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Copenhagen, Dec 18 (Reuters/bdnews24.com)--U.S. President Barack Obama urged world leaders on Friday to "act together" on an accord to fight climate change, but he did not offer new U.S. commitments to cut emissions that some see as crucial to a deal. Obama, addressing his counterparts at talks in the Danish capital, reiterated the U.S. offers, called for transparency from other countries in how their emissions curbs are checked, and said the United States would continue to fight global warming regardless of what happened at the summit. "I believe we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of a common threat. That's why I come here today - not to talk, but to act," he said to applause. "As the world's largest economy and as the world's second largest emitter, America bears our responsibility to address climate change, and we intend to meet that responsibility." The United States has offered to cut its greenhouse gas emissions roughly 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels or 3 percent from 1990 levels. Those goals correspond to legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, and Obama -- who is eager to turn the bill into a law -- did not offer more aggressive targets. He did, however, call on all countries to make concessions in order to reach a deal now. "We are ready to get this done today. But there has to be movement on all sides," he said. Activists were disappointed. After two weeks of faltering talks, they hoped Obama would offer a more aggressive emissions cut, despite his political constraints at home. "President Obama can still save Copenhagen by doing what he called on other leaders to do and give some ground by increasing his commitment to cut global warming pollution," said Greenpeace US executive director Phil Radford. "As it is he crossed an ocean to tell the world he has nothing new to offer, then he said take it or leave it." Obama's participation at the talks holds risks for him at home and abroad. If the president, a Democrat, puts a more aggressive offer on the table, he could face criticism from Republicans who charge the United States is going too far without getting enough in return from India and China. If he remains cautious and the talks end up faltering, he would be connected to that failure and his efforts to pass domestic climate change legislation could suffer along with his credibility among other international leaders. STILL SOMETHING MORE TO OFFER? Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to discuss outstanding disagreements in Copenhagen and the two directed their negotiators to work toward a deal. China and the United States are the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters. Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Obama may have been holding back to leave wiggle room at the negotiating table. "I think the speech may have been calibrated not to put some things on the table at this point, because of the hard-ball negotiations going on," he said. "We're hopeful that the (China-U.S.) bilateral may have cleared some of the air and laid the groundwork for agreement on some of the issues." Obama acknowledged that deal texts circulating in Copenhagen were not perfect and did not give every country what it wanted, but he said that should not prevent a deal from being reached. "There is no time to waste. America has made our choice. We have charted our course, we have made our commitments, we will do what we say," he said. With a nod to lawmakers back in Washington, Obama said the United States would push ahead with its efforts to fight climate change even if the Copenhagen talks failed. "America is going to continue on this course of action to mitigate our emissions and to move toward a clean energy economy no matter what happens here in Copenhagen," he said. Some environmentalists praised Obama for coming at all but said his actions in the coming months, while climate change legislation is debated in the U.S. Senate, would show the degree of his commitment to the cause. "The president showed his leadership in coming to Copenhagen at this critical juncture. We hope his legendary leadership will inspire his peers to rise to the occasion," said Carter Roberts, head of environmental group WWF, in a statement. "The ultimate test of his leadership will be engaging the Senate and delivering action in Congress early next year," he said. White House officials say the president will make a robust effort to get the climate bill through Congress once his top domestic priority, healthcare reform legislation, is complete.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will attend the meeting of the eight-nation Arctic Council in Rovaniemi, Finland, starting on Monday, which comes amid concerns over China's increased commercial interests in the Arctic. The United States, Canada, Russia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden make up the Arctic Council, while China, India, South Korea, Singapore, Italy and Japan have observer status. "The eight Arctic states conduct governance of the Arctic region and we reject attempts by non-Arctic states to claim a role in this process," the official told reporters to preview Pompeo's trip, which will also include Germany, Britain and Greenland. "Observers have interests, but we know for example that China sometimes refers to itself as a 'near-Arctic state' and there is no such definition in the council's lexicon," the official added. The council, which coordinates Arctic policy, is gaining clout as sea ice thaws and opens up new trade routes, intensifying competition for oil and gas - estimated at 15 percent and 30 percent respectively of undiscovered reserves. China has become one of the biggest mining investors in the region, while Russia has been pouring money and missiles into the Arctic, and reopening and building bases there. Pompeo is expected to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, during the council meetings, the official said, adding that talks will include the political stalemate in Venezuela. CLIMATE DIVISIONS Tensions have emerged in the run-up to the meeting over Washington's refusal to sign off on draft language on climate changes, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. The Arctic, especially its islands, is warming far quicker than the world average as the retreat of snow and sea ice exposes darker water and ground that soaks up ever more of the sun's heat. President Donald Trump has stood by his 2017 decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord signed by almost 200 governments in 2015. They agreed to limit a rise in average global temperatures to "well below" 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times by 2100. Worldwide, temperatures are up about 1C (1.8F). The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed its first climate-change bill in a decade, voting 231-190 to require that administration keep the United States as a party to the Paris accord.

Last week US President Joe Biden singled out a "growing rivalry with China" as a key challenge facing the United States, with his top diplomat describing the Asian country as "the biggest geopolitical test" of this century. Speaking at his annual news conference, the Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, struck a tough line even as he outlined where the world's two biggest economies could work together. Questioned about recent US-China frictions over Taiwan, Xinjiang and the disputed South China Sea, Wang said Beijing "will never accept baseless accusations and smears". The United States had used democracy and human rights as a basis for arbitrarily interfering with other countries' affairs, he said. "The US should realise this as soon as possible, otherwise the world will continue to experience instability." Wang added that differences between China and the United States must be managed carefully, the two sides must advocate healthy competition not zero-sum finger-pointing, and that areas like climate change and fighting the pandemic were where they could cooperate. "It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway and lift the various unreasonable restrictions placed on Sino-US cooperation to date as soon as possible, and not create new obstacles artificially." The United States and China are at odds over influence in the Indo-Pacific region, Beijing's economic practices, Hong Kong, Taiwan and human rights in China's Xinjiang region. The Biden administration has indicated it will broadly continue the tough approach to China taken by former President Donald Trump, but do so in coordination with allies. Wang warned that on Chinese-claimed Taiwan there was no room for compromise, urging the new US government to change the previous administration's "dangerous acts of playing with fire". Biden's team says the US commitment to democratic Taiwan is "rock solid". During Trump's administration, the United States levied a series of sanctions against China and its officials over Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Beijing's economic policies, which have not been lifted under the new administration. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he agrees with his predecessor Mike Pompeo's determination that genocide against Muslims is underway in Xinjiang. Activists and UN experts say 1 million Muslim Uighurs are held in Chinese camps. China denies abuses and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism. Wang addressed accusations over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, saying some Western politicians chose to believe lies about the region, and took a dig at Western countries' record. "When it comes to 'genocide', most people think of North American Indians in the 16th century, African slaves in the 19th century, Jews in the 20th century, and the Australian aborigines who are still fighting today," he said. "The so-called 'genocide' in Xinjiang is ridiculously absurd. It is a rumour with ulterior motives and a complete lie."

This year is set to be the hottest on record worldwide due to global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Britain's Meteorological Office said on Thursday. The Met Office said the combination of factors would likely push average temperatures this year above the record set in 1998. 2006 is set to be the sixth warmest on record globally. "This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world," said Met Office scientist Katie Hopkins. The world's 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1994 in a temperature record dating back a century and a half, according to the United Nations' weather agency. Britain's Met Office makes a global forecast every January with the University of East Anglia, and said it expected the world's average temperature to be 0.54 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 long-term average of 14.0 degrees. There is a 60 percent probability that 2007 will be as warm or warmer than the current warmest year, 1998, which itself was 0.52 degrees above the long-term average it said in a statement. Most scientists agree that temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees Celsius this century due mainly to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport. They say this will cause melting at the polar ice caps, sea levels to rise and weather patterns to change bringing floods, famines and violent storms, putting millions of lives at risk. Former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said in October that urgent action on global warming was vital and that delay would multiply the cost by up to 20 times. The Kyoto Protocol is the only global action plan to curb carbon emissions, but it expires in 2012, is rejected by the world's biggest polluter -- the United States -- and does not bind booming economies like China and India. The Met Office said the established moderate El Nino, a phenomenon in the tropical Pacific blamed for disrupting weather patterns, would continue for the first few months of 2007. It noted that as there was a time lag between El Nino and its full effect on surface temperatures, its influence would therefore be felt well into the year. It will coincide with what environmentalists say will be a very busy year for climate diplomacy. Germany, which has an active climate change agenda, has taken over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union and the year-long presidency of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. Backed by Britain, which has pushed climate change high up the world agenda, pressure is building for the G8 summit in Germany in early June to set out a framework for discussions to take global action beyond Kyoto.

Georgieva said the global economy was bouncing back but the pandemic continued to limit the recovery, with the main obstacle posed by the "Great Vaccination Divide" that has left too many countries with too little access to COVID-19 vaccines. In a virtual speech at Bocconi University in Italy, Georgieva said next week's updated World Economic Outlook would forecast that advanced economies will return to pre-pandemic levels of economic output by 2022 but most emerging and developing countries will need "many more years" to recover. "We face a global recovery that remains 'hobbled' by the pandemic and its impact. We are unable to walk forward properly - it is like walking with stones in our shoes," she said. The United States and China remained vital engines of growth, and Italy and Europe were showing increased momentum, but growth was worsening elsewhere, Georgieva said. Inflation pressures, a key risk factor, were expected to subside in most countries in 2022 but would continue to affect some emerging and developing economies, she said, warning that a sustained increase in inflation expectations could cause a rapid rise in interest rates and tighter financial conditions. "High debts, soaring food prices and lack of vaccines are the greatest threats facing developing countries," said Eric LeCompte, executive director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network. "We are counting economic losses in the trillions if developing countries can't access vaccines." Georgieva said central banks could generally avoid tightening for now, but they should be prepared to act quickly if the recovery strengthened faster than expected or risks of rising inflation materialised. She said it was also important to monitor financial risks, including stretched asset valuations. RISING DEBT BURDENS Global debt levels, now at about 100% of world gross domestic product, meant many developing countries had very limited ability to issue new debt at favourable conditions, Georgieva said. Georgieva said it was important that debt restructuring efforts already initiated by Zambia, Chad and Ethiopia be concluded successfully to encourage others to seek help. Better transparency about debts, sound debt management practices and expanded regulatory frameworks would help ensure increased private sector participation, she said in response to a question from a participant. Asked about rising debt levels in Europe, Georgieva said growing economic momentum had put Europe on a sound footing to avoid another sovereign debt crisis like the one faced by Greece in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007–08. But she said countries would have to plan carefully how to shift course to medium-term fiscal consolidation to erase the increased pandemic-related debt burden. "The bills are going to come due," she said, adding that good planning was needed to ease debt burdens over time while avoiding "brutal" cuts in education or healthcare funding. ACCELERATE VACCINE DELIVERIES Georgieva urged richer nations to increase delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries, remove trade restrictions and close a $20 billion gap in grant funding needed for COVID-19 testing, tracing and therapeutics. While nearly 46% of people around the world have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the rate is just 2.3% for people in low-income countries, according to Our World in Data at the University of Oxford. Failure to close the massive gap in vaccination rates between advanced economies and poorer nations could hold back a global recovery, driving cumulative global GDP losses to $5.3 trillion over the next five years, she said. Georgieva said countries should also accelerate efforts to address climate change, ensure technological change and bolster inclusion - all of which could also boost economic growth. A shift to renewable energy, new electricity networks, energy efficiency and low carbon mobility could raise global GDP by about 2% this decade, creating 30 million new jobs, she said.

In a stinging defeat for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that US environmental officials have the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming. By a 5-4 vote, the nation's highest court told the US Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide and other emissions from new cars and trucks that contribute to climate change. The high court ruled that such greenhouse gases from motor vehicles fall within the law's definition of an air pollutant. The ruling in one of the most important environmental cases to reach the Supreme Court marked the first high court decision in a case involving global warming. President George W Bush has opposed mandatory controls on greenhouse gases as harmful to the US economy, and the administration instead has called for voluntary programs. In 2003, the EPA refused to regulate the emissions, saying it lacked the power to do so. Even if it had the power, the EPA said it would be unwise to do it and would impair Bush's ability to negotiate with developing nations to cut emissions. The states and environmental groups that brought the lawsuit hailed the ruling. "As a result of today's landmark ruling, EPA can no longer hide behind the fiction that it lacks any regulatory authority to address the problem of global warming," Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. Greenhouse gases occur naturally and also are emitted by cars, trucks and factories into the atmosphere. They can trap heat close to Earth's surface like the glass walls of a greenhouse. Such emissions have risen steeply in the past century and many scientists see a connection between the rise, an increase in global average temperatures and a related increase in extreme weather, wildfires, melting glaciers and other damage to the environment. Democrats in Congress predicted the ruling could add pressure on lawmakers to push forward with first-ever caps on carbon dioxide emissions. The United States is the world's biggest emitter of such gases. The ruling also could make it easier for California and 13 other states to put in place mandatory emission caps, officials in that state said. Writing for the court majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said the EPA's decision in 2003 was "arbitrary, capricious or otherwise not in accordance with law." In sending the case back for further proceedings, Stevens said the EPA could avoid regulation only if it determined that the gases do not contribute to climate change or if it provided a reasonable explanation. Stevens said the EPA could not avoid its legal obligation by noting the scientific uncertainty surrounding some features of climate change and concluding it would be better not to regulate at this time. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said of the ruling, "We're going to have to take a look and analyze it and see where we go from there." The EPA said the administration was committed to reducing greenhouse gases and it was "reviewing the court's decision to determine the appropriate course of action." The court's four most conservative members -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, both Bush appointees, and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- dissented. They said the environmental groups and the states lacked the legal right to bring the lawsuit in the first place. "No matter how important the underlying policy issues at stake, this court has no business substituting its own desired outcome for the reasoned judgment of the responsible agency," Scalia wrote.

The "solar direct-drive" refrigerators – plain, box-like coolers that do not require fuel or batteries - have helped boost child vaccinations in DRC's poorest rural provinces by 50% in the past year, according to global vaccine alliance Gavi. That has helped cut child mortality in DRC to half of what it was two decades ago. More than 18 million children were vaccinated last year against a deadly measles outbreak, which has slowed dramatically in recent weeks. Now the world is looking to launch a far bigger immunisation push once vaccines for COVID-19 become available. Delivering millions of inoculations in Africa, a sprawling continent with fragile health systems and a lack of electricity to power them, will be a daunting task. And it remains unclear whether existing off-grid fridges can keep the vaccines cold enough to help. Refrigeration is essential for vaccine distribution. Most vaccines require cooling at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius (35-46 degrees Fahrenheit), but nearly half of the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates under development will require cold storage as low as minus 80C, researchers say. In addition, a cold chain distribution network for COVID-19 vaccines will require seamlessly low temperatures from manufacturers to airports to remote rural villages. Despite advances that have likely saved millions of lives by keeping vaccinations cold in recent years, most African countries still have enormous gaps in such networks. “It’s probably the biggest logistical challenge the world has ever faced, and it’s an especially immense challenge for sub-Saharan African countries with significant rural populations,” said Toby Peters, a professor specialising in cooling systems for food and medicine at Britain’s University of Birmingham. DELIVERY 'REVOLUTION' When William Clemmer, a doctor with faith-based nonprofit IMA World Health, arrived in the DRC in the 1990s, many health centres were using outdated kerosene-powered refrigerators that would often break down, damaging or destroying vaccines. First-generation solar refrigerators were an improvement, but they required storage batteries that often stopped working after two to three years and were hard to replace. Solar direct-drive refrigerators changed that, starting about a decade ago. Costing between $3,500 and $9,000, they are wired directly to solar photovoltaic panels, which provide thermal energy to freeze a thick lining of water, with the ice layer keeping the vaccines inside cool for many days, no matter the weather. In 2016, only 16% of DRC’s rural health centres had working refrigerators, according to Gavi. Today close to 80% are equipped, many with direct-drive solar units. They have enabled 24,000 monthly immunisation sessions in the nine poorest provinces in the past year, a 50% jump from 2018. “They’ve essentially revolutionized vaccine delivery for children in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Clemmer. Karan Sagar, a doctor who heads the health systems and immunisations strengthening team at Gavi, credits the off-grid equipment for achieving a 25% jump in child vaccination rates in Africa from a decade ago. Since 2017, a $250-million effort led by Gavi has delivered more than 15,300 solar direct-drive fridges to three-dozen African countries, including nearly 3,400 units to the DRC and 5,400 to Nigeria. Sagar said 87% of children in those African countries received the first dose of a vaccine last year for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough). “This is a testament to the ability of supply chains to reach even the most remote communities in the world,” he said. FACTORY TO VILLAGE It is not only ultra-cold temperatures for COVID-19 vaccines that Africa may need to contend with. Solar refrigerators are only the last of many steps that will be required to move the vaccines quickly and safely from centralized manufacturing sites - whether inside or outside Africa - to urban and rural destinations across the continent. At every step along the way – airplanes, warehouses, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles, canoes and even drones – the vaccines must be kept at specific, very cold temperatures, just like other perishable products. And substantially larger volumes will be needed. While child vaccination campaigns typically reach about 115 million infants annually worldwide, the COVID-19 vaccine will need to reach as many as 750 million people in Africa alone, health experts predict. To prepare for this challenge, cold chain expert Peters is leading a government-backed effort to evaluate Africa’s needs in delivering an eventual COVID-19 vaccine, working with nonprofit, commercial and academic partners. They are drawing on lessons from Rwanda, a central-east African country that has made enormous progress in recent years building efficient, climate-friendly cold chains for food and vaccine delivery. Its system evolves around one warehouse that serves as a cooling hub for vaccines that are distributed to district hospitals, health centres and remote rural health posts, of which dozens are using solar fridges. The vaccines are reaching more than 95% of the population, according to the World Health Organization. But replicating Rwanda’s success will be a formidable task. “Rwanda is small - countries like Nigeria are much more difficult,” Peters said. FOOD MODEL Food cold chains where larger-scale commercial capacity is more established will be the kind of model needed, he added. “We know how to move hundreds of millions of tonnes of fresh food from small farms across Africa to the fridges of consumers in Europe,” Peters said. “We need to take this expertise and transfer it to vaccines.” But that is before factoring in the potential ultra-cooling needs COVID-19 vaccines may require - which solar direct-drive fridges are typically not equipped to handle. Rwanda and the DRC do have firsthand experience of vaccines needing ultra-cold storage in the form of a new vaccine that helped end the Ebola outbreak this past summer. “Super thermos” coolers, filled with blocks of synthetic alcohol ice, kept the vaccine at minus 60-80C for up to 6.5 days. But the amounts involved were a tiny fraction of what would be needed for an effective COVID-19 vaccine. “Few African economies have any ultra-cold chain capacity at all,” Sagar noted. Peters is hoping COVID-19 vaccines will require only the standard cold storage at 2-8C, which solar direct-drive refrigerators can provide at rural health centres. “If mainstream cold chains have to get below that, we have a massive new challenge,” he said.

YouTube is the new election weapon of choice for Australia's leaders as they vie for youth votes, but the strategy to be hip could backfire just months before the poll expected in November. Prime Minister John Howard's latest YouTube foray, meant to lure young people to spend a year after school to sample military life, was ambushed by a spoof video clip just hours after its Thursday release. "I have to go to work heaps to afford to go to a university that has had its funding slashed so you could spend billions fighting a war you knew was based on a lie," one Internet viewer named Travturner admonished Howard, venting his anger over the war in Iraq after viewing the clip. "You must be desperate Johnny, targeting young people." Howard, 68, a winner in four elections but now battling voter perceptions his age is a negative, has chosen YouTube for advertising slots targeting the opposition Labor Party's economic credentials and highlighting his environment record. But the 11-year conservative government's refusal to sign the Kyoto climate pact appears to have riled the green-conscious younger voters Howard hopes to attract. This week's fifth interest rate rise since the last election has also angered many. "John Howard is a farting fossil fool. Australian Prime Minister John Howard demonstrates a form of wind power that is not environmentally friendly," one YouTube viewer nicknamed Unalive said in a posting. Following YouTube successes in the United States, where racy clips supporting presidential hopefuls such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have captured valuable primetime space, youthful Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has also turned to the internet. Rudd, backed by a "Kevin07" campaign, pictured a Howard look-alike in bed asleep on climate change. The rival Greens pictured Rudd and Howard both in bed with the coal industry. Rudd's strategy angered Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who said Labor was focused on stunts over substance, although Downer himself once posed in fishnet stockings and high heels for a newspaper photo. "It trivialises politics," Downer said. Youth voters have responded to Rudd, who is 18 years younger than Howard, and Labor holds a commanding poll lead. "The Web site offers exactly what many young Australians are looking for, a voice," one respondent named Julz said. But another, named as Mia, said Rudd's tactics were too American in style and too shallow to win younger voters. "Some may say he's moving with the times, but isn't this just a desperate gimmick?" she said. "For people with half a brain who can see through the gimmick, we know this isn't really who Kevin Rudd is." After Australia's central bank on Wednesday raised official cash rates to a decade high of 6.50 percent, newspapers on Thursday tipped the election would take place in November, based on advertising space booked by Howard's Liberal Party. "This man could lose his house," one of the country's biggest selling tabloids said on the cover after the rise, with a photo of a sombre Howard striding from his official residence. Christian Kerr, a former government adviser turned political commentator for the Web site Crikey.com, said both sides of the political fence appeared to be underestimating the dangers of YouTube. "The fact that once you're out there online, you're virtually free game for anybody with the software that's readily available to take your message, to manipulate it, to do whatever they want," he told Australian radio.

As a consequence of a geomagnetic storm triggered by a recent outburst of the sun, up to 40 of 49 newly launched Starlink satellites have been knocked out of commission. They are in the process of reentering Earth’s atmosphere, where they will be incinerated. The incident highlights the hazards faced by numerous companies planning to put tens of thousands of small satellites in orbit to provide internet service from space. And it’s possible that more solar outbursts will knock some of these newly deployed orbital transmitters out of the sky. The sun has an 11-year-long cycle in which it oscillates between hyperactive and quiescent states. Presently, it is ramping up to its peak, which has been forecast to arrive around 2025. This recent solar paroxysm was relatively moderate by the sun’s standards. “I have every confidence that we’re going to see an extreme event in the next cycle, because that typically is what happens during a solar maximum,” said Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert at the University of Southampton in England. If a milquetoast outburst can knock out 40 Starlink satellites hanging out at low orbital altitudes, a more potent solar scream has the potential to inflict greater harm on the megaconstellations of SpaceX and other companies. SpaceX announced the looming destruction of as many as 40 of its satellites in a company blog post on Tuesday night. The company said that after the launch, the satellites were released to their intended orbit, about 130 miles above Earth. This altitude was chosen partly to prevent potential collisions in the future with other satellites. If the satellites malfunction after being deployed at that altitude, and are unable to raise their orbits to more secure heights, “the atmosphere kind of reclaims the failed technology very rapidly,” Lewis said. “And that’s a very good safety measure.” But on Jan 29, before these satellites launched, a violent eruption from the sun of highly energetic particles and magnetism known as a coronal mass ejection was detected. That ejection arrived at Earth sometime around Feb 2, creating a geomagnetic storm in Earth’s magnetic bubble. The powerful storm added kinetic energy to particles in Earth’s atmosphere. “The atmosphere kind of puffs up, expands, as a result,” Lewis said. That expansion causes an increase in the atmosphere’s density, which in turn increases the drag experienced by objects moving through it, including satellites. This drag shrinks the size of their orbits, which draws them closer to the thick, lower atmosphere in which they burn up. According to SpaceX, during the recent Starlink deployment, “the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50% higher than during previous launches.” This ensured that as many as 40 of the 49 satellites would eventually succumb to the forces of gravity and perish. There are currently a total of 1,915 Starlink satellites in orbit, so for SpaceX, a loss of up to 40 “is not a big deal from their point of view,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who also catalogs and tracks artificial space objects. But Lewis said “that probably accounts for potentially up to $100 million of hardware, if you include the cost of the launch.” The dangers that solar outbursts and geomagnetic storms pose to objects in low-Earth orbit, from electrical damage to communications disruptions, are well known. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ranks geomagnetic storms on a scale from minor to extreme. The latest, a “moderate” storm, is noted by the agency as possibly causing changes in atmospheric drag that can alter orbits. With these risks being known, did SpaceX take this hazard into account during this Starlink deployment? “I’m just kind of dumbfounded,” said Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada. “Really? They did not think of this?” “It’s a bit of a surprise,” said McDowell. “They should have been ready for this, one would have thought.” When contacted by email, a SpaceX media representative said that no one was available to answer questions, noting that “it’s an incredibly demanding time for the team.” That these satellites seem to be quickly entering the atmosphere, rather than lingering in low-Earth orbit, is a good thing. They also pose no threat to anyone on the ground. “From a safety perspective, the system functioned exactly as it should have,” Lewis said. “The satellites de-orbited, and nothing else was put at risk.” Most satellites orbit at higher altitudes and can avoid the hazards posed by atmospheric expansion. But the threat to satellites orbiting at lower altitudes is far from over, and it leads to the question of whether SpaceX can continue deploying spacecraft at this low altitude. “As the sun gets more active, it releases an increasing amount of extreme ultraviolet, which gets absorbed into our atmosphere,” Lewis said. That atmosphere will expand significantly, and “the expectation is that the atmospheric density is going to increase by one or two orders of magnitude. That’s a way bigger change compared to what we’ve just seen with this particular event.” Many astronomers have been critical of Starlink and other satellite constellations, which reflect sunlight and will potentially interfere with telescope research on Earth. And some see this incident as emblematic of SpaceX’s attitude toward problems occurring in low-Earth orbit. “If things fail, they fix them and do things better next time,” Lewis said. “This is another example of that” — a policy of adherence to hindsight, not foresight. The death of these satellites is “a harsh lesson for SpaceX,” Lewis said. What happens next is up to them. Lawler added, “I hope this will knock a little bit of sense into them.” © 2022 The New York Times Company

The COP26 conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow opens a day after the G20 economies failed to commit to a 2050 target to halt net carbon emissions - a deadline widely cited as necessary to prevent the most extreme global warming. Instead, their talks in Rome only recognised "the key relevance" of halting net emissions "by or around mid-century", set no timetable for phasing out coal at home and watered-down promises to cut emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas many times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg asked her millions of supporters to sign an open letter accusing leaders of betrayal. "As citizens across the planet, we urge you to face up to the climate emergency," she tweeted. "Not next year. Not next month. Now." Many of those leaders take to the stage in Glasgow on Monday to defend their climate change records and in some cases make new pledges at the start of two weeks of negotiations that conference host Britain is billing as make-or-break. "Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change. It's one minute to midnight and we need to act now," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell the opening ceremony, according to advance excerpts of his speech. "If we don't get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow." But discord among some of the world's biggest emitters about how to cut back on coal, oil and gas, and help poorer countries to adapt to global warming, will not make the task any easier. US President Joe Biden singled out China and Russia, neither of which is sending its leader to Glasgow, for not bringing proposals to the table. "Russia and ... China basically didn't show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change," Biden, who faces domestic resistance to his climate ambitions, told reporters at the G20. ABSENTEES Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is by far the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, will address the conference on Monday in a written statement, according to an official schedule. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will also stay away from Glasgow. Two Turkish officials said Britain had failed to meet Ankara's demands on security arrangements and protocol. Delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, COP26 aims to keep alive a target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels - a level scientists say would avoid its most destructive consequences. To do that, the conference needs to secure more ambitious pledges to reduce emissions, lock in billions in climate-related financing for developing countries, and finish the rules for implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement, signed by nearly 200 countries. Existing pledges to cut emissions would allow the planet's average surface temperature to rise 2.7C this century, which the United Nations says would supercharge the destruction that climate change is already causing by intensifying storms, exposing more people to deadly heat and floods, raising sea levels and destroying natural habitats. "Africa is responsible for only 3 percent of global emissions, but Africans are suffering the most violent consequences of the climate crisis," Ugandan activist Evelyn Acham told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. "They are not responsible for the crisis, but they are still paying the price of colonialism, which exploited Africa's wealth for centuries," she said. "We have to share responsibilities fairly." Two days of speeches by world leaders starting Monday will be followed by technical negotiations. Any deal may not be struck until close to or even after the event's Nov 12 finish date.

With a deal now expected sometime on Saturday, there remained tough talking to be done on issues such as the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies, carbon markets and financial help for poor countries to tackle climate change. A draft of the final deal, released early on Friday, requires countries to set tougher climate pledges next year - in an attempt to bridge the gap between current targets and the much deeper cuts scientists say are needed this decade to avert catastrophic climate change. "We have come a long way over the past two weeks and now we need that final injection of that 'can-do' spirit, which is present at this COP, so we get this shared endeavour over the line," said Britain's COP26 President Alok Sharma. Late on Friday Sharma announced that meetings would continue into Saturday, and that he expected a deal later in the day. A revised draft of the agreement would be released Saturday morning to kick off the last round of talks, he said. The meeting's overarching aim is to keep within reach the 2015 Paris Agreement's aspirational target to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, the limit scientists say would avert its worst effects. Under current national pledges to cut emissions this decade, researchers say the world's temperature would soar far beyond that limit, unleashing catastrophic sea level rises, droughts, storms and wildfires. The new draft is a balancing act - trying to take in the demands of the most climate-vulnerable nations such as low-lying islands, the world's biggest polluters, and countries whose exports of fossil fuels are vital to their economies. "China thinks the current draft still needs to go further to strengthen and enrich the parts about adaptation, finance, technology, and capacity building," said Zhao Yingmin, the climate negotiator for the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter. The draft retained its most significant demand for nations to set tougher climate pledges next year, but couched that request in weaker language than before, while failing to offer the rolling annual review of climate pledges that some developing countries have sought. Nations are currently required to revisit their pledges every five years. WEAKER LANGUAGE The latest proposal included slightly weaker language than a previous one in asking states to phase out subsidies of the fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - that are the prime manmade cause of global warming. That dismayed some campaigners, while others were relieved that the first explicit reference to fossil fuels at any UN climate summit was in the text at all, and hoped it would survive the fierce negotiations to come. "It could be better, it should be better, and we have one day left to make it a lot, lot better," Greenpeace said. "Right now, the fingerprints of fossil fuel interests are still on the text and this is not the breakthrough deal that people hoped for in Glasgow." Some thinktanks were more upbeat, pointing to progress on financing to help developing countries deal with the ravages of an ever-hotter climate. Saudia Arabia, the world's second largest oil producer and considered among the nations most resistant to strong wording on fossil fuels, said the latest draft was "workable". A final deal will require the unanimous consent of the nearly 200 countries that signed the Paris accord. To increase pressure for a strong deal, protesters rallied outside the COP26 venue, where activists had hung ribbons with messages imploring delegates to protect the Earth. The latest draft acknowledged scientists say the world must cut carbon dioxide emissions by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, and to net zero by "around mid-century" to hit the 1.5C target. This would effectively set the benchmark to measure future climate pledges. Currently, countries' pledges would see global emissions increase by nearly 14% by 2030 from 2010 levels, according to the UN 'INSANITY' Fossil fuel subsidies remain a bone of contention. Kerry told reporters that trying to curb global warming while governments spend hundreds of billions of euros supporting the fuels that cause it was "a definition of insanity". Financial support is also hotly debated, with developing countries pushing for tougher rules to ensure rich nations whose historical emissions are largely responsible for heating up the planet, offer more cash to help them adapt to its consequences. Rich countries have failed to meet a 12-year-old goal to provide $100 billion a year in so-called "climate finance" by 2020, undermining trust and making some developing countries more reluctant to curb their emissions. The sum, which falls far short of what the UN says countries would actually need, aims to address "mitigation", to help poor countries with their ecological transition, and "adaptation", to help them manage extreme climate events. The new draft said that, by 2025, rich countries should double from current levels the funding set aside for adaptation - a step forward from the previous version that did not set a date or a baseline. "This is a stronger and more balanced text than what we had two days ago," Helen Mountford of the World Resources Institute said of the current draft. "We need to see what stands, what holds and how it looks in the end - but at the moment it's looking in a positive direction." Of roughly $80 billion rich countries spent on climate finance for poor countries in 2019, only a quarter was for adaptation. A more contentious aspect, known as "loss and damage" would compensate them for the ravages they have already suffered from global warming, though this is outside the $100 billion and some rich countries do not acknowledge the claim. A group of vulnerable nations including the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific said the final deal needed to do more to address the question. "Loss and damage is too central for us to settle for workshops," said Tina Stege, the Marshall Islands' climate envoy.

Atmospheric levels of methane, 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2) at trapping heat, stayed steady for two decades to 2006 on wider fertiliser use to grow rice or a surge in natural gas demand, according to two separate studies in the journal Nature. Climate researcher Fuu Ming Kai from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Singapore research centre said in one study that methane output from rice fields in the Northern Hemisphere dropped during the period as fertilisers replaced manure and because of reduced water use. In the second study, Murat Aydin at the University of California, Irvine, concluded that a drop in methane emissions from more efficient burning of fossil fuels and a surge in natural gas demand. The studies aim to solve a puzzle that has confounded climate scientists for years: why did methane levels in the atmosphere, after rising steadily for many years, taper off in the mid-1980s in a dip lasting two decades? Solving the puzzle is crucial because methane levels have risen more than 150 percent since the start of the industrial revolution, compared with CO2's 40 percent increase, and are on the rise again. While the studies reach different conclusions, both studies point to human activities as the reason for the slowdown. "In general most of the methane sources come from the Northern Hemisphere," Fuu told Reuters. The main methane sources come from burning fossil fuels, rice paddies, coal mines, livestock and clearing and burning of tropical forests. "We looked at the isotope data to see how it's changed over the past 20 to 30 years. And what we saw is a trend in the isotope signature and especially in the Northern Hemisphere." Fuu said long-term data and comparing methane levels between the both hemispheres helped researchers conclude that about half the decrease in Northern Hemisphere methane emissions could be explained by reduced emissions from rice agriculture in Asia over the past three decades. "It is important to know what the mechanism is behind the slow down. If you know this, you can adopt a suitable policy to reduce methane emissions," Fuu said. Aydin concluded the drop coincided with rapid natural gas production as the fuel became increasingly price competitive with oil and other fossil fuel, instead of flaring it off. The gains came even though overall fossil fuel use increased as cleaner burning technologies helped keep methane emissions in check, he said. "We speculate that the rising economic value of natural gas during the late 20th Century and the deployment of cleaner technologies led to sharp reductions in the release of light hydrocarbons into the atmosphere," the study says.

The BBC repeatedly broke broadcasting rules when it showed pop acts such as Madonna and Phil Collins swearing at last year's Live Earth concert in London, the media watchdog said on Wednesday. Ofcom said the pre-watershed bad language represented a "serious and repeated" breach of its rules and ordered the BBC to broadcast its findings on its two main channels. The watchdog said the broadcaster should have used a short delay to allow it to block any swearing during the live show. The use of bad language at the event was "both likely and foreseeable", Ofcom said. It also criticised BBC bosses for delays in issuing on-air apologies for the offensive language. "The breaches involved the repeated use of the most offensive language before the watershed," Ofcom said in a written ruling. "There was in some cases a considerable delay in the broadcast of an apology. Dozens of viewers complained after the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium was shown on the BBC last July. Phil Collins swore during a performance of "Invisible Touch" with Genesis, while Madonna swore as she urged the crowd to jump up and down. Ofcom said it had decided not to fine the BBC because the breaches were not deliberate or reckless. The BBC said: "We note Ofcom's sanctions and will be complying with their request to broadcast the statement of their findings." Live Earth concerts were staged around the world on July 7, 2007 to raise awareness of climate change.

“Vote for jobs, vote for housing, vote for youth services, vote for the climate,” campaigners chanted as students gathered around them to learn more. Brexit, generally supported by older generations, is seen by many young people as a threat to their ability to travel, study or work abroad and continues to be one of the most important issues for youth voters, alongside the environment, education and housing, according to an analysis by YouGov, an internet market research firm based in Britain. In the 2017 general election, a dominant performance among young people helped Labour win enough seats to unexpectedly deprive the governing Conservative Party of its parliamentary majority. Now, as Britain prepares for its most pivotal election in decades on Thursday, Labour is targeting cities with high youth populations, hoping that they will offset losses in traditional Labour strongholds in the north that support Brexit by healthy margins. Students in a commons area at Central Saint Martins University of the Arts in London, Nov 25, 2019. As Britain prepares for its most pivotal election in decades, the Labour Party is targeting cities with high youth populations, hoping that they will offset losses in traditional Labour strongholds in the north that support Brexit by healthy margins. The New York Times The excitement is often palpable among college students, many of them first-time voters who did not have a chance to participate in the 2016 Brexit referendum that has upended their lives. Students in a commons area at Central Saint Martins University of the Arts in London, Nov 25, 2019. As Britain prepares for its most pivotal election in decades, the Labour Party is targeting cities with high youth populations, hoping that they will offset losses in traditional Labour strongholds in the north that support Brexit by healthy margins. The New York Times “This election is the most significant of our time. It will determine our future,” said Harriet Farmer, 19, a student at the University of Southampton. “Young people are always overlooked, but in this election, we will make ourselves heard. We are engaged, we have registered, and we will vote our way out of this mess.” The intergenerational gap in support between the two main parties was so wide in the 2017 election that YouGov declared that age had replaced class as the dividing line in British politics. More than 60% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 backed the Labour Party in 2017, while 69% of voters over the age of 70 backed the Conservative Party. That divide was driven by opposition both to Brexit and to the government’s decade-long austerity policy. One of the big questions in this election is whether young voters, who tend to be underrepresented in opinion polls, could spring a surprise. More than 1.5 million people under the age of 34 registered to vote between Oct. 22 and Nov. 19, compared with 1.2 million in the same time frame in 2017, government figures show. An additional 452,000 people under the age of 34 applied to vote on the last day of registration on Nov. 26. Analysts caution that while the numbers hint at the possibility of an explosive turnout, they could be overstating the potential impact. That’s because students are allowed to register twice, in their hometowns and in their university towns, but must choose a single place to vote. Despite the surge in youth registration, the percentage of registered young voters, at around two-thirds, remains low compared with the older population. Young people also make up a big percentage of nonvoters: Only between 40% and 50% of the population between the ages of 18 and their mid-20s voted in the 2015 and 2017 elections, compared with about 80% of voters in their 70s. When Prime Minister Boris Johnson called a December general election last month, Johnny Maclean, a 19-year-old fashion student, was delighted. Too young to vote in the 2016 European Union referendum but ardently anti-Brexit, he would finally have his say. After reading the policy platforms of the main opposition parties, Maclean concluded that the Labour Party offered the best opportunities for young people. “They are promising the largest youth investment out of any other major UK party,” he said in a recent interview. “They are promising the full scrapping of tuition fees, free bus travel for all under-25s, raise the minimum wage to 10 pounds and mass invest into youth services to reverse and go beyond the 1 billion cuts in youth services by the Tories.” While young voters tend to favour the Labour Party, the youth vote shows the same tendency toward fragmentation as the wider British left. Many have shifted to the Liberal Democrats, a more centrist party with an adamantly anti-Brexit stance, and the Greens. James Sloam, author of “Youthquake 2017: The Rise of Young Cosmopolitans in Britain,” believes that youth turnout will be high this week. “All the evidence shows that if you vote in your first election, it becomes a habit, so young voters from 2017 would be likely to vote again as well as first-time voters,” he said. Sloam’s research found that in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008, young people — having borne the brunt of austerity, unemployment and cuts to services — have become more politically engaged. With so much at stake in the coming election, young people are also opting to vote tactically. The constituency of Southampton Itchen is home to students from two universities — the University of Southampton and Solent University — and many graduates stay on to work in the city, which is a major port. In 2017, the Conservative candidate, Royston Smith, won by 31 votes, making it a prime target for Labour this time. Many young residents in the city believe the youth vote will swing the seat to Labour. “I changed my registration from my parent’s house in Hereford to Itchen just so that we have a bigger chance at knocking the Tories off the bench,” said Imogen Williams, a 24-year-old computer programmer who works in Southampton. “I just want to stop Brexit, and I know that if Labour wins and calls a second referendum, people will vote differently, now that they have actual facts about what a monumental disaster Brexit would be for our country.” Her sister, Martha Williams, a student at Southampton University, said many of her friends would be voting for the first time and were divided between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. “Labour is a fantastic party for the youth, but Jeremy Corbyn is a terrible leader, and no one can imagine him as prime minister,” she said. “And then we have the Lib Dems who say they will cancel Brexit, but they aren’t going to get a majority, so people are in a pickle and are just choosing to vote tactically instead of idealistically.” Inside the University of Southampton's student union bar, in Southampton, England, Nov 26, 2019. As Britain prepares for its most pivotal election in decades, the Labour Party is targeting cities with high youth populations, hoping that they will offset losses in traditional Labour strongholds in the north that support Brexit by healthy margins. The New York Times Even though Corbyn has lost popularity since the last election, following accusations of anti-Semitism and his refusal to take a personal stance on Brexit, youth support for his party appears to be gathering momentum once again. Inside the University of Southampton's student union bar, in Southampton, England, Nov 26, 2019. As Britain prepares for its most pivotal election in decades, the Labour Party is targeting cities with high youth populations, hoping that they will offset losses in traditional Labour strongholds in the north that support Brexit by healthy margins. The New York Times “The Labour Party policies may appear radical to some,” Sloam said. “But with the exception of their ambiguous policy on Brexit, they are extremely popular, and their campaign seems to be galvanising young voters.” While many young people express enthusiasm and even hope about the vote, some detect more negative currents. “We have a really large majority of students that are really engaged, but I would say that they are more angry than excited because they don’t like the fact that they have been marginalised,” said Emily Harrison, president of the student union at Southampton University. “And of course, you do have some students who are apathetic, that feel like their vote doesn’t make a difference, so part of our campaign at the moment is to encourage students to vote.” Charlie Corbett, 20, a first-time voter who has already mailed in his postal ballot, said he had registered only because his parents had pressured him. He stood out for not sharing his fellow students’ enthusiasm for defeating the Tories and Johnson’s drive to “get Brexit done.” “I want to stay in the EU,” he said. “But at this point I’d rather leave than go around another five years in circles. I voted for Boris. He’s the only person who will get this done, and that’s all I want at this point — just to leave and move on.”   © 2019 New York Times News Service

The top Chinese and US diplomats, in their first meeting of Joe Biden's presidency on Thursday and Friday, publicly rebuked each other's policies at the start of what Washington called "tough and direct" talks in Alaska. But the Chinese delegation said after the meeting the two sides were "committed to enhancing communication and cooperation in the field of climate change," Xinhua said on Saturday. They would also hold talks to facilitate the activities of diplomats and consular missions, "as well as on issues related to media reporters in the spirit of reciprocity and mutual benefit," the report said. The US Embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Sunday. Last year, as tensions between Beijing and Washington worsened dramatically, the two countries expelled journalists and the United States shut China's consulate in Houston, prompting China to shut the US consulate in Chengdu. The talks in Anchorage, headed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, had a fiery kickoff, in front of TV cameras, and had appeared to yield no diplomatic breakthroughs. But the Chinese delegation said "both sides share the hope of continuing such type of high-level strategic communication," Xinhua reported. "The two sides also agreed that they ... will maintain dialogue and communication, conduct mutually beneficial cooperation, avoid misunderstanding and misjudgment, as well as conflict and confrontation, so as to promote sound and steady development of China-US relations." China and the United States also discussed adjusting travel and visa policies according to the coronavirus pandemic situation, "and gradually promoting the normalisation of personnel exchanges between China and the United States," the report said. After the meetings, Yang told China's CGTN television that the discussions had been constructive and beneficial, "but of course, there are still differences."

