Growing influence of BRIC's in East Africa through arms race


MONDAY SEPTEMBER 04 2023


A Russian tank in a firing exercise field. 


By JULIUS BARIGABA
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countries. Yet, new details show that arms supply is just as much the bloc’s area of specialisation, to eastern African countries.

The Brics arms race, it turns out, is already playing out in eastern Africa as new data indicates that in 2021 and 2022, Uganda and Rwanda were the biggest importers of Russian arms, while Ethiopia and Tanzania sourced their military firepower from China.

This is according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) arms transfer database.

In its August update — dated just before the August 22-24 Brics Summit in South Africa — Sipri, showed that Russia and China dominate supplies while India is the bloc’s and the world’s biggest arms importer. Sipri often research and maps conflicts, arms control and purchases.

Read: Russia passes China in sub-Saharan Africa arms supply

The update studied arms transfers for the period 2008 — 2022, to see whether the trend of trading between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — which until the formal admission of six new members constituted the Brics group — is also reflected in arms trade between themselves.

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According to Sipri, the Brics is an important economic bloc and trade between its members is growing. Data shows that Russia has remained the top supplier of arms to India in the last 14 years, while the Asian nation was also the number one export market for Russian arms exports.

“However, Russia’s share fell from 78 percent in 2008-12 to 45 percent in 2018-22, while France, Israel and USA all gained ground,” the think tank explains.

According to Sipri, China receives most of its major arms imports from Russia and was ranked the number two market for Russian arms exports in 2008-2022, but the Asian giant is becoming less reliant on arms imports, including from Russia as its domestic arms industry grows rapidly.

While India was the world’s number one importer of major arms from 2008 – 2022, China ranked third while other Brics members imported much smaller volumes, ranking 36th, 55th and 63rd for Brazil, South Africa and Russia respectively, according to Sipri.

In terms of exports, Russia, ranked number two globally after the US, while China was number five, with India, Brazil and South Africa having relatively small domestic arms industries but keen to increase their exports.

In East Africa, Uganda was ranked Russia’s biggest market in 2022, importing weapons worth $48 million out of a total import bill of $55 million, according to Sipri’s trend indicator values. Its other sources were Czechia ($4 million), Israel ($2 million), China ($1 million) and South Africa ($1 million).

Read: Ethiopia region’s biggest military spender in 2022

In 2021, Rwanda imported arms worth $46 million from Russia, $10 million from turkey and $2 million from the US.

In 2022, Ethiopia imported weapons valued at $35 million from China, while the previous year, its arms were sourced from Turkey ($5 million) and $6 million worth of weapons from unknown sources.

In 2021, Tanzania imported arms worth $29 million from China and also sourced weapons worth $24 million from France.

Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo sourced their arms from South Africa; Kenya and South Sudan are the only countries from region whose military supplies are not sourced from a Brics member during this period.

In 2009, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa formed the bloc to counter western dominance in geopolitics, and to promote peace, security, development and cooperation; the inclusion of new members Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is meant to share these goals wider.

Scholars view the Brics emergence as critical to establishing a new world order to bridge the widening gap between the actual role of emerging markets in the global system and their ability to participate in the decision-making process of global institutions.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

Africa Climate Summit adopts 'Nairobi Declaration'

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 06 2023
The East African


President William Ruto (C) surrounded by other African leaders delivers his closing speech during the closure of the Africa Climate Summit 2023 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya on September 6, 2023. 

PHOTO | LUIS TATO | AFP

By NATION AFRICA
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The Africa Climate Summit 2023 has culminated in the Nairobi Declaration, with the continent’s leaders asking developed nations to honour their commitments to provide $100 billion in annual climate finance.

African heads of state and governments on Wednesday also called for urgent reform of multilateral financial system in their bid to secure funding for climate mitigation and climate adaptation projects.

The declaration calls for "a new financing architecture that is responsive to Africa's needs including debt restructuring and relief", as frustration mounts over the high cost of financing on the continent.

Read: Ruto urges global lenders to be fair to Africa

It also asks rich carbon polluters to honour long-standing climate pledges to poorer nations and urges world leaders to back a proposed "carbon tax on fossil fuel trade, maritime transport and aviation".

The 54-nation continent is acutely vulnerable to the growing impacts of climate change, but the summit largely focused on calls to unlock investment in clean energy.

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"A new Africa is there, and it means business," Kenyan President William Ruto said.

The summit saw funding pledges worth $23 billion "for green growth, mitigation and adaptation efforts" across the continent.

