UN says national climate targets 'fall far short'

The UN's latest Emissions Gap Report shows that the world is on track for a temperature rise of 2.7 degrees Celsius this century. Ahead of next week's COP26 climate summit, it said nations must act urgently.

"The heat is on" is the title of the new Emissions Gap Report published on Tuesday by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The report analyzes the updated national climate plans — known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — of 120 countries.

The NDCs are at the core of the Paris Climate Agreement. All signatories are required to set national climate targets and regularly report on both their implementation and new targets.

The name of the UNEP's latest report says it all — and its findings are sobering. With the updated NDCs, greenhouse gas emissions will only see a reduction of 7.5% by 2030. But in order to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius/2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (compared to 1900 levels), greenhouse gases would have to fall by 55%.

'The clock is ticking loudly'

In other words, the world must cut its emissions by 28 gigatons of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e) per year by 2030. To limit emissions to 2 C, countries would still have to reduce their climate-damaging emissions by 30%, or 13 GtCO2e.

"To be clear: we have eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts. The clock is ticking loudly," Inger Andersen, executive director of the UNEP, wrote in the report.

If, however, countries just stick to their own national climate targets, which they are allowed to set individually under the Paris Agreement, the world is on track for a temperature rise of 2.7 C.

"That would result in catastrophic climate change that we would not be able to cope with at all — that must be avoided at all costs," said Niklas Höhne, director of the Cologne-based nonprofit research organization New Climate Institute and professor of climate protection at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Pandemic was a missed opportunity

The UNEP report expressed disappointment that investments designed to stimulate the economy after the coronavirus pandemic had barely taken climate protection into consideration. According to the report, less than one-fifth of recovery packages are likely to contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 5.4% drop in new emissions worldwide. At the same time, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new high, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization, the UN's weather and climate agency.

Compared to the previous year, the increase was even higher than the average rise over the past decade, the report said. Or, as the UNEP puts it: "CO2 concentrations are higher than at any time in the last 2 million years."


Natural greenhouse gas sinks, like the Amazon, can help offset emissions
Net-zero targets bring hope

According to the UNEP, the net-zero pledges made by a host of countries, including the United States, Japan, China, as well as the European Union, could make a significant difference.

Net zero means that for all of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans, the same amount must be removed from the atmosphere. Artificial and natural greenhouse gas sinks, such as peatlands or forests, can be offset against greenhouse gases emitted.

"If made robust and implemented fully, net-zero targets could shave an extra 0.5 C off global warming, bringing the predicted temperature rise down to 2.2 C," the UNEP report says. It is critical, however, of the fact that many countries are not planning to start working toward net-zero until after 2030.
An extreme world — even with a 2 C increase

Countries need to link long-term net-zero targets to their ongoing NDCs and move forward quickly, UNEP Executive Director Andersen urged in the report's foreword. "This can't happen in five years. Or in three years. This needs to start happening now," she said.

Even if global warming were stopped at 2 C, Niklas Höhne of the New Climate Institute said the world would be a changed place. "We are currently at a temperature increase of 1 C. And we're seeing droughts, forest dying, floods — like in [Germany's] Ahr Valley — and fires all over the world. An increase of 2 C means, as a first approximation, twice as many floods, twice as many extreme weather events."


Livestock farming is just one of the ways methane is released into the atmosphere
Potential in methane, carbon markets

The UNEP report sees another opportunity to close the gap between climate targets and the current reality, through the reduction of methane emissions.

Methane not only escapes during the extraction of fossil fuels, but is produced during the decomposition of organic waste, in the treatment of wastewater and through livestock farming and rice cultivation.

Though methane only lingers in the atmosphere for 12 years compared to up to centuries for CO2, it is much more potent and therefore significantly more harmful to the climate during its relatively short lifespan. As such, a rapid reduction of methane emissions could limit temperature rise faster in the short term than a drop in CO2, according to the report.

Mechanisms such as compensation payments to poorer countries or clearly defined and properly designed carbon markets could also lead to countries taking more ambitious climate protection measures, the UNEP authors wrote.

"We are so late to climate action that it is imperative that developed countries, in addition to efforts at home, help developing countries reduce emissions as quickly as possible. The emissions gap is so large that no country can sit back," Höhne said.

This year's Emissions Gap Report highlights not only failures but also the enormous potential for more climate action, wrote UNEP's Andersen. For example, policies implemented between 2010 and 2021 will lower annual emissions by 11 GtCO2e in 2030 compared to what would have happened without them.

Though she said "we should not despair," she also called on the world to "wake up to the imminent peril we face as a species. We need to go firm. We need to go fast. And we need to start doing it now."

This article has been adapted from German

Who are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases?


Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Tue, 26 October 2021

China is by the far the biggest overall emitter of greenhouse gases. (Getty Images)

At this year’s United Nations COP26 climate conference, attempts to limit greenhouse gas emissions will be centre-stage.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane cause heat to become trapped in Earth’s atmosphere, leading to a warming effect.

Levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are more than 50% higher than before the Industrial Revolution, according to statistics from the Met Office.

In 2020, the global average temperature stood at 1.2C above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organisation’s State of the Global Climate 2020 report.

This year is the deadline for the 191 countries that signed up to the Paris Agreement in 2015 to agree to steeper emissions cuts known as nationally determined contributions.

To achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C, carbon emissions must be halved by 2030.

Read more: A 1988 warning about climate change was mostly right

The 1.5C figure is considered important, because above that level of rise, there will be more heatwaves, extreme weather events and droughts – leading to economic losses, forced migration and loss of human life.

Total greenhouse gas emissions per year (Our World in Data/World Research Institute)

Carbon dioxide accounts for roughly 76% of carbon emissions, followed by methane (mostly from agriculture) at 16%, according to America’s Environmental Protection Agency.

But CO2 emissions vary widely by country, as well as by industry, with 60% of global CO2 emissions coming from the power and industry sector, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Which countries emit the most greenhouse gases?

