HAITI; CANADA/QUEBEC COLONY

Canada, Dominican Republic reach agreement over Haitian crisis response


Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly at a news conference in Ottawa

Reuters
Wed, June 21, 2023

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada and the Dominican Republic have agreed that Canada will coordinate assistance for Haiti by boosting staff at its embassies in Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo, the countries said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The agreement settles a public dispute last week over a proposed Canadian office in Dominican territory that risked further complicating an international plan to boost Haiti's outgunned police force.

"Canada and the Dominican Republic have solid bilateral relations and are long standing partners including on regional security matters," the joint statement said.

Both countries agree that the Haiti crisis requires enhanced international cooperation, humanitarian, and security assistance, the statement said.

"We will enhance coordination in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Canada and other locations as required including through increased presence at the Canadian embassies in Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo," the countries said in the statement.

Last week, Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced plans to set up an office to coordinate Haiti assistance in the neighboring Dominican Republic, but a day later, her Dominican counterpart, Roberto Alvarez, said there was no deal to authorize such an office.

The Dominican Republic has strained relations with Haiti, with which it shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Since gang violence escalated last year in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Santo Domingo has stepped up border security and deported tens of thousands fleeing the crisis back to Haiti.

Since last year, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has called for an international force to rein in the gangs. The groups now control large parts of the country, which has fueled a humanitarian crisis that has displaced tens of thousands of Haitians.

The United States has pushed Canada to take a leading role, but to date no country has offered to lead an international force.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Chris Reese and Sandra Maler)

What's killing hundreds of sea lions and dozens of dolphins along the Southern California coast?


Summer Lin
Tue, June 20, 2023 

Sea lions recuperate at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro on Tuesday. More than 1,000 marine mammals have become ill or died this month because of toxic algae blooms along the coast of Southern California, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

More than 1,000 marine mammals along the Southern California coast have gotten sick or died this month due to a bloom of toxic algae, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute, a local rescue organization, has logged hundreds of reports of dead sea lions and nearly 60 dolphins in the first few weeks of June, according to NOAA.

“We are managing more than 200 reports of marine mammals in distress each day,” Ruth Dover, co-founder and managing director of the organization, said in a news release. “We are doing the best we can to keep up with the intense pace. Please continue to report all sick and injured marine mammals as we are getting to as many animals as we can, as quickly as we can, each day.”


High concentrations of domoic acid — a neurotoxin produced by the marine algae Pseudo-nitzschia — have been found in waters from Orange County to San Luis Obispo County, according to forecasts by the NOAA and the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System. There are especially high concentrations around Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Ventura resident and photographer Kelly Nakamaru saw a dead dolphin last week at Ventura's popular surfing spot known as California Street or "C Street."

"My heart was so heavy," she said.

Dr. Alissa Deming, left, and veterinarian assistant Malena Berndt give anti-seizure medicine to a California sea lion named Patsy in a recovery room at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach after it was found having seizures from toxic algae blooms.

 (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

On Sunday, Nakamaru called the Channel Islands institute when she saw that the dolphin was still on the beach but was told, "'We have dead seals and dolphins all over the beaches right now.'"

In fact, when Nakamaru was walking Tuesday morning on Ventura's Emma Wood State Beach she saw five more deceased dolphins washed ashore.

Sam Dover, executive director of the Channel Islands institute, said in an Instagram post that the institute was "currently inundated with domoic acid sea lions and dolphins."

“We are receiving 30-60 calls per hour and responding to over 30 animals per day," he said.

The algae tend to grow during spring and fall and under specific conditions, such as when an upwelling of water results in nutrients from deeper water rising to the surface where the sunlight is stronger, according to the Channel Islands institute. The toxin produced by the algae can cause brain damage, seizures and death in marine animals. The toxin doesn't affect humans unless they eat it in contaminated food.

Experts recommend that if you see a marine mammal exhibiting odd behaviors, such as swaying their head back and forth, seizure activity or foaming at the mouth, to keep your distance and contact the Channel Islands institute at (805) 567-1505 or online.

Algal bloom events have happened in Southern California in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2017 and 2022.

California sea lions are the ocean mammals most frequently exposed to domoic acid because of the location of their foraging sites and habitats, according to the Channel Islands institute. Pregnant sea lions, in particular, are susceptible because they tend to eat more food. Domoic acid can cause prenatal mortality, including stillbirths and death, as well as premature births.

With treatment, symptoms usually subside within 72 hours, and in many cases sea lions can recover. The toxin can damage the hippocampus region in the brain, resulting in memory loss and an inability to learn or retain information. The damage depends on how much contaminated fish a sea lion has consumed.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Toxic algae kills hundreds of dolphins and sea lions on California coast


21
Madeline Halpert - BBC News, New York
Wed, June 21, 2023 

Toxic algal blooms are killing hundreds of sea lions and dolphins along the coast of California's southern beaches.

More than 1,000 marine animals have become sick or died in June, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Experts say algal blooms pose a seasonal issue, but climate change may be worsening the problem.

Rescue groups are getting more than 200 reports of marine mammals in distress each day.

"I've heard of a number of people walking the beaches who have seen [sick] animal after [sick] animal," said David Caron, a biological sciences professor at the University of Southern California.

"Animal rescue groups are scrambling to try to get boots on the ground to get the animals protected."

Sea birds, dolphins and sea lions in particular are becoming ill from the rapid growth of certain species of algae, which produce a toxin called domoic acid.

Harmful algal blooms work by disrupting food webs, Dr Caron said. Creatures such as shellfish, anchovies and sardines consume the toxins before then being eaten by larger marine mammals.

