Beyond Petroleum: The First Supermajor To Turn Its Back On Oil

By Haley Zaremba - Sep 28, 2021, 3:00 PM CDT

• It’s going to take time, investment, infrastructure, and enormous effort to complete the clean energy transition.
• The world still needs hundreds of billions of barrels of oil.
• BP’s bold new Chief Executive Bernard Looney is trying to make sure that BP can beat its peers in a race toward clean energy dominance.

While international policymakers and regulatory bodies have already been applying some degree of pressure on the energy industry to decarbonize for years now, the push for cleaning up the global energy sector’s act has been supercharged by the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC) and the United Nations (UN). 

The landmark 6th Assessment Report announced in no uncertain terms that we have reached a point of no return for the climate, having irreversibly altered weather patterns and unequivocally warmed the Earth due to human activity. However, there is still a small window of time to mitigate further damage and change the planet’s trajectory toward catastrophic climate change. This will require decarbonization at a massive scale and on an incredibly short timeline. The UN, not mincing words, has called it a “code red for humanity.”

That being said, it’s simply not feasible for the global economy to quit fossil fuels cold turkey. It’s going to take time, investment, infrastructure, and enormous effort to complete the clean energy transition, and in the meantime, the world still needs hundreds of billions of barrels of oil. This dynamic has made it hard to convince oil supermajors to set aside fossil fuels -- their stalwart cash cow -- when there is still so much money to be made before oil goes quietly into that goodnight, especially when brand new mass-scale clean energy enterprises probably won’t turn a profit for years.

 Despite the bumps in the road, however, it’s clear which way the tide is turning. Fossil fuels aren’t irrelevant yet, but they have no place in the future if this planet is to have one. Already, some oil execs and fossil fuel industry defectors have decided to abandon ship and are positioning themselves at the helm of the clean energy revolution, bringing their oilfield know-how and innovative expertise with them.

And now, at long last, some oil companies are reading the writing on the wall and deciding to bet big on renewables in order to establish a place at the front of the pack for the new energy era. One of the most notable cases is that of BP, which is changing course and liquidating huge portions of its fossil fuel holdings in a historic shift in strategy. 

BP’s bold new Chief Executive Bernard Looney is trying to make sure that BP can beat its peers in a race toward clean energy dominance. “He aims to slash BP's output by 40%, or about 1 million barrels per day, an amount equal to the UK's entire daily output in 2019,” Reuters recently reported. This makes BP the very first major oil company CEO to announce intentional cuts in future oil production. “At the same time,” the report continued, “BP would boost its capacity to generate electricity from renewable sources to 50 gigawatts, a 20-fold increase and equivalent to the power produced by 50 U.S. nuclear plants.” 

This plan will entail the selling off of $25 billion in fossil fuel assets over the next few years, representing about 13% of the company’s total fixed assets. 

While BP is proving to be a trailblazer in the fossil fuel sector’s adaptation to the clean energy revolution, the rest of European Big Oil isn’t too far behind. For the last few years, European supermajors have been pivoting away from total dependence on fossil fuel markets, trying to make the transition from Big Oil to Big Energy. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, it’s a different story. Big Oil in the U.S. has been much slower to accept the inevitable and start to prepare for the coming sea change. 

While the Biden administration has been making a concerted effort to catch up to the rest of the global clean energy industry through the likes of legislation including the historic Infrastructure Bill, it will be hard for companies that have not already started to pivot toward renewables to stay competitive, and could even imperil the energy security of nations that fail to curb their dependence on oil, gas, and coal. 

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

 

Portuguese Floating Wind Farm Shows Better-Than-Expected Results

Courtesy EDP Renewables

PUBLISHED SEP 27, 2021 10:38 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Portuguese utility EDP Renewables has good news about its WindFloat Atlantic floating offshore wind farm, the first project of its kind with semi-submersible platform bases. In its first full year of operation, WndFloat Atlantic's three turbines produced 75 GWh of electricity, exceeding expectations for the pre-commercial scale development. 

"The project has performed well above expectations. It has registered high levels of availability and a production that has exceeded expectations for many months," said EDPR project director said José Pinheiro. "We wanted to share these positive results of a project that has marked a 'before and after' in the offshore wind energy industry because of the technology used and because it has become the first floating and semi-submersible wind farm in the world." 