China emitted 11.58 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2016, compared to the US's 5.83 billion tonnes, according to data from Our World in Data and the World Resources Institute.

India emitted 3.24 billion tonnes, and Russia emitted 2.39 billion tonnes (see chart below).

Gas emissions by country in 2016 (Our World in Data/World Research Institute)

China is by far the world’s biggest contributor to greenhouse gas levels, emitting more than the entire developed world combined in 2019, according to research by Rhodium Group.

President Xi Jinping is not likely to attend the COP26 talks, Chinese officials have warned Boris Johnson.

The Chinese leader is not thought to have left China since March 2020: instead, China’s special envoy on climate change Xie Zhenhua will be in attendance.

This poses a problem at the COP26 conference: China, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are together responsible for around a third of global emissions, have not yet come forward with new emissions goals.
Which countries emit the most greenhouse gas per capita?

While China, which has the world’s largest population, is the biggest overall emitter, it is not in the top 10 countries with the highest emissions per capita.

The world’s largest per capita CO2 emitters tend to be major oil-producing countries, particularly those with small populations such as Qatar and Kuwait.

Guyana has become the world’s greatest per capita emitter after the discovery of a major offshore oil and gas field.

Greenhouse gas emission by country per capita (Our World in Data)

Guyana's petroleum development is just beginning, although politicians in the country claim the revenue from the oil will help investment in renewable and alternative energy sources.

In terms of total carbon emitted over time, China is in second place to the US, according to research by Carbon Brief.

Carbon Brief’s analysis of total carbon emissions by countries around the world since 1850 shows that the US is the biggest polluter in history, with China close behind.

The UK ranks in eighth place.

Carbon Brief found that humans have pumped a total around 2,500 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere since 1850 (taking into account both industrial emissions and emissions due to changes in land use) – with the US responsible for 20% of this total.
Which industries emit the most carbon dioxide?

Three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sector (including energy for transport, heating buildings and use in industry), according to statistics from Our World in Data and the World Resources Institute.

Transport represents 16.2% of greenhouse gas emissions, with 1.9% from the aviation sector alone, mostly in the form of CO2.

Greenhouse gas emissions by sector (Our World in Data/World Research Institute)

In agriculture (responsible for 18.4% of global emissions), 4.1% of total global emissions comes from agricultural soils, where nitrous oxide (a greenhouse gas) is emitted when nitrogen fertilisers are applied to soils.

Another 5.8% of the global total comes from livestock and manure, from animals such as cattle and sheep that produce large amounts of methane as they digest grass.

UN chief: ‘Leadership gap’ undermines global climate efforts

By FRANK JORDANS

In this long time exposure photo, trucks and cars roll on a highway in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

BERLIN (AP) — The head of the United Nations says a “leadership gap” is undermining the world’s efforts to curb global warming, days before presidents and prime ministers from around the globe gather for a climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Tuesday that time is running out to cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet the goals of the 2015 Paris accord to avert global warming that he said could become “an existential threat to humanity.”

“The clock is ticking,” he said in New York at the presentation of a U.N. report highlighting the difference between what scientists say is needed and what countries are doing to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas being pumped into the atmosphere. “This is a moment of truth.”

“The emissions gap is the result of a leadership gap,” Guterres said. “But leaders can still make this a turning point to a greener future instead of a tipping point to climate catastrophe. ”

The new report by the U.N. Environment Programme found fresh pledges by governments to cut emissions are raising hopes but aren’t strict enough to keep global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.

It concluded that recent announcements by dozens of countries to aim for “net-zero” emissions by 2050 could, if fully implemented, limit a global temperature rise to 2.2 degrees Celsius (4 F). That’s closer but still above the less stringent target agreed upon in the Paris climate accord of capping global warming at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) compared to pre-industrial times.

“Every ton of carbon dioxide emissions adds to global warming,” French climate scientist Valerie Masson-Delmotte, who co-chaired an August U.N. climate science report, told the United Nations on Tuesday. “The climate we experience in the future depends on our decisions now.”

The European Union, the United States and dozens of other countries have set net-zero emissions targets. However, the UNEP report said the net-zero goals that many governments announced ahead of a U.N. climate summit in Glasgow next week remain vague, with much of the heavy lifting on emissions cuts pushed beyond 2030.

Guterres said scientists were clear on the facts of climate change, adding that “now, leaders need to be just as clear in their actions.”

“They need to come to Glasgow with bold, time-bound, front-loaded plans to reach net zero,” he said.

Guterres made a direct plea to China, the top carbon polluter, to make carbon-cutting efforts go faster than previously proposed because “that would have an influence on several other countries.” China hasn’t updated its required emissions cut pledge.

The report came out as the U.N. General Assembly focused on climate change in a marathon session of speeches Tuesday. The presidents of vulnerable island nations Palau and the Maldives used the opportunity to plea for the world to do more because their countries are at risk of being wiped out.

“Our homes, our blue economy, our heath and our overall well-being have been ravaged by the climate crisis,” Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. told the General Assembly. “We must take radical action now.”

“The fate of small islands today is the fate of the world tomorrow,” Maldives President Ibrahim Solih said.

Australia became the latest country to announce a net-zero target on Tuesday, but experts swiftly pointed out that it doesn’t stack up.

The U.N. Environment Programme is one of several agencies to examine the gap between government pledges and the Paris goals. Its executive director echoed the need for speed on curbing emissions.

“To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions,” said Inger Andersen. “Eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts.”

Leaders, diplomats, scientists and environmental activists will meet in Glasgow from Oct. 31-Nov. 12 to discuss how countries and businesses can adjust their targets to avert the more extreme climate change scenarios that would result in a significant sea-level rise, more frequent wild weather and more droughts.

Guterres said he would use a trip to the Group of 20 meeting in Italy to press all countries, including major emerging economies such as China, to do more on climate change.

