Haiti's revolution was betrayed by greed, graft AND AMERICN IMPERIALI$M

MONDAY OCTOBER 09 2023


People march as tires burn during a protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on August 7, 2023. 

By TEE NGUGI
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The United Nations Security Council has approved deployment of Kenya-led international mission to Haiti to curb gang violence. The gangs have taken over most of the capital and countryside.

They control some government assets, disrupt normal functioning of the state, and have transformed life in that country into a violent Hobbesian dystopia.


The social contract in which, according to English philosopher John Locke, individuals agree to a set of rules, and in return the state guarantees them certain rights, among them security, has broken down.

What is left is Thomas Hobbes’ apocalyptic vision, where “everyone fears and mistrusts everyone else, and there can be no justice, no arts, no letters, no society, and worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

There are two ironies about the mission to Haiti. One: Kenya, a country with a high crime rate and some regions made lawless by bandits, sending police to curb gang violence in Haiti. Two: Haiti, which gained independence in 1804, requiring the help of a country that got its independence in 1963, 159 years later.

Related

Ruto urges UN to back security support for Haiti

Kenya-Haiti mission faces controversy over legality


Haiti declared its independence from France after a successful slave revolt. That insurrection against Napoleon’s France, then the most powerful military force in the world, remains one of the most heroic struggles in history. The revolution was led by a visionary, Toussaint Louverture. However, the French tricked him into trap, arrested and jailed him in France, where he died.

Those who succeeded him as leaders of the revolution and later the independent nation of Haiti did not have his insight and foresight and presided over the downward spiral.

In all the years it has been independent, Haiti has only known murderous despotism, economic collapse, violence and grinding poverty. The taking over of the country by violent gangs is the coup de grace. It signifies that the country is only such by name. To pretend otherwise is to participate in a convenient lie.

Read: Kenya promises different ‘footprint’ in Haiti

Haiti’s administrative institutions, its civic organisation, its ability to respond to disasters or dispense justice and services to its people have broken down.

The international police force might succeed in defeating the gangs. But that victory, if at all realised, can only be temporary. Gangs taking over a country is symptomatic of more fundamental problems.

Therefore, the international community will have to address broken governance institutions, morally decrepit political leadership, economic stagnation, deeply entrenched culture of corruption, desperate poverty, and breakdown of law and order.

Hopefully, addressing these issues will restore confidence in Haitians about their own country, attract foreign investment, and grow tourism. It will encourage highly-trained Haitians in the diaspora to return and staff revived institutions. This revival would rekindle the spirit of Toussaint Louverture.

Haiti’s downward spiral has a lesson for Africa: Continue with morally corrupt leadership and theft of public resources, and Haiti’s fate will be your future.


Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator.

Uganda suspends operations at Chinese-operated oilfield


SUNDAY OCTOBER 08 2023

The oil rig for the Kingfisher development area in Kikuube district in Uganda on January 24, 2023. Uganda says its oil dream is alive despite intensified criticism from several groups. PHOTO | STUART TIBAWESWA | AFPADVERTISEMENT

By JULIUS BARIGABA
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The Petroleum Authority Uganda (PAU) on October 7 suspended all operations at the Chinese-operated Kingfisher oilfield over safety concerns, after a fatal accident on October 6.

The Authority announced the development after a tragic motor vehicle accident that occurred at the Kingfisher Project Development Area in Kikuube District.

Ernest Rubondo, PAU executive director, which regulates the oil and gas sector, said the accident is unacceptable coming after several other incidents that the agency has previously brought to the attention of CNOOC Uganda Ltd (CUL).

"The purpose of this letter is therefore to direct that in accordance with Section 177 of the Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act, 2013 CUL halts all Kingfisher field development operations from 00.00 hours on Saturday 7th October 2023 until further notice," reads the letter signed by Mr Rubondo.

In a statement, Gloria Sebikari, PAU corporate affairs manager, confirmed that the October 6 incident resulted in the loss of the life of one of the sub-contractor's staffer.

On October 8, the PAU called a meeting of all top executives of joint venture partners, CNOOC, TotalEnergies and Uganda National Oil Company, to review the matter and guide on the fate of the ongoing oilfield developments. ADVERTISEMENT

The CNOOC-operated Kingfisher project is one of Uganda's oilfields that are currently in intensified drilling works to be ready for oil production in 2025. It will produce 40,000 barrels of oil per day, while the TotalEnergies-operated Tilenga project will produce 190,000 bpd at peak production.