Ruto: Africa has the power to decarbonise the world


TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 05 2023

President William Ruto delivers his opening remarks during the Africa Climate Summit 2023 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya on September 4, 2023. 

PHOTO | LUIS TATO | 

By HELLEN SHIKANDA
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Kenya's President William Ruto, speaking at the opening ceremony of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit, said Africa has the power to decarbonise the world and boost investment for the continent.

Dr Ruto told the three-day summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) that Africa should seize the opportunity to transform Africa's climate dialogue.

More than three decades after climate talks gained momentum on the global stage, this is the first time African countries have convened a regional meeting exclusively to discuss their agenda.

Read: ‘Common agenda’ calls intensify ahead of Africa Climate Summit

Over the years, Africa has raised its concerns at global climate conferences through its regional groups that are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), such as the African Group of Negotiators and the Group of 77 (G-77).

Although the continent contributes a negligible 4 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, its grievances are often sidelined by promises made by high-emitting countries that are often not kept.

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For this reason, Dr Ruto said it was time for Africa to change the way it deals with climate issues.

"We come together with a clear understanding of the inadequacy of our climate finance needs, but we will not shy away from the realities that must bring about positive change," he said.

"Climate change is not just an abstract concept; it is proven by science and emerging experience. That is why we are not here to catalogue grievances and lease problems. We are here to talk about solutions," he added.

On decarbonising the world, President Ruto said Africa should harness its rich potential in renewable energy as it could benefit other people outside the continent and bring in development funds.

Read: Kenya seeks Swedish support ahead of Climate Summit

"Our assets must be in the form of partnerships. The reason we have not made so much progress is because Africa has not consolidated and brought its ideas to the table. The day we do that, we will be a wealthy continent," he said.

"It is not just the volume of our renewable resources that stands out, but also their non-seasonality. We will always have the sun," Dr Ruto said.

Dr Ruto subtly called out Africa's lenders for their inequitable payment of loans, in line with one of the key agendas of the summit, which is to restructure new ways of paying debts, as their plight is derailing the continent, which is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

"It is no secret that we pay at least five times more on our loans than the advanced economies. I see this as an opportunity to unleash the creativity of local investment. My call to everyone at this summit is to have African priorities. This is a moment to imagine a bold and radically positive African future," he said.

"The future is not something to be hoped for or wished for, it is for us to realise and imagine now. That is what we have come to do at the Africa Climate Summit," he added.

Other delegates at the event backed the African agenda, despite the furore in the weeks before the event that suggested outsiders had hijacked the summit with their ideas. Environment Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya said the overarching goal of the summit was to chart a green growth path for the African continent.

Read: Experts urge strong climate change action in Africa

"Climate change has entered a new era, it is not just about an environmental or development angle, it is now about climate change in the context of climate justice," she said.

Speaking on behalf of civil society, Mithika Mwenda, Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), said it was time for climate summits to move away from being a battle between the global North and the global South.He warned developed countries against using such summits to escape responsibility for their high emissions, saying the narrative of change should be two-way.

"The outcome of this summit should not only provide solutions for people whose livelihoods are affected by climate change and its false solutions, but also reflect African realities, and adaptation should be at the heart of it," he said.

Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission, said climate change was a pandemic in Africa.

"What we are seeing is a situation where governments are abandoning development and spending their money on the climate crisis. Africa needs to move from a donor-recipient relationship to building investment," she said.

Youth and Indigenous Peoples were represented and shared the need for their voices to be at the centre of the climate talks.

President Ruto urges global financial institutions to be fair to Africa

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 05 2023

President William Ruto addressing participants during the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya on September 5, 2023. 

By HELLEN SHIKANDA
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By DAN OGETTA
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Africa is calling for a fair financial system that treats all nations equally, according to Kenya's President William Ruto, who also chairs the Heads of State Committee on Climate Change.

Speaking on the second day of the Africa Climate Summit, President Ruto said it was not too much to ask as many African nations were facing debt distress due to climate change.

"This is the continent with the highest investment potential. We are only limited by two things: high interest rates for development capital," President Ruto said, adding that nine countries in Africa are already in debt distress, 13 are at high risk and 17 are at medium risk.

Read: African leaders push for change in global financial structure

He argued that the suffering was global but the African continent was bearing the brunt and that the financial architecture is such that African nations are seen as risky borrowers.

"How do we get Africa to pay five times more?" The president wondered. "We are not asking to be favoured [or] treated differently... We need a conversation."

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"Climate change was destroying the economies of African nations and forcing affected countries to divert their budgets and resources meant for economic growth to dealing with the effects of climate change," Dr Ruto said.