"They eat a meal of those highly toxic fish and then they become toxified themselves, and if they get enough of that material, it of course can kill them, which is happening now," he said.

Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in Southern California have been hit especially hard, according to the NOAA.

The Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute, which helps rescue and treat sick animals, said it was receiving more than 200 reports of marine mammals in distress each day.

"We are doing the best we can to keep up with the intense pace," institute co-founder Ruth Dover said in a statement.

When domoic acid affects marine mammals, they can become disoriented or even convulse and die under water.

The blooms can pose a danger to humans as well. People can become sick if they consume fish packed with the toxins, though the California Department of Public Health monitors for these levels and closes shellfish beaches when necessary, Dr Caron said.

Humans may also attempt to approach larger mammals like sea lions and dolphins if they see them stranded on the beach, but the animals may become aggressive because of the toxins.

People should avoid the marine creatures and call rescue organisations, which have been able to save some animals by capturing them, feeding them, and giving them liquids until they can flush the toxins out of their system, Dr Caron said.

Algae usually blooms between March and June in California, but the blooms may be peaking later this year because of its long and rainy winter.

Red tide is back and killing fish in Florida

Experts say that not all species of algae produce harmful toxins, but the ones that do may be expanding to new areas because of climate change.

This is because as water temperatures rise, more areas become habitable for harmful algae blooms, which tend to form in warmer water.

Scientists are still working to untangle the effects of climate change on organisms living in coastal waters, Dr Caron said.

"But we have a fair amount of evidence, especially in inland waters, that climate change is exacerbating some of the problems that we're seeing with harmful algae," he said.

Battle of billionaires: Musk's Starlink eyes India, Ambani resists



By Aditya Kalra, Munsif Vengattil and Aditi Shah

Thu, June 22, 2023 

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Elon Musk is eager to bring his Starlink satellite broadband to India, but the world's richest man faces strong resistance from Mukesh Ambani, Asia's wealthiest, who runs Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio.

Following a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the U.S. on Tuesday, Musk said he was keen to launch Starlink in India which "can be incredibly helpful" in remote villages that have no internet or lack high-speed services.

What he didn't talk about is how Starlink is at odds with Ambani's Reliance over the government's distribution of satellite broadband spectrum, setting the stage for a battle between two of the world's richest men for satellite services in the world's most populous nation.

Starlink is lobbying India to not auction the spectrum but just assign licences in line with a global trend, saying it is a natural resource that should be shared by companies. An auction may impose geographical restrictions that will raise costs, it said in company letters made public by the Indian government this month.

Reliance disagrees and has called for an auction in a public submission to the government, saying foreign satellite service providers could offer voice and data services and compete with traditional telecom players, and so there must be an auction to achieve a level playing field.

In signs of deepening rivalry, an industry source with direct knowledge said Reliance will continue nudging the Indian government to auction satellite spectrum, and not agree to the demands of foreign companies.

The stakes are high for Musk. His push comes after a 2021 attempt to launch Starlink in India ran afoul of local regulators for taking bookings without a license, and just as he is in talks with India to set up a Tesla factory.

For Ambani, keeping foreign competition at bay in satellite broadband will be another shot in the arm - his Reliance Jio already has 439 million telecom users, making it the market leader, and 8 million wired broadband connections, a 25% market share.

Starlink's view on auctions is shared by Amazon's satellite internet initiative, Project Kuiper, and the British government-backed OneWeb.

Amazon declined comment. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, OneWeb and Starlink parent SpaceX, did not respond.


Asked for comment, Reliance referred Reuters to its own and Starlink's government submissions.

AUCTION VS LICENSING

Of the 64 responses from companies, industry groups and others to India's public consultation on satellite spectrum, 48 favoured licensing, 12 voted for an auction, with the rest neutral, according to India's Koan Advisory.

A second industry source said Reliance believes opening the floodgates to established foreign players like Starlink without an auction will allow them "runaway success" just like Amazon, which will hurt Indian firms and create an uneven playing field.

Ambani's Reliance Retail has locked horns with Amazon, but lags the U.S. rival in market share in the e-commerce space.

Deloitte says India's satellite broadband service market will grow 36% a year to reach $1.9 billion by 2030.

Starlink says it is already authorised in 84 administrations around the world and has 1.5 million active users of its low-latency broadband services. Amazon plans to launch its first set of satellites in 2024.

Foreign satellite internet firms are concerned an auction by India will raise the likelihood of other nations following suit, increasing costs and investments, said one of the sources, an Indian adviser to a foreign company.

If India decides on holding an auction, OneWeb will find it difficult to do business in the country, said an industry source. Starlink is waiting for clarity on India's spectrum allocation before firming up its commercial strategy, another source said.

Tim Farrar, an analyst at US-based consultancy TMF Associates, said it would set a "bad precedent" for Starlink to pay a substantial auction amount in India when it is obtaining low-cost licenses in many other countries.

"I'd expect Starlink to make high-profile free offers elsewhere in order to try and demonstrate what India could be missing out on," he said.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra, Munsif Vengattil and Aditi Shah; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Warming stripes show over 100 years of climate change at a glance



Patrick de Bellefeuille
Wed, June 21, 2023 

Ed Hawkins from the University of Reading knows there are many sources of complex information that provide detailed evidence of climate change. His warming stripes, according to the #ShowYourStripes website, have a different objective: “These graphics are specifically designed to be as simple as possible, and to start conversations about our warming world.”