Sudan army's Burhan, RSF's Daglo face war atrocities charges

MONDAY OCTOBER 09 2023


A man stands by as a fire rages in a livestock market area in al-Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur state, in the aftermath of bombardment by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on September 1, 2023. 

By AGGREY MUTAMBO
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Sudan’s warring factions are facing new pressure to end the war after rights groups lobbied the UN Human Rights Council to establish a taskforce on atrocities, potentially harming the shuttle diplomacy of junta leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan who has been seeking legitimacy over his rival Mohamed Hamdani Daglo ‘Hemedti’.

And the situation now places Khartoum where Ethiopia was two years ago after activists lobbied for the creation of a panel of experts to investigate war crimes in Tigray.


Last week, 17 rights groups across Africa wrote to the UN Human Rights Council, asking that such a team be established to place warlords at the crime scene and save the country from collapsing.

Read: Sudan rival factions blame each other of bombing embassy

“We urge the (UN Human Rights) Council members to support the establishment of this mission to increase Sudanese people’s access to justice and accountability and enhance the chances of creating a transitional justice process that will support the efforts of peace-making in Sudan,” they wrote in an open letter on Wednesday.

These include Sudanese Doctors for Human Rights, Governance Programming Overseas, Sudanese Women Rights Action, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, International Federation for Human Rights, Southern African Human Rights Defenders Network (Southern Defenders), Centre for Democracy and Human Rights – CDD Mozambique and Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

Dengue fever kills hundreds in Sudan, medics say

They argued that the war in Sudan is “one of the worst humanitarian crises” at the moment and warring factions have closed access routes to humanitarian service for the vulnerable including women and children.

“The absence of the state institutions and the rule of law led to worsening human rights violations in the country. Local justice systems and law enforcement institutions collapsed and have not functioned in most of Sudan since the war erupted.

“There is an essential need for the establishment of an independent and international fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations and collect evidence on abuses, GBV crimes and alleged war crimes.”

Read: Sexual violence rampant in Sudan war

More than 5 million people have been displaced, at least 5,000 killed and hundreds of others sexually assaulted, data from UN agencies shows.

This week, the UN Human Rights Council is expected to decide whether a special commission of inquiry is formed to establish atrocities in Sudan, potentially attracting unwanted attention for Burhan who has marketed himself as battling a rebellion from the Rapid Support Forces of Hemedti.

The draft resolution for establishing the Panel of three experts has been circulated by the United Kingdom which argues that both sides have committed atrocities.

Burhan promptly rejected the proposal.

Read: Sudan rejects UN proposal to establish atrocities probe

Sudan has been witnessing deadly clashes between the Sudan Armed Forces (Saf) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum and other areas since April 15.

Rights groups say mounting violations and atrocities have also been seen in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile states and include “mass killings, sexual violence, ethnically motivated violence in Darfur, forced disappearance and indiscriminate bombardment on civilian areas.”

On Thursday, study by the Islamic Relief charity group warned of rising hunger, poverty and violence against women and children after the war in Sudan.

“Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirms its categorical rejection of the draft resolution because it is wrong in describing what is happening in Sudan, and because it is prejudiced against the Saf, and does not take into account the real priorities of Sudan at this phase,” Khartoum said in a statement.

Saf under Burhan argue that they are protecting civilians from RSF. But that may not stop members of the Council in their ongoing discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, regarding a draft resolution that has also been backed by the US, Norway, and Germany.
Several nations, including Saudi Arabia, have opted not to endorse the draft resolution. And Sudan will bank on African members such as Gabon, Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea and Cameroon not to endorse the resolution.

If the Panel is set up, Sudan will be subjected to an international mechanism which Khartoum fear will elevate the war to a contest of equals. Burhan has portrayed RSF as a rebel group and says he stripped the group, once considered a paramilitary security unit, of legal status.

Read: Sudan's army general fires his rival deputy

“They have killed, looted, raped, robbed and seized citizens’ homes and properties, and destroyed infrastructure and Government buildings,” Burhan told the UN General Assembly on September 21 in New York, referring to the RSF.