Helicopters were deployed to aid the search, and ships carrying food, water, blankets and medicine reached ports previously blocked by high waves whipped up by tropical cyclone Seroja, which brought heavy rain and triggered deadly floods and landslides on Sunday. Indonesia's disaster agency BNPB revised upwards the death toll from the cyclone in the East Nusa Tenggara islands, after earlier saying 86 had died. Seventy-six people were still missing. "The rescue team is moving on the ground. The weather is good," BNPB spokesman Raditya Jati told a news briefing. Search and rescue personnel, however, had trouble transporting heavy equipment for use in the search. "Search for victims is constrained, the existing heavy equipment cannot be sent to their destination, especially in Adonara and Alor," the head of BNPB, Doni Monardo, said. The Adonara and Alor islands were among the islands worst hit by the cyclone, with 62 and 21 people dead respectively. Aerial images from Adonara on Tuesday showed brown mud and flood water covering a vast area, burying houses, roads and trees. The military and volunteers arrived on the islands on Tuesday and were setting up public kitchens, while medical workers were brought in. Video taken by a local official in Tanjung Batu village on Lembata, home to the Ile Lewotolok volcano, showed felled trees and large rocks of cold lava that had crushed homes after being dislodged by the cyclone. Thousands of people have been displaced, nearly 2,000 buildings including a hospital were impacted, and more than 100 homes heavily damaged by the cyclone. Two people died in nearby West Nusa Tenggara province. There were also concerns about possible COVID-19 infections in crowded evacuation centres. In neighbouring East Timor, at least 33 were killed in floods and landslides and by falling trees. Civil defence authorities were using heavy equipment to search for survivors. "The number of victims could still increase because many victims have not been found," the main director of civil protection, Ismael da Costa Babo, told Reuters. "They were buried by landslides and carried away by floods." Some residents of Lembata island may have also been washed away by mud into the sea. A volcano that erupted on Lembata last month wiped out vegetation atop the mountain, which allowed hardened lava to slide towards 300 houses when the cyclone struck, a senior district official said, hoping help was on the way. "We were only able to search on the seashore, not in the deeper area, because of lack of equipment yesterday," Thomas Ola Langoday told Reuters by phone. He feared many bodies were still buried under large rocks. President Joko Widodo urged his cabinet to speed up evacuation and relief efforts and to restore power. Weather agency head Dwikorita Karnawati said once-rare tropical cyclones were happening more often in Indonesia and climate change could be to blame. "Seroja is the first time we're seeing tremendous impact because it hit the land. It's not common," she said.

A new round of UN climate talks opens on Monday with almost 200 nations meeting in Mexico in hopes of clinching an agreement on a narrow range of crunch issues dividing rich and emerging economies. The two-week conference at the beach resort of Cancun aims to agree on funds and approaches to preserve rain forests and prepare for a hotter world. It will also seek to formalize existing targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Fanfare is far below levels of last year's Copenhagen summit which aimed to agree a new climate deal but ended instead with a non-binding agreement rejected by a clutch of developing countries. The long-running UN talks have pitted against each other the world's top two emitters, the United States and China, with US demands for greater Chinese emissions curbs echoing similar pressure on free trade and human rights. On the eve of the talks, Mexican President Felipe Calderon pointed to the economic opportunities from fighting climate change, aiming to end the distrust of the previous summit. "This dilemma between protecting the environment and fighting poverty, between combating climate change and economic growth is a false dilemma," he said pointing to renewable energy as he inaugurated a wind turbine to power the conference hotel. Calderon said the talks would focus on preparations for a hotter world, a central concern for poorer countries. "Basically, what we're going to discuss is adaptation," he said. That comment jarred European Union negotiators, who said that the talks must also achieve harder commitments to existing emissions pledges, including from developing countries. "We will look for a limited set of decisions in Cancun. We hope we will lay out the path forward," Artur Runge-Metzger, a senior EU negotiator, said on Sunday. "We do see the outlines of a compromise," said Peter Wittoeck, senior negotiator with Belgium, which holds the rotating EU presidency. The main aim of the talks is to agree a tougher climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, whose present round ends in 2012, to step up action to fight warming. World temperatures could soar by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2F) by the 2060s in the worst case of climate change and require annual investment of $270 billion just to contain rising sea levels, studies suggested on Sunday.

LONDON Feb 18 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer has resigned to join a consultancy group as an adviser, the U.N. climate secretariat said on Thursday, two months after a disappointing Copenhagen summit. De Boer will step down on July 1 to join KPMG, the U.N. framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) said in a statement. He has led the agency since 2006. "It was a difficult decision to make, but I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge, working on climate and sustainability with the private sector and academia," de Boer said in the statement. "Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming. This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen," he added.

India and Pakistan are amidst their biggest stand-off in many years, with the United States and other global powers mediating to de-escalate tensions between arch-foes who have fought three wars since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Indian warplanes on Tuesday bombed a hilly forest area near the northern Pakistani town of Balakot, about 40 km (25 miles) from India's border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir. New Delhi said it had destroyed a militant training camp and killed hundreds of "terrorists". Pakistan denied there were any such camps in the area and locals said only one elderly villager was hurt. Climate Change Minister Malik Amin Aslam said Indian jets bombed a "forest reserve" and the government was undertaking an environmental impact assessment, which will be the basis a complaint at the United Nations and other forums. "What happened over there is environmental terrorism," Aslam told Reuters, adding that dozens of pine trees had been felled. "There has been serious environmental damage." Two Reuters reporters who visited the site of the bombings, where four large craters could be seen, said up to 15 pine trees had been brought down by the blasts. Villagers dismissed Indian claims that hundreds of militants were killed. The United Nations states that "destruction of the environment, not justified by military necessity and carried out wantonly, is clearly contrary to existing international law", according to the U.N. General Assembly resolution 47/37. India and Pakistan are also engaged in a diplomatic tussle, with New Delhi vowing to isolate Pakistan over its alleged links to militant groups. Islamabad is currently putting pressure on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to uninvite India's foreign minister from their next meeting.

Speaking separately to historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta in April, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy also framed proposed new rules in terms of social justice, as poor black communities are disproportionately affected by air pollution.The meetings, and hundreds more like them over the past year, mark an unprecedented campaign by the White House and the EPA to win broad public and state backing for rules expected to come June 2 to limit for the first time carbon emissions from power plants, which are the biggest source of greenhouse gases.Both the message and the method reflect a conscious effort to avoid the problems that two years ago nearly sank Obama's health care reform, another contentious policy milestone that will become an indelible part of his legacy, according to officials and sources familiar with the process.The proposed curbs will form the cornerstone of Obama's climate action plan, a multi-layered blueprint for fighting global warming unveiled a year ago. The plan is critical to fulfilling U.S. commitments to reduce emissions agreed to at an international forum in Copenhagen in 2009.It is also key to carving out a legacy for Obama's second term, after the administration was frustrated in its efforts to make progress on other goals such as immigration reform and gun control. Taking strong steps to fight climate change could be the biggest achievement of the last two years of his presidency, administration officials say.Agency officials have met with over 3,300 people and 300 groups, listening to concerns and complaints from teamsters, utility executives, tribal leaders and several governors about the proposal.For example, she sought in February to reassure state officials in North Dakota that the change won't impede the state's recent surge in energy production. In Orlando last week, the message for small business owners was that environmental stewardship doesn't diminish economic growth."This is such an important part of the president's plan, that we just thought it was appropriate to have an extraordinary level of engagement even before the proposed rule stage," Dan Utech, special assistant to the president for energy and climate change, told Reuters in an interview.By engaging early and often with detractors and supporters alike, with messages tailored to each, the team led by McCarthy and senior White House adviser John Podesta is seeking to spin more effectively than it did with the troubled Affordable Care Act rollout.They hope to stay a step ahead of critics by getting feedback up front, rather than waiting until provisional new rules are published, as the EPA normally does. They aim to make the need for the new rules tangible to Americans by linking them to public health and safety. The broader goal of tempering climate change is seen as a lower priority for many voters.Ahead of November elections in which Democrats fear losing control of the Senate, Obama hopes to stave off inevitable accusations that he has launched a war on coal that would force the closure of plants and a loss of American jobs."I think the goal for the administration is to preserve the ability to have a conversation and don't have everyone coming out of the back screaming. That will check an important political box," says Heather Zichal, who was Obama's special adviser on energy and climate until last November.SWEEPING REFORMSThe regulations, drafted under the rarely-used section 111d of the Clean Air Act, will curb the amount of carbon dioxide the country's power plants spew out and give each state a year to devise a tailored plan for how it will meet the new standards.The White House has been preparing Americans for the sweeping new rules with an increasingly urgent messaging campaign about the seriousness of climate change.Earlier this month the White House released a report, the National Climate Assessment, that said effects of global warming had "moved firmly into the present" and had touched every corner of the country. It offered a backdrop of climate catastrophe to justify the need for urgent limits on the power sector."Climate change is not just about polar bears, although we all love polar bears...It's about all of us," McCarthy said on a visit to Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida last week, reported by local media.She explained to students how Florida and other state governments will play a major role in carrying out the rules and had them perform an experiment in which clean white tube socks were barely soiled when placed on tailpipes of cars and busses built after EPA efficiency standards became effective in 2010.The mood was more combative a month earlier at Bismarck State College in North Dakota, when EPA's Chief Counsel Joe Goffman spoke to industry and state officials, including the state's Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple."We cannot jump to a much higher standard for (carbon dioxide) overnight. It simply is not possible, it's not attainable, and we will fight that with every tool that we have available," said Dalrymple said, according to local WDAZ television.Goffman tried to assure the crowd that the EPA would ensure its rules offered enough "flexibility" for states to achieve their targets.OPPOSITION LOOMINGThe outreach may do little to prevent corporate groups and energy companies from launching legal and lobbying efforts to fight back at rules they fear may heap more costs on to the coal industry and remove 20 percent of the country's coal-fired electricity from the grid, leaving it vulnerable to shortages.Some of that resistance is taking a form similar to efforts that nearly derailed Obamacare, with state legislatures and some governors aiming to prevent implementation of the regulation.The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group of state lawmakers that promotes limited government and gets funding from companies such as Koch Industries and Peabody Energy, has targeted a dozen state legislatures, including Kentucky and Ohio, to prevent certain states from implementing EPA carbon rules."In trying to block federal policy, ALEC has a history - on behalf of its corporate funders - of deliberately establishing legal conflicts to force the issue into federal courts. That is precisely what they did with the ACA," Nick Surgey, research director of Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a group that monitors ALEC's activities.ALEC did not respond to several requests for an interview.Obama's team said it will counter inevitable attacks."We're going to be out there aggressively with our positive vision on this, as well as pushing back hard and setting the record straight with respect to some of the attacks that we expect to get from the other side," said Utech.

The Obama Administration formally embraced the Copenhagen Accord on global warming on Thursday, a day after the president urged a fractious US Congress to get to work on comprehensive legislation to stem the nation's emissions. US climate envoy Todd Stern gave notice to the United Nations that the country will aim for a 17 percent emissions cut in carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming by 2020, from 2005 levels. The move, which confirmed the goal set by the White House late last year, was conditional on other countries also submitting their pollution-cutting targets to the accord, Stern said. The condition was likely aimed at fence-sitters in Congress who do not want to see the United States commit to steps on fighting global warming unless other major polluters like China and India go along. John Kerry, the Democratic US senator working on a compromise climate bill, insisted that Congress would put a price on carbon, forcing companies to pay for their global warming pollution. But he followed the lead of President Barack Obama, who called for a comprehensive climate plan during Wednesday's State of the Union speech without mentioning one of its most controversial and complicated elements, cap-and-trade, which would allow companies to trade rights to pollute. "It's open to how you price carbon," Kerry told Reuters. "People need to relax and look at all the ways you might price carbon. We're not pinned down to one approach." Kerry, who is working on the bill with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and independent Senator Joe Lieberman, strongly rejected the idea that progress had bogged down. "I just don't agree with that interpretation at all," he said, adding that Senate negotiations were "making headway." GOAL DEPENDS ON CONGRESS The final US 2020 emissions goal depends on Congress passing a climate bill, Stern informed the UN. Kerry and others are trying to win Republican and moderate Democratic votes for the bill by including incentives for nuclear power, offshore oil drilling and clean technology jobs. Graham said the nuclear and oil drilling initiatives would not advance in the Senate without dealing with emissions. The 17 percent US target represents only about a 4 percent cut from the 1990 baseline that other rich polluters are using, showing how difficult it was for the United States to craft a domestic emissions plan. The European Union reiterated on Wednesday an offer of a 20 percent cut by 2020, from 1990, and a 30 percent cut if other nations deepened their reductions. The Copenhagen Accord agreed by the United States, China, India and other countries at UN talks in December calls for governments to submit climate plans by January 31, 2010. It does not bind any country to emissions cuts, but it is seen as a step in moving past gridlock over the sharing of the burden of acting on climate change between rich countries and poor ones. Duncan Marsh, director of international climate policy at the Nature Conservancy, said that with Thursday's announcement, "The United States clearly is signalling its commitment to the global process" for tackling global warming." The House of Representatives last year passed a climate bill that relied on a cap-and-trade system. But the Senate's push to pass a bill, which might jack up consumers' energy costs, could be harder in this congressional election year as public support has appeared to dip. A poll by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press said 28 percent of those surveyed listed global warming as a top priority this year, down from 38 percent in 2007. A new poll by the Yale Project on Climate Change and George Mason University concluded that fewer people believe global warming is occurring. But it also said more people now fear it could harm their families and future generations. HYBRID SYSTEM Kerry said he plans to outline a comprehensive bill that could be considered this spring, although he did not want to be pinned down to a definite deadline. "We are writing and drafting; we're pulling together the titles" of a bill. Obama acknowledged in his speech that some people doubt the science of climate change but said it was important to move on clean energy such as wind and solar power to compete with countries like China and India in the low-carbon economy. Graham said that statement and an emphasis on nuclear power could gain support but it was "yet to be determined" if senators could come up with a bill that could pass. Kevin Book, an analyst at ClearView Energy Partners in Washington, said in a note that Obama "displayed a canny understanding of the political challenges confronting recession-weary, centrist fence-sitters (in Congress)." "Voters," he wrote, "may be much more likely to embrace a plan to best other nations in trade than a plan to save other nations from rising seas (even if it's the same plan)." Some environmentalists were angered that Obama was receptive to more oil drilling and nuclear power. "President Obama's support for all these dirty energy sources was a big win for corporate polluters and their Washington lobbyists, but it was a kick in the gut to environmentalists across the country," said Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica. In recent days, according to Kerry and Graham, senators have huddled with representatives of energy-intensive industries that would be most affected by government mandating less use of dirty-burning coal and oil. The bill has been delayed in the Senate by the healthcare debate, as well as opposition from most Republicans and many moderate Democrats. Graham said cap-and-dividend, which would mandate carbon emission reductions while limiting the trading of pollution permits, is under review along with other options. Under that system, polluters would be required to buy carbon credits in auctions and consumers would receive most proceeds. A carbon tax has no support in Congress, Graham said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sought increased backing on Sunday for efforts to impose peace and order in Afghanistan from representatives of key countries involved there. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and foreign ministers and UN envoys from 17 other nations gathered at UN headquarters in the latest of a series of meetings before Tuesday's opening of the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders. Since US-backed forces overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban rulers in late 2001, Karzai's government has struggled to keep control, faced with a resurgent Taliban, independent-minded warlords and rising drug production. About 50,000 foreign troops are deployed there, including a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, and separately led US forces. A UN mission supports and advises the Afghan authorities on economic and political development, justice reform, humanitarian aid and anti-drug programs. "If I expect one thing to come out of this meeting, it is that they reinforce the commitment to Afghanistan," UN Afghanistan envoy Tom Koenigs said of the session attended by the country's neighbors and key NATO states. "We need more troops, we need more money and we need a sustainable commitment in Afghanistan," he said on Friday Diplomats, however, said Sunday's meeting was not expected to result in specific pledges. Western countries have been pressing for the United Nations to boost its profile in Afghanistan after Koenigs quits at the end of this year. U.N. officials said, however, that Ban would say he would not expand the UN mission until there were sufficient security guarantees -- a reference to continuing fighting in the south. Koenigs said the Taliban insurgency could not be defeated by military means alone. "There must be a comprehensive strategy which comprises civilian and military action, so we come to a political offensive against the insurgency," he said. An Afghan presidential spokesman said last week Kabul was ready for peace talks with the Taliban but would not accept preconditions demanded by the Islamist rebels, such as the withdrawal of all foreign troops. The Afghan meeting is the latest of several Ban has convened to underscore the central UN role. Ministers discussed Darfur on Friday and Iraq on Saturday. A meeting of Middle East mediators was scheduled for later on Sunday and a major conference on climate change will be held on Monday.

Xu is also the assistant administrator of the region and the UN Assistant Secretary-General.He would be in Bangladesh until May 21, UNDP in Dhaka said.During his visit, Xu will meet senior ministers and key officials to discuss wide-ranging issues of economic growth, importance of innovation and country’s resilience.UNDP said his visit would assist the international community and the global development partners acquire a better perspective on Bangladesh and its vision for the future.It said his visit is of “great importance” to Bangladesh as he will take stock of the success of UNDP initiatives to reduce urban poverty, disaster management and climate change adaptation.To see those projects he would travel to Dakop, a coastal South West district, as well as Hatia. He will also visit Chittagong Hill Tracts to see UNDP-led initiatives in peace building.Xu joined UNDP in 1995 and has worked in the Asia and Pacific and Eastern Europe and CIS nations (former Soviet Union) respectively.Before taking up the current position, he was UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator in Kazakhstan and Deputy Regional Director for Europe and the CIS in New York.

Broadly referred to as climate anxiety, research has stacked up to measure its prevalence ahead of the UN talks in Glasgow, which begin at the end of the month to thrash out how to put the 2015 Paris Agreement on curbing climate change into effect. One of the biggest studies to date, funded by Avaaz, an online campaign network, and led by Britain's University of Bath, surveyed 10,000 young people aged 16-25 years in 10 countries. It published its results in September. It found around three quarters of those surveyed considered the future frightening, while a lack of action by governments and industry left 45% experiencing climate anxiety and distress that affected their daily lives and functioning. Elouise Mayall, an ecology student at Britain's University of East Anglia and member of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, told Reuters she had felt guilty and overwhelmed. "What I'd be left with is maybe the sense of shame, like, 'how dare you still want lovely things when the world is ending and you don't even know if you're going to have a safe world to grow old in'." She spoke of conflicting emotions. "You might have sadness, there might be fear, there might be a kind of overwhelm," she said. "And maybe even sometimes a quite like wild optimism." Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg takes part in a Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future, in central Stockholm, Sweden, October 22, 2021. Etrik Simander/TT News Agency via REUTERS Caroline Hickman, a psychotherapist and lecturer at the University of Bath and one of the co-authors of the research published in September, is working to help young people manage climate-related emotions. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg takes part in a Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future, in central Stockholm, Sweden, October 22, 2021. Etrik Simander/TT News Agency via REUTERS "They're growing up with the grief and the fear and the anxiety about the future," she told Reuters. "SENSE OF MEANING" London-based psychiatrist Alastair Santhouse sees climate change, as well as COVID-19, as potentially adding to the burden, especially for those pre-disposed to anxiety. For now, climate anxiety alone does not normally require psychiatric help. Painful as it is, it can be positive, provided it does not get out of control. "Some anxiety about climate change is motivating. It's just a question of how much anxiety is motivating and how much is unacceptable," said Santhouse, author of a book that tackles how health services struggle to cope with complex mental issues. "The worry is that as climate change sets in, there will be a more clear cut mental health impact," he added. Among some of the world's communities that are already the most vulnerable, extreme weather events can also cause problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Leading climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, 18, has experienced severe climate anxiety. "It's a quite natural response, because, as you see, as the world is today, that no one seems to care about what's happening, I think it's only human to feel that way," she said. For now, however, she is hopeful because she is doing everything she possibly can. "When you take action, you also get a sense of meaning that something is happening. If you want to get rid of that anxiety, you can take action against it," she said.

The Biden administration released several reports Thursday on climate change and national security, laying out in stark terms the ways in which the warming world is beginning to pose significant challenges to stability worldwide. The documents, issued by the departments of Homeland Security and Defense as well as the National Security Council and director of national intelligence, form the government’s most thorough assessment yet of these and other challenges, as well as how it will address them. The timing of the release seems intended to give President Joe Biden something to demonstrate that his government is acting on climate change as he prepares to attend a major UN climate conference in Glasgow known as COP26. In recent weeks Biden has struggled to advance his stalled climate agenda in Congress. As a result, he risks having little progress to point to in Scotland, where the administration had hoped to re-establish US leadership on addressing warming. The reports “reinforce the President’s commitment to evidence-based decisions guided by the best available science and data,” the White House said Thursday, and “will serve as a foundation for our critical work on climate and security moving forward.” Among the documents released was a National Intelligence Estimate, which is meant to collect and distil the views of the country’s intelligence agencies about particular threats. The report, the first such document to look exclusively at the issue of climate, said that risks to American national security will grow in the years to come. After 2030, key countries will face growing risks of instability and need for humanitarian assistance, the report said. The document makes three key judgments: Global tensions will rise as countries argue about how to accelerate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions; climate change will exacerbate cross-border flash points and amplify strategic competition in the Arctic; and the effects of climate change will be felt most acutely in developing countries that are least equipped to adapt. The document also states that China and India, with large populations, will play key roles in determining how quickly global temperatures rise. When it comes to countries around the world meeting the commitment made at the 2015 climate conference in Paris to keep the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius, the intelligence report said the odds were not good. “Given current government policies and trends in technology development, we judge that collectively countries are unlikely to meet the Paris goals,” the report said. “High-emitting countries would have to make rapid progress toward decarbonising their energy systems by transitioning away from fossil fuels within the next decade, whereas developing countries would need to rely on low-carbon energy sources for their economic development.” The Pentagon also released a report that looked at how it would incorporate climate-related threats into its planning. That report said the military would begin to spend a significant portion of its next budget on climate analysis in its national security exercises. “The Department intends to prioritise funding DOD Components in support of exercises, war games, analyses, and studies of climate change impacts on DOD missions, operations, and global stability,” according to its report. “In coordination with allies and partners, DOD will work to prevent, mitigate, account for, and respond to defence and security risks associated with climate change.” The department faces numerous climate risks. Its bases are vulnerable to flooding, fires, drought and rising sea levels. Flooding harmed the Navy Base Coronado during a particularly tough hurricane year, the Naval Air Station Key West was hit by severe drought several years ago and a wildfire in 2017 burned 380 acres on Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California, among myriad other examples. Beyond harming its basic infrastructure, droughts, fires and flooding can harm the performance of the Pentagon's aircraft, the ability to do testing activities and a host of training exercises. The report drew praise from experts for recognising that climate change and national defence are increasingly linked. “This is the most extensive report DOD has ever produced on climate risk, moving to directly integrate concept of climate change as a threat multiplier into all aspects of defence strategy, planning, force posture and budget,” said Sherri Goodman, a former under secretary of defence for environmental security and now Secretary General for the International Military Council on Climate & Security. Erin Sikorsky, who led climate and national security analysis across federal intelligence agencies until last year, cited the growing US rivalry with China as an example of why the two issues are linked. “The Pentagon must bring a climate lens to its strategic assessment of Chinese foreign policy and behaviour on the world stage,” said Sikorsky, who is now director of the Center for Climate and Security. “Otherwise it will get answers to key questions about China’s strength and strategy wrong.” The Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the country’s main responder to natural disasters, said in a separate report that it is looking to future technologies and equipment that will be necessary to tackle the changing risks posed by extreme weather. That could include investing in more energy efficient construction and electric vehicles. As the largest federal law enforcement agency, the department has a significant fleet of vehicles. According to its strategy, the department will start making climate change a focus of its preparedness grants for state and local governments. It will also incorporate the changing science into the guidance it provides to the public and private sectors on how to manage risk, offering advice for specific communities, such as low-income neighbourhoods that are often surrounded by crumbling infrastructure already at risk of weather-induced damage. And part of the strategy includes hiring more employees with scientific expertise, including in its policymaking and public outreach divisions. “From extreme weather events to record heat, the DHS workforce is on the front lines of the climate emergency every day,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement Thursday. “With the release of our new climate framework, we are building on our commitment to combat climate change by strategically leveraging relevant resources, authorities, and expertise to maximise sustainability and resilience.” The department said climate change’s effect on the Northwest Passage, the waters between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and through the Arctic Ocean, are already apparent. With the ice melting, the area has become easier to navigate and has opened it up to competition with Russia and China. The country is already seeing the effects of climate change on migration, with deadly and destructive hurricanes driving migrants to leave their homes in Central America and flee to the United States through Mexico. This has overwhelmed border officials at times since 2014 and particularly during the past six months. The National Security Council released its own report Thursday, looking at how climate change is already pushing people around the world to migrate, both within countries and between them. The report notes one forecast suggesting that climate change could lead to almost 3% of the populations of Latin America, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa moving within their countries by 2050 — more than 143 million people. That movement wouldn’t solely be the result of climate change, but rather the interaction of climate change with other challenges, like conflict, it said. While the report focuses on climate migration overseas, it notes that some Americans are already moving because of the effects of climate change as well. “Even in the United States, one extreme event can result in a relatively high degree of permanent relocation of low-income populations exposed to chronic and worsening conditions over time,” the report says. In February, Biden signed an executive order directing the National Security Council to provide options for protecting and resettling people displaced by climate change, as well as how to identify them. In response, the report released Thursday, which was supposed to be done by August, recommends that the White House “work with Congress to create a new legal pathway for individualised humanitarian protection in the United States for individuals facing serious threats to their life because of climate change.” The report also calls for setting up a group of staff across government agencies to coordinate US policy on climate migration. Experts in climate migration said the report could have gone further. Teevrat Garg, an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego, who specialises in climate migration, welcomed the administration’s attention to the issue. But he said the report could have addressed the deeper question of what the United States and other developed countries owe to climate migrants. “Much of the carbon emissions driving climate change have come from rich nations but the consequences are being borne disproportionately by the poor,” Garg said. As a result, wealthy countries have “an obligation to support climate refugees.” Others were more critical. Kayly Ober, the senior advocate and program manager for the Climate Displacement Program at Refugees International, called the report disappointing — more of a review of the challenges around climate migration than a set of prescriptions for how to address it. “It’s a huge missed opportunity,” Ober said. “I think the Biden administration hasn’t quite figured out what they want to do.” ©2021 The New York Times Company

By the time they arrived, it was too late to save Cernobori. His death was the eighth linked to a shark in Australia this year, the most in nearly a century. The record for shark attacks in a single year was in 1929, which saw nine. In recent decades, the annual average has been one. What’s behind the increase in deaths? The question is vexing many in Australia, where public pressure is rising for authorities to take tougher measures to protect the country’s picturesque coasts this summer as people emerge from coronavirus lockdowns and eagerly head to the beach. Scientists find the high numbers shocking, and they wonder what forces may be at play. “There’s more than one shark expert who’s shaking their head right now, thinking, ‘What on earth is going on?’ ” said Culum Brown, a professor of marine biology at Macquarie University in Sydney who studies shark behaviour. “Eight is certainly off the scale, and we haven’t even finished the year yet,” he added. ‘It’s probably just really bad luck’ … The losses this year have been harrowing: Among the victims are an experienced scuba diver and a teenage surfer. A search for another man was called off after days of looking for his body. Others have survived, albeit traumatised and seriously injured by the apex predators, whose territory Australians enter when they swim in the ocean. But while the killer sharks have spooked beachgoers, scientists say that the chance of being mauled by them is still incredibly low. You are more likely to die from a lightning strike or a train crash, or by freezing, than from a shark attack. And the attacks in a single year do not provide enough data points to draw conclusions about what is causing the attacks, experts say. Mick Fanning of Australia is attacked by a shark during the finals of the J-Bay Open in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa, in this Jul 19, 2015. REUTERS/FILE “There’s so many confounding variables,” said Phoebe Meagher, who manages the Australian Shark Attack File, a database of interactions between humans and sharks, including those that result in fatalities. Mick Fanning of Australia is attacked by a shark during the finals of the J-Bay Open in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa, in this Jul 19, 2015. REUTERS/FILE Meagher said that although the number of people who have died in shark attacks this year is higher, the number of total unprovoked encounters, 20, was right on average. “There may be nothing crazy at play here,” she said. “The fact that incidents result in fatalities — it’s probably just really bad luck.” … Or climate change Brown also said that climate change, which causes the ocean to warm, could be driving sharks into cooler territory at the same that more people are flocking to the beach on hot days. Australians have also been permitted to visit the beach even under strict coronavirus restrictions in some states, which may have contributed to larger numbers of crowds and surfers. But this would not explain why the overall number of interactions between sharks and people has remained the same. Other scientists have suggested that shifting ocean temperatures — the result of La Niña weather patterns — could be moving the sharks’ hunting grounds, leading them toward more populated beaches. Following and feeding on humpback whales Another theory is that the sharks could be following humpback whales — whose populations have boomed in recent years — on their yearly migration north from Antarctica and opportunistically feasting on those that die along the way. “Sharks are simply moving to where their prey is going to be,” said Vanessa Pirotta, who also researches marine predators at Macquarie University. But, Pirotta added, more whales do not necessarily equal more sharks. Though the jump in deaths is attention-grabbing, the chances of being mauled and killed by a shark are still extremely slim, experts say. Last year, 11 people were involved in what the International Shark Attack File defines as “unprovoked attacks” in Australia. None of those were fatal. The most, 41, occurred in the United States, but nobody died there, either. Sharks do not actively hunt humans but may attack when they feel threatened or confuse people for prey. Drone footage, scientists say, has shown that sharks will often swim in the same water as surfers and bathers without attacking them. Scientists are exploring solutions that include attaching LED lights to the bottoms of surfboard to prevent sharks from confusing surfers with seals. ‘Political hot potato’ Still, the issue has become a “political hot potato,” Brown said, with state governments rushing to invest money in beach-protection measures including setting traps for the animals, using drones to track them and enclosing beaches in shark nets — despite the fact that the meshing programs have been shown to have little success. The deaths have also reignited debate around culling the creatures, which animals rights activists say is inhumane. Nets placed around the beaches to protect swimmers have also resulted in the accidental deaths of thousands of other marine creatures including turtles, stingrays and aquatic mammals called dugong. Even some of those who have been attacked by sharks oppose culling or shooting them. The police fired about 25 bullets at the shark that killed Cernobori. “I’ve always been against the culling of them,” said Phil Mummert, 28, who survived an attack off Western Australia in July. Mummert was surfing at Bunker Bay, south of Perth, when a shark bit his board in two and punctured his upper thigh, just an inch from his femoral artery. He said he was glad that, in the end, the authorities had not succeeded in locating the shark that had attacked him. “There’s just no way to know that’s the one,” he said. Nonetheless, he said, the high number of deaths this year had been a constant and painful reminder of his experience. “It really drives it home for me just how lucky I was to come out of that alive,” he said.   © 2020 New York Times News Service

He also took aim at domestic US critics of President Barack Obama who question whether climate change is mainly man-made. Kerry said scientific findings were overwhelming and "screaming at us, warning us"."Every nation, every nation has a responsibility to do its part," he said in a speech at United Nations talks in Lima that are trying to sketch out elements of a draft 190-nation deal due in Paris in late 2015 to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions.Kerry said the Obama administration ranked the fight against climate change as a top priority along with terrorism, poverty and nuclear proliferation."If you are a big developed nation and you are not helping to lead, you are a part of the problem," he said."More than half of global emissions are coming from developing nations. It is imperative that they act too," he said, without naming countries.China, the United States, the European Union and India are the top emitters.Even after two decades of talks about global warming, "We are still on a course leading to tragedy," he told delegates including UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and Peru's Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal.Many poor nations and environmental groups say Washington has done too little, despite pledges of tougher action in a deal with China last month. Critics note that in 2012, US emissions were 4.3 percent above levels in 1990, the UN benchmark year for cuts."The world is tired of hearing rhetorical, empty boasting about US leadership while the glaciers melt, fires rage and people lose their lives to climate change," said Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth.Others hailed Kerry's personal commitment. Yvo de Boer, a former UN climate chief and now head of the Global Green Growth Institute that aids developing nations, told Reuters Kerry was "the first US Secretary of State who has taken any serious interest" in climate change.Kerry said a deal in Paris next year would not be a silver bullet to end rising temperatures, heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels. But he said it could put the world on the right track."The window is closing quickly," he said.Kerry said a shift to renewable energy sources would still result in improved health and energy security around the world, even if scientific findings that greenhouse gases cause climate change were wrong and skeptics were right."But what happens if the climate skeptics are wrong? Catastrophe," he said.The Lima talks are due to end on Friday, but delegates expect them to last into Saturday due to deep rifts.For example, China insisted that national climate plans to be submitted early next year as building blocks for the Paris accord should not be subject to review by other nations. This step was urged by many others including the European Union.

President Nicolas Sarkozy wound up a state visit to China on Tuesday buoyed by record deals for French firms but with little response from Beijing over currency jitters and the environment. Sarkozy challenged China to shoulder its responsibilities as a global power and play its part in tackling global warming. "I am proposing that China joins a new global pact, an ecological and economic New Deal," he told students in Beijing. The scheme is seen as a bid to exchange clean technology and other incentives for Chinese participation in a post-Kyoto global pact that would impose cuts in its choking pollution. It was one of a series of pragmatic trade-offs floated in a visit that saw Sarkozy link progress on climate and the weak yuan with French help on gaining improved access to Europe's market economy and membership of an expanded G8, officials said. France wants China to allow its managed yuan currency to rise against the euro to reduce a record European Union trade deficit with China that threatens domestic French jobs. Sarkozy hammered on the strength of the euro, telling French business leaders on a swing through Shanghai that the United States and Japan should also act to reduce economic imbalances. "We won't be able to steady exchange rates alone," he said. Sarkozy's visit overlapped with the arrival of European monetary officials to press the case for a stronger yuan. French officials said Sarkozy felt progress had been made on the issue, with China open to talks, but Premier Wen Jiabao reaffirmed Beijing's gradualist approach to yuan flexibility. There was also a muted response to Sarkozy's proposal that Beijing should spell out goals for curbing harmful emissions, something developing countries are not so far obliged to do. "If we don't fix targets we won't succeed in avoiding catastrophe," he said in a speech to students at Beijing's Tsinghua University. "We can't have one response for Europe and one for Asia, one for the North and one for the South. A commentary in Chinese state media said that from the Industrial Revolution until the 1950s, the developed world was responsible for 95 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions and accounted for 77 percent from 1950 to 2000. "Therefore, on the problem of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, who should bear heavier responsibility goes without saying," it said. Rapidly growing China is emerging as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from factories, farms and vehicles blamed for climate change. Next week in Bali, the United Nations launches what it hopes will be two years of talks to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose initial phase ends in 2012. INFORMAL BUT FRANK Sarkozy's informal but frank remarks echoed earlier appeals to China to shoulder the responsibilities which go with its growing force in global politics, which marked the main theme of his first state visit to Asia since he was elected president. Sarkozy was elected in May, promising to shake the dust off foreign policy and speak freely about French concerns. Although he disappointed activists by leaving his human rights minister off the trip, he shook up protocol by raising human rights in front of President Hu Jintao. But he balanced public forthrightness with strong reassurances over Taiwan and avoided public comment on Tibet, skirting an issue that has split China and Germany, where relations have suffered after Chancellor Angela Merkel received Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Sarkozy presided over some $30 billion in business deals, including promises to buy 160 planes from Airbus and a deal between China and French state-owned nuclear energy group Areva for two nuclear reactors and more than a decade of fuel. Sarkozy toured Beijing's preparations for the 2008 Olympics before heading to Shanghai for a whirlwind visit and then home. He will return to a country reeling from a second night of clashes between youths and police in a poor Paris suburb and recovering from a crippling transport strike over his plan to end a system of special pension rights. Sarkozy appealed from China for calm in the Paris suburbs, which were hit by three weeks of rioting in 2005.