Put simply, the warming stripes are a chronological visual representation of “the change in temperature as measured in each country over the past 100+ years.” To achieve the illustration of the climate, Hawkins compared the average temperature of one year on Earth with the climatological average of the planet between 1971 and 2000 (this permitted a base average for comparisons).

Warming stripes for Nunavut from 1901-2020.

 (Professor Ed Hawkins/University of Reading. CC BY 4.0)

For each year in which the average temperature is below the 1971–2000 average, he draws a vertical stripe with a bluish tint. If this temperature is higher than this same average, then the illustration displays a red band—the darker the stripe, the cooler or warmer the year, compared to the base average. Arranging all the colored bands side by side gives you a quick overview of how the Earth's climate has changed over time.

RAISING AWARENESS

Every year on June 21, the day of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, hundreds of weather presenters and meteorologists present their “warming stripes” to their audiences during daily bulletins and take the opportunity to raise awareness for climate change. This act draws upon the significance of the message behind Hawkins’s visual representation and the prevailing dialogue that identifies climate change as such a pressing issue.

Warming stripes for British Columbia from 1901-2020

. (Professor Ed Hawkins/University of Reading. CC BY 4.0)

In 2015, when the Paris Agreement was signed, countries pledged to review their carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets every five years in order to mitigate the impacts. In 2020, this was to take place during the annual climate negotiations organized by the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP), but was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Since then, as The Weather Network reported in 2022, at "COP26 in Glasgow, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he would impose a ceiling on fossil fuels. [At COP27], the Joint Declaration from Energy Importers and Exporters on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fossil Fuels was signed by Canada, the United States, Great Britain, the European Union, Japan, Singapore, and Norway."

“Show Your Stripes Day” falls on June 21 to highlight the importance of the COP climate negotiations and underline the fact that every year is a pivotal one for the fight against climate change.

Warming stripes for Ontario from 1901-2020.

 (Professor Ed Hawkins/University of Reading. CC BY 4.0)

EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN “WARMING STRIPES”

Hawkins’s warming stripes have become so popular with meteorologists and weather presenters around the world, Hawkins was asked by climatologists to make local case studies depicting the warming trend for several countries. You can access the site and see the global warming of your country, your province, and in some cases, your city, here.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with the most recent information about United Nations Conference of the Parties developments.

Thumbnail depicts Earth’s warming stripes from 1850-2020. (Professor Ed Hawkins/University of Reading. CC BY 4.0)

 

A climate warning on the White Cliffs of Dover

Reuters Videos
Wed, June 21, 2023 

STORY: Vertical colored bars lined the length of the cliffs, illustrating the progressive heating of the planet. Each stripe indicates the average temperature for a single year, relative to the average temperature over the entire period. They go from cool blue, on the left and progress towards more red for heat to the right.

The global warming graphics were created in 2018 by Professor Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. They were developed in conjunction with a campaign centered around climate change data visualizations, titled "Show Your Stripes".

The website explains that "these ‘warming stripe’ graphics are visual representations of the change in temperature as measured in each country, region or city over the past 100+ years. Each stripe or bar represents the temperature in that country, region or city averaged over a year. The stripes typically start around the year 1900 and finish in 2022, but for many countries, regions and cities the stripes start in the 19th century or sometimes even the 18th century."

The graphics have been shared by thousands of people around the world to mark the summer solstice on Wednesday (June 21), which has become known as Show Your Stripes Day.

The Tate Modern chimney, as well as landmarks in the USA and Canada, will also display the stripes on Wednesday.

Climate change hits Antarctica hard, sparking concerns about irreversible tipping points

Tereza Pultarova

SPACE
Wed, June 21, 2023 

Satellite images show that the amount of sea ice floating around Antarctica remains too low during the winter season.

Antarctica may be in serious trouble. Satellite images show that the amount of sea ice floating around the pristine polar continent remains far below long-term averages despite the south polar region moving into its peak winter period.

Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) observed with trepidation in late 2022 and early 2023 as satellite images revealed that sea ice attached to the coast of Antarctica had been disappearing month after month at a pace never seen before. And they continued to observe in near horror as this sea ice failed to sufficiently replenish after the colder months arrived. As of mid-June 2023, sea ice extent in Antarctica was about 0.9 million square miles (2.28 million square kilometers) below the average from 1981 to 2010 for that part of the year, according to the U.K. weather authority Met Office, and about 0.4 million square miles (1.15 million square km) below the previous June record low from 2019.

Related: 10 devastating signs of climate change satellites can see from space


This development is a worrying deviation from a previous trend that saw Antarctica hold quite steady against progressing climate change, which has long been decimating its northern counterpart, the Arctic. Scientists now worry that the frozen southernmost continent, which plays a crucial role in stabilizing the global climate, may be reaching its tipping point, a point of no return beyond which the polar ecosystem as we know it won't be able to survive.

"In the Arctic, we have seen a steady decline [of sea ice] over time," Peter Fretwell, a remote-sensing scientist at the BAS, told Space.com. "Antarctica, up until 2016, was steady, even getting more sea ice, which we couldn't understand. But since 2016, it's gone down, and it's going down even more at the moment. Something has happened, and it's gone down suddenly very much."

The amount of floating ice surrounding the polar continent dropped to an all-time low in late February this year, shrinking to 691,000 square miles (1.79 million square km). That's 50,000 square miles (130,000 square km) below the previous record low of February 2022, according to NASA, which followed a previous record low from 2021.

The problem is, as Fretwell said, that "what happens to Antarctica doesn't just stay in Antarctica." The warming polar seas affect weather patterns all over the world and accelerate the melting of Antarctic glaciers that, in turn, will lead to faster sea level rise around the globe.