“If there is no meaningful reduction of emissions in the next decade, we will have lost forever the possibility of reaching 1.5 degrees,” he said.

Guterres said past climate summits had acknowledged that while all countries have to curb emissions, some are more able to do so than others, with leadership coming from the richest and most developed.

“But the level of emissions of the emerging economies is such that we also need the emerging economies to go an extra mile,” he said. “Only if everybody does the maximum, it will be possible to get there.”

The UNEP report emphasized several measures that can help boost efforts to curb global warming, including clamping down on emissions of the potent but short-lived greenhouse gas methane. It also emphasized the need to ensure pandemic recovery funds are spent on environmentally friendly measures.

The report found that most countries have missed the opportunity to use COVID-19 recovery spending to stimulate the economy while backing climate action.

“Despite these alarm bells ringing at fever pitch, we see new evidence today in the (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report that governments’ actions so far simply do not add up to what is so desperately needed,” Guterres told diplomats later Tuesday.

___

Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s climate coverage at http://apnews.com/hub/climate

Scientists fear global 'cascade' of climate impacts by 2030

by Ruth Douglas, SciDev.Net

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Climate hazards such as extreme heat, drought and storms could trigger "cascading impacts" that may be felt around the world within the next decade, warns a study released ahead of the UN climate summit, COP26.

Increasingly frequent extreme weather events could lead to more food insecurity, displacement of people, and conflict within vulnerable countries by 2030, with knock-on effects for whole regions and the global economy, according to the report by UK-based policy institute Chatham House.

The ten "hazard-impact pathways" of greatest near-term concern all relate to Africa or Asia, the report says, referring to the chain of impacts triggered by climate-related events.

However, the repercussions of these hazards may be far-reaching, it suggests.

The research drew on the views of more than 200 climate scientists and other specialists to assess which immediate climate hazards and impacts should most concern decision-makers in the coming decade.

"One of the really concerning things that the research highlighted was that [climate change] impacts aren't confined to the vulnerable place where they happen," said Ruth Townend, a research fellow with the environment and society program at Chatham House and co-author of the report, What near-term climate impacts should worry us the most?

"But the vulnerability of the place where they happen means impacts are bigger than they might otherwise be.

"They then cascade and have knock-on impacts and sort of chain reactions … that are global in their nature, or at least cover large regions."

Adaptation finance

Researchers say the findings, released ahead of COP26 in Glasgow (31 October–12 November), show that it is in the interests of wealthy nations to finance climate adaptation in the most at-risk regions, where action is urgently needed to address socioeconomic vulnerabilities to climate impacts.

Wealthy nations have so far failed to deliver on pledges made at the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen of at least US$100 billion a year in climate finance to support developing nations in tackling climate change.

"With COP26 coming up, all eyes are focused on … what can be achieved, particularly in terms of cutting emissions, but one of the key findings of the report is that … in the near-term one of the most important things is addressing issues of adaptation," said Townend.

"If we don't act in the 2020s to help vulnerable countries cope with the climate change that is already happening, and will continue to happen, then we're going to incur wildly spiraling costs in terms of dealing with those disasters in the near future."

Concerns highlighted by the climate scientists and other specialists included heightened food insecurity in South and South-East Asia, and Australasia, as well as reduced food security globally arising from multiple climate hazards leading to "breadbasket failures."

"You have these key breadbasket regions which export grain to other areas and they play this really important role of stabilizing food supply," said Townend. "So, if your harvest fails, you're able to buy in grain from outside and that means people don't go hungry and the impacts are confined, but … if those breadbasket regions get hit, that safety net is taken away from the whole region and that can increase global food prices."

Loss and damage

Daniel Quiggin, senior research fellow at Chatham House and lead author of the report, said: "Lack of resilience in the agricultural sector, as well as widespread poverty and inequality in developing nations, most notably in Africa, will exacerbate the impacts of climate change and drive cascading effects across borders.

"Without more aid for adaptation and poverty reduction, food insecurity due to extreme heat, drought, storm damage and multiple crop failures could result in political instability and conflict and drive increased migration to Southern Europe."

The paper calls for the development of a comprehensive climate risk register that charts the communities most vulnerable to climate hazards, the potential cascading risks, and what can be done to increase resilience.

"The key thing that we're saying in this report is that by addressing those issues of vulnerability, we can actually prevent really appalling climate disasters from occurring in this decade," added Townend.

Ritu Bharadwaj, climate governance and finance senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development, said finance for climate 'loss and damage' would be one of the key issues to address at COP26. "It is happening now and vulnerable countries and communities around the world are losing their lives, their livelihoods, their homes—they're getting displaced," she told a SciDev.Net debate last week, adding: "These issues will only escalate as climate change impacts get worse.Pentagon, intelligence agencies detail climate threat to security

Provided by SciDev.Net

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Outrage over Israel’s building of a Jerusalem park over Palestinian cemetery


Issued on: 27/10/2021 - 

Israeli border police detain a Palestinian man during a protest against Israel’s building of a Jerusalem park which they say encroaches on a centuries-old Muslim graveyard near Old City wall, in Jerusalem October 26, 2021. The municipality says graves will not be disturbed. © Ammar Awad, REUTERS

Sobbing and trying to cling to her son’s gravestone, Palestinian Jerusalemite Ola Nababteh was dragged away from Al-Yusufiyah cemetery by Israeli police as a digger truck levelled land for a new park behind her

Palestinians say the project encroaches on a centuries-old Muslim graveyard beneath the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Old City. Israel captured East Jerusalem including the Old City in a 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not recognised internationally.

The Israeli municipality says authorised burial sites in the cemetery will not be harmed. But the unearthing of human bones when construction for the park began this month stirred panic among families like Nababteh's with loved ones interred at Al-Yusufiyah.

"Over my dead body - my son will not be removed from here," Nababteh told Reuters on Tuesday, a day after Israeli police removed her from the graveyard.

