CO2 back to its pre-industrial level by 2100, thus removing the need for other geoengineering," the report said. The level of mitigation of emissions required is in line with United Nations scientists' recommendation to cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050, thereby keeping atmospheric CO2 below 450 parts per million and a global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, Lenton told Reuters. The report said the pumping of aerosols like sulphate or other manufactured particles into the stratosphere has strong potential to cool the climate by blocking the sun's rays, but also carries a high risk of speeding up warming if stopped. Sunshades, or reflecting sunlight through giant space mirrors orbiting the earth, also have both great potential and great risk, the report said. Lenton also endorses combusted biomass waste, or bio-char, as possibly having "win-win benefits" for the climate as well as for soil fertility. Bio-char, a high-carbon substance that can store CO2 and enhance soil nutrients, is created by heating farm waste or wood in airtight conditions. OCEAN FERTILISER The report said ocean fertilisation may prove successful in cutting global CO2 but advised care on what method is used. Ocean fertilisation involves introducing nutrients to the upper ocean to stimulate the growth of algae, which absorb and sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. "Ocean fertilisation options are only worthwhile if sustained on a millennial timescale and phosphorus addition probably has greater long-term potential than iron or nitrogen fertilisation," the report said. Some environmentalists are concerned over ocean iron fertilisation and say it could lead to a loss of marine life. They call for more research before large-scale experiments are performed. Earlier this month, the German government ordered a group of international scientists to halt plans to dump 20 tons of iron sulphate dust into waters around Antarctica over worries the experiment could breach international law. The report's findings, published in the journal 'Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions', come ahead of the launch of a new initiative to advance geoengineering studies by the university's School of Environmental Sciences later this year.

China's foreign minister was forced to defend the "made-in-China" label on Wednesday, as the safety of Chinese food was in focus on the eve of Asia's largest security summit. In other meetings, India and the United States discussed their landmark nuclear pact announced last week, Japan and China reviewed bilateral relations and countries involved in the six-party talks on North Korea conferred on the way forward. The U.N. resolution to send peacekeepers to Darfur, which was signed on Tuesday, was welcomed by several of the participants. Foreign ministers and senior officials from 27 nations are in Manila for the annual Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, which will formally start on Thursday. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte that Beijing did not want a string of recent health scares connected with its exports blown out of proportion. "We also oppose politicising the issue of Chinese products, and oppose trade protectionism and trade discrimination," Yang was quoted as saying by a foreign ministry spokeswoman. The United States stepped up inspections of imports from China after a chemical additive in pet food caused the death of pets there this spring. Since then, poisonous ingredients have been found in Chinese exports of toys, toothpaste and fish, while the deaths of patients in Panama were blamed on improperly labelled Chinese chemicals that were mixed into cough syrup. "China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the United States in quality testing, quarantine and inspection, and is also willing to promote with the United States the normal and smooth development of China-U.S. trade," Yang said. Yang also defended Chinese goods in a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, a Japanese official said, and the issue came up in discussions with European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana. "Over 99 percent of Chinese exports to Japan have cleared inspections since 2004," Yang was quoted by the official as telling Aso. "He repeatedly stressed that China attaches importance to food safety." The official quoted Aso as telling Yang: "In the past there was an image of Japanese exports being cheap and shoddy. It took a long time to secure an image that their prices are high but their qualities are also high. China needs to make serious efforts." China has gained greater prominence at the meetings due to the absence of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Climate change, counterterrorism and North Korea's nuclear programme are also high on the agenda at the gathering, which brings together the 10-nation ASEAN with ministers from elsewhere in Asia, the United States, Russia, Canada and the EU. But hopes of revving up progress on North Korea were muted in the absence of Rice, who is in the Middle East for talks on Iraq, and little beyond positive platitudes about recent progress has so far emerged from talks in the Philippines, which holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN. Despite expectations of a bilateral meeting between the US and North Korean delegations, Negroponte, Rice's deputy, said nothing was planned. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Reuters he held substantive talks with Negroponte on the way forward after the two countries signed a civilian nuclear pact last week. Countries discussed terror threats as well as responses to disasters and the outbreak of diseases in the region. "The conclusion we came to is this -- no country, no matter how powerful, can do it by itself. We can only do it collectively," said New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

Xi's speech to political leaders, CEOs and bankers at the World Economic Forum in Davos was a first by a Chinese leader and marked a possible shift in the global political landscape as western democracies struggle with the rise of populist nationalism. China, a one-party communist state that maintains tough restrictions on foreign investment, would seem an unlikely champion of free markets at an event that has become synonymous with global capitalism. But with Trump promising a more protectionist, insular approach and Europe preoccupied with its own problems, from Brexit to terror attacks, China sees an opportunity to fill what could become a vacuum in global economic leadership. Speaking before a vast audience that included U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Xi likened protectionism to "locking oneself in a dark room" and cutting off all "light and air". "No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war," Xi said in the nearly hour-long speech. Real estate mogul and former reality TV star Trump, who will be inaugurated as U.S. president on Friday, campaigned on a promise to confront China more aggressively on trade and renegotiate or ditch multilateral trade agreements. His entourage has accused China of waging economic war against the United States. But Xi pushed back against the accusations of unfair trade practices, saying Beijing would not devalue its currency for competitive advantage, as Trump has repeatedly accused it of doing in the past. Xi also urged all signatories of a landmark climate deal agreed in Paris roughly one year ago to stick to the agreement, a clear message to Trump, who has criticised the deal and indicated he may pull the United States out of it. "Looking to China" In a sign of China's ambitions, more than half a dozen senior Chinese government figures joined Xi in travelling to Davos in the Swiss Alps this week, a bigger and more high-level delegation than in previous years. A large number of WEF panels are focused on Asia, including one entitled "Asia Takes the Lead". "In a world marked by great uncertainty and volatility the world is looking to China," WEF founder and chairman Klaus Schwab said before welcoming Xi to the stage. Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, reacting to Xi's speech on Twitter, said: "There is a vacuum when it comes to global economic leadership, and Xi Jinping is clearly aiming to fill it. With some success." Ian Bremmer, president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, tweeted: "Davos reaction to Xi speech: Success on all counts. Miles away from any official Chinese speech before". Xi's appearance comes at a time of rising tensions between Beijing and Trump, who broke with decades of precedent last month by taking a congratulatory telephone call from the president of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as part of China. Reuters file photo Last week Trump said America's "One China" policy was up for negotiation, triggering a furious response from state-run Chinese newspapers who said Beijing would be forced to "take off the gloves" if Trump did not change his rhetoric. Reuters file photo Although Xi painted a picture of China as a "wide open" economy, his government has come under mounting criticism from trading partners for its continued restrictions on foreign investments at a time when its state-run firms are aggressively pursuing acquisitions in Europe. In an apparent nod to these criticisms, China's cabinet announced ahead of Xi's speech that it would take steps to ease limits on investment in banks and other financial institutions. But no further details were provided, nor a timetable for their implementation. Some officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that China was simply manoeuvring to take economic advantage of what appears to be a growing divide between the United States and Europe. Big question mark "Today, I think there is a big question mark as to how China pivots in this world," Bob Moritz, global chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, told Reuters in Davos. "Will they be more regional or global in their mindset and, more importantly, in their negotiations? It's something we are going to have to watch over the next 12 months." Fears of a hard economic landing in China roiled global markets during last year's WEF meeting. Those concerns have eased but the International Monetary Fund warned on Monday about ongoing risks to the Chinese economy, including its high reliance on government spending, record lending by state banks and an overheating property market. Xi tried to send a reassuring message, saying the economy had entered a "new normal" driven by household consumption. Despite a sluggish global economy, he said China's economy was likely to have grown by 6.7 percent in 2016. But some economists in Davos remain cautious. "China is still one of the biggest risks, and I think the only reason it is not at the top of the list is that the United States has become such a locus of uncertainty," said Kenneth Rogoff, an economist at Harvard University.

OSLO, Fri Oct 31,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Climate change is likely to disrupt food chains by favoring animals with short lifespans over often bigger rivals that are worse at tolerating temperature swings, scientists said on Thursday. The researchers in Germany and Canada said that studies of the physical characteristics of animals showed that all have widely differing "thermal windows" -- a range of temperatures in which they best feed, grow and reproduce. That meant that climate change would not affect all equally. "Climate change will favor species with wide thermal windows, short life spans, and a large gene pool amongst its population," the journal Science said of the findings. Big fish such as cod, which have narrow thermal windows, were moving north in the Atlantic, for instance, partly because the food chain was disrupted by a shift to smaller plankton, reducing the amount of prey on which large fish can feed. A shift to smaller plankton meant that juvenile cod in the Atlantic had to use more energy to feed, slowing their growth. Female cod tolerate only a narrow "thermal window" when they produce eggs, part of a strategy evolved to cut energy use. The study focused on the oceans but the scientists said the findings may also apply to land creatures. "Each species covers a certain range. The ranges overlap, but their (thermal) windows are not the same," Hans Poertner, of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, who was one of the authors, told Reuters. Knowledge of the differences could help predict the reactions to climate change, widely blamed on human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. In the German Wadden Sea, larger eelpout fish, a long and thin species that grows up to about 500 grammes (1 lb), suffered more quickly than smaller specimens when summer temperatures rose above normal. "In the Japan Sea, different thermal windows between sardines and anchovies ... caused a regime shift to anchovies in the late 1990s," they wrote.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, facing crushing defeat at a November election, promised A$34 billion ($30 billion) in tax cuts on Monday if returned by voters as he fired the first shots in a tough six-week campaign. The tax cuts would be delivered on the back of stronger than expected economic growth, which will bring the government a budget windfall of some A$12.5 billion over the next four years. With polls pointing to an opposition Labor landslide, Howard's deputy, Treasurer Peter Costello, said the conservative government would deliver tax cuts worth A$20 a week to ordinary wage earners from July 2008, rising to A$35 a week in 2010. "This plan is all about further building and growing the Australian economy, it's about creating more not less jobs," Howard said in his first big campaign promise, warning the boom times would be at risk if Labor took office. Costello predicted Australia's economy would grow by 4.25 percent in 2007/08, up from a previous estimate of 3.75 percent, but inflation would remain within the central bank's 2-3 percent target band, he said. Opinion polls on Monday showed Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's Labor party ahead of the conservative government by 56 percent to 44 percent. Howard, 68, is fighting to overturn a mood among voters for change despite the country enjoying a 16-year expansion, unemployment at 33-year lows and previous tax cuts worth A$110 billion ($100 billion). RATE HIKES BLUNT PITCH But Howard's pitch of continued prosperity and more jobs has been blunted by a string of interest rate hikes to 6.5 percent, hurting bedrock conservative support in mortgage-saddled outer city suburbs, which both sides call "aspirational" belts. The Newspoll survey showed support for Rudd, 50, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat who may bolster ties with China, was strengthening as preferred prime minister, with 48 percent believing he would do better than Howard. The centrepiece of Rudd's campaign is a call for "New Leadership", stressing generational change over Howard and pledging sweeping reforms to health, education and controversial labour laws, while maintaining economic conservatism. The election will determine the future of Australia's military contribution in Iraq and climate change stance, with Labor promising to bring home combat troops and sign the Kyoto Protocol. But the poll will be fought and won on domestic issues. Rudd, who needs an imposing 16 more seats to take power in the 150-seat lower house, said he would release his tax policy later in the campaign for the Nov. 24 election. Markets have so far remained unmoved, with the Australian dollar touching 23-year highs despite Howard's warning of an economic slide if Rudd's Labor wins power. HSBC chief economist John Edwards said the tax cuts were far larger than he expected. "It's a direct challenge to the Reserve Bank and I do think it puts Australia's inflation experience and the durability of the expansion at risk," Edwards said. However, Deutsche Bank economist Tony Meer said tax cuts were affordable as tax receipts had been far larger than expected. (Additional reporting by Wayne Cole in SYDNEY and Victoria Thieberger in MELBOURNE) ($1=A$1.10)

The European Union said key developing states backed its roadmap for a binding pact to fight global warming, but warned UN climate talks could still collapse on Friday unless all major polluters came on board. The EU plan sets a 2015 target date for a new deal that would impose binding cuts on the world's biggest emitters of the heat-trapping gases, a pact that would come into force up to five years later. EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said Brazil and South Africa, whose growing economies are heavy polluters, now supported binding cuts to emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause rising sea-levels and increasingly extreme weather. "The success or failure of Durban hangs on a small number of countries who have not yet committed to the (EU) roadmap and the meaningful content it must have," Hedegaard told reporters after talks that stretched into the early hours of Friday morning. "If there is no further movement from what I have seen until 4 o'clock this morning, I don't think there will be a deal in Durban. That's what we are faced with." The EU plan envisages a new deal reached by 2015, and put into effect by 2020, imposing binding cuts on the world's biggest emitters of the heat-trapping gases. The European Union is trying to forge a coalition of the willing behind its plan in order to put pressure on the world's top three carbon emitters -- China, the United States and India -- to sign up. None are bound by the Kyoto Protocol, the only global pact that enforces carbon cuts. Washington says it will only pledge binding cuts if all major polluters make comparable commitments. China and India say it would be unfair to demand they make the same level of cuts as the developed world, which caused most of the pollution responsible for global warming. COALITIONS Many envoys believe two weeks of climate talks in the South African city of Durban will at best produce a political agreement, with states promising to start talks on a new regime of binding cuts in greenhouse gases. Anything less would be disastrous, they say. "We have never seen progress in these climate negotiations unless there has been an alliance between developed and developing countries," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The EU acknowledged positive movement from South Africa and Brazil and is now trying to get the U.S., India and China on board," he said. One source from a developing nation said island nations were seeking bilateral meetings with India in Durban in an effort to get them to sign up to the EU proposal. "People see where the deal could be in Durban but the question is whether people want to be part of that," the EU's Hedegaard said. CLIMATE SCIENCE If the discussions hold to form, envoys will extend discussions and release their decisions on Saturday. Three UN reports released in the last month show time is running out to achieve change. They show a warming planet will amplify droughts and floods, increase crop failures and raise sea levels to the point where several island states are threatened with extinction. South African President Jacob Zuma has said Durban will be a failure if a Green Climate Fund, designed to help poor nations tackle global warming and nudge them towards a new global effort to fight climate change, is not put into force. A group of 48 of the least developed countries has said it backed the European plan for a firm timetable, joining 43 small island states. Japan has said it shares "common ground" with Europe while Canada and several other developed countries have shown their support.

The world's 7 billionth person will be born into a population more aware than ever of the challenges of sustaining life on a crowded planet but no closer to a consensus about what to do about it. To some demographers the milestone foreshadows turbulent times ahead: nations grappling with rapid urbanisation, environmental degradation and skyrocketing demand for healthcare, education, resources and jobs. To others, a shrinking population, not overpopulation, could be the longer-term challenge as fertility rates drop and a shrinking workforce is pushed to support social safety for an ageing populace. "There are parts of the world where the population is shrinking and in those parts of the world, they are worried about productivity, about being able to maintain a critical mass of people," Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the UN Population Fund, told Reuters. "Then there are parts of the world where the population is growing rapidly. Many of these countries face challenges in terms of migration, poverty, food security, water management and climate change and we need to call attention to it." The United Nations says the world's seven billionth baby will be born on Oct. 31. No-one knows what circumstances the baby will be born into, but India's Uttar Pradesh -- a sugarcane-producing state with a population that combines that of Britain, France and Germany, in a country expected to overtake China as the world's most populous by 2030 -- provides a snapshot of the challenges it could face. Pinky Pawar, 25, is due to give birth in Uttar Pradesh at the end of the month and is hoping her firstborn will not join the estimated 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day, with little hope of an education or a job. "I want my child to be successful in life, so I must do my best to make this possible," she said, her hands over her swollen belly as she sat outside her mud and brick home in Sunhaida village. In Sunhaida, poverty, illiteracy and social prejudice mark a life dominated by the struggle for survival that mirrors millions of others across the world. RESOURCE CRUNCH With the number of people on earth more than doubling over the last half-century, resources are under more strain than ever before. First among the short-term worries is how to provide basic necessities for the additional 2-3 billion people expected to be added in the next 50 years. Water usage is set to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing nations and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries as rising rural populations move to towns and cities. "The problem is that 97.5 percent of it (water) is salty and ... of the 2.5 percent that's fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen," says Rob Renner, executive director of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation. "So there's not a lot of fresh water to deal with in the world." Nutritious food is in short supply in many parts of the globe. The World Bank says 925 million people are hungry today, partly due to rising food prices since 1995, a succession of economic crises and the lack of access to modern farming techniques and products for poor farmers. To feed the two billion more mouths predicted by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation says. But just as research, development and expansion of agricultural programs are critical, the public dollars pledged to this effort remain a pittance of what is needed, and are in fact in danger of sharp decline, experts say. "We have to raise productivity," Robert Thompson, who serves on the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council and is former director of rural development for the World Bank. "I think we can do it all if we invest enough in research. But at the moment we aren't." Climate change could be the greatest impediment to meeting the food target as rising temperatures and droughts dry out farmlands which are then inundated by intense floods and storms. The way climate change has been handled offers a window on how tricky it is to tackle global, long-term problems, however. While it's clear what needs to be done, UN climate talks have largely stalled. "There is a reason why these negotiations are relatively slow," said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe, referring to the economic downturn and arguments between rich and poor nations over carbon cuts. "But if you compare it to the urgency and the fact that many governments clearly understand the urgency, it is a failure of governments that they can't move forward." CITIES BURSTING AT SEAMS Experts say demographic imbalances will also place serious strains on towns and cities across the world as mostly middle-class blue-collar migrants move from poorer rural areas to richer urban centres. China's capital Beijing -- with its almost 20 million inhabitants -- is now the world's 13th most populous city, its population almost doubling over the last decade, reflecting a trend mirrored worldwide, particularly in developing nations. Cities in Africa, Asia and South America are bursting at the seams from migrants seeking better jobs or as farmers flee droughts, floods and other environmental disasters. In 1950, about 730 million people lived in cities. By 2009, it was nearly 3.5 billion and in four decades it will be 6.3 billion, the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a March 2010 report. That explosive growth stretches limited resources and infrastructure and places megacities on a collision course with a predicted increase in extreme flooding, storms and rising sea levels from climate change, U.N. Habitat says. Experts say the lack of coordinated planning is exacerbating the problem. "Any kind of plan for decentralising the population requires a series of policies that work together," said Wang Jianguo, a senior project officer on urbanisation at the Asian Development Bank's Beijing office. "If you only have a population policy without an employment policy, without an industry development policy, education, medical policy, it won't work." DEMOGRAPHIC ANOMALY One important policy tool to manage a growing population is to give women access to family planning, experts say, adding that 215 million women worldwide want it but do not get it. Access to education is also important as it motivates women to reduce their fertility and improve their children's health. A lack of such education has meant that while the overall populations continue to rise in countries such as China and India, the number of women is falling because of a preference for boys leading to deliberate abortions of female babies. The world is also seeing a demographic anomaly: a declining population in some richer countries has led to an imbalance between the working population and retirees who need expensive social safety nets. The global fertility rate -- the number of children born per couple -- is around 2.5, but in richer countries this number has already nosedived. And while exact predictions vary, most suggest the global population will peak at around 9 billion around 2070 and then start to fall, perhaps very fast. "We thought that overpopulation was going to force humanity to expand outward to the stars," says Jack Goldstone, professor of social science and a leading demographics expert at Washington's George Mason University. "That doesn't look like the problem at all. And the policy framework isn't set up at all to handle these longer-term issues."