“They attempted to obliterate the history of Sudanese people by destroying museums, court and civil registries. They had released terrorists and people wanted by international courts from prison.”

In his shuttle diplomacy that saw him travel to Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Eritrea and Uganda, and later in New York, he promised a “a short period of transition during which the current security, humanitarian, and economic conditions and reconstruction are addressed.”

But a Panel could derail his vision of crushing the enemy unhindered. And like Ethiopia during the war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a Panel could force Khartoum into unnecessary lobbying beyond the search for legitimacy. Ethiopia sort of managed to weaken the blow of the Panel, including an earlier resignation of members. Addis Ababa later signed a peace deal with TPLF last year and has argued the Panel’s work is no longer necessary.

“Families can’t access food or medicine, women and girls live in constant fear of attack, and communities are being trapped in poverty and debt,” said Elsadig Elnour, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Sudan.

“Years of progress on reducing maternal mortality and child malnutrition in Darfur are now at risk of being reversed due to the conflict and lack of humanitarian access.”

Read: Hunger, disease stalk Sudan town crowded with displaced

Islamic Relief’s says the findings were compiled from interviews of 384 households in 20 villages in Jabal Marra in Darfur now hosting people fleeing fighting. Some 1.6 million people in Darfur have been displaced within the region since the conflict began.

Last week, the US imposed sanctions on former Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti, Secretary General of the Sudanese Islamic Movement, for fomenting war. Karti served in the government of Omar al-Bashir ousted in 2019. But Washington says he has “led efforts to undermine the former civilian-led transitional government and derail the Framework Political Agreement process.

“He and other former regime officials are now obstructing efforts to reach a ceasefire between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, mobilising forces to enable continued fighting, and opposing Sudanese civilian efforts to resume Sudan’s stalled democratic transition.”

OUTSOURCING WAR

Kenya paid $17m for Somalia security mission

SUNDAY OCTOBER 08 2023


Soldiers in action during training at the Kenya Defence Forces School of Infantry in Isiolo, Kenya on October 7, 2020. 

PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NMGADVERTISEMENT

By MARY WAMBUI
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Kenya has received Ksh2.5 billion ($17 million) in the past five years for its contribution to the Somalia peacekeeping mission (now known as the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) whose mandate is set to end in December next year.

Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale told parliament this week that the money was sent to the National Treasury in tranches of Ksh500 million ($3.3 million) annually.


In October 2011, Kenya Defence Forces moved into Somalia to pursue Al Shabaab following a series of kidnappings along the Kenya-Somalia border.

Read: Kenya delays reopening border with Somalia

The following year, the troops were formally integrated into the African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom) under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2036. Amisom would later be converted into Atmis with a drawdown plan till December 2024.

Mr Duale further said compensation for dead soldiers in Somalia is settled within 30 days.

Kenya gets $199m for refugee transition plan

“If the officer was serving within the country, they immediately get Ksh4 million ($26, 881) above his pension which has a component called death gratuity. If he was serving under Atmis like in Somalia, apart from the Ksh4 million the AU and the UN give that family Ksh5 million ($33,602),” Duale told the National Assembly without revealing how many soldiers and officers who have died in Somalia.

In their decade’s stay in Somalia, KDF have come under at least three heavy attacks from Al Shabaab, the worst remains the January 2016 attack at a KDF Forward Operating Base in El Adde.
tack

Another attempt was made the following year in Kulbiyow with less casualties and yet another in 2012 at Hoosingo also with less casualties.

The troops have over the years not only destroyed terrorists' cells in Somalia that would have otherwise been used to plan attacks in Kenya but also trained Somali forces, secure the locals and provided medicine, water and educated women on alternative sources of income.

This week, Duale said more than 4,000 KDF troops will be leaving Somalia as scheduled by the UN in spite of the recent request by Somalia to delay scheduled September drawdowns by three months.

Saudi Arabia Railways launches hydrogen train tests

Published: 08 Oct 2023 


Riyadh: Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) has announced the launch of hydrogen train tests in the Kingdom, following the signing of an agreement with the French company Alstom.

It will conduct operational tests and studies necessary to prepare this type of train to fit the Kingdom's environment, in preparation for its future entry into service, and in compliance with the memorandum of understanding signed by the Ministry of Energy and SAR.