France had earlier said that, starting from 2300 GMT on Monday, it would restrict cross-Channel trade, threatening to turn bickering over fish into a wider trade dispute between two of Europe's biggest economies. But Macron, who earlier on Monday met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, told reporters the French plan was on hold pending the outcome of renewed talks. "Since this afternoon, discussions have resumed on the basis of a proposal I made to Prime Minister (Boris) Johnson. The talks need to continue," Macron told reporters. "My understanding is that the British were going to come back to us tomorrow with other proposals. All that will be worked on. We'll see where we are tomorrow at the end of the day, to see if things have really changed," he said. "My wish is that we can find a way out on all these issues." LEGAL THREAT European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said on his Twitter feed the trade sanctions would not be applied before a meeting with British Brexit minister David Frost in Paris on Thursday. Britain welcomed the decision. "We welcome France's acknowledgement that in-depth discussions are needed to resolve the range of difficulties in the UK/EU relationship," a UK government spokesperson said in a statement. Frost accepted Beaune's invitation, the spokesperson added. Earlier on Monday, Britain gave France 48 hours to back down from the threat of sanctions or face legal action under the Brexit trade deal. The measures threatened by France include increased border and sanitary checks on goods from Britain and banning British vessels from some French ports, steps that have the potential to snarl cross-Channel trade. "The French have made completely unreasonable threats, including to the Channel Islands and to our fishing industry, and they need to withdraw those threats or else we will use the mechanisms of our trade agreement with the EU to take action," British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Sky News Britain and France have squabbled for decades over access to the rich fishing grounds around their Channel coasts. The fishing issue dogged the negotiations that led to Britain's exit from the European Union, not because of its economic importance - it is scant - but rather its political significance. Re-asserting Britain's control over its fishing grounds was a central plank of the case for Brexit that Johnson presented to British voters. Macron, meanwhile, faces re-election next year and needs to be seen standing up for his nation's trawler crews, a vocal political constituency. The latest row erupted in September after Paris accused London of failing to allocate enough post-Brexit licences to French boats to fish in the zone 6-12 nautical miles from UK shores. Britain says it is issuing licences to vessels that can prove they have previously fished in its waters - a central demand from British fishermen who fear French boats could wipe out their own profits. Last Wednesday French authorities seized a British scallop dredger, the Cornelis Gert Jan, in French waters near Le Havre, angering London. On Monday afternoon, anticipating a new ratcheting-up of tensions once the French deadline expired, fishing crews from both France and Britain were staying out of each other's waters, according to marine traffic tracking data and a French industry representative

The European Union's Nobel peace prize comes just as a realization is dawning that Europe's single currency - the EU's most ambitious project - has survived three years of incessant financial turmoil and is not going to break up. But having narrowly avoided an acrimonious divorce and the loss of some of its errant children, the euro zone risks a future as an unequal, loveless marriage with frequent rows and the prospect of separate bedrooms. Two things have become clearer in the last few weeks that were widely disputed before: contrary to prevailing opinion earlier this year, the euro is here to stay and could very probably keep all 17 members and add more in future. But the euro zone has not yet found a way out of the doldrums of economic stagnation, unemployment and social dislocation that are widening the gap between northern and southern Europe and fuelling Eurosceptical populist movements in many countries. Three events have changed the outlook for the euro area: - The European Central Bank put a floor under the euro zone by agreeing last month to buy unlimited quantities of bonds of any troubled member state that accepts the conditions of a bailout program. ECB President Mario Draghi made clear the bank will use all its tools to defeat anyone betting on a break-up of the monetary union. - The euro zone's permanent rescue fund came into effect last week after months of wrangling and legal challenges, providing a 500 billion euro backstop for countries that risk losing access to capital markets. - And German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled by visiting Athens that the EU's most powerful economy wants Greece to stay in the euro area, drawing a line under months of debate in Berlin, notably in her own coalition, about ejecting the Greeks. Coincidentally, a flood of scenarios for the explosion and break-up of the euro that spewed out of the banks and political risk consultancies of London and New York for months has suddenly dried up. In currency markets, short bets against the euro have subsided. Bond yields have fallen and bank shares have recovered. Spanish banks are having to borrow less from the ECB as some regain access to the money markets. GREXIT RECEDES In another micro-indicator of a changed climate, economists at U.S. bank Citigroup have revised their view that Greece will almost certainly leave the euro, saying key euro zone players seem to have decided a Greek exit would do more harm than good. The US bank lowered the probability of a "Grexit" to 60 percent from 90 percent, although it still believes Greece is more likely than not to leave the euro within 12-18 months, arguing that European governments are unlikely to agree to waive part of the country's huge debt to make it sustainable. Don't write off a write-off, though, especially if it can be delayed until after next year's German general election. It may then seem a more rational, albeit unpopular, option than a disorderly Greek default and exit, with all the disastrous economic and social consequences for Greece and Europe. One voice last week jarred with the easing of European existential anxiety: the International Monetary Fund said the EU's policy response remained "critically incomplete, exposing the euro area to a downward spiral of capital flight, breakup fears and economic decline". In its role as an uncomfortable truth-teller, the IMF is trying to jolt the euro zone, especially Germany, into moving ahead faster with a banking union and closer fiscal integration, and altering the policy mix between austerity and growth. In a candid acknowledgement, the IMF admitted it had underestimated the damage to growth wrought by budget cutting and urged Europe to ease up on austerity, drawing an indignant rebuff from Germany's finance minister. RAVAGES The shift in perceptions about the euro zone is more noticeable in the financial markets than on the streets, where the impact of the sovereign debt crisis will continue to cause ravages for years to come. Public spending cuts and recession are tearing at the fabric of societies from Athens to Madrid, casting many middle class families and retirees into poverty and more unemployed and young people into precarity. The crisis has changed the balance of power in Europe, giving Germany and its north European allies a preponderant say in euro zone decision-making commensurate with their credit rating, while making southern states weaker and more dependent. A two-speed Europe, in which everyone was heading in the same direction at different paces, may now be turning into a two-tier Europe, with the euro zone becoming a tighter inner core with its own budget and stricter rules, while Britain, Sweden and some others form a looser outer circle. Germany, determined to limit its taxpayers' liabilities for other euro states, has rejected issuing common euro zone bonds or providing a joint bank deposit guarantee. The German, Dutch and Finnish finance ministers are trying to rule out any retroactive use of euro zone rescue funds. Yet Berlin supports the emerging idea of creating a separate euro zone budget to cope with asymmetric economic shocks, and its backing for a single banking supervisor will surely open the door to some greater mutualization of risk in the longer term. As the euro area becomes a more integrated federal bloc, EU members outside the single currency face awkward choices. Those such as Poland, Hungary and Latvia that aspire to join the monetary union as soon as possible are trying to hug the euro zone as tightly as possible, demanding seats and votes in a new banking supervisory authority that take decisions on banks operating on their soil. Poland tried unsuccessfully last week to lever its way into the inner sanctum of euro zone finance ministers by offering to join a group of EU states launching a financial transaction tax in return for a seat at the Eurogroup table. It was told only euro members could attend the Eurogroup. Britain, which has no intention of joining either the euro or the banking union, is demanding a veto right to protect its large financial sector from decisions taken by the others, while aiming to use closer euro zone integration as an opportunity to negotiate a loosening of its own European ties. Sweden, with a pro-euro political establishment that lost a referendum on joining the currency in 2003, seems more uneasy and conflicted about the euro zone moving ahead without it. All of this means Europe faces a tense period of reshaping that will severely test its Nobel-recognized powers of building peace and prosperity on a fractious continent.

TOKYO, Tue May 6,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao lauded closer cooperation with Japan -- and offered a pair of pandas as a friendly gesture -- after arriving on Tuesday for a state visit intended to nurture trust between the wary Asian powers. The state visit, the second ever by a top Chinese leader, comes as China seeks to soothe international concern over Tibetan unrest, which has threatened to mar Beijing's Olympic Games in August. Hu was greeted at the airport by senior Japanese officials and flag-waving well-wishers, mostly Chinese, but in the centre of the capital, more than 1,000 protesters marched peacefully chanting "Human rights for Tibet". Trucks carrying right-wing activists roamed the city blaring anti-China slogans and Japan's national anthem. Some 7,000 police were deployed amid concern over protests by the activists, who see China as a threat, but there were no reports of scuffles. China wants to promote an image as a friendly neighbor after years of feuding over Japan's handling of its wartime aggression. Hu, who has stressed forward-looking goals for his five days of summitry and ceremony, said stable and friendly ties were good for both countries, whose economies are increasingly intertwined. "Relations between the two countries now have new opportunities for further development," he said in a written statement upon arrival in Tokyo. "I hope through this visit to increase mutual trust and strengthen friendship." In a gesture that might help woo a skeptical Japanese public, Hu offered to give Japan two pandas for research purposes, Japan's foreign ministry said in a statement, following the recent death of popular Ling Ling panda at a Tokyo zoo. He made the offer during an informal dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda at a Tokyo restaurant with historical links to Sun Yat-sen, considered the "father" of modern China. OPPORTUNITIES, ANXIETIES China replaced the United States as Japan's top trade partner last year, with two-way trade worth $236.6 billion, up 12 percent from 2006. "As two important powers, if China and Japan can coordinate and cooperate more, and together promote regional economic integration and respond together to international financial, energy, environmental and a series of other challenges, that would be an excellent supplement to our two countries overall trade and economic relations," Chinese ambassador to Japan Cui Tiankai said in a recent interview on Chinese state TV. But Beijing's expanding diplomatic and military reach has also stirred anxieties in Japan over disputed energy resources, military power and the safety standards of Chinese exports. "Although the iceberg between China and Japan has melted, fully warming relations require further efforts from both sides," a commentator wrote in China's People's Daily. The political climax of Hu's visit is set to be a summit on Wednesday with Fukuda, when they hope to unveil a blueprint for managing future ties. Beijing and Tokyo are keen to avoid a rerun of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin's visit to Japan a decade ago, which left a chill after he delivered pointed lectures on Japan's 1931-1945 invasion and occupation of China. Sino-Japanese ties chilled during Junichiro Koizumi's 2001-2006 term as prime minister over his visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine, but tensions have eased since then. Japanese media reports said that touchy references in the joint document to Taiwan, human rights, and Japan's hopes for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council were still under negotiation. The two countries are also quarrelling over the rights to gas beds beneath the East China Sea, while a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several people sick has become for some a symbol of Japanese alarm at China's rise. GOODWILL, NOT BREAKTHROUGHS? Japan wants greater transparency about China's surging defense spending, set at 418 billion yuan ($60 billion) for 2008, up 17.6 percent on 2007 and outstripping Japan's defense budget. Foreign critics say China's real military budget is much higher. Tokyo wants Chinese backing for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, an issue that in 2005 fuelled anti-Japanese protests in China, where there is deep rancor over Japan's harsh wartime occupation of much of the country. China has pressed Japan to spell out again its stance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing says must accept reunification. Tokyo has said it supports "one China" that includes Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony for fifty years until 1945 and keeps close ties to Japan. Few expect big breakthroughs on specific disputes, but the two sides are keen to stress forward-looking goodwill and are to issue a joint document on fighting climate change, a key topic for Japan as host of the July G8 summit. Hu will speak to Japanese students at Tokyo's Waseda University and may unwind a bit by playing ping-pong with Fukuda. ($1=6.988 Yuan)

Following are reactions from world leaders: (statements or tweets unless otherwise stated) CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU "On behalf of the Government of Canada, I congratulate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their election as the next President and Vice President of the United States of America. Canada and the United States enjoy an extraordinary relationship – one that is unique on the world stage." "I look forward to working with President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Harris, their administration, and the United States Congress as we tackle the world’s greatest challenges together.” GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL "I look forward to future cooperation with President Biden. Our transatlantic friendship is irreplaceable if we are to master the great challenges of our time." GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER HEIKO MAAS "We look forward to working with the next US administration. We want to invest in our cooperation, for a transatlantic restart and a New Deal." BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON "Congratulations to Joe Biden on his election as President of the United States and to Kamala Harris on her historic achievement. "The US is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security." JAPAN PRIME MINISTER YOSHIHIDE SUGA "Warm congratulations to @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the Japan-US Alliance and ensure peace, freedom and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond." FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON "The Americans have chosen their President. Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris! We have a lot to do to overcome today's challenges. Let's work together!" INDIAN PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI "Congratulations @JoeBiden on your spectacular victory! As the VP, your contribution to strengthening Indo-US relations was critical and invaluable. I look forward to working closely together once again to take India-US relations to greater heights." INDIAN PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI, ON KAMALA HARRIS "Heartiest congratulations @KamalaHarris! Your success is pathbreaking, and a matter of immense pride not just for your chittis, but also for all Indian-Americans. I am confident that the vibrant India-US ties will get even stronger with your support and leadership." (Chittis is the Tamil word for "aunts" that Harris used in her speech while accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for vice president.) PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER IMRAN KHAN "Congratulations @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris. Look forward to President Elect Biden's Global Summit on Democracy & working with him to end illegal tax havens & stealth of nation's wealth by corrupt ldrs. We will also continue to work with US for peace in Afghanistan & in the region." EUROPEAN UNION COMMISSION PRESIDENT URSULA VON DER LEYEN "I warmly congratulate Mr Joe Biden on his victory in the US presidential election and look forward to meeting him at the earliest possible opportunity. "The European Union and the United States are friends and allies, our citizens share the deepest of links...As the world continues to change and new challenges and opportunities appear, our renewed partnership will be of particular importance." NATO SECRETARY GENERAL JENS STOLTENBERG "I warmly welcome the election of Joe Biden as the next President of the United States. I know Mr. Biden as a strong supporter of NATO and the transatlantic relationship." "US leadership is as important as ever in an unpredictable world, and I look forward to working very closely with President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and the new administration to further strengthen the bond between North America and Europe." IRISH PRIME MINISTER MICHEAL MARTIN "I offer warmest congratulations to Joe Biden on his election as the 46th President of the United States. Ireland takes pride in Joe Biden's election, just as we are proud of all the generations of Irish women and Irish men and their ancestors whose toil and genius have enriched the diversity that powers America." IRAQ PRIME MINISTER MUSTAFA AL-KADHIMI "I look forward to working with you on strengthening the strategic ties that bind Iraq and the United States, building on common values between our nations to overcome challenges together." POLISH PRESIDENT ANDRZEJ DUDA "Congratulations to @JoeBiden for a successful presidential campaign. As we await the nomination by the Electoral College, Poland is determined to upkeep high-level and high-quality PL-US strategic partnership for an even stronger alliance." UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY "Congratulations to @JoeBiden @KamalaHarris! Ukraine is optimistic about the future of the strategic partnership with the United States. Ukraine and the United States have always collaborated on security, trade, investment, democracy, fight against corruption. Our friendship becomes only stronger!" DUTCH PRIME MINISTER MARK RUTTE "On behalf of the Dutch cabinet I would like to congratulate @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris with their election victory after a close race. I am looking forward to continue the strong bond between our countries, and hope to speak with him about these matters soon." NORWEGIAN PRIME MINISTER ERNA SOLBERG "On behalf of the Norwegian government, I congratulate Joe Biden on his election victory. The United States is Norway's most important ally and we work closely together in many areas. "The world needs American leadership to solve the major global challenges. We look forward to cooperating with the Biden administration at the United Nations Security Council, and in efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and climate change." PETER BEYER, GERMAN GOVERNMENT'S TRANS-ATLANTIC COORDINATOR, TOLD REUTERS "We will have a US President who is interested in Europe and doesn't want to set us against each other." SPANISH PRIME MINISTER PEDRO SANCHEZ "The American people have chosen the 46th President of the United States. Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. We wish you good luck and all the best. We are looking forward to cooperating with you to tackle the challenges ahead of us," he said. SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER ARANCHA GONZALEZ LAYA "Record citizen participation, strong institutions and a President-elect @JoeBiden with a first woman to ever hold the position of Vice-President @KamalaHarris. Looking forward to working together" GREEK PRIME MINISTER KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS "Congratulations to US President-Elect @JoeBiden. Joe Biden has been a true friend of Greece and I'm certain that under his presidency the relationship between our countries will grow even stronger." ARGENTINE PRESIDENT ALBERTO FERNANDEZ “I congratulate the American people on the record turnout at the elections, a clear expression of popular will. I salute @JoeBiden, the next President of the United States, and @KamalaHarris, who will be the first female vice president of that country.” CHILE PRESIDENT SEBASTIAN PINERA "Congratulations, @JoeBiden, President-elect of the United States, and Vice President @KamalaHarris, on this victory. Chile and USA share many values, such as freedom, the defence of human rights, and challenges like the commitment for peace & the protection of the environment." PERU PRESIDENT MARTIN VIZCARRA "We salute the massive turnout of the American people at the polls and congratulate @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris on their recent election. We will work to strengthen democracy, multilateralism, international cooperation and preserve the environment." PARAGUAY PRESIDENT MARIO ABDO "We extend our congratulations to the President-elect of the United States @JoeBiden. We wish him every success and reaffirm our commitment to continue strengthening bilateral relations based on our shared democratic principles and values." PHILLIPINES PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESMAN HARRY ROQUE "On behalf of the Filipino nation, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte wishes to extend his warm congratulations to former Vice President Joseph 'Joe' Biden on his election as the new President of the United States of America."

A British company believes it is within five years of achieving "reactor relevant" fusion, a major landmark in the six decade long scientific search for the veritable Holy Grail of energy production. Fusion is how stars produce energy. It occurs when the nuclei of light atoms, such as hydrogen, are fused together under extreme pressure and heat. Tokamak Energy, from Oxfordshire, believes that the third version of their compact, spherical tokamak reactor will be able to reach temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius by 2020. That's seven times hotter than the centre of the sun and the temperature necessary to achieve fusion. Such a temperature fuses hydrogen atoms together, releasing energy, which differs from fission reactors that work by splitting atoms at much lower temperatures. Such an achievement wouldn't mean a rapid rollout of a global fusion electricity network, but would be a significant step to achieving this by 2050, potentially making an enormous contribution both to world energy supplies and reducing carbon emissions. In Paris world leaders are meeting to try to reach an agreed framework for action aimed at stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Governments hope the summit will end on December 11 in a deal that will herald a shift from rising dependence on fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution to cleaner energies such as wind or solar power. Key to Tokamak Energy's success is the spherical shape of its tokamak - a device using a magnetic field to confine plasma - and thin high temperature superconductor strips. "Here what we're developing is building these small tokamaks, like ST25, and then we've got other devices using key technologies which are high temperature superconductors and spherical tokamak shapes," senior Tokamak engineer Bill Huang told Reuters. "So we've got a slightly different shape from traditional fusion and this allows us to get a higher plasma pressure for a given magnetic field. It's a measure of efficiency called beta, and by using this improved efficiency it means that the overall size of our device is actually quite a bit smaller." Tokamak Energy says its technology would be similar in costs to a nuclear fission plant, but without any fissile material and with no risk of meltdown. The company, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, says its compact design means fusion could be generated in far smaller reactors than assumed possible by scientists until recently.  Huang says that its current ST25 reactor has already reached fusion temperatures in short bursts, but hopes its third reactor, ST40 - currently being completed - will enable it to produce "reactor relevant" conditions.  "This (ST25) will allow us to get very high temperatures for a short amount of time but what we're looking to do is generate these high temperatures which are reactor relevant, so we've set ourselves a 100 million degree challenge, and we're aiming to get 100 million degrees in that (ST40) device," said Huang. The company is three stages into its five stage process - each involving a new reactor. Tokamak CEO David Kingham believes it will be possible for his team to transfer energy to the grid by 2030. "We want to get within five years to an energy gain, and from there we want to go on in ten years to get to first electricity, a device where we can demonstrate production of electricity from fusion, but it may be 15 years before we get energy to the grid in significant quantities," said Kingham. He added: "Fusion is one of those technologies which, if it could be harnessed, could be scaled up rapidly to be deployed world-wide by 2050 and could make a very big difference to carbon emissions and therefore to climate change from 2050 onwards." Tokamak Energy has developed its own magnets using novel high temperature superconductors and believes that this new material could be used to construct even more powerful magnets to keep the hot plasma in position inside a power generating tokamak, at the fusion reactor's heart. The ongoing failure of the multi-billion dollar International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project in France has encouraged many small companies to take advantages of advances in various technologies to attempt to make fusion themselves. A number of high-profile investors, such as Microsoft's Paul Allen and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, are backing various small-scale fusion projects. Investors are attracted to the sheer scale of eventual return on offer in an era when the world is turning its back on dwindling fossil fuel stocks and looking for cleaner energy sources. The fact that many different routes could be developed to achieve fusion, as opposed to a 'winner-takes-all' race where only one invention succeeds, is also attractive. One of the company's largest investors - and the first to stump up funds - is the Rainbow Seed Fund, co-managed by Mark White. "I think this opportunity here is possibly one of the most spectacular combinations of risk and reward that I've ever seen. There are undoubtedly many challenges still remaining," he said. Such challenges include making exceptionally strong magnets from high temperature superconductors. White says that Tokamak Energy's superconducting magnet inventions will also help investors like him achieve a good return on their money. Additional factors make the venture attractive. "First of all they (fusion reactors) can be constructed in a factory, so you're talking about economies of scale; and the second key thing is the way in which the grid itself, the future grid, is likely to be more dispersed than current central power generation units, one to two gigawatts per power station. "The devices we're talking about here are likely to be in the order of 100 megawatts, considerably smaller than those units, and that puts them into the sort of power output bracket that becomes really very interesting for large mobile uses, such as some that you might see in the defence sector - aircraft carriers, submarines, for example." Other companies in the hunt for a fusion breakthrough include Dynomak, developed by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle, which has proven that their concept works. The next step is to scale it up so they can achieve the temperatures needed to start and sustain a fusion reaction.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that he will defend Brazil's record on global climate change when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly this week. Brazil is one of the world's largest carbon gas emitters, due largely to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. But Lula said Amazon deforestation had fallen 25 percent in the year through July 2006, preventing carbon emissions of 410 million tons. The former factory worker will speak at the opening of the annual U.N. general assembly in New York on Tuesday. "We have good numbers to show at this meeting," Lula said during his weekly radio address. Lula said the figures showed Brazil was making substantial progress in preserving forests. "I'm convinced Brazil has a contribution to make in any global debate," he added. Critics have said that Lula waves the "green banner" abroad but at home promotes environmentally-unfriendly infrastructure projects and refuses to adopt targets to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions. The popular former union leader is one of 12 world leaders invited by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to a private dinner on Monday night to discuss climate change. (Reporting by Raymond Colitt)

Thick gray smoke blanketed the skyline and the coast, stretching for miles from the fire front at the southwestern edge of the city, where dried-out forests have been burning for weeks. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Funder, an award-winning Australian novelist known for stories of cruelty and resistance. “It was this huge and terrible seam of white smoke coming up from the ground beyond which the rest of the continent — where I was headed, where my home is — was invisible. “It was as if the country were being devoured by a chemical reaction.” Sydney, nicknamed the “Emerald City” for its subtropical beauty, is struggling with a summer of choking smoke. Bush fires raging to the north, south and west since early November have pushed smoke and ash not just into neighborhoods abutting the blazes, but all the way to coastal suburbs more than 50 miles away. NSW Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue NSW crews work to protect a property on Kyola Road in Kulnura as the Three Mile fire approaches Mangrove Mountain, Australia, December 6, 2019. AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts/via REUTERS All of us who live here can taste the fire and feel it in our throats. Asthmatics are showing up in emergency rooms in greater numbers. Schools are canceling sports and recess. In houses built to be open to the elements, people are taping their windows shut; there have even been reports of fire alarms in office buildings set off by the smoke from miles away. NSW Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue NSW crews work to protect a property on Kyola Road in Kulnura as the Three Mile fire approaches Mangrove Mountain, Australia, December 6, 2019. AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts/via REUTERS And the effect of this year’s wildfire season, which began much earlier than usual, goes beyond the physical. Rising levels of angst and anger are emerging all over Sydney, spreading like the haze. As many here see it, Australia’s conservative government, in refusing to address the threat of climate change, is favoring the country’s powerful fossil fuel industry over its largest city, as well as the rural areas where fires have already destroyed hundreds of homes. Psychologists describe a creeping sense of impotence and dread. “The stress based on the fact that thick smoke can accelerate preexisting cardiovascular conditions is one thing,” said Frans Verstraten, who holds the McCaughey Chair of Psychology at the University of Sydney. “But the other kind of stress, based on the realization that there is not much we can do — helplessness; the realization that you can’t do anything about it — makes it worse.” On social media, the sharing of images of #sydneysmoke in its many shades, from orange to gray, has become a regular feature of people’s morning routines. Others have taken to posting photos of burned leaves that show up far from the fires, or of the darkened sun, looking as toxic and red as the blazes themselves. In diagnostic detail, they have described how it feels to deal with the extended reach of the infernos, which are large enough to be seen from space — and are even turning glaciers in New Zealand pink. State officials have warned of the dangers. The New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage said that “our network has recorded some of the highest air pollution ever seen” in the state. Fire fighting crews from the Rural Fire Service (RFS), NSW Fire and Rescue and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) officers fight a bushfire encroaching on properties near Lake Tabourie, Australia, December, 5, 2019. Picture taken December 5, 2019. AAP Image/Dean Lewins/via REUTER In November, the department recorded 15 days of poor air quality, far beyond the monthly norm. On Monday, the levels of PM2.5, the most harmful form of pollutant, were 22 times the accepted safety level — the equivalent of smoking more than a pack of cigarettes a day. Pollution levels were expected to reach similar heights Friday. Fire fighting crews from the Rural Fire Service (RFS), NSW Fire and Rescue and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) officers fight a bushfire encroaching on properties near Lake Tabourie, Australia, December, 5, 2019. Picture taken December 5, 2019. AAP Image/Dean Lewins/via REUTER Even compared to the terrible fire seasons of 1994 and 2001, “this event,” state officials said, “is the longest and the most widespread in our records.” With fires also raging in the state of Queensland, that means the pressure on Australia’s government is likely to intensify. Climate protests have become more common. At rallies, longtime activists are increasingly being joined by newcomers like Emily Xu, a 13-year-old student who skipped school to attend a protest Nov. 29 in downtown Sydney. She and a handful of her friends, all in school uniforms, said it was their first rally and that they had made the trek because the fires had suddenly made climate change’s threats more real for them. “Before I was like, ‘Oh, if we don’t have coal we won’t make any money for our economy,’ ” Xu said. Now, she said, fires were approaching her house and her friends’ houses, making her less worried about the economy than about survival. Funder, the novelist, said the failure to address climate change was especially hard for her three children, who are 10, 15 and 17, to understand. “I can’t explain this to my children in a way that makes adults seem like sane, moral actors,” she said. “In this story, that’s not what we are. Although in every other way we try to look out for them and their future, in this story our failure is literally choking them, keeping them indoors at school.” In some countries, such widespread environmental effects have led to changes in policy. Activists angry about pollution in Mexico City pushed the government to impose tougher regulations for vehicle emissions. Many academics believe China’s quick pivot to renewables in recent years was a response to air pollution and citizens’ growing concerns about its impact. In Australia, however — where the air in Sydney was ranked among the worst in the world last month — Prime Minister Scott Morrison has resisted. “The response has been to double down on denialism,” said David Schlosberg, director of the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney. Instead of addressing the public’s concerns, Morrison has suggested that some forms of protest should be outlawed, while refusing to meet with retired firefighters who have warned for months that more resources are desperately needed to battle the blazes. On Friday, Morrison merely acknowledged that the haze in Sydney “has been very distressing to people.” He recommended downloading an app that tracks the fires. People watch as smoke from the Green Wattle Creek fire is seen from Echo Point lookout in Katoomba, as bushfires continue to blaze in New South Wales, Australia, December 6, 2019. Picture taken December 6, 2019. AAP/Steven Saphore via REUTERS Asked about a new report questioning Australia’s stewardship of the Great Barrier Reef, which is being killed by climate change, he repeated a false assertion that Australia’s carbon emissions are declining (scientists have shown that they are still rising). People watch as smoke from the Green Wattle Creek fire is seen from Echo Point lookout in Katoomba, as bushfires continue to blaze in New South Wales, Australia, December 6, 2019. Picture taken December 6, 2019. AAP/Steven Saphore via REUTERS Some critics are starting to wonder how long the government’s position can last. “I really don’t see how this governmental attack on genuine concerns, coupled with a lack of action on both emissions and adaptation policies, can stand for much longer — especially in the face of increasing disasters and emergencies,” Schlosberg said. At the very least, the smoky conditions are forcing everyone to question their assumptions about Sydney, where fresh air and ocean breezes are treated as a daily birthright. At the top of Sydney Tower, the city’s tallest building, Chinese tourists said they were shocked by how little they could see. In Hyde Park, a few blocks away, Julian deCseuz, 75, sat on a bench with a mask over his face. After a few hours of use, the white cotton was already a shade of dusty brown. “Australia has always had a bush fire problem, but I’ve never seen it this bad,” he said. “I’ve been to Beijing and to Delhi, and it’s very similar conditions.” c.2019 The New York Times Company

Australia's opposition leader denied on Friday he was manoeuvring to force the country back to the ballot box after a weekend election delivered a hung parliament, with independents holding the balance of power. Nearly a week on from the Aug. 21 election, Australia is still no closer to forming a government, with neither of the major parties close to striking a deal with cross-bench MPs, raising speculation that another election might be in prospect. Markets are hoping for conservative leader Tony Abbott to form a minority government so he could deliver on pledges to kill off the outgoing government's plans for a mining tax, a price on carbon emissions and a $38 billion telecoms project. But Abbott has been accused of treating the independent MPs coldly, raising talk that he would prefer another election to negotiating a minority government. That theory was "fantasy", said Abbott, who initially refused to cooperate with the independents and whose Liberal-National coalition has one more seat than Labor. "I think the public and Australia deserves an outcome from this election," Abbott told a news conference in Sydney. Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Abbott have both fallen short of the 76 seats need to command a majority in the 150-seat parliament. The conservatives have provisionally won 73 seats, while ruling Labor secured 72. Five independent and Green MPs will now decide who forms a minority government. But Abbott on Friday said only three sitting rural independents, all former National party members, held the key to the conservative's forming government. "I believe it's important that Australia should have a competent and stable government emerge from this election. Given the position of the three (rural) independent members...I think negotiations with them are the key," Abbott said when asked about whether he could form an alliance with the Greens. Abbott ruled out doing a deal with the sole Green MP due to his demand for a carbon price, and did not mention a fourth city independent who was critical of a former conservative government's support for the war in Iraq. Labor probably needs the support of two of the three rural independents, along with the Green MP and independent from the city of Hobart on the island state Tasmania. Gillard said she held "productive" talks on Friday with the Greens. Gillard supports a market-based carbon price to combat climate change and a worry for Abbott is that two of the rural independents also support a carbon price. GREENS SEEK LABOR MINORITY GOVT Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said the talks with Gillard were "very constructive". "We are working to see if a Labor government can be formulated," Brown told reporters after the meeting, adding Abbott had not yet organised a meeting. Asked how long Australia should wait for a new government to be formed, Abbott declined to set a deadline. "I understand it is going to be difficult for them to make a choice. I am not trying to pressure them into any kind of timetable," he said. "I just make this point, it is a national government...and it is important that the decision is not unduly delayed." Australians are betting that any minority government formed in the next few weeks will not last a full term and fresh elections will be called in 2011, said an online bookmaker. Online bookmakers Sportingbet said the odds were shortening for an early election, possibly in 2011, to sort out the impasse. "Punters know that any minority government would face plenty of problems and the new prime minister, whoever that may be, could be forced to call an early election," Sportingbet Australia chief Michael Sullivan said. And at least one analyst said a new poll could be seen as a positive development and preferable to an unstable government. "If the alternative was an election or an unstable government where there was no major policy decisions being made, then I think an election would be preferable," Macquarie Bank senior economist Brian Redican said.

Hundreds of wildfires burned across Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra on Tuesday, producing thick clouds of smoke that disrupted air travel, forced schools to close and sickened many thousands of people. Poorly equipped firefighters were unable to bring them under control. Officials said that about 80% of the fires were set intentionally to make room for palm plantations, a lucrative cash crop that has led to deforestation on much of Sumatra. The slash-and-burn conflagrations, which tore through sensitive rainforests where dozens of endangered species live, immediately drew comparisons to the wildfires in the Amazon basin that have destroyed more than 2 million acres. “That’s how they clear the land, using the cheapest method and conducted by many people,” said Agus Wibowo, a spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster management agency. The fires in Indonesia and the Amazon contribute to climate change by releasing carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere and by destroying trees and vegetation that remove such emissions from the air. Aerial footage showed huge clouds of white smoke billowing up across vast tracts of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. Both Borneo and the island of Sumatra are home to endangered species of orangutan. The disaster management agency identified 2,900 hot spots throughout Indonesia, including a large number of wildfires burning on Sulawesi and Java islands and in Papua province. The fires occur annually at this time of year, the dry season, and have long been a contentious issue between Indonesia and its neighbors as the smoke drifts over Singapore and parts of Malaysia, including the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The fires now are the worst Indonesia has seen in several years, in part because this year has been particularly dry. Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, visited an area of Sumatra on Tuesday that has been among the hardest hit and said the government would seed clouds in the hope of bringing rain. He also said he would pray for rain. He urged residents not to set fires and to put out new blazes immediately. The president said 52 firefighting aircraft had been deployed in the fire zones in Kalimantan and Sumatra, roughly one for every 26 of the hot spots identified there. “We are dealing with sizable forests, vast peatlands,” he told reporters. “If there are lots of fires like this, it’s not easy. Therefore I ask everybody, all the people, not to burn land, both forests and peat.” Last week, the government said it had shut down more than two dozen plantations after fires were spotted burning on their land, including four owned by Malaysian companies and one by a Singaporean firm. The companies could face charges. The president’s chief of staff, a retired general named Moeldoko, sparked controversy last week with a tweet saying that the fires were a test from God. “All disasters come from God,” he wrote, suggesting that the fires were not caused by people. “And what we need to do is not to complain but try to live it with sincerity and pray for God’s help.”   c.2019 The New York Times Company

A bill going to the U.S. Senate next week seeking deep cuts in U.S. greenhouse gases by 2050 is a "first step" but not enough to avert damaging climate change, the head of the U.N. Climate Panel said on Friday. Rajendra Pachauri also said that even tougher plans by some other developed nations to rein in emissions were insufficient to head off some projected impacts of global warming, ranging from more heatwaves and droughts to rising seas. The U.S. bill, sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent and Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican, seeks to cut U.S. emissions by up to 66 percent below current levels by 2050. It will be debated from June 2. "I think it's enough as a first step," Pachauri told reporters during a visit to Oslo. "I wouldn't say it is the final solution one is looking for." He welcomed the effort as far more stringent than a plan outlined last month by President George W. Bush that would let U.S. emissions rise to a 2025 ceiling. The United States and China are the top emitters of greenhouse gases. Bush's plan upset some of his industrial allies because it is far less tough than the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol under which 37 developed nations have agreed to cut emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Several leading scientists in the U.N. panel, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President and climate campaigner Al Gore, on Thursday urged far deeper cuts than those now under consideration by major nations. The authors, including British scientist Martin Parry, wrote in the journal Nature that the world had to cut emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 to limit temperature rises to 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. NOT ENOUGH "I would agree with Martin Parry; current efforts are certainly not enough," Pachauri said. A 2.0 Celsius rise is viewed by the European Union and some other nations as a threshold for "dangerous" climate changes. Pachauri said that estimates by the U.N. Climate Panel showed that "if you want to stabilize the increase in temperatures to between 2.0 to 2.4 Celsius we are talking about cuts of 25 to 40 percent by 2020" below 1990 levels. "That is clearly far above what was considered at any stage in the discussions on the Kyoto Protocol," he said. Almost 200 nations including the United States agreed in Bali, Indonesia, in December to work out a new U.N. treaty by the end of 2009 to curb global warming after a first period of the Kyoto Protocol runs out in 2012. U.S. environmentalists are supportive of the Lieberman-Warner bill but want more in the legislation. The business community questions the economic impact, and the politicians who have shepherded it seem gratified that it has managed to get this far -- even though it is unlikely to become law this year.

One in three of all types of amphibians may yet to be found by scientists and remote tropical forests should get extra protection as the likely homes of such "unknown" creatures, a study said on Wednesday. Despite centuries of research by biologists, the report estimated that 3,050 types of amphibians -- a group that includes frogs, toads, salamanders and newts -- were still to be described, compared to 6,296 species known to science. Likewise, it estimated that at least 160 types of land mammals were yet to be found, about 3 percent of a known total of 5,398 ranging from elephants to tiny shrews. "Most of these species are likely to be found in tropical forests," Xingli Giam, of Princeton University in the United States and lead author of the report, told Reuters. The Amazon, the Congo basin and Papua island were among likely sites. The study estimated the number of unknown species from factors including past rates of discovery of new animals and the extent of unexplored habitats. As a rule, creatures found in recent years tended to be ever rarer, limited to small ranges. "Many of the undescribed species...are probably in danger of extinction and could well disappear before they are discovered," according to the study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B by experts in the United States, Mexico and Singapore. They urged conservation policies to target the least-disturbed tropical forests -- few of which were now set aside as formal protected areas. FORESTS VANISH Past studies have shown that human destruction of habitats -- such as forest clearance to make way for farms and towns, climate change, pollution and introduction of new species -- is a mounting threat to the diversity of life. "Today's 'hidden' biodiversity need not vanish without a trace. It is up to us to try to prevent such a tragedy," they wrote. Amphibians, living both in water and on land and breathing through their skin, are often important in food chains ranging from fish to birds. "They link the terrestrial and aquatic habitats," Giam said. There were likely to be more undiscovered amphibians than mammals because they were often harder to spot -- living in swamps, or sitting immobile in trees. Mammals were often more active. The study did not consider other types of creatures. Among recent discoveries, scientists found three new species of amphibian in Colombia last year including a toad with ruby-coloured eyes. Among mammals, experts identified a snub-nosed monkey in remote forests in Myanmar in 2010. And some vanishing species may have valuable genes. The Australian gastric brooding frog, which incubated its young in its stomach, went extinct in the 1980s before scientists could study how it did not simply digest its young. Its trick might have given clues to help people suffering from stomach ulcers. Amphibians may also have clues for developing anti-microbial drugs or controlling malaria-spreading mosquitoes, Giam said. Giam acknowledged that it may be hard to focus public attention on unknown species. "Here we try to make the unknowns more known," Giam said.

"I have witnessed many incidents where the children became the worst victims of environmental disasters caused by climate change and these kind of things," Satyarthi told Reuters TV on the sidelines of a conference on climate change."It has resulted in displacement of the parents, and eventually the children are compelled to become child labourers or even child prostitutes or child slaves because they lose their traditional livelihood."The latest report from the UN Panel on Climate Change predicts a rise in global temperatures of between 0.3 and 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5 to 8.6 Fahrenheit) and a rise of up to 82 cm (32 inches) in sea levels by the late 21st century.Scientists say India is likely to be hit hard by global warming. It is already one of the most disaster-prone nations in the world and many of its 1.2 billion people live in areas vulnerable to hazards such as floods, cyclones and droughts.New weather patterns will not only affect agricultural output and food security, but also lead to water shortages and trigger outbreaks of water and mosquito-borne diseases such as diarrhoea and malaria in many developing nations.Experts say post-disaster human trafficking has become common in South Asia as an increase in extreme events caused by global warming leave the already poor even more vulnerable.The breakdown of social institutions in devastated areas creates difficulties in securing food and humanitarian supplies, leaving women and children vulnerable to kidnapping, sexual exploitation and trafficking.Satyarthi said traffickers are increasingly preying on children after disasters such as the 2013 floods in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand and the yearly floods in eastern Bihar region."What has happened in Uttarakhand ... (and) also in case of Bihar in flood time, these situations become quite convenient for the traffickers to go and steal children from there," said the Indian child rights activist."So when we talk of children who are missing from those areas, they are not simply missing, they are being trafficked by the traffickers and slave masters."Satyarthi's non-governmental organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) has been credited with freeing over 80,000 child labourers in India over 30 years.Thousands of children, mostly from poor rural areas, are taken to cities every year by trafficking gangs who sell them into bonded labour or hire them out to unscrupulous employers, promising to send their parents their wages.Many end up as domestic workers or labourers in brick kilns, roadside restaurants or small textile and embroidery workshops.There are no official figures for the number of child workers in India. The 2014 Global Slavery Index says the country is home to more than 14 million victims of human trafficking.