"Africa had lost 2.5 million head of livestock, among other things, due to climate change," he said.

He said the summit was both Africa's climate summit and a global pre-COp28 meeting where Africa would speak, and the world would listen.

"The ACS is an orientation to familiarise us with our journey into the future, driven by African solutions," he explained. "We have gathered here to consult, deliberate, collaborate and share the future of climate action globally and for Africa. This summit is about turning ideas into action and forging transformative partnerships to bring our planet back from the brink of climate change."

Acknowledging that there was still a long way to go to achieve Africa's aspirations, he urged all stakeholders to keep their promises, even in difficult times.

Nevertheless, he said, there was a need to move fast because climate change was an emergency that required a commitment to climate action and green growth.

"This African moment is a global moment, we are there in word and deed. I urge everyone at this summit to show bold leadership in support of African aspirations. We have a long way to go and no time to lose. We have the permission of our ancestors to innovate a way, not only to go fast, but to go together," said Dr Ruto.

Even in the face of adversity, the summit host said, there is opportunity. Climate change and the crisis it brings is Africa's opportunity to unlock the vast resources we have for a green energy transition, he said.

President Ruto said Africa has an unprecedented opportunity to turn away from the well-trodden unsustainable path.

Speaking at the Youth Summit on Sunday, President Ruto said the world had witnessed the immense potential that African youth could unleash.

He added that this underscored the importance of the Youth Commission. Potential and opportunity are all futuristic.

African countries face unique, disproportionate and structural disadvantages that can help them achieve prosperity. And the tragedy of climate change is "relentlessly eating away at this progress", President Ruto lamented, while declaring that the continent will use its capacity to limit its own emissions as a clear pathway to net zero by 2050

"Furthermore, to achieve green growth, Africa has committed to move quickly to develop the necessary instruments and institutions, with Kenya, as an outcome of the summit, offering to host the Global Centre for Adaptation (GCA)," President Ruto said.

"We have been negatively profiled, the continent of disease, war and poverty, but we are stepping out to say that Africa is home to 60 percent of the world's renewable energy assets," he said.

Standing in for US President Joe Biden, US special climate envoy John Kerry said, "My sense is that after this speech, we have no choice but to act."

"Africa has the greatest opportunity in the world to win this (climate change) dialogue," he added.

"I feel that Africa at this moment offers an enormous opportunity. This problem that we face is man-made. Humanity is being threatened by humanity. We need the Loss and Damage Fund in one year, this year, in Dubai. We can win this battle, but we can only win it if we make fundamental choices," he further said.

US will not pay climate reparations to developing states, John Kerry says






WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 06 2023


US Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry gestures during the second day of Africa Climate Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya on September 5, 2023.

By HELLEN SHIKANDA
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United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has said that the US will be damned if it pays any form of climate reparations to developing countries.

Despite his country being one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, he reiterated a statement he made at a congressional hearing in July this year that under no circumstances would his country be forced to pay climate reparations.

At a press conference with journalists on the sidelines of the African Climate Summit, he said that while he knew the US was one of the biggest polluters, all the world's economies were in the same predicament when it came to climate change.

Read: African leaders demand carbon emission ‘reparations’

His statement at the congress and when he spoke to heads of state contradicts his plans to be actively at the forefront of ensuring that a Loss and Damage mechanism is put in place.

Loss and Damage refers to the irreparable effects of climate change that can neither be adapted to nor mitigated.

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During his presentation to world leaders, Kerry insisted that the Loss and Damage process should be completed in about a year and sympathised with people affected by climate-related loss and damage.

However, in response to a question from a Nation journalist, he said that his stance on Loss and Damage payments, a form of climate reparations, is that the facility, which was historically agreed at COP27, should not be designed in a "punitive" way.

All he wants is for the Loss and Damage Facility to be exempt from any kind of civil liability that developed countries have to pay for.

"This is not a unique position for the United States and many nations in the world. We have said we are not going to create a liability structure on the court," he said.

Read: Climate change adaptation should be Africa’s priority

"Changing the dynamics and everything we do in a very negative way. We are not going to do that," he added.

Kerry further said the US believes that there is loss and damage and that it is an important thing for responsible nations to try to help countries that have been affected.

"Since 1988, the US and other countries have taken enormous steps to respond to this reality. Mother Nature doesn't choose between the emissions of one country and those of another. What affects Mother Nature is the total emissions that go into the atmosphere," he said.

However, he said the US is proud to be the largest humanitarian donor in the world and has helped so many other countries not only with climate emergencies, but also with health.