Penguins on an Antarctic iceberg.

"Climate change is affecting the polar regions faster than anywhere else in the world. They're really at the frontline of climate change," Fretwell said. "But we know that sea ice drives deep water currents around the world, and it has consequences around the world."

The three consecutive years of unprecedented sea ice loss also bode ill for many of the continent's species that are unlikely to survive anywhere else. Fretwell and his team are currently scouring satellite images for evidence of the impacts on populations of animals that are known to rely on sea ice for breeding.

For example, changes in sea ice previously decimated one of the largest colonies of the iconic emperor penguin. That colony lost three generations of chicks after sea ice in the Halley Bay in the Weddell Sea broke up too early in the season in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Emperor penguin chicks huddle on the sea ice while their parents fish for food, as they can't enter the frigid water before developing their outer feathers. When the sea ice disintegrates underneath the colony, the chicks drown or freeze to death.

Eight years of melting of the Pine Island Glacier.

The alarming decrease of sea ice is also a bad omen for Antarctica's glaciers, which would, without the buffer of coastal sea ice, become directly exposed to the warming ocean waters. A flurry of recent studies has explored the condition of the melting Thwaites glacier, a vast frozen river flowing into the Amundsen Sea. Dubbed the Doomsday glacier, Thwaites is one of the most vulnerable ice masses in Antarctica. Currently contributing 4% to the global sea level rise, Thwaites could single-handedly increase global sea levels by 26 inches (65 centimeters) if it were to melt completely, according to estimates.

Previous studies have shown that the Thwaites Ice Shelf, a stable floating mass of ice that protects the continental glacier, may completely collapse by the early 2030s, a process that might accelerate if the current trend of vanishing sea ice continues. But Fretwell thinks that all is not lost yet.

"There is still time to stop this oil tanker of climate change," Fretwell said. "But there is not much time. We now have decades of warming oceans and warming temperatures wired into the system, so if we stop putting carbon in the atmosphere, the world will still continue to heat for decades to come."

Humankind's failure to stop emitting greenhouse gases might result in a new Antarctica, one completely different from the continent that we know today. And researchers have no way of knowing how close to this new world we have come.

"With tipping points, you never know whether you've come past one," Fretwell said. Sea ice levels "might come back, but right now, we are in a horrible state of wondering whether it's going to come back or continue on this track."

Greta Thunberg backs climate group shut down by France

AFP
Wed, June 21, 2023 

Greta Thunberg gave her support to a climate group France has shut down (-)

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday gave her backing to a climate group shut down by the French government amid accusations it foments violence.

The government issued a decree earlier on Wednesday outlawing Uprisings of the Earth (SLT), saying it had encouraged violence in a series of demonstrations, including one that saw fierce clashes with police over an irrigation project.

SLT condemned the shutdown and called for protests in dozens of cities across France starting Wednesday.

The group also won the swift backing of Thunberg who was in Paris on the sidelines of a summit on green finance.




"This is about the right to protest and this is about defending life," Thunberg told a news conference with members of the organisation and supporters.

"I hope there'll be more people who stand up against these things that are happening now, and stand up for the right to protest," said the 20-year-old who regularly calls on world leaders to act fast against climate change.

Following Wednesday's weekly cabinet meeting, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that "under the claim of defending the preservation of the environment... (SLT) encourages sabotage and property damage, including with violence".

SLT is part of a new wave of more radical climate activist groups, including Extinction Rebellion, that say direct action is needed in response to insufficient efforts to combat climate change and global warming.

The dissolution procedure for SLT was launched in March after around 5,000 protesters battled with more than 3,000 police officers during a protest against a giant irrigation reservoir near Sainte-Soline in western France.

Two protesters were left in a coma afterwards and about 30 officers were injured.

But Darmanin has drawn fire from left-wing opponents and rights groups for branding the actions of some protesters "eco-terrorism", noting that SLT's dissolution is based on a new law targeting extremist ideologies.

"It should not be used in a context of civil disobedience, where the freedom of expression and assembly takes precedence," Greenpeace France said in a statement.

Greenpeace added that it would support SLT if it contested the dissolution decree before the State Council, which rules on the legality of French laws.

burs/js-jh/bp

Beijing temperatures near record as extreme heat sweeps northern China

AFP
Thu, June 22, 2023

Beijing appeared to log its hottest temperature since reliable records began 

(GREG BAKER)

Beijing on Thursday appeared to log its hottest June temperature since reliable records began, according to weather data and local media reports, as swathes of northern China sweltered in 40-degree heat.

Scientists say rising global temperatures -- caused largely by burning fossil fuels -- are aggravating extreme weather worldwide, and many countries in Asia have experienced deadly heatwaves and record temperatures in recent weeks.

At the Nanjiao weather station in southern Beijing, considered a benchmark for temperatures in the capital, the mercury hit 41.1 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) at 3:19 pm (0719 GMT) on Thursday, the local Beijing News reported, citing an information service operated by the national weather bureau.

The figure is half a degree higher than the station's previous record of 40.6 C taken in June 1961, according to the state-backed media outlet.

"Today has become one of Beijing's hottest days since complete records have been available," the outlet said.

Other weather stations around the capital chalked up even higher temperatures, with Tanghekou in northern Beijing notching 41.8 C early Thursday afternoon, becoming the hottest place in the country, according to state media.

China's national weather service did not immediately confirm whether official temperature records had been breached.

Along Beijing's canals, residents sought respite from the searing heat by swimming and splashing around in the water.