Hungry victims of South Asia's devastating floods have been reduced to fighting over food supplies and looting, officials said on Monday, with one teenager drowning as he scrambled for air-dropped provisions. Sarfaraz, 17, drowned in Darbhanga district of eastern India's Bihar state as he went after food being dropped by helicopter, and dozens of others have been injured in similar scrambles or in fights over dwindling food supplies. More than 455 people have died in India, Bangladesh and Nepal in the latest phase of the annual monsoon floods, which began two to three weeks ago. The floods, the worst in living memory in some areas, have affected 35 million people in the region and are being seen by some as a symptom of climate change. Ten million people have been made homeless or left stranded, and are becoming increasingly desperate as they face food shortages and water-borne diseases even as the waters begin to recede in parts of Nepal and northeast India. Women and children in a Bihar village clashed over small packets of biscuits being handed out by a local aid organisation, while villagers in another part of the state looted a tractor full of grain, officials said. "We are surviving on snails as we have nothing to eat," Bhagwan Manjhi of Bihar's East Champaran district told a local news channel. "The waters have taken everything from me except five cows and some chickens," said Taslima, a mother of four malnourished children who gave only one name, as she sat on the roof of her flooded home in Bangladesh's Munshiganj district. She had been refusing help from relatives in boats because there was not enough room for her livestock, which floated nearby on a makeshift raft of bamboo and thatch. "They are my only hope for the future," she said. While the rains had eased in northern and northeastern India, flood waters were inundating fresh areas in central Bangladesh, including the capital of Dhaka, officials said. In Bihar's Begusarai district, hundreds of people living in makeshift tarpaulin and bamboo shelters on mud embankments rushed down to a nearby field as a helicopter hovered close to the ground. Women grimaced as they struggled against the gust from the rotor blades with their faded saris ballooning behind them. Four helicopters were skimming over the north of the state, pushing out thousands of sacks of rice, flour, palm sugar, salt, candles and matches -- but it was clear that demand was outstripping supply. On one sortie, an emaciated naked boy gestured for the helicopter to release more food, while men argued nearby over the sacks, shoving and pushing. "I feel sad and sympathy for them," district planning officer Birendra Prasad told a Reuters reporter aboard the helicopter. "At least someone gets something." UNICEF said it was starting to see early reports of diarrhoea, and urged Bihar's government to drop water pouches instead of rigid containers, which were bursting on impact. Marzio Babille, who is coordinating the U.N. response to the Bihar flooding, said he was also worried about diseases such as measles in a state where only a third of children are fully vaccinated and nearly two-thirds are malnourished. "This population is going to be exposed for two weeks, and even a month," he said. "This is the impact of climate change, and we need new ways of assessing risk." In the northeastern state of Assam, hundreds of private doctors began volunteering to help government hospitals cope with an influx of people with dysentery, diarrhoea, fevers and skin diseases. "There is every possibility of an outbreak of epidemic in the state," said Nareswar Dutta, a doctor and president of the state branch of the Indian Medical Association. With floods sweeping nearly two-thirds of Bangladesh, 36 more people were drowned or killed by snakebites overnight, taking the confirmed death toll from more than two weeks of deluge to 156, an official said. In Nepal, where around 60 people have died in the last couple of weeks, hundreds of people were returning to their muddy homes as water levels receded. More than 9,700 homes have been completely destroyed, the home ministry estimated.

"There are few easy answers, but one thing is clear: the current trajectory of climatic change presents a strategically-significant risk to US national security, and inaction is not a viable option," said a statement published on Wednesday by the Center for Climate and Security, a Washington-based think tank. It was signed by more than a dozen former senior military and national security officials, including retired General Anthony Zinni, former commander of the US Central Command, and retired Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the Pacific Command until last year. They called on the next US president to create a cabinet level position to deal with climate change and its impact on national security. A separate report by a panel of retired military officials, also published on Wednesday by the Center for Climate and Security, said more frequent extreme weather is a threat to US’ coastal military installations. "The complex relationship between sea level rise, storm surge and global readiness and responsiveness must be explored down to the operational level, across the Services and Joint forces, and up to a strategic level as well," the report said. Earlier this year, another report said faster sea level rises in the second half of this century could make tidal flooding a daily occurrence for some installations. Francesco Femia, co-founder and president of the Center for Climate and Security, said the reports show bipartisan national security and military officials think the existing U.S. response to climate change "is not commensurate to the threat". The fact that a large and bipartisan number of former officials signed the reports could increase pressure on future US administrations to place greater emphasis and dedicate more resources to combat climate change. Addressing climate change has not been a top priority in a 2016 campaign dominated by the US economy, trade and foreign policy. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that global warming is a concept "created by the and for the Chinese" to hurt US business. Democrat Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has advocated shifting the country to 50 percent clean energy by 2030 and promised heavy regulation of fracking.

BRUSSELS, Tue May 19, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - European Union moves to exempt industries such as steel, refining and cement from the cost of buying carbon permits risk handing them windfall profits and could blunt EU green investment, analysts say. Heavy industries in Europe and the United States are battling hard to avoid paying for permits to emit carbon dioxide, saying the added cost will harm their ability to compete with overseas rivals, for example in India and China. EU leaders reached a deal in December to curb carbon dioxide emissions to a fifth below 1990 levels by 2020, but to clinch that agreement they were forced to promise some countries such as Italy and Germany opt-outs for sectors at risk from 2013. That risk list of sectors is currently being fine-tuned in Brussels according to a complex formula that looks set to hand pollution permits from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) worth billions of euros to the most polluting sectors -- steel, cement, and refining. At stake is around 4.5 billion euros ($6.13 billion) a year for the steel industry, roughly 5 billion for cement and just under 4 billion for refining, says analyst Olivier Lejeune at New Carbon Finance in London. Help for the cement industry in particular hangs in the balance, hovering close to the threshold for support. WINDFALL PROFITS But by giving manufacturers ETS permits for free, the EU risks handing them windfall profits, as it did in previous years with the power sector, analysts say. Windfalls are generated when companies pass on the cost of the permits regardless of whether they were free or not, profiting by millions in the process. "It will not lead to the same level of windfall profits as it did in the power sector," said Susanne Droege at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. "If they have customer relationships where the customer cannot easily shift to another supplier -- longterm contracts for example -- then they could pass through the costs of permits that were given to them for free." Under the rules agreed by EU leaders in December, manufacturers will have to pay for 20 percent of their permits in 2013, rising to 70 percent in 2020. But "at risk" sectors -- those deemed to have substantial exposure to international competition and face a 5 percent or more increase in costs from buying carbon permits -- will receive all their permits for free. "In principle there's some potential for windfall profits in any sectors that are not exposed to competition," said Lejeune. "But I'd trust the Commission to look at this very carefully. They have a huge stake in the ETS being successful." CARTEL PROBES But Sanjeev Kumar of conservation group WWF points to numerous cartel probes in the European cement and steel sectors as proof that both industries can handle international competition, can pass on cost increases to customers and can not be trusted to give full disclosure. Other environment campaigners in Brussels speculate the deal on exemptions was done to win the support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Belusconi, and EU officials will therefore treat industry generously. Revenues from auctioning ETS permits are seen by many as an potential source of government funding for research and development into green technology to battle climate change. But if permits are given to companies for free, EU governments will lack the funds needed to boost R&D amid the current economic crisis, said analyst Cecile Kerebel at French think-tank Ifri. "It is possible to use these revenues for projects against climate change, and definitely there will be less money," she added. Lejeune said there would be a relatively small impact on ETS revenues, which could be used for green R&D, but also as the source of funding to offer to poor nations at global climate talks in Copenhagen in December. "There is an impact, but it is small," he said. "Auctioning will account for over 50 percent of all emissions permits in the phase from 2013, and manufacturing can only increase or decrease that by up to 15 percentage points." The Commission's risk list is close to being formalized -- ending the uncertainty of sectors such as cement -- but it could be derailed later in the year due to a row over the methodology of cost calculations. Kumar of WWF says the European Parliament could reject the calculations because they strayed from the legal demands of the directive agreed by EU leaders. "The deal was done in a shoddy way by heads of state, and I wouldn't be surprised if some parliamentarians are still sore about that," he said. "It could be challenged legally. This issue is not dead. It's very much alive and kicking."

Rich countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan and much of Western Europe, account for just 12 percent of the global population today but are responsible for 50 percent of all the planet-warming greenhouse gases released from fossil fuels and industry over the past 170 years. Over that time, Earth has heated up by roughly 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit), fueling stronger and deadlier heat waves, floods, droughts and wildfires. Poorer, more vulnerable countries have asked richer nations to provide more money to help adapt to these hazards. At the summit, Sonam Wangdi, who chairs a bloc of 47 nations known as the Least Developed Countries, pointed out that his home country of Bhutan bears little responsibility for global warming, as it absorbs more carbon dioxide in its vast forests than is emitted by its cars and homes. Nonetheless, Bhutan faces severe risks from rising temperatures, with melting glaciers in the Himalayas already creating flash floods and mudslides that have devastated villages. “We have contributed the least to this problem, yet we suffer disproportionately,” Wangdi said. “There must be increasing support for adapting to impacts.” A decade ago, the world’s wealthiest economies pledged to mobilise $100 billion per year in climate financing for poorer countries by 2020. But they are still falling short by tens of billions of dollars annually, and very little aid has gone toward measures to help poorer countries cope with the hazards of a hotter planet, such as sea walls or early warning systems for floods and droughts. Separately, vulnerable countries have also emphasised that they will not be able to adapt to every storm or every hurricane or famine worsened by climate change. The world will continue to warm. People will continue to die from climate-related disasters. Villages will continue to disappear beneath rising seas. So those countries, many of which still produce a tiny fraction of overall emissions, have asked for a separate fund, paid for by wealthy countries, to compensate them for the damage they cannot prevent. This issue is referred to as “loss and damage.” The New York Times graphics “Lots of people are losing their lives, they are losing their future, and someone has to be responsible,” said AK Abdul Momen, the foreign minister of Bangladesh. He compared loss and damage to the way the US government sued tobacco companies in the 1990s to recover billions of dollars in higher health care costs from the smoking epidemic. The New York Times graphics Wealthy countries have historically resisted calls for a specific funding mechanism for loss and damage, fearing that it could open the door to a flood of liability claims. Only the government of Scotland has been willing to offer specific dollar amounts, pledging $2.7 million this week for victims of climate disasters. At the same time, some of the world’s biggest developing economies are beginning to catch up on emissions. China, home to 18 percent of the world’s population, is responsible for nearly 14 percent of all the planet-warming greenhouse gases released from fossil fuels and industry since 1850. But today it is the world’s largest emitter by far, accounting for roughly 31 percent of humanity’s carbon dioxide from energy and industry this year. China has endorsed vulnerable nations’ call for loss and damage financing at the climate summit in Glasgow, but so far China has not been pressured to contribute to such a fund. (Finance discussions at global climate talks have focused on the responsibility of developed countries, which the UN calls Annex II nations.) Historical responsibility is not the only way to look at issues of justice and fairness. Another key metric is emissions per person. So, for instance, India as a whole produced about 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions this year, roughly the same proportion as the European Union and about half that of the United States. But India has far more people than both of those producers combined and is much poorer, with hundreds of millions of people lacking reliable access to electricity. As a result, its emissions per person are far lower today. At the climate summit, the United States and the European Union have argued that the world will never be able to minimise the damage from global warming unless swiftly industrialising nations like India do more to slash their emissions. But India, which recently announced a pledge to reach “net-zero” emissions by 2070, says it needs much more financial help to shift from coal to cleaner energy, citing both its lower per capita emissions and its smaller share of historical emissions. How these disputes over money get resolved is a major step in determining whether negotiators from nearly 200 countries can strike a new global deal in Glasgow to limit the risks of future global warming. ©2021 The New York Times Company

Perhaps most striking is the warning about large productivity losses already being experienced due to heat stress, which can already be calculated for 43 countries. The paper estimates that in South-East Asia alone “as much as 15% to 20% of annual work hours may already be lost in heat-exposed jobs”. And that figure may double by 2030 as the planet continues warming − with poor manual labourers who work outdoors being the worst affected. The release of the papers on July 19 coincided with the start of a conference on disaster risk reduction, held in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and jointly sponsored by the International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) and the UN Development Programme. The aim was to alert delegates to the already pressing scale of the problem and the need to take measures to protect the health of people, and to outline the economic costs of not taking action. Substantial health risks In an introduction to the six-paper collection, UNU-IIGH research fellows Jamal Hisham Hashim and José Siri write that humanity faces “substantial health risks from the degradation of the natural life support systems which are critical for human survival. It has become increasingly apparent that actions to mitigate environmental change have powerful co-benefits for health.” The author of the paper on heat stress, Tord Kjellstrom, director of the New Zealand-based Health and Environment International Trust, says: “Current climate conditions in tropical and subtropical parts of the world are already so hot during the hot seasons that occupational health effects occur and work capacity for many people is affected.” The worst area for this is problem is South-East Asia, with Malaysia being typical. In 2010, the country was already losing 2.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) because of people slowing or stopping work because of the heat. By 2030, this will rise to 5.9% − knocking $95 billion dollars off the value of the economy. The most susceptible jobs include the lowest paid − heavy labour and low-skill agricultural and manufacturing. Even so, the global economic cost of reduced productivity may be more than US $2 trillion by 2030. India and China are two of the worst affected economies. By 2030, the annual GDP losses could total $450 billion, although mitigation may be made possible by a major shift in working hours, which is among several measures employers will need to take to reduce losses. The list of 47 countries includes many in the hottest parts of the world, but countries in Europe − among them, Germany and the UK − are also on the list, along with the US. One of the side-effects of this increased heat is the demand for cooling, which is placing a major strain on electricity infrastructure. Dr  Kjellstrom notes that the additional energy needed for a single city the size of Bangkok for each 1°C increase of average ambient temperature can be as much as 2,000 MW, which is more than the output of a major power plant. The rising demand for cooling also contributes to warming the world. Air conditioners not only pump heat out directly, the electricity required is typically produced by burning fossil fuels, adding to atmospheric greenhouse gases. People acclimatised to air conditioning also become less heat tolerant, further increasing demand for cooling. But heat stress is only one of the problems addressed by the papers. From 1980 to 2012, roughly 2.1 million people worldwide died as a direct result of nearly 21,000 natural catastrophes, such as floods, mudslides, drought, high winds or fires. The number of people being exposed to disasters has increased dramatically – in cyclone-prone areas, the population has grown in 40 years from 72 million to 121 million. The papers also say: “Disastrously heavy rains can expand insect breeding sites, drive rodents from their burrows, and contaminate freshwater resources, leading to the spread of disease and compromising safe drinking water supplies. “Warmer temperatures often promote the spread of mosquito-borne parasitic and viral diseases by shifting the vectors’ geographic range and shortening the pathogen incubation period. Combination of disasters “Climate change can worsen air quality by triggering fires and dust storms and promoting certain chemical reactions causing respiratory illness and other health problems. They say that central and south China can anticipate the highest number of casualties from this combination of disasters that will befall them as a result of continuing climate change. This knowledge may help to explain why China has been so pro-active in tackling global warning in the last year. The authors underline the fact that fast-rising numbers of people are being exposed to the impacts of climate change, with much of the increase occurring in cities in flood-prone coastal areas or on hills susceptible to mudslides or landslides. Especially vulnerable are people living in poverty, including about one billion in slums. Urban planners, the authors say, can help by designing cities “in ways that enhance health, sustainability, and resilience all at once” – for example, by incorporating better building design, facilitating a shift to renewable energy, and fostering the protection and expansion of tree cover, wetlands and other carbon sinks. The delegates at the conference will be discussing ways to better prepare for and create warning systems to improve disaster response. They will also be recommended to take steps to reduce casualties by enhancing drainage to reduce flood risks and by strengthening healthcare, especially in poor areas.

But increasingly Greenland is known for something else: rare minerals. It’s all because of climate change and the world’s mad dash to accelerate the development of green technology. As global warming melts the ice that covers 80 percent of the island, it has spurred demand for Greenland’s potentially abundant reserves of hard-to-find minerals with names like neodymium and dysprosium. These so-called rare earths, used in wind turbines, electric motors and many other electronic devices, are essential raw materials as the world tries to break its addiction to fossil fuels. China has a near monopoly on these minerals. The realisation that Greenland could be a rival supplier has set off a modern gold rush. Global superpowers are jostling for influence. Billionaire investors are making big bets. Mining companies have staked claims throughout the island in a quest that also includes nickel, cobalt, titanium and, yes, gold. But those expecting to exploit the island’s riches will have to contend with Mariane Paviasen and the predominantly Indigenous residents of the village of Narsaq. Until she was elected to Greenland’s Parliament in April, Paviasen was manager of a heliport that provided one of the few ways to get to Narsaq, a village at the mouth of a fjord on the island’s southwest coast. The forces reshaping the planet — extreme weather caused by rising temperatures, and rising demand for electric vehicles and other green technology that require bits of rare metals — converge at Narsaq, where fishing is the main industry and most people live in brightly colored wooden houses with tar paper roofs. Because of climate change, the nearby fjord no longer freezes so solidly in winter that people could drive their cars on it. But rocky heights above Narsaq, population about 1,700, also contain what may be some of the richest concentrations of rare minerals anywhere. The lodestone attracted an Australian company backed by Chinese investors that had hoped to blast an open-pit mine — until it ran into Paviasen. The mine would bring jobs and tax revenue to the village, but it would also produce radioactive uranium. That alarmed Paviasen, who in 2013 formed a protest group she called “Urani? Namiik,” Greenlandic for “Uranium? No.” “I was aware that this thing would affect us,” she said. “So I had to do something.” Paviasen is a guarded person who speaks softly and chooses her words carefully, at least when speaking English, which is not her first language. But she also has a reputation in the region for implacability whose opposition to the mine has made her into a figure of some renown. In April elections for Parliament, Paviasen and her protest group overcame a determined lobbying effort by the mining company, Greenland Minerals, and swayed public opinion in favor of a party that promised to stop the mine. The victory for Paviasen and her alliance of sheep farmers, fishermen and other residents sent a signal to all those eyeing Greenland’s mineral wealth. The lesson was that any project that threatened the environment or livelihoods was going to run into trouble from local people who were quite capable of standing up to powerful interests. She is also aware that foreign money is still circling. “The mining companies know what we have in Narsaq,” she said with a frown. “We are not safe in the future.” Greenland’s Moment With 58,000 people in an area half the size of the European Union, Greenland has been a mecca for prospectors since the 1800s because of its geological history. Because there are almost no trees and sparse vegetation, it is much easier for geologists to read the rocks and find likely places to dig for valuable ore. Climate change has exposed more potential deposits. Pacific-bound ships carrying ore can now sail across the top of Canada much of the year, shortening the trip to processing plants in Asia. Reflecting Greenland’s newfound stature, the United States has recently stepped up its diplomatic presence. Antony Blinken visited Greenland in May, four months after being named President Joe Biden’s secretary of state, meeting with members of the newly elected Greenland government. Last year, the United States opened a consulate in Nuuk, the capital, for the first time since the 1950s. A delegation of US officials visited Greenland last month and pledged aid to improve trade, education and the mining industry. Anglo American, a British mining giant, has staked out swaths of an island believed to have lucrative deposits of nickel, essential for most electric car batteries. In August, KoBold Metals, a California company backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, formed a joint venture with Bluejay Mining, a British company, to search for minerals in Greenland using artificial intelligence to pinpoint deposits from mountains of data. At the moment, only two mines in Greenland are active, one producing rubies and the other anorthosite, used in paints, plastic coatings and special varieties of glass. But dozens of companies have exploration projects underway, and five have licenses to begin digging. Leaders of the new government in Greenland see the country’s ore as a means to work toward financial independence from Denmark. Greenland has a parliament that oversees domestic affairs, but Denmark determines foreign policy and subsidizes the Greenland budget with 3.9 billion Danish kroner per year, or about $620 million. No one believes that Greenland’s reserves are big enough to make it the Saudi Arabia of nickel or titanium. Denmark would take a big share of any mining royalties. A Promise of Riches On a crisp, sunny Saturday morning recently, men drifted down to a dock in Narsaq lined with small boats. Some carried rifles on their shoulders and, in one case, a well-used harpoon. Some were on their way to hunt seals while another group planned to look for minke whales. Other men — they were all men — simply watched and gossiped from mismatched chairs in front of a storage shed. Opposition to the mine appeared to be unanimous. “My children and grandchildren would also like to live in this town,” said Emanuel Joelsen, one of the whale hunters. Whale meat is still a big part of Greenlanders’ diet, and they are allowed under international agreements to hunt a limited number of animals. Like almost all settlements in Greenland, Narsaq can be reached only by sea or air. Most people speak Greenlandic, the Indigenous language that is related to Inuit languages spoken in Canada and Alaska. The main employers are the government and a small factory that cleans and freezes halibut, salmon and shrimp caught by local people for export to Asia. Narsaq residents were initially in favor of the nearby mine, attracted by the promise of badly needed jobs. “They said people in Narsaq would be rich because of the mine,” said Niels Sakeriassen, who manages the fish processing plant. But opinion shifted as people learned more about the project. Tailings from the open-pit mine would be deposited in a lake that lies above the town. Narsaq residents distrusted assurances by Greenland Minerals that a dam would keep radioactive water from reaching their homes. Mining ‘the Right Way’ Mining executives say they are aware of the need to pay attention to climate concerns. In August, rain fell for the first time at a research station at the high point of Greenland’s ice sheet. It was a topic of discussion wherever Greenlanders gathered. Some mining companies see a chance to establish Greenland as a reputable source of the raw materials for emissions-free power generation and transportation. “You can do it the right way,” said Bo Moller Stensgaard, a former Danish government geologist who is the CEO of Bluejay Mining. He pointed to Bluejay’s plans to begin mining ilmenite, an ore that contains titanium, from a site hundreds of miles north of Narsaq. The ilmenite can be separated from the black sand that contains it using magnets rather than toxic chemicals, Stensgaard said, and the sand will be restored after mining is complete An Alternative to China On the opposite side of the fjord from Narsaq is a mining project whose main backer has not generated the same hostility as Greenland Minerals. Greg Barnes, a veteran prospector from Australia, has a license to mine the area, known as Tanbreez. The site has only trace amounts of radioactivity, Barnes said from Australia, but rich deposits of metals like tantalum, used in mobile phones, and zirconium, used in fuel cells and various kinds of electronics. Barnes may have unwittingly played a role in prompting Donald Trump to float the idea of buying Greenland while he was president. Word that Trump wanted to acquire the island from Denmark emerged soon after Barnes visited the White House in 2019 to brief officials on Greenland’s potential. While denying that he planted the idea in Trump’s head, Barnes said US officials “see us as a solution” to China’s dominance of rare earths. So far Paviasen and her group have focused on stopping the Greenland Minerals project. But they are watching Barnes’ plans warily. ‘A Lot of Money for Local People’ Greenland Minerals has kept a low profile since the April elections brought an anti-uranium government to power, but it has not given up on mining near Narsaq. The company is looking for ways to address local concerns, for example by shipping the minerals somewhere else for processing rather than separating out uranium in Narsaq. Greenland Minerals promised to train local people to work at the mine and to buy from local suppliers whenever possible. It also commissioned studies showing that radioactivity from the mine would be negligible and that there would be minimal impact on the environment. The project would “bring many benefits to Narsaq and southern Greenland,” John Mair, the managing director of Greenland Minerals, said in an email. “It would be a significant economic stimulus for local businesses.” Greenland Minerals’ largest shareholder, with a 9.4 percent stake, is Shenghe Resources, which has close ties to the Chinese government. Mair denied media reports that Greenland Minerals is a stalking horse for Chinese interests, saying Shenghe plays a crucial advisory role. “There are no Western world groups that can match Shenghe’s proficiency and expertise” in rare minerals, Mair said. Some local people support the mining project, though they tend to be less visible. “It’s about jobs, work, a lot of money for the local people,” said Jens Karl Petersen, a cook in Narsarsuaq, a former US air base about 30 miles from Narsaq. A League of Sheep Farmers On a sunny day in August, Aviaja Lennert, who raises sheep on a farm farther inland from Narsaq, steered her battered four-wheel-drive station wagon up a precarious gravel road to the crest of a high ridge and braked to a stop. Below, icebergs slowly drifted in the blue-green water of the fjord. The only sound was the wind and the occasional “baa” of a sheep grazing on the steep, rocky slopes. Lennert, who also works as a schoolteacher and rents a small house on her farm to tourists, walked briskly up a nearby rise and pointed at a slab of dark gray mountain above. “That’s where the mine will be,” she said. Her sheep, raised for their meat, graze at the foot of the mountain. “I’m worried about my family,” said Lennert, who is married and has three children. “I’m worried about my sheep.” Lennert and other farmers in the area, one of the few places in Greenland warm enough for agriculture, are among the most fervent supporters of Paviasen’s protest group. They are afraid that people would stop buying their meat, believing it tainted. The organisation’s symbol, a smiling orange sun, is painted on the side of Lennert’s barn. Sheep farming in Greenland is not an easy life. The roads are so rough that some farmers’ children sleep during the week at their elementary school in a nearby village. A daily commute would be too arduous, even though their homes may be only 10 miles away. In the spring when the lambs come, the farmers sleep for weeks in their barns to deal with difficult births. The rewards of such a life are impossible to put a price on. “This is one of the most beautiful places in Greenland,” Paviasen said. “It’s worth fighting for.” “We will stop the mine.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

But even as Trump bragged about what he called “a special relationship” with Macron, saying they have “been friends for a long time,” members of Trump’s administration were publicly and privately dumping on the French president and his team. They complained that the focus of the summit was more on “niche issues” than the global economic challenges facing their nations. Senior administration officials said that the agenda would centre too much on issues designed to play well with Macron’s domestic audience — like climate change, income and gender equality, and African development — and was engineered to highlight disagreements with Trump’s administration. They accused Macron’s aides of ignoring pleas by Trump administration officials to focus the summit, which runs through Monday, on national security and a looming economic slowdown. And they said Macron was purposely trying to fracture the G-7 by veering away from its long-standing mission of ensuring that the strains on other economies do not spread globally. “France, this year’s host, wants the Group of 7 to stay silent on these core economic issues,” Larry Kudlow, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal as Trump arrived in Biarritz. Kudlow accused the French of focusing on “politically correct bromides” and said the G-7 was in danger of losing its way. “Trade and the global economy have gotten short shrift.” The orchestrated message, some of it delivered by administration officials who asked to remain anonymous in order to criticise a foreign leader, underscored the deep rift between Trump and his counterparts in an organization that during earlier times succeeded in fostering cooperation and consensus among the heads of state of the world’s leading democracies. And it served as a reminder that Trump easily tires of the niceties of diplomacy. Last year, he arrived at the G-7 following a Twitter tirade about tariffs with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, whom he continued to berate after leaving and backing out of the joint statement with the other leaders. Before arriving this year, Macron said he had decided to abandon efforts to craft a joint agreement at the end of the summit, describing it as an attempt to avoid the inevitable clash with Trump. He told reporters it would be “pointless” to try to reach consensus on issues like climate change with a leader who has made his contrary views quite clear. The two men have also recently clashed over Macron’s imposition of a digital services tax on big US tech companies. Trump has threatened to retaliate with a tax on French wine, adding to the trade tensions between the countries. At their impromptu lunch Saturday, Macron called Trump “a very special guest for us” and pledged cooperation. But for those around the US president, the face-to-face meeting was just the first of what promised to be a series of fraught interactions as he presses his case with his counterparts. For Trump’s first one-on-one meeting Sunday morning, he has chosen to meet with Boris Johnson, the new British prime minister, who has been engaged in his own extended verbal spat with the Continent’s leaders over the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union. Trump has publicly expressed support for Brexit, a position that has further irritated his already tense relationships on the world stage. The president will meet with Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, later on Sunday amid reports that negotiators for the two countries have reached a deal in principle on tariffs. The men could formally sign a deal next month, a victory that is likely to please Trump, who has repeatedly praised his relationship with Abe. His discussion with Trudeau on Sunday is likely to be far frostier, although by the time the seven world leaders had met Saturday for a working dinner at the base of a lighthouse built in the 1830s, Trump had so far resisted any temptation to criticize the Canadian prime minister. Trump has shown less restraint when it comes to Angela Merkel, the departing chancellor of Germany, whom he will meet with Monday. In a tweet on Wednesday, in a week of complaints about Federal Reserve policy, he lamented that Germany was paying “zero interest” on debt while the United States is “paying interest.” That followed tweets in June, when Trump alleged that crime in Germany was “way up” and insisted that “people in Germany are turning against their leadership” because of decisions to let migrants into the country. Before returning to the United States on Monday afternoon, Trump will meet with Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. And the president will have a face-to-face with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt. But according to Trump’s advisers, the success or failure of the two-day gathering will be measured by how seriously Macron and the others address a weakening economy — something that threatens Trump’s own re-election campaign if it drags down the US economy next year. “The Group of 7 is in danger of completely losing its way,” Kudlow argued in the Journal. “If Mr Trump isn’t allowed to make the case for growth at the Group of 7, no other leader will.” And yet, to judge by Trump’s Twitter feed, Macron was not the only world leader in Biarritz to be preoccupied with topics other than global economics. Writing on Twitter from his hotel before dinner, Trump lashed out at Democrats in the United States, saying they “only want to raise your taxes!” A few minutes later, he mentioned that he “just had lunch” with Macron, but quickly returned to domestic politics. “Looking forward to helping New York City and Governor @andrewcuomo complete the long anticipated, and partially built, Second Avenue Subway,” he declared. A few minutes later, it was clear he was still not focused on the economic fortunes of Germany, Italy or Britain. “North Carolina Governor Cooper Vetoed a Bill that would have required Sheriffs to cooperate with Ice,” Trump wrote. “This is a terrible decision for the great people of North Carolina. He should reverse his decision and get back to the basics of fighting crime!” ©2019 The New York Times Company

The campaign being waged at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland seeks hundreds of billions of dollars per year more for climate-vulnerable economies even as they struggle to access some $100 billion pledged by world powers years ago. Those previously promised funds, meant to help developing nations transition off fossil fuels and adapt to the future realities of a warmer world, were offered in recognition that poorer countries are least responsible for climate change. "We’ve been too slow on mitigation and adaption, and so now we have this big and growing problem of loss and damage," said Harjeet Singh, an advisor with Climate Action Network, who is involved in the negotiations on behalf of developing countries. He said negotiations so far were focused on including language about "loss and damage" in the official text of the summit agreement, a request that he said was facing resistance from the United States, the European Union and other developed countries worried by the potential costs and legal implications. Asked whether the European Union should consider a loss and damage fund separate from funding for mitigation and adaptation, Juergen Zattler, head of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, said he believed the question was premature. “I don't think the discussion is at that stage yet,” he told reporters at the Glasgow summit. “We do not know yet what loss and damage actually is, how it is different from adaptation. We are poking in the dark here.” EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans told reporters the bloc supported efforts to "get money where it needs to be as quickly as possible" but that work still needed to be done to get the details right. A representative of the US delegation at the conference did not respond to a request for comment. Climate-vulnerable countries have been raising the issue of who should pay for climate damage since the earliest international talks on global warming decades ago, before the impacts of global warming were seen as a current threat. Economists now estimate the costs of damage from climate change-related weather events could be around $400 billion per year by 2030. A study commissioned by development agency Christian Aid, meanwhile, estimated that climate damage could cost vulnerable countries a fifth of their gross domestic product by 2050. “It has been a fight every time to get loss and damage to become a standing item at COP. We need to continue to hold the big emitting countries accountable,” said Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, a representative of the Climate Vulnerable Forum representing nations disproportionately affected by global warming. Singh, from the Climate Action Network said wealthy nations could acquire the funds, at least in part, by revoking subsidies and imposing fees on fossil fuel companies. He added that without some financial assistance, the costs of damage from climate change could bankrupt fragile economies, hampering their ability to contribute to the fight against climate change. If financially ruined, for example, countries will further struggle to fund measures like switching off dirty coal. “If your house is on fire, you first put out the fire. Not think about how to prevent fires 10 years from now," he said.

Pope Benedict said on Friday that communism had failed in Cuba and offered the Church's help in creating a new economic model, drawing a reserved response from the Cuban government ahead of his visit to the island next week. Speaking on the plane taking him from Rome for a six-day trip to Mexico and Cuba, the Roman Catholic leader told reporters: "Today it is evident that Marxist ideology in the way it was conceived no longer corresponds to reality." Responding to a question about his visit to Cuba, 90 miles (145 km) off the coast of the United States and a Communist bastion for more than 50 years, Benedict added: "In this way we can no longer respond and build a society. New models must be found with patience and in a constructive way." The 84-year-old pontiff's comments reflected the Church's history of anti-communism and were more pointed and critical than anything his predecessor John Paul II said on his groundbreaking visit to Cuba 14 years ago. They were also surprising because, after decades of poor relations following Cuba's 1959 revolution, the Church and government have moved closer in recent years, so it was widely thought the pope would avoid problems by treading lightly on controversial topics. If Cuban leaders were riled by his comments, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez gave no hint of this news conference at the opening in Havana of the press center for the visit. "We will listen with all respect to his Holiness," he said when asked about the pope's words. "We respect all opinions. We consider useful the exchange of ideas," he added, noting however that "our people have deep convictions developed over our country's long history." Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights, praised the pope for showing "the good will of the Catholic Church and especially Pope Benedict XVI about the situation in Cuba," but he doubted much would change. LACKING WILL FOR CHANGE "The government lacks the will to make the political changes Cuba needs," Sanchez said. John Paul is best remembered for his conciliatory words at a Mass in Havana's vast Revolution Square: "May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba." Pope Benedict said John Paul had "opened up a path of collaboration and constructive dialogue, a road that is long and calls for patience but moves forward." While they have resolved some differences, the Cuban bishops and government are still at odds over issues such as Church use of the media and religious education. The Church will be hoping to use the papal visit to boost its congregation in Cuba which plummeted after the revolution, partly due to the exodus of many families and also due to a climate of government hostility. Church officials say about 60 percent of Cuba's 11.2 million people have been baptized in the faith, but only about five percent of those regularly go to mass. Benedict, who arrives in Cuba on Monday for a three-day visit including large Masses in the cities of Havana and Santiago, offered the help of the Church in achieving a peaceful transition on the island saying the process required patience but also "much decisiveness." "We want to help in a spirit of dialogue to avoid traumas and to help move forward a society which is fraternal and just, which is what we desire for the whole world," the pope added. The word "trauma" has been used previously by Church members to refer to a possibly difficult transition when Cuba's aging leaders are gone, including revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, 85 and his brother and successor, President Raul Castro, 80. Cuba's leaders have repeatedly recognized that the country's economic model needs improvement, though they staunchly defend the island's one-party communist-run political system. In 2010, Fidel Castro told a reporter for the Atlantic magazine that the "Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more," which some commentators interpreted as a recognition that communism had failed in Cuba. Castro later said the remark was not meant as a criticism of Cuba's communist revolution, but was instead directed at the island's difficult economic conditions. The comment appeared to reflect Castro's agreement with his brother's modest reforms to stimulate Cuba's troubled economy in order to preserve the revolution. HUMAN RIGHTS It is still unknown is whether Benedict will meet Fidel, who ruled Cuba for 49 years before age and infirmity forced him to step down. The Vatican has said the pope will be "available" if the elder, ailing Castro wants to meets him. In a report published on Thursday, the human rights group Amnesty International said harassment and detention of dissidents in Cuba had risen sharply the last two years. Asked on the plane whether he should defend human rights in Cuba, the pope replied: "It is obvious that the Church is always on the side of freedom, on the side of freedom of conscience, of freedom of religion, and we contribute in this sense." On Monday, Cuba released 70 members of the dissident Ladies in White group detained during the weekend but warned them not to attend activities related to the pope visit. The women, known in Spanish as the "Damas de Blanco," were freed without charges after being arrested in three separate incidents on Saturday and Sunday when they attempted to march in Havana. They could not be reached by phone on Friday. Rodriguez warned that "those who try to hinder this papal visit with political manipulations will fail because his Holiness will find in Cuba a patriotic and educated people, proud of its culture, of its convictions." There are no meetings with Cuban dissidents on the pope's program. Last week the Vatican re-stated its condemnation of the US trade embargo against Cuba, calling it useless and something that hurts ordinary people. The embargo, which marked its 50th anniversary last month, is still the cornerstone of US policy toward the Caribbean island although it has failed to meet its objective of undermining the communist government. Washington imposed the near-total trade embargo at the height of the Cold War to punish Havana for its support of the Soviet Union and in the hope it would bring an end to communism.

ABOARD THE METROPOLIA PLATFORM, Russia, Tue Jul 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Russian explorers plunged to the bottom of the world's deepest lake on Tuesday in a show of Moscow's resurgent ambitions to set new records in science. The mission to the depths of Siberia's Lake Baikal is led by Artur Chilingarov, a scientist and Kremlin-backed member of parliament who was part of an earlier mission to the North Pole that sparked criticism in the West. Tucked away in the remote hills of south-east Siberia where Russia borders China and Mongolia, Lake Baikal, the world's deepest and oldest lake, is home to some of the world's rarest types of fish and other water-life. The mission's twin submersibles -- used last year to plant a Russian flag on the North Pole seabed -- slipped into the choppy waters just after dawn and descended 1,680 metres (5,510 feet) to the lake's deepest point, setting a world record for freshwater submersion. Each of the bright-red Mir-1 and Mir-2 craft carried three scientists. Chilingarov was with reporters who watched from a mission-control point on a nearby platform. Russian officials hailed the five-hour expedition, due to take seabed samples and document Baikal's unique flora and fauna, as a new chapter in Russian science. "This is a world record," Interfax news agency quoted one of the expedition's organisers as saying. Formed 25 million years ago, Lake Baikal contains 20 percent of the world's total unfrozen freshwater. One of its rarities is the Baikal seal -- a scientific mystery in a lake lying hundreds of kilometres from the closest ocean. Russia used Chilingarov's mission to the North Pole to stake a symbolic claim to the energy riches of the region believed to hold vast resources of oil and natural gas that are expected to become more accessible as climate change melts the ice cap. Canada at the time mocked the expedition and accused Moscow of behaving like a 15th-century explorer.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is considering border tariffs on imports from more polluting countries, but an initial assessment shows such levies could spark trade wars, draft reports show. Two European Commission reports do not explicitly reject a push for border tariffs by France and Italy, but say they would be fiendishly complex to calculate, create a huge administrative burden and risk trade conflict. "Border measures risk clashing with the obligations under the WTO (World Trade Organisation)," said one study looking at the cost of increasing EU curbs on climate-warming emissions. France and Italy are worried that their industries, which pay for EU permits to emit carbon dioxide, will lose out to cheaper imports from countries that impose no such charges. The Commission said it would continue to look at how imports might be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme, the EU's carbon market and its main tool against climate-warming emissions. But the prospect of such measures looks dim. "The introduction of border measures may also trigger retaliatory measures and even hinder international negotiations," added the document, seen by Reuters. "The system could at best only be envisaged for a very limited number of standardised commodities, such as steel or cement." Sanjeev Kumar at environmental think-tank E3G said: "This is pretty much the death of the border-tax adjustment discussions in Europe. We've known for a long time it would put the whole European economy at risk." ECO-IMPERIALISM Border tariffs on countries that do not play their part in fighting climate change are a hot topic in the United States, where legislators are weighing up their own climate laws. "Similar proposals are also being discussed in the U.S., and obviously any further political and operational steps taken in this direction should be taken together," said a related EU draft. Folker Franz, of industry group BusinessEurope, said: "In a theoretical world where Japan, the U.S. and Europe could move together, then it might work. But if Europe imposed tariffs alone it would not." Germany, as one of the EU's biggest exporters, is worried about retaliation. Berlin last year criticised the idea of carbon tariffs as "eco-imperialism". [ID:nLO79432] French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wrote to the European Commission two weeks ago calling for trade levies, but said they should respect WTO rules. The Commission draft says that although levies could be made WTO-compliant, in theory, it would be almost impossible to tailor them to individual imports without knowing the carbon emissions up and down the manufacturing process -- and monitoring those emissions "may be unfeasible".

Former US Vice President Al Gore said he was honored to share the Nobel Peace Prize with the UN climate panel on Friday for their work on global warming and said climate change is a moral, not a political, issue. "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level," he said in a statement. "I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize," he said. "This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world's preeminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis -- a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years." Gore also said he would donate all of his share of the proceeds. "My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the US and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis." The Alliance for Climate Protection is the nonprofit group Gore founded last year to raise public awareness of climate change.