EDPR is already exploring options for commercial-scale developments in Portugal and abroad, and it is working through a JV partnership with Engie to bring the system to market. 
WindFloat Atlantic draws on platform technology developed by Principle Power, an engineering startup based in California. Repsol also contributed to the pilot-scale installation. 

Floating offshore wind has a much larger global potential than near-shore, bottom-fixed sites, but also comes at a significant lifetime cost premium. Its proponents hope to bring down the cost of moorings, float structures, and long-term maintenance as the technology matures. 

Principle Power is seeing early success in the budding floating-wind market. Its platforms are also in use at Statkraft's Kincardine wind farm off Scotland, which is the world's largest at a capacity of 50 MW. Kincardine just started operations this month, becoming the second large-scale installation of turbines based on semi-submersible platform. Cobra and Flotation Energy, the firms behind Kincardine, are also among the bidders in Scotland's giant ScotWind lease round. 

Principle Power says that it is learning from each of these projects, finding "important innovations in modularization and manufacturability to further increase deliverability and competitiveness." A third generation of its design will be deployed for the Les Éoliennes Flottantes du Golfe de Lion (EFGL) project off Leucate, France. 

Climate activist Nakate seeks immediate action in Glasgow

By CHARLENE PELE

1 of 9

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, right, speaks at the start of a three-day Youth for Climate summit in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. Sitting at left is Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)


MILAN (AP) — Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate said Wednesday that youth delegates meeting in Milan want to see immediate action from leaders at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland — not cheap, last-ditch grasps at supporting polluting fuels before getting down to business.

Nakate is among 400 activists invited to Italy’s financial capital for a three-day Youth4Climate meeting that will draft a document for the 26th Climate Change Conference of the Parties, which opens on Oct. 31.

“If leaders and governments are going to talk about net zeroes or cutting emissions, halving emissions by 2030 or 2040 or 2050, that means it has to start now,″ Nakate told The Associated Press.

”It doesn’t mean, if we are going to do it by 2030, between now and 2030 let’s open a coal power plant, you know, let’s frack some gas, or let us construct an oil pipeline. That is not the real climate action that we want,″ she said. “”If you are to go net zero by 2030, it has to start now.″

Although the activists have traveled to Milan from 180 countries, Nakate said many have the feeling that their suggestions for the closing document that will be published Thursday are not welcome. She said the dynamic was “concerning.”

“It really feels like everything has been decided for us,″ Nakate, a 24-year-old with a degree in business administration. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg similarly accused the organizers on Tuesday of bringing in “cherry-picked” delegates and pretending to listen.

But she said young people were speaking up, and had created their own working group on fossil fuels.

“Hopefully it’s something they can accept,″ she said.

Nakate gave an emotional opening speech to the gathering on Tuesday, calling out leaders for failing to meet financial pledges and describing the devastating impact of climate change at home in Uganda. While she said she was overwhelmed by the support she has received after her speech, she rejected the media’s tendency to dub leaders of the movement.

“It’s how people portray the climate movement,″ Nakate said. “It is not just one face or two faces. It’s communities. It is people who are organizing in different countries. I think that is the true face of the climate movement. The people who are standing up for the planet and a better future.”

In 2020, Nakate was cropped out of an Associated Press photo at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The AP apologized and acknowledged mistakes in how it initially responded.

Pope Francis on Wednesday praised young environmental activists for challenging global leaders to make good on promises to curb emissions and insisted that political leaders make wise decisions to promote “a culture of responsible sharing.”

Francis thanked the activists for their “dreams and good projects” and encouraged them to form an educational alliance to help “rebuild the fabric” of humanity through care for the planet.

“This vision is capable of challenging the adult world, for it reveals that you are prepared not only for action, but also for patient listening, constructive dialogue and mutual understanding,” he said.

Francis has made care for “our common home” of the Earth a hallmark of his papacy and devoted an entire encyclical to the issue in 2015. The Scottish bishops conference has said it expects Francis to attend the Glasgow climate summit, though the Vatican hasn’t yet confirmed his presence.