Arieh King, a Jerusalem deputy mayor, said there was never any intent to move the grave and that police had evacuated Nababteh because she was too close to construction.

The remains found this month were not in an authorised gravesite and "had been buried illicitly in the ground many years ago," he told Reuters, adding that the park would provide Palestinians with easier access to the Old City.

Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said the park, due to open in mid-2022, is an assault on the cemetery.

"The graves of human beings cannot be violated no matter the gender, nationality or religion,” he said.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem for the capital of a state they seek in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which abuts the city, and the Gaza Strip. Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital.

(REUTERS)

TOOK LONG ENOUGH

In Biden shift, US denounces Israel on settlements

Issued on: 26/10/2021 -


Washington (AFP)

The United States on Tuesday forcefully criticized Israel for the first time in years on its settlements, with President Joe Biden's administration saying it "strongly" opposed new construction on the West Bank.

The reaction comes after four years under Donald Trump in which the United States offered a green light to Israel's activity on occupied Palestinian land, with his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, touring a settlement at the end of his tenure.

The State Department under Biden had repeatedly warned against settlement construction and on Tuesday sharply criticized Israel after it moved ahead.

"We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government's plan to advance thousands of settlement units" on Wednesday as well as tenders published Sunday for more than 1,300 homes, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.


"We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution," he told reporters.

"We also view plans for the retroactive legalization of illegal outposts as unacceptable."

Price stopped short of saying the decision would jeopardize relations with Israel. But he said that the administration would "raise this issue directly with senior Israeli officials in our private sessions."

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a right-winger close to the settlement movement, although he leads a coalition with centrists who seek to preserve stable relations with the United States.

Housing Minister Zeev Elkin is part of the right-wing New Hope party and said the settlements were "essential to the Zionist vision" of strengthening Jewish presence in the West Bank.

Gap in US

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh had urged Washington to "confront" Israel on the settlements, which he described as "aggression."

About 475,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law, on land Palestinians claim as part of their future state.

The Trump administration, which was backed by evangelical Christians who see biblical reasons for supporting a Jewish homeland, revised longstanding State Department guidance and said it did not consider settlements illegal.

It was a sharp shift from the previous Democratic administration of Barack Obama who faced open criticism from Israel's veteran right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly over US diplomacy with Iran.

In one of its last acts, the Obama administration declined to exercise the routine US veto at the UN Security Council and allowed a resolution against Israeli settlements to pass through.

While Biden has long ties with the Jewish state, many in his Democratic Party have increasingly opposed Israeli policies, especially under Netanyahu.

In June, dozens of Democratic lawmakers wrote an open letter to Biden urging him to "consistently and proactively" issue "firm public condemnations" of actions that could jeopardize the peace process.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, a centrist who engineered the coalition to oust Netanyahu, accused the previous government of putting Israel at risk through a partisan alliance with Trump and has pledged to work through disagreements quietly.

Lapid last month proposed a development plan for the impoverished Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Islamist militants Hamas who fought a war with Israel in May, but conceded that the idea was not supported across the government.

© 2021 AFP

Gas giants: Can we stop cows from emitting so much methane?

Myriam LEMETAYER
Tue, 26 October 2021

Gas giants: Can we stop cows from emitting so much methane? (AFP/Lou BENOIST)

That cow may look peaceful and harmless, munching on some grass in a verdant pasture.

But don't be fooled -- it is emitting methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas contributing to runaway global climate change.

Agriculture is responsible for 12 percent of global man-made greenhouse gas emissions, much of it due to methane, the second most warming gas after carbon dioxide.


Methane is around 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a 100-year period, but it stays in the atmosphere for only 12 years compared to centuries.

So drastically reducing methane emissions could have a major impact in mitigating the damage expected from global warming in the coming decades.

Agriculture and livestock farming generate around 40 percent of the methane related to human activities, the rest produced by the fossil fuel industry.

Much of that methane is produced by the digestive process in cows, which then burp the emissions out into the world.

Around 95 percent of the methane produced by cows come from their mouths or nostrils.

So how can we reduce the danger being belched out by cows across the world every day?

Who, me?: New tactics are being investigated to try to curb the methane emissions of cows

- Cows with masks -

US agricultural giant Cargill, partnering with British start-up ZELP (Zero Emissions Livestock Project), has developed a form of mask that covers cows' nostrils.

The device filters the methane, transforming it into carbon dioxide, which per molecule has a much less potent effect on global warming.

Ghislain Boucher, head of the ruminant team at Cargill's animal nutrition subsidiary Provimi, said the first results were "interesting".

"Methane emissions have been reduced by half," he told AFP.

However the device still needs to be tested in real-world conditions before it can be marketed late next year -- or even in 2023.

In the short term, Cargill is starting to market in northern Europe a calcium nitrate food additive, saying that 200 grammes daily would reduce cow methane emissions by 10 percent.

The additional cost is estimated to be "between 10 and 15 cents per cow per day," Boucher said at a breeding gathering in central France.

- Seaweed to the rescue? -

Adding red seaweed to cow feed has far more potential, according to a US study published earlier this year, which indicated it could reduce methane emissions by more than 80 percent.

If the results can be repeated, red seaweed would need to grown in vast quantities, preferably near farming areas, the researchers at University of California Davis said.

However a question looms over the issue: how will farmers react to paying more for such measures which do not add to their bottom line, unless they are reimbursed via some kind of carbon credit?

It is also uncertain how consumers will respond. For example, will Americans who prefer corn-fed beef be as partial to the seaweed-fed variety?

And perhaps the easiest way to reduce cow methane emissions is for the world to eat less beef and diary.

A report by the United Nations Environment Programme in May pointed out that technological measures have a "limited potential to address" methane emissions from the agriculture sector.