The trials started this October, according to SAR, which said that such trains are the first to be used in the Middle East and North Africa region. On the occasion, SAR stressed the Kingdom's commitment to adopting sustainable transport technologies.

Saudi Press Agency (SPA quoted Minister of Transportation and Logistics and SAR Chairman of the Board of Directors Eng. Saleh Al-Jasser as saying that the step is part of the objectives of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy and plans to move to a more sustainable transport system that adopts the latest smart technologies, stressing that SAR is committed to its leading role in achieving the Saudi Green Initiative, stemming from the Saudi Vision 2030, which stipulates increasing the Kingdom's reliance on clean energy, reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment.

The certified trials of this type of train began in 2018 in Germany and continued until 2020; commercial operations, limited to passenger transport, began in 2022.

STALINST STATE CAPITALI$M
Vietnam’s Arrest of Environmentalists Draws Fire Amid Surge of Funding for Green Transition

October 08, 2023

VOA News

Activists hold placards during a demonstration as part of the global climate strike week, in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sept. 27, 2019.

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM —

A spate of arrests of leading Vietnamese environmentalists is drawing criticism of Hanoi during an infusion of international aid to support the country's shift away from coal.

Police arrested Ngo Thi To Nhien, the executive director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, a Hanoi-based think tank focused on energy transition, in Hanoi on Sept. 20.

She was the sixth environmentalist detained in the past two years and had been involved – with the U.N. Development Program Vietnam office – in implementing a 2022 deal between Vietnam and the G7 countries, EU, Norway and Denmark aimed at shifting Vietnam to cleaner energy sources.

The Just Energy Transition Partnership, or JETP, agreement came after Vietnam committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Conference.

According to the JETP deal, $15.5 billion in the form of grants, loans, and investment from the public and private sector will go to support Vietnam's transition to green energy sources.

In April, the 88 Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit focused on human rights in Vietnam, released a report on four leading anti-coal campaigners – Dang Dinh Bach, Nguy Thi Khanh, Mai Phan Loi, and Bach Hung Duong – imprisoned for tax evasion since 2021. The report outlines the results of an investigation into the arrests and details closed-door hearings, shows purported flaws in the prosecution, and argues that the tax evasion charge appears to be politically motivated.

Since the report's release, Hoang Thi Minh Hong, former director of environmental advocacy nonprofit CHANGE, has also been jailed for tax evasion.

Public Security Ministry spokesperson To An Xo told reporters Sept. 30 that Nhien had been arrested for appropriating internal documents from state-owned Vietnam Electricity, or EVN. Two EVN energy experts were also arrested, Xo said at the news conference, according to daily newspaper Dan Tri.

The spokesperson also criticized foreign media agencies for "falsely accusing Vietnam of arresting environmental activists."

"The Ministry of Public Security rejects the above distorted allegations, considering it an act of interference in Vietnam's internal affairs," Xo stated. "There is absolutely no arrest of an environmental activist, but purely an arrest for appropriating documents."

Analysts and rights groups, however, point to a broader trend of suppression.

Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute told VOA that while Vietnam commits to climate-friendly initiatives, the arrests of environmentalists show Hanoi's desire to maintain control over energy policy.

"The government is making a statement that the state monopolizes climate change policy and does not want any potential policy interference," Giang wrote over WhatsApp.

The crackdown on climate leaders could harm the transition to cleaner energy sources, a spokesperson from Amnesty International's regional office said.

"Authorities are jailing the very people it should be working with," the spokesperson wrote by email. "The European Union, the United States and Australia must be blunt with Vietnam to ensure that the protection of human rights is incorporated into any agreements and participation to tackle climate change."

Nhien's arrest

Maureen Harris, senior adviser for the California-based environmental and human rights nonprofit International Rivers, said in a statement that Nhien's arrest shows that Hanoi is violating the "just" aspect of the Just Energy Transition Partnership.

"This latest arrest creates a chilling effect for anyone involved in the development of the JETP, as it signals that no independent voices in energy policy are safe," Harris said in a Sept. 27 statement on the group's website. "It also raises questions over how Vietnam’s JETP can be credibly developed and implemented when this kind of expertise is excluded."

A Ho Chi Minh City-based energy expert working in the industry told VOA that sharing documents among colleagues is common. Because of this, he suspects the reason for Nhien's arrest is more complex.