“It is time to take wise decisions so that we can make use of the many experiences gained in recent years, in order to make possible a culture of care, a culture of responsible sharing,” Francis said in the message.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate-change

Ancient cities can offer lessons on how to build climate resilience: study

Tom Yun

CTVNews.ca writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 

The 12th century Khmer temple of Preah Khan is seen in this photo. Researchers at the University of Sydney and the University of Texas at Austin studied the collapse of ancient Khmer cities in Southeast Asia and Maya cities in Mesoamerica. (Daniel Penny/University of Sydney)

TORONTO -- A new study suggests that looking at ancient cities can offer lessons as to how we can adapt to climate change.

Researchers at the University of Sydney and the University of Texas at Austin studied the collapse of ancient Khmer cities in Southeast Asia and Maya cities in Mesoamerica. They published their findings this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

When these civilizations "collapsed," much of the core urban centres of these areas were abandoned, but settlements in the surrounding areas continued to persist thanks to the infrastructure investments that these civilizations made.

The authors write that the two civilizations had "clear parallels" when it came to land use, settlement types and water management infrastructure. These civilizations featured large-scale conversion of tropical forests into agricultural land, surrounded by reservoirs and canals.

“They created extensive landscapes of terraced and bunded (embanked to control water flow) agricultural fields that acted as massive sinks for water, sediment and nutrients,” said lead author Daniel Penny and associate professor at the University of Sydney, in a news release.

The Khmer Empire encompassed much of modern-day Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam between the ninth and 15th centuries. The Maya civilization had existed for thousands of years in present-day Mexico and Central America up until its collapse in the ninth century.

These areas also had a high degree of climate variability. The authors point to archeological evidence of severe episodes of flooding and drought in the areas surrounding both the Maya and Khmer cities. Yet, the ancient infrastructure allowed for "resilient communities that were able to tolerate large climatic shifts."

The settlements that the Maya and the Khmer left behind demonstrate the importance of building climate-resilient infrastructure, with more extreme weather events expected in the future as climate change continues to intensify.

“We often think of these historic events as disasters, but they also have much to teach us about persistence, resilience and continuity in the face of climate variability,” said Penny.

UK’s home gas boilers emit twice as much CO2 as all power stations – study

Data highlights urgent need for government action to introduce low-carbon heat pumps, researchers say

High gas prices mean the energy bills of people living in poorly insulated homes will rise by up to £246 a year, research shows. 

Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Damian Carrington

Environment editor
Wed 29 Sep 2021

The millions of gas boilers in the UK’s homes produce twice as much climate-heating carbon emissions as all the nation’s gas-fired power stations combined, according to an analysis.

The finding highlighted the urgent need for a strong government policy to rapidly introduce low-carbon heating such as heat pumps, the researchers said.

The data also shows that home gas boilers collectively produce eight times as much nitrogen dioxide as the power plants. NO2 is an air pollutant linked to tens of thousands of early deaths a year in the UK.

Ministers have promised to publish their heat and buildings strategy before the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. The government is also contending with soaring gas prices, which have been driven up by rapid growth in post-pandemic demand around the world.

Heat pumps run on electricity and are efficient but they cost much more to install than gas boilers. The CBI has said the installation of new gas boilers must be banned from 2025 or the UK’s net zero climate target will be “doomed”.

A second analysis has found that high gas prices mean the energy bills of people living in poorly insulated homes will rise by up to £246 a year. The UK has the oldest housing stock in western Europe but the rates of home insulation installation plunged by 95% between 2012 and 2019. A recent government energy efficiency scheme collapsed after six months, with the National Audit Office blaming ministers for the “botched” policy.

Neil Jones, at the climate charity Possible, which produced the analysis of gas boilers with the social enterprise Scene, said: “Amid a frightening gas price crisis, and a decade of opportunity wasted by the government to insulate our homes, supporting households to begin switching to clean heat pumps has come suddenly into focus.

“It’s high time the government finally gave us all the tools we need to modernise our homes, and ensure a safer, cleaner future.”

The UK is lagging behind most European countries in terms of heat pump installations.