Rob Taylor Canberra, Oct 28 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A YouTube clip of Australia's Prime Ministerial hopeful Kevin Rudd as a Chairman Mao-figure in a spoof Chinese propaganda film is spearheading a guerrilla video campaign undermining the major parties' election advertising. "Topmost politician Rudd seeks votes from eager and impressionable voteholders," the clip proclaims, as a beaming Rudd in a Mao suit smiles down on cheering supporters and Labour lawmakers holding aloft red books and flags. "Rudd impress and frighten Australian persons with his earnestness offensive. Space travels bless Rudd with control of movements of planets and rising of sun," the clip, subtitled and set to heroic Chinese music and commentary, reads. Rudd, 50, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, is trouncing veteran conservative Prime Minister John Howard in polls ahead of a November 24 parliamentary election, promising generational change and education, health and labour law reform. To attract crucial youth votes, both major parties have embraced the Internet with a slew of online campaign announcements, while voters nationally are bombarded with millions of dollars a day worth of election advertising. But the two-minute Rudd-as-Mao clip, put together by Sydney law student Hugh Atkin and billed as a rejected Labour advertising angle, has been viewed thousands of times since its posting this week, outrating official party material. Other videos show footage of Rudd in parliament, allegedly picking ear wax from his ear and eating it, or re-running a comedy cover of a Led Zeppelin's classic "Stairway to Heaven", re-titled as "Stairway to Kevin". "SCARE TACTICS" Howard, 68, has not escaped YouTube pillory either as he seeks re-election a fifth time in the face of what election pundits believe is near-certain conservative defeat. A bobbing Howard puppet recalls, in a video titled "Search for a scapegoat", how he mounted fear campaigns against refugees and Islamic extremists to secure past victories in 2001 and 2004. "Now it's 2007 and that time again. I need to find something special to scare the people into voting for me. I need to pull that rabbit out of a hat, I need to find the perfect scapegoat," the clip by "Killerspudly" confides to almost 50,000 viewers. The official party Internet fare is far more bland, taking the form of traditional TV advertising without the added cost. The conservatives are targeting Labour and Rudd's union ties and tax policies, while Labour has attacked Howard's refusal to sign the Kyoto climate pact, which surveys show is a major issue, particularly with young voters Smaller parties are also getting in on the act. The Australian Greens have turned to YouTube with a video of Howard in bed and sleeping amid climate change. Howard is joined by Rudd and both are said to be in bed with Australia's world leading coal industry, which is helping fuel China's boom. Atkin, 23, who put together Rudd's Mao clip, said he would actually be voting Labour, despite poking fun at its youthful leader's carefully-guarded and presidential image. "I'd like to see Labour win the election, but I'd like to make fun of them in the process," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Speaking at the annual Boao Forum for Asia, Xi criticised efforts by some countries to "build barriers" and "decouple", which he said would harm others and benefit no one. China has long called for reforms of the global governance system to better reflect a more diverse range of perspectives and values from the international community, including its own, instead of those of a few major nations. It has also repeatedly clashed with the biggest stakeholders in world governance, particularly the United States, over a range of issues from human rights to China's economic influence over other countries. "The world wants justice, not hegemony," Xi said in remarks broadcast to the forum. "A big country should look like a big country by showing that it is shouldering more responsibility," he said. While Xi did not identify any country in his remarks, Chinese officials have in recent times referred to US "hegemony" in public criticisms of Washington's global projection of power in trade and geopolitics. On Friday, US President Joe Biden held his first face-to-face White House summit since taking office, in a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in which China topped the agenda. Both leaders said they "share serious concerns" about the human rights situation in Hong Kong and China's Xinjiang region, where Washington has said Beijing is perpetrating a genocide against Muslim Uighurs. China has denied abuses. In a display of economic cooperation to the exclusion of China, Biden said Japan and the United States would jointly invest in areas such as 5G technology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, genomics and semiconductor supply chains. As the Biden administration rallies other democratic allies to harden their stance on China, Beijing is seeking to strengthen ties with its autocratic partners and economically dependent neighbours in Southeast Asia. Chinese speakers at the Boao forum, Asia's answer to Davos, also affirmed Beijing's commitment to global free trade. China's trade practices were a focus of an intense tariff war between Beijing and Washington under the Trump administration, with the United States accusing Beijing of unfair subsidiaries that give Chinese companies unfair advantage abroad and forced transfers of technology and intellectual property. "The biggest experience that China's accession to the World Trade Organisation 20 years ago is that we Chinese are not afraid of competition," Long Yongtu，China's former chief negotiator for the China's WTO entry in 2001, told the forum on Monday. SHARED INTERESTS However, despite the persistent confrontation between the US administration and China, both sides have rediscovered a common interest in battling climate change, after bilateral talks on fighting greenhouse emissions fizzled out during the Trump era. Last week, US climate envoy John Kerry flew to Shanghai to meet with his Chinese counterpart in the first high-level visit to China by a Biden administration official. Both agreed on concrete actions "in the 2020s" to reduce emissions.

The European Union stuck on Friday to its insistence that UN talks in Bali should set stiff 2020 guidelines for rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions, despite US opposition. "We continue to insist on including a reference to an indiciative emissions reduction range for developed countries for 2020," European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement on the last day of the Dec. 3-14 meeting. He did not restate, however, an EU demand for a reference to cuts of 25 to 40 percent cuts below 1990 levels by 2020. A compromise draft text, meant to launch two years of negotiations for a global pact to fight climate change, dropped a key ambition of tough 2020 greenhouse emissions cuts for rich countries but retained a 2050 goal of at least halving world emissions.

The yellow furnace in the basement of Richard Grady's Massachusetts home puts the retired engineer at the forefront of an environmental revolution. It's stoked by fuel derived from soybeans. Grady and a growing number of homeowners in the US Northeast are taking a stand against record oil prices, American dependence on Middle East oil and climate change by turning to biofuels to heat their houses during the cold winter months. "We've got to do what's right," said Grady, 67 in the Boston suburb of Westwood. "If I don't do it then who is?" Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is trying to speed up the trend, having proposed a bill on Nov. 5 that would require all home heating oil and diesel fuel contain at least 5 percent of the cleaner-burning fuel by 2013, a big step in the US Northeast, where 32 percent of homes use oil to stay warm in winter. The bill would make Massachusetts the first US state to require home heating oil to contain biofuels, beginning with 2 percent renewable fuel alternatives by 2010 and increasing to 5 percent by 2013. Leaders in the state legislature back the bill, though it has yet to go to a vote. bdnews24.com/lq/1920hrs "Biofuel makes people talk and it kind of bonds people because it's more for a cause than just heating your home," said Elizabeth Warren, who runs Mass Biofuel, a distributor of fuel refined from virgin soybean oil or used vegetable oils. She now has about 400 customers who blend traditional heating oil and biodiesel, up from seven just three years ago. Tightening world oil supplies put the spotlight on biodiesel, a form of biofuel usually made from soybeans, animal fats or waste cooking oil from restaurants. When blended with conventional oil, it cuts toxic emissions -- from sulfur oxide to carbon dioxide and particulate matter, the small particles that cause smog and respiratory problems. Worldwide biofuel capacity and demand are expected to double by 2010, driven by government policies to fight against energy dependence and climate change. The boom is greatest in the United States and Europe, where backing includes tax credits, import tariffs plus minimum blending rules. In March the European Union (EU) set a target to source 10 percent of transport fuel from biofuels by 2020. But biofuels aren't without their problems. In Europe and the United States they largely depend on subsidies to compete with oil, and an expansion in biofuel output worldwide is competing for land with tropical rainforests and food crops. Environmental groups say palm oil plantations are driving rainforest slash and burn in Indonesia, raising carbon emissions and threatening endangered species, while the U.N.'s food body says biofuel plantations globally are competing with crop land and driving up food prices. Studies also show that biodiesel generates a small increase in emissions of a potent greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas. Armond Cohen, executive director of the Boston-based nonprofit Clean Air Task Force, said the Massachusetts biofuel bill could do more harm than good to the climate. INDUSTRY HURDLES In the United States, about 175 companies distribute a blend known as bioheat, according to the National Oilheat Research Alliance in Virginia, even though it costs about 10 to 20 cents more per gallon than regular heating fuel. But for distributors like Warren, biofuel is not yet a profitable enterprise because of transportation costs. "If we had availability of the biofuel around here then it would actually be a cheaper product, but because we have to buy it from the Midwest, we have to bring it on rail car which jacks up the prices for us," she said. Warren absorbs the extra costs. Her company, part of century-and-a-half-old oil distributors Fisher-Churchill Oil Co. run by her father, sells heating oil mixed with 20 percent biofuel at the same price as conventional heating oil. She says it's an important marketing tool. "Half of our customers switched over from other companies," she noted. New York has 33 distributors of biofuel, the country's largest number and up from just a handful a few years ago. Many are selling to buildings that hope to reduce emissions of soot and carbon dioxide. From next year, New York City plans to use a biodiesel blend to heat city-owned buildings. Vermont's Sugarbush ski resort uses a 20 percent blend of biodiesel for its snow-making and mountain-grooming machinery, citing the threat to ski resorts from global warming. "It's currently a niche area but there's potential for growth, especially given the overall production surplus of biofuels in the United States," said Sander Cohan, oil market analyst at Energy Security Analysis Inc. Some significant hurdles remain, including the difficulty harnessing existing U.S. petroleum pipelines, a step that would give the biofuel industry a huge boost by allowing for faster, cheaper transportation from big producers in the U.S. Midwest. Recent tests show that biodiesel leaves residue that can corrupt products that share the pipeline such as jetfuel. "The sensing equipment on the pipelines has to be able to sense how much biodiesel is left in the pipeline," said Jenna Higgins Rose, spokeswoman at the National Biodiesel Board, a Missouri-based U.S. lobby group.

Anywhere else, news that inflation has topped 66,000 percent might have sparked street protests and sent nervous shudders through a government facing an election in just over a month. But Zimbabwe's economy has sunk so low for so long, that many appeared to have resigned themselves to their fate, largely shrugging off Thursday's announcement that year-on-year inflation had yet again shot to a record in December. Analysts say despite the decaying economy, President Robert Mugabe does not face much of a challenge to his 28-year rule during the March 29 election, given a deeply divided opposition and a political climate of fear. Zimbabwe's economy has been in recession for seven consecutive years, resulting in chronic shortages of food, fuel, water and electricity. Zimbabweans have long become used to finding their way around soaring prices, using barter to trade goods from magazines to cooking oil. "The reality is that we see the effects of high inflation each time we visit the supermarket, the (inflation) figure tells us what we know already," said Gabriel Makombe, a clerk at an insurance firm in central Harare. "The surprise, this time, is they actually released such a figure ahead of the elections," he added. The government statistics agency, often accused by analysts of understating price rises, said year-on-year inflation reached 66,212.3 percent from 26,470.8 percent in November. Zimbabwe has long had the world's highest inflation rate as it grapples with a recession blamed on Mugabe's policies, such as the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks. The central bank was forced to issue high-value notes amid a bank note shortage between December and January. But the highest denomination 10 million Zimbabwe dollar bill -- worth $333 at the official exchange rate but only $1.25 on the black market -- will buy only two loaves of bread and is rapidly losing value. Apart from the chronic shortage of basics, frequent power cuts, broken sewers and bad roads mirror the economic decay in a country where only one in four adults is in formal employment. The government statistics agency has been increasingly reluctant to release the data, a tacit acknowledgement that authorities are losing the battle against inflation. The official inflation rate is nearly double that of the Weimar Republic in 1923. But it is still well below the worst modern-day hyperinflation, when inflation in Yugoslavia in 1994 peaked at 313 million percent. "REPRESSIVE ENVIRONMENT" Mugabe, 83 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is seeking re-election in the general election. He faces challenges from former ally Simba Makoni and old rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. While the rotting economy has piled pressure on Mugabe, political analysts say a divided opposition might be too weak to unseat him from power. "Despite glaring evidence of economic mismanagement, chances of Mugabe being voted out remain remote," political analyst Eldred Masunungure said. Mugabe denies ruining one of Africa's most promising economies and says it has been sabotaged by Western nations that have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe as punishment for his land reforms. Last year Mugabe ordered a blanket price freeze in a desperate bid to stem inflation, but the move backfired as supermarket shelves were rapidly emptied of basic goods, worsening widespread shortages. Although the government has gradually relaxed price controls, many producers are yet to recover from the devastating price blitz and most shops are stocked with imported products that are beyond the reach of many. Supermarkets that were flooded by consumers at the height of the government crackdown on prices are now relatively well stocked but short of shoppers. "We simply cannot afford goods, like meat, a pint of milk and a loaf of bread, that we used to take for granted. Even the single meal most of us have grown used to is no longer guaranteed," said a government worker who declined to be named. Salaries for most government employees range from 200 million to 500 million Zimbabwe dollars and a union representing teachers making up the bulk of state workers is pushing for a wage hike to at least Z$1.7 billion to keep up with inflation. "My earnings are hardly enough for transport fares, let alone school fees and food," the government worker added.