His message stressing the importance of reinvigorating alliances and recommitting to defending Europe was predictably well received at a session of the Munich Security Conference that Biden addressed from the White House. But there was also pushback, notably from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who in his address made an impassioned defence of his concept of “strategic autonomy” from the United States, making the case that Europe can no longer be overly dependent on the United States as it focuses more of its attention on Asia, especially China. And even Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who is leaving office within the year, tempered her praise for Biden’s decision to cancel plans for a withdrawal of 12,000 US troops from the country with a warning that “our interests will not always converge.” It appeared to be a reference to Germany’s ambivalence about confronting China — a major market for its automobiles and other high-end German products — and to the continuing battle with the United States over the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia. But all three leaders seemed to recognise that their first virtual encounter was a moment to celebrate the end of the era of “America First,” and for Macron and Merkel to welcome back Biden, a politician whom they knew well from his years as a senator and vice president. And Biden used the moment to warn about the need for a common strategy in pushing back at an Internet-fuelled narrative, promoted by both Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China, that the chaos surrounding the American election was another sign of democratic weakness and decline. “We must demonstrate that democracies can still deliver for our people in this changed world,” Biden said, adding, “We have to prove that our model isn’t a relic of history.” For the president, a regular visitor to the conference even as a private citizen after serving as vice president, the address was something of a homecoming. Given the pandemic, the Munich conference was crunched down to a video meeting of several hours. An earlier, brief closed meeting of the Group of 7 allies in which Biden also participated, hosted this year by Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, was also done by video. The next in-person summit meeting is still planned for Britain this summer, pandemic permitting. Biden never named his predecessor, Donald Trump, in his remarks, but framed them around wiping out the traces of Trumpism in the United States’ approach to the world. He celebrated its return to the Paris climate agreement, which took effect just before the meeting, and a new initiative, announced Thursday night, to join Britain, France and Germany in engaging Iran diplomatically in an effort to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement that Trump exited. French President Emmanuel Macron takes part in an Online G7 meeting, in Paris, France February 19, 2021. Thibault Camus/Pool via REUTERS But rather than detail an agenda, Biden tried to recall the first principles that led to the Atlantic alliance and the creation of NATO in 1949, near the beginning of the Cold War. French President Emmanuel Macron takes part in an Online G7 meeting, in Paris, France February 19, 2021. Thibault Camus/Pool via REUTERS “Democracy doesn’t happen by accident,” the president said. “We have to defend it. Strengthen it. Renew it.” In a deliberate contrast to Trump, who talked about withdrawing from NATO and famously declined on several occasions to acknowledge the United States’ responsibilities under Article V of the alliance’s charter to come to the aid of members under attack, Biden cast the United States as ready to assume its responsibilities as the linchpin of the alliance. “We will keep the faith” with the obligation, he said, adding that “an attack on one is an attack on all.” But he also pressed Europe to think about challenges in a new way — different from the Cold War, even if the two biggest geostrategic adversaries seem familiar. “We must prepare together for long-term strategic competition with China,” he said, naming “cyberspace, artificial intelligence and biotechnology” as the new territory for competition. And he argued for pushing back against Russia — he called Putin by his last name, with no title attached — mentioning in particular the need to respond to the SolarWinds attack that was aimed at federal and corporate computer networks. “Addressing Russian recklessness and hacking into computer networks in the United States and across Europe and the world has become critical to protect collective security,” Biden said. The president avoided delving in to the difficult question of how to make Russia pay a price without escalating the confrontation. A senior White House cyberofficial told reporters this week that the scope and depth of the Russian intrusion was still under study, and officials are clearly struggling to come up with options to fulfil Biden’s commitment to make Putin pay a price for the attack. But it was the dynamic with Macron, who has made a habit of criticising the NATO alliance as nearing “brain death” and no longer “pertinent” since the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact, that captured attention. Macron wants NATO to act as more of a political body, a place where European members have equivalent status to the United States and are less subject to the American tendency to dominate decision-making. A Europe better able to defend itself, and more autonomous, would make NATO “even stronger than before,” Macron insisted. He said Europe should be “much more in charge of its own security,” increasing its commitments to spending on defence to “rebalance” the trans-Atlantic relationship. That is not a widely shared view among the many European states that do not want to spend the money required, and the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are unwilling to trust their security to anyone but the United States. Macron also urged that the renovation of NATO’s security abilities should involve “a dialogue with Russia.” NATO has always claimed that it is open to better relations with Moscow, but that Russia is not interested, especially as long as international sanctions remain after its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine about seven years ago. But Macron, speaking in English to answer a question, also argued that Europe could not count on the United States as much as it had in past decades. “We must take more of the burden of our own protection,” he said. In practice, it will take many years for Europe to build up a defence arm that would make it more self-reliant. But Macron is determined to start now, just as he is determined to increase the European Union’s technological capacities so that it can become less dependent on American and Chinese supply chains. German Chancellor Angela Merkel puts on her mask after holding a news conference following a virtual summit with G7 leaders at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, February 19, 2021. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/Pool Biden, in contrast, wants to deepen those supply chains — of both hardware and software — among like-minded Western allies in an effort to lessen Chinese influence. He is preparing to propose a new joint project for European and American technology companies in areas like semiconductors and the kinds of software that Russia exploited in the SolarWinds hacking. German Chancellor Angela Merkel puts on her mask after holding a news conference following a virtual summit with G7 leaders at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, February 19, 2021. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/Pool It was Merkel who dwelled on the complexities of dealing with China, given its dual role as competitor and necessary partner for the West. “In recent years, China has gained global clout, and as trans-Atlantic partners and democracies, we must do something to counter this,” Merkel said. “Russia continually entangles European Union members in hybrid conflicts,” she said. “Consequently, it is important that we come up with a trans-Atlantic agenda toward Russia that makes cooperative offers on the one hand, but on the other very clearly names the differences.” While Biden announced he would make good on an American promise to donate $4 billion to the campaign to expedite the manufacturing and distribution of coronavirus vaccines around the world — a move approved last year by a Democratic-led House and a Republican led-Senate — there were clear differences in approach during the meeting. Underscoring the importance that the European Union accords to Africa, Macron called on Western nations to supply 13 million vaccine doses to African governments “as soon as possible” to protect health workers. He warned that if the alliance failed to do this, “our African friends will be pressured by their populations, and rightly so, to buy doses from the Chinese, the Russians or directly from laboratories.” Vaccine donations would reflect “a common will to advance and share the same values,” Macron said. Otherwise, “the power of the West, of Europeans and Americans, will be only a concept, and not a reality.” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, on Friday also urged countries and drugmakers to help speed up the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines across the globe, warning that the world could be “back at Square 1” if some countries went ahead with their vaccination campaigns and left others behind. “Vaccine equity is not just the right thing to do, it’s also the smartest to do,” Tedros said to the Munich conference. He argued that the longer it would take to vaccinate populations in every country, the longer the pandemic would remain out of control. ©2021 The New York Times Company

But it just might cost her the Nobel Peace Prize. Thunberg, one of few people whose nomination has become known before the awards ceremony, is the bookmakers' favourite to win the prize this year. At 16, she would be the youngest recipient of the $930,000 award won by the likes of Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev. She would be the first to win the prize for environmental work since former US vice president Al Gore shared it in 2007 for raising awareness of climate change. But Thunberg's youth, outspokenness and confrontational approach - the very factors that have made her the global face of climate change activism - present challenging questions for the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Her shaming of those who choose to travel by airplane - #flightshame – raises hackles among some people. The denunciations of world leaders by a teenager alienates others. While liberals see her as courageous for telling the truth about climate change, right-wing critics depict her as a liar or hypocrite, suggest her parents have manipulated her or portray her as the ringleader of a socialist conspiracy. "It's been a while (since Gore was awarded the prize in 2007) ... so that would boost her chances," Sverre Lodgaard, a deputy member of the award committee from 2003 to 2011, told Reuters. "The problem is that the principle of 'flight shame' brings her chances ... down. Shame is not a constructive feeling to bring about change." Thunberg, who does not usually take media requests directly, did not immediately respond to requests for comment made through her father, Svante Thunberg, and to an email account set up to handle media queries. Greta Thunberg has hit back at her critics, denying she is paid for her activism or is being "used" by anyone. She wrote on Facebook in February that "there is no one 'behind' me except for myself. My parents were as far from climate activists as possible before I made them aware of the situation." "A VERY HAPPY YOUNG GIRL" Thunberg rose to global prominence last year by taking time off school to demonstrate outside Swedish parliament about the lack of action to combat climate change. Inspired by her weekly protest, millions of young people protested around the globe last Friday to put pressure on governments to act. This week, after sailing to New York in a zero-carbon emissions vessel, she accused leaders at the UN climate summit of stealing her dreams and childhood with empty words on climate change. "How dare you?" she asked. Her comments did not go down well with US President Donald Trump, who has questioned climate science and has challenged every major US regulation aimed at combating climate change. Retweeting footage of her speech, he mocked Thunberg by saying: "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!" Climate activists participate in an Extinction Rebellion protest in New York, New York, U.S. October 10, 2019. Reuters Thunberg responded by changing her Twitter biography to: "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future." Climate activists participate in an Extinction Rebellion protest in New York, New York, U.S. October 10, 2019. Reuters Trump also suggested he ought to receive the Nobel Peace Prize himself "for a lot of things if they gave it out fairly, which they don't." With Nobel Prize winners inevitably thrust into the spotlight, the committee will consider Thunberg's age and how a teenager would cope with even more intense public scrutiny than she is already under, Lodgaard said. Five years ago, Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai won the award at the age of 17, but her candidacy was less divisive than Thunberg's. "It is a tremendous burden to give a Nobel to a teenager," said Asle Sveen, author of several books about the prize. Even so, he and Lodgaard say Thunberg still has a chance of winning. The award committee could opt to reduce the weight of expectation on Thunberg by sharing the prize between her and someone else, or simply decide her behaviour has shown she is mature beyond her years, they said. "They would have seen and heard her and she would have come across as thoughtful and effective. She could be a very good candidate," Lodgaard said. THE DEFINITION OF PEACE Also possibly counting against Thunberg is a debate in academic circles about whether environmental activism counts towards peace, as defined in Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's will, even though Gore shared his award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "The argument 'for' is that the science shows we are experiencing a dramatic change of climate and we could have extreme conditions, with consequences in terms of war and refugees," Sveen said. "The argument 'against' would be: does a prize to the environment fall outside the boundaries of Nobel's will? This was an argument used when Al Gore and the IPCC won in 2007." Apart from Thunberg, other leading possible contenders for the award include Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for the reconciliation he forged in 2018 with Eritrea. The neighbours fought a war that killed more than 70,000 people from 1998 to 2000 and failed to implement a 2000 peace deal. Also counting in Abiy's favour is his lifting of bans against opposition parties, said Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Abiy, who took office in April 2018, is pushing Ethiopia towards new democratic freedoms, though rights groups say more needs to be done to heal wounds after years of government repression. Reporters Without Borders, or the Committee to Protect Journalists, groups that campaign for freedom of the press, could also be recognised. "There is very distinctly a case for this in the age of fake news," said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Pope Francis, the United Nations Refugee Agency and its head, Filippo Grandi, are also mentioned among possible contenders for the price in recognition of their work towards refugees and as a way to highlight the right to asylum, under pressure in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. ($1 = 9.6946 Swedish crowns)

That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway. For decades, it was true: Israeli leaders and voters alike treated Washington as essential to their country’s survival. But that dependence may be ending. While Israel still benefits greatly from US assistance, security experts and political analysts say that the country has quietly cultivated, and may have achieved, effective autonomy from the United States. “We’re seeing much more Israeli independence,” said Vipin Narang, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology political scientist who has studied Israeli strategy. Israel no longer needs US security guarantees to protect it from neighbouring states, with which it has mostly made peace. Nor does it see itself as needing American mediation in the Palestinian conflict, which Israelis largely find bearable and support maintaining as it is. Once reliant on US arms transfers, Israel now produces many of its most essential weapons domestically. It has become more self-sufficient diplomatically as well, cultivating allies independent of Washington. Even culturally, Israelis are less sensitive to US approval — and put less pressure on their leaders to maintain good standing in Washington. And while US aid to Israel remains high in absolute terms, Israel’s decadeslong economic boom has left the country less and less reliant. In 1981, US aid was equivalent to almost 10% of Israel’s economy. In 2020, at nearly $4 billion, it was closer to 1%. Washington underscored its own declining relevance to the conflict last week, calling for a cease-fire only after an Egyptian-brokered agreement was nearing completion, and which Israeli leaders said they agreed to because they had completed their military objectives in a ten day conflict with Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit the region this week, although he said he does not intend to restart formal Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The change comes just as a faction of Democrats and left-wing activists, outraged over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and bombing of Gaza, are challenging Washington’s long-held consensus on Israel. Yet significant, if shrinking, numbers of Americans express support for Israel, and Democratic politicians have resisted their voters’ growing support for the Palestinians. The United States still has leverage, as it does with every country where it provides arms and diplomatic support. Indeed, former President Donald Trump’s unalloyed embrace of the Israeli government demonstrated that Israel still benefits from the relationship. But American leverage may be declining past the point at which Israel is able and willing to do as it wishes, bipartisan consensus or not. STEPS TOWARDS SELF-SUFFICIENCY When Americans think of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many still picture the period known as the Second Intifada, when Israeli tanks crashed through Palestinian towns and Palestinian bombs detonated in Israeli cafes and buses. But that was 15 years ago. Since then, Israel has reengineered the conflict in ways that Israeli voters and leaders largely find bearable. Violence against Israelis in the occupied West Bank is rarer and lower-level, rarer still in Israel proper. Although fighting has erupted several times between Israel and Gaza-based groups, Israeli forces have succeeded in pushing the burden overwhelmingly on Gazans. Conflict deaths, once 3-to-1 Palestinian-to-Israeli, are now closer to 20-to-1. At the same time, Israeli disaffection with the peace process has left many feeling that periodic fighting is the least bad option. The occupation, though a crushing and ever-present force for Palestinians, is, on most days and for most Jewish Israelis, ignorable. “Israelis have become increasingly comfortable with this approach,” said Yaël Mizrahi-Arnaud, a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, an Israeli think tank. “That’s a cost that they are willing to accept.” It’s a status quo that Israel can maintain with little outside help. In past years, its most important military tools were US-made warplanes and other high-end gear, which required signoff from Congress and the White House. Now, it relies on missile defence technology that is made and maintained largely at home — a feat that hints at the tenacity of Israel’s drive for self-sufficiency. “If you had told me five years ago,” said Narang, the MIT scholar, “that the Israelis would have a layered missile defence system against short-range rockets and short-range ballistic missiles, and it was going to be 90% effective, I would have said, ‘I would love what you’re smoking.’” Although heavy US funding under President Barack Obama helped stand up the system, it now operates at a relatively affordable $50,000 per interceptor. Israel began working toward military autonomy in the 1990s. Cool relations with the George HW Bush administration and perceived US failure to stop Iraqi missiles from striking Israel convinced its leaders that they could not count on American backing forever. This belief deepened under subsequent presidents, whose pressure to strike peace with the Palestinians has run increasingly counter to Israeli preferences for maintaining control of the West Bank and tightly blockading Gaza. “The political calculus led to seeking independent capabilities that are no longer vulnerable to US leverage and pressure,” Narang said, adding that Israel has also sought independent intelligence gathering. “It certainly appears they’ve been able to get to that point.” THE ‘OTHER FRIENDS POLICY’ There is another existential threat from which Israel no longer relies so heavily on US protection: international isolation. Israel once sought acceptance from Western democracies, which demanded that it meet democratic standards but bestowed legitimacy on a country that otherwise had few friends. Today, Israel faces a much warmer international climate. “Anti-imperialist” powers that once challenged Israel have moved on. While international attitudes toward it are mixed, and tend starkly negative in Muslim-majority societies, Israel has cultivated ties in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Even nearby Arab states, such as Jordan and Egypt, once among its greatest enemies, now seek peace, while others have eased hostilities. Last year, the so-called Abraham Accords, brokered under Trump, saw Israel normalise ties with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Israel subsequently normalised ties with Morocco and reached a diplomatic agreement with Sudan. “We used to talk about a diplomatic tsunami that was on its way. But it never materialised,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli political analyst and pollster. Scheindlin runs an annual tracking poll asking Israelis to rank national challenges. Security and the economy reliably come first. Foreign relations are now near the very bottom. Even as European diplomats warn of consequences that never come and Democrats debate the future of the alliance, she said, Israelis view their international standing as excellent. On diplomacy, too, Israel has sought independence from the Americans. In the mid-2010s, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, all but directly campaigned against Obama’s reelection because of his Middle East policies, sending relations plunging. Since then, Netanyahu has cultivated a network of illiberal democracies that, far from condemning Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, treat it as admirable: Brazil, Hungary, India and others. Scheindlin calls it the “other friends policy.” As a result, Israelis no longer see US acceptance as crucial to survival. At the same time, rising nationalism has instilled a greater willingness to shrug off international criticism. Washington’s support for Israel’s democratic credentials, a soft kind of leverage long wielded by American diplomats, means less every year. RISKING THE CONCENSUS One of the top jobs of any prime minister, it has long been said in Israel, is safeguarding Washington’s bipartisan consensus in support of the country. So when Netanyahu aligned Israel with Republicans in the mid-2010s, even haranguing Obama from the floor of Congress, he was expected to pay a political cost at home. But Obama and congressional Democrats did little to modulate their support. Americans then elected Trump, who catered to Netanyahu more than any previous president. The episode instilled a “sense of impunity,” Scheindlin said. “Israelis have learned that they can handle the heat, they can handle a little bit of rocky relations.” In a series of focus groups conducted since President Joe Biden’s election, Scheindlin said she had found that Israelis no longer fear reprisal from American politicians. “People are just not that moved,” she said. “They’re like, ‘It’s America. Biden will be fine.’” At the same time, many Israelis have lost interest in the peace process. Most see it as doomed, polls show, and growing numbers consider it a low priority, given a status quo that much of the Israeli public sees as tolerable. “That changes the nature of the relationship to the US,” Mizrahi-Arnaud said. Because Israeli leaders no longer feel domestic pressure to engage in the peace process, which runs through Washington, they do not need to persuade the Americans that they are seeking peace in good faith. If anything, leaders face declining pressure to please the Americans and rising demands to defy them with policies like expanding settlements in the West Bank, even annexing it outright. Israel is hardly the first small state to seek independence from a great-power patron. But this case is unusual in one way: It was the Americans who built up Israel’s military and diplomatic independence, eroding their own influence. Now, after nearly 50 years of not quite wielding that leverage to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it may soon be gone for good, if it isn’t already. “Israel feels that they can get away with more,” said Mizrahi-Arnaud, adding, to underscore her point, “When exactly is the last time that the United States pressured Israel?” © 2021 The New York Times Company

It said 767 million people were living on less than $1.90 a day in 2013, its latest comprehensive data, down from 881 million people the previous year, with the strongest income rises in Asia. "It's remarkable that countries have continued to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity at a time when the global economy is underperforming," Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank's president, said in a statement. The new figures confirm progress made in helping the poor over the past quarter century. The world has nearly 1.1 billion fewer poor in 2013 than in 1990, despite population growth, the Bank said. The findings bring the world closer to meeting the United Nations goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030. The target is part of the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 goals to combat poverty, inequality and climate change. But meeting that target will also mean tackling persistent inequality, the Bank said. "Meeting the international community's targets by 2030 will actually require that the world takes on inequality and it makes growth more inclusive," Francisco Ferreira, senior adviser on the World Bank's Development Research Group, said in a call to journalists. Income inequality had widened over the 25 years to 2013, the Bank said. Still, latest data shows inequality has lessened in more than 40 countries - including Brazil, Peru, Mali and Cambodia, it said. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for half of those living in extreme poverty, according to the Bank. A third of the global poor live in South Asia. Poverty reduction was driven mainly by countries in East Asia and the Asia Pacific, particularly China, Indonesia and India, the Bank said. Last year, the Bank said the number of people living in extreme poverty was likely in 2015 to fall for the first time below 10 percent of the world's population.

Asia-Pacific rim leaders pledged to boost free trade and enhance security on Sunday, at the end of their two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Here are key points in the "Hanoi Declaration" issued by the 21-member group, which represents nearly half of global trade. TRADE * Pledged to spare no efforts to break the deadlock over the Doha round of global trade talks. * Agreed to study a proposed Asia-Pacific free trade area and report the findings to next year's meeting in Australia. * Agreed on six model measures for free trade arrangements that would serve as a reference for APEC, but emphasised the templates would be non-binding and voluntary. * Called on member countries to implement measures to tackle piracy and copyright infringements. SECURITY * Condemned in an oral statement read out behind closed doors North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test. * Acknowledged the need to take action to "protect legitimate financial and commercial systems from abuse" -- a veiled reference to the kind of financial crackdown the United States took against North Korea. * Welcomed a study looking at ways of recovering trade in the event of a terrorist attack or a pandemic. * Agreed to continued collaboration on bird flu, especially on developing official responses and business continuity plans in case of a pandemic. * Welcomed initiatives aimed at mitigating a terrorist threat to the APEC food supply. CORRUPTION * Will consider developing measures to deny safe haven to corrupt individuals and prevent them from accessing gains from their illegal activities. ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE * Instructed APEC ministers to report back in 2007 on policies to promote cleaner energy and improve energy efficiency. * Will encourage energy policies that reduce or remove market distortions and enhance energy security.

Many of these scientists also concur that the best option to mitigate the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change is to reduce the use of fossil fuels and speed up the transition to renewable forms of energy, such as solar and wind. We asked experts in the energy and environmental fields whether they concur on the need for an urgent transition to alternative energy. And if so, how the energy industry can make that happen quickly enough to matter. We also asked energy executives how their companies would navigate such a fundamental change. The responses have been edited and condensed. — Mark Stein May Boeve Executive director, 350.org Rapidly phasing out fossil fuels is critical to address the climate crisis because fossil fuels are the biggest driver of the climate crisis. Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change based on the work of thousands of scientists have confirmed there are no scenarios in which we both keep digging out fossil fuels and keep the world from a climate disaster. We must act now, and decisively, to switch to alternative sources of energy. What little has been done is not nearly enough. Research published by the Stockholm Environment Institute shows that despite all the rhetoric about transitioning to renewable energy, the world is on track to produce 120% more fossil fuels than would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the goal set by the Paris Agreement in 2015. I want to be clear: the coal, gas, and oil industries cannot make this happen on their own; markets are not going to get us out of the hole they got us in. We need the political will to fundamentally rethink some of the underlying assumptions about how we organise our societies. This is why we call for a global Green New Deal. We can do it because people want it and are increasingly demanding it. Technology is an important part of the coming transition, and so is finance. But what is going to make it happen is public outrage, public imagination, and public inspiration. Sean Comey Senior adviser, corporate issues, Chevron We believe climate change is real and human activity contributes to it. We recognise the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a United Nations research agency) that the use of fossil fuels contributes to increases in global temperatures. Chevron shares the concerns of governments and the public about climate change. At the same time, the International Energy Agency projects global energy demand will rise more than 25% by 2040, driven by population growth and rising incomes. Even in the IEA’s most aggressive low-carbon scenario, oil and natural gas will meet approximately half of that demand. Chevron has responded by establishing targets for emissions intensity — the amount of pollution created per unit of energy produced — and tying these goals to employees’ pay. Chevron also is lowering its carbon intensity at the lowest cost, increasing its use of renewable energy to support its business and investing in promising technologies. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue that requires global action. We support a price on carbon as a possible way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the end user, but governments must decide which pricing system is best for their citizens. We work with governments to address potential climate change risks while continuing to produce affordable, reliable and ever cleaner energy. Bob Dudley Group chief executive, BP The world is on an unsustainable path. We need a faster transition to a low-carbon energy system and a net-zero-emissions world. The last thing I want is a delay today that results in an abrupt, precipitous course-correction tomorrow. What’s good for the world is good for BP. And what’s more, the oil and gas industry has the scale, expertise and resources to help the energy transition happen. This year alone BP will spend around $750 million on low-carbon activities, including wind, solar and electric-vehicle charging. But a growing, more prosperous world needs growing quantities of energy, and that includes oil and gas. Today, one billion people lack the energy they need, and renewables alone can’t meet those needs. In fact, the International Energy Agency projects the world could still need nearly 70 million barrels of oil a day in 2040 — and that’s in a scenario consistent with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping any rise in global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius. Of course, how we use that oil and gas will change. Electric cars don’t burn petroleum, but they do use plastic in their construction and oil in their lubrication. And gas can be decarbonised. Energy companies like BP have a bright future because we are evolving to serve the energy transition. But it’s a dual challenge; we need to reduce emissions while increasing energy. That’s the goal I have set for BP. Mark Elder Director, Research and Publications, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies Obviously the world must reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and accelerate its transition to renewable forms of energy. Who wouldn’t agree? Is it necessary to ask? Soon it may become clear that scientists were too cautious about the speed and magnitude of global heating and its consequences. Arctic and Antarctic ice is melting much faster than expected, so rising sea levels will threaten coastal cities. The permafrost in Alaska, Canada and Siberia has melted nearly enough to release vast quantities of methane, greatly accelerating global heating. Fossil fuels, including natural gas, need to be rapidly phased out to minimise the worst effects of global heating. Utility-scale renewable energy combined with battery storage is now technically feasible and economically competitive with fossil fuels in many cases, so many electric utilities are already shifting to renewables. Fossil fuels cannot compete without large government subsidies and assistance. Fossil fuel producers face enormous financial losses as oil and gas reserves and coal mines lose their value, becoming stranded assets. These companies could shift their focus to ecosystem restoration to repair the damage caused by fossil fuel extraction, possibly with government assistance. It might not offset the losses from stranded assets, but it could provide replacement jobs for the workers. Wind turbines could be erected on old oil drilling platforms. Carbon capture and storage uses large amounts of energy and is very costly, so it probably will not be feasible. Investors are advised to steer clear of companies with large fossil fuel operations. Nat Keohane Senior vice president, climate, the Environmental Defence Fund Climate change is an urgent crisis that’s damaging our economy, our planet, and our children’s future. To prevent the worst impacts, we must achieve a 100% clean economy in the United States and other advanced nations by 2050 at the latest, and in the rest of the world soon after. A 100% clean economy means we produce no more climate pollution than we can remove. Achieving this ambitious goal will require policies that guarantee steep reductions in emissions, drive massive investment in clean energy and find ways through nature and technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere. The best science says that we must do all these things. The reality is that solving this fast enough will take action from Congress. The core policy should be an enforceable, declining limit on climate pollution to ensure that we meet the 100% clean goal, achieved through a flexible, market-based approach that creates incentives for businesses and entrepreneurs to find the fastest and cheapest ways to get there. We also need to invest in innovation, reduce barriers to clean energy and energy efficiency, support more resilient farms and forests, and ensure a just and equitable transition for communities throughout America. Mark Little President and chief executive, Suncor Reliable and affordable energy is critical to our quality of life, and we will need to responsibly harness all forms of energy if we are to meet growing global demand and simultaneously tackle the challenge of climate change. The choice is not between fossil fuels and renewable energy, but rather, how do we accelerate the growth of renewables while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil fuels. At Suncor, we’re optimistic that collaboration and innovation enable us to do both. While transforming the energy system is one of the most complex tasks the world has faced, we can accelerate progress. We’re seeing businesses mobilise and collaborate on climate action like never before. Last year, for example, we invested 635 million Canadian dollars to develop and deploy technology in this field, including innovations that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from operations by up to 80%. Our Fort Hills oil sands mine uses paraffinic froth treatment technology to cut the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of each barrel of oil produced there to be on par with the average refined barrel in North America. We also are investing in energy-efficient cogeneration technology to reduce emissions from burning petroleum coke and export low-carbon power to Alberta’s grid so the province can transition from coal-based power generation. This will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 million tons per year, equivalent to removing 550,000 vehicles from the road. Mark Anthony Gyetvay Chief financial officer, Novatek Climate change is the defining topic of our generation and ultimately impacts everyone and all companies globally. It is our responsibility — the oil and gas industry — to ensure that we are doing everything possible to mitigate our carbon footprint and facilitate the transition to clean-burning energy. With energy demand forecast to rise over the coming decades, we must ensure affordable and secure energy supplies are available in a sustainable manner. At Novatek, sustainable development is integral to our corporate strategy and embedded in our decision-making process. When we consider development projects, such as our large-scale liquefied natural gas projects, the ecological and environmental impacts are fully studied and plans are implemented to mitigate negative consequences. We engage all of our stakeholders in the review process. Although climate science is calling for the reduction in fossil fuels, I believe the imminent demise of fossil fuels is overstated and the rapid transition to renewable sources of fuels will not solve this existential question. Natural gas is a clean-burning fuel and will be an important part of this energy transition. We will do our part to facilitate this energy transition by promoting natural gas as part of the climate change dialogue and solution. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart Chairman, Global Compact Foundation Undoubtedly yes, the world must accelerate its transition to renewable energy. First, we all need to unite to support regulatory and fiscal frameworks, using taxes or market mechanisms to establish a carbon price high enough to drive significant change, with proceeds used to support those negatively affected parts of society. However, price is not the whole answer; the poor are more adversely impacted by pricing, so we should mandate strict performance standards for technologies or ban some energy sources unless mitigated. Cost is no longer a major barrier for renewables; intermittency is. So we need to develop technologies to store energy for periods of little or no wind or sunshine. Batteries are one answer, but they face scale, resource availability and environmental challenges. An alternative is to use spare capacity at times of high renewable availability to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen can then generate electricity or drive heavy transport, aircraft or processes not easy to electrify. Finally, renewable-energy projects are currently less profitable than oil and gas projects. The challenge for oil majors and their investors enjoying high dividend yields is how to profitably apply their cash flow and project skills in the new energy world. Bjarne Pedersen Executive director, Clean Air Asia The science on how human activities — predominantly the use of fossil fuels — have caused and continuously aggravate the impacts of climate change is indisputable. An accelerated shift to renewable energy is necessary not only to mitigate the impacts of the global climate crisis, but also to provide safe and clean air, particularly in Asia, which bears the highest health burden from air pollution. Only 2% of Asia’s cities meet the World Health Organisation’s guidelines for exposure to soot and other small particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in diameter, which cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers. Despite this, Asia is set to contribute half of the projected global expansion of coal-fired power plants. In Southeast Asia alone, it is estimated that coal emissions will increase premature deaths to 70,000 annually by 2030, from an estimated 20,000 today. The role of the private sector is critical to the needed shift to renewable energy. Divesting from coal-powered energy generation and investing in renewable energy is imperative, particularly in Asia, where energy demand is increasing. With millions of people in Southeast Asia still without access to electricity, and with the rapidly declining costs of renewable energy technologies, there is huge potential for its use on remote islands and in areas not easily accessible to the national grid. Equally important is investing in, and placing emphasis on, sustainable transport and clean energy solutions for buildings and consumers. Erich Pica President, Friends of the Earth Transitioning to renewable energy is not only necessary to fight the climate crisis, it is also the only way we can quickly and effectively meet rising energy demands. It is foolish to think, however, that the fossil fuel industry will eagerly embrace this transition. We must push governments to enact an ambitious climate strategy that phases out all fossil fuels and transitions to a sustainable economy. Over a billion people around the world lack access to electricity, and increasing fossil fuel-based generation will not fix this. Coal and nuclear power plants are expensive boondoggles. Communities living in energy poverty are continuously left in the dark without access to the grid as corporations sell power to industrial users and for export to recoup the costs. Renewables, particularly small-scale renewables, are cheaper and faster to install. Small-scale renewables also tend to generate and keep power locally. This becomes a more effective way to fight energy poverty. Renewables are cheaper than nuclear, can compete with gas, and their price continues to fall. Rapidly phasing out fossil fuels and transitioning to renewables is the only choice for the climate and the economy. Patrick Pouyanné Chairman and CEO, Total Science and market trends are clear: the world energy mix will evolve. But the debate is about the capacity of the world to adopt the right pace of change. The energy world is facing two challenges: providing affordable energy to a growing population and efficiently addressing climate change. For many emerging countries, the first challenge is paramount. This is why we engage resolutely in adapting the energy pattern and finding an acceptable gradual pace. With the digital economy, a host of products and services are “going electric.” As a result, demand for electricity is surpassing demand for other forms of final energy. In this environment, all fossil fuels are not equal. For an equivalent energy content, gas emits half as much carbon as coal in power generation. Total has been an “oil producer” for nearly a century, but now it is a major “energy player” that produces and markets fuel, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Climate issues are central to our strategy in all four of our priority areas. In particular, we aim to: Develop our leadership in the integrated gas value chain, the cleanest fossil fuel and an essential alternative to coal. Grow in low-carbon electricity from power generation to power storage and sale to end customers. Focus on low-cost oil for petroleum products and develop sustainable biofuels. Develop businesses necessary to carbon neutrality, such as energy storage technologies, energy efficiency services, nature-based solutions and carbon capture and storage. Shyla Raghav Vice president, climate change, Conservation International Our dependence on fossil fuels for energy — and, actually, the entire global economy — is unquestionably the largest cause of the greenhouse gas emissions driving the climate breakdown. Science suggests that avoiding the worst impacts of climate change requires global emissions to peak in 2020 and decline rapidly to net-zero by 2050. This will be possible only through a large-scale shift to clean, renewable energy. This may seem nearly impossible, but wind and solar technologies are doubling in capacity every four years. If we prioritise policies such as carbon taxes and shift to circular production and consumption systems, achieving net-zero emissions is possible, even in the sectors that are the hardest to abate such as cement and chemicals. However, just decarbonising our economy will not by itself be enough to solve this crisis — for that, we need nature. The world’s carbon-rich ecosystems — tropical forests, mangrove swamps and peat lands — store more carbon than the entire atmosphere. Their destruction contributes to climate change, so we need a transformative shift in how we protect and manage such ecosystems as well as how we produce and use energy. These fundamental transformations won’t happen on their own. Business and political leaders must heed consumers’ and voters’ demands for action, and promote changes via tax incentives, carbon pricing and investments in solutions available today. People can help by limiting their air travel, avoiding single-use plastics and shunning products that drive deforestation. This may all seem daunting, but with the right incentives and leadership, change will be inevitable. Our future depends on it. Ajay Singh Head of strategy and commercial, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co I agree completely that the world must rely less on fossil fuels and accelerate its transition to renewable forms of energy. But it’s a tall order. Consumption of fossil fuels is actually increasing, whereas scientific assessments call for it to reduce drastically — for instance a total phase out of coal and a 50% reduction in hydrocarbons by 2050 — if we are to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The fact is that the world has an abundance of hydrocarbons, the cost of producing them remains relatively low, they can be conveniently used in most applications, and investment in oil and gas assets generally remains financially more attractive than that in renewable energies. Shareholders do not necessarily like the prospect of lower returns that might result from a greater push into renewable energies. More widespread carbon taxation would help align investment behaviours with societal imperatives. Meanwhile, further growth in renewable energies such as photovoltaic solar and wind — which are competitive in their own right against hydrocarbons and coal in certain regions — is being impeded by the lack of cost-effective electricity-storage solutions. Next-generation technologies — such as using electrolysis to produce hydrogen fuel by splitting water — can accelerate the transition by providing effective energy storage and, in some cases, by exploiting synergies with the oil and gas industry. Jean Su and Kelly Trout Co-chairwomen, Energy Working Group, Climate Action Network The science is clear: We must rapidly slash fossil fuel consumption by 2030 and keep 80% of the remaining fossil fuels in the ground to avoid climate catastrophe. At the same time, renewable energy is reaching cost parity with fossil fuels. The barrier to a 100% clean and renewable energy future is no longer technology and economics — it’s sheer political will. But our political system is broken. Despite their knowledge that fossil fuels drive the climate emergency, fossil fuel producers have been suppressing this science, obstructing clean energy from reaching the grid and delaying this transition for decades. When companies like Exxon, Shell and BP invest in extracting more fossil fuel out of the ground, they lock us into high-carbon infrastructure, and that drives more fossil fuel consumption — exactly what these companies want. The public, reflected in the millions of students and adults striking around the world last month, knows we cannot rely on the fossil fuel industry to stop drilling us into disaster. Instead, our political leaders must say no to new fossil fuel projects and finance and invest in a 100% clean and renewable energy system, creating good-paying jobs and protecting communities in the process. Su also is the energy director and staff attorney at the Centre for Biological Diversity; Trout also is a senior research analyst at Oil Change International. Mark Watts Executive director, C40 Cities We are in a climate emergency, and we need to start acting like it. Despite all the scientific evidence, a small group of powerful nations and companies are still blocking attempts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Allowing global temperatures to rise far beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels risks the extinction of human civilisation. That is why mayors of the world’s big cities are so committed to urgent action. They also recognise the benefits that will come from shifting our economies off fossil fuels: Cities in the future could enjoy affordable and reliable public transport; clean air; buildings that could be cheap to heat and cool; waste that can be reused or recycled rather than going to landfills. Mayors are using all the powers they have to shift markets and shape consumer choices — buying electric buses, for example, and creating low-emission zones in their city centres. In the absence of meaningful leadership from the intergovernmental system, more than 70 mayors are gathering in Copenhagen for the C40 World Mayors Summit. Working with business leaders, investors, civil society, scientists, and young climate activists, mayors will be taking responsibility for stimulating a scale and pace of action that can avert climate breakdown. This is the future we want, and it is still within our grasp. © 2019 New York Times News Service

A new chapter in Mars exploration opens on Sunday when a small robotic probe jets down to the planet's arctic circle to learn if ice beneath its surface ever had the right chemistry to support life, mission managers said on Thursday. NASA approved the mission, known as Phoenix, after the Mars orbiter Odyssey found ice surrounding the polar caps in 2002. Five probes landed near Mars' equatorial zones, including the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which discovered signs of past surface water. Odyssey found no sign of buried ice around Mars' equator. "We're going way to the north," said Peter Smith, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson who heads the Phoenix science team. On Earth, the arctic regions hold the history of the planet's climate changes, which are locked layer by layer into the ice core. "This is where the history of life is preserved in its purest form -- organic molecules and cellular bacterial microbes and so forth," Smith said. "We're wondering if this is true on Mars," he said. Phoenix is not going to search for life directly, but it should be able to determine if the Martian ice was ever liquid. Liquid water is believed to be an essential ingredient for life to exist. Among Phoenix's science instruments are small ovens to vaporize and chemically analyze the Martian ice, revealing, some of the processes the molecules underwent before reaching their present condition. Other sensors will study minerals in the soil and ice and image the shape and structure of individual grains in the soil. "We're really trying to understand if the ice has ever melted, because it's liquid water that is required for a habitable zone," Smith said. "We'll leave future missions the task of figuring out who's living there," he added. The U.S. space agency faces a formidable obstacle before its new round of Mars studies can begin. Phoenix has to land in a process that requires it to slow itself from 12,000 mph (19,000 kph) to zero in seven minutes. "This will be a very nail-biting time for us," said Fuk Li, the Mars Exploration program manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which oversees Phoenix. From 170 million miles away, flight controllers will only be able to watch and wait to learn Phoenix's fate. Radio signals from Mars traveling at the speed of light take 15 minutes to reach Earth, so by the time flight controllers learn that the probe has begun its descent it already should have landed. Finally, Phoenix has to unfurl its solar power panels to begin collecting energy from the Sun. Otherwise its batteries will last just 31 hours. "All of these events have to occur exactly as planned," said project manager Barry Goldstein. "The team is very confident in that we've done everything we can."

The mandate means Ardern, 40, could form the first single-party government in decades and will face the challenge of delivering on the progressive transformation she promised but failed to deliver in her first term, where Labour shared power with a nationalist party. "This is a historic shift," said political commentator Bryce Edwards of Victoria University in Wellington, describing the vote as one of the biggest swings in New Zealand's electoral history in 80 years. Labour was on track to win 64 of the 120 seats in the country's unicameral parliament, the highest by any party since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996. Ardern promised supporters she would build an economy that works for everyone, create jobs, train people, protect the environment and address climate challenges and social inequalities. "We are living in an increasingly polarised world," she said. "A place where more and more have lost the ability to see one another's point of view. I hope that with this election, New Zealand has shown that this is not who we are." Opposition National Party leader Judith Collins said she congratulated the prime minister for an "outstanding result". Labour had 49.0% of the votes, far ahead of National at 27%, the Electoral Commission said, with 95% of ballots counted. Ardern said she would wait until the final result to say if her government would include smaller groups like the Green Party, a former coalition partner that secured a bigger 8% mandate. VOTERS SWING National leaders were decimated in their strongholds by young Labour candidates who appealed to voters with progressive, democratic messages, and highlighted the party's success in beating coronavirus. "The last seven months of this government, all of the issues around their past promises have been put aside because of COVID-19. It's that simple," said Deputy National leader Gerry Brownlee who lost his long-held seat. Despite the election's tilt to the left, Ardern "is likely to continue to chart a centrist course, largely aiming to implement incremental change that she hopes will outlast a future change in government," because she owes her victory to centre-right voters who previously supported National, said Geoffrey Miller, analyst at political website Democracy Project. 'BE STRONG, BE KIND' The prime minister won global acclaim for her handling of a mass shooting last year by a white supremacist in Christchurch, with her inclusive "be strong, be kind" mantra and swift action to ban guns. She burnished that reputation this year with a "go hard, go early" approach to the new coronavirus, which has eliminated locally spread COVID-19 in the nation. The election was delayed by a month after new COVID-19 infections in Auckland that led to a second lockdown in the country's largest city. While known internationally for promoting progressive causes such as woman's rights and social justice, at home Ardern faced criticism that her government failed on a promise to be transformational. Life is back to normal in New Zealand, but its borders are still shut, its tourism sector is bleeding and economists predict a lasting recession after the harsh lockdowns. The economy shrank at a 12.2% annual clip in the second quarter, its steepest drop since the Great Depression. Debt is forecast to rise to 56% of gross domestic product from less than 20% before the pandemic. New Zealanders also voted on Saturday in referendums to legalise euthanasia and recreational marijuana, with results to be announced on Oct. 30. The latter vote could make New Zealand only the third country in the world to allow the adult use and sale of cannabis nationwide, after Uruguay and Canada.