Earlier at the conference, Kenya's President William Ruto suggested that African countries need to adopt a carbon tax, which would penalise companies for their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

Read: Why Africa can be the lungs of the world

"It's clear that as a result of procrastination and doing what we shouldn't have done, more and more damage and injury is taking place. You have to be pretty blind not to see some responsibility," he said.

"The US president and his administration have not yet endorsed any carbon pricing mechanisms, but they have directed us to look at the most prominent and the most possible and to think about what the arguments are," he added.

Kerry said he personally supported and agreed with Ruto's idea on carbon pricing.

Top human rights lawyers arrested in Zimbabwe


TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 05 2023


Police arrested lawyers Douglas Coltart and Tapiwa Muchineripi in a Harare hospital when they objected to their clients being quizzed by police, arguing that they were medically unfit. 

By AFP


Two Zimbabwean rights lawyers appeared in court on Tuesday on charges of preventing police from questioning their clients, two opposition members who had been allegedly abducted and tortured, sources said.

Police arrested lawyers Douglas Coltart and Tapiwa Muchineripi in a Harare hospital when they objected to their clients being quizzed by police, arguing that they were medically unfit.

Coltart and Muchineripi, who spent the night in jail, face charges of obstructing justice.

The pair were attending to a recently elected councillor and an activist for the country's largest opposition group, the Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC).

Read: Zimbabwe’s new elections facing familiar old fears

Alec Muchadehama, Coltart's and Muchineripi's lawyer, said in court that the attorneys' arrest was "unlawful."

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He said the police had initially had a "cordial" conversation with the two lawyers and agreed to return at another time.

But a different police official who visited the hospital later became "dramatic" and accused the pair of obstructing justice.

The CCC condemned the arrests and said the charges were flimsy.

Coltart and Muchineripi were released on the equivalent of $100 in bail each.

Their clients, Womberaishe Nhende and Sanele Mkhulhani, on Saturday were forced out of their vehicle by suspected government agents who were armed, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) alleged in a statement.

The pair were then handcuffed, tasered and beaten with truncheons and "injected (with) an unknown substance... before they (were) dumped" naked near a river, it said.

They were "both victims of abduction, torture and drugging by suspected state agents," the CCC said.

The southern Africa country last month staged disputed elections pitching CCC leader Nelson Chamisa against Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose Zanu-PF party has been in power since independence in 1980.

Read: Zimbabwe polling follows a familiar lane from Day one

Mnangagwa, 80, who was sworn in on Monday, won a second term with 52.6 percent against 44 percent for Chamisa, 45, according to the official results.

The CCC lashed the outcome as flawed and demanded a fresh vote. Regional and international observers have also criticised the ballot for numerous irregularities.

WAR IS RAPE
Eritrea army accused of ‘war crimes’ in Tigray after peace deal

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 06 2023

People flee the war in Tigray, Ethiopia

By FRED OLUOCH

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Eritrean forces allied to the Ethiopian government committed ‘war crimes’ in the Tigray region days before and after Addis Ababa signed a peace deal with rebels.

A report released by rights watchdog Amnesty International says thatwar crimes and possibly crimes against humanity in the Tigray region, immediately before and after the signing of a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, continued, signalling violations even after war seemed to be over.

The deal was signed between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on November 4, 2022. But Eritrean troops who had fought alongside Ethiopian National Defence Forces continued with the bad deeds.

Read: Ethiopia, Tigray sign deal to end hostilities

The report: "Today or Tomorrow, They Should Be Brought Before Justice” – Rape, Sexual Slavery, Extra-Judicial Executions and Pillage by Eritrean Forces in Tigray, says that the two armies were responsible for rape and sexual slavery, extra-judicial executions, and looting.

Amnesty International interviewed witnesses, survivors and family members, who testified about the extra-judicial execution of at least 20 civilians, primarily men, by the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) in the Mariam Shewito district between October 25 and November 1, 2022.

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In addition, a social worker who documented extra-judicial executions in the district provided a list of more than 100 names of people who they said had been extra-judicially executed within this period.

“Despite the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, atrocities against civilians in Tigray continued with Eritrean soldiers subjecting women to horrific abuse including rape, gang rape and sexual enslavement, while civilian men were extrajudicially executed,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

Amnesty International interviewed 11 survivors of rape and sexual slavery in Kokob Tsibah district, where more than 40 women told a local civil society organisation that they had been subjected to rape and sexual slavery in the period after the signing of the peace deal.