Across the scorched southeast, frightened Australians — taking a few cherished things, abandoning their homes and vacation rentals, and braving smoke that discoloured the skies — struggled Thursday to evacuate as wildfires turned the countryside into charcoal wasteland. And from government officials came a disheartening warning: This weekend will be one of the worst periods yet in Australia’s catastrophic fire season. “It’s going to be a blast furnace,” Andrew Constance, transport minister of New South Wales, told The Sydney Morning Herald. The blazes have strained the country’s firefighting resources, and the fire season, though still young, already ranks as among the worst in Australia’s recorded history. The state of New South Wales declared an emergency in its southeastern region Thursday, calling on residents and vacationers to evacuate. Constance said the relocation was the largest in the region’s history. Fire crews burn off brush near Jerrawangala, Australia on Thursday, Jan 2, 2020. Calling for evacuations along the country’s southeastern coast, officials said next the few days would be the worst yet in an already catastrophic fire season. The New York Times To the south, the state of Victoria declared a disaster Thursday, allowing it to authorise the evacuation of areas along its eastern coast. Fire crews burn off brush near Jerrawangala, Australia on Thursday, Jan 2, 2020. Calling for evacuations along the country’s southeastern coast, officials said next the few days would be the worst yet in an already catastrophic fire season. The New York Times Using any means they could find, authorities were warning people to evacuate. But with communication in some areas spotty to non-existent, it was not clear that everyone would get the message. In just the past week, at least nine people have died, and many more are unaccounted for. In all, at least 18 people have died in this fire season. The blazes have consumed more than 1,000 houses, killed countless animals and ravaged a Pacific coast region of farms, bush, eucalyptus forests, mountains, lakes and vacation spots. About 15 million acres have been blackened over the past four months, and more than 100 wildfires are still burning. With the Southern Hemisphere summer barely underway and the country already reeling from record-breaking heat, no one expects relief any time soon. No rain is in the forecast. “We’re still talking four to six weeks at best before we start to see a meaningful reprieve in the weather,” Shane Fitzsimmons, rural fire commissioner for the state of New South Wales, told reporters. The wreckage of a car destroyed by fire in Conjola Park, Australia, on Tuesday, Dec 31, 2019. The New York Times In Mallacoota, a coastal town in Victoria state, the Australian Navy on Friday began ferrying to safety some of the 4,000 people trapped there when flames cut off all escape routes on land. The wreckage of a car destroyed by fire in Conjola Park, Australia, on Tuesday, Dec 31, 2019. The New York Times People camped on the beach and slept in small boats, they said, trying to shield themselves from flying embers as the inferno moved toward them. The heavy smoke meant only a few people with medical problems could be evacuated by helicopter. Among those on the beach was Justin Brady, a musician who just moved from Melbourne to Mallacoota, about 250 miles to the east. He managed to salvage a fiddle, a mandolin and some harmonicas before abandoning the home he built and its contents to the flames. “It’s been pretty heavy,” he said. Others nearby were not nearly so measured, venting their anger at the national and state governments, which they said had not taken the crisis seriously enough. Michael Harkin, who lives in Sydney and was vacationing in Mallacoota, complained of “incompetent governance” that is “not keeping us safe at all.” “I’m looking forward to getting somewhere that isn’t here,” he said. Sanjeev Tyagi, the district police superintendent, at his office in Bijnor, India, Dec 25, 2019. The New York Times The emergency services minister of New South Wales, David Elliott, drew withering criticism on social media after he left the country Tuesday for a vacation in Britain and France. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that he said he would return “if the bush fire situation should demand it.” Sanjeev Tyagi, the district police superintendent, at his office in Bijnor, India, Dec 25, 2019. The New York Times Elliott’s departure came just weeks after Prime Minister Scott Morrison was widely ridiculed for taking a vacation in Hawaii during the crisis. He cut his trip short. The Navy ship that arrived at Mallacoota, the HMAS Choules, delivered food, water and medical supplies, and was expected to leave with hundreds of evacuees. Once it is far enough from shore, the sickest people can be taken away by helicopter. The Choules will return for more people, officials said, but it will be a slow process; the trip to a safe port in the sprawling country is expected to take 17 hours. Many of the people aboard the cramped ship will have to spend most of that time sitting on the open deck. The evacuation orders have been easier to make than to carry out. Two-lane roads are carrying highway-level traffic, and some roads have been closed by the fires or blocked by downed trees and power lines. Long lines of cars snake around gas stations, tanks run dry, and drives that would normally take two hours last half a day or more. A wildfire in Yatte Yattah, Australia, on Tuesday, Dec 31 2019. The New York Times The state premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, said 17 people were still missing as fires swept alpine resorts and the normally bucolic Gippsland area. A wildfire in Yatte Yattah, Australia, on Tuesday, Dec 31 2019. The New York Times Thousands of people have gone days without electricity or phone service. With cell towers destroyed but landlines still working, long lines formed at pay phones, creating scenes from another era. Officials advised people to boil water before using it, after power failures knocked out local water treatment facilities. Stores have run short of essentials like diapers, baby formula, bread and bottled water. With lodgings full, many people fleeing the fires have been forced to sleep in their cars. Businesses with generators have continued to operate, but some have run out of fuel, and others are near that point. Craig Scott, manager of a supermarket in Ulladulla, a beach town about 100 miles south of Sydney, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he planned to keep the generator there running by siphoning fuel from the tanks of fishing boats. He said the store had just gotten the generator a few months ago, when no one imagined how desperately it would be needed. So vast and intense are the fires that they can create their own weather, generating winds as they suck in fresh air at ground level, and sparking lightning in the immense ash clouds that rise from them. Canberra, Australia’s capital, recorded the worst air quality ever measured Thursday; the largest city, Sydney, has been suffering through intense smoke for weeks; and ash from the blazes has darkened skies and coated glaciers in New Zealand, more than 1,000 miles away. The fires have set off anger at Morrison, in particular. He has played down the role of global warming, opposed measures to combat climate change and, at least initially, rejected additional funding for firefighters. Fire damaged trees line Bendalong Road, near Manyana, Australia on Thursday, Jan 2, 2020. The New York Times On Thursday, Morrison was heckled as he visited Cobargo, a New South Wales village where fires have killed two men and destroyed the main street. When he extended his hand to one woman, she said she would shake it only if he increased spending on firefighting. Fire damaged trees line Bendalong Road, near Manyana, Australia on Thursday, Jan 2, 2020. The New York Times “You won’t be getting any votes down here, buddy,” one man yelled. “You’re out, son.” As Morrison left hurriedly, the man taunted him about returning to Kirribilli House, the prime minister’s elegant official residence in Sydney, with spectacular views of the harbor and the city. “I don’t see Kirribilli burning,” the man yelled. Morrison said he understood residents’ frustration. “I’m not surprised people are feeling very raw at the moment,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “That’s why I came today, to be here, to see it for myself, to offer what comfort I could. “I understand the very strong feelings people have — they’ve lost everything,” he said, adding that there were still “some very dangerous days ahead.” © 2019 New York Times News Service

South Korea, Asia's fourth largest economy, has pledged to set one of three targets for carbon emissions by 2020, voluntarily joining Kyoto signatories in moving toward a firm commitment to roll back climate change. The government said on Tuesday it would choose a 2020 gas emission target this year from three options: an 8 percent increase from 2005 levels by 2020, unchanged from 2005, or 4 percent below 2005 levels. The country is one of Asia's richest nations and an industrial powerhouse. Emissions doubled between 1990 and 2005 and per-capita emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide based on 2005 levels were 11.1 tonnes, the same as some European nations and the 17th largest among OECD members. "Compared with developed countries, the targets may look mild," said Sang-hyup Kim, Secretary to the President for National Future and Vision at the Presidential Office. "But these are utmost, sincere efforts, reflecting Korea's capabilities." The government estimated each target to cost between 0.3 and 0.5 percent of GDP and will curb emissions by increased use of hybrid cars, renewable and nuclear energy consumption, energy efficiency with light-emitting diodes and smart grids. Rich nations bound by the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions are under intense pressure from developing countries to ramp up their targets to cut emissions as part of a broader climate pact under negotiation. Those talks culminate at the end of the year at a major UN gathering in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Wealthy developing states such as South Korea, Singapore and Mexico have also come under pressure to announce emissions curbs. South Korea's targets are modest compared with developed countries such as the United States and the European Union. Japan and the United States respectively aim to cut emissions by 15 and 17 percent by 2020 against 2005 levels, while the European Union and Britain are each aiming for reductions of 20 and 34 percent by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. China and many developing nations want the rich to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020 to avoid the worst effects of global warming such as droughts, floods and rising seas.

Hydropower stations and thermoelectric plants, which depend on water to generate energy, together contribute about 98 percent of the world's electricity production, said the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Shifts in water temperatures, or the availability of fresh water due to climate change, could lead to reductions in electricity production capacity in more than two thirds of the world's power plants between 2040 and 2069, said the study from an Austrian research centre. "Power plants are not only causing climate change, but they might also be affected in major ways by climate," said Keywan Riahi, Director of the Energy Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). "(Due to) climate change it will be increasingly difficult to provide reliable services at affordable costs," Riahi, one of the study's authors, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Hydropower plants rely on water to move turbines, while thermoelectric plants, including nuclear and fossil-fuel based generators, need fresh water to cool their systems. Countries and companies need to make power plants more efficient to respond to the potential decline, in what scientists said was the first study of its kind to analyse the global impacts of global warming on electricity production. The problem will become particularly acute during summer months and other periods of high electricity consumption. These periods usually coincide with higher water temperatures which make it harder to cool down power plants, Riahi said. On a monthly basis, the study said as many as 22 percent of hydropower plants could experience "strong" reductions - more than 30 percent - in their capacity. For more than two thirds of thermoelectric stations there could also be a strong monthly reduction. The United States, southern Africa, southern South America, central and southern Europe, and southern Australia are the most vulnerable regions for decreased power production, researchers said. Companies should invest in new technologies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on electricity generation, including switching from fresh water cooling systems to air cooling systems, Riahi said. The study analysed data from more than 24,000 hydropower plants and nearly 1,500 thermoelectric plants worldwide.

ADDIS ABABA, Sun Feb 1,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - African leaders set aside the first day of an annual summit on Sunday to discuss Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's long-standing pet project to establish a United States of Africa. Delegates said that although some countries are wary of the idea, and a 2007 summit in Ghana devoted to it ended with no deal because of opposition, delegates felt obliged to debate the plan because of the huge funds that the Libyan leader has poured into parts of Africa. Gaddafi, one of the continent's longest-serving leaders, has for years pressed for a federal pan-regional government, arguing that it is essential to meet the challenges of globalization, fight poverty and resolve conflicts without Western interference. Some leaders, including Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade, are keen on the idea. Erastus Mwencha, deputy chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission, said the first day of the February 1-3 summit would focus on Gaddafi's proposal. "I remain optimistic that yes, it will be a reality," he told reporters ahead of the meeting. "The question we are discussing is not whether it will be a reality, but when, and how." Commission chairman Jean Ping said recently views on the speed of integration varied from nine to 35 years, but the continent needed to speak with a united voice to be heard in international negotiations on trade and other issues including climate change. All 53 AU member states agree in principle with the goal of continental integration. But some -- led by economic powerhouse South Africa -- say it must be a gradual process. "Gaddafi has given a lot of money to these leaders over the years," said one east African delegate who asked not to be named. "VAST CHALLENGES" "It is important to him, so they will discuss it. But the challenges of making it work, obviously, are vast." The official theme of this week's summit at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa is boosting infrastructure, which experts say is essential if Africa is to weather the global financial crisis. But conflict and crisis in Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are expected, as usual at AU summits, to overshadow the official agenda. Delegates have been given some breathing space by positive developments in recent days in two of the most intractable problems: Somalia's two decades of violence and Zimbabwe's economic collapse. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist leader, is attending the talks after he was sworn in as Somalia's new president at U.N.-led talks in Djibouti. He is attending the summit in the very country whose powerful army ousted him as leader of a sharia courts movement that briefly ruled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia in 2006. Ethiopia's troops withdrew from Somalia last month, clearing the way for new moves to end the conflict. On Friday, Zimbabwe's opposition agreed to form a government with veteran President Robert Mugabe, ending deadlock that had deepened a political and economic meltdown. Mugabe is attending the summit but made no comment to reporters when he arrived. AU officials say the exclusion from the summit of Mauritania and Guinea, which both suffered military coups in recent months, proved the continent had moved on from its chequered past, when leaders seldom criticized or even commented on violence and tyrannical rule. The latest trouble has been in Madagascar, where a firebrand opposition leader said on Saturday he had taken charge. The Indian Ocean island's president denied it. Late on Saturday, AU Commission chairman Ping told Reuters the rules of the pan-African body on coups were clear and that any attempt to seize power illegitimately would be rejected.

On Wednesday, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York became the sixth Democratic candidate to drop out of the race since July. Twenty Democratic rivals are now seeking their party's nomination to take on Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election, after Massachusetts congressman Seth Moulton abandoned his campaign last Friday. On Sunday, former congressman Joe Walsh became the second Republican challenger to Trump's renomination. Democratic Washington state Governor Jay Inslee dropped out on Aug 21, less than a week after former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper ended his run. US Representative Eric Swalwell of California in July was the first Democratic candidate to exit the contest. The diverse group of Democrats vying to challenge Trump, who remains the likely Republican nominee, in November 2020 includes six US senators. A record five women are running, as well as black, Hispanic and openly gay candidates who would make history if one of them becomes the party's nominee. A top tier of contenders has emerged from the vast field, while others are still trying to break through. DEMOCRATIC TOP TIER Here are the Democrats who are ranked in the top eight in the RealClearPolitics national polling average: JOE BIDEN The leader in opinion polls among Democratic presidential contenders, Biden waited until late April to enter the race, launching his bid with a direct swipe at Trump. Biden, 76, served eight years as vice president under President Barack Obama and 36 years in the US Senate. He stands at the centre of the Democratic debate over whether the party's standard-bearer should be a veteran politician or a newcomer, and whether a liberal or a moderate has a better chance of defeating Trump. Biden, who frequently notes his "Middle-Class Joe" nickname, touts his working-class roots and his ability to work in a bipartisan fashion. He has faced criticism from some fellow Democrats for his role in passing tough-on-crime legislation in the 1990s. BERNIE SANDERS The senator from Vermont lost the Democratic nomination in 2016 to Hillary Clinton but is trying again. For the 2020 race, Sanders, 77, is fighting to stand out in a packed field of progressives running on issues he brought into the Democratic Party mainstream four years ago. His proposals include free tuition at public colleges, a $15-an-hour minimum wage and universal healthcare. He benefits from strong name recognition and an unmatched network of small-dollar donors. ELIZABETH WARREN The 70-year-old senator from Massachusetts is a leader of the party's liberals and a fierce critic of Wall Street who was instrumental in creating the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the 2008 financial crisis. She has focused her presidential campaign on a populist economic message, promising to fight what she calls a rigged system that favours the wealthy. She has released a dizzying array of policy proposals on everything from breaking up tech companies to implementing a "wealth tax" on the richest Americans. Warren has sworn off political fundraising events to back her campaign. KAMALA HARRIS The first-term US senator from California would make history as the first black woman to gain the nomination. Harris, 54, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, announced her candidacy on the holiday honouring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. She supports a middle-class tax credit, the Green New Deal and the legalization of marijuana. Her track record as San Francisco's district attorney and California's attorney general has drawn scrutiny in a Democratic Party that has grown more liberal in recent years on criminal justice issues. She saw a significant bounce in the polls after a high-profile clash with Biden over race issues during the first Democratic debate but has since seen her numbers drop back down. PETE BUTTIGIEG The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, emerged from virtual anonymity to become one of the party's brightest stars, building momentum with young voters. A Harvard University graduate and Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, he speaks seven languages conversationally and served in Afghanistan with the US Navy Reserve. He touts himself as representing a new generation of leadership needed to combat Trump. Buttigieg would be the first openly gay presidential nominee of a major American political party. ANDREW YANG The entrepreneur and former tech executive is focusing his campaign on an ambitious universal income plan. Yang, 44, wants to guarantee all Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 a $1,000 check every month. The son of immigrants from Taiwan, Yang supports Medicare for All and has warned that automation is the biggest threat facing American workers. His campaign has released more than 100 policy ideas, including eclectic proposals like creating an infrastructure force called the Legion of Builders and Destroyers. He lives in New York. CORY BOOKER Booker, 50, a US senator from New Jersey and former mayor of Newark, gained national prominence in the fight over Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination. Booker, who is black, has made US race relations and racial disparities in the criminal justice system a focus of his campaign. He embraces progressive positions on Medicare coverage for every American, the Green New Deal and other key issues, and touts his style of positivity over attacks. BETO O'ROURKE The former US congressman from Texas gained fame last year for his record fundraising and ability to draw crowds ahead of his unexpectedly narrow loss in the US Senate race against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz. But with progressive policies and diversity at the forefront of the party's White House nominating battle, O'Rourke, 46, has faced a challenge as a white man who is more moderate on several key issues than many of his competitors. He has increasingly turned his attention to Trump's rhetoric about immigrants after a gunman targeting Hispanics killed 22 people on Aug. 3 in El Paso, O'Rourke's hometown. TRYING TO BREAK THROUGH The field also includes many Democrats who are looking for a way to break through. Some hold public office and have managed to generate an early fundraising base, while others are still trying to raise their profile. JULIAN CASTRO The secretary of housing and urban development under Obama would be the first Hispanic to win a major US party's presidential nomination. Castro, 44, whose grandmother immigrated to Texas from Mexico, has used his family's personal story to criticize Trump's border policies. Castro advocates universal prekindergarten, supports Medicare for All and cites his experience to push for affordable housing. He announced his bid in his hometown of San Antonio, where he once served as mayor and a city councilman. AMY KLOBUCHAR The US senator from Minnesota was the first moderate in the Democratic field vying to challenge Trump. Klobuchar, 59, also gained national attention when she sparred with Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court nomination hearings. On the campaign trail, the former prosecutor and corporate attorney supports an alternative to traditional Medicare healthcare funding and is taking a hard stance against rising prescription drug prices. TULSI GABBARD The Samoan-American congresswoman from Hawaii and Iraq war veteran is the first Hindu to serve in the US House of Representatives and has centered her campaign on her anti-war stance. After working for her father's anti-gay advocacy group and drafting relevant legislation, she was forced to apologize for her past views on same-sex marriage. Gabbard, 38, slammed Trump for standing by Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. MICHAEL BENNET Bennet, 54, a US senator for Colorado, has based his political career on improving the American education system. He previously ran Denver's public schools. Bennet is not well known nationally but has built a network of political operatives and donors helping elect other Democrats to the Senate. During the partial US government shutdown in January, he garnered national attention criticizing Republicans for stopping the flow of emergency funds to Colorado. STEVE BULLOCK The Democratic governor of Montana, re-elected in 2016 in a conservative state that Trump carried by 20 percentage points, has touted his electability and ability to work across party lines. Bullock, 53, has made campaign finance reform a cornerstone of his agenda. He emphasizes his success in forging compromises with the Republican-led state legislature on bills to expand Medicaid, increase campaign finance disclosures, bolster pay equity for women and protect public lands. BILL DE BLASIO The New York City mayor emerged as a progressive standard-bearer in 2013, when he won his first term running America's largest city by population on a platform of addressing income inequality. But he has struggled amid middling approval ratings and some political setbacks to build a national profile. De Blasio, 58, can point to a number of policy wins in New York, including universal prekindergarten, a higher minimum wage and paid sick leave. He has called Trump a "bully" and a "con artist" and criticized his administration's positions on immigration, climate change and social welfare. TIM RYAN The moderate nine-term congressman from a working-class district in the battleground state of Ohio has touted his appeal to the blue-collar voters who fled to Trump in 2016. Ryan, 46, pledges to create jobs in new technologies and focus on public education and access to affordable healthcare. He first gained national attention when he unsuccessfully tried to unseat Nancy Pelosi as the House Democratic leader in 2016, arguing it was time for new leadership. A former college football player, he also has written books on meditation and healthy eating. JOHN DELANEY The former US representative from Maryland became the first Democrat to enter the 2020 race, declaring his candidacy in July 2017. Delaney, 56, says that if elected, he would focus on advancing only bipartisan bills during the first 100 days of his presidency. He is also pushing for a universal healthcare system, raising the federal minimum wage and passing gun safety legislation. A former business executive, Delaney is self-funding much of his campaign. MARIANNE WILLIAMSON The 67-year-old best-selling author, motivational speaker and Texas native believes her spirituality-focused campaign can heal the United States. A 1992 interview on Oprah Winfrey's show led Williamson to make a name for herself as a "spiritual guide" for Hollywood and a self-help expert. She is calling for $100 billion in reparations for slavery over 10 years, gun control, education reform and equal rights for lesbian and gay communities. WAYNE MESSAM Messam, 45, defeated a 16-year incumbent in 2015 to become the first black mayor of the Miami suburb of Miramar. He was re-elected in March. The son of Jamaican immigrants, he played on Florida State University's 1993 national championship football team and then started a construction business with his wife. He has pledged to focus on reducing gun violence, mitigating climate change and reducing student loan debt and the cost of healthcare. JOE SESTAK The retired three-star US Navy admiral and former congressman from Pennsylvania jumped into the race in June. Sestak, 67, highlighted his 31-year military career and said he was running to restore US global leadership on challenges like climate change and China's growing influence. Sestak said he had delayed his entry in the race to be with his daughter as she successfully fought a recurrence of brain cancer. TOM STEYER The billionaire environmentalist, a force in Democratic fundraising over the past decade, said in January he was focusing on his efforts to get Trump impeached and get Democrats elected to the US Congress. Steyer, 62, reversed course in July, saying other Democrats had good ideas but "we won't be able to get any of those done until we end the hostile corporate takeover of our democracy." THE REPUBLICANS Trump is the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination, and there has been criticism among his opponents that party leadership has worked to make it impossible for a challenger. Still, the incumbent will face at least two. DONALD TRUMP Serving in his first term, the 73-year-old real estate mogul shocked the political establishment in 2016 when he secured the Republican nomination and then won the White House. His raucous political rallies and prolific use of Twitter were credited with helping him secure victory. After running as an outsider, Trump is now focusing his message on the strong economy, while continuing the anti-immigration rhetoric that characterized his first campaign as he vies for re-election. JOE WALSH A former congressman, Walsh, 57, has become a vocal critic of Trump, who he argues is not a conservative and is "unfit" for public office. Walsh won a House of Representatives seat from Illinois as a candidate of the Republican Party's fiscally conservative Tea Party movement in 2010, but was defeated by Democrat Tammy Duckworth in his 2012 re-election bid. After leaving Congress, he became a Chicago-area radio talk-show host. BILL WELD The former Massachusetts governor, 74, ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 2016 as a Libertarian. He has been a persistent critic of Trump, saying when he launched his 2020 campaign that "the American people are being ignored and our nation is suffering."