"Three behavioural changes, reducing food waste and loss, improving livestock management, and the adoption of healthy diets (vegetarian or with a lower meat and dairy content) could reduce methane emissions by 65-80 million tonnes a year over the next few decades," it said.

myl/ico/dl/rl

Orkney's seaweed-eating sheep offer hopes of greener farming

Issued on: 27/10/2021 -

The ultra-remote island of North Ronaldsay may boast only around 60 people -- but it is home to what scientists say could be a breakthrough in cutting planet-warming methane emissions -- seaweed for its distinctive sheep Adrian DENNIS AFP


North Ronaldsay (Orkney) (Royaume-Uni) (AFP)

On a tiny island in Scotland's far-flung Orkneys, thousands of sheep spend the winter munching on seaweed, a unique diet that scientists say offers hope for reducing planet-warming methane emissions.

Around 60 people share North Ronaldsay -- an island just over 3 miles (5 kilometres) long, ringed by rocky beaches and turquoise waters off the north coast of mainland Britain -- with the distinctive native sheep.

Boasting brown, beige or black wool, the animals are hemmed into its foreshore owing to a large system of stone walls -- called a sheep dyke -- built in the early 19th century to keep them away from fields and roads.

The island's crofters -- people who live and work on so-called croft agricultural land -- wanted to use every available space to grow crops and as pasture for cows.

The unintended result: in summer the sheep can nibble on grass, but by winter eating the plentiful seaweed is their only means of survival.

While some other mammals -- including Shetland ponies native to the neighbouring island chain, and red deer -- are known to snack on seaweed, scientists say that the North Ronaldsay sheep are unique worldwide for spending months eating only the marine plants.

Methane reduction

With the world facing a deepening climate emergency, they are increasingly seen by some as a case study that could lead to a breakthrough in methods for raising livestock, which is a major source of greenhouse gases.

Farm animals belch and fart methane gas which, though trivial sounding, is about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Given the vast scale of the global meat industry, the issue has become a major focus for climate scientists -- just as world leaders prepare to gather in the Scottish city Glasgow from Sunday for the crucial COP26 summit.

The seaweed diet of the Orkney sheep has an effect on their complex digestive system and appears to reduce the amount of methane produced.

"There's different components in the seaweed that actually interfere with the process (of) how methane is made," said Gordon McDougall, a researcher at The James Hutton Institute in Dundee in eastern Scotland who has been examining the sheep's diet for two decades.

Researchers at The University of California, Davis, published results in March showing that a "bit of seaweed in cattle feed could reduce methane emissions from beef cattle as much as 82 percent".

David Beattie, another James Hutton Institute scientist, stressed there is huge interest in such innovation.

"There's a really big movement within the industry to try and cut out the carbon footprint that the industry as a whole has," he told AFP.

"I see seaweed playing a part in that."

Scale

This would not necessarily mean cows and sheep switching to a diet entirely comprised of seaweed like the North Ronaldsay sheep, but it could supplement their usual feed.

Seaweed is not available in large enough quantities to feed so many animals, McDougall noted, and taking away too much from the sea could also damage the environment and ecosystems.

But the marine plants -- good sources of minerals, vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids -- could partly replace soy, which is heavily used in animal feed but transported for thousands of miles and linked to deforestation.

Researchers still need to determine the types and quantities of seaweed which could be best suited to adding to feed.

"And then, can you scale that up to a level where you'd actually have an effect on the overall UK farming?" said McDougall.

The plump North Ronaldsay sheep, who chow down strands of seaweed as if they were spaghetti, are set to keep providing a useful case study.

© 2021 AFP

Kiwi boffins aim to clear the air on livestock emissions

Tucked away in rural New Zealand, a multi-million dollar research facility is working to slash the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by farm animals -- saving the world one belch at a time (AFP/Marty MELVILLE)

Neil SANDS
Tue, October 26, 2021

Tucked away in rural New Zealand, a multi-million dollar research facility is working to slash the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by farm animals -- saving the world one belch at a time.

Cattle and sheep are kept in perspex pens for two days per session as scientists carefully analyse every burp and fart that emerges from them at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.

"I never thought I'd make my living measuring the gas that comes out of animals' breath," the facility's director Harry Clark told AFP.

The UN says agricultural livestock accounts for 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity and the centre -- regarded as a world leader in livestock emissions research -- is hopeful it can play a key role in tackling the problem.

How authorities ended up funding the project to the tune of NZ$10 million (US$7.0 million) a year is a story of economic necessity and changing attitudes to climate change.

But it begins in the gut of ruminant livestock, which use microbes to partially digest their food by fermenting it in a compartment of their stomach before regurgitating it to be chewed as cud.

The process results in copious amounts of methane -- a gas that has more than 80 times the 'global warming potential' of carbon dioxide, across 20 years according to the UN Economic Commission.

There are estimated to be 1.5 billion cows on the planet, with each one capable of producing 500 litres (132 gallons) of the gas each day.

In addition, livestock urine produces nitrous oxide, another powerful climate pollutant.

- 'Tantalising' methane vaccine' -

New Zealand's farm-reliant economy means its proportion of agricultural emissions is much higher, accounting for around half of its greenhouse gases.

At Clark's centre in Palmerston North, the major focus is on livestock methane, which accounts for almost 36 percent of the country's total.

"New Zealand has a specific problem and it's imperative we give farmers the tools and technologies to reduce their emissions," Clark said.

The facility, which is vetted by an ethics committee, is exploring research that includes selective breeding programmes to develop bloodlines of animals that naturally produce less gas.

Sheep have been bred that produce 10 percent less methane than average and Clark said researchers were trying to produce similar results with cattle.

Other projects include putting emission-inhibiting additives in livestock feed and even developing a harness or mask with filters that capture methane before it leaves the animal's mouth.

But Clark said perhaps the most exciting prospect being developed in Palmerston North is a vaccine that reduces methane by targeting the microbes in the gut that produce the gas.

"It's tantalisingly close, in the sense that it works in the laboratory but it doesn't work in the animal yet," he said, adding such a vaccine could be easily administered to flocks and herds worldwide, with an immediate impact on global emissions.