In nearby Tianjin -- home to over 13 million people -- temperatures in the city centre also soared, with the western Xiqing district logging its hottest ever June day with 40.6 C.

"It never used to get this hot in June before, but now it's so hot my hands are trembling," wrote one user on the Weibo social media platform.

"Are there three suns blazing over Beijing right now? It's hot enough to cause a breakdown," wrote another.

The scorching heat has coincided with the Dragon Boat Festival, a time when many Chinese go outside and socialise.

With temperatures in the high 30s forecast throughout the three-day public holiday, authorities have urged people to limit their time outdoors.

Beijing's weather authority issued an orange warning for extreme heat and urged people to "avoid exercising outdoors for long periods... and take effective measures to shield from the sun".

In Tianjin, where an orange alert was also in place, officials said the "general public (should) remain aware and take precautions" against heat-induced strokes.

Last week, Beijing recorded its highest temperature for mid-June, with weather officials warning the public to stay indoors as the mercury hit 39.4 C.

Beijing soars above 41 degrees Celsius, smashes June record

Thu, June 22, 2023 
By Ryan Woo and Tingshu Wang

BEIJING, June 22 (Reuters) - The temperature in Beijing breached 41 degrees Celsius on Thursday and shattered the record for the hottest day in June as heatwaves that had seared northern China a week earlier returned to the Chinese capital.

A weather station in the southern suburbs, considered to be Beijing's main gauge, recorded 41.1C (106 Fahrenheit) at 3:19 p.m. (0719 GMT), according to the official Beijing Daily. The previous June high was logged on June 10, 1961, when the mercury hit 40.6C.

In Tanghekou in Beijing's northeast, the temperature pushed even higher to 41.8C helping the small township clinch the title of the hottest spot in China on Thursday.

Beijing has raised an orange alert, the second-most severe weather warning, saying temperatures could be as high as 39C from Thursday to Saturday.

The 41.1C logged on Thursday was the city's second-highest in history. The warmest temperature recorded by the city of nearly 22 million people was 41.9C on July 24, 1999.

Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong in northern and eastern China were hammered by heatwaves last week, with the national weather bureau issuing an alert for heat stroke, almost a fortnight earlier than in previous years.

The heatwaves also prompted authorities to step up efforts to safeguard crops and ensure the safety of tourists. Outdoor work was also halted during the hottest part of the day.

In Tianjin, a port city with a population of over 13 million, increased demand for air-conditioning pushed its power grid load to 14.54 million kilowatts on June 15, up 23% from a year earlier, and spurred its utility department to dispatch workers to patrol underground tunnels every day to ensure electrical cables are in working order.

On Thursday, the temperature in Tianjin's urban district reached 41.2C, smashing local records.

He Jiaxi, 23, who was visiting Beijing, said she was worried about electricity cuts after experiencing outages in nearby Hebei province in June last year.

"Last June (in Hebei), it was so hot in mid-June, and during this hot period, electricity was cut at noon. I'm definitely worried."

The latest round of heatwaves, coinciding with the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend in China, will also hit the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang in the far west, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

China has a four-tier, colour-coded weather warning system, with red the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue. (Reporting by Ryan Woo and Tingshu Wang; Editing by Michael Perry, Toby Chopra, Kim Coghill and Sharon Singleton)

Verdict awaited in historic US climate trial


Issam AHMED
Tue, June 20, 2023

Te sun rises behind a ridge of trees September near Missoula, Montana (CHIP SOMODEVILLA)

A verdict is awaited in a landmark US climate trial involving 16 young people accusing the state of Montana of violating their rights to a "clean and healthful environment."

Held v. Montana, which concluded Tuesday, has been closely watched as it could bolster similar litigation that has been filed across the country.

It is the first case involving a constitutional claim against a state, and also represents a rare instance in which climate experts have been questioned on the witness stand.

Judge Kathy Seeley, who oversaw the trial in the state capital Helena, instructed lawyers for both sides to file post-trial written submissions within two weeks, after which she would render her verdict.

She has the power to declare as unconstitutional a state law preventing agencies from considering the impacts of greenhouse gasses when issuing permits for fossil fuel development.

Earlier, a large group of supporters waved placards and cheered the plaintiffs and their lawyers as they entered the courthouse, according to footage seen on social media.

- Closing arguments -

At the heart of the case is a provision within the fossil fuel friendly state's constitution that says: "The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations."

The youths, ranging in age from five up to 22, have said they have been harmed by the "dangerous impacts of fossil fuels and the climate crisis," with children "uniquely vulnerable" to its worsening impacts.

During his closing arguments, the plaintiffs' lawyer Nate Bellinger, of the nonprofit Our Children's Trust, said his clients "did not ask for money, but they asked only that their government embrace its constitutional responsibility to alleviate the harms of its own conduct."

While Montana argues climate change is a global issue, the plaintiffs "localized this harm in their backyards of felled, diseased trees; the melting of Montana's majestic glaciers; ...skies that are full of choking smoke, and rivers that run dry."

"The plaintiffs acknowledge that the work to stop and reverse climate change will be a lifetime journey, but they are asking this court for help," he said.

Montana Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell on the other hand argued that the matter of energy policy should be decided by the people, through their representatives in the legislature.

"This case has received national attention in part because it has been billed or at least perceived as a sort of referendum on climate change. This is not supposed to be a town hall meeting or a popularity contest, it's a court of law," he added.

Russell said that while the state accepted that man-made emissions were responsible for warming, expert witnesses for the prosecution had not been able to quantify the extent to which Montana's laws were responsible for impacts on the ground.