Francis, on the fifth day of his first trip abroad since his election in March, went to Rio's Copacabana beach to preside at a "Way of the Cross" service commemorating Jesus' final hours as part of an international jamboree of Catholic youth, known as World Youth Day. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to see the Argentine pope at the theatrical event on the crescent-shaped beachfront, giving him yet another of the frenzied welcomes that have defined his trip so far. He ordered his open-sided popemobile to stop numerous times along his 1.8-mile (3-km) route so he could kiss babies and shake hands. He got out several times to walk along the route, making his security detail nervous again. In his address, Francis used the analogy of the suffering Jesus to ask the young people to ease the sufferings of the world. He used the theme to address issues ranging from hunger and crime to an oblique reference to the child sex abuse scandal that has roiled the Roman Catholic Church in recent years. Francis spoke of "the silence of the victims of violence, those who can no longer cry out, especially the innocent and the defenceless." He said Jesus was united with families whose children were victims of violence and drug addiction."Jesus is united with every person who suffers from hunger in a world where tons of food are thrown out each day ... with those who are persecuted for their religion, for their beliefs or simply for the colour of their skin," he said. In a reference to the sex abuse scandal, he spoke of "young people who have lost faith in the Church, or even in God because of the counter-witness of Christians and ministers of the gospel." Since his election in March, the pope has taken strong stands in defence of the environment and has several times said that financial speculation and corruption were keeping millions of people in hunger. "So many young people who have lost faith in political institutions, because they see in them only selfishness and corruption," Francis said. SUFFERING Last month, Brazil, Latin America's largest nation, was rocked by massive protests against corruption, the misuse of public money and the high cost of living. Most of the protesters were young. "The suffering of Christ is keenly felt here," the pope said, asking the young people to step outside of themselves and not wash their hands of society's many problems like Pontius Pilate washed his hands of Jesus' fate in the gospel. It was the second time in as many days that the pope urged young people to exploit their drive and energy to change things. During a visit to a Rio slum on Thursday, he urged them to not lose trust and not allow their hopes to be extinguished. Many young people in Brazil saw this as his support for peaceful demonstrations to bring about change. At the slum, he issued the first social manifesto of his young pontificate, saying that the world's rich must do much more to wipe out vast inequalities between the haves and the have-nots. The first Latin American pope is clearly relishing the enthusiasm at a time when the Church, which once was an unrivalled religious bastion on the continent, is grappling to hold onto faithful. On Friday, he took on the role of a simple priest and heard confessions of young people. Later, he visited the archbishop's residence, where he again showed his personal touch by lunching with youth and meeting juvenile inmates. After four straight days of rain and unseasonable cold, the sun returned to Rio on Friday and the long evening service that included dramatic re-enactments of Jesus' final hours was held under stars instead of clouds. But the change in the weather came too late. The rain forced organizers to move this weekend's two final gatherings to Copacabana from a pasture on the outskirts of the city because it had become a vast field of mud. The final, climatic event of World Youth Day is Sunday, when Francis presides at a closing Mass before returning to Rome that evening.

Japanese engineers put dye into radioactive water on Monday to check if they had managed to stop a leak from one reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant but one official warned it would be months before the crisis was under control. In the face of Japan's biggest crisis since World War Two, one newspaper poll said that nearly two-thirds of voters want the government to form a coalition with the major opposition party and work together to recover from the massive damage from the Mar 11 earthquake and tsunami. Underlining the concern over the impact on the world's third largest economy, a central bank survey showed that big manufacturers expect business conditions to worsen significantly in the next three months, though they were not quite as pessimistic as some analysts had expected. An aide to embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Sunday that the government's priority now was to stop radiation leaks from the Fukushima nuclear plant, 240 km north of Tokyo, and that the situation had "somewhat stabilised." "How long will it take to achieve (the goal of stopping the radiation leaks)? I think several months would be one target," said Goshi Hosono, a ruling party lawmaker and aide to Kan. Engineers at plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) have been scrambling to find anything that will help stop the leaks and prevent reactors from overheating. They mixed sawdust and newspapers with polymers and cement to try to seal a crack in a concrete pit at reactor no.2, where radioactive water has been seeping into the sea. "We were hoping the polymers would function like diapers but are yet to see a visible effect," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Nishiyama said three of the six reactors were now generally stable. TEPCO has said it will scrap at least four reactors once they are under control, but this could take years or even decades. Japan's crisis has rocked the nuclear industry and the European Union said on Sunday it will affect the fight against climate change as energy policies are reviewed. Germany and Switzerland have said they will shut older reactors or suspend approvals, China has suspended approvals for new plants, and Taiwan is studying cutting nuclear output. Japan may review its pledge to cut its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis, Japanese media quoted a senior environment ministry official as saying. "It is true that our reduction target will be affected significantly," Hideki Minamikawa, vice minister for global environmental affairs, was quoted by the Yomiuri newspaper as saying. PM UNDER PRESSURE The 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami left nearly 28,000 people dead or missing and Japan's northeast coast a splintered wreck. The disaster has hit economic production and left a damages bill which may top $300 billion. Prime Minister Kan is under intense pressure to steer Japan through the crisis, but after three weeks many Japanese are angry the humanitarian disaster seems to have taken a back seat to the nuclear crisis. Though criticised for his crisis management, voter support for Kan's government rose to 31 percent in a Yomiuri newspaper poll, from 24 percent in a survey conducted before the quake. Almost 70 percent of respondents, however, believed Kan was not exercising leadership, 19 percent wanting him to step down soon. There has been talk that Kan's ruling Democratic Party of Japan join forces with its main political opponent, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). But so far there has been no sign the two are close to any deal. Kan last month invited LDP head Sadakazu Tanigaki to join the cabinet as deputy premier for disaster relief, but he declined. MOVES TO STOP POWER BLACKOUTS More than 163,710 people are living in shelters, with more than 70,000 people evacuated from a 20 km no-go zone area the nuclear plant. Another 136,000 people living a further 10 km out have been told to leave or stay indoors. The government estimates damage from the earthquake and tsunami at 16 trillion to 25 trillion yen (£117 billion-£185 billion). The top estimate would make it the world's costliest natural disaster. Manufacturing has slumped to a two-year low as a result of power outages and quake damage hitting supply chains and production. The Bank of Japan's tankan business sentiment survey, although negative, was not as grim as analysts had expected, With some suggesting the results were not reliable. "I think many firms will have filled out the surveys before the quake and sent them after the quake, so this reading may be misleading to gauge the impact of the quake," said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan. General Electric, which helped build the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will help TEPCO supply electricity in the coming months when demand soars. Demand for power jumps in Japan in summer due to heavy use of air conditioners. More than 168,500 households in the north are still without electricity after the tsunami. The government has said it will restrict maximum power use by companies during the hotter months in an effort to avoid further blackouts. Japan's health ministry said on Sunday it had detected radioactive substances higher than legal limits in mushrooms from Iwaki in Fukushima, said Kyodo. "Grown in Fukushima" has become a warning label for those nervous of radiation which has already been found in some vegetables close to the nuclear plant.

Islamic State will also top the agenda. US President Barack Obama will host a counterterrorism meeting with over 100 countries invited that will address Islamic State, foreign terrorist fighters and violent extremism. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will chair a high-level UN Security Council meeting on counterterrorism. But before the marathon of speeches in the 193-member General Assembly starts on Monday, Pope Francis will address the United Nations on Friday ahead of a three-day summit with more than 150 world leaders that will formally adopt a global sustainable development agenda for the next 15 years. This year's gathering is an unusually high-level one. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Cuban leader Raul Castro and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the leaders making rare appearances for the United Nations' 70th anniversary. Xi Jinping, who is in the United States for an official visit this week, will make his UN debut as China's president. The agenda, which was agreed by UN members last month, aims to wipe out hunger and extreme poverty, reduce inequality within and between states, achieve gender equality, improve water management and energy, and urgently combat climate change. Francis, a strong advocate for action to combat climate change who in June issued the first papal document on the environment, will be the fifth pope to address the United Nations. Putin will address the assembly on Monday. While he has no formal meeting planned with Obama, there will be opportunity for the pair to speak on the sidelines. "It looks like Russia may table new peace proposals for Syria, but the chances of a breakthrough are low," said Richard Gowan, who teaches at Columbia University. "Putin will use his first visit to the UN in a decade to defend his support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad forcefully, but Western and Arab governments will respond equally toughly," Gowan added. "Nasty debates over Syria could poison the atmosphere." Putin is expected to use the UN platform to speak about the need for countries to join together to destroy Islamic State and tackle the threats posed by extremism and terrorism. Tensions are high between the United States and Russia. The former Cold War foes have a common adversary in Islamic State militants, but have been deadlocked over how to end the war in Syria, with Russia supporting Assad and the United States saying he has to step aside. "In Syria, the combatants are defying all norms of humanity," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said ahead of the gathering of world leaders. "Responsibility for ending this horror rests on the parties, and on the neighbours and external forces that are fuelling the fighting." More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since a 2011 government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters spiralled into civil war, triggering the rise of Islamic State. Some 7.6 million people are displaced, while another 4 million have fled. Tens of thousands are now making their way to Europe. Amid an uproar over the treatment of refugees and migrants by some European countries, Ban has urged European leaders to show compassion. He will host a meeting of world leaders on Sep 30 to discuss the global migration crisis. "Brutal conflicts, breakdowns in basic governance, economic despair and other factors have generated displacements of people not seen since the Second World War," said Ban, adding that worldwide some 60 million people have fled their homes. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, will attend as well. Zarif is expected to take part in a meeting on Monday with the foreign ministers of the six powers who negotiated a historic nuclear deal with Tehran, including US Secretary of State John Kerry. Along with Syria, the United Nations says Yemen, South Sudan and Iraq are among its worst humanitarian crises. High-level meetings are also due to be held on these conflicts during the General Assembly.

Tens of thousands of people rallied in protests around Australia on Sunday, calling on political parties to take stronger action over global warming. The Walk Against Warming rallies, held in capital cities and about 50 country towns, aimed to draw attention to the issue of climate change in the final weeks of campaigning for the Nov. 24 general election. Nature Conservation Council executive director Cate Faehrmann said early estimates were that up to 150,000 people had marched in protests around Australia. She told reporters that protesters wanted the parties to show a stronger commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and said a near-term target of cutting emissions by 30 percent by 2020 was needed. The Labor opposition has set a 2050 emissions target. Police estimated the crowd in Melbourne at between 20,000 and 30,000, while in Sydney organisers said more than 28,000 people attended. A Sydney police spokesman declined to give a crowd estimate. "Both major parties have credibility problems on climate change because of their failure to commit to the sort of deep cuts to greenhouse emissions in the next decade that are necessary to help prevent dangerous climate change," Wilderness Society national campaign director Alex Marr told the Sydney rally. Australia and the United States have refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which sets binding targets for carbon pollution by developed countries. Australian Prime Minister John Howard says any global agreement must include big developing nations such as China and India. Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are among the world's highest per capita and the government prefers to focus on energy efficiency and technology to limit carbon emissions.

US President George W Bush's administration is proposing to list the polar bear as an endangered species because of warming temperatures in the animal's habitat, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. The proposal, described by an Interior Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity, marks the first time the administration has identified climate change as the driving force behind the potential demise of a species, the paper said. "We've reviewed all the available data that leads us to believe the sea ice the polar bear depends on has been receding," the Interior official told the paper. "Obviously, the sea ice is melting because the temperatures are warmer." The official added that US Fish and Wildlife Service officials have concluded that polar bears could be endangered within 45 years, the report said. A spokesman for the Interior Department was not immediately available for comment. The Bush administration has consistently rejected scientific thesis that human activity contributes to global warming and has resisted capping greenhouse gas emissions as bad for business and US workers. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), produced by burning fossil fuels, trap heat in the atmosphere. Scientists say rising temperatures could raise sea levels and cause more droughts, floods and heatwaves. The Interior official told the Post that the decision to propose polar bears as threatened with extinction "wasn't easy for us" because "there is still some significant uncertainty" about what could happen to bear populations in the future. The proposal was being submitted on Wednesday for publication in the Federal Register, meeting a deadline under a legal settlement with environmental advocacy groups that argue the government has failed to respond quickly enough to the polar bear's plight, The Washington Post said. One of the lawyers who filed suit against the administration, Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council attorney, welcomed the proposal. "It's such a loud recognition that global warming is real," Wetzler told the newspaper. "It is rapidly threatening the polar bear and, in fact, an entire ecosystem with utter destruction."