It is a growing area of research globally: In the US, researchers are experimenting with probiotics for cattle, while in India, scientists are adding supplements to feed -- with the aim of reducing the amount of methane produced.

But critics warn this approach offers only short term benefits and "band-aid" solutions to major problems.

"Reducing methane output while breeding still more methane-producing animals ignores animal suffering, deforestation, and the increased risk of diseases -- including zoonotic viruses -- all associated with animal agriculture," said Aleesha Naxakis, spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

- Global shift -

New Zealand’s government has committed to reducing livestock methane 10 percent by 2030 and 24-47 percent by 2050, compared with 2017 levels.

But some have questioned why the lucrative agricultural sector is treated differently to the rest of the economy, which has been set a target of zero net emissions by 2050.

Monitoring website Climate Action Tracker rates New Zealand’s climate policies as "highly insufficient", citing the methane carve out as one of the main reasons.

"As we look toward COP26, unless governments take immediate steps to transition our global food system away from animals and towards plants, we’re setting fire to the only home we have," warned Naxakis.

Clark conceded 'getting rid of livestock, and eating more plant-based foods' would reduce agricultural emissions and make both people and the planet healthier, but said the situation was more complex.

He said pursuing such a major shift, rather than working to lower livestock emissions, would have significant economic and social consequences on the sector worldwide.

Clark added that the government's funding of research into livestock emissions was only partly to do with New Zealand's reliance on the sector.

"Sure there's an element of self interest, but there's a bit of altruism there as well," he said.

"If we can find solutions that are applicable elsewhere, that help tackle emissions in China, the US, or wherever, then New Zealand could make a major contribution, as a small nation, to the global effort to reduce emissions."

ns/hr/lto

Indigenous lead protest against Ecuador economic policies

Vincent Ricci 

Quito, Ecuador – As night turned to dawn in the early morning hours of October 26, Indigenous communities had already woken to begin the most recent “paro nacional”, or a national shutdown in English, by bringing main transit arteries to a halt in the countryside and launching a day of protest in Ecuador.

© Provided by Al Jazeera Ecuadorian security forces patrol a street near a roadblock in Ecuador's center-Andean province Cotopaxi on October 26 [Juan Diego Montenegro/Al Jazeera].

The demonstrators’ plan: to peacefully enter the heavily fortified presidential palace. Metal fences and riot police blocked the streets leading to the palace.


Indigenous and other social collectives have been demanding conservative President Guillermo Lasso reverse the recent spike in fuel costs announced last week.

“A few days ago, the president labelled me a destabiliser,” said the president of the Confederation Indigenous Nationalities, or CONAIE, Leonidas Iza addressing reporters.

“Ecuadorians do not have time for this: We’re all concerned about the economic issues.”

By noon, a government spokesperson said police had detained 18 people at roadblocks.

Under pressure from CONAIE and Indigenous legislators, Lasso announced last week he was freezing the monthly increases of fuel prices, but fixed new prices slightly higher than those that were expected to go in effect in October with petrol a fixed $2.55 a gallon ($0.67 a litre) and diesel $1.90 a gallon ($0.50 a litre).

© Provided by Al Jazeera Security forces stand guard as Indigenous people block the Pan-American Highway in Panzaleo, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador, on October 26, 2021 [Rodrigo Buendia/ AFP]

“We have listened to you, the people, and also to political and social sectors to reach an agreement which brings us stability, in which the economy and grow and create jobs,” Lasso said in a national message to the country Friday.
AdChoices

CONAIE rejected the president’s announcement and said protests would go forward as planned.

Now more than five months on the job, Lasso faces a migration crisis of Ecuadorians leaving for the US-Mexico border and a bloody gang war in the prison system.

With just days before the COP climate summit converges in Glasgow, environmentalists have lambasted the president for committing to double Ecuador’s oil production during his term, setting up likely confrontation between remote Indigenous communities in the Amazon and state security forces.

© Provided by Al Jazeera An Indigenous woman looks over the scene at a roadblock in Ecuador’s center-Andean province Cotopaxi on October 26, 2021 [Juan Diego Montenegro/Al Jazeera]

Lasso did not appear in front of the legislative committee’s investigation on the Pandora Papers last week and has denied wrongdoing after being named in last month’s report. The national prosecutor’s office also launched a probe in Lasso’s offshore holdings.

With the intention to combat crime and drug-related violence, Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency last Monday. The decree allowed for rapid deployment of the police and armed forces to conduct routine checkpoints in hotspots.

But organisations denounced the move as a tactic to quell Tuesday’s planned demonstrations and shutdown

.

© Provided by Al Jazeera An apparent standoff between demonstrators and police in Panzaleo, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador, on October 26, 2021, during a protest against the economic policies of the government [Rodrigo Buendia/ AFP]

Speaking to reporters in Quito on October 18, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken supported Lasso’s security declaration but said “these measures need to be taken pursuant to the Constitution.”

“[The measures] need to be very focused in what they’re seeking to achieve and finite in duration and … follow and proceed in a way that upholds democratic principles,” said Blinken during a three-day visit to Ecuador and its neighbour to the north, Colombia.

Tensions between Lasso and CONAIE have escalated for months and on October 4, a meeting at the presidential palace between the two sides resulted in a deadlock with no viable solution for bringing down fuel prices and oil exploration in Ecuador’s rainforest.

In October 2019, there was a 10-day nationwide shutdown after then-President Lenin Moreno implemented an austerity package that would have cut decades-old fuel subsidies.

Forced to backtrack by overwhelming social discontent, Moreno signed an executive decree allowing for gradual monthly increases to fuel beginning in May 2020.

Lasso inherited the problem of fuel price rises, which has continued to shape Ecuador’s political, economic and social landscape.