"I don't think it's genuine," he said of the grounds for her arrest, asking for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic.

"We share confidential documents on Zalo [the Vietnamese messaging app] and in private groups quite extensively. Actually everyone does that," he said.

"She was an expert we could rely on," he added.

Like the five other environmentalists arrested in the past two years, Nhien was a critic of coal power, a position that could be seen as a threat to authorities with interest in coal-burning power plants.

"She was very vocal about the energy transition and she criticized coal power. This angers the authorities, especially the coal interest group. What she was doing affected their business," the source said. "I think this was a big reason why they ordered her arrest."

Susann Pham, lecturer at Bilkent University in Turkey and author of a book on Vietnam's dissidents, said environmentalism is often at odds with stockpiling wealth.

"In general environmentalism became a threat to capital accumulation," Pham wrote over WhatsApp. "It hinders various stakeholders to tighten their grip over the market, further exploiting resources and pursuing their interests in infinite wealth and power."

The energy sector source said many in the industry are fearful.

"There is a negative atmosphere for the energy experts. … We cannot be vocal about energy and environmental issues, we have to keep a low profile," he said.

Broader crackdown

Nhien's case is not the only one drawing criticism. On Sept. 28, Hoang Thi Minh Hong, former director of environmental advocacy nonprofit CHANGE, was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion, a charge that has been levied against four other environmentalists.

Speaking to regional publication Southeast Asia Globe in 2021, Hong acknowledged the dangers of her work, citing blackmail attempts, threats to her safety, and the prospect of jail.

"Doing this job, I am absolutely aware of what I might have to face, and I just want people to support me and know that I am not a threat," she told the publication.

"The three-year prison sentence of environmental hero Hong Hoang is too harsh and unreasonable," Do Nguyen Mai Khoi, a Vietnamese activist and singer living in Philadelphia, told VOA in a written comment. "Maybe Hanoi wants to assert that… they do not allow civil society to influence any state policies."

Mark Sidel, professor of law and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the recent arrests of climate leaders are part of a broader trend.

"These recent detentions and arrests are a continuation of a larger and deeply unfortunate pattern of suppression of patriotic Vietnamese civil society leaders," Sidel wrote in an email. "Vietnam is jailing some of its best and brightest thinkers."

The Israel-Gaza war is partly an outcome of years-long western distraction

A shift in focus towards Iran led US and European powers to take their eyes off the Middle East Peace Process

DAMIEN MCELROY

People at the site of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Sunday. Bloomberg


What the world needs now is George Bush Sr as US president. Instead, it’s got Joe Biden.

That is because so much complacency had set in over the situation of the Palestinians ahead of the breakout from the Gaza siege at the highest levels of diplomacy.

It is not because Mr Biden owns the horrific events that are now rapidly escalating from one Israeli frontier to another. In fact, it is a comment on America’s lack of ownership more broadly.

And to be fair to Mr Biden, that lack of American grip on the diplomacy and security agenda in the region long predates his rise to the Oval Office.

What the late Mr Bush did during his time in office in the 1980s and 90s was to show the world that American leadership can be dedicated to a single insight – that, without a fierce focus on how to resolve the Palestinian demand for their rights in concert with Israeli leadership, there can only be dangers and threats in the region.

The Madrid Peace Conference of 1991, during which Mr Bush brought his confrontation with then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir into the open, remains a historic pole for the Middle East Peace Process about a quarter of a century later.

It is the context that proves most useful in looking at why the world’s diplomats scrambled on Saturday morning to come up with lines of reaction to the Hamas assault out of Gaza.

The very fact that it was such a shock was an indictment of global leadership on this top-tier challenge to international diplomacy.

It is not feasible to disentangle a decade of Iran policy from the crisis now engulfing the Middle East Peace Process

Washington’s obsession with finding a placatory deal with Iran should be dead in the water. It is not feasible to disentangle a decade of Iran policy from the crisis that is now engulfing the Middle East Peace Process.


Just a few weeks ago, the Biden administration cleared the way for the release of frozen funds sequestered in South Korea to Iran. The talks were the outcome of the Biden team’s focus on Tehran from the very outset of its takeover from the previous Trump administration.

The bartered arrangement came despite some very peculiar developments in the US State Department’s leadership team dealing with Iran.