- 'Compelling stories' -

The trial began on June 12 and concluded a few days earlier than expected after Montana declined to call to the stand several experts, including its only climate scientist, Judith Curry.

Curry has contested the scientific consensus on climate change, declaring for example "there's no emergency."

Over the course of proceedings, the court heard direct and emotional testimony from the plaintiffs about specific ways their health, emotional wellbeing, family finances and cultural traditions had been impacted.

Lead plaintiff Rikki Held, 22, whose family runs a ranch in Montana, said that their livelihoods and wellbeing had been increasingly impacted by wildfires, extreme temperatures and drought.

Claire Vlases, 20, said: "When I think about summer, I think about smoke. It sounds like a dystopian movie, but it's real life."

Lawyers for the plaintiffs also called renowned climate, health and psychiatry experts to testify.

These included eminent climatologist Steve Running, who was part of the UN body that won a Nobel prize in 2007.

Michael Gerrard, who founded the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told AFP the plaintiffs lawyers "did a wonderful job presenting and giving a human face to the case by having all these young people tell their own personal compelling stories."

Should the judge find in their favor, "we've seen in other cases that a favorable verdict in one jurisdiction can have a reverberating effect in many other places," said Gerrard. "It would be very energizing to young people and activists around the country."

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Paris summit aims to shake up the financial system. It will test leaders' resolve on climate
 

Climate activists transform the Eiffel Tower into a wind turbine ahead of the Global Climate Finance Summit, Wednesday, June 21, 2023 in Paris. Heads of state, finance leaders and activists from around the world will converge in Paris this week for a summit aimed at discussing how to overhaul the world's development banks — like the World Bank and IMF— and usher them into a post-pandemic world with a rapidly changing climate. 

(AP Photo/Michel Euler)

FATIMA HUSSEIN and PAUL WISEMAN
Wed, June 21, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Heads of state, finance leaders and activists from around the world will converge in Paris this week to seek ways to overhaul the world's development banks — like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank — and help them weather a warmer and stormier world.

While restructuring debt and reducing poverty will be part of the summit Thursday and Friday, climate will be the main driver, with representatives from developing nations in Africa, Asia and elsewhere having a prominent seat at the table.

The World Bank and IMF have been criticized for not factoring climate change into lending decisions and being dominated by wealthy countries like the U.S., with the neediest nations most at risk of global warming left out of calling the shots.

While those are the primary problems to solve, some doubt the splashy summit led by French President Emmanuel Macron will be able to take major strides to correct those challenges.


Still, the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact will draw roughly 50 heads of state and government — from Germany, Brazil, Senegal, Zambia and more — with more than 100 countries represented.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley will play a major role as a leader of the Bridgetown Initiative, a plan to reform development lending by freeing up money after climate disasters and targeting the higher borrowing costs and debt that developing nations face.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, new World Bank President Ajay Banga, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, and climate activists Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate also are set to attend.

Masood Ahmed, president of the Center for Global Development think tank in Washington, isn’t expecting much concrete action from the gathering but a broad agreement that “we’ve got to think much bigger, much bolder. We need to be willing to change."

It’s been hard, however, to summon the political will to spend taxpayer money to combat climate change, said Ahmed, a former senior official in both the IMF and World Bank.

For example, “in the United States, we don’t have in Congress today the kind of the support that you would want to have for a major global initiative on climate,” he said. “That makes it harder for people to translate what is a sensible strategy, a necessary strategy, a critical set of actions into legislative action that puts money on the table."

French organizers want to show they can keep fighting poverty and meet the challenges of climate change at the same time, said a top French official said, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to the country’s presidential policy.

Organizers say the summit will end with a summary of commitments, including a roadmap for what to expect from this year's meeting of the Group of 20 major economies and U.N. climate conference.

But climate advocates say they want to see more meaningful commitments — like new money to help climate-vulnerable nations build sustainable infrastructure or reallocating existing funds to new climate-related projects.

Andrew Nazdin, director of the activist group Glasgow Actions Team, said the development banks “need to expand their lending — and fast — if we’re going to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.”

A U.S. Treasury official told The Associated Press that big new monetary pledges should not be expected from the summit — rather it’s viewed as a chance to push the case for an evolution of the development banks. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview planning for the gathering.

Earlier this year, the World Bank announced that it would increase its lending by $50 billion over the next 10 years to combat extreme poverty and mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The World Bank is trying to bounce back from comments by former President David Malpass seeming to doubt the science that burning fossil fuels causes global warming. He stepped down this year amid criticism and has been replaced by Banga — who is attending his first big international meeting since taking the helm.

The World Bank and IMF did not immediately offer comment.

Yellen, for her part, has called for climate to be factored into finance since at least 1997, when she chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She's been vocal about the need to reform the multilateral banks and bringing lower-income countries into the conversation.

She has described climate change as an “existential crisis” that no one country could fight alone.

“We must also help developing countries transition their economies away from carbon-intensive energy sources and expand access to clean energy,” she said last October.

Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth climate scientist, hopes those at the summit take into account the inequities that climate-vulnerable nations face and avoid reinforcing them.

“I would argue that to pursue development in a world where global warming has already occurred has to take on those inequities,” Mankin said, “and reckon with the fact that developing economies are in a foot race” against richer countries, which have been massive polluters and also hold the purse strings.

Because the global development banks favor larger industrialized nations, the conditions attached to climate aid should not be unnecessarily stringent, he said.

"What sets of conditions these banks impose on countries is one way of knowing whether these inequities can be reinforced," Mankin said.