Read: Looting, rape stalk Ethiopia's Tigray

Despite suffering numerous injuries, survivors of rape and sexual slavery did not receive post-sexual violence care or any comprehensive medical care. Most of them only obtained medical treatment after the EDF (Eritrean Defence Forces) left Kokob Tsibah on January 19, 2023, more than two months later, Amnesty International said.

The report says that Eritrean soldiers stationed in Mariam Shewito and Kokob Tsibah districts engaged in intentional killings of civilians, mostly men, while conducting house-to-house searches of houses and residences, allegedly in pursuit of members of the Tigrayan forces and their supporters. Multiple interviews supported claims that victims of extra-judicial executions were civilians. Given that these acts were committed in a non-international armed conflict, such executions amount to the war crime of murder.

The Ethiopian government did not immediately respond to the allegations, but the Eritrean government said the report by Amnesty International had “no substance or merit.”

Read: Ethiopia accuses Human Rights Watch of digging up old wounds

“Amnesty relied on long-distance or remote interviews, with no mechanism for validation, to populate its latest assault on Eritrea and its people,” said Eritrean Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

“The incessant attempts by self-serving external forces to drive a wedge between the two countries, to systematically create and promote hate, is unacceptable. Amnesty should endeavour to do humanitarian work and not to be used to perpetuate and incite conflicts between brotherly nations.”

WAGE THEFT

Smotrich says Israel to withhold millions from PA to repay electricity debt

PA PAYS PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS WAGES WITH THIS

Finance minister will deduct money from monthly transfers to Ramallah; Palestinian PM pans ‘declaration of financial war and a recipe for explosion’

By GIANLUCA PACCHIANI

Today,  The Times of Israel 

Illustrative: Power lines above the town of Bnei Re'em  

(Nati Shohat/Flash90)


Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced that Israel will start withholding money from the funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in order to pay for the latter’s outstanding debt to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC).

“No more. After many years of great injustice, Israeli citizens will stop financing electricity for the PA out of their own pockets,” Smotrich said in a Tuesday tweet.

“For many years, the Finance Ministry failed massively, and because of that Israeli citizens paid millions of shekels each month to fund the electricity consumption of the PA. From now on, I will deduct from the funds for the PA each month the entirety of its electricity consumption, and later on we will also deduct money to offset its past debts.”

Under the Oslo Accords, Israel is responsible for collecting customs duties and other tax revenues on behalf of Ramallah, due to the PA’s lack of statehood status. It then transfers the funds to the PA on a monthly basis, providing funds that amount to nearly 65 percent of the Palestinian annual budget.

The PA’s debt to the IEC currently stands at NIS 2 billion ($525 million), according to the Israel Hayom paper.

Israel has intermittently announced cuts, amounting to hundreds of millions of shekels this year alone, to the funds it transfers to the PA, citing Ramallah’s payment of stipends to the families of terrorists as well as prisoners jailed for terror offenses.

Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party chief Bezalel Smotrich leads his party’s faction meeting at Jerusalem’s Knesset, May 8, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/ Flash90)

In 2018, Israel passed a law requiring that a sum equal to the monthly stipends the PA pays be withheld from the tax revenues it transfers to the Palestinians. This law has not been regularly enforced, but the finance minister has from time to time announced such cuts.

Israel’s security establishment has warned that withholding funds to the cash-strapped PA could risk leading to its collapse.

In a response to the deductions announced by Smotrich for the electricity debt, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said to government news agency Wafa that the debt had been incurred by the Jerusalem District Electricity Company, a private company that supplies electricity to consumers in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian districts of Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jericho.

The company, which supplies electricity to 30% of Palestinian households, does not have its own power stations, but buys over 95% of its electricity from the IEC and the remainder from Jordan for the Jericho area. Shtayyeh noted that the company is not affiliated with the PA, and therefore the deduction of a private debt from the funds destined to a public authority equals “systematic piracy and theft,” and constitutes a “declaration of a financial war.”

The measures imposed by Israeli authorities on the Palestinian Authority are “a recipe for explosion,” and are implemented “in defiance of international laws while taking advantage of the absence of accountability and the feeling they have of being safe from punishment,” Shtayyeh added. He called on the United States and European Union countries to intervene to stop the move.

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

THOSE DAVOS GUYS DANIELLE SMITH HATES
How to ensure a just transition to a green economy

Sep 6, 2023

In collaboration withNeste


A just transition is the process of moving to a low-carbon economy in a way that is fair and equitable for all, including workers, communities, and the environment.


OUR IMPACT
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Energy Transition?