The Possible analysis used government data to estimate the CO2 emissions and air pollution produced by the UK’s home gas boilers and power plants. It found the boilers used in a city the size of Leeds pump out the same amount of CO2 as one gas power station. Home energy use contributes about 15% of all the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Jess Ralston, at the non-profit thinktank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said: “This analysis hammers another nail into the coffin for fossil fuel heating. The dangers gas boilers pose are becoming increasingly clear. The upcoming heat and buildings strategy provides the perfect opportunity to go big and bold and cement a healthier, more affordable and greener future for Brits.”

The second analysis, by the ECIU, found that homes with energy performance certificates (EPC) in band D, the average rating for England and Wales, would pay £107 more per year for their gas at current high prices, compared with those living in a home rated in band C. For those in homes with an EPC rating of F, the increase is £246 a year.

However, the situation would be far worse without the energy efficiency measures that have been installed in recent years, with the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group estimating that bills would have been up to £500 a year higher.

Insulate Britain, a protest group demanding that the government produces a legally binding national plan to fully fund low-carbon retrofits of all homes in Britain by 2030, has repeatedly blocked motorways, A-roads and the port of Dover in recent weeks.

‘False choice’: is deep-sea mining required for an electric vehicle revolution?

Activists from Fiji protest before the Maersk Launcher, a ship chartered by TMC for deep-sea mining. 

Photograph: Marten van Dijl/Greenpeace

Deep sea mining firms claim their rare metals are necessary to power clean tech – but with even major electric car firms now backing a moratorium, critics say there is an alternative

More from this series: Race to the bottom – the rush to mine the deep sea

Seascape: the state of our oceans is supported by

Karen McVeigh
@karenmcveigh1
Tue 28 Sep 2021 07.00 BST

At the Goodwood festival of speed near Chichester, the crowds gathered at the hill-climb circuit to watch the world’s fastest cars roar past, as they do every year. But not far from the high-octane action, there was a new, and quieter, attraction: a display of the latest electric vehicles, from the £28,000 Mini Electric to the £2m Lotus Evija hypercar. Even here, at one of the biggest events in Britain’s petrolhead calendar, it’s clear the days of the internal combustion engine are numbered.

As countries strive to meet stringent carbon-emission targets, and vehicle-makers phase out combustion engines, 145m electric vehicles are predicted to be on the roads within a decade, up from 11m last year. The car batteries they require, along with storage batteries for solar and wind power, have sent demand for metals soaring, taking mining firms to the bottom of the sea in the hunt for those metals.

Thousands of metres below the ocean’s surface lie millions of potato-sized rocks known as nodules: a rich source of nickel, copper, manganese and cobalt. In June, an application was filed to start mining these deposits in two years’ time. As well as the demand for minerals for smartphones and other electronic devices, and the difficulty of extracting them from the land in a sustainable way, the companies behind deep-sea mining say we have no choice: if we want to make the transition to renewable energy, we must plumb the ocean depths.

Q&A
What is deep sea mining?

“We now have the technology available to us to explore more of the ocean in the next 10 years than we have had in the last 10,000,” says Oliver Steeds, founder and chief executive of Nekton, a deep-sea research foundation and a participant at Goodwood’s Future Lab. His team uses technology such as autonomous underwater vehicles, or robots, to map the deep sea – not for mining, but to promote ocean conservation. Nekton led a deep-sea mission to the Indian Ocean in 2019, which broadcast live from a submersible 200 metres below the waves.

Manganese nodules on the seabed off the Cook Islands. Proponents of deep-sea mining argue that we have no choice but to exploit these minerals as we move towards a zero-carbon future. Photograph: USGS

The advances in mining and exploration technology represent “an extraordinary opportunity for progress”, Steeds says. “But also it represents a threat, whether through deep-sea mining or further industrialisation and overfishing.

“Too often, the ocean is out of sight, out of mind. But we need to discover what’s there before we destroy it.”

More than 90% of the estimated 2.2 million species in the ocean remain undescribed. And the two-year countdown to deep-sea mining has prompted warnings from scientists that we have not sufficiently understood its potential impact on biodiversity and ecosystems.

Douglas McCauley, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and director of the Benioff Ocean Initiative, says the potential impact of deep-sea mining keeps him up at night.