New Delhi, Sept 2 (bdnews24.com)—Indian defence analysts have cautioned the Indian government against complacency in taking India-Bangladesh ties towards a new heights and move towards a strategic partnership. A taskforce report—'India and Bangladesh: Moving Towards Convergence'—which was released on Friday by the leading New Delhi-based think-tank Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses or IDSA, also recommended that faster implementation of the issues stated in the 2010 joint communiqué including security, trade deficit and border issues is accelerated. On the eve of prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka on Sept 6-7, the report said, "The positive momentum in bilateral relations generated during prime minister Sheikh Hasina's visit must be continued." The report takes note of the strategic importance of the neighbouring countries for each other and argues that the Manmohan's visit provides "an opportunity to take India-Bangladesh relations to a higher trajectory by overcoming mutual suspicions and displaying a practical will to convert their ties into a strategic partnership". The panel of IDSA scholars emphasised that the legacy issues including border demarcation, enclaves and adverse possessions, Teen Bigha corridor flyover, river water sharing -- which have 'bedevilled' relations between the countries -- should be settled at the earliest possible. They recommended that the two sides should explore new areas of cooperation in climate change, environment, agricultural research, water management, remote sensing, IT and communications technologies, marine technologies, medicine and health etc. "Linkages between appropriate institutions can be established. The focus should be on joint research and capacity building. Both countries should work jointly for meeting the challenge of pandemics and water contaminated with arsenic," the report said. Over the water-sharing issue, the panel suggested the government that since Bangladesh would be seeking an agreement on river water sharing, and both countries have "nearly reached an agreement on sharing of the water of Teesta and four other rivers, minor differences should not be allowed to come in the way and an agreement should be signed". A draft on the Teesta deal has already been finalised. SECURITY Lauding Bangladesh for taking necessary measures to address India's security concerns, the report said: "India has shown sensitivity to Bangladeshi concerns and come out with a comprehensive assistance and cooperation package for Bangladesh. These moves have created the environment for transformation of ties between the countries." IDSA thinks security cooperation with Bangladesh is commendable, "but it needs to be institutionalised so that the matter is not limited to any particular regime". It further emphasised issues information sharing and joint patrolling along the border. "The US-Mexico model on the joint management of border can be considered." Pointing at Bangladesh-proposed South Asia Task Force on terrorism, in which it should play a lead role, the IDSA said, "A counter-terrorism centre based in Dhaka can be set up to help the task force. India could offer to fund the centre." The group said that the two countries enhance cooperation in the military sphere, including in search and rescue, joint patrolling of piracy infested areas of the Bay of Bengal, capacity building and joint exercises. "Defence cooperation will build mutual confidence," it observed. It also suggested setting up a dialogue mechanism involving the governments as well as non-governmental organisations working in the area of de-radicalisation. "Fundamentalism and extremism are a shared threat. Both sides should work closely to meet this challenge," it added. TRADE Putting stress on transit, the report said, "Connectivity should be a top priority. Both countries should work to operationalise it as soon as possible. A public campaign as to why connectivity will be advantageous for the people on both sides can be launched." Regional countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Thailand would be benefited from trade and transit connectivity between the two neighbouring countries. The report also called on the two countries to redress the trade issues and strengthen economic linkages and suggests Bangladesh, in particular, to make special efforts in attracting Indian investment. "India could consider extending assistance to Bangladesh for renovating and modernising its power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure." It also suggested the Indian government to persuade Bangladesh "to acknowledge the problem of illegal migration". Both sides should try to create an environment where this issue can be amicably dealt with. "Innovative methods like work permits can be considered."

Alok Sharma, the conference chairman, urged the almost 200 national delegations present in Glasgow to accept a deal that seeks to balance the demands of climate-vulnerable nations, big industrial powers, and those whose consumption or exports of fossil fuels are vital to their economic development. "Please don't ask yourself what more you can seek but ask instead what is enough," he told them, in the closing hours of a two-week conference that has already overrun by a day. "Is this package balanced? Does it provide enough for all of us?" "Most importantly - please ask yourselves whether ultimately these texts deliver for all our people and our planet." But before a plenary meeting could be convened to vote on the deal, delegates from India, China, the United States and the European Union met to discuss language on an agreed phase-out of coal, a member of the Indian delegation said. The final agreement requires the unanimous consent of the countries present, ranging from coal- and gas-fuelled superpowers to oil producers and Pacific islands being swallowed by the rise in sea levels. The meeting's overarching aim is to keep within reach the 2015 Paris Agreement's target to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. A draft deal circulated early on Saturday in effect acknowledged that existing commitments to cut emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases are nowhere near enough, and asked nations to set tougher climate pledges next year, rather than every five years, as they are currently required to do. In a public check-in round with key delegations, there was encouragement for Sharma when China, the world's biggest producer and consumer of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, said it had "no intention to open the text again". The West African state of Guinea, which had pressed hard on behalf of the G77 group of developing countries for greater commitments from rich countries to compensate them for "loss and damage" from unpredictable climate disasters, also indicated that the group would accept what had been achieved. However, India, whose energy needs are heavily dependent on its own cheap and plentiful coal, signalled unhappiness. "I am afraid ... the consensus remained elusive," Environment and Climate Minister Bhupender Yadav told the forum, without spelling out whether or not India would block a vote on the package. EU Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans, speaking after Yadav, asked if the marathon conference was at risk of stumbling just before the finish line and urged fellow delegates: "Don't kill this moment by asking for more texts, different texts, deleting this, deleting that." Scientists say that to go beyond a rise of 1.5C would unleash extreme sea level rise and catastrophes including crippling droughts, monstrous storms and wildfires far worse than those the world is already suffering. But national pledges made so far to cut greenhouse emissions - mostly carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and gas - would only cap the average global temperature rise at 2.4 Celsius. Saturday's draft, published by the United Nations, called for a phase-out of coal power as well as efforts to reduce the huge subsidies that governments around the world give to the oil, coal and gas that power factories and heat homes. Previous UN climate conferences have all failed to single out fossil fuels for their harm to the climate.

Industrial nations agreed on Friday to consider stiff 2020 goals for cutting greenhouse gases in a small step towards a new long-term pact to fight climate change. About 1,000 delegates at the Aug 27-31 UN talks set greenhouse gas emissions cuts of between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels as a non-binding starting point for rich nations' work on a new pact to extend the UN's Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. "These conclusions...indicate what industrialised countries must do to show leadership," said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, welcoming a compromise deal on the range of needed cuts. "But more needs to be done by the global community," he told a news conference at the end of the 158-nation talks. Many countries want to broaden Kyoto to include targets for outsiders such as the United States and developing nations. Delegates agreed that the 25-40 percent range "provides useful initial parameters for the overall level of ambition of further emissions reductions". It fell short of calls by the European Union and developing nations for the range to be called a stronger "guide" for future work. Pacific Island states said that even stiffer cuts may be needed to avert rising seas that could wash them off the map. Nations including Russia, Japan and Canada had objected to the idea of a "guide", reckoning it might end up binding them to make sweeping economic shifts away from fossil fuels, widely seen as a main cause of global warming. Delegates in the Vienna conference hall applauded for 10 seconds after adopting the compromise text by consensus. STARTING POINT "This is a small step," Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the EU Commission delegation, told Reuters. "We wanted bigger steps. But I think the 25-40 percent will be viewed as a starting point, an anchor for further work." The UN's climate panel said in a study in May 2007 that rich nations would have to cut emissions by between 25 and 40 percent to help avert the worst impacts of climate change from droughts, storms, heatwaves and rising seas. "The process is moving along," said Leon Charles from Grenada, who chaired the final session. "By and large we have achieved our objectives". De Boer said that the decisions might help environment ministers who will meet in Bali, Indonesia, in December, to agree to launch formal negotiations on a new global climate treaty to be decided by the end of 2009. "This meeting has put the Bali conference in the starting blocks," de Boer said. Environmentalists also hailed the conclusions as a step in the right direction. "The road to Bali is clear but it's time to switch gears," said Red Constantino of Greenpeace. "We have a clear message from most governments that they will take seriously" scientists' calls for deep cuts, said Hans Verolme, climate expert of the WWF. Kyoto binds 36 industrial nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a first bid to contain warming. The United States has not ratified Kyoto, rating it too costly and unfair for excluding 2012 goals for developing states, and thus was not involved in Friday's session. President George W. Bush has separately called a meeting of major emitters in Washington on Sept. 27-28 to work out future cuts.

Growing speculation that Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard could be dumped by her party before the end of the year forced senior ministers to rally behind her Friday after a disastrous start to 2012. Defense Minister Stephen Smith joined a string of cabinet ministers to offer support for Gillard despite media suggestions that she could face a leadership challenge this year from Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who she replaced in June 2010. Some political analysts now believe Gillard is unlikely to lead the party to the next election, due in the second half of 2013, with a move against her most likely in the latter part of the year. "MPs are starting to think the boat is going down, and they're starting to panic," Monash University political analyst Nick Economou told Reuters. "I don't think she'll lead the Labor Party to the next election." The first major opinion polls for 2012 found government support stalled near record lows, while online bookmakers Sportsbet Friday said odds on Rudd returning as leader by the end of the year have shortened to just $1.20 for a $1.00 bet. "I'm a strong supporter of the Prime Minister. I think she's doing a very good job in very tough circumstances," Smith told Australian television from Brussels. He joined Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, and Regional Affairs Minister Simon Crean, who have all called for an end to party dissent, with Crean saying Rudd was not a team player. Rudd is seen as a lone operator by his Labor colleagues and was toppled as prime minister in a party room coup after his government struggled to pass reforms, but polls show he remains popular with voters. Adding to the government's dilemma is the fact Gillard governs with support from two independents and the Greens, and any leadership change could force a change of government or an early election if a new leader can't negotiate similar support. That means a leadership spill could trigger a change of government, with the conservative opposition promising to scrap a new 30 percent mining tax and a carbon tax, both due to start on July 1 this year. Gillard dismissed the latest rumblings Friday, saying she was focused on delivering good policy. "I don't worry about chatter in the media, I get on with the job," she said. DISASTROUS NEW YEAR Gillard finished 2011 strengthened after a disaffected opposition lawmaker became parliamentary speaker, effectively bolstering her majority from one vote to three. But she has had a poor start to 2012. She lost the support of one independent in January after she reneged on a promise to change gambling laws, and then lost a staffer who quit over his role in promoting a rowdy protest against Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that turned into a security scare. That means the government is back to square one, commanding only a one seat majority in parliament and with one lawmaker under a cloud, due to an ongoing police investigation over the use of union money to pay for prostitutes. At the same time, house prices are falling and manufacturers continue to cut jobs, although Gillard may get a reprieve if the central bank cuts interest rates next week as economists expect. Australian Financial Review political editor Laura Tingle said the past week had seem a shift in support away from Gillard, although most Labor lawmakers were still deeply hostile about Rudd. "The tide has turned with a sharp but silent menace against Julia Gillard," Tingle wrote Friday. Economou said any move against Gillard would be unlikely before July, when the carbon tax and mining tax both start. That would allow Labor to deliver its budget in May, and to campaign for the March 24 Queensland state election, where polls suggest Labor will be thrown from office. "The dangerous time is after the carbon tax comes in," Economou said. "If things don't improve by then, she'll have to go."

“Sleepless: A Musical Romance,” which opened on Tuesday at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theater here, is more noteworthy for what it represents than for the show itself: London’s first fully staged indoor musical since the coronavirus pandemic brought live performances to a halt back in March. Several musical revivals have since been performed in concert at alfresco locations around the city. The rare plays on offer have had either casts of one or, as with the sound installation “Blindness” at the Donmar, no live actors at all. But like it or not — and “Sleepless” is fairly anodyne — the show running through Sept. 27 exists on a scale that seemed unimaginable even a month or two ago. And for that at least, three cheers. It helps that the musical has as its source “Sleepless in Seattle,” the wildly successful 1993 screen comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan that is unusual for keeping its romantically inclined leads apart until the very end. (This “Sleepless,” by the way, is not connected to a separate 2013 stage musical that had its premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.) The result builds into the plot a geographical separation that chimes with our socially distanced age: The show, like the film, spends two hours bringing the widowed Sam (Jay McGuiness) and the excitable Annie (Kimberley Walsh) together atop the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day, at which point they don’t do much more than clasp hands as Morgan Large’s attractive two-tiered turntable set whooshes them from view. Safety precautions are in place. The cast and crew are tested daily for the coronavirus, while audiences are required to wear masks, have their temperatures checked upon arrival and follow a one-way system through a building that has hand sanitiser in evidence at every turn. The theatre itself, which is toward the outer reaches of northwestern London and well away from the still-shuttered West End, is putting less than one-third of its 1,300 seats on sale for each performance — a revenue-limiting measure by producers who clearly decided that some paying public was better than no public at all. In an undated image provided by Alastair Muir, from left, Kimberley Walsh, Jack Reynolds and Jay McGuiness in “Sleepless: A Musical Romance” at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theater in London. Based on the hit 1993 hit film “Sleepless in Seattle,” the production is London’s first fully staged indoor musical in months. Alastair Muir via The New York Times The determination of all involved makes it especially disappointing that the director Morgan Young’s production isn’t more exciting, however likable its leads are. (Young and his two English stars collaborated this time last year on the West End premiere of the 1996 Broadway musical “Big,” another screen-to-stage transfer of a Hanks film.) In an undated image provided by Alastair Muir, from left, Kimberley Walsh, Jack Reynolds and Jay McGuiness in “Sleepless: A Musical Romance” at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theater in London. Based on the hit 1993 hit film “Sleepless in Seattle,” the production is London’s first fully staged indoor musical in months. Alastair Muir via The New York Times It’s bracing to find a musical showcasing a new British composing team in Robert Scott and Brendan Cull amid a climate still defined this side of the Atlantic by Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose new musical, “Cinderella,” is among the many autumn openings that have been postponed. But too much of the score has a samey, easy-listening quality, with one song blurring into the next. Annie’s numbers exist largely to tell us that she’s “out of my mind” or “out of my head,” as you might be, too, if you developed a sudden obsession with a man on the other side of the United States based only on a chance hearing one holiday season on the radio. As is true of the film, you feel for the decent if dull Walter (Daniel Casey), Annie’s partner, who is blindsided by her gathering infatuation with a voice she needs to see made flesh. The depressive Seattle architect Sam, in turn, is upstaged in this telling by his matchmaking son, Jonah, the 10-year-old here played by a young vocal dynamo, Jobe Hart, another alumnus of the musical “Big.” (Hart shares the role of Jonah with three other boys, in accordance with union requirements.) Indeed, the closest “Sleepless” comes to a showstopper is a second-act duet, “Now or Never,” for Hart and musical theatre veteran Cory English as Sam’s ebullient friend, Rob. The song comes with its own reprise: “Shall we do it again, just from the key change?” And they do. Michael Burdette’s book takes its lead from Nora Ephron’s Oscar-nominated screenplay, at times running certain references into the ground. It’s fine to present Annie, a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, as a film buff with an abiding interest in the Cary Grant-Deborah Kerr film “An Affair to Remember,” to which Ephron’s film owes a debt. But it’s unclear why Annie really needs to sing of her love for Grant — just as it’s hard to believe that so avid a film buff would debate the pronunciation of Kerr’s last name. Then again, Annie is the sort who thinks that “even the word exotic sounds exotic,” so there’s no telling where her conversations may lead. Both known for their work with pop groups, McGuiness and Walsh prove amiable team leaders in a show that can’t help feeling like an also-ran. You leave “Sleepless” pleased that it happened, and restless for more and better theatre to come.   © 2020 New York Times News Service

Britain will on Sunday turn off its two oldest nuclear power plants as part of a process that will retire all but one of the country's ageing nuclear fleet within 16 years. The large Magnox Sizewell A and Dungeness A reactors respectively on England's east and south coast have generated electricity for the past 40 years but have now reached the end of their extended design life. "Combined we produce 1.2 percent of the nation's electricity, but we have been assured by the National Grid that even on New Year's Eve no one's televisions or lights will flicker when we switch off," a spokesman told Reuters on Friday. Nuclear power supplies some 20 percent of Britain's electricity, but that will have slumped to just four percent when the Torness station closes in 2023 leaving just Sizewell B operating until it too closes in 2035. The government, anxious to plug the power gap and at the same time meet its own and international commitments to combat climate change by cutting carbon emissions, wants a new generation of nuclear power plants to be built. The nuclear industry, resurgent worldwide as countries seek to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in the face of the global warming crisis, has indicated its eagerness but insisted on price guarantees -- a plea the government has so far rejected. Most scientists agree that temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees Celsius this century due mainly to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, putting millions of lives at risk from floods and famines. Former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said in October that urgent action on global warming was vital, and that delay would multiply the cost 20 times. Nuclear power enthusiasts say it emits no carbon dioxide -- the main global warming culprit -- is a stable source of power and its fuel can be stored for years so helping guarantee energy security. Opponents say it is not a clean power source and that its waste not only remains lethal for generations but is a target for attacks by terrorists. They propose alternative renewable power sources like wind, waves and biomass, and far greater energy efficiency in generation, transmission and usage. Underscoring the point, while Sizewell A and Dungeness A will go off line for good on Sunday it will be up to 100 years before the sites will be declared clean for new uses.

Now the nonprofit is worried about whether those messages will still fly. That’s because Twitter announced last month that it would soon forbid all political ads to run on its platform — and depending on whom you ask, pushing lawmakers for money for medical research could be seen as a political cause. The Alzheimer’s Association was so concerned that it contacted Twitter this month to express misgivings about the political ads ban. “We’re not really sure how it’s going to impact us,” said Mike Lynch, a spokesman for the group. “A lot of what we do is issue advertising, so it really depends on how they define political advertising.” The Alzheimer’s Association is one of many nonprofits and organisations that have put pressure on Twitter over its prohibition of political ads, which is set to start on Nov 22. The problem is that while campaign ads from candidates are clearly political, other messages that deal with hot-button issues such as abortion, school choice and climate change may or may not cross that line. That has set off a scramble within Twitter to define what constitutes a political ad. Twitter’s advertising executives have held meetings in Washington with public relations and free speech groups to debate the situation. And the company has fended off public criticism about the ban, including from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is running for president. Last week, Warren said Twitter’s new ad policy would prevent climate advocacy groups from holding corporations accountable. On Friday, after weeks of discussions, Twitter rolled out a formal definition of what it considers to be a political ad. Under the official policy, Twitter said ads that discuss elections, candidates, parties and other overtly political content would be prohibited. For ads that reference causes generally and that are placed by organisations and not politicians or political candidates, Twitter said it would place restrictions on them but not ban them outright. The restrictions included removing advertisers’ ability to target specific audiences, a practice known as “micro targeting.” The ads also cannot mention specific legislation, Twitter said. “It’s a big change for us as a company but one we believe is going to make our service, and political advertising in the world, better,” Vijaya Gadde, who leads Twitter’s legal, policy, trust and safety divisions, said in a call Friday to introduce the policy. Twitter’s unveiling of its political ads policy did little to mollify its critics, such as conservatives who have said the barring of such ads is an attempt to suppress right-wing voices. “Whatever they come up with, we fully expect Twitter to continue to censor, block, or to incur ‘bugs’ that will unfairly silence President Trump and conservatives,” said Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s communications director. Some super PACs and political groups said Twitter’s decision disrupted the political advertising strategy and budget they had already mapped out for the 2020 election. “Changing the rules halfway through is really dangerous,” said Danielle Butterfield, the director of paid media for Priorities USA, one of the largest Democratic super PACs. “A lot of organisations are going to have to look back at their strategy and figure out how to adjust, especially in the middle of the cycle.” She said her group had used ads on Twitter to flag stories about the economy under the Trump administration to local reporters in swing states, a key part of their in-state strategy. Twitter finds itself in a delicate situation because its chief executive, Jack Dorsey, decided last month that the social media service would no longer host political ads. In a series of tweets Oct. 30, Dorsey said political ads presented challenges to civic discourse and added that he believed the reach of political messages “should be earned, not bought.” His declaration contrasted with that of Twitter’s rival, Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said last month that he planned to allow political ads on the social network — even if they are inaccurate or contain lies — because such ads are newsworthy and should remain for free speech reasons. Warren and others have pilloried Zuckerberg for his stance, saying he is running a “disinformation-for-profit machine.” Dorsey, though, was immediately praised by politicians — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY — for taking a stand against political ads. At the time, Dorsey defined political ads as those sponsored by candidates or that discussed political issues. He said some ads, such as those promoting voter registration, would be permitted as exceptions. Dorsey, who has since been traveling in Africa, was unavailable for comment Friday. His pronouncements quickly kicked up a ruckus among nonprofits, lobbyists and others, who said they feared they would no longer be able to run issue-based ads on Twitter because it was unclear if their messages would be considered political. “The policy would tilt the playing field,” said Eric Pooley, a spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental advocacy group. “Nonprofit organisations need to be able to communicate to the public. That’s what we do.” The American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy group, said Dorsey’s announcement had created uncertainties and that it was being unfairly swept up in Twitter’s efforts to clean up its platform. Affiliates of Planned Parenthood added that they already struggled to get ads approved on social media and worried about a ban. “Digital advertisement is a cost-effective way for small nonprofits to reach their audience. The question becomes, where do we turn next?” said Emma Corbett, the communications director of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts, which represents Planned Parenthood in New York state. Twitter said it held discussions about the policy with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Affairs Council, a nonpartisan organisation that advises companies on their lobbying and digital advocacy efforts, last week. Nick DeSarno, the director of digital and policy communications at the Public Affairs Council, said Twitter was trying to split the difference between limiting politicians from placing ads while allowing advocacy organisations to continue raising awareness about political topics. “While Twitter’s potential new issues ads policy is more permissive than a total ban, it’s still going to be a challenge for groups who are trying to drive political or legislative change using the platform,” he said. Twitter’s limitations on targeted ads will prevent advertisers from sending political messages to residents of specific ZIP codes or cities; instead, they can broadcast their content only at a state level. The company said it would also prevent advertisers from targeting their messages based on political leanings or interests of users such as “conservative,” “liberal” or “political elections.” “We very much believe that cause-based advertising has value, and can help drive public conversation around important topics,” said Del Harvey, the vice president of trust and safety at Twitter. “But we still don’t think it should be used with the sort of primary goal of driving political or judicial or legislative or regulatory outcomes.”   © 2019 New York Times News Service

Rich nations are responsible for greenhouse gases fuelling global warming, China said on Tuesday, urging them to cut emissions and deflecting questions about whether Beijing will accept limits. Spokeswoman for China's Foreign Ministry, Jiang Yu, said Beijing was willing to contribute to curbing greenhouses gases from industry, agriculture and vehicles, which a UN scientific panel last week reported was almost certainly behind rising average temperatures threatening wrenching climate change. But Jiang told a regular news briefing that wealthy countries bore the blame, and the solution lay in their hands. "It must be pointed out that climate change has been caused by the long-term historic emissions of developed countries and their high per-capita emissions," she said. "Developed countries bear an unshirkable responsibility," she said, adding that they should "lead the way in assuming responsibility for emissions cuts". The expert panel gave a 'best estimate' that temperatures would rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius (3.2 and 7.8 Fahrenheit) in the 21st century, bringing deeper droughts, heatwaves and a rise in sea levels that could continue for over 1,000 years even if greenhouse gas emissions are capped. Many environmental advocates have urged widening the UN Kyoto Protocol, which binds 35 industrial nations to cut emissions by 2012 but excludes developing nation emitters, including China and India, from specific targets. But neither Jiang nor China's top climate official would directly say whether China would accept mandatory emissions caps, and instead urged more action and support from developed countries. Qin Dahe, chief of the China Meteorological Administration, told a separate news conference that the country is committed to improving energy efficiency by 20 percent in coming years, and to shifting the country from overwhelming dependence on coal, one of the main fuel sources of greenhouse gases. "The government is very urgent about this demand," Qin said. Qin, who was co-chairman of the UN expert panel, said China's leaders worried that global warming would undermine development goals. "The Chinese government is taking climate change extremely seriously," he said. "President Hu Jintao has said that climate change is not just an environmental issue but also a development issue, ultimately a development issue." But Qin did not directly answer whether China would accept a cap on emissions, instead stressing that the country needed support to buy clean-energy technology. "As a developing country that's growing rapidly and has a big population, to thoroughly transform the energy structure and use clean energy would need a lot of money," Qin said. China is hurtling toward possibly becoming the world's third-biggest economy by 2008, overtaking Germany and trailing only Japan and the United States. But that growth has been fueled by coal-burning power stations and wheezing factories. Qin cited data showing that in 2000 China was already the world's second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. But he could not provide more recent data. "Unfortunately, I don't have information from the past few years at hand," he said. "I think that maybe you can check these things in some magazines."

The hearing comes after a wave of sexual assault scandals and new Pentagon data showing a steep rise in unwanted sexual contact, from groping to rape, that have deeply embarrassed the military.In an exceptional display, the top uniformed officers of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard, along with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all appeared at the Senate Armed Services Committee together to assure Congress they were taking the matter seriously.The top lawyers from each service sat next to them."We are acting swiftly and deliberately to change a climate that has become too complacent," said General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.The service chiefs made clear that it was important to maintain the power of commanders, who now have the ability to decide which cases go to trial.But under proposed legislation by Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, responsibility for prosecuting sex crimes would be taken out of the victim's chain of command altogether and given to special prosecutors.General Raymond Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, said that proposal could hurt unit cohesion and noted the importance of the commander to quickly "administer justice.""Without equivocation, I believe maintaining the central role of the commander in our military justice system is absolutely critical," Odierno said.Still, many critics of the military's handling of past cases say the system is broken and radical change is necessary.A study the Defense Department released in May estimated that cases of unwanted sexual contact in the military, from groping to rape, rose 37 percent in 2012, to about 26,000 cases from 19,000 the previous year.There has been an outcry in Congress over how the military handles such cases, including those in which commanders showed leniency to accused offenders.In one high-profile case, a senior US military commander in Europe set aside the sexual assault conviction of an Air Force officer, throwing out his one-year prison term and dismissal from the service."I cannot overstate my disgust and disappointment over the continued reports of sexual misconduct in the military. We've been talking about the issue for years and talk is insufficient," said Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona.Still, the head of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat, appeared sympathetic to military concerns about ensuring the power of the chain of command."Only the chain of command can establish a zero-tolerance policy for sexual offenses," Levin said. "Only the chain of command has the authority needed to address any problems with command climate that foster or tolerate sexual assaults."

Australia endured bushfires, floods and record high temperatures in its drought-ravaged foodbowl in 2007 as global warming brought the nation's sixth hottest year on record, the weather bureau said on Thursday. The crucial Murray-Darling river basin, home to 2 million people and almost half the country's fruit and cereal crop, had its hottest known year, the Bureau of Meteorology said in its 2007 Australian Climate Statement. The mean maximum temperature of 28.6 Celsius (83.5 Fahrenheit) was almost a full degree above normal, bringing record average temperatures to the heavily populated southeast, the bureau said, pointing to climate change as the reason. "The standout year is 2005, which was Australia's warmest year on record, but essentially all the warm years that we've had have been in recent years," climate analysis spokesman David Jones told local radio. Mean temperatures were above average across Australia every month last year except June and December. Recognising the threat from climate change, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto climate pact as his first official act after he was sworn into office early last month. But despite widespread drought, a La Nina weather phenomenon bringing cooler temperatures to the Pacific helped lift rainfall to slightly more than average at 497mm. "Such conditions are usually, but not always, associated with above-average rainfall across much of Australia. However, the 2007 La Nina event was slow to develop and its influence during winter and spring was confounded by a counter influence from the Indian Ocean," the bureau said. La Nina, meaning "little girl" and the opposite of the El Nino weather phenomenon, brings rains to Australia's east and parts of Indonesia, as well as to the western United States. The bureau said drought continued in the Murray-Darling basin, an area bigger than France and Germany, which normally provides 90 percent of Australia's irrigated crops and A$22 billion ($19.5 billion) worth of agricultural exports. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the latest bureau figures should silence climate change sceptics in Australia, one of the world's highest per-capita greenhouse gas polluters. "What the bureau statement today confirms is the urgent need to act on climate change," she said. Australia's Climate Institute said the bureau data showed global warming was not only about warmer weather, but also wilder and more unpredictable weather such as powerful storm cells and cyclones. "Unfortunately, the reality is stacking up with all the projections," Chief Executive John Connor told Australian Associated Press. "The projections are for intense storms, flooding, droughts.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 14 (bdnews24.com/Reuters)- Ban Ki-moon will join a 24-hour fast called by the UN food chief to show solidarity with the world's 1 billion hungry ahead of a food security summit next week, a spokeswoman said on Friday. UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf said on Wednesday he would not eat for 24 hours starting Saturday morning, and called on people around the world to follow suit. "The secretary-general intends to join the fast over the weekend," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters. She said that at the time of his fast Ban would be in transit to the food summit, which opens on Monday in Rome. The FAO has called the November 16-18 summit with the hope of winning a clear pledge by world leaders to spend $44 billion a year to help poor nations become self-sufficient in food. But a final draft declaration seen by Reuters includes only a general commitment to pump more money into agricultural development and makes no mention of a proposal to eliminate hunger by 2025. Okabe said Ban was expected to say in his address to the summit that it was unacceptable that so many people were hungry when the world had more than enough food. "He will also highlight the human cost of the recent food, energy and economic crises and say that these crises are a wake-up call for tomorrow," she said, adding that Ban would also stress the link between food security and climate change.

When another COVID-19 wave hit in January, Stishi’s father was infected and died within days. She sought work, even going door to door to offer housecleaning for $10 — to no avail. For the first time, she and her children are going to bed hungry. “I try to explain our situation is different now, no one is working, but they don’t understand,” Stishi, 30, said as her 3-year-old daughter tugged at her shirt. “That’s the hardest part.” The economic catastrophe set off by COVID-19, now deep into its second year, has battered millions of people like the Stishi family who had already been living hand-to-mouth. Now, in South Africa and many other countries, far more have been pushed over the edge. An estimated 270 million people are expected to face potentially life-threatening food shortages this year — compared with 150 million before the pandemic — according to analysis from the World Food Program, the anti-hunger agency of the United Nations. The number of people on the brink of famine, the most severe phase of a hunger crisis, jumped to 41 million people currently from 34 million last year, the analysis showed. The World Food Program sounded the alarm further last week in a joint report with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, warning that “conflict, the economic repercussions of COVID-19 and the climate crisis are expected to drive higher levels of acute food insecurity in 23 hunger hot spots over the next four months,” mostly in Africa but also Central America, Afghanistan and North Korea. The situation is particularly bleak in Africa, where new infections have surged. In recent months, aid organisations have raised alarms about Ethiopia — where the number of people affected by famine is higher than anywhere in the world — and southern Madagascar, where hundreds of thousands are nearing famine after an extraordinarily severe drought. For years, global hunger has been steadily increasing as poor countries confront crises ranging from armed groups to extreme poverty. At the same time, climate-related droughts and floods have intensified, overwhelming the ability of affected countries to respond before the next disaster hits. But over the past two years, economic shocks from the pandemic have accelerated the crisis, according to humanitarian groups. In rich and poor countries alike, lines of people who have lost their jobs stretch outside food pantries. As another wave of the virus grips the African continent, the toll has ripped the informal safety net — notably financial help from relatives, friends and neighbours — that often sustains the world’s poor in the absence of government support. Now, hunger has become a defining feature of the growing gulf between wealthy countries returning to normal and poorer nations sinking deeper into crisis. “I have never seen it as bad globally as it is right now,” Amer Daoudi, senior director of operations of the World Food Program, said describing the food security situation. “Usually you have two, three, four crises — like conflicts, famine — at one time. But now we’re talking about quite a number of significant of crises happening simultaneously across the globe.” In South Africa, typically one of the most food-secure nations on the continent, hunger has rippled across the country. Over the past year, three devastating waves of the virus have taken tens of thousands of breadwinners — leaving families unable to buy food. Monthslong school closures eliminated the free lunches that fed around 9 million students. A strict government lockdown last year shuttered informal food vendors in townships, forcing some of the country’s poorest residents to travel farther to buy groceries and shop at more expensive supermarkets. An estimated 3 million South Africans lost their jobs and pushed the unemployment rate to 32.6% — a record high since the government began collecting quarterly data in 2008. In rural parts of the country, yearslong droughts have killed livestock and crippled farmers’ incomes. The South African government has provided some relief, introducing $24 monthly stipends last year and other social grants. Still by year’s end nearly 40% of all South Africans were affected by hunger, according to an academic study. In Duncan Village, the sprawling township in Eastern Cape province, the economic lifelines for tens of thousands of families have been destroyed. Before the pandemic, the orange-and-teal sea of corrugated metal shacks and concrete houses buzzed every morning as workers boarded minibuses bound for the heart of nearby East London. An industrial hub for car assembly plants, textiles and processed food, the city offered stable jobs and steady incomes. “We always had enough — we had plenty,” said Anelisa Langeni, 32, sitting at the kitchen table of the two-bedroom home she shared with her father and twin sister in Duncan Village. For nearly 40 years, her father worked as a machine operator at the Mercedes-Benz plant. By the time he retired, he had saved enough to build two more single-family homes on their plot — rental units he hoped would provide some financial stability for his children. The pandemic upended those plans. Within weeks of the first lockdown, the tenants lost their jobs and could no longer pay rent. When Langeni was laid off from her waitressing job at a seafood restaurant and her sister lost her job at a popular pizza joint, they leaned on their father’s $120 monthly pension. Then in July, he collapsed with a cough and fever and died of suspected COVID-19 en route to the hospital. “I couldn’t breathe when they told me,” Langeni said. “My father and everything we had, everything, gone.” Unable to find work, she turned to two older neighbours for help. One shared maize meal and cabbage purchased with her husband’s pension. The other neighbour offered food each week after her daughter visited — often carrying enough grocery bags to fill the back of her gray Honda minivan. But when a new coronavirus variant struck this province in November, the first neighbour’s husband died — and his pension ended. The other’s daughter died from the virus a month later. “I never imagined it would be like this,” that neighbour, Bukelwa Tshingila, 73, said as she wiped her tear-soaked cheeks. Across from her in the kitchen, a portrait of her daughter hung above an empty cupboard. Two hundreds miles west, in the Karoo region, the pandemic’s tolls have been exacerbated by a drought stretching into its eighth year, transforming a landscape once lush with green shrubs into a dull, ashen gray. Standing on his 2,400-acre farm in the Karoo, Zolile Hanabe, 70, sees more than his income drying up. Since he was around 10 and his father was forced to sell the family’s goats by the apartheid government, Hanabe was determined to have a farm of his own. In 2011, nearly 20 years after apartheid ended, he used savings from working as a school principal to lease a farm, buying five cattle and 10 Boer goats, the same breed his father had raised. They grazed on the shrubs and drank from a river that traversed the property. “I thought, ‘This farm is my legacy, this is what I will pass onto my children,’” he said. But by 2019, he was still leasing the farm and as the drought intensified, that river dried, 11 of his cattle died, the shrubs shrivelled. He bought feed to keep the others alive, costing $560 a month. The pandemic compounded his problems, he said. To reduce the risk of infection, he laid off two of his three farm hands. Feed sellers also cut staff and raised prices, squeezing his budget even more. “Maybe one of these crises, I could survive,” Hanabe said. “But both?” © 2021 The New York Times Company

COPENHAGEN (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Environment ministers tried to overcome rifts between rich and developing nations in Copenhagen on Sunday just days before a deadline for reaching a global pact on tackling climate change. Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, highlighting a spat between top greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States, said he hoped all nations would seek to raise their offers in the talks. "China is calling on the United States to do more. The United States is calling on China to do more. I hope that in the coming days everyone will call on everyone to do more," he said. The ministers were holding informal talks during a one-day break in the December 7-18 meeting involving 190 nations, which will culminate in a summit of world leaders on Thursday and Friday including US President Barack Obama. "There are still many challenges. There are still many unsolved problems," Danish Minister Connie Hedegaard told reporters. "But as ministers start to arrive there is also the political will." The talks bring together representatives from rich and poor nations who have been arguing over who is responsible for emissions cuts, how deep they should be, and who should stump up cash to pay for them. Countries like China and India say the industrialized world must make sharper reductions in greenhouse gas output and provide the poor with more cash to fund a shift to greener growth and adapt to a warmer world. "An agreement is certainly possible. If all of us trust each other and if we have the courage and conviction, we can still come to a fair, equitable deal in Copenhagen," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said, heading into Sunday's sessions. Richer countries say the developing world's carbon emissions are growing so fast they must sign up for curbs to prevent dangerous levels of warming. China has said it wants to wrap up a firm deal before Premier Wen Jiabao joins other world leaders at the summit. "My understanding is that the leaders are coming to celebrate the good outcome of the talks," senior Chinese envoy Su Wei said on Saturday. DEMONSTRATORS RELEASED On Sunday, South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu handed over to the UN's de Boer tens of thousands of signatures from around the world calling for climate action. An afternoon church service was also planned at Copenhagen's Cathedral, with a sermon by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and attended by Danish royalty, followed by a "bell ringing for the climate" in churches around the world. Police have released all but 13 of nearly 1,000 people detained after a march on Saturday, a police spokesman said. The march by tens of thousands of people was largely peaceful but violence erupted toward evening when demonstrators smashed windows and set fire to cars. Some of those detained said they were unfairly held and badly treated by police. "They arrested us for no reason. We were all peaceful," said Hana Nelson, aged 24, a student from Halifax, Canada, who was released without charges.

Secretary, Bilateral and Consular, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kamrul Ahsan and Director General of Foreign Policy of Portuguese Foreign Ministry Pedro Sanchez Da Costa Pereira led their sides during the Dec 6 meeting. They agreed “to have enhanced cooperation to deepen and widen" the bilateral relations. The discussions covered trade and investment, power and energy, particularly renewable energy, blue economy and maritime resources, tourism and culture, employment opportunity for Bangladeshi workforce, regional and international issues such as Brexit, Rohingya, climate change, and other issues of mutual interest. Portugal “congratulated” Bangladesh on the socio-economic development, and “appreciated” Bangladesh’s important humanitarian role in hosting over a million Rohingyas of Myanmar. It also expressed interest to take part in the upcoming projects particularly in infrastructure, ICT, power and renewable energy sectors. The two sides agreed to hold regular political consultations and regular exchange of visits at all levels including political, business, civil society and people’s group to boost relations.