THE BIG PICTURE
Explore and monitor how Energy Transition is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A just transition is the process of saving the planet by moving to a low-carbon economy in a way that is fair and equitable for everyone.
The concept of a just transition entered the broader climate change agenda during the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015.
The clean energy revolution has created new jobs and opportunities, but has challenged fossil fuel and carbon-intensive companies.
To avoid jobs being lost and the social impact that comes with that, we need a just transition.

“When companies are working to reach their net zero targets, it is a huge transformation and it will have social and economic impacts on workers, suppliers and communities,” says Nina Norjama, head of Human Rights at Neste, a global leader in the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel. “At the same time, the transition to a low carbon economy also creates enormous opportunities for businesses to provide sustainable jobs and develop employee skills and future readiness,”she continues.

While we urgently need to transition to a low carbon economy, we also need a just transition that is equitable and inclusive, that drives positive social impacts, and in which everyone can see opportunity. The International Labour Organisation defines a just transition as “greening the economy in a way that is as fair and inclusive as possible to everyone concerned, creating decent work opportunities and leaving no one behind”.

The concept of a just transition entered the broader climate change agenda during the Paris climate change conference in 2015 – the landmark Paris Agreement, that has driven the decarbonization agenda in recent years, says that governments must take account of the needs of the workforce and highlights the importance of a just transition to do so.

“The idea has continued to gain traction, partly in reaction to the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on the grounds that it would have a negative impact on jobs,” says Nick Robins, Professor in Practice in Sustainable Finance at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

“Until then, climate policy had been fairly ‘socially blind’ and the shock of the US decision made people think explicitly about the social dimension of the changes that are happening,” Robins adds.

This has been compounded by the clean energy revolution coming much more quickly than anyone predicted. This has created entire new industries and the jobs that go with them, but it has also eroded the viability of fossil fuel and carbon intensive companies far faster than was thought possible.

It is to avoid jobs being lost, and the social impact that comes with that, that we need to have a just transition, Norjama says: “A just transition means providing new, sustainable jobs to replace outdated job roles in fossil industries, and providing upskilling and reskilling opportunities so that people have the capabilities they need to perform the new jobs.”

DISCOVER

What's the World Economic Forum doing about the transition to clean energy?

The just transition is backed by policy and global collaboration

To make the energy transition a success, governments and companies need to bring workers and communities along with them.

It is no surprise, Robins says, that the US Inflation Reduction Act is explicitly focused on labor rights and bringing good quality jobs to the US. In the same vein, the European Union’s Green Deal has a just transition mechanism, which the European Commission describes as “a key tool to ensure that the transition towards a climate-neutral economy happens in a fair way, leaving no one behind”. It will mobilize around €55 billion over the period 2021-2027 in the most affected regions, such as coal-producing areas of Poland, to alleviate the socio-economic impact of the transition.

Going net zero: the changing horizons for workforces

“There is potential for net zero and the just transition to come into conflict, not least because of their different roots. Net zero is grounded in climate science, while the just transition is based on workers’ rights,” Robins explains. But it is not inevitable - this is why companies must act intentionally and collaboratively to mitigate the negative impacts, and ensure that the transition is equitable and inclusive.

The key, Norjama says, is to engage employees and ask them what they think about the company’s strategy and their future careers. An ongoing process of continuous cooperation and dialogue with personnel representatives – on topics such as business updates, competency development and wellbeing at work – are essential to engage the workforce in a positive way. This helps employees to have an open mind, flexibility and a willingness to learn, all also required if a just transition is to be successful. Where there must be restructuring, companies should invest in reskilling so workers can be competent for new roles within other parts of the business or elsewhere.

Robins points out that the move to net zero is as much about the ‘transition in’ to cleaner energy as it is about the ‘transition out’ of fossil fuels – there are huge opportunities in areas such as renewable energy and electric vehicles.

For some industries – such as automotive, utilities and mining – clear transition pathways are already emerging, where companies can make the switch from fossil-based business models to low-carbon alternatives and be well-placed to thrive in future.

The first step for companies in all industries is to be aware of what new skills and competences they require as part of their transition, before they can then upskill existing workers and hire new employees. This is not an instant process but a gradual shift that takes place over many years to ensure minimum disruption to both the business and workers.

In the case of Neste, for example, the transition from crude oil refining to producing renewable fuels started already in the 1990s, setting the wheels in motion for a gradual build on the competences needed for scaling up the renewables business over the decades to come. Securing renewable raw materials – from municipal waste to used cooking oil – is an entirely different challenge than procuring fossil oil. It is not just the chemical make-up of raw materials that is different – the value chains, R&D pathways and locations also diverge. All this has implications on the jobs and careers available at Neste, and has to be considered to ensure the transition is just for all who work there.