Electrification of vehicle fleets is a “positive pathway” to reduce carbon emissions, says McCauley. But he accuses deep-sea mining companies of a “false narrative” that we must mine the ocean to meet renewable energy’s demand for metals.
Too often, the ocean is out of sight, out of mind. But we need to discover what’s there before we destroy itOliver Steeds, Nekton

“There are some very significant questions being raised by scientists about the impacts of ocean mining,” he says. “How much extinction could be generated? How long will it take these extremely low-resilience systems to recover? What impact will it have on the ocean’s capacity to capture carbon?”

Campaigners highlight the uncertainty in assumptions behind often wildly different projected metal demand. In July, Greenpeace researchers showed many projections for metal demand by 2050 assumed ongoing use of cobalt and nickel-dependent lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and storage, despite alternatives being developed, including Tesla’s use of lithium iron phosphate batteries, which require neither metal.

Kevin Bridgen, senior scientist for Greenpeace Research Laboratories, says: “People are saying ‘we are not going to have enough metals if we carry on doing as we’ve always done’, but changes are already taking place.”

Increasingly, car companies are joining in the revolt. In March, BMW and Volvo, with Google and Samsung, became the first global companies to sign up to the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining. In backing the call, WWF says, the companies committed to not sourcing any metals from the seabed, to exclude them from their supply chains and not to finance deep-sea mining, until the risks are better understood and the alternatives exhausted.

In calling for a ban, Claudia Becker, BMW’s expert in sustainable supply-chain management, says she fears mining the deep sea could have “irreversible consequences”.

“We came to the conclusion we are missing an understanding of the biodiversity impacts of deep-sea mining. We wanted to send a clear signal to the industry that until these issues are resolved, minerals from the deep seabed are not an option for us.”

The safety car for a Formula E motorsport race. It is estimated that there will be 145m electric cars on the roads within a decade.

 Photograph: CJM Photography/Alamy

Alternatives

One of several alternatives being explored is to build batteries using widely available metals, instead of the rare and expensive minerals used today.

Becker believes mining the seabed could be avoided by turning to alternative, less damaging metals, or by designing batteries that require fewer minerals. She cites China-based BYD (Build Your Dreams), the world’s second-largest electric vehicle manufacturer, which announced this year it would no longer use cobalt in batteries.

Claes Eliasson, senior vice-president of media relations at Volvo, says that its AB Volvo division – which makes lorries, buses and construction equipment – is betting on three vehicle types: electric, hydrogen and biofuels. It is collaborating with Daimler Trucks to produce hydrogen fuel cells for long-haul vehicles.

There are also growing calls for better recycling – including taking old batteries from rubbish dumps. “We are accumulating metal-rich lithium-iron batteries,” McCauley says of these waste sites. He is optimistic about recycling, seeing “exciting developments” in recovering minerals from batteries, and because he believes there is a “huge amount of money to be made” from pioneering a cheaper, energy-dense battery.

Researchers are tackling how to recycle the millions of electric vehicle batteries manufacturers expect to produce over the coming decades. Electric vehicle (EV) batteries are not designed for recycling, says Andy Abbott, professor of physical chemistry at Leicester University. “Most EV batteries have very small cells, which are put into modules and the modules put into packs. To give an idea, the Tesla Model S has got 4,600 cells in it,” he points out.

The difficulty, he says, is to find a cost-effective way to separate the cells, which are held together with tough and highly toxic glue, to access the metals inside.

“Some people are suggesting glue-less cells and making disassembly easier,” says Abbott. “We’re looking at using robots that can pull apart batteries. We’ve shown that, economically, it’s better if you can disassemble it.”
Deep-sea mining in a sensitive environment is not a good idea until science has a good way to do it. We’re not there yetClaes Eliasson, Volvo

Product design and “planned obsolescence” is another major hurdle for metal recycling. In 2019, 53.6m tonnes of electronic waste was generated globally, only 17.4%, or 9.3m, of which was recycled. But this too is set to change, with the International Telecommunication Union setting a target of 30% recycling by 2030.)

In 2018, China began to hold vehicle manufacturers responsible for ensuring that batteries are recycled and the country now recycles more lithium-ion batteries than the rest of the world combined. Last year, BYD launched the blade battery, which stores flat cells directly inside, allowing them to be removed by hand.