The early-phase research project is among new software initiatives inside Google to combat climate change. Some employees as well as advocacy groups have called on the company, the world's third-most valuable, to more urgently use its influence to combat the crisis. While Google has not addressed critics' calls to stop selling technology to oil companies or funding lawmakers who deny global warming, it has prioritised sustainability features. Google plans in the coming weeks to allow its Nest thermostat users to buy renewable energy credits for $10 a month to offset emissions from heating and cooling. Credits will come from projects in Texas including Bethel Wind Farm and Roseland Solar. A majority of the funds will go toward credit purchases and utility-bill payment costs, Google said, without elaborating on the remainder. For no charge across the United States, Nest users soon can automatically shift heating and cooling to times when energy is cleaner. New informational panels alongside search results show emissions or other environmental ratings of flights globally and cars and home appliances in the United States. To stem misinformation, English, Spanish and French queries mentioning "climate change" starting this month will feature explanations from the United Nations. Based on early results in Israel's Haifa and Beer-Sheva, Rio de Janeiro's municipal traffic authority expressed high hopes for the AI to better time traffic signal changes. It told Reuters the system should be introduced within months with locations announced soon. Aleksandar Stevanovic, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at University of Pittsburgh, said simulations show AI could smooth traffic flow. But he questioned whether a tech company without traffic engineering expertise ultimately could bring such software to reality. There are over 180 million OTT viewers in Southeast Asia, creating significant opportunities for brands who want to access this market. "Every year there is someone new claiming we can do wonders," he said.

The Puja began Tuesday at the famous Durgabari temple, located in front of the 113-year-old Ujjayanta Palace, eastern India's biggest such.A part of the fortress and mansion continues to be the abode of the former princely rulers and the remaining served as the Tripura assembly until 2009.It has now been turned into northeast India's biggest museum conserving the history, life and culture of northeast India."Tripura is the only Indian state where the state government, be it ruled by Left or non-Left parties, is at the forefront of funding such a Hindu religious festival. The tradition has been going on since Tripura's merger with the Indian union and has been on during Communist rule in the state," Panna Lal Roy, a writer and historian, told IANS.At the end of 517-year rule by 184 kings, on Oct 15, 1949, the erstwhile princely state came under the control of the Indian government after a merger agreement signed between Kanchan Prabha Devi, then regent maharani, and the Indian governor general.The merger agreement made it mandatory for the Tripura government to continue the sponsorship of temples run by the Hindu princely rulers. This continues even after six- and-a-half decades.A full-fledged division - Debarchan Vibhag - under district magistrates in four of Tripura's eight districts now bears this responsibility and the entire expenditure of several temples, including that of Durgabari."Before starting the five-day long worshiping of Durga and her four children, a procession led by the head priest, escorted by the Tripura Police, goes to the palace to seek the consent of the former royal family to begin the puja to the deities at Durgabari," said Nagendra Debbarma, a senior official of the west district.He said that many ancient traditions are not followed nowadays."A young buffalo, several goats and pigeons are sacrificed during the five-day festival at Durgabari in the presence of thousands of devotees - all at government expense," Debbarma told IANS.People For Animals (PFA) chairperson Maneka Gandhi, currently union minister of women and child development, in a letter to the district magistrates asked them to stop "cruel killing of animals in the temples" during religious festivities."The district magistrate of West Tripura earlier has to report in writing about the preparations at Durgabari to the former royal family and submit a final report after completion of the mega puja. Now this practice has been discontinued."Dulal Bhattacharjee, the octogenarian chief priest of Durgabari temple, said it is on the final day of Dashami that the real splendour of the festival comes to the fore."The idols of Durgabari that lead the Dashami procession are the first to be immersed at Dashamighat with full state honours, with the police band playing the national song."Historian Roy, who wrote many books on the history of royal era, said: "The over 200-year-old Durga Puja is unique in the sense that the prasad (holy offering) includes meat, fish, eggs and, of course, fruits."Though the Durgabari temple's Durga Puja celebration remains the main attractions due to numerous reasons, community pujas organised by clubs and families also vie for much attention.Traditional themes, prevailing issues and events continue to dominate pandals with Indian temples and historical happenings forming part of the decorations.India's mission to Mars and climate change will come alive in pandals through colourful lighting.Global warming, protection of the environment, crime against women, ancient India's epics, folk and traditional life and culture of Hindu Bengalis and tribals, conventional handicraft work, Tripura's royal palace, Kolkata's Birla Planetarium, Guwahati's Kamakhya Temple, Konarak's Sun Temple, Kashmir's snow-capped hills and Dal Lake, Bombay High and a Buddhist temple in China are also being depicted through puja marquees.According to the Tripura Police, 2,335 community and family pujas have been organised all across Tripura, bordering Bangladesh.Of these, 1,023 are in urban areas and 1,312 in rural areas. Around 550 pujas are being held in and around Agartala alone.

The US Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it will reconsider a Bush administration rule to let new coal-fired power plants open without taking climate-warming carbon emissions into account. Environmental leaders, who had petitioned the agency to overturn the Bush rule, hailed EPA's move as a step toward the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions and a departure from the Bush administration's stand on climate change. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson granted the environmental groups' request for reconsideration of the rule, and in a letter to the petitioners, called for an unspecified period of public comment before a new rule is put in place. "This will be a fair, impartial and open process that will allow the American public and key stakeholders to review this ... to comment on its potential effects on communities across the country," Jackson said in a statement. "EPA's fundamental mission is to protect human health and the environment and we intend to do just that." In the letter, Jackson also cautioned companies aiming to start construction on power plants not to rely on the Bush administration rule in seeking permission to build. "Today's victory is yet another indication that change really has come to Washington, and to EPA in particular," said David Bookbinder of the Sierra Club, one of three groups that called for the reconsideration. "This decision stops the Bush administration's final, last-minute effort to saddle President Obama with its do-nothing policy on global warming," Bookbinder said in a statement. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund also called for the reconsideration. ANOTHER DEPARTURE FROM BUSH ERA It was the second time this month that the Obama administration has diverged from the Bush environmental position. On February 6, the EPA said it would reconsider whether to grant California and other states the authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions by new cars and light trucks, a request the Bush administration denied. EPA's decision on coal-fired power plants follows more than a year of bureaucratic maneuvering at the end of the Bush administration over whether new plants must limit emissions of carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change. The maneuvering began soon after the April 2007 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that found EPA has the authority to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. Since then, the Bush administration parried any attempts to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. On November 13, 2008, EPA's own Environmental Appeals Board concluded that the agency "had not adequately explained why" a Clean Air Act provision on pollutants did not apply to carbon dioxide. On December 18, Bush administration EPA chief Stephen Johnson wrote a memorandum calling the appeals board's conclusions invalid. The environmental groups sued to overturn the Johnson memo. EPA's Jackson let the memo stand, but noted that it is not "the final word on the appropriate interpretation of the Clean Air Act requirements."

The journalists of Ukraine were also awarded a special citation for coverage of the Russian invasion, as the Pulitzer board paid homage to the 12 journalists who have been killed covering the Ukraine war this year. The annual Pulitzers are the most prestigious awards in US journalism, with special attention often paid to the public service award. This year that award went to the Washington Post for its coverage of the siege of the US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, when a violent mob disrupted the congressional count of electoral votes that unseated Trump and officially made Joe Biden president. The Washington Post won "for its compellingly told and vividly presented account of the assault on Washington on January 6, 2021, providing the public with a thorough and unflinching understanding of one of the nation's darkest days," Pulitzer Prize Administrator Marjorie Miller announced. The events of that day also resulted in a breaking news photography Pulitzer for a team of photographers from Getty Images. In feature photography, a team of Reuters photographers including the late Danish Siddiqui, who was killed last July while on assignment covering the war in Afghanistan, won the Pulitzer for coverage of the coronavirus pandemic's toll in India. Reuters, which was also named as a feature photography finalist for images of climate change around the world, won for "images of COVID's toll in India that balanced intimacy and devastation," Miller said. Besides Siddiqui, the Reuters photographers honoured were Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo and Amit Dave. "A world largely preoccupied with its own suffering was jolted awake to the scale of India's outbreak after Reuters photographers documented it," Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement. "To have Danish's incredible work honored in this way is a tribute to the enduring mark he has left on the world of photojournalism," Galloni said of Siddiqui, who was also part of the Reuters photography team to win the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis. The Pulitzer was the 10th for Reuters, a unit of Thomson Reuters, and the seventh in the last five years. With three more Pulitzers this year, the New York Times has won 135 since the awards were first presented in 1917. The Times took one for national reporting for its coverage of fatal traffic stops by police; another for international reporting for its examination of the failures of the US air war in the Middle East; and a third for criticism for Salamishah Tillet, a contributing critic at large, for her writing on race in arts and culture. Besides winning the international reporting award, the Times was named as a finalist in the category twice more: for the fall of Afghanistan and the assassination of Haiti's president. In addition, New York Times reporter Andrea Elliott won a Pulitzer Prize in the general nonfiction category for her book "Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City," which started with a 2013 series published by the newspaper. The Pulitzer board made note of the "challenging and dangerous times for journalists around the world," noting 12 journalists killed covering the Ukraine war, eight Mexican journalists murdered this year, and other cases of assault and intimidation against journalists in Afghanistan and Myanmar. The special citation for journalists of Ukraine applauded their "courage, endurance and commitment to truthful reporting during Vladimir Putin's ruthless invasion of their country and his propaganda war in Russia." The prizes, awarded since 1917, were established in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in 1911 and left money to help start a journalism school at Columbia University and establish the prizes. They began with four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and five travelling scholarships. Today they typically honour 15 categories in media reporting, writing and photography plus seven awards in books, drama and music. A board of mostly senior editors at leading US media and academics presides over the judging process that determines the winners.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard unveiled her new cabinet on Saturday, with Wayne Swan retaining his treasury portfolio and former climate minister Penny Wong moved to the senior finance portfolio. Gillard also kept Martin Ferguson in the key Resources and Energy portfolio, where he will be crucial to pushing through plans for a 30 percent tax on the profits of big iron ore and coal mines. In other changes, former union leader Greg Combet was promoted to a cabinet position as Minister for Climate Change to replace Wong, while Anthony Albanese stays at transport and infrastructure. Combet, a political trouble-shooter known for his negotiating skills, faces the task of drawing up a plan to put a price on carbon pollution, blamed for global warming, and finding community consensus for action against climate change. "The ministry continues a strong emphasis on economic management and the creation of jobs," Gillard told reporters in Melbourne. "We have sought to provide stable economic management, and we have sought to focus on jobs. That kind of economic stability will continue, as will our approach to ensure the budget comes to surplus in 2013." But the difficulties facing the government were underlined when independent Andrew Wilkie demanded changes to the planned mining tax, which the opposition had threatened to scrap during the campaign for last month's election if it took office. Wilkie told The Australian newspaper he would not support the new Minerals Rent Resource Tax (MRRT) unless it was redesigned and possibly expanded to include more mining projects. "I think we need to go back to the drawing board because the MRRT as it is currently designed is unsatisfactory," he told The Australian. Gillard last week secured a second term in office in the aftermath of the close election with the support of three independents and a Green MP. Hers will be the first minority government since World War Two, raising concerns the administration will be unstable and may not run its full term. The new ministry is Gillard's first chance to put her stamp on the government since the ruling Labor Party dumped former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in late June, as she made only minor changes to the cabinet ahead of the August 21 election. In a bid to heal some of the internal tensions over her move against Rudd, Gillard gave Rudd the senior role of Foreign Minister in her new government. But two Labor figures, Mark Arbib and Bill Shorten, key players in the move to dump Rudd in favour of Gillard, were also rewarded. Arbib moves from the junior employment participation portfolio to become the Minister for Indigenous Employment and Economic Development, while Shorten becomes Assistant Treasurer. The cabinet reshuffle was made easier by former finance minister Lindsay Tanner retiring from politics and former defence minister John Faulkner announcing before the election that he would stand down from the ministry. Former foreign minister Stephen Smith was moved to defence, with responsibility for policy on Afghanistan, where Australia has around 1,600 troops. Former Small Business Minister Craig Emerson will be the new Trade Minister.

The World Health Organization (WHO) sharply cut its estimate on Thursday of how many people catch malaria every year, saying rapid urbanization in Asia had destroyed the forest habitats of disease-spreading mosquitoes. In a report, the WHO said 247 million people were infected with malaria worldwide in 2006, the latest period for which figures are available. Its prior estimate, widely cited by governments and drugmakers, was that 350 million to 500 million people were afflicted every year. The new report also reduced the global death toll from the disease from the United Nations agency's previous reading, which was issued three years ago, by about 10 percent. "The change is due primarily to a refinement of calculation methods. It is not known if cases and deaths actually declined between 2004 and 2006," the WHO said in a statement. The report concluded that 881,000 people died from malaria in 2006, compared to previous estimates of "more than 1 million" annual deaths from the disease that kills mostly infants, children, and pregnant women. Malaria has attracted huge sums of public funding in past years, channeled through the WHO as well as other bodies like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. The WHO's Roll Back Malaria Partnership has called for a scaling-up of funding for malaria to $3.4 billion a year, from $1.2 billion, to improve access to artemisinin-based drugs and insecticide-treated bed nets that can prevent infection. LARGE-SCALE REVISIONS Attempting to work out the global prevalence of disease is not an exact science, and public health experts are often forced to make large-scale revisions to their estimates. Last year, the WHO cut its estimate for those infected with the AIDS virus to 33 million from 40 million after it received new data about the epidemic in India. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month raised by 40 percent its estimate of how many Americans catch HIV each year because it adopted more precise reporting methods. Less than one-third of the WHO's 193 member states have reliable systems to monitor and document diseases such as malaria, whose initial symptoms closely resemble the flu, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told a news briefing in Geneva. She said the malaria report will now be issued yearly so that decision-makers have up-to-date information on the disease. "With dramatic increases in funding and intense momentum towards reducing the malaria burden in recent years, we have a greater need for reliable information and analysis," she said. Novartis AG's drug Coartem is used to treat malaria, and other pharmaceutical companies including Austria's Intercell are also trying to develop malaria vaccines, though none are expected on the market for several years. Malaria is most prevalent in Africa, where the WHO estimates the number of cases using climate data on heat and humidity that affect mosquito breeding, combined with some sample surveys. Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania were among the countries with the most malaria deaths in 2006, the WHO said. Outside Africa, the countries most affected included India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.

The United Nations shipping agency on Friday agreed to voluntary proposals aimed at cutting carbon emissions, delegates said. But environmental groups said it fell short of what was needed. Shipping and aviation are the only industry sectors not regulated under the Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for greenhouse gas emissions by rich countries from 2008-12. Shipping accounts for nearly three percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and pressure has grown for cuts ahead of a crucial climate change summit in Copenhagen in December. Delegates from around 90 countries approved non-compulsory technical and operational measures to reduce greenhouse emissions from ships. These included an energy efficiency design index for new ships to ensure new vessel designs are environmentally friendly as well as an index for existing vessels. "It is being circulated as interim and voluntary guidelines," said a spokeswoman for the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Peter Lockley, head of transport policy with environmental group WWF-UK, said the measures should have been mandatory with set targets. "This does not meet our demands or what is necessary to protect the climate and we are going to call on the UNFCCC to set targets and timelines and guiding principles," Lockley said referring to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Peter Hinchliffe, marine director with the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) which represents 75 percent of the global industry, said the proposals were an important step adding that shippers wanted them to be mandatory as soon as possible. "I think the IMO is quite right to express just a little bit of caution about making sure what is actually eventually adopted in a mandatory sense will work," he told Reuters. "I think therefore the trial period that has been agreed to is a very sensible way to take it forward." France called last month for a decision in Copenhagen on curbs to ship emissions, but stopped short of stating figures. Some analysts argue the IMO has been slow to come up with a mechanism to curb CO2 due to differences between member nations, especially ahead of Copenhagen. Christian Breinholt, director of the Danish Maritime Authority and part of the Danish delegation, said the design index was an important step forward. "For some delegations it is very, very delicate to apply legal effects in advance of COP 15 (Copenhagen)," he said. IMO Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos told delegates earlier this week they should avoid the temptation to seek "overly ambitious results we cannot deliver." Shipping industry officials have accepted some kind of market based mechanism is needed and argue that given shipping's global nature any solution must be directed by the IMO. The session of the IMO's marine environment protection committee discussed for the first time the issue of market-based measures and agreed on a work plan which said it "could be in a position" to report its progress on the issue in 2011. "The IMO has got the technical expertise," WWF-UK's Lockley said. "But this is a bigger political issue and we need to see some movement in Copenhagen if it's going to progress."