More specific reform proposals are likely to come in the next few weeks from a G20 panel created to recommend changes at the IMF, the World Bank and other global development agencies, said Ahmed, the former IMF and World Bank official.

One of the biggest challenges will be bringing together nations with diverging interests and growing geopolitical tensions, including between the U.S. and China.

“The combination of these geopolitical tensions, suspicion of globalization and of institutions, and only a partial recognition that solving these global problems is going to cost taxpayers makes it harder to follow through with actions,” Ahmed said.

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Associated Press reporters Seth Borenstein in Washington and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.

MUFG, partners launch $1.5 bln climate finance platform

Simon Jessop and Isla Binnie and Leigh Thomas
Thu, June 22, 2023

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GAIA to help scale up finance to developing countries

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FinDev Canada among public, private, philanthropic backers

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Expects to impact nearly 20 mln people across 25 countries

PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and partners including Canada's development finance body have launched a $1.5 billion platform to help drive climate-focused investment into developing and emerging countries.

The new venture, dubbed GAIA and announced at the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris on Thursday, aims to blend private sector investment with concessional capital from public and philanthropic groups.

Alongside FinDev Canada, the platform is backed by various U.N. bodies as well as public, private and philanthropic groups, and hopes to impact nearly 20 million people across 25 countries, the group said.

Getting more money to the poorer countries bearing the brunt of climate-related natural disasters so they can better prepare to withstand them at the same time as moving to a low-carbon world is a central aim of the summit and global climate talks.

To-date, though, flows of capital have been low and focused mainly in developed countries, Christopher Marks, MUFG's Head of Portfolio Solutions, Innovative Finance & Growth Markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

As of 2019-2020, total global climate finance was $653 billion, well below the estimated annual need of $4.3 trillion by 2030, data from the Climate Policy Initiative showed, with developing countries getting less than a quarter.

"The structure and activities of GAIA are intended to respond to the main obstacles and barriers limiting privately-financed investments in climate adaptation and mitigation projects in emerging markets," Marks said.

Specifically, it aimed to provide support such as long-term loans in both hard and local currencies, mitigating risk by offering different tranches and hedging local currencies to make them more appealing to institutional investors.

Including such features would allow GAIA to target multiple sectors and jurisdictions and attract institutional investors that would not normally invest on their own, Marks said.

"A key feature of the platform is the ability to target smaller projects – which are outside of appetite of standalone investors," Marks said. After proving the concept, the hope is the model can be scaled up and used in other countries.

In addition to projects in renewable energy and low-carbon transport, financing would also be made available to sectors sometimes overlooked such as water and waste management, sustainable agriculture, coastal rehabilitation and nature-friendly construction.

A total of 70% of the GAIA funds would be dedicated to climate adaptation projects, and a minimum of 25% to the least developed countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), in recognition of their vulnerability to climate change.

"Our ability to structure solutions which address mitigation and adaptation depends heavily on how well the public and private sector can work together to bring critical financing options to the table," said FinDev Chief Investment officer Paulo Martelli in a statement.

"GAIA is an important – and innovative – step in that direction and demonstrates the potential that is unlocked by bringing multiple players together in support of a common, global problem." (Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

IMF, World Bank under pressure to boost climate change financing

Erwan LUCAS
Thu, June 22, 2023 

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will join world leaders at a two-day summit in Paris on the interlinked challenges of poverty alleviation and climate change (Mandel NGAN)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials are joining dozens of economic leaders for a two-day summit in Paris, aiming to tackle the interlinked challenges of poverty alleviation and climate change.

The meetings, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, have been billed as an opportunity to refocus the global financial architecture to better address the vast scale of financing needed to meet theworld'sclimate targets by the end of the decade.

The summit has also brought focus on the IMF and World Bank's own climate change policies, amid calls for multilateral development banks (MDBs) to do more to help developing economies access funds to both adapt to climate change and deal with its consequences.


- Insufficient funds-

Both the IMF and World Bank have introduced policies in recent years to help countries deal with the climate transition.

Last year, the IMF launched its Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), with just over $40 billion in funds at its disposal, to offer longer-term loans to finance projects related to these issues.

Bangladesh, Barbados, Costa Rica and Rwanda are the first countries to benefit.

And at the World Bank, former president David Malpass lauded moves under his watch to double climate financing to $32 billion and to put in place a global warming action plan for the period of 2021 to 2025.

His successor, Ajay Banga, used his inaugural address to call on the bank to "pursue both climate adaptation and mitigation," among other issues.

"Change is appropriate for the World Bank," Banga said. "It isn't a symptom of failure or drift or irrelevance, it is a symptom of opportunity, life, and importance."

But both institutions admit that their financing capacities are currently insufficient to meet the needs of developing economies, which the IMF estimates will be well over a trillion dollars per year by 2025.

- Institutional reforms -

The United States, European Union and others have been pushing a series of reforms to the IMF and World Bank since late last year.

These include proposals to reform the governance of the MDBs to ensure a greater role for major emerging markets and developing economies, and to expanding their missions to integrate climate change financing.

The goal is to make progress on these reforms by the next annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank, which take place in October in Morocco.

The World Bank's primary objective is to promote long-term economic development and poverty reduction, while the IMF looks to promote global macroeconomic and financial stability by providing financial and technical assistance and policy advice.

Some developing countries have voiced concerns that these reforms could lead MDBs to prioritize climate change over poverty alleviation.

The most significant breakthrough so far came at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings, when agreement was reached to boost the World Bank's lending capacity by up to $5 billion per year for 10 years.

However, this was achieved primarily by increasing the bank's leverage, and not through the provision of additional funding from World Bank member countries.