Eventually, the 1,500 residents of Ta Dar U had to accept the inevitable: move or be washed away. Dismantling their wooden homes, they relocated several kilometres inland, away from the fertile fields they had cultivated for decades. "Where we now see water, our farming land used to be," said farmer Tint Khaing. "It was very big, nearly three hours' walking distance. We all lost our farmland to the sea." The ruins of a monastery are seen after a riverbank collapsed into the water in Ta Dar U village, Bago, Myanmar, Feb 6, 2020. REUTERS Ta Dar U is among hundreds of villages at the frontline of Myanmar's climate crisis, where extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels have amplified and accelerated natural erosion. The ruins of a monastery are seen after a riverbank collapsed into the water in Ta Dar U village, Bago, Myanmar, Feb 6, 2020. REUTERS Environmentalists consider Myanmar to be particularly vulnerable. It was among the top three countries affected by extreme weather between 1998 and 2018 on the Global Climate Risk Index, published by environmental think tank Germanwatch. Sea levels are projected to rise about 13 cm (5 inches) by 2020, putting at risk about 2.5 million coastal residents, said Myint Thein, a US-based groundwater consultant and member of Myanmar's natural water resources committee. "Flooding will be worst during the rainy season and high tide, dragging salty water up into the land," he said. Students pray at a makeshift school in Ta Dar U village in Bago, Myanmar, February 6, 2020. Photo taken on Feb 6, 2020. REUTERS Rapid erosion has already devoured 10 villages in the past four years, said Jos van der Zanden, chief technical adviser to the Gulf of Mottama Project, a Swiss-based organisation that provides assistance to displaced villagers. Students pray at a makeshift school in Ta Dar U village in Bago, Myanmar, February 6, 2020. Photo taken on Feb 6, 2020. REUTERS FADING FUTURE After their homes fell into the sea, the people of Ta Dar U, mostly rice farmers, scattered across the delta. Saltwater contaminated their lands and they were forced to take up new occupations, with little success. Myo Zaw, 15, stands amid the ruins of a monastery after the riverbank is was located on collapsed into the water in Ta Dar U village,Bago, Myanmar, Feb 6, 2020. REUTERS Nearly 200 students now travel hours every day to attend school after their own, which once stood near the town centre, was reduced to a crumbling pile of rubble on the riverbank. Myo Zaw, 15, stands amid the ruins of a monastery after the riverbank is was located on collapsed into the water in Ta Dar U village,Bago, Myanmar, Feb 6, 2020. REUTERS "If the erosion continues at this rate, the future of the students will fade as well," said Myo Min Thein, the sole teacher at a makeshift school, who said he is struggling to teach the 26 students, ages 4 to 14, by himself. Myanmar's climate change department has drafted plans to address rising waters but is not involved in resettling those displaced, deputy director Thin Thuzar Win told Reuters. A Buddhist statue is seen at a temporary shelter after a monastery collapsed into a river in Ta Dar U village, Bago, Myanmar, Feb 5, 2020. REUTERS An official from the disaster management department said it did not have specific programmes for those displaced by riverbank erosion. Regional government officials did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. A Buddhist statue is seen at a temporary shelter after a monastery collapsed into a river in Ta Dar U village, Bago, Myanmar, Feb 5, 2020. REUTERS Low-lying villages should be moved immediately to areas at least 7 metres (23 feet) above sea level, said Myint Thein. "It will be costly but it must be done," he said. "The environment has changed, so the people must learn to adapt."

Britain created the world's biggest marine reserve in its Indian Ocean territory on Thursday, pleasing environmentalists but angering exiled Chagos Islanders who say it creates an obstacle to them returning home. Foreign Secretary David Miliband ordered the creation of a marine reserve, where commercial fishing is banned, in the British Indian Ocean Territory, made up of 55 tiny islands, including Diego Garcia, which houses a U.S. air base. Some 2,000 Chagos Islanders were forcibly removed from the archipelago in the 1960s and '70s to make way for the American base and have waged a long legal battle for the right to return. Representatives of the Chagos Islanders, who have now taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights, argue that the creation of the reserve will stop them returning home because it bars fishing, their main livelihood. The new "marine protected area" will cover a quarter of a million square miles -- an area larger than California -- and doubles the area of the world's oceans under protection. "Its creation is a major step forward for protecting the oceans," Miliband said in a statement. The decision by the British government comes weeks before an election that Conservatives are favourites to win. The U.S.-based Pew Environment Group, one of a number of conservation groups that campaigned for the creation of the marine reserve, called Miliband's decision "a historic victory for global ocean conservation." It said the Chagos Islands rivalled the Galapagos Islands and the Great Barrier Reef in ecological diversity and the area was important for research on climate change, ocean acidification, the resilience of coral reefs and sea level rise. SAFE HAVEN FOR WILDLIFE It said the islands provided a safe haven for dwindling populations of sea turtles and more than 175,000 pairs of breeding sea birds. The sparklingly clean waters around the islands are home to 220 species of corals and more than 1,000 species of reef fish, it said. But islanders and their supporters said the move could be used to prevent them returning home. "They will say that if you go there, you are not allowed to fish. How are you going to feed yourself? How are you going to get your livelihood?," Roch Evenor, an islander who chairs the UK Chagos Support Association, told Channel 4 News. Marcus Booth, vice-chair of the association, which supports islanders' right to return home, accused the government of disregarding the islanders' rights in a rushed move to secure an environmental legacy before the election. Diego Garcia became an important base for the United States during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, acting as a refuelling site for long-range bombers. In 2008, Britain acknowledged that two U.S. planes carrying terrorism suspects had refuelled there six years earlier. Several British courts ruled that evicted islanders and their descendants had a right to return home but Britain's highest court overturned those rulings in 2008. The islanders and their descendants are now believed to number about 5,000. Around a fifth are looking to resettle on the islands, which have belonged to Britain since 1814.

Scientists launched a $600 million global initiative on Wednesday to raise rice yields and reduce the impact of rice production on the environment, which they said could also help 150 million people escape poverty by 2035. The Global Rice Science Partnership will oversee research over the next five years to boost yields and breed stronger strains that can resist flooding and threats from climate change. The scheme, led by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and partners, was launched in Hanoi as rice scientists, executives, policymakers and traders from nearly 70 countries met to discuss research, demand and trading and currency risks. "Given that rice is a staple food for more than half the global population and in most of the developing world, there is no question that availability of rice is equated with food security," said Robert Zeigler, director general of the Manila-based IRRI. The new research is also aimed at cutting emissions of greenhouse gases from rice production by an amount equivalent to more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide by adopting improved irrigation methods and avoiding deforestation. With higher yields, farmers would not have to expand their fields into new areas, and that could save more than 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) of forest, wetlands and other natural ecosystems by 2035, the consultative group said. Annual funding for rice research by donors would rise to $139 million by 2015 from around $100 million next year to help realize the scheme's goals. By boosting supplies and lowering food prices, the initiative should help lift people out of poverty, perhaps as many as 72 million by 2020, Zeigler said. In addition to IRRI, the initiative includes two French organizations and a research center in Japan plus hundreds of other partners from governments, the private sector and civil society.

India and the United States open high-level talks this week, hoping to cement gains in a partnership still bedevilled by doubts despite vows of deeper political and economic cooperation. Indian concerns focus on growing US ties with its arch-rival Pakistan -- a key player in the US-led war in Afghanistan -- while US officials will likely press for more progress in opening India's huge market to US companies in the energy, retail and education sectors. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will each lead large government teams to the Washington meetings, which begin in earnest on Wednesday and move into high gear on Thursday. US officials have repeatedly sought to reassure India that the bilateral relationship -- which blossomed under former President George W. Bush -- remains on the fast track under his successor, President Barack Obama. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was Obama's first official state visitor in November, and Obama plans his own return visit to New Delhi later this year. "India matters to the United States because it's the world's largest democracy," Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake, the Obama administration's lead diplomat for India, told a news briefing. "It has the world's second fastest growing economy and an economy that is a very important source of exports for United States companies, and also because it is an increasingly important partner for the United States in addressing common global concerns." US officials cite progress on climate change, Iran and intelligence-sharing as hallmarks of the new cooperation. But the partnership has come under strain in Afghanistan, where India is jostling with Pakistan for influence ahead of Washington's planned troop withdrawal to start in mid-2011. The Obama administration has sent mixed signals over the role India should play in Afghanistan, leaving diplomats to beat back Indian fears that Pakistan's strategic interests could have more weight. Analysts say these doubts point to a broader uncertainty over how the two giant democracies will move forward. "Be it Iran, Pakistan, terrorism or nuclear issues, Washington had still not been able to figure out if India was part of the problem or solution," Uday Bhaskar of New Delhi-based think tank National Maritime Foundation. "There is a sense of drift on both sides." ECONOMIC FRUSTRATIONS From the US perspective, there is frustration over the slow pace of major economic initiatives, including full implementation of a 2008 civilian nuclear cooperation deal that ended India's nuclear isolation since its 1974 atomic test. US officials estimate the agreement could represent a $10 billion jackpot for US reactor builders such as General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Electric Co, a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba Corp. But while Singh said in November he saw no hurdles to full implementation of the deal, moves to set in place the legal framework have been slow and look likely to encounter further delay in the parliament. Also moving slowly are Indian proposals to open up its $450 billion retail sector -- of huge interest to companies such as Wal-Mart Stores -- and to allow foreign universities to set up Indian campuses, a focus for top-tier US schools. US defence giants Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co are watching hints that India may liberalize foreign direct investment in its defence equipment market, which could be worth $100 billion over the next 10 years. Both companies are already bidding in India's $11 billion tender for 126 new fighter jets, which itself would be one of the largest arms deals in the world. Political analysts say the economic payoffs may come eventually, but that the United States is learning it must be patient as India works at its own pace. "There is considerable frustration," said Ashley Tellis, an India expert at the Carnegie Endowment think-tank. "We don't understand the dynamics of domestic Indian politics. My sense is that we will get what we want eventually, but it will never be in the first iteration."

He was in a band in Niterói, a beach-ringed city in Brazil, and practiced guitar by watching tutorials online.YouTube had recently installed a powerful new artificial intelligence system that learned from user behavior and paired videos with recommendations for others. One day, it directed him to an amateur guitar teacher named Nando Moura, who had gained a wide following by posting videos about heavy metal, video games and, most of all, politics.In colorful and paranoid far-right rants, Moura accused feminists, teachers and mainstream politicians of waging vast conspiracies. Dominguez was hooked.As his time on the site grew, YouTube recommended videos from other far-right figures. One was a lawmaker named Jair Bolsonaro, then a marginal figure in national politics — but a star in YouTube’s far-right community in Brazil, where the platform has become more widely watched than all but one TV channel.Last year, he became President Bolsonaro.“YouTube became the social media platform of the Brazilian right,” said Dominguez, now a lanky 17-year-old who says he, too, plans to seek political office. Matheus Dominguez, who said YouTube was crucial to shifting his political views to the far right, recording a YouTube video in Niterói, Brazil, April 29, 2019. YouTube built its business on keeping users hooked. This has been a gift to extremist groups. An investigation in the company’s second-biggest market found serious consequences. (Dado Galdieri/The New York Times) Members of the nation’s newly empowered far right — from grassroots organizers to federal lawmakers — say their movement would not have risen so far, so fast, without YouTube’s recommendation engine.New research has found they may be correct. YouTube’s search and recommendation system appears to have systematically diverted users to far-right and conspiracy channels in Brazil.A New York Times investigation in Brazil found that, time and again, videos promoted by the site have upended central elements of daily life.Teachers describe classrooms made unruly by students who quote from YouTube conspiracy videos or who, encouraged by right-wing YouTube stars, secretly record their instructors.Some parents look to “Dr YouTube” for health advice but get dangerous misinformation instead, hampering the nation’s efforts to fight diseases like Zika. Viral videos have incited death threats against public health advocates.And in politics, a wave of right-wing YouTube stars ran for office alongside Bolsonaro, some winning by historic margins. Most still use the platform, governing the world’s fourth-largest democracy through internet-honed trolling and provocation.YouTube’s recommendation system is engineered to maximize watchtime, among other factors, the company says, but not to favor any political ideology. The system suggests what to watch next, often playing the videos automatically, in a never-ending quest to keep us glued to our screens.But the emotions that draw people in — like fear, doubt and anger — are often central features of conspiracy theories, and in particular, experts say, of right-wing extremism.As the system suggests more provocative videos to keep users watching, it can direct them toward extreme content they might otherwise never find. And it is designed to lead users to new topics to pique new interest — a boon for channels like Moura’s that use pop culture as a gateway to far-right ideas.The system now drives 70% of total time on the platform, the company says. As viewership skyrockets globally, YouTube is bringing in more than $1 billion a month, some analysts believe.Zeynep Tufekci, a social media scholar, has called it “one of the most powerful radicalizing instruments of the 21st century.”Company representatives disputed the studies’ methodology and said that the platform’s systems do not privilege any one viewpoint or direct users toward extremism. However, company representatives conceded some of the findings and promised to make changes.Farshad Shadloo, a spokesman, said YouTube has “invested heavily in the policies, resources and products” to reduce the spread of harmful misinformation, adding, “we’ve seen that authoritative content is thriving in Brazil and is some of the most recommended content on the site.”Danah Boyd, founder of the think tank Data & Society, attributed the disruption in Brazil to YouTube’s unrelenting push for viewer engagement, and the revenues it generates.Though corruption scandals and a deep recession had already devastated Brazil’s political establishment and left many Brazilians ready for a break with the status quo, Boyd called YouTube’s impact a worrying indication of the platform’s growing impact on democracies worldwide.“This is happening everywhere,” she said.The Party of YouTubeMaurício Martins, the local vice president of Bolsonaro’s party in Niterói, credited “most” of the party’s recruitment to YouTube — including his own.He was killing time on the site one day, he recalled, when the platform showed him a video by a right-wing blogger. He watched out of curiosity. It showed him another, and then another.“Before that, I didn’t have an ideological political background,” Martins said. YouTube’s auto-playing recommendations, he declared, were “my political education.”“It was like that with everyone,” he said.The platform’s political influence is increasingly felt in Brazilian schools.“Sometimes I’m watching videos about a game, and all of a sudden it’s a Bolsonaro video,” said Inzaghi D, a 17-year-old high schooler in Niterói.More and more, his fellow students are making extremist claims, often citing as evidence YouTube stars like Moura, the guitarist-turned-conspiracist.“It’s the main source that kids have to get information,” he said.Few illustrate YouTube’s influence better than Carlos Jordy.Musclebound and heavily tattooed — his left hand bears a flaming skull with diamond eyes — he joined the City Council in 2017 with few prospects of rising through traditional politics. So Jordy took inspiration from bloggers like Moura and his political mentor, Bolsonaro, turning his focus to YouTube.He posted videos accusing local teachers of conspiring to indoctrinate students into communism. The videos won him a “national audience,” he said, and propelled his stunning rise, only two years later, to the federal legislature.“If social media didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be here,” he said. “Jair Bolsonaro wouldn’t be president.”Down The Rabbit HoleA few hundred miles from Niterói, a team of researchers led by Virgilio Almeida at the Federal University of Minas Gerais hunched over computers, trying to understand how YouTube shapes its users’ reality.The team analyzed transcripts from thousands of videos, as well as the comments beneath them. Right-wing channels in Brazil, they found, had seen their audiences expand far faster than others did, and seemed to be tilting the site’s overall political content.In the months after YouTube changed its algorithm, positive mentions of Bolsonaro ballooned. So did mentions of conspiracy theories that he had floated. This began as polls still showed him to be deeply unpopular, suggesting that the platform was doing more than merely reflecting political trends.A team at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center set out to test whether the Brazilian far right’s meteoric rise on the platform had been boosted by YouTube’s recommendation engine.Jonas Kaiser and Yasodara Córdova, with Adrian Rauchfleisch of National Taiwan University, programmed a Brazil-based server to enter a popular channel or search term, then open YouTube’s top recommendations, then follow the recommendations on each of those, and so on.By repeating this thousands of times, the researchers tracked how the platform moved users from one video to the next. They found that after users watched a video about politics or even entertainment, YouTube’s recommendations often favored right-wing, conspiracy-filled channels like Moura’s.Crucially, users who watched one far-right channel would often be shown many more.The algorithm had united once-marginal channels — and then built an audience for them, the researchers concluded.One of those channels belonged to Bolsonaro, who had long used the platform to post hoaxes and conspiracies. Though a YouTube early adopter, his online following had done little to expand his political base, which barely existed on a national level.Then Brazil’s political system collapsed just as YouTube’s popularity there soared. Bolsonaro’s views had not changed. But YouTube’s far-right, where he was a major figure, saw its audience explode, helping to prime large numbers of Brazilians for his message at a time when the country was ripe for a political shift.YouTube challenged the researchers’ methodology and said its internal data contradicted their findings. But the company declined the Times’ requests for that data, as well as requests for certain statistics that would reveal whether or not the researchers’ findings were accurate.‘Dr YouTube’The conspiracies were not limited to politics. Many Brazilians searching YouTube for health care information found videos that terrified them: some said Zika was being spread by vaccines, or by the insecticides meant to curb the spread of the mosquito-borne disease that has ravaged northeastern Brazil.The videos appeared to rise on the platform in much the same way as extremist political content: by making alarming claims and promising forbidden truths that kept users glued to their screens.Doctors, social workers and former government officials said the videos had created the foundation of a public health crisis as frightened patients refused vaccines and even anti-Zika insecticides.The consequences have been pronounced in poorer communities like Maceió, a city in Brazil’s northeast that was among the hardest hit by Zika.“Fake news is a virtual war,” said Flávio Santana, a pediatric neurologist based in Maceió. “We have it coming from every direction.”When Zika first spread in 2015, health workers distributed larvicides that killed the mosquitoes that spread the disease.Not long after YouTube installed its new recommendation engine, Santana’s patients began telling him that they’d seen videos blaming Zika on vaccines — and, later, on larvicides. Many refused both.Dr Auriene Oliviera, an infectious disease specialist at the same hospital, said patients increasingly defied her advice, including on procedures crucial to their child’s survival.“They say, ‘No, I’ve researched it on Google, I’ve seen it on YouTube,’ ” she said.Medical providers, she said, were competing “every single day” against “Dr. Google and Dr. YouTube” — and they were losing.Mardjane Nunes, a Zika expert who recently left a senior role in the Health Ministry, said health workers across Brazil have been reporting similar experiences. As more communities refuse the anti-Zika larvicide, she added, the disease is seeing a small resurgence.“Social media is winning,” she said.Brazil’s medical community had reason to feel outmatched. The Harvard researchers found that YouTube’s systems frequently directed users who searched for information on Zika, or even those who watched a reputable video on health issues, toward conspiracy channels.A spokesman for YouTube confirmed the Times’ findings, calling them unintended, and said the company would change how its search tool surfaced videos related to Zika.An ‘Ecosystem of Hate’As the far right rose, many of its leading voices had learned to weaponize the conspiracy videos, offering their vast audiences a target: people to blame. Eventually, the YouTube conspiracists turned their spotlight on Debora Diniz, a women’s rights activist whose abortion advocacy had long made her a target of the far right.Bernardo Küster, a YouTube star whose homemade rants had won him 750,000 subscribers and an endorsement from Bolsonaro, accused her of involvement in the supposed Zika plots.The very people working to help families affected by Zika, their videos implied, were behind the disease. Backed by shadowy foreigners, their goal was to abolish Brazil’s abortion ban — or even make abortions mandatory.As far-right and conspiracy channels began citing one another, YouTube’s recommendation system learned to string their videos together. However implausible any individual rumor might be on its own, joined together, they created the impression that dozens of disparate sources were revealing the same terrifying truth.“It feels like the connection is made by the viewer, but the connection is made by the system,” Diniz said.Threats of rape and torture filled Diniz’s phone and email. Some cited her daily routines. Many echoed claims from Küster’s videos, she said.Küster gleefully mentioned, though never explicitly endorsed, the threats. That kept him just within YouTube’s rules.When the university where Diniz taught received a warning that a gunman would shoot her and her students, and the police said they could no longer guarantee her safety, she left Brazil.“The YouTube system of recommending the next video and the next video,” she said, had created “an ecosystem of hate.”“‘I heard here that she’s an enemy of Brazil. I hear in the next one that feminists are changing family values. And the next one I hear that they receive money from abroad” she said. “That loop is what leads someone to say ‘I will do what has to be done.’ ”“We need the companies to face their role,” Diniz said. “Ethically, they are responsible.”As conspiracies spread on YouTube, video makers targeted aid groups whose work touches on controversial issues like abortion. Even some families that had long relied on such groups came to wonder if the videos might be true, and began to avoid them.In Brazil, this is a growing online practice known as “linchamento” — lynching. Bolsonaro was an early pioneer, spreading videos in 2012 that falsely accused left-wing academics of plotting to force schools to distribute “gay kits” to convert children to homosexuality.Jordy, Bolsonaro’s tattooed Niterói protégé, was untroubled to learn that his own YouTube campaign, accusing teachers of spreading communism, had turned their lives upside down.One of those teachers, Valeria Borges, said she and her colleagues had been overwhelmed with messages of hate, creating a climate of fear.Jordy, far from disputing this, said it had been his goal. “I wanted her to feel fear,” he said.“It’s a culture war we’re fighting,” he explained. “This is what I came into office to do.”‘The Dictatorship of the Like’Ground zero for politics by YouTube may be the São Paulo headquarters of Movimento Brasil Livre, which formed to agitate for the 2016 impeachment of left-wing President Dilma Rousseff. Its members trend young, middle-class, right-wing and extremely online.Renan Santos, the group’s national coordinator, gestured to a door marked “the YouTube Division” and said, “This is the heart of things.”Inside, eight young men poked at editing software. One was stylizing an image of Benito Mussolini for a video arguing that fascism had been wrongly blamed on the right.But even some people here fear the platform’s impact on democracy. Santos, for example, called social media a “weapon,” adding that some people around Bolsonaro “want to use this weapon to pressure institutions in a way that I don’t see as responsible.”The group’s co-founder, a man-bunned former rock guitarist name Pedro D’Eyrot, said “we have something here that we call the dictatorship of the like.”Reality, he said, is shaped by whatever message goes most viral.Even as he spoke, a two-hour YouTube video was captivating the nation. Titled “1964” for the year of Brazil’s military coup, it argued that the takeover had been necessary to save Brazil from communism.Dominguez, the teenager learning to play guitar, said the video persuaded him that his teachers had fabricated the horrors of military rule.Borges, the history teacher vilified on YouTube, said it brought back memories of military curfews, disappeared activists and police beatings.“I don’t think I’ve had my last beating,” she said. Matheus Dominguez, who said YouTube was crucial to shifting his political views to the far right, recording a YouTube video in Niterói, Brazil, April 29, 2019. YouTube built its business on keeping users hooked. This has been a gift to extremist groups. An investigation in the company’s second-biggest market found serious consequences. (Dado Galdieri/The New York Times)

President George W Bush is set to announce new US sanctions against Myanmar over human rights as the annual UN 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 UN 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 US 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 UN 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 UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran but faces opposition from China and Russia. The General Assembly session follows three days of meetings UN 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.

Four of the world's largest and fastest-growing carbon emitters will meet in New Delhi this month ahead of a Jan 31 deadline for countries to submit their actions to fight climate change. The meeting, to be held either on Jan 24 or 25, would be attended by the environment ministers of Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- the BASIC bloc of nations that helped broker a political accord at last month's Copenhagen climate summit. The non-binding accord was described by many as a failure because it fell far short of the conference's original goal of a more ambitious commitment to fight global warming by all nations. The document set a Jan. 31 deadline for rich nations to submit economy-wide emissions targets for 2020 and for developing countries to present voluntary carbon-curbing actions. The Copenhagen Accord left specifics to be ironed out in 2010, angering many of the poorest nations as well as some Western countries, which had hoped for a more ambitious commitment to fight climate change. The accord did outline climate cash for poorer nations and backed a goal to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. But the document was widely regarded as the bare minimum outcome from the final stages of the Copenhagen summit attended by more than 100 world leaders trying to find a formula to prevent more heat waves, droughts and crop failures. "The meeting has been called to coordinate the positions of the four countries with respect to the submission of actions and future negotiations," a senior Indian environment ministry official told Reuters. "Beyond that, the meeting is also going to discuss any problem areas that any member country raises." The New Delhi meeting is seen as crucial because what the four countries decide could shape a legally binding climate pact the United Nations hopes to seal at the end of the year. Countries that support the Copenhagen Accord are supposed to add their emission reduction commitments to the schedule at the end of the document. But there is concern some countries might weaken their commitments until a new deal is agreed. China has pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each unit of economic growth by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. For India, that figure is up to 25 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. China is the world's top CO2 emitter, while India is number four. CRUCIAL MEETING Refusal by the BASIC nations to add their commitments to the schedule would likely raise questions about the validity of the accord, which was only "noted" by the Copenhagen conference and not formally adopted after several nations objected. "If any of the BASIC countries do not submit their actions then the blame game will again start and the whole purpose of the accord which was to put a more vigorous political process in place would be defeated," said Shirish Sinha, WWF India's top climate official. The Copenhagen conference was originally meant to agree the outlines of a broader global pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which binds nearly 40 rich nations to limit carbon emissions. The first phase of the existing protocol expires in 2012. But developing countries, which want rich nations to be held to their Kyoto obligations and sign up to a second round of tougher commitments from 2013, complain developed nations want a single new accord obliging all nations to fight global warming. The BASIC countries, while endorsing the Copenhagen Accord, oppose any single legally binding instrument that allows rich nations to dilute their climate commitments. Poorer nations say developed economies have polluted most since the Industrial Revolution and should therefore shoulder most of the responsibility of fixing emission problems and paying poorer nations to green their economies. Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told a conference last week that the "main challenge now is to convert an agreement supported by 29 countries into one supported by 194 countries". Though Indian officials ruled out any revisiting of the BASIC countries' position on the accord, some clarifications could be sought on the issue of monitoring CO2 reduction actions by developing countries. The accord says their actions would be open to "consultation and analysis". The United States has said regular reporting and analysis of CO2 curbs by poorer nations is crucial to building trust. "Things like who will analyse and what constitutes consultation need to be sorted out. These are definitions that have to be agreed by all the countries," another negotiator said.

Climate scientists have long predicted that global warming would make certain parts of the world wetter overall, in part because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. But simply looking at global averages can obscure a more important reality: The heaviest rainstorms are now more intense and can produce vastly more rainfall in short periods of time. Those extreme events are what can drive catastrophic flooding. “Storm intensity is increasing much faster than the average change in precipitation,” said Aiguo Dai, a professor of atmospheric science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. “And it’s the intensity that really matters, because that’s what we design our infrastructure to handle.” As the remnants of Hurricane Ida swept over New York City, Central Park recorded 3.15 inches of rain in a single hour Wednesday night, smashing the previous one-hour record of 1.94 inches set Aug 21 during Tropical Storm Henri. The sudden burst of rain paralysed the city, with cascades of water pouring into subway stations and shutting down much of the system for hours. Across the continental United States, the heaviest downpours have become more frequent and severe in recent decades, according to the federal government’s National Climate Assessment. In the Northeast, the strongest 1 percent of storms now produce 55 percent more rainfall than they did in the middle of the 20th century. “There’s a lot of fluctuation year to year, but over a longer period of time, the trend is becoming increasingly evident,” Dai said. “This is exactly what both theory and climate models predicted.” Other parts of the world are also struggling with increasingly vicious downpours. In July, unusually heavy rains in Germany and Belgium caused rivers to burst their banks, washing away buildings and killing more than 220 people. That same month, days of torrential rain in Zhengzhou, China, submerged the city’s subway system and caused at least 300 deaths in the region. While scientists cannot always predict exactly when and where such rainstorms will occur, they understand how global warming is making them stronger. As temperatures rise, more water evaporates into the air from the oceans and land. And, for every 1 degree Celsius of global warming, the atmosphere can hold roughly 7 more water vapour. That means when a rainstorm does form, there is more water that can fall to the ground, sometimes within a very short period. Recent studies have detected an increase in hourly rainfall extremes in parts of the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia. And if the planet keeps getting hotter, the threat of more intense rainfall will grow. Earth has already warmed roughly 1.1 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times, driven by greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Without swift action to reduce those emissions, a recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned, the planet could warm twice that amount or more. That report explored the consequences for heavy rainstorms. Consider a severe rainstorm that, in the past, might have occurred just once a decade, on average. Today, that same storm is now 30 percent more likely to occur and produce 6.7 percent more rainfall, on average. If total global warming reaches 2 degrees Celsius, that same storm will produce 14 percent more rainfall. The report predicted that heavy precipitation and flooding would very likely become more frequent across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia as temperatures rise. More rain can often be a blessing for drinking water supplies and agriculture, as the Western US, which is grappling with a record drought, knows well. But too much of it coming down all at once can also have devastating impacts. In Tennessee last month, intense thunderstorms caused rivers and creeks to quickly overflow, flooding homes and killing at least 22 people. In California this year, portions of Highway 1 collapsed into the Pacific Ocean after heavy rains unleashed torrents of mud and debris. In the Midwest in 2019, unrelenting downpours destroyed crops, stripped away topsoil and forced farmers to delay their plantings. Whether a heavy rainstorm leads to destructive flooding, however, depends on a combination of factors: the amount of rainfall, the way that water flows and collects on the landscape and how all that water is managed. Over time, studies have found, the United States and other countries have managed to reduce their vulnerability to many types of dangerous flooding by building dams, levees and other protective measures. Still, plenty of risks remain. Cities such as New York are often more vulnerable to sudden downpours because so much of their land area is paved over with impervious surfaces like asphalt, which means that runoff is channelled into streets and sewers rather than being absorbed into the landscape. In Houston, researchers have found that the transformation of open land into paved parking lots and housing developments helped worsen flooding after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. New York’s subway system, built a century ago, was also not designed to handle more extreme rainfall fueled by climate change. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has invested $2.6 billion in resiliency projects since Hurricane Sandy inundated the city’s subways in 2012, including fortifying 3,500 subway vents, staircases and elevator shafts against flooding. Still, this week’s flash floods showed that the system remains vulnerable. And as heavy rainfall increases, experts say, more will need to be done. That could include adding more green space in cities to absorb excess runoff, as well as redesigning sewer systems, roads and public transit networks to cope with heavier precipitation. It also includes updating flood-risk maps to account for climate change, so that people have a clearer sense of where it’s risky to build and where they should buy insurance against flooding. “Pretty much all the infrastructure we’ve built today was designed to deal with historical weather conditions, and that’s no longer enough,” said Jennifer Jacobs, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire. “It’s tough in places like New York City, because there’s just not much room for the water to go, but we need to think more creatively about drainage and how we design our systems for higher levels of precipitation.   ©The New York Times Company

The Maldives archipelago holds its first multiparty president election on Wednesday, in a vote seen as a referendum on President's Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's 30 year-rule on islands famed for their luxury resorts. Asia's longest-serving leader is seeking a seventh term running the archipelago of 300,000 mostly Sunni Muslims, which in the past he has been accused of ruling like a personal sultanate -- a form of government abolished there in 1968. The poll in the sleepy Maldives, best known as a tropical luxury hideaway for Hollywood stars, is the culmination of years of agitation for democratic reforms which Gayoom, 71, finally signed into law in August. "No one thought we could have a multi-party election here, until we introduced the reform agenda," Gayoom said at a news conference on the eve of the vote. Despite some fears of rigging and minor threats against political figures earlier this week, the archipelago of 1,196 islands located 800 km (500 miles) off the tip of India was mostly calm after campaigns finished on Tuesday night. Wednesday's election starts at 9 a.m. (0400 GMT) at nearly 400 polling stations spread out across the archipelago's 200 inhabited atolls and on some islands with luxury resorts. Many Maldivians complain that a small political elite has grown rich from tourism, which is the linchpin of the $850 million economy and accounts for 28 percent of GDP. Diplomats hope the poll will be an example of a peaceful and fair democratic election in a Muslim majority nation, with a non-violent transition should power change hands. "The atmosphere is not much changed from normal. People are expecting a little bit of problems, but there will be a second round and that's where there will be problems," a Western diplomat observing the polls said on condition of anonymity. The electoral commission says 209,000 people have registered to vote. Most Maldivians expect a runoff, with Gayoom and his longtime opposition nemesis Mohamed Nasheed tipped as favourites, and are sceptical the poll will proceed without bribery and vote-rigging. A runoff date will be announced if no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote. Gayoom on Tuesday promised to hand over power peacefully if he loses. Nasheed, known as Ani, has been charged dozens of times by Gayoom's government in what human rights watchdogs say are trumped-up cases, the latest of which was dropped just last month after prosecutors admitted a lack of evidence. Gayoom drew international criticism after a heavy-handed crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, which eventually led to his signing into law a new constitution last month that established an independent judiciary and electoral body. It also abolished the old style of voting for president, where a parliament-approved candidate stood in a referendum. Those elections saw Gayoom returned to power six times with what he said was over 90 percent of the vote. Whoever wins will inherit two major challenges -- sustaining an economy dependent on tourism and fishing, and rising sea levels. A UN climate change panel is predicting seas are likely to rise up to 59 cm by 2100, and most of the Maldives' islands are no higher than 1.5 m above sea level.

WASHINGTON, Mon Nov 3, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - As the US presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before leaving power. Whether it's getting wolves off the Endangered Species List, allowing power plants to operate near national parks, loosening regulations for factory farm waste or making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations, these proposed changes have found little favor with environmental groups. The one change most environmentalists want, a mandatory program to cut climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, is not among these so-called "midnight regulations." Bureaucratic calendars make it virtually impossible that any US across-the-board action will be taken to curb global warming in this administration, though both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have promised to address it if they win Tuesday's US presidential election. Even some free-market organizations have joined conservation groups to urge a moratorium on last-minute rules proposed by the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others. "The Bush administration has had eight years in office and has issued more regulations than any administration in history," said Eli Lehrer of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "At this point, in the current economic climate, it would be especially harmful to push through ill-considered regulations in the final days of the administration." John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation, which joined Lehrer's group to call for a ban on these last-minute rules, said citizens are cut out of the process, allowing changes in U.S. law that the public opposes, such as rolling back protections under the Endangered Species Act. WHAT'S THE RUSH? The Bush team has urged that these regulations be issued no later than Saturday, so they can be put in effect by the time President George W. Bush leaves office on January 20. If they are in effect then, it will be hard for the next administration to undo them, and in any case, this may not be the top priority for a new president, said Matt Madia of OMB Watch, which monitors the White House Office of Management and Budget, through which these proposed regulations must pass. "This is typical," Madia said of the administration's welter of eleventh-hour rules. "It's a natural reaction to knowing that you're almost out of power." Industry is likely to benefit if Bush's rules on the environment become effective, Madia said. "Whether it's the electricity industry or the mining industry or the agriculture industry, this is going to remove government restrictions on their activity and in turn they're going to be allowed to pollute more and that ends up harming the public," Madia said in a telephone interview. What is unusual is the speedy trip some of these environmental measures are taking through the process. For example, one Interior Department rule that would erode protections for endangered species in favor of mining interests drew more than 300,000 comments from the public, which officials said they planned to review in a week, a pace that Madia called "pretty ludicrous." Why the rush? Because rules only go into effect 30 to 60 days after they are finalized, and if they are not in effect when the next president takes office, that chief executive can decline to put them into practice -- as Bush did with many rules finalized at the end of the Clinton administration. White House spokesman Tony Fratto denied the Bush team was cramming these regulations through in a hasty push. Fratto discounted reports "that we're trying to weaken regulations that have a business interest," telling White House reporters last week the goal was to avoid the flood of last-minute rules left over from the Clinton team. There is at least one Bush administration environmental proposal that conservation groups welcome: a plan to create what would be the world's largest marine wildlife sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean. That could go into effect January 20.

“Bangladesh is already considered a role model in the management of natural disasters. Prime minister proposes to redouble her efforts. But singular effort of Bangladesh is not enough,” he said. “Government is open to any initiative at the regional and global level on this including the BIMSTEC, SAARC, Delta Coalition, Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). At the global level, Bangladesh is a champion in promoting climate issues.” The foreign minister was speaking at the 2019 Thematic Meeting of PDD, Platform for Disaster Displacement, which is attended by a high-level delegations and experts on Sunday in Dhaka. Displacement due to either slow or sudden onset disasters is a global problem, more aggravated due to erratic climate change and environmental degradation. Momen shared Bangladesh stories. “I met a rickshaw puller in Sylhet and I asked him why he travelled all the way for Southern coastal belt of Barisal. “He replied, due to erosion of his cultivable land that has been washed away due to river erosion, leaving him no option but to move to a higher plain with his family for safety and security and now he is trying to earn a living just to survive,” he said, adding that he is not alone. “In the capital city of Dhaka, out of its estimated 19 million residents, nearly 1/3rd are just like that floating population, forced out partly as their homes or living firms have been washed away their land is not enough to provide their living due to climate change.” The World Bank predicts that 1 meter rise in the sea level will inundate 20 percent of its coastal region leaving 25 to 30 million people without home, without jobs. Momen asked where these climate change migrants should go. He said since Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in terms of climate vulnerability, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took corrective actions to live with climate change. She adopted “Climate Change Strategies & Action Plan” as early as 2009. She also involved communities and created 60,000 well trained volunteers and erected nearly 3,800 cyclone Shelters plus afforestation. “In addition, Bangladesh erected embankments to nearly 70 percent to 80 percent of coastal areas and arrange irrigation facility in 80 percent of its cultivable areas. It also developed flood resistant salinity resilient Crops to adopt and live with climate change,” he said. In addition, to face challenges in climate change, Bangladesh adopted 100-year Delta Plan. However, this programme may cost an additional 2.5 percent of GDP each year and by 2031, in terms of dollars, it would cost $29.6 billion. The foreign minister said the prime minister’s initiatives especially various mitigation strategies resulted in minimal less than 0.03 percent greenhouse emission in Bangladesh and in spite of the fact that, our country is not rich, yet she devoted substantial amount of its own hard-earned money to climate Funds. She established 2 climate Funds and initiated dredging of rivers and green afforestation. “Unfortunately, recent influx of nearly 1.2 million Rohingyas of Myanmar are eating up our afforestation and creating environmental disaster.”

If there is anything Oscar voters love, it is a good drama. But as a key festival stop on the road to Hollywood awards got down to business on Friday, dramas were less on movie screens and more behind the scenes where the film genre is troubled. The Toronto International Film Festival, which has long been considered a starting point for movie awards -- Oscar winner "Slumdog Millionaire" got a big boost here last year -- opened on Thursday night with Charles Darwin drama "Creation," which came into the event seeking a US distributor. The festival boasts more than 330 films screening over 10 days, and ahead of opening week about a third of them lacked key distribution, including titles such as Atom Egoyan's "Chloe" and Oliver Parker's "Dorian Gray." Facing the recession at home, audiences have flocked to escapist fantasies and comedies, causing distributors of the dramas that vie for Oscars to snap up rights for those genres, leaving serious-minded fare in the dust. Industry players say lovers of good dramas are not gone, nor is the genre dead. They see the issue as cyclical and more a marketing and cost problem than one of creative content. Still, if you are making movies like 2007's "No Country for Old Men," which earned a best film Oscar, times are tough. Director Jon Amiel, whose "Creation" tells of Charles Darwin struggling with his theories of evolution in the 1850s, called "drama" the new "five-letter word" in Hollywood. "If you're making a movie about a dead, bald Englishman, you're not making a movie that even the indie distributors are flocking to buy these days," Amiel said. "There are just many, many movies that American audiences are not going to see." BOX OFFICE BLUNDERS? The waning interest can be seen at box offices. Two big hits of the art house market this past summer were war drama "The Hurt Locker," which earned $12 million -- a solid number for a low-budget film but far less than twice the roughly $29 million earned by romantic comedy "(500) Days of Summer." "There's a real conservative attitude (and) dramas are viewed as risky in today's marketplace," said Steven Beer, an entertainment attorney with law firm Greenberg Traurig. Still, industry players say dramas can lure fans and make money. The key is devising the right production and marketing model that makes sense given today's movie going climate. In many cases, those marketing strategies call for grass roots campaigns that target key groups, lovers of science and period pieces for a movie such as "Creation," for instance. Production costs must fall to account for lower box office and declining DVD sales, which have dropped by double-digits on a percentage basis due in large part to competition from other forms of home entertainment. "These have always been tough movies and they'll always be tough movies. In a tough economic climate perhaps even tougher, which is why those models have to change," said Tom Ortenberg, president of theatrical films at The Weinstein Co. Industry watcher David Poland of MovieCityNews.com, said the drop in DVD sales had been a key factor in distributors' unwillingness to back expensive dramas but, like the other experts, he noted there remained an appetite for the genre. Still, distributors remain selective when looking at dramas, and that leaves little room for another breakthrough at Toronto 2009 such as "Slumdog" proved to be last year when it was acquired by Fox Searchlight ahead of awards season. "You're going to have a lot of buyers coming to Toronto that are a lot more cautious than in the past, and I think that that's something that is different," said Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics.