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Implementing a just transition is good for business

Implementing just transition principles into your business is not just the right thing to do, argues Robins, but it is good for business too. He adds: “It’s necessary to overcome the false divide between environmental and social issues, but it’s also really smart – it’s about building the human and social capital that businesses need for new green business models.”

A report from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Business Commission to Tackle Inequality explains that when companies ensure the net zero transition is done in a just way, it helps companies to ensure their own economic and workforce stability, enhances productivity and the capacity for innovation, and helps to reinforce their social license to operate.

Neste, for example, has hired thousands of people over the last three years, Norjama says, and “new employees often say that the transition that the company is going through, and our sustainability commitments, are what inspired them to apply.

“Neste’s holistic sustainability vision encompasses both environmental and social topics, including our human rights vision to create a more equitable and inclusive value chain by 2030, in which everyone works with dignity.”

Just transition: watch this space

According to the World Benchmarking Alliance, very few companies are currently performing well on the just transition. But Robins thinks this could change rapidly: “I think the adoption curve could be quite steep.

“Companies are not having to invent good practices, just apply them. The just transition is now much more central to global climate discussions, especially after COP27 at Sharm El Sheikh and that is being recognized by the business community.”

The reality is that getting the just transition right is not really optional. Without it, and without creating solutions that allow everybody to see the pot of gold at the end of this transition, it will not be possible to effectively mitigate climate change or unlock the opportunities that the transition to a net-zero society offers.

And if we get it right, the prize is huge - not only a healthier planet for our children, but one in which jobs and companies have evolved to achieve lasting sustainability, with nobody left behind.

Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton make history in first-ever US Open quarterfinal between two Black men

Mildred Europa Taylor

September 06, 2023

F2FAFRICA.COM

Frances Tiafoe (left) and Ben Shelton make history. 

For the first time in the history of the US Open, two Black men faced each other in the quarterfinals. World No. 10 Frances Tiafoe was defeated by newcomer Ben Shelton at Arthur Ashe Stadium with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2.

Tuesday’s match was also the first time since 2008 that two Black men played each other at Arthur Ashe Stadium, according to CNN. Arthur Ashe was the first African-American man to be ranked No. 1 in tennis and the first to win several titles in the sport, including a singles title at the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon. Ashe’s achievements have inspired generations of tennis players, including rising stars Tiafoe, 25, and Shelton, 20.

Tiafoe’s story starts with his parents, who emigrated from Sierra Leone at the height of the country’s civil war in the 1990s. His parents met in the U.S. and settled down in Maryland, where they had twin boys, Franklin and Tiafoe, according to the New York Times. His father, Constant Tiafoe, worked for the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., and was later promoted to become the maintenance director of the facility. He leveraged his role to spend time on the court with his children.

Tiafoe became obsessed with tennis, after displaying a unique passion for the game and watching lessons to improve his skills to the admiration of his father and others. In 2022, he became a global sensation after being the first Black American man to reach a US Open semifinal since Ashe in 1972.

Shelton’s love for tennis is not surprising considering his father, Bryan, is a tennis champion who won two professional titles and played on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour. Bryan recently resigned from coaching at the University of Florida to coach his son Shelton in professional tennis. Shelton has now made history to the joy of his family and tennis fans and awaits his semi-final clash with the legendary Novak Djokovic.

The match between Shelton and Tiafoe will always be remembered not only for the display of skills and talent but for its celebration of diversity, experts say.

Biden administration to announce cancellation of Alaska wildlife drilling leases -sources

Wed, September 6, 2023 
By Jarrett Renshaw and Nichola Groom

Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will announce the cancellation of oil and gas leases in a federal wildlife refuge that were bought by an Alaska state development agency in 2021, according to sources briefed on the matter.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) was issued seven leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a day before the inauguration of President Joe Biden, who had pledged to protect the 19.6 million-acre habitat for polar bears and caribou.

Interior and AIDEA officials were not immediately available for comment.

Under former President Donald Trump, the Interior Department in January of 2021 sold leases in ANWR over the objections of environmentalists and indigenous groups.

In June of that year, Biden's administration said it would suspend the leases issued in ANWR pending an environmental review. AIDEA later sued, and a federal judge in Alaska last month dismissed the state agency's claims, saying the government's delay in implementing the ANWR leasing program was reasonable.

The two other entities that won leases at the ANWR lease sale withdrew from their holdings in 2022.