- More to do -

Even if the reform process is successful, the IMF and World Bank's leaders have stressed that international financial institutions cannot by themselves meet the enormous needs of the most vulnerable countries.

Banga centered his campaign for the World Bank presidency on greater private sector involvement in financing the climate transition.

"There is not enough money without the private sector," the former Mastercard chief executive told reporters in March, adding that the World Bank should set up a system that could help share risk or mobilize private funds to achieve its goals.

Heading into the summit, there were hopes that progress could be made on a stalled two-year-old pledge by wealthier countries to recycle $100 billion in IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) from rich countries to vulnerable economies.

SDRs are foreign exchange reserve assets awarded to countries based on how much they contribute to the IMF.

The stalled plan, which some European countries resisted, was for wealthier countries to lend these foreign exchange reserve assets to the IMF, which could in turn lend them to developing economies.

Ahead of the summit, France and Japan announced that they would redeploy 30 percent of their SDRs for this purpose.

Media reports suggest that the Paris summit could yield a breakthrough in pledges from other countries, which would help hit the $100 billion target.

'Nowhere to run': Islands stress climate risk at finance summit

Julien MIVIELLE
Wed, June 21, 2023

Two local residents wade through flooding caused by high ocean tides in Majuro Atoll, capital of the Marshall Islands (GIFF JOHNSON)

Small island states sinking under rising seas are encouraged by a summit starting Thursday charged with revamping the global financial system to better cope with climate change and other 21st-century challenges, their representative to the talks told AFP.

The two-day summit in Paris, hosted by France, "is very good news because it fits well with what we are trying to do", Samoa's Fatumanava Pa'olelei Luteru, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), told AFP in an interview.

Sea levels sure to rise well into the 22nd century and cyclones made more deadly by global warming have put AOSIS' 39 low-lying island and coastal states on the front lines of climate impacts and UN talks.


Lacking political clout, they used moral persuasion in pushing the world to adopt the 2015 Paris Agreement's aspirational target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, since adopted as a near universal goal.

Today, these and other developing countries that have barely contributed to the problem -- but whose economies are shrinking as a result -- want access to international financial support to be based not just on economic criteria, but also on vulnerability.

"If a cyclone comes, it doesn't differentiate, it doesn't know if you're low-income, middle-income country or even a high-income country," said Luteru.

"It will set back your development years," he added. "That's especially true for atoll countries, they've got nowhere to run."

Concretely, AOSIS is calling for use of a multidimensional vulnerability index (MVI), and not just economic growth, within the workings of global finance.

"It's a tool," Luteru said. "We're not saying it should or will replace gross national income (GNI)," another standard measure of a country's ability to produce and earn. "It's a complement."

- All possibilities -

One of the measures on the table at the summit will be an international tax on carbon emissions from the shipping sector. A consensus in Paris could shape the outcome of a critical meeting in two weeks of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

"We should look at all the possibilities," Luteru said.

"For our small island developing states, shipping is critical in terms of both exports and imports as well, so we will need to look at that very carefully."

Beyond the financial issues, AOSIS's central goal has been the rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which remain at or near record levels.

Luteru points a finger both at advanced and major emerging economies -- the world's biggest carbon polluters: China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, Brazil, and others.

"That's where we can make a huge difference," he said. "Eighty percent of global emissions come from G20 nations."

According to the UN's climate science advisory panel (IPCC), sea levels rose by between 15 and 25cm (six to 10 inches) from 1900 to 2018, and are set to rise by a further 43cm by 2100 in a world that warms by 2C.

The next major international climate conference, COP28, will take place in Dubai in December.

The incoming COP president Sultan Al Jaber, has come under fire because he is also head of United Arab Emirates national oil company ADNOC, with many green groups and some western legislators saying his role as a fossil fuel executive is a conflict of interest.

But the bloc of island states -- some of which support a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty -- see this as an opportunity.

"Sometimes it's not about engaging only with those who share your perspective," said Luteru.

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China is building the world’s biggest wind turbine in the middle of the ocean — and it’s nearly 70 stories tall



Jill Ettinger
Thu, June 22, 2023 

A new offshore wind project coming to China will be the biggest one built to date, measuring as tall as a 70-story building, Design Boom reported.

MingYang, the largest private wind turbine manufacturer in China, has announced the launch of the MySE 18.X-28X — and it says it’s the largest wind turbine on the planet.

While bigger is not always better, that just may be the case here, says MingYang. The MySE 18.X-28X will have a swept area of more than 700,000 square feet (66,052 square meters), according to New Atlas, meaning a single blade on the turbine slices through an area of sky about the size of nine football fields in length.

The turbine will be capable of handling “the most extreme ocean conditions,” including typhoons, and will produce enough energy every year to supply power for nearly 100,000 people.

MingYang wrote in a LinkedIn post that it hopes the massive turbine can help increase its energy output while reducing the cost associated with installing multiple, smaller turbines by an estimated $120,000 to $150,000.

The MySE18.X-28X won’t just provide a significant source of energy for thousands of homes and businesses in China — it will also reduce carbon pollution by more than 66,000 tons over conventional energy production methods, like burning dirty energy sources.

China is the planet’s biggest polluting country, producing about 14% of total global planet-overheating gas pollution in 2021, according to Our World In Data.

And the new turbine is aligned with China’s 2060 target to achieve net-zero emissions.

“With the new MySE 18.X-28X, Mingyang has taken a major step toward accelerating the green energy transition by driving [cost of electricity] reductions and technological breakthroughs for the offshore wind industry,” wrote the company.