Women protest the world's 'silence' over crisis in Afghanistan

Issued on: 26/10/2021 - 

Women protest the inaction of the international community in Kabul on Tuesday 

James EDGAR AFP

Kabul (AFP)

Women activists in Kabul held up signs that read "why is the world watching us die in silence?" on Tuesday, protesting the international community's inaction on the crisis in Afghanistan.

Around a dozen women risked the wrath of the Taliban, who have banned demonstrations and shut them down using violence since taking power in August, holding banners affirming their "right to education" and "right to work", before the Islamists stopped the press from approaching the march.

"We are asking the UN secretary-general to support our rights, to education, to work. We are deprived of everything today," Wahida Amiri, one of the organisers for the Spontaneous Movement of Women Activists in Afghanistan, told AFP.

Their demonstration, addressing the "political, social and economic situation" in Afghanistan was initially planned to take place near the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

But it was moved at the last minute to the entrance of the former "Green Zone", where the buildings of several Western embassies are located, although most of their missions left the country as the Taliban took control.

Taliban gunmen at the entrance to the ultra-secure area initially asked the demonstrators and the press to move away.

An AFP reporter then saw a reinforcement of a dozen Taliban guards -- most of them armed -- push back journalists and confiscate the mobile phone of one local reporter who was filming the protest.

"We have nothing against the Taliban, we just want to demonstrate peacefully," Amiri said.

Symbolic demonstrations by women have become a regular occurrence in Kabul in recent weeks as the Taliban have still not allowed them to return to work or permitted most girls to go to school.

Last Thursday about 20 women were allowed to march for more than 90 minutes, but several foreign and local journalists covering the rally were beaten by Taliban fighters.

© 2021 AFP

Anger over men-only foreign delegations to meet Taliban

Since seizing power in August, the Taliban have excluded women from their new caretaker government and put restrictions on work and education, drawing condemnation from the outside world 

(AFP/BULENT KILIC)More

Nina LARSON
Tue, October 26, 2021

Global powers and aid groups that have loudly demanded an inclusive Afghanistan under the Taliban are now facing criticism for sending all-male delegations to Kabul to meet the hardline Islamists.

Since seizing power in August, the Taliban have excluded women from their new caretaker government and put restrictions on work and education, drawing condemnation from the outside world.

But female representation has been little better among some governments and aid groups in their meetings in the capital with Afghanistan's new rulers, who are seeking international recognition.


"Senior women in your teams should be leading your interactions with the Taliban... Don't exclude women," said Shaharzad Akbar, the exiled head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

In a tweet addressing "governments and aid agencies", she called on them to "NOT NORMALISE Taliban's erasure of women".

- 'Sausage party' -

Heather Barr from Human Rights Watch created a list, under the hashtag "sausageparty", of pictures posted by the Taliban of their meetings with delegations in Kabul.

"Foreign countries and especially aid organisations should be leading by example," Barr told AFP.

"No one should let the Taliban think that this kind of men-only world that they are creating... is normal."

The Taliban have posted dozens of photos on social media of closed-door meetings with groups of foreign representatives, showing not a single woman.

Among the many meetings highlighted was one earlier this month between British envoy Simon Gass and the Taliban's interim deputy prime ministers Abdul Ghani Baradar and Abdul Salam Hanafi, seated on a sofa in a lavish room.

An official told AFP it was a coincidence that the special envoy and head of mission were both men.

Pakistan, which has advised the Taliban on how to win international backing, also posted pictures and video of an all-male group accompanying the foreign minister and intelligence chief to Kabul.

Fawzia Koofi, one of the negotiators in failed peace talks between the then Afghan government and the Taliban last year in Doha, voiced her anger.

"As world leaders, when they talk about women's rights, they also need to act. They need to show that they believe in it, that it is not just a political statement," she told AFP.

- Complacency 'not acceptable' -

Even more concerning, Barr said, were the numerous pictures of meetings between the Taliban and humanitarian organisations that seemed to follow the same pattern.

When contacted by AFP, the organisations on her list highlighted their dedication to women's rights and said they strived to include women in meetings with the Taliban.

But several acknowledged holding at least one meeting with the hardline Islamists that included no women.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN children's agency, and Doctors Without Borders explained that on the photographed occasion, they had only sent small delegations of top leaders, who happened to be men.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies meanwhile said a last-minute scheduling change had meant a woman staff member due to take part had been unable to attend, turning one meeting into an all-male event.

The lack of women in such high-level positions shows that while Afghanistan might be an extreme example, it is not the only place where women are being denied an equal seat at the table.

"Raising those concerns about women's rights in a room full of all men just seems very strange," Barr added.

The United Nations has since announced its first-ever all-woman mission to Afghanistan, to discuss girls' education with the Taliban.

While never including women in their teams, the group's leaders have met with a number of women, including during the Doha negotiations with the then Afghan government.

Koofi, who has survived two assassination attempts, had first hesitated to join the talks with the militants, who jailed her husband and threatened to stone her for wearing nail polish during their 1990s rule.

But sitting face to face with them had made her feel "powerful".

"For me, it was important that I make myself visible and my message clear to them," she told AFP in 2019.

Now those with the power to ensure women have a seat at the table are often failing to do so, she said.

"Everyone is playing politics."

bur-nl/ecl/leg/qan

Trudeau taps climate activist for key role in major cabinet reshuffle


Issued on: 26/10/2021 

Steven Guilbeault (R), Canada's outgoing heritage minister, was tapped to head the environment ministry in Justin Trudeau's reshuffled cabinet Lars Hagberg AFP

Ottawa (AFP)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday named prominent former climate activist Steven Guilbeault as environment minister in a major post-election cabinet shuffle ahead of a key global climate conference.

At a ceremony in Ottawa, Guilbeault was all smiles as he was sworn in alongside 37 other faces, including Anita Anand who was picked to lead a military plagued by sexual misconduct allegations, and Melanie Joly who was promoted to foreign minister.

His promotion comes just days before global leaders are set to gather in Glasgow for the COP26 summit on climate change.