Robert Malley, the Iran point man for Mr Biden, was suspended from his job earlier this year amid a probe into his security clearance. Mr Malley comes from a stream of US diplomacy that has a big-picture view of Iran that ascribes little importance to Tehran’s revolutionary zeal.

To be fair to Washington, it is not just US diplomacy that is captured by the foundational concept. The Europeans are equally determined to subscribe to this worldview.


During the Conservative party conference in the UK last week, I sat in on a sidelines discussion on Syria that included a mention of Iran’s systemic exploitation of the civil war. When it was mentioned that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ presence in Syria now amounts to a platform to threaten Israel, there was scarcely a murmur of concern.

All this is an enabling background for the decisions that Hamas has now taken. The shock of the attacks is seismic in itself. The scale of retaliation is now taking on a dynamic of its own. The cards that Hamas still has to play will further push the conflict into more deadly phases. All the while, the lack of leadership from the Palestinian Authority means Hamas grows in strength.

Delegates attend the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference. 

Getty Images

While covering one of the Gaza conflicts about a decade ago, I stood by some Iron Dome anti-rocket installations as the system went into action. It was possible to see the technology as a window through which Israel had a firm hand on the threat posed by Hamas, without any realistic consideration of what this means to the more than two million Palestinians under siege. Gaza was literally contained as an issue, not just for Israeli government but for the global diplomacy on the region.

After that, I went to listen to a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He was out of power at the time, but he had a clear idea of containment that included control of the Palestinian border but also its electronic space. A kind of land-and-air bubble could be imposed that would not pose a problem for Israel, despite the suffering of Palestinians and lack of long-term security for Israelis.

The question that will become apparent in the days ahead is how the world can effectively respond to contain the cycle of violence. The rules that had much of the energy that in George Bush Sr’s time was devoted to resolving the Palestine-Israel issue diverted to Iran are now horribly exposed.

European diplomats are in crisis mode, stressing Israel’s right to defend itself. Their American counterparts are in the same place. It may be a moment of unity that matches the gravity of events.

What cannot be denied is that neglect is no longer an answer to this situation. Whether this episode spirals quickly or not, it needs to be treated as such.

Published: October 08, 2023

GREEN CAPITALI$M

Solar panels and wind turbines show greater growth than the Model T

Green energy's spread is dramatic even compared to the biggest past disruptive technologies

BLOOMBERG

Oct 7th 2023 a

Last month the International Energy Agency published its second Net Zero Roadmap report, which describes a way for the global economy to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The first edition of the report, in 2021, was a departure for an organization known more for its detailed data than its normative view of the future. This year’s roadmap finds no immediate progress on emissions, but it does offer a “brighter note.” As the authors state in their introduction, “The path to 1.5 degrees C has narrowed, but clean energy growth is keeping it open.”

Behind that growth, or perhaps within it, is the expansion of what the IEA calls “mass manufactured technologies”: solar photovoltaics, electric cars, residential heat pumps and stationary battery storage. These products benefit from “standardization and short lead times,” which means they can be produced by the millions or hundreds of millions, and manufacturers can roll out new and improved versions at a rapid clip.

For instance, between 2015 (when the Paris Agreement was signed) and 2022, solar PV added as much capacity as all of Europe’s installed power generation, and heat pump sales increased to a level “approximately equivalent to the entire residential heating capacity in Russia.”

These milestones are impressive, but even for those steeped in energy data, they are also a bit airless, without reference to something outside energy itself. We know that mass-manufactured clean energy technologies are growing fast – but how does that compare to other sectors and other periods of time?

This year, the IEA provides some useful analogies, setting EV batteries, solar modules and wind turbines against three innovative technologies of the past: US aircraft produced during the Second World War, the Ford Model T from 1910 to 1920 and gas turbine generators from 1970 to 1980.

The report compares these groups based on two factors: the average annual increase in deployment for each technology during its key decade, and how much annual costs declined during that same decade. The result is complex, but in an instructive way.

EV batteries, for example, compare favorably to the fastest-growing historical analogue, US aircraft during WWII. Solar modules grew more rapidly from 2010 to 2020 than gas turbines did during the 1970s, but less rapidly than Model T sales expanded a century prior. Onshore wind grew at about the same pace as gas turbines, and offshore wind grew slightly faster.