The lockdowns cut emissions of soot and other pollutants, as people drove less and the generation of electricity, largely from coal, was reduced. That meant less soot was deposited on snow, where it absorbs sunlight, emits heat and causes faster melting. The cleaner snow in 2020 reflected more sunlight and did not melt as fast, the researchers said. In all, that delayed runoff into the Indus River of more than than 1 1/2 cubic miles of melt water, they calculated, similar to the volume of some of the largest reservoirs in the United States. More than 300 million people depend on the Indus for water, much of which starts as snow in the high peaks of the Karakoram and other mountain ranges. Timing of melt water runoff in the spring and summer can be crucial for managing water supplies over time. In many parts of the world, climate change has affected this timing, with warmer temperatures and a shift to more rain and less snow causing more snow to melt sooner. Slower runoff can thus be beneficial, helping managers of reservoirs store more water and maintain a steady flow over the year. Ned Bair, a snow hydrologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the lead researcher, said that while they could not prove conclusively that the pandemic was the reason for the timing delay, “it seems unlikely that anything else would have led to that.” India imposed a nationwide lockdown in late March last year that continued through early May. Several studies showed rapid improvements in air quality in that period, particularly in and around Delhi, which is notorious for having some of the most unhealthy air in the world. Anecdotal reports also suggested that the air over much of the subcontinent was cleaner. In Kathmandu, Nepal, for example, residents reported being able to see Mount Everest, 100 miles distant, for the first time in decades. By analysing satellite remote-sensing images, the researchers found that concentrations of soot and other particles on snow and ice in the Indus basin decreased by 30% in 2020 compared with the 20-year average. A paper describing the findings was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mark Flanner, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the study, said the results made sense. “We know that the air was extremely clean this year,” he said. “The shoe fits the foot.” Bair said the work showed how changes in behaviour, for whatever reason, can affect water supplies. Worldwide, about 2 billion people rely on snow and ice melt for their water. More broadly, Flanner said, the study is “further evidence that cleaning up the environment can have a wide variety of positive benefits that we might not immediately be aware of.” The study adds to a growing body of work on what might be called the side effects of the pandemic. Among other findings, researchers have documented an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a shift in timing of energy use in locked-down households, and even an increase in eye injuries among children because of the widespread use of hand sanitizer. Air quality readings “are back to being terrible” in Delhi, Bair said. With the recent severe surge in COVID cases in India, Delhi and some other cities are back in lockdown, at least for a few weeks. But when the new stay-home orders are eventually lifted, any effect of the pandemic on Indus melt water will most likely only be temporary.

Kenya's $1 billion tourism industry was urged on Wednesday to introduce energy-saving and other environmentally friendly steps to fight climate change. The head of a trade association representing hotels, lodges, tour operators and local communities, said it was vital the lucrative sector adopt sustainable practices. "We are reviewing our certification criteria to ensure that compliance with measures aimed at mitigating global warming is included," said Judy Kepher-Gona of Ecotourism Kenya. Her group's certification scheme lets foreign visitors and Kenyans compare the green credentials of the east African country's many tourist facilities, as well as the assistance those businesses provide to local residents. As part of a new drive to promote environmentally sound policies, it is encouraging operators to redraw tour itineraries to ensure efficient use of energy -- for instance, by replacing high-energy activities like game drives with nature walks. It is also urging members to examine the possibilities of using renewable energies like solar and wind power, and to source more of their food for guests from local producers. Kepher-Gona said her association was also encouraging members to offset emissions of carbon dioxide by replanting trees in depleted areas. Famed for its white beaches and abundant wildlife, Kenya made $800 million from tourism in 2006, making the industry its best hard currency earner ahead of horticulture and tea. This year, the tourist board expects revenues to top $1 billion for the first time.

Prospects for a strong U.N. climate pact grew more remote on Thursday at the climax of two-year talks as ministers and leaders blamed leading emitters China and the United States for deadlock on carbon cuts. Dozens of heads of state were arriving in the Danish capital to address the December 7-18 conference, meant to sign a new pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions on Friday. Negotiators' failure to draft a coherent text means they have a mountain to climb. "The news that we've been receiving is not good," Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament. "I must say very honestly, that the United States' offer to cut by 4 percent compared to 1990 levels is not ambitious." Environment ministers at the talks have so far failed to close a rift over how far the developing world should join industrialized countries in cutting carbon emissions. U.S. President Barack Obama has offered cuts in greenhouse gases of 3-4 percent versus 1990 levels by 2020, or 17 percent against 2005 levels. The European Union has said it will cut by at least 20 percent against 1990. Talks stalled overnight on procedure, after some developing nations and China rejected a proposal by the Danish hosts to break talks into smaller groups to speed up progress. They insisted that everyone should see Denmark's proposal. "I fear a triumph of form over substance," said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. China told participants it saw no possibility of achieving a detailed accord to tackle global warming, an official from another nation involved in the talks said. The official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters the Chinese had instead suggested issuing "a short political declaration of some sort." India's environment minister accused rich countries of planning a "propaganda campaign" to blame developing nations for any breakdown in negotiations. Developing economies are expected to add almost all future growth in carbon emissions. "We are in the end game," said Jairam Ramesh. "It's only a matter of time before the blame game starts. Already some developed countries are accusing the G77 (developing nation group), Africa. This is completely, incomprehensively wrong." European environment ministers said talks were in danger. "We've got a serious situation," German environment minister Norbert Roettgen told Reuters. LEADERS COMING The Copenhagen summit is meant to agree a global climate deal, as a basis for agreement on a full treaty next year, intended to avoid dangerous climate change and drive a shift to a greener global economy less dependent on fossil fuels. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters on Thursday that China was committed to the negotiations. "China hopes the Copenhagen meeting is successful, and has always taken a constructive attitude," she said. About 120 heads of state and government will join the talks on Thursday and Friday. Obama plans to arrive on Friday morning. While the overall picture appears bleak, there has been some progress in areas critical to reaching a deal. Africa dramatically scaled back its expectations for climate aid from rich nations on Wednesday, and Japan pledged about $11 billion in public funds to 2012 to help poor countries adapt to a warmer world and cut their emissions.

President George W. Bush is set to announce new U.S. sanctions against Myanmar over human rights as the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders gets under way on Tuesday. Bush is one of the first speakers on a list that later features Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and diplomats will be watching to see if the leaders of the two bitterly hostile countries cross paths or exchange words. But despite the United States leading efforts for more U.N. sanctions against Iran to curtail its nuclear program, Bush will only make a brief mention of Tehran in his speech, the White House said. "The speech is not about Iran," spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "The speech is about liberation and how liberation from poverty, disease, hunger, tyranny and oppression and ignorance can lift people up out of poverty and despair." Bush will advocate supporting groups in Myanmar that are trying to advance freedom and announce new sanctions directed at key members of the military rulers and their financial supporters, said White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley. "He's going to talk about the importance of continuing to support the humanitarian organizations that are trying to deal with the needs of the people of Burma on the ground," he said, using Myanmar's former name. Buddhist monks were joined by tens of thousands of protesters on marches in Myanmar on Monday in the biggest demonstration against the ruling generals since they crushed student-led protests nearly 20 years ago. "Our hope is to marry that internal pressure with some external pressure -- coming from the United States, the United Nations, and really all countries committed to freedom -- to try and force the regime into a change," Hadley said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Reuters in an interview on Monday that Washington would step up pressure for the U.N. Security Council to take action. China and Russia vetoed a resolution on Myanmar in January. "The international community's got to stand up much more than it has," Rice said. "I think what the Burmese junta is doing is just a reminder of how really brutal this regime is." The fact that Bush will only briefly mention Iran in his speech does not mean U.S. concerns about Tehran have diminished, Perino said. "We talk about Iran constantly," she said. "We're talking about it with our partners to press on those U.N. Security Council resolutions." Ahmadinejad arrived in New York with a blitz of speaking engagements and media interviews, capturing much of the spotlight from other leaders in town for the General Assembly. The United States accuses Iran of supporting terrorism and supplying arms to insurgents in Iraq, and is pushing for a third U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran but faces opposition from China and Russia. The General Assembly session follows three days of meetings U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had organized to underscore a central role of the world body. The sessions were on Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East and then a summit on climate change.

After Trump comes President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, the former general who has come to symbolise the repression of the Arab Spring revolutions — although his appearance was thrown into doubt last weekend as protests erupted at home. Then comes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, an autocrat who has bullied critics and whose government is a leading jailer of journalists. Twenty-one leaders are speaking Tuesday alone, and the final one scheduled is Boris Johnson, making his United Nations debut as Britain’s prime minister. His visit came as the country’s top court delivered a stinging rebuke to Johnson, ruling he had acted unconstitutionally in suspending Parliament, an action taken as he tries to take his country of the European Union by Oct. 31. Iran finds itself isolated as attacks on Saudi Arabia draw US and Europe closer. On the eve of the speeches, the leaders of Britain, Germany and France took the US side in blaming Iran for the Sept. 14 attacks on Saudi Arabia. The move was a setback for Iran, which has denied any role in the attacks, and was a stark contrast to the sympathy Iran had engendered a year ago after Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear agreement. The Europeans, who have been seeking to salvage that agreement, issued a joint statement on Monday that not only accused Iran of responsibility for the attacks on Saudi Arabia, but called on Iran to begin negotiating on broader issues than its nuclear program. The statement aligned with Washington’s position on both the Saudi attacks and the demand for a stronger nuclear deal, and represented a major shift in Europe’s position of tolerance with Iran. “The time has come for Iran to accept a long term negotiation framework for its nuclear program, as well as regional security issues, which include its missile programs,” the statement said. — Farnaz Fassihi Climate Summit: Auspicious optics but few promises, and one angry young activist. A day before the speeches, Secretary-General António Guterres convened the UN Climate Action Summit, intended to punctuate and increase promises by presidents, prime ministers and corporate executives to wean the global economy from fossil fuels to avoid the worst effects of global warming. But China made no new pledges to take stronger climate action. The United States, having vowed to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the pact among nations to jointly fight climate change, said nothing. A host of countries made only incremental commitments. The contrast between the slow pace of action and the urgency of the problem was underscored by the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, who castigated what she called the “business as usual” approach of world leaders. “The eyes of all future generations are upon you,” she said, her voice quavering with rage. “If you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.” — Somini Sengupta and Lisa Friedman In the hallways, on guard for awkward encounters. While Trump will not be seeing the presidents of China, Russia and Venezuela, who are skipping the General Assembly this year, the potential is large for awkwardness between leaders who may inadvertently see each other in the halls and conference rooms. Diplomats who just a few weeks ago had foreseen a meeting between Trump and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran say that it is now unlikely, given the rising tensions between the two countries. Nor is a meeting predicted between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who are not known to even talk to each other. Other potential unpleasantness may loom should Bolsonaro of Brazil encounter President Emmanuel Macron of France, who exchanged mutual insults last month via social media over Bolsonaro’s handling of fires and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Deteriorating relations between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea have lowered expectations for any warming at the United Nations, even if Trump seeks to bring them together. And the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, is still furious with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India over the Indian crackdown last month in the disputed territory of Kashmir.   c.2019 The New York Times Company

Speaking to troops at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, he called his weeklong diplomatic overture “essential,” saying that no nation acting alone can meet the world’s challenges. But he also vowed to stand up to adversaries like China and Russia, pledging to tell President Vladimir Putin of Russia “what I want him to know.” On the eve of meeting with European leaders rattled by Russia’s aggressive movement of troops along Ukraine’s borders, Biden pledged to “respond in a robust and meaningful way” to what he called “harmful activities” conducted by Putin. Biden also cast his trip in broader terms, as an effort to rally the United States and its allies in an existential battle between democracy and autocracy. “I believe we’re in an inflection point in world history,” Biden said, “a moment where it falls to us to prove that democracies will not just endure, but they will excel as we rise to seize enormous opportunities in the new age.” Biden called out autocrats like Putin for promoting false stories about the failings of democracies. “We have to discredit those who believe that the age of democracy is over, as some of our fellow nations believe,” he said. The RAF base at Mildenhall is used almost exclusively by US forces and is a critical air refuelling wing. Its history reaches back into World War II, and it was a key base in the Cold War for the United States’ Strategic Air Command, which maintained its nuclear deterrent. In the ’70s and ’80s, it was also a frequent site of anti-war and anti-nuclear protests. But those are largely gone, and in 2015 it seemed like the base would be closed. Two years ago, it got a reprieve, and remains one of the strongholds of US forces in Britain. After speaking at the RAF base at Mildenhall, Biden travelled to Cornwall, the southwestern tip of England, where the annual summit meeting of the Group of 7 large, wealthy democracies will be held from Friday through Sunday. Beginning Thursday, he will hold his first face-to-face meeting of the trip with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain before holding one-on-one meetings with other G7 leaders, and on Sunday he will visit Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. On Monday, Biden will attend the NATO summit in Brussels and have bilateral meetings with NATO heads of government, and on Tuesday, he will meet there with leaders of the European Union, many of whose member countries are also in NATO. He will meet with Putin on Wednesday in Geneva, and then return to Washington. China and global warming rank high on Biden’s list of long-range global concerns, and U.S. allies wonder if they are being asked to sign up for a China containment policy, and whether Biden can deliver on climate? While growing more repressive at home, China is expanding its commercial, military and political reach abroad — and its greenhouse gas emissions. The Europeans largely do not see China as the kind of rising threat that Washington does, but it is an argument where the United States is making headway. Johnson has signed on to an effort by Washington to ensure that Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company, does not win new contracts to install 5G cellular networks in Britain. US officials have raised concerns that Huawei equipment could become a back door to Chinese government surveillance or control of communications. Some in Europe are following suit, but Biden’s aides said they felt blindsided when the European Union announced an investment agreement with China days before Biden’s inauguration. It reflected fears that if the continent got sucked into the US-China rivalry, European companies would suffer. Biden is going in the other direction: Last week he signed an executive order barring Americans from investing in Chinese companies that are linked to the country’s military or that sell technology used to repress dissent inside and outside China. For the move to be effective, though, the allies would have to join. So far, few have expressed enthusiasm for the effort. China, which now emits more climate-heating gases than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, is key to reaching ambitious goals to fight climate change. Peter Betts, the former lead climate negotiator for Britain and the European Union, said the test for Biden was whether he could lead other nations in a successful campaign to pressure Beijing. Four years ago, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2016 Paris climate agreement. Biden is reversing that stance, pledging to cut US emissions 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. He also wrote in an opinion essay in The Washington Post before the summit that with the United States back at the table, countries “have an opportunity to deliver ambitious progress.” But world leaders remained leery of the United States’ willingness to enact serious emissions legislation and deliver on financial promises to poorer countries. One of the toughest issues Biden is expected to take up with Johnson is the status of Northern Ireland, where Brexit-fueled tensions threaten the return of lethal sectarian violence. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement ended the Troubles, the 30-year guerrilla war between Catholic nationalists seeking unification with the Republic of Ireland and predominantly Protestant unionists, who want to stay in the United Kingdom. The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland virtually disappeared, allowing unfettered movement of people and commerce. But now, a part of London’s Brexit deal with Brussels is inflaming resentment among the unionists. To avoid resurrecting a hard border with Ireland — an unpopular idea on both sides of the boundary — the Northern Ireland Protocol requires checks on goods flowing between the North and the rest of the United Kingdom. Creating a commercial border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the country violates promises made by the British government, and imposes an economic and psychological cost. Northern Irish people who want to remain in Britain feel betrayed, and there have been violent protests against the protocol. “It has hit the community here like a ton of bricks that this is a separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom,” said David Campbell, chairman of the Loyalist Communities Council, which represents paramilitary groups that some say are stirring up unrest. Biden has warned Johnson, who campaigned for Brexit and negotiated the deal with Brussels, not to do anything to undermine the Good Friday Agreement. He is also mulling the appointment of a presidential envoy for Northern Ireland. “That agreement must be protected, and any steps that imperil or undermine it will not be welcomed by the United States,” Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, told reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday. Asked if Johnson had taken steps to imperil the agreement, Sullivan added: “President Biden is going to make statements in principle on this front. He’s not issuing threats or ultimatums.” Trump embraced Johnson and Brexit, but Biden has been cooler to both. The new president is also a Roman Catholic and devoted Irish American, fuelling speculation that he would be more favourable to the Irish nationalist cause. Among loyalists there has been blowback against the Democratic Unionists, a Northern Irish party that supported Brexit. That, in turn, could create an opening for Sinn Fein, the leading republican party, which opposed Brexit. If Sinn Fein were to win next year’s elections for the Northern Irish Assembly, that would put unification with the Republic squarely on the agenda, enraging unionists. “You have a very stark choice,” Michelle O’Neill, the party’s leader, said. “Do you want to be part of inward-looking Brexit Britain or outward-looking, inclusive Ireland?” © 2021 New York Times News Service