Italy, France and Britain called on Monday for major developing economies like China and India to sign up for a goal of halving the world's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at this week's expanded G8 summit in Italy. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the "extremely ambitious" goal would be the focus of the second day of the summit on Thursday, when US President Barack Obama will chair a meeting of the 17-member Major Economies Forum (MEF). The MEF, which groups rich and poor countries accounting for about 80 percent of the world's carbon emissions, hopes to make progress toward a new UN climate change pact, due to be signed by 190 nations gathering in Copenhagen in December. "The slogan is minus 50 in 2050: if we agree this with China, India, (South) Korea and the African and Latin American countries, it will be an extremely ambitious goal," Frattini said in an interview published in the Il Messaggero newspaper. The call was echoed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, meeting for a bilateral summit in the lakeside town of Evian in the French Alps. In a tough joint statement, the two countries said the G8 meeting planned at L'Aquila in central Italy would "test our determination to grasp the scale of the changes needed to address the challenge of global warming." France and Britain called on developing countries to sign up to the target of cutting global emissions by 50 percent by 2050, from 1990 levels. The base year for carbon cuts is a moot point, with some rich nations like Japan and the United States seeking a more recent base year which would make cuts less onerous. France and Britain, however, called on industrial countries to go even further and target an 80 percent reduction in their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. "The time is short, the need for us to work together on that is very clear," Brown said during a joint news conference. LAST MINUTE TALKS The MEF has convened a last-minute ministerial talks in Rome on Tuesday to try to narrow the gap on long-term environment goals ahead of Thursday's heads of state meeting, amid differences over the scale of cuts and the base year. Last year, the Group of Eight industrialized nations -- the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Russia -- agreed at a Japan summit to a vision of halving global greenhouse gases by 2050 to help avert ever more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels. But developing countries including China, India and Brazil did not sign up for that, saying rich nations should first agree to ambitious short-term targets. They want developed states to cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Washington, which has promised a New Green Deal since Obama took office this year, has resisted such steep cuts but France and Britain on Monday left the door open. "Our two countries also ask for the adoption of an ambitious, credible intermediate target for 2020, in line with what science is telling us, i.e. a 25-40 percent reduction compared to 1990," it said. Frattini also said the summit would produce some commitment on limiting the increase in global average temperatures above pre-industrial levels to no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), in line with UN experts' recommendations. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday he would press the United States and other countries to accept the two degree target -- favored by European nations -- as the threshold beyond which climate change reaches danger levels. Washington has resisted endorsing such a goal, but a European official said last week that Obama, whose climate bill has made progress in Congress, might now be on board for it.

WASHINGTON Nov 17(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - US Senate Democrats will attempt to pass a climate-change bill in "early spring" of 2010, Senator John Kerry told reporters on Monday, further complicating prospects for an international summit on global warming next month. Many countries are looking to Washington to take a lead in the drive for an international agreement but this depends on action in Congress. The House (of Representatives) has passed a bill already but the issue is moving slowly in the Senate. Kerry said Democrats would try to pass a bill to reduce US carbon dioxide emissions early in the year after approving legislation to revamp the US healthcare system and financial industry, all major priorities of President Barack Obama. Kerry spoke to reporters after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and chairmen of committees that have oversight of the climate change legislation. Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is leading Senate negotiations on a compromise bill to tackle global warming, said he and other Democrats were working toward "trying to see if we can get this to the (Senate) floor sometime in the early spring, as early as possible." Last week, Kerry had said he hoped the outlines of a compromise climate bill could be sketched out before the Dec. 7-18 global warming summit in Copenhagen that will be attended by some 190 countries. But when asked about the likelihood of that happening, Kerry on Monday would not commit to providing the "framework" of legislation before the Copenhagen meeting. The US House bill requires a 17 percent reduction in US smokestack emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases by 2020, from 2005 levels. With delays in Congress and divisions between developed and developing countries, the United Nations and Denmark acknowledged on Monday that it would not be possible to reach a binding international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions before mid-2010 at the earliest.

Addressing members of the ruling coalition, the country’s energy minister, Udaya Gammanpila, defended a small increase in fuel prices that was intended to address a critical shortage of dollars the island nation needed to import fuel, medicine and other necessities. The president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and his brother Mahinda, the prime minister, had come on board with the measure after a year of discussion. But another member of the family — Basil, the finance minister, one of five Rajapaksas in the Cabinet — had other ideas. Before the guests made their way to the dance floor, Basil Rajapaksa rose to declare that Sri Lanka was not in fact suffering from a foreign currency crisis, according to Gammanpila and another person present. Criminals, he claimed, were funnelling dollars out of the country’s banking system. Give him two weeks, he said, and he would fix it. He would not. Nearly a year later, Sri Lanka lies in economic ruin, with basic food items scarce, hospitals out of medicine and lines for fuel stretching for blocks as the country’s foreign reserves all but run out. The wave of anger gripping the country is as much about the family dynasty ruling Sri Lanka as it is about the economic disaster. Once empowered by a triumphant Buddhist Sinhalese nationalism after a brutal civil war, the Rajapaksas have been undone by what their own allies call incompetence and denial. Now, that dynasty, which has dominated the country for the greater part of two decades, is on the verge of an end, with most of the family in hiding at a military base and only the president clinging to power. The latest to go: Mahinda Rajapaksa, the patriarch and prime minister, who was evacuated from his home Tuesday after setting off clashes that left eight people dead across the country. Gammanpila said that the Rajapaksas — especially Basil, a shadowy power broker before becoming finance minister — should have seen the disaster coming. “Basil was not willing to accept the fact that this financial crisis will lead to an economic crisis, and unless we are going to solve it, that will lead to a political crisis,” he said. “He controlled everything,” Gammanpila added, a sentiment repeated by other officials and diplomats, “and he knew nothing.” That Sri Lanka was headed toward an economic crash had become increasingly clear to analysts in recent years. They warned that the country’s balance of payments and macroeconomic trends were out of alignment. Over a period of decades, the small island nation of 22 million people had built a bloated state sector, robust social welfare programs that exceeded the country’s means, a large military and an elaborate series of postwar construction projects. As economic growth slowed, it kept borrowing to pay. The economic stress increased as pandemic travel restrictions dried up tourism dollars. Then came a disastrous ban on chemical fertilizers, as the Rajapaksa government pushed organic farming at a time when climate change was already threatening harvests and food security. As it became clearer that the government needed help from financial bodies like the International Monetary Fund, the Rajapaksas dragged their feet. Used to easy loans from allies like China, they were daunted by the strict expectations that come with such packages, officials and diplomats said. The economic collapse engendered a sustained protest movement. At the main protest site, along the scenic Galle Face, which overlooks the Indian Ocean from the capital, Colombo, protesters have increasingly addressed subjects that most ethnic-majority Sinhalese once shied away from. Many have described the root of the crisis as the impunity that the political and military elite enjoyed after a civil war rife with accusations of crimes against Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils. The war’s end initiated a majoritarian triumphalism, exploited by the Rajapaksas, that concealed the deeper economic troubles and bypassed reconciliation. Members of their own party say the Rajapaksas, buoyed by war and ethnic nationalism, felt an entitlement that was all the more glaring in the face of their weak governance. Among the protesters were VGN Damayanthi, 45, and her husband, NP Wickramarathna. As the economy crashed, she said, they lost their family business, a small takeaway restaurant that employed 15 people, and sold their house. Now they are surviving on money from selling their car. What worried them most was the future of their three children, the oldest of whom will soon graduate with an IT degree. “A bit of this was because of COVID,” she said, “but a large part of it was this family.” The protests against the Rajapaksas were peaceful for weeks, and many demonstrators and analysts were surprised as the president, who had been accused of abuses as defence secretary during the civil war, responded with restraint. But the anger peaked Monday, when the prime minister turned what was meant to be a concession to the protesters — his resignation — into a conflagration that his brother is struggling to contain. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s supporters, bused to his residence, walked out and attacked peaceful protesters who had camped there for weeks through heat and monsoon downpours. The assault unleashed a wave of anger and violence, with mobs torching dozens of homes belonging to members of the ruling party. In Colombo, some supporters of the prime minister were forced to jump into a lake and flee to safety on swan boats. “The president had watched it on television,” said Nalaka Godahewa, a former Cabinet minister who was with Gotabaya Rajapaksa when his brother’s supporters marched on the protesters. “When I entered, he was screaming on the phone to the inspector general of the police — that why did you allow these people to come in,” he said. “But by then the people had entered, so he ordered him to use water cannons, rubber bullets, whatever force to chase them away.” Godahewa, whose home was also burned down, said he remained at the president’s residence for much of the night as anarchy took hold. At Temple Trees, the old colonial compound where the prime minister lives, protesters broke the gates and forced their way in. The president was said to be furious: He was working the phones to get the army to control a mess unleashed by his brother, while also helping that same brother evacuate with his family. Officials and members of the ruling party said in interviews that the episode was an indication of the rifts between the two brothers and their circles. (Members of the Rajapaksa family, as well as their official representatives, did not respond to requests for comment.) Mahinda Rajapaksa, 76, a former president described as increasingly enfeebled by those who have seen him in recent months, felt sidelined by a younger brother he thought he had made president. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president, 72, was trying to find his own ground after realizing his brothers had taken advantage of his political inexperience to introduce disastrous policies in his name. The prime minister’s supporters, said Charitha Herath, a lawmaker from the governing party, “thought that they could get rid of these protests and they could prove to the president that he was not acting, but it backfired.” In the days since, the president has tightened a curfew, ordering the security forces to shoot on sight to stop vandalism and arson. In a televised address Wednesday, he condemned the assault on the protesters and the violence that ensued, and promised to curtail his own sweeping powers. He also announced a new prime minister, bringing back Ranil Wickremesinghe for his sixth time on the job. Whether the president can hold on for the remaining two years of his term may be determined by how far the military goes in backing him. A former army colonel, he has protected the military, shielding officers from war crime investigations and rewarding loyalists with cushy civilian jobs. Hemasiri Fernando, a former defence secretary, said that the military had calculated its own interests, and that the economic crisis was too widespread, also affecting the families of those in the military, for officers to blindly support the president despite the public anger. “They understand the hardship, because they are facing it too,” Fernando said. © 2022 The New York Times Company

Climate change could extend the pollen season and encourage more disease-carrying ticks in northern Europe, and allow mosquitoes to thrive in new areas of Africa and Asia, public health officials said this week. Experts at the World Health Organisation's (WHO) annual assembly in Geneva said global warming had already begun to impact on patterns of water-borne and parasitic illness in areas vulnerable to droughts and floods. Respiratory and heart problems may become more marked following heat waves and increased particulate matter such as dust in the air, said Bettina Menne of the WHO's European division. She noted allergy-causing pollen could be released earlier and last longer with warmer temperatures. She cited the movement of ticks, small mites that can spread lyme disease, into northern Europe as an example of new health challenges that will accompany the continual heating-up of the Earth, a phenomenon scientists have linked to human activity. "Climate change has already affected human health," she told a WHO technical meeting on Monday evening. Outbreaks of cholera and malaria in the developing world were a result of environmental shifts affecting parasites and water sources, she said. South Asia was described in the session as particularly at risk because of its flood-prone low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, melting Himalayan glaciers, desert areas and large coastal cities, where climate change could facilitate disease transmission and exacerbate malnutrition pressures. Maria Neira, the WHO's director for public health and the environment, said it was critical for policy-makers to remember that climate change would have a broader impact than often-discussed environmental and economic threats. Health experts should be more involved in decision-making on energy use and conservation, and should impress upon political leaders the need for more emergency preparedness in health, such as the fast distribution of malaria nets and drugs, Neira said. "The health community, more and more, needs to influence and be present when those decisions are taken," she said.

Current predictions for global warming underestimate the risk of floods and overestimate the impact of droughts by not taking into account the role plants play in absorbing carbon dioxide, researchers said on Wednesday. They found higher levels of the greenhouse gas predicted for the end of the century will lead to an increase in the amount of water that plants hold in the soil, said Richard Betts, a meteorologist at Britain's Met Office who led the study. This means areas expected to see increased rainfall might have more severe flooding while droughts in other regions may not be as bad, he said in a telephone interview. "People may be underestimating flood risks because they do not expect the soil to be as saturated as it might be," Betts said. "We also suggest the conservation of water by plants would partly offset the scarcity during a drought." The findings underscore the need to take a wider view of climate change to better understand and predict the impact of rising temperatures, he added. Using global climate models linked to data on vegetation and soil content, the team of British researchers measured the effect of carbon dioxide levels expected to rise dramatically by the end of the century. During photosynthesis -- the process through which plants absorb energy and produce oxygen -- carbon dioxide enters plants through tiny pores called stomata. Water eventually evaporates back into the atmosphere through these stomata. But higher levels of carbon dioxide in the air cause these tiny holes to not open as widely, leading to reduced water loss from the plant and leaving more water in the soil, Betts said. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are widely blamed for global warming. Scientists say average temperatures will rise by between 2-6 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, causing droughts, floods and violent storms. "Climate change is more than just a change in the meteorological conditions. It is also a change in the whole ecology" Betts said. "We need to study this to get the whole picture because this hasn't been looked at before." With plants extracting less water from the soil, the surplus water will drain into rivers and increase global flows another 6 percent on top of the 11 percent rise already predicted due to global warming, Betts said. The study did not indicate which areas might experience the greatest change but Betts said this was the next step for his team. "We will need to quantify things and look at things like water availability and the details of how intense rainfalls may turn into flash floods," he said.

European Union states debate how far they are willing to go to fight climate change on Tuesday as the 27-nation bloc forms what could become the world's most ambitious strategy to curb global warming. A draft statement to be agreed at a meeting of EU environment ministers, obtained by Reuters, endorses a plan to cut EU greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. It also says the bloc would be willing to reduce its emissions by 30 percent by 2020 if other industrialised nations made similar cuts and 'economically more advanced' developing countries contributed, too. That call is likely to form the basis of the EU's negotiating position for a global agreement to cut emissions after 2012, when the first period covered by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change concludes. But officials said Hungary and Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, oppose making the 20 or 30 percent targets mandatory. Finland has also voiced opposition to a unilateral EU target, while Sweden and Denmark feel the bloc should commit to a 30 percent reduction from the start. Some states also wanted to discuss using a different base year than 1990 for calcualting the emissions cuts. Germany, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, will try to smooth out differences between ministers to get unanimous support for its climate change strategy ahead of a summit of the bloc's top leaders in March. The draft says EU states would commit to a 30 percent target 'provided that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable emissions reductions and economically more advanced developing countries adequately contribute according to their responsibilities and respective capabilities.' The statement said that a 'differentiated approach' would be needed when distributing the requirements to fulfil the EU's target among the 27 states. It called on the Commission to analyse criteria for how the targets would be divided up. "A differentiated approach to the contributions of the member states is needed reflecting fairness and taking into account national circumstances and the base years of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," the draft said. The 15 'old' EU member states that were members before the bloc expanded to 25 nations in 2004 and 27 countries in 2007 have a collective target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent by 2012 compared to 1990 levels. That overall goal is split up among the 15 states in a burden-sharing agreement, with some having to reduce emissions more than others.

President Barack Obama, buoyed by a domestic victory on climate policy, faces his first foreign test on the issue next week at a forum that could boost the chances of reaching a UN global warming pact this year. Obama, who has pledged U.S. leadership in the fight against climate change, chairs a meeting of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters at the G8 summit in Italy on July 9. Known as the Major Economies Forum, the grouping includes 17 nations that account for roughly 75 percent of the world's emissions, making any agreement from its leaders a potential blueprint for U.N. talks in Copenhagen in December. Meetings of the forum, which Obama relaunched earlier this year, have so far failed to achieve major breakthroughs. Developing countries want their industrial counterparts to reduce emissions by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, while rich nations want developing states to commit to boosting their economies in an environmentally friendly way. Those debates and others will be featured at the Italy meeting, the first at a heads of state and government level, and all eyes will be on Obama, whose climate initiatives European leaders have lauded while privately pressing him for more. Europeans "want to seize this moment to push as hard as they can on the Americans to get significant ... targeted commitments on carbon emissions reductions," said Heather Conley, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies. "They know that this is going to be a very careful walk along the road to Copenhagen in December and they're going to publicly praise and privately push hard." A Democrat, Obama has reversed the environmental policies of Republican predecessor George W. Bush by pressing for U.S. greenhouse gas emission cuts and a cap-and-trade system to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) output from major industries. The House of Representatives helped turn that vision into a potential law last week by passing a bill that would require large companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels. CHALLENGES, LEADERSHIP But those figures are still below what many scientists say is necessary and -- potentially more dangerous for the Copenhagen process -- the measures face obstacles to their passage through the U.S. Senate. Washington has resisted calls to endorse the aim of limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius at the G8 summit, though a European official said on Wednesday the United States was now on board for that goal. "The politics of climate change are stuck, despite Obama coming in," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He said the United States was still on the defensive in comparison to the more progressive European Union. Despite those challenges, White House officials said the president would carry momentum to the G8. "Bolstered by the great progress in the House last week, the president will ... press for continued progress on energy and climate," Denis McDonough, the White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters. Activists hope Obama's presence will pay dividends. "This is really a chance for President Obama to bring what he's most known for here in the U.S. -- hope and change -- into the climate dialogue internationally," said Keya Chatterjee, director of international climate negotiations at environmental group WWF in Washington. She said other industrialized nations had used the Bush administration's reluctance to sign up to major emissions curbs as an excuse to avoid making their own strong commitments. "In the past year it's been very easy for Canada and Russia and Japan to hide behind the Bush administration, but they don't have that to hide behind anymore," she said. A draft copy of the statement to be released by the major emitters sets a goal for the world to reduce emissions 50 percent by 2050, but it does not include a base year. The draft also gives a nod to the "broad scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2 degrees C" without specifically endorsing that goal.

Compulsory caps on carbon emissions by big firms are not a proven tool to fight climate change, despite their mounting popularity among other rich nations, an official at Japan's top business lobby said on Friday. The country's industry has used a voluntary scheme to keep emissions below levels of three decades ago and critics should look at results rather than fixating on methods, said Masami Hasegawa at the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren). He rejected the warning of a top UN climate official that the country could find itself isolated at a time when its prime minister wants to help lead the fight against global warming, because it rejects a cap-and-trade system to control emissions. "We don't think that this system will contribute to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the long term," said Hasegawa, Manager of the Environment Group under the Industrial Affairs Bureau III. "No one knows the results of it yet in economic terms or in environmental terms ... Innovative technology is the key to reducing emissions in the future." The business group argues that emissions caps will mean government meddling, unfair handouts of permits to emit, restrictions on growth of healthy companies and subsidies for ailing ones. Instead, it has set a "voluntary" target for members to keep average annual emissions below 1990 levels, over the five years through 2012 when Japan is bound by the Kyoto Protocol. The agreement covers 35 sectors including major emitters like steel and power firms. They can chose from a range of different targets -- including cutting energy use, lowering overall carbon emissions, or reducing emissions per dollar earned. There are no sanctions for anyone who misses their target or independent verification, though a small third-party panel of academics and other advisers checks data sent to the Keidanren. A sense of social responsibility means the companies have successfully held down emissions, Hasegawa said. He declined to comment on how much the scheme was costing members. But critics say the companies have limited incentives to make costly domestic reductions so are buying too many credits from overseas to make up quotas, and the system is too opaque to allow a rigorous evaluation of improvements notched up at home. ISOLATION? Japan hosts a G8 summit this year, and has promised climate change will be a key issue. But Yvo de Boer executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, warned on Thursday that this means emissions trading may also be in focus. "After the elections in the United States, whoever wins those elections, every industrialised country in the world will be favouring a cap and trade approach," he said. "The challenge then I think will be whether Japan also decides to embrace a cap-and-trade regime or not." Industry players -- some of whom feel a tight Kyoto goal is an unfair challenge for already-efficient Japan -- are in favour of focusing on a sectoral approach and cheaper cuts to emissions in developing countries, Hasegawa said. "In the short term there is a lot of reduction potential in developing countries...so we have to transplant our technology." But he did not say who would pay for the usually expensive equipment, a major bone of contention for poorer nations that want to fight poverty and warming at the same time.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the prime minister’s son an ICT adviser, announced the winners at a virtual programme organised by Young Bangla, the youth platform of the Awami League’s Centre for Research and Information, on Tuesday. The winners include 16 under social inclusion category and 14 under social development. Young Bangla picked 47 organisations for the final from 600 groups of youths aged between 18 and 35. Describing their work as “outstanding”, Joy said they are working to serve the common people in an inspiring manner.  He thanked them for working for the poor children, people with disabilities and other marginalised people. Joy said the winners were trying to resolve the problems they found while some other people always prefer to complain. “They (winners) are not big organisations, maybe a single youth working in a village. But they are helping the people with their own ideas instead of complaining. That’s what we all should do,” he added. Nasrul Hamid Bipu, thde state minister for power, energy and mineral resources who is also a trustee of CRI, joined the event moderated by Dr Nuzhat Choudhury. The winners and category: Happy Natore and Shoshtho Indrio or The 6th Sense of Rajshahi (children’s rights).  Obhizatrik Foundation of Patuakhali and Miserable Welfare Association of Sylhet (ultra-poor empowerment). Hate Khori Foundation of Pirojpur, Ek Takay Shikkha of Chattogram and Good Film of Barishal (empowerment of disadvantaged people). Unmesh of Rangamati, Ignite Youth Foundation of Chandpur, iTech School of Chandpur and Positive Bangladesh of Dhaka (youth development). Deshi Balllers of Dhaka and Youth for Change of Barishal (women empowerment). The Centre for Rights and Development of Persons With Disabilities of Barishal, Bangladesh Wheelchair Sports Foundation of Mymensingh, and Association for Autism and Social Improvement of Habiganj (empowerment of the people with disabilities).      Bloodmen Healthcare of Dhaka, Mastul Foundation of Dhaka, World Youth Army of Noakhali, Central Boys of Raujan of Chattogram and Mission Save Bangladesh Foundation of Dhaka (emergency work to prevent coronavirus). Plastic Initiative Network of Dhaka and Youth Environment Social Development Society of Dhaka (environment and climate change). Psycure Organisation of Jamalpur, and DIP Medical Services of Natore and Dipasha Foundation (health education and awareness). Pohorchanda Adarsha Pathagar of Cox’s Bazar, Uttoron Jubo Sangha of Moulvibazar, Cinema Bangladesh of Laxmipur (socio-cultural entrepreneurship). Footstep Bangladesh of Noakhali and Safety Management Foundation of Kurigram (disaster management and reducing risk of damage). The winners will receive certificates, crests and laptops. Young Bangla has so far awarded 130 organisations since 2015. Many of them went on to get international recognition later.

Democrats who control the chamber passed the sweeping measure by a mostly party-line vote of 219 to 212 and sent it on to the Senate, where Democrats planned a legislative maneuver to allow them to pass it without the support of Republicans. The American Rescue Plan would pay for vaccines and medical supplies and send a new round of emergency financial aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments. Democrats said the package was needed to fight a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work. "The American people need to know that their government is there for them," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in debate on the House floor. Republicans, who have broadly backed previous COVID-19 spending, said much of the current package was not necessary, highlighting elements like a subway near Pelosi's San Francisco district. Only 9% of the total would go directly toward fighting the virus, they said. "It just throws out money without accountability," House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said. The House vote amounted to a successful first test for Democrats, who hold a narrow 221-211 majority in the chamber. Progressives and moderates in the party who are often at odds will face tougher battles ahead on immigration and climate change initiatives that Biden wants to push. The president has focused his first weeks in office on tackling the greatest US public health crisis in a century, which has upended most aspects of American life. Democrats aim to get the bill to him to sign into law before mid-March, when enhanced unemployment benefits and some other types of aid are due to expire. The bill's big-ticket items include $1,400 direct payments to individuals, a $400-per-week federal unemployment benefit through Aug. 29, and help for those in difficulty paying rents and home mortgages during the pandemic. The action now moves to the Senate, where Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris may have to cast a tie-breaking vote in a chamber where Republicans control 50 seats and Democrats and their allies control the other 50. FATE OF MINIMUM WAGE HIKE UNCLEAR Democrats will have to sort out how to handle a proposed minimum-wage increase, which may have to be stripped from the bill due to the complicated rules that govern the Senate. The House-passed bill would raise the national hourly minimum wage for the first time since 2009, to $15 from $7.25. The increase is a top priority for progressive Democrats. However, the Senate's rules expert said on Thursday that the wage hike did not qualify for special treatment that allows the rest of the bill to be passed with a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber. Pelosi predicted the relief bill will pass Congress with or without the increase, and said Democrats would not give up on the matter. It is not clear whether the minimum-wage hike would have survived the Senate even if it were to be kept in the bill. At least two Senate Democrats oppose it, along with most Republicans. Some senators are floating a smaller increase, to the range of $10 to $12 per hour, while Democrats are considering a penalty for large corporations that do not voluntarily pay a $15 wage, according to a Democratic aide. Efforts to craft a bipartisan coronavirus aid bill fizzled early on, shortly after Biden was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, following a series of bipartisan bills enacted in 2020.

The Democratic former vice president has shrugged off the Republican incumbent's long-shot challenge to his victory, naming longtime adviser Ron Klain on Wednesday as White House chief of staff, his first major appointment. New records for daily coronavirus infections and hospitalisations in the United States ensured that the presidential transition will be dominated by the response to the pandemic, which has accelerated since the Nov. 3 election. Trump remains in office until Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20. Foreign allies have congratulated Biden. A group of prominent former world leaders known as The Elders, chaired by former Irish President Mary Robinson, urged Trump to accept defeat, fearing he was "putting at risk the functioning of American democracy." Attention is now expected to shift to Biden's picks for Cabinet posts, though aides have so far given few clues about when announcements will be made. On foreign policy, diplomat and longtime confidant Antony Blinken is seen as a possible choice for secretary of state or national security adviser. Whoever is chosen for treasury secretary will have to cope with a recession and joblessness, as well as serving as the fulcrum to address wealth inequality, climate change and other issues. Klain, who served as Democratic President Barack Obama's "Ebola czar" in 2014 during an outbreak of that virus in West Africa, is expected to take a leading role in the incoming Biden administration's response to the nationwide spike in COVID-19 cases. In Klain, Biden brings in a trusted and experienced operative who also served as Democratic Vice President Al Gore's top aide during Bill Clinton's administration. "He was always highly informed and his advice was always grounded in exceptional command of the policy process, the merits of the arguments, and the political and justice context," Gore told Reuters. The United States again set records on Wednesday with more than 142,000 new coronavirus infections and nearly 65,000 hospitalisations, according to a Reuters tally. The death toll rose by 1,464, approaching the levels reached during a catastrophic first wave earlier this year. BIG BIDEN LEAD Biden has won enough of the battleground states to surpass the 270 electoral votes needed in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the next president. He is also winning the popular vote by more than 5.2 million votes, or 3.4 percentage points, with a few states still counting ballots. Since major news organisations called the election for Biden on Saturday, Trump has maintained a minimal public schedule, preferring instead to air his grievances on Twitter, and has not addressed the climbing virus case load nationwide. Trump has focused on efforts to overturn the election's results in closely contested states, despite presenting no evidence of irregularities that could affect the outcome, and a sceptical reception from judges. His team has also been busy raising money, soliciting contributions to pay for legal challenges. But a donor would have to give more than $8,000 before any money goes to an account established to finance election challenges. Small-dollar donations instead will go to the Republican National Committee or a newly formed political action committee, which can use the cash for other purposes such as travel expenses or other political campaigns. Democrats have accused Trump of aiming to undermine public trust in the US election system and delegitimize Biden's victory. Trump's nearly four years in office have been marked by political divisions and the shattering of democratic norms. Edison Research gave Biden 279 electoral votes as of Thursday morning. While some news organization have added Arizona and its 11 electoral votes to Biden's column, Edison Research had yet to call that traditionally Republican state for the Democrat, who led by a margin of 0.3 percentage point. Results in Georgia, another longtime Republican stronghold with 16 electoral votes, also showed Biden with a lead of 0.3 percentage point. In order to remain in office, Trump would need to win both Arizona and Georgia and overturn one or more states already in the Biden column before the formal Electoral College vote on Dec. 14, a highly unlikely scenario. "If we can audit the total votes cast, we will easily win Arizona also!" Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said the vote was not close enough to trigger a recount. With slightly fewer than 25,000 ballots left to count, Trump would need to win 65 percent of the remaining votes to catch Biden's lead. "That certainly could happen," Hobbs told CNN on Thursday. "I think it's not likely to happen." Georgia has decided to recount its votes by hand. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Republican secretary of state, said it was unlikely to find many errors from the previous machine count. "End of the day, you may not like the results, but it'll be an accurate recount, and we'll know exactly what the vote totals are," Raffensperger told Fox News Channel on Thursday.

President Donald Trump has placed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of products from China, imposed sanctions on Chinese companies and restricted Chinese businesses from buying US technology — a multiyear onslaught aimed at forcing Beijing to change its trade practices and as punishment for its authoritarian ways. He shows no sign of letting up in his final days in office: On Thursday, Trump issued an executive order barring investments in Chinese firms with military ties. The hard choices for Biden will include deciding whether to maintain about $360 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports that have raised costs for US businesses and consumers, or whether to relax those levies in exchange for concessions on economic issues, or other fronts, like climate change. Biden will need to walk a careful line. He and his advisers view many of Trump’s measures, which were aimed at severing ties between the Chinese and US economies, as clumsy, costly and unstrategic. They say they want to take a smarter approach that combines working with the Chinese on some issues like global warming and the pandemic, while competing with them on technological leadership and confronting them on other issues like military expansionism, human rights violations or unfair trade. But even if it departs from Trump’s punishing approach, the Biden administration will be eager to maintain leverage over China to accomplish its own policy goals. And the new administration will face pressure from lawmakers in both parties who view China as a national security threat and have introduced legislation aimed at penalising Beijing for its human rights abuses, global influence operations and economic practices. “This is likely going to be a period of continuing uncertainty on the U.S.-China front,” said Myron Brilliant, the executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “There is no question that President Trump has adopted a tough stance on China, and this probably doesn’t give President-elect Biden a lot of political flexibility early on, but we expect a significant departure in tone, style and process.” Biden has given few details about his plans for US-China relations, other than saying he wants to recruit US allies such as Europe and Japan to pressure China to make economic reforms, like protecting intellectual property. He has pledged to devote more resources to enhancing American manufacturing capacity, infrastructure and technological development, to ensure the United States retains an edge over China even as it invests huge sums in fields like telecommunications, artificial intelligence and semiconductors. But Biden will face pressure from both parties not to revert to the approach that he and many of his predecessors had earlier embraced in trying to transform China’s economic practices by bringing it into the global economy. Like many Democrats and Republicans in the 1990s and early 2000s, Biden argued that integrating China into the global trading system would force Beijing to play by international rules, to the benefit of US workers. In 2000, he voted to grant China permanent normal trading relations, which paved the way for China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation and deeper global economic ties. In 2016, Trump won the presidency in part by loudly rejecting that approach, arguing that the United States needed to isolate, not integrate, Beijing. Biden acknowledges that China exploited the international system, and he has called for a more aggressive approach. Biden has said the United States must get “tough with China,” and referred to Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, as a “thug.” Congress is also relatively unified on taking a tough stance on China. Hundreds of China-related bills are circulating, including several bipartisan efforts that echo Biden’s emphasis on competing with China by investing in U.S. industries like quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Biden’s first moves on China could also be dictated by Trump’s last months. Many trade experts say they are concerned Trump, who has promised to make China “pay” for not doing enough to contain the coronavirus, could amp up his economic fight. Several of Trump’s aides are bitter at China for its role as the source of the coronavirus, which they see as a major contributor to Trump’s loss, people familiar with their thinking say. One area of focus is the trade deal that Trump signed with Chinese officials in January. While China has largely kept commitments to open up its markets to US companies and Trump’s advisers have continued to defend the pact, Beijing has fallen far behind schedule in its promise to buy an additional $200 billion of goods and services by the end of next year. Trump’s most likely path will be to leave the deal intact, said Chris Rogers, a global trade and logistics analyst at Panjiva. But he wouldn’t rule out “a scorched-earth policy where China is declared to be in violation of its Phase 1 trade deal commitments and there’s a return to tariff escalation. President-elect Biden will be left holding the pieces if the deal is broken,” Rogers said. And the president shows no signs of backing off a confrontational approach in other areas. On Friday, his administration is expected to begin economic talks with Taiwan that are likely to rankle Beijing. His advisers are considering other measures to punish China in the coming weeks, including sanctions related to China’s security crackdowns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has carried out mass detentions and harsh policing of ethnic minorities. “We are worried that he’s going to do some rash things that aren’t going to make sense for the future of the country or global stability,” said Rufus Yerxa, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents major multinational companies. “Given the history of President Trump’s use of executive authority, we’re taking nothing for granted in these next few months.” Still, “most of what he could do is through executive orders and executive actions, which can be reversed by a Biden administration,” Yerxa added. Whether Biden opts to roll back Trump’s more punitive measures will depend, at least in part, on China’s future behaviour, including whether it pursues more aggressive incursions into the South China Sea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, people close to his campaign say. Beijing has recently endorsed a policy of greater technological self-reliance and a stronger military to protect itself from a more antagonistic United States, and moved ahead with cementing other economic partnerships. On Sunday, China signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a pan-Asian trade pact that includes Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries, and will help cement China’s image as the dominant economic power in the region. Biden’s appointments for trade and foreign policy posts could help determine his approach toward China, though it remains unclear whom he might nominate for such critical jobs as secretaries of state and commerce and the United States trade representative. Similar to Biden himself, many of Biden’s closest advisers have a moderate track record on trade and China, believing they can work with Chinese leaders on some issues even as they challenge them on others. But several of his national security advisers are more sceptical of China. No matter the path, business groups, economists and others are hoping for a coherent strategy that does not result in the type of economic brinkmanship Trump appeared to thrive on. While Democrats and Republicans have credited Trump with drawing attention to China’s security threats, and its unfair economic practices like intellectual property theft, his dealings with China have also been transactional and inconsistent. In an attempt to secure a trade deal, Trump lavished praise on Xi, delayed sanctions against China’s human rights violations for months, and pardoned Chinese company ZTE for running afoul of US law. And he has employed racist and xenophobic rhetoric, like calling the coronavirus the “kung flu,” that has fuelled attacks on people of Asian descent around the country. “The Trump administration never did lay out a coherent, comprehensive, engaged trade strategy,” said Thea M Lee, an economist and the president of the Economic Policy Institute. “It was much more scattershot: Throw up a tariff here, do a deal with China, disparate elements that didn’t seem to talk to each other.” “But there are a lot of tools in that toolbox, and I would like to see the Biden administration be thoughtful and strategic about how to use them,” Lee said. Some experts are urging Biden to take a more nuanced approach. In a report to be published Monday, 29 China specialists and other experts, some with close ties to Biden’s advisers, urge US policymakers to better compete with China by strengthening US research and innovation, preserving the openness of American universities and the economy, and taking a more targeted approach to Chinese security threats. The working group, organised by the 21st Century China Centre at the University of California, San Diego, argues that the United States has allowed its technological leadership over China to erode through a lack of funding in research and development, and overreacted to threats from China in a way that has damaged America’s own economic prospects, including severing economic ties with China, and turning away Chinese students and researchers. Peter Cowhey, the dean of the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, and chairman of the working group, said its primary takeaway was that the United States “must invest and reorganise the US innovation system across the board, including basic research and development and specialised manufacturing capabilities.” “It’s a lot easier to manage risks with China if we are in an overall robust period of leadership,” he added.   © 2020 New York Times News Service

Climate change seems a factor in the rise and fall of the Roman empire, according to a study of ancient tree growth that urges greater awareness of the risks of global warming in the 21st century. Good growth by oak and pine trees in central Europe in the past 2,500 years signalled warm and wet summers and coincided with periods of wealth among farming societies, for instance around the height of the Roman empire or in medieval times. Periods of climate instability overlapped with political turmoil, such as during the decline of the Roman empire, and might even have made Europeans vulnerable to the Black Death or help explain migration to America during the chill 17th century. Climate shifts that affected farm output were factors in "amplifying political, social and economic crises", Ulf Buentgen, of the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, told Reuters. He was lead author of the report in Friday's edition of the journal Science. The review, by experts in Germany, Austria, the United States and Switzerland, extended study of tree rings 1,000 years beyond previous analyses. Thick rings indicate good growth conditions while narrow ones mean poor. The study said the evidence, helping back up written records that are sparse in Europe more than 500 years ago, "may challenge recent political and fiscal reluctance" to slow projected climate change in the 21st century. Modern societies seem less vulnerable but "are certainly not immune" to climate change, especially because migration "will not be an option in an increasingly crowded world", they wrote. The U.N. panel of climate experts says that greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, will lead to more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels that could swamp low-lying island states. BARBARIANS The study said: "Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from AD 250-600 coincided with the demise of the western Roman empire and the turmoil of the migration period." "Distinct drying in the 3rd century paralleled a period of serious crisis in the western Roman empire marked by barbarian invasion, political turmoil and economic dislocation in several provinces of Gaul," it said. Temperatures and rainfall only returned to levels of the Roman period in the early 800s, around the time when new kingdoms consolidated in Europe. The Black Death bubonic plague of the mid-14th century, for instance, was during an unstable, wet period. "From other studies we know that a more humid environment is more supportive fo the dispersal of plague," Buentgen said. Later on, "temperature minima in the early 17th and 19th centuries accompanied sustained settlement abandonment during the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) and the modern migrations from Europe to America", they wrote. He said Europe had the best record of tree rings because of widespread wooden buildings but that the techniques could be applied elsewhere, for instance in China or the Middle East. For Reuters latest environment blogs, click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/

"During my field visits and interactions with the tribes, I realised that concepts ... (such as) green living, rain water harvesting, reducing carbon emission and organic farming are actually being practiced since the time of our ancestors," she said. "The modern world is basically 'hijacking' these age-old indigenous practices and principles, in its fight against climate change. So why not give the tribal communities their due credit" - and a bigger leadership role in dealing with climate threats, she asked. Soreng, 24, a member of the Kharia tribe from the remote village of Bihabandh in India's Odisha state, in late July was selected as one of seven youth advisors on climate action to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He said he hoped the new panel of 18 to 28-year-olds would "provide perspectives, ideas and solutions that will help us scale up climate action". Selwin Hart, a UN special advisor on climate action, said Soreng "was selected due to her strong work in advocacy and research, (and) in preserving and promoting the traditional knowledge and cultural practices of indigenous communities". 'A HEAVY PRICE' Soreng, in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said indigenous communities were already among those hardest hit by worsening climate-related threats and problems, from extreme weather to deforestation. Since she was young, she said, strong cyclones have repeatedly hit her state, with families losing their homes and assets. By the time they recover, she said, another storm comes along. "Why do the least-polluting tribal communities have to pay such a heavy price?" she asked. In Soreng's family, activism and tribal ties run deep. Her mother Usha Kerketta is a teacher and women's right activist in her village. Nabor Soreng, her uncle and the first literate member of the family, is a tribal leader and indigenous studies expert. Since childhood, they said, Soreng has been interested in tribal issues and environmental challenges. In recent years she has documented the practices and traditional wisdom of Indian tribal and forest groups such as the Paudi Bhuiyan, Juang, Dongria Kondh, Oraon, Santhalis, Ho and her own Kharia tribe. The effort has aimed not just to help preserve the knowledge but try to see it spread - and to instill greater pride in local the traditional communities, said Soreng, who studied regulatory governance at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and now is a researcher with Vasundhara, an Odisha non-profit focused on the rights, livelihoods and culture of indigenous communities. As the world battles plastic pollution, for instance, it could learn from indigenous communities that have long used alternatives to plastic, from biodegradable plates made from leaves to toothbrushes of Neem tree twigs or date palm, she said. Tribal communities need to become entrepreneurs in fighting climate change, she said, creating businesses that bring them an income and cut out the middle men and private companies that usually usurp their ideas and potential profits. "I want to act as a bridge between the indigenous communities and policy makers in this regard," she said. 'TAKEN SERIOUSLY' Her foray into climate activism began about five years ago when she joined a university movement for tribal people. Last year she represented India at a Geneva meeting of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). She is also a member of the climate secretariat's youth constituency, and has been part of a youth caucus on desertification and land use. She said it was "exhilarating" to have been chosen for the UN secretary-general's youth group, but she also saw it as "a huge responsibility". “As a member of this international climate forum I will emphasis and propagate the indigenous traditional practices, wisdom and ways of life as sustainable solutions to the growing climate crises," she said, as well as trying to engage more indigenous youth in climate action. Planet-heating emissions are still rising, however, despite the growth of a global youth activist movement that brought millions to the streets last year. That has raised questions about whether global leaders are ready to listen to young people and act more swifly on the climate risks that will fall hardest on them. Soreng believes they are. The decision to create the youth panel she's joined "shows that young voices are being taken seriously to accelerate global action and tackle the worsening climate crisis", she said. Social media has helped young people amplify their voices, and many are today more informed, aware and mature on the issues, she added. But youth input into decision-making needs to be continuous and sustained for long-term impact, she said, and youth groups need to join forces with like-minded others to have real impact. Soreng's uncle, the tribal leader, believes his niece will have a key role in making that happen. "I am sure she will connect the local with the global, thus helping the world at large to tackle the climate crisis," he said.