In terms of cost reduction, though, batteries and solar are clear winners over their historical counterparts. Battery cost reductions in the prior decade were almost 20% per year on average, and solar cost reductions were not far behind. US aircraft costs fell almost 15% a year, slower than solar or batteries, while Model T costs declined by about 10% every year from 1910 to 1920. Wind technologies, again, compare similarly to the old gas turbine market.

The comparison should energize, so to speak, those hoping for a much greater deployment of these mass manufactured technologies. They are already on the path of innovations that substantially changed the way that people moved (and fought) 80 to 100 years ago.

It also poses a challenge to the drive for net zero greenhouse gas emissions — and a warning.

The challenge is continuing to innovate while pushing solar and battery cost reduction and even higher levels of annual deployment. Here, the IEA’s data cutoff actually works in favor of batteries and solar, which from 2020 through this year will have average annual growth rates of 72% and 39%, respectively, according to BloombergNEF’s market outlooks. Wind, however, is anemic by comparison, with a compound growth rate of only 3%, and one year (2022) of lower growth than the year before.

The warning is that “there is much more to be done,” in the IEA’s words. Partly due to the durability of incumbent energy systems — be they automobiles with a life of more than a decade, or a thermal power plant with a lifespan of 30 to 50 years. As the authors write, “The slow pace of the turnover of stock of most types of energy-related equipment means that there is a considerable lag between a technology becoming dominant in new deployments and that technology becoming dominant in the overall operating stock.”

This condition, then, means two things must prevail. One is the inexorable math of increasing installations of the new, which eventually forces incumbent systems into retirement. The second is policy, and a commitment not just to deploy what is needed, but also to retire what is not.

The market and policy can both embrace the logic of mass standardized technologies in their own ways, but ultimately drive toward the same goal.

UK

Angela Rayner: Next Labour government will make misogyny a hate crime

Evening Standard

  Oct 7, 2023

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has pledged that the next Labour government will make misogyny a hate crime.

She made the announcement during a speech at the annual Labour Women's Conference held in Liverpool.

Women, girls and youth join hands to tackle FGM in Djibouti

BIOLOGICAL MISOGYNY; BODY MUTILATION

8 October 2023

The UNFPA-supported network reaches has reached more than 7,000 youth with engaging messaging on the risks and dangers of FGM. Photo © UNFPA Djibouti

Djibouti’s innovative Elle & Elles network brings eight youth associations together to break taboos, raise awareness of the risks young people face and support their rights and choices.

Through talks and door-to-door visits, members meet young people to discuss HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, contraception, gender-based violence and female genital mutilation (FGM).

More than seven-in-ten women and girls aged 15 to 49 have endured FGM in Djibouti. Yet government data shows that the harmful practice decreased by eight per cent between 2012 and 2019, and fell by much higher rates among children aged zero to 10 in the last 30 years.

The UNFPA-supported network reaches more than 1,100 people each month, and has reached more than 7,000 youth with engaging messaging on the risks and dangers of FGM through working with influencers, media personalities and partners.

Djibouti’s innovative Elle & Elles network brings eight youth associations together to break taboos, raise awareness of the risks young people face and support their rights and choices. Photo © UNFPA Djibouti

Men and boys have a crucial role to play in improving gender-equality and countering harmful practices, and the UNFPA-supported National Men and Boys Network empowers young male leaders to promote gender-equality through innovative tools and events.

Initiatives led by the Men and Boys Network include a concert for 800 university students,, a café debate series on how positive masculinity can help end FGM, and a national declaration to end all forms of gender-based violence that was forged at Djibouti’s National Conference on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 2019.

This year, the Men and Boys Network has already reached around 900 young people where they meet on the beach, and through ‘Mijlis’ men’s assemblies, where around 100 men meet to make declarations of their commitment to abandoning FGM and all violence against women and girls.

Both the Elle and Elles and Men and Boys Networks join a range of UNFPA-supported campaigns in Djibouti, with a shared determination to end FGM and boost gender-equality.

“With a young, vibrant and growing population, Djibouti is brimming with talent, drive and energy, and UNFPA is here to support women, girls and youth to bring their transformative ideas to life,” said Aicha Ibrahim, UNFPA Head of Office in Djibouti.