But Mogo, like much of the country, is facing a new reality. Last week, strong winds swept through the town, bringing a terrifying firestorm that razed half of the main street. Many are now asking: If a swampy garden spot can burn, is anywhere safe in rural Australia? The Australian bush has always burned. But the higher temperatures that come with climate change, as well as the three years of drought and the expansion of communities deeper into wildland areas, have put more people at much higher risk. “We’ve had townships completely under threat that were never threatened before,” Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of New South Wales, said Sunday. In all, at least 1,800 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales and Victoria. By comparison, around 70 homes were hit in the two states during the last fire season. “We can’t pretend this is something we have experienced before,” Berejiklian said. “It’s not.” Although there are weeks if not months to go in the fire season, Australians are already reeling from the devastation of hundreds of volatile and unpredictable blazes. While cooler and damper weather has brought a relative respite for a few days, the fires are expected to pick up later in the week, when high temperatures and strong winds are expected to return. Melted rubbish bins line in the front yard of a destroyed property in Mogo, as bushfires continue in New South Wales, Australia Jan 5, 2020. REUTERS Fiona Phillips, the member of Parliament for a district that stretches for around 150 miles along the coast and includes Mogo, estimated that 80% of the constituency had burned — hills and gullies, inland and coastal, lush and dry. Melted rubbish bins line in the front yard of a destroyed property in Mogo, as bushfires continue in New South Wales, Australia Jan 5, 2020. REUTERS “Everyone is impacted,” she said. The devastation, and the visceral images of communities leveled by infernos, have prompted a global outpouring of aid. The governments of New Zealand, Canada and the United States have all sent experienced personnel. American firefighters who arrived Monday at the Sydney airport were greeted with handshakes from officials and cheers from Australians passing through. Celeste Barber, a popular Australian comedian, has helped raise nearly $20 million for firefighters through social media. Pink, the American pop star, recently pledged $500,000 of her own. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has been widely criticised for his delayed response to the fires, also picked up the pace, announcing Monday that the government would dedicate 2 billion Australian dollars, or about $1.3 billion, over the next two years to help rebuild ravaged towns, support affected businesses and provide mental health services for emergency workers. Over the weekend, he said the government would deploy 3,000 military reservists, along with aircraft and navy vessels, in one of the largest uses of military assets at home since World War II. The bush fires mirror what other places have witnessed in recent years. Areas that have also long had wildfires, like California, are burning more intensively, destroying record numbers of homes. Places like the Brazilian rainforest or the far north of Sweden, where natural fires are rare, are seeing record fires. In the Snowy Mountains, the highest peaks in Australia, fires raged only weeks after the last snow melt, leaving many residents in the area trapped. In Australia, the population outside big cities has grown by around 10% in the past decade, increasing the pool of people vulnerable to wildfire. Up and down the southeastern coast, subdivisions are sprouting as the area attracts more residents who want to live there year-round, not just visit on vacations. They must be prepared for the worst. Life in rural Australia now means planning for long power cuts, preparing escape routes and keeping a kit of emergency supplies. “Across Australia, we’re seeing fire into systems that have not had fire since European contact,” said Kingsley Dixon, an ecologist and botanist at Curtin University. With light rains falling over many destroyed areas along the coast Sunday and Monday, many residents returned to flattened homes to gather anything that was salvageable — and in some cases to say goodbye. In Conjola Park, a three-hour drive south of Sydney, Jodie and Jason McDermott held an impromptu party at the outdoor bar in their garden. Their home was destroyed in the New Year’s Eve fires, but the backyard bar was intact, including the wooden surfboard that served as the countertop. “Here’s to the new future,” Jodie McDermott told her neighbors as they raised cold bottles of beer. The neighbors used humor and Australian stoicism to deflect the pain of losing almost everything they owned. “I had a leak in the roof — I don’t have to worry about that anymore,” said Maree Fletcher, a neighbor. McDermott said she was going to make sure that her new house did not have the creaking floor boards that annoyed her every time she stepped on them. “This is sealing our memories and embracing the new,” she said. Bulldozers are coming soon to flatten the remains of their homes. Jason McDermott said they would build their new homes where the old had stood. The fires were so intense in Conjola Park that they melted an aluminum boat. A debris is seen after bushfires heavily damaged stores in Mogo, Australia Jan 1, 2020, in this picture obtained from social media video. REUTERS “A lot of people don’t understand the ferocity of what happened here,” said Brian Walker, a firefighter. On New Year’s Eve, he successfully protected other people’s homes as his own burned. A debris is seen after bushfires heavily damaged stores in Mogo, Australia Jan 1, 2020, in this picture obtained from social media video. REUTERS He lost his collections of aviation memorabilia, all of his clothes — everything. “All the bits and pieces that you accrue in life,” he said. Walker spoke about the people who had reached out to help and the kind words of support that had come from a man, a friend of his son, whom he had coached years ago in a youth sports league. Then he paused. He cleared his throat and stuttered a few words. The stoicism fell away as his eyes watered. Where would he live? “I’m swinging in the breeze,” Walker said. “That’s going to be a big problem. So many people have lost everything.” Building communities like Conjola Park or Mogo tucked away in the country’s vast wilderness has been an important part of Australia’s identity, an ethos of both living as one with nature and trying to tame its endemic harshness. Mogo, once reliant on gold and timber, has in recent decades drawn tourists with its handicraft shops and a gold-mining museum, all of which burned in last week’s fire. A deconsecrated church that was built in the late 19th century was also razed. The structure was not insured, said Peter Williams, who ran a pottery shop out of the building. “I feel like a refugee — we’ve got nothing,” Williams said as he stared at the chaotic pile of rubble, including a handrail that is still intact but now leads nowhere. His home, also not insured, burned, too. “This was 40 years of our lives,” Williams said. “I’ve run out of tears.” © 2019 New York Times News Service

China said rich nations must vow greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and warned of lost trust in talks over a climate change deal, while rich countries accused Beijing of under cutting progress. Feuding Friday over the future of a key UN treaty on fighting climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, has diluted hopes that negotiations in the Chinese city of Tianjin can lay a firm base for agreeing on a new, binding climate deal next year. The week-long talks end Saturday and are the last before a high-level meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in less than two months. Kyoto's first phase ends in 2012 and what happens after that is in contention, with rich and poor countries disagreeing over whether Kyoto should be extended or replaced with a new treaty that covers all big greenhouse gas polluting nations. In a sometimes combative meeting of hundreds of negotiators, Huang Huikang, China's Special Representative for Climate Change Negotiations, said negotiators were losing trust in each other. "Today here in Tianjin we really need to rebuild trust and confidence. We are losing confidence and trust," Huang said. "We are all concerned about the slow status of our negotiations." The United Nations is worried the talks will stall and create a gap in application from 2013 which could halt Kyoto's $20.6 billion carbon market. TARGETS Beijing wants to keep Kyoto and its firm division between the duties of rich economies and poorer ones, including China. Washington and other rich nations want a new pact to reflect the surge in emissions from the developing world, now accounting for more than half of annual global greenhouse gas pollution. And China wants developed countries to offer far more ambitious carbon cuts before emerging economies also shift. "Now the key issue is the lack of any substantive progress on the developed countries' side. If Annex 1 countries take the lead in the mitigation process, I suppose developing countries will do their part," Huang told reporters. Kyoto binds 37 rich, or Annex 1, nations to meet quantified emissions reduction targets, also called mitigation goals. Under Kyoto, developing countries take voluntary steps to curb the growth of their emissions. The European Union's climate chief, Connie Hedegaard, urged negotiators in Tianjin "to make compromises within the next 24 hours." "We need a substantial package of decisions to be taken in Cancun in order to keep the momentum, to show that international negotiations can deliver," she told reporters in Helsinki. China is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, having passed the United States, but its emissions per-capita remain well below Western levels. China's emissions are set to keep growing for years to come, and it wants rich nations to slash theirs so that it and other developing countries have the room to grow. Huang, the Chinese climate envoy, said the developed nations under Kyoto "must reach the target of more than 40 percent emissions reduction based on the 1990 level (by 2020)." That position is far beyond present targets from the developed world: the US Senate is struggling to approve a vow to cut emissions by about 4 percent below 1990 levels. The wrangling in Tianjin also underscored how vulnerable the tortuous negotiations are to procedural push and shove. Several delegates said China, backed by Brazil, opposed opening up broader discussion of legal issues raised by inserting new numbers into an extended Kyoto after 2012. "China and Brazil are very strongly of the opinion that it makes no sense to start discussing those legal issues as long as there is no clarity about the (emissions target) numbers," said Wendel Trio, a climate change expert with Greenpeace.

U.S. President Barack Obama paid homage to the heroes of D-Day on Saturday, saying their assault on Normandy's beaches exactly 65 years ago had helped save the world from evil and tyranny. Addressing stooped, white-haired veterans, Obama said the Second World War represented a special moment in history when nations fought together to battle a murderous ideology. "We live in a world of competing beliefs and claims about what is true," Obama said. "In such a world, it is rare for a struggle to emerge that speaks to something universal about humanity. The Second World War did that." His visit to Normandy came at the end of a rapid tour through Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany and France, where he has tried to reach out to the Muslim world and press for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Speaking in a giant U.S. military cemetery at Colleville, where 9,387 American soldiers lie, Obama said the war against Nazi Germany laid the way for years of peace and prosperity. "It was unknowable then, but so much of the progress that would define the twentieth century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only six miles long and two miles wide," he said. The Colleville cemetery, with its rows of white crosses and stars of David, overlooks the Omaha Beach landing where U.S. forces on June 6, 1944, suffered their greatest casualties in the assault against heavily fortified German defenses. HUMAN DESTINY French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined Obama at Saturday's ceremony held under overcast skies -- much better than the winds and rain that marked D-Day. In his speech, Brown said World War Two did not mark an end to suffering around the globe, and referred specifically to Darfur, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and to poverty and hunger. "How can we say we have achieved all that we set out to do? The promise of peace and justice?" said Brown, who is fighting for his political life at home. "There are dreams of liberation still to be realized, commitments still to be redeemed." In a slip of the tongue that raised smiles, Brown referred to "Obama beach" not "Omaha beach." He then corrected himself. Obama has been trying to repair ties with France and other European states that were alienated by his predecessor George W. Bush's go-it-alone diplomacy, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and his policies on climate change. Earlier on Saturday he held talks with Sarkozy, where the two said they were determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Obama also promised an uncompromising stance against North Korea, which tested a nuclear bomb last month. In his speech, Obama said D-Day showed that human destiny was determined not by forces beyond man's control but by individual choices and joint action. On a more personal note, he also saluted his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who arrived in Normandy a month after D-Day, and his great uncle, Charles Payne, who was present on Saturday and fought in Europe during the war. It has become a tradition for American presidents to visit Normandy. Ronald Reagan went to the D-Day beaches on the 40th anniversary in 1984, Bill Clinton was there 10 years later and George W. Bush was there in both 2002 and 2004. "I am not the first American president to come and mark this anniversary, and I likely will not be the last," said Obama.

WASHINGTON Fri Aug 31, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - President George W. Bush said he thought the effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program was making progress and he hoped full disarmament could be accomplished by the time his term ends in early 2009. In an interview on Thursday with Asian newspapers before an Asia-Pacific summit in Sydney next week, Bush expressed frustration that Washington and its allies were still trying to persuade Pyongyang to follow through with a 2005 agreement to disclose and dismantle its nuclear weapons program. "On the other hand, a lot has happened in the last couple of months that would lead me to believe that we're on -- we're making progress," Bush said. He added that he considered the North Korea issue "unfinished business" for his administration. "The question is, can it happen before I'm through? Yes, it can. I hope so," he said. Progress in the push to end North Korea's nuclear programs has been slow since September 2005, when South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States reached a deal with Pyongyang in which it agreed to give up the weapons program in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits. While North Korea has shut down its nuclear reactor complex at Yongbyon and received 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil as called for by a February 13 deal, many analysts expect its next phase -- the disablement and the declaration -- to be much harder. Bush is due to arrive in Sydney on Tuesday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. He will be spending much of the day on Wednesday with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally, and will also hold other bilateral meetings later in the week, including one with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The formal meeting of APEC leaders takes place on the weekend. Bush said the top issue for the United States will be giving a push to the stalled Doha Round of world trade negotiations. "This will be an opportunity for the leaders of the APEC summit to express their desire to see the Doha Round succeed," Bush said. He said he was also keen to discuss climate change in hopes of laying the groundwork for a meeting he is hosting of top economies on the subject in Washington in late September. Discussing the U.S. relationship with China, Bush said it was a complex one but that in terms of trade, he saw a lot of opportunities in China. "We want there to be free trade and fair trade; we want the currency to float," Bush said. He described his relationship with the Chinese president as warm and cordial. "I like him. I like to talk to him. He's a smart man," Bush said. "We can share issues together. I can say, what are your biggest problems, and he can say to me, what are your problems. In other words, we've got a personal relationship."

At the end of two-week talks on global warming in Marrakesh, which were extended an extra day, many nations appealed to Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, to reconsider his threat to tear up the Paris Agreement for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Showing determination to keep the Paris Agreement on track, the conference agreed to work out a rule book at the latest by December 2018. A rule book is needed because the Paris Agreement left many details vague, such as how countries will report and monitor their national pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Two years may sounds like a long time, but it took four to work out detailed rules for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement's predecessor, which obliged only developed countries to cut their emissions. Paris requires commitments by all. The final text also urged rich nations to keep building towards a goal of providing $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020. Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar told a news conference that Marrakesh had been the start of turning promises made in Paris into action. "We will continue on the path," he said, urging Trump to join other nations in acting to limit emissions. Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who will host next year's climate meeting in Germany, invited Trump to drop his scepticism about climate change and visit the South Pacific nation to see the effects of stronger storms and rising seas. Trump plans to favour fossil fuels over renewable energies and has threatened to halt any US taxpayer funds for UN climate programmes. UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa (second from left), Morocco's Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar (centre), and Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador Bianca Jagger (second from right) celebrate after the proclamation of Marrakech, at the UN World Climate Change Conference 2016 (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco. Reuters. On Thursday, governments reaffirmed their commitment to "full implementation" of the Paris accord which seeks to phase out greenhouse gas emissions this century and to limit a global average rise in temperature to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius. UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa (second from left), Morocco's Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar (centre), and Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador Bianca Jagger (second from right) celebrate after the proclamation of Marrakech, at the UN World Climate Change Conference 2016 (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco. Reuters. "Not one country has said that if President Trump pulls the United States out of Paris, they will follow him," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Environmental groups said the outcome in Marrakesh was a step in the right direction, but many issues needed to be resolved over the next two years, including funds for developing nations. "Rich countries have been trying to wriggle out of their pledges to help poorer countries meet the costs of coping with impacts and greening their economies," said Harjeet Singh at ActionAid. Also on Friday, a group of 48 developing countries most at risk from climate change said they would strive to make their energy production 100 percent renewable "as rapidly as possible", as part of efforts to limit global warming.

UN talks on climate change are at risk of bogging down under the weight of hundreds of amendments from governments and China's objections to a proposed blueprint for battling global warming, a senior delegate said on Tuesday. Scientists and government officials from more than 100 countries are meeting in Bangkok to review a 24-page draft summary for policymakers outlining ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the costs of preventing damaging climate change. But, as with two other reports released this year by the UN climate panel, scientists at the gathering are squaring off with governments, some of which want to change or water down the latest draft report due for release on Friday. Chinese officials have demanded a last-minute insertion of a paragraph spelling out that industrialised nations are to blame for most of the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution. "They want a statement that the cumulative proportion of emissions due to industrial countries is very high -- it's about 75 percent," said the delegate, who did not wish to be identified. Such a demand breached IPCC procedures and risked opening the way for other countries to request last-minute details to be inserted, potentially bogging down the talks, he said. "The Chinese have a lot of other things they want to do. They want to gut the report of meaning in lots of different ways. So this is just the start of what they are up to," he said. Governments had proposed about 1,500 amendments spanning more than 160 pages and many would be discussed during the week in special contact groups, the delegate said. Talks could run well into the night. The report estimates that stabilising greenhouse gas emissions will cost between 0.2 percent and 3.0 percent of world gross domestic product by 2030, depending on the stiffness of curbs on rising emissions of greenhouse gases. But sections of the report dealing with this could be altered or even taken out, the delegate said. Another delegate, a veteran of climate negotiations, said the politicking was normal. "It's exactly the same as one would expect in these things. Basically what happens is there is a whole lot of fiddling around for the first couple of days and then people get down to work. "This is standard UN practice," he added. He described the Chinese move to insert the paragraph as nothing new and mere posturing ahead of Kyoto Protocol talks in Bali in December at which China, India and other big developing nations will come under pressure to cut emissions. China is now the world's second biggest producer of greenhouse gases after the United States, and India is fourth. Beijing and New Delhi are excluded from Kyoto's first phase that ends in 2012, setting targets to cut emissions, but Washington is demanding they agree to curbs. The United States, which pulled out of Kyoto, says it doesn't make sense for the giant economies of India and China to remain outside a global emissions pact. "China doesn't want to be corralled into commitments that minimise its freedom of action and questioning the science, and digging in is part of that," said Paul Harris, an expert on climate change politics at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. "It wants to put off into the future the serious discussion of accepting mandatory limits," Harris said. The Global Times, a newspaper run by China's ruling Communist Party, accused Western politicians last week of using "climate terrorism" to undermine China's quest for prosperity. Senior EU climate policy expert Tom Van Ireland said it was crucial to engage China to cap global emissions. "We don't ask India, China and Brazil to do the same things we ask from developed countries, which is taking binding targets to reduce their emissions," he said. But it was crucial they adopted cleaner and greener technology to cut emissions, he said.