For decades, Alaska officials pushed to open up drilling in ANWR to secure jobs and revenues for the state. But the oil and gas industry failed to embrace the 2021 lease sale, which generated just $14 million in high bids.

“We commend (Interior) Secretary (Deb) Haaland for canceling unlawfully issued oil-and-gas leases in the Arctic Refuge,” Abigail Dillen, president of environmental group Earthjustice, said in a statement. “Looking ahead, we hope to see the strongest possible protections for the Arctic Refuge and the Western Arctic in the years to come.” (Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Washington and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

WARMINGTON: Finally Ford sees light and orders Greenbelt review he should have originally

Story by Joe Warmington • TORONTO SUN

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks about the Greenbelt scandal, resignation of Housing Minister Steve Clark and his minor cabinet shuffle at Queen's Park on Tuesday, September 5, 2023.© Jack Boland

Better late than never.

Finally, Premier Doug Ford has read the room and realized on the Greenbelt file, something had to be done and done fast.

The coming review, he announced Tuesday , was needed perhaps even more than the building of new homes as it looked like his government was suddenly sitting on shaky foundation. A stepping back from these controversial Greenbelt deals to make sure the i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed was abundantly clear to everybody but Ford and now former housing minister Steve Clark.

When asked Aug. 10 about just making sure there were no backroom favours done and reverse agreements if there had been, both politicians were defiant and pushed ahead on following 14 of the recommendations from the auditor general but not the 15th to stop the agreements to free up Greenbelt lands altogether.

This was always a mistake, and this issue was not going to just go away. It eventually grew to a point where the RCMP were asked by the OPP to take a look to see if it needs probing, where Clark’s chief of staff, Ryan Amato, resigned followed by highly respected Clark being forced to step away from his cabinet role as well.

That was then. On Sept. 5, 2023 Ford said he’s asked new Housing Minister Paul Calandra to undertake a “complete review from top to bottom.” If only he and Clark had said that Aug. 11.



Paul Calandra, the minister of housing is being asked to review all Greenbelt land deals© Provided by Toronto Sun

While this issue has been a big problem for Ford, his bigger problem was the hit to his brand.

He, like his late mayor of Toronto brother Rob, are seen by the public as flawed characters but ones who can be trusted with public money. Developers passing land swap packages to a chief of staff at industry dinners stinks to high heaven to a public who may not know a lot about development but know the difference between an honest process and a potentially corrupt one.

They needed to be reassured this was not going to unfairly favour friends of the premier and of the Conservative Party, or take environmentally sensitive lands and turn them into cement villages. The premier asking for full review of not just the 14 properties in question but up to 800 others is designed to allay those concerns from a public who story trackers show are not particularly interested in following this story in large numbers.

“We are going to make sure there is merit to every application that comes forward,” said Ford.

While these words alone will not end this controversary, they do take the stinger out of the situation. The premier has acknowledged this has been a mess and mistakes were made and has held people accountable, which the public may note isn’t always noticeable with other governments.

A review won’t satisfy the opposition or media, who all have a job to do and who will rightly probe property owners, lobbyists, builders, and consultants. What it does do is slow the frenzy of those who smelled blood in the water and may have lunged too quickly at the throat of Ford and his government.

Ford’s review serves all masters in that it aims to ensure the deals are legitimate while not buckling to the extreme agenda driven by activists who merely want to keep land — ready for building much-needed housing — locked and out of play. In fact, Ford went a step further by saying hundreds of properties will be reviewed which could mean even more housing could eventually be built where it makes sense. Him mentioning building modular-style “starter homes” with “backyards” for about $500,000 on these lands was also a master stroke.



Former Clarington mayor John Mutton, who some claim is Mr. X, has posted photos of himself with many political leaders, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford.© Provided by Toronto Sun

If that really happens, people may not care what loud partisan politicians, pushing carbon taxes and congestive red tape and regulation to delay progress, have to say about it. People may not care about who Mr. X is if they are able to find an affordable place to raise their families.

While Ford’s moves may drive critics up the wall, it’s the kind of deft politics necessary to keep power and reminds of what the public saw with federal Liberals and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau skating through the SNC-Lavalin scandal that saw a decision trading jobs over prosecution.

Time will tell if Ford’s review is one of quality and will help him move past a bad month. While there are still many legitimate questions to be asked, if thousands of new affordable homes are built on swapped-out Greenbelt lands, the public’s already tepid interest may focus on the positive of all of this period.

Ford, and certainly Clark, may regret not moving on this approach earlier.

jwarmington@postmedia.com