His activism dates back to his early childhood, according to his government biography, when he climbed a tree behind his home to prevent real estate developers from chopping it down.

Decades later, he scaled Toronto's CN Tower in a stunt to press for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, founded Equiterre -- one of Canada's top environmental organizations -- and worked in senior roles at several other groups including Greenpeace.

"Steven Guilbeault knows the issues, key players and understands the importance of environmental issues," Greenpeace's Patrick Bonin told AFP, praising Trudeau's pick for environment minister.

He said the new minister's pragmatism and strong knowledge of environmental issues will serve Canada well.

Guilbeault was first elected to parliament in 2019, serving as heritage minister in Trudeau's second administration.

He replaces Jonathan Wilkinson, who moves to the natural resources portfolio after recently working with his German counterpart on a target for rich countries to contribute $100 billion a year to help poorer ones fight climate change.

At the COP26 meeting, Guilbeault is expected to tout Canadian measures to cut CO2 emissions including in its oil sector, which is the fourth largest in the world.
Gender parity in cabinet

Trudeau was returned to power in September at the helm, once again, of a minority liberal government, with party standings in the House of Commons almost exactly the same as prior to the snap election.

It was not the outcome he'd hoped for, with strong support for his Liberals for their solid pandemic response suddenly dissipating midway through the campaign as voter fatigue with his administration -- first elected in a landslide in 2015 -- set in.

But in his first post-election news conference earlier this month, Trudeau claimed his minority Liberal government had been given a mandate "to move even stronger, even faster on the big things that Canadians really want."

He listed priorities such as accelerating the fight against climate change, further boosting Canada's Covid vaccination rates -- already among the highest in the world -- bolstering the economic recovery, and continuing reconciliation with indigenous tribes.

The reshuffled cabinet consists of 38 ministers in total, with an equal number of women and men. Chrystia Freeland, it was previously announced, keeps her dual roles as deputy prime minister and finance minister.

Several former ministers were dropped including former astronaut Marc Garneau, and others were shuffled to new posts in a bid to breathe new life into the beleaguered Liberal party.

Joly, who was co-campaign chair of the Liberals' re-election campaign and held minor posts in past Trudeau administrations, becomes Canada's fifth foreign minister in six years.

Although Trudeau declared "Canada is back" in 2015 and marked a few early successes including the airlift of Syrian refugees, and the ratification of Europe, North America and Pacific trade deals, his foreign policy has been arguably timid in a world facing a growing number of crises.

Anand, who'd previously been in charge of the nation's vaccine procurement, meanwhile, faces a difficult task changing the culture of the military.

The Canadian Armed Forces, Trudeau recently said, "still don't get it" following several allegations of sexual misconduct in the military's top ranks this year.

He was reacting to the appointment, to lead a review of sexual misconduct cases, of a general who wrote a positive character reference to a judge for a soldier found guilty of sexually assaulting another.

© 2021 AFP

UH OH

Ancient permafrost bacteria can be resistant to modern antibiotics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FEDERAL RESEARCH CENTRE «FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY» OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: PICTURE FROM EXPEDITIONS view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF NIKOLAI RAVIN

The resistance of pathogenic micro-organisms to antibiotics is our responsibility — starting from negligent farmers seeking how to save their crops and animals from the disease at all costs, to all those who are taking antibiotics without a doctor’s advice. As a result of such massive antibiotic “bombardment”, the most powerful bacteria and fungi survive, then transmitting antibiotic resistance genes to their descendants. It is difficult to keep up with this evolution: it may take years from the stage of synthesizing a new drug to putting it on the market.

“It is an interesting question — how can the resistance of micro-organisms to antibiotics be related to another contemporary problem — global warming? The answer is rather simple: the melting of the ice can release ancient micro-organisms that are causing diseases. Perhaps even much more deadly and contagious. Of course, one can hope that they will be sensitive to modern antibiotics, but our research says that it may not be so”, — says Andrey Rakitin, one of the authors of the scientific paper, PhD, Senior Researcher of Laboratory of Molecular Cloning Systems, Research Center of Biotechnology RAS.

It turned out that the bacteria Acinetobacter lwoffii, isolated from thousands or millions of years old permafrost, were resistant to antibiotics. This was discovered when the genomes of five strains extracted from the permafrost of Kolyma lowlands in Yakutia were sequenced. This research was made by biologists from both The Institute of Molecular Genetics of National Research Centre ‘Kurchatov Institute’ and the Research Center of Biotechnology. Acinetobacter lwoffii are widespread in a wide variety of habitats and are usually non-pathogenic, but their close relatives, other species of the genus Acinetobacter, can cause dangerous infectious diseases in humans and animals.

The full-genome study of strains isolated from permafrost was carried out by The Research Center of Biotechnology as part of the project made by the world-class research center ‘Agrotechnologies of the Future’. Analysis of genome sequences and their comparison with modern clinical isolates of Acinetobacter lwoffii revealed very limited differences. Ancient strains also possessed genes encoding resistance to widely used antibiotics such as streptomycin, spectinomycin, chloramphenicol, and tetracycline. However, they were resistant to heavy metals and arsenic.

“The bacteria we studied were isolated from permafrost aged between 15,000 and 1.8 million years, but they had a lot in common with modern strains. Our colleagues received similar results and the situation is frightening. Global warming can only be slowed down, but it can never be stopped, and it can release new infections. A study of these potential pathogens now buried in permafrost could save our lives and health in the future”, — says Nikolai Ravin, a doctor of science in biology, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Cloning at Research Center of Biotechnology RAS.

---

JOURNAL

Biology

DOI

10.3390/biology10090871 

ARTICLE TITLE

Genome Analysis of Acinetobacter lwoffii Strains Isolated from Permafrost Soils Aged from 15 Thousand to 1.8 Million Years Revealed Their Close Relationships with Present-Day Environmental and Clinical Isolates

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Sep-2021