It would require incredible amounts of heat and power for manufacturing and methods to store vast amounts of power for jets, tankers, and trucks. Trillions of dollars in global assets would need to be retired. And the main sectors in play — aviation, shipping, steel, plastics, aluminum, cement, chemicals and trucking — represent massive swaths of the economy, making it a political third rail of climate change action. But a combination of policy work, technological leaps and industry collaborations has made previously improbable changes into rallying points for more action. “You’ve actually got to move the whole economy,” said Helen Clarkson, CEO of Climate Group, a global nonprofit. “We don’t just get a free pass because it’s more difficult.” RMI, an organisation in Colorado focused on sustainability that was previously known as the Rocky Mountain Institute, estimates that steel production, shipping, aviation and trucking alone contribute 40% of global carbon emissions, and if left untouched, will eat up twice the remaining global carbon budget to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2050. There are still immense hurdles, including funding, policy support and unsolved technological challenges. But coalitions and industry groups, including the Energy Transition Commission, which released a 2018 report about such a transition, and Mission Possible Partnership (with support from RMI) have created detailed road maps for sector transformation. The Climate Group’s Steel Zero plan to build demand for carbon-free steel, begun in December, would have been ignored a few years ago, Clarkson said, but already counts leading global construction firms as supporters. Can some of history’s highest-polluting industries be trusted? Cate Hight, a principal at RMI, admits that greenwashing is possible. But the improving accuracy of digital tools that third-party groups use to track emissions means corporations can be held more accountable. To understand how rapidly the ground is shifting, look at steel, a global industry synonymous with smokestacks and responsible for 7% of CO2 emissions. Green steel isn’t just a vision, but a reality. Beginning in 2016, Swedish steel-maker SSAB began developing a fossil-free steel process called Hybrit, which is being tested by the automakers Volvo and Mercedes-Benz. The pilot process, where iron ore is refined, or reduced, with green hydrogen and renewable energy into oxygen-free sponge iron, which is then shaped with electric arc furnaces into finished steel, will scale up to an operational commercial plant by 2026, which will produce 1.35 million tons of sponge iron annually, said SSAB’s chief technology officer, Martin Pei. Competitors such as ArcelorMittal, Midrex and US. Steel have also invested in cutting carbon. Though positive, these steps represent just a start. The Mission Possible Partnership, a climate alliance between industrial leaders, financiers and policy groups such as RMI, estimated that the steel industry needs to invest $30 billion every year just to meet increased demand; another $6 billion is needed to make that all net-zero compliant. Green hydrogen presents a particularly lofty challenge; decarbonising all heavy industry with this high-potency option would require so much electricity that current global electrical generation would need to double, according to RMI. Other heavy industry sectors have focused first on reducing rather than completely eliminating their carbon output. Efficiency excites Ben Schuler, founder and CEO of Infinitum Electric, a startup based in Round Rock, Texas, that makes electric motors that are half the size and weight of the standard. His firm’s air-core engines represent a big leap in sustainability; Caterpillar and Rockwell Automation are investors, and the federal government’s Green Proving Ground, which tests nascent building tech in federal buildings, is evaluating Infinitum products for potential wide-scale deployment. Half the electricity in the United States is used to power electric motors, and roughly one-third of the growth in global energy demand in the next two decades is expected to come from industrial motors, including those that power fan and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems; compressors; alternators; factory machines; and heat pumps. “There’s a cleaner, better way to do the exact same processes we’ve done for the last 100 years,” said Schuler, who expects to deliver 15,000 motors in 2022. “It’ll just take a thousand, or tens of thousands, of other companies like us with good ideas doing their part.” The uncertainty of such a shift has Hight convinced the right pathway is “silver buckshot instead of a silver bullet,” an everything-at-once approach that includes electric motors, vast expansion of renewable power and investment in hydrogen technology. Despite the daunting task ahead, some are optimistic that heavy industry can both shrink its carbon emissions quickly and profit while doing it. In a wide-ranging report released this summer, RMI’s co-founder Amory Lovins argues that electrification, evolution and the efficiency of clean power will bring about a shake-up that creates “trillions of dollars in creative destruction.” The cost of change is radical, but so is the potential return, he wrote: “We’ll learn that many problems look impenetrable until someone cracks them.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

China and the United States regularly clash on everything from trade and human rights to China's claims in the disputed South China Sea, and candidates for this year's US presidential election have routinely criticized China. Speaking at his yearly news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of parliament, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it was natural for the two countries to have areas of friction, though they had proved they could work together on areas like climate change. "The root of these frictions is that some people in the United States still have strategic misgivings about China, and are worried China will one day replace the United States," Wang said. "I want to stress here again, China is not the United States, and China cannot possibly become another United States," he added. "We've no intention of replacing or leading anyone, and I suggest American friends study and understand more about China's 5,000 years of accumulated historical and cultural traditions and not just blindly apply American thinking to judge China," Wang said. "If they're clear on this point, the prospects for Sino-US ties will become bright." It is not clear to what part of history he was referring, but Chinese empires in the past have included all of the Korean peninsula, modern Mongolia and parts of Russia and Southeast Asia.

Looking ahead, Harris, 56, is seen as an obvious contender for the Democratic Party's 2024 presidential nomination should Biden, 78, decide not to seek a second term. Harris has yet to weigh in publicly on such speculation. A US senator from California the past four years, Harris has shattered many a glass ceiling. She served as San Francisco's first female district attorney and was California's first woman of color to be elected attorney general. Harris has resigned her Senate seat, but she still will play a prominent role in the chamber. The US vice president serves as Senate president, casting any tie-breaking votes in the 100-member chamber. With it split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, Harris gives her party control of the Senate. Her background in criminal justice could help the new Biden administration tackle the issues of racial equality and policing after the country was swept by protests last year. She is expected to be a top adviser on judicial nominations. Harris is the daughter of immigrants, with her mother coming to the United States from India and her father from Jamaica. It's an honor to be your Vice President. pic.twitter.com/iM3BxJzz6E— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) January 20, 2021 It's an honor to be your Vice President. pic.twitter.com/iM3BxJzz6E She had her sights set on becoming the first woman US president when she competed against Biden and others for their party's 2020 nomination. Harris dropped out of the race after a campaign hurt by her wavering views on healthcare and indecision about embracing her past as a prosecutor. Biden looked beyond some of the harsh words she had for him in that campaign to name Harris as his running mate last August. She has proven to be a valuable and polished stand-in, appealing especially to women, liberals and voters of color. Harris developed a deep fundraising network during her Senate and White House bids. She was instrumental to Biden's raking in record sums of money in the closing months of the campaign against Republican incumbent Donald Trump. Her selection sparked a burst of excitement in the Democratic voter base and among the party's donors. A TEAM PLAYER Accusations from liberals that Harris did not do enough to investigate police shootings and wrongful conviction cases when she was California's attorney general helped doom her own presidential run but surfaced little during her time as Biden's running mate. Harris defended her record, saying she had worked her whole career "to reform the criminal justice system with the understanding that it is deeply flawed and in need of repair." Prior to her selection, several Biden aides said Harris was able to put to rest concerns among some in the former vice president's camp that she would be too personally ambitious to make a trustworthy partner. "Joe and I were raised in a very similar way," Harris said of Biden at her October debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence. "We were raised with values that are about hard work, about the value and the dignity of public service and about the importance of fighting for the dignity of all people." DOUBLE DUTY Harris juggled her running mate duties with her day job in the Senate. Befitting her background as a prosecutor, she was a deft cross-examiner of US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett at Barrett's Senate confirmation hearing in October, weaving Biden's campaign message on healthcare and climate change into her line of questioning. As the Senate's only Black woman, Harris emerged as a leading voice on racial justice and police reform after Minneapolis police killed African-American man George Floyd in May. She marched with protesters on the streets of Washington and won over some liberal skeptics. Asked on the CBS program "60 Minutes" last year why, given Biden's age, he believed Harris would be ready to step into the presidency if something happened to him, Biden rapidly fired off five reasons. "Number one, her values. Number two, she is smart as a devil, and number three, she has a backbone like a ramrod. Number four, she is really principled. And number five, she has had significant experience in the largest state in the union in running the justice department that's only second in size to the United States Justice Department. And obviously, I hope that never becomes a question," Biden said. Harris is married to attorney Douglas Emhoff, who has adopted the Twitter handle @SecondGentleman. His two children from a previous marriage refer to their stepmother as "Momala."

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd celebrated his first 100 days in office by publishing a booklet on his achievements on Friday, and dismissed critics who said nothing much has changed since he took office. Rudd's centre-left Labor Party won elections 97 days ago on Nov. 24, 2007, ending almost 12 years of conservative rule. Rudd officially took power on Dec. 3. But newspapers have begun rolling out stories about Rudd's first 100 days, with some critical that Rudd's government has set up dozens of committees, reviews and inquiries, but has made few hard decisions. "If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, then Australia is at risk of growing humps," Sydney Morning Herald Political Correspondent Phillip Coorey wrote on Friday, in a swipe at Rudd's fondness for setting up committees. Rudd's 55-page book cites his decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate, the deployment of extra troops to East Timor, and preparing to pull Australian combat forces out of Iraq, as key achievements. But Rudd told reporters the biggest change to Australia since his election win was his government's apology to Aborigines for historic mistreatment. "When we undertook the apology to parliament ... we were doing something I believe was of long-term and enduring value to the nation," Rudd said. The Sydney Morning Herald said Rudd had averaged one new committee or inquiry every four days since he won office, while the Herald Sun newspaper said Rudd had commissioned at least 47 committees, with 50 more promised during the election campaign. Rudd defended his actions on Friday, saying the former conservative government set up 495 inquiries and reviews in 2005-06 alone. "It is a responsible course of action for an incoming government to say, here are areas where you need to review the future direction," Rudd said. Political analyst Nick Economou, from Melbourne's Monash University, said Rudd had made a good start to government, and had deliberately set out to find some kind of national consensus for his agenda. "I think he is going quite well," Economou said. "He handled the apology stuff with aplomb. He could be sacked tomorrow and he's already carved out a big place for himself in Australian political history -- a good place." He said Rudd's fascination with committees and reviews, including his plans for an ideas summit of 1,000 people in April, were all designed to help the government deliver its plans. "He's got an agenda for what he wants to achieve, but he wants to bring people on board in doing it," he said. "Rudd actually knows where he wants to go, but he wants to find the process to get there, the process that will lead to consensus."

Having invaded Ukraine and deployed its troops in a compliant Belarus, Russia has suddenly extended its military power to the borders of several NATO countries, including the Baltic nations. If Russia succeeds in taking over Ukraine and keeping bases in Belarus, as many experts now expect, its forces will extend from the borders of the Baltics and Poland to Slovakia, Hungary and northern Romania, making it significantly harder for NATO to defend its eastern flank. And only a thin corridor some 60 miles long between Lithuania and Poland separates Russian forces in Belarus from Kaliningrad, the Russian territory on the Baltic Sea that is stuffed with missiles easily capable of flinging conventional or nuclear warheads into the heart of Europe. “The level of risk for NATO has simply and suddenly increased enormously,” said Ian Lesser, a former American official who heads the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund. “The possibility of conflict with Russian forces in Europe or elsewhere, like the Black Sea, the Sahel, Libya or Syria, could be dangerous and will be an issue for years to come.” “This changes everything for NATO,” said Ian Bond, a former British diplomat who heads foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform. “Russia’s aim is to extinguish Ukraine as a sovereign country in Europe. Now we need to worry about everything, and we need to get serious again.” NATO has already responded in a small way to the Russian buildup, sending some extra troops and aircraft into member states closest to Russia. On Thursday, NATO decided on further, unspecified deployments, and there are serious discussions about finally scrapping the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, which put limits on NATO deployments in the eastern members and which Russia violated eight years ago when it invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. “Russia’s actions pose a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security, and they will have geostrategic consequences,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “We are deploying additional defensive land and air forces to the eastern part of the alliance, as well as additional maritime assets.” Any discussions with Moscow about redrawing Europe’s security architecture take on a different cast with Russian troops deployed on NATO’s eastern flank. Even if military spending goes up considerably in response to the new Russian invasion, as it did modestly after Russia took Crimea, new and permanent deployments of forces, equipment, planes and even missiles will be a major blow to the past 30 years of relative peace, prosperity and complacency in the alliance. “NATO had been focused on all these important and fashionable things with little to do with its core responsibility, like climate and cyber,” Lesser said. “But we forgot that there are ruthless people out there, and for them, foreign policy is a blood sport.” NATO was already rewriting its 12-year-old strategic concept and debating a replacement for Stoltenberg, who leaves office Oct 1. Now those tasks become ever more pressing. “NATO is already in a mode to think more broadly about its purpose,” Lesser said. But a serious effort to deter a newly aggressive Russia will not be so simple, said Benjamin Hodges, the former commander of US forces in Europe, now with the Centre for European Policy Analysis. Just moving troops and equipment around in a post-Cold War Europe has become far more cumbersome, with some bridges and railways no longer able to handle heavy armour. “Political leaders will be surprised at how long it takes to move stuff given EU road regulations and without special priority” on the German rail system, Hodges said. NATO also lacks significant air and missile defences for a modern air war that, as in Ukraine, starts by hitting significant infrastructure like airports, roads and rail, he said. Just to protect the large US air base at Ramstein, in southwestern Germany, would take an entire battalion of Patriot missiles, he said, “and we have only one Patriot battalion in Europe that’s ours.” Once, the Fulda Gap in Germany was a worry of Cold War strategists, heavily defended by US troops to prevent the Warsaw Pact from rushing tanks from East Germany to the Rhine River. Now the concern is the Suwalki Corridor, a narrow gap that connects Poland to Lithuania that, if captured, would cut off the three Baltic nations from the rest of NATO. The corridor separates Belarus from Kaliningrad, headquarters of the Russian Baltic Fleet and isolated from Russia when the Soviet Union imploded. An emboldened Putin might very well demand direct access from Belarus to Kaliningrad, suggested Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution in a column for The Washington Post. “But even that would be just one piece of what is sure to be a new Russian strategy to delink the Baltics from NATO by demonstrating that the alliance can no longer hope to protect these countries,” he wrote. “The threat now to Poland becomes acute,” said Bond, recommending that the United States quickly put two heavy battalions in Poland “for a start.” The deployments in the three Baltic states also need to be beefed up, he said. In 2016, NATO agreed to put battalions in Poland and the Baltic nations for the first time. Known as an “enhanced forward presence,” they consist of about 1,100 soldiers each, combat-ready but small, more like tripwires than anything that could slow down a Russian advance for very long. In 2014, NATO also established a “very high readiness joint task force,” currently under the command of Turkey, that is supposed to deploy at short notice against threats to NATO sovereignty. It consists of a land brigade numbering around 5,000 troops, supported by air, sea and special forces, with more reinforcements able to be deployed within 30 days. But the smaller force is essentially untested, and the larger Response Force of which it is the spearhead is only one-quarter the size of the Russian invasion force into Ukraine. The larger force was created in 2002 and was meant to be rapidly deployable, but its 40,000 members are based in their home countries, and gathering them can be a slow exercise. There are also questions about the vow of NATO members to send weapons to Ukraine as it fights the Russians or to help mount an insurgency. Efforts to supply arms to Ukraine by air, rail or road could be intercepted or obstructed by the Russian military, Hodges said, even if the shipments are delivered by contractors and not NATO soldiers. And what country is going to dare support an insurgency knowing that the Russian military is on the other side of the border? In general, the chance of accidental confrontations leading to escalation cannot be ruled out in such a tense atmosphere. Analysts point to the way Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane near the Syria-Turkey border in 2015. “It didn’t escalate then, but today it very well could,” Lesser said. At the same time, the arms control agreements that tried to keep the Cold War cold are nearly all defunct, raising new threats about deployments of conventional forces and medium-range missiles. Russia has also been extremely active in cyberwarfare, hacking the German Parliament, interfering in the last French election and issuing mounds of local-language disinformation on social media. Altogether, the new threats should reinforce the logic of stronger European Union and NATO cooperation on defense, Lesser said, “and should knock a lot of the politics and theology out of that relationship.” Coordinating with the EU over its areas of strength — like economic sanctions, cyber resilience, energy security and information warfare — can only help both organisations, he said, given that 21 of the EU’s 27 members already belong to NATO, and others, like Sweden and Finland, are closely allied. “We need the Americans,” Bond said. “But we should not drop the idea of European autonomy and more self-reliance.” There are doubts in Europe about whether President Joe Biden will run or win again in 2024 and worries that former President Donald Trump or a Republican more in tune with his isolationist, America-first credo will take office. “Europe will be very exposed, so it must increase military spending and efficiency, filling real capability needs,” Bond said. “All this becomes vital now, and not just a bunch of nice ideas.” © 2022 The New York Times Company

The European Union has done enough talking about tackling climate change and needs to get on with doing something about it, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was quoted on Sunday as saying. "We have talked for long enough -- now we must act," Barroso told newspaper Bild am Sonntag in an interview. An EU summit next month offered the bloc's leaders the opportunity "to take decisive measures concerning one of the biggest global challenges of our time," he said. Barroso reiterated the EU Commission's goal for developed nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020. "Citizens want such goals to be reached," he said. "And we cannot afford not to achieve this goal."