Abbott predicts lithium-iron batteries will be recycled more efficiently in the next “10 to 15 years”. But he adds that they almost certainly will not be the main technology in 20 to 30 years’ time. “It’s an evolving market,” he says.

Robots assemble electric cars in the BYD factory in Xi’an, Shaanxi. China now holds carmakers responsible for recycling batteries and the country now recycles more lithium-ion batteries than the rest of the world combined. 

Photograph: Alex Plavevski/EPA

The Metals Company, formerly DeepGreen, one of several companies planning to mine nodules in the Pacific, has accused BMW, Volvo and the other companies of “irresponsible” claims. In a statement in March it asked: “Where exactly will BMW get the battery metals it needs to fully electrify its products, and with what impact to our climate?”

But its claim that mining metals from the ocean had the “least planetary impact” has been called into question.

In July, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, Greenpeace USA and Global Witness sent a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, questioning DeepGreen’s environmental impact and feasibility statement.

“DeepGreen is offering a false or dystopian choice” between destroying the rainforest or the ocean environment, says Matthew Gianni, co-founder of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. “We don’t need to do either. We, as a society – whether consumers, private companies and/or, in particular, governments investing in renewable energy technologies – can and should use substitute materials and metals in the construction of electric batteries for vehicles and other energy storage technologies.”

TMC declined to comment for this article.

It is not just activists who are concerned. BMW’s Becker says that at least mines on land, although often beset by allegations of child labour, deforestation and pollution, can at least be inspected and held to account.


Race to the bottom: the disastrous, blindfolded rush to mine the deep sea

“I’m not saying that every mine in the world is perfect,” says Becker. “But we have tools, like due diligence standards, that we can apply to mines operating under these standards and we can improve them.”

“Looking at the machinery involved in deep-sea mining, it has hardly been tested at all, smaller versions maybe. But without testing, how do we trust these methods?”

Eliasson, at Volvo, says: “If all the specialists were telling us deep-sea mining is a simple easy option with no impacts on biodiversity, we would have no problem with it. But to date, the research is not there.

“Deep-sea mining in a very sensitive environment is not a good idea until science has come up with a good way to do it. We’re not there yet.”

McCauley agrees. “We have an exciting opportunity, and obligation, to harness the full power of science and human ingenuity to accelerate the mass production of electric vehicles in a way that doesn’t create a new environmental disaster in our ocean, and that minimises the impacts of mining on land.”

TMC were approached for comment but did not respond.

Study: Delay on graphic warning labels on cigarettes may have cost lives

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News


Researchers say that graphic labels on cigarette packaging could have prevented tens of thousands of deaths in the last decade. File Photo by underworld/Shutterstock

A specimen cup full of bloody urine.

Decaying feet that sport blackened, rotting toes -- some already amputated.

A pale boy with dark circles under his eyes, drawing breath through an oxygen mask.

Around 179,000 deaths in the United States might have been prevented over the past decade if smokers had been forced to confront such images every time they reached for a pack of cigarettes, a new study suggests.

RELATED Study: Graphic warnings on cigarettes boost desire to quit, but only for short time

Labels with graphic health warnings had been set to appear on cigarette packs in 2012, but tobacco industry legal action derailed that effort.

The warning labels are now scheduled to appear on packs starting next year, but the decade-long delay has cost tens of thousands of American lives, said senior author Rafael Meza, a professor of epidemiology and global public health at the University of Michigan.

"The evidence is out there from multiple countries that suggests these graphic health warnings do work as intended," Meza said. "If we had been able to implement this regulation back in 2012, many more lives could have been saved. This work shows the cost of industry litigation and procedures to delay implementation of tobacco regulations."

Meza and his colleagues project that more than a half million lives -- about 539,000 -- still could be saved by the turn of the century if no further delays occur.

About 120 countries around the world already have such graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Canada became the first in 2001 graphic images now cover three-quarters of the space on their tobacco packaging, researchers said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a set of 13 graphic warning labels that would cover half of a cigarette pack's front and back. The warnings "stand to represent the most significant change to cigarette labels in 35 years," the agency says.

The labels contain disturbing images and short messages about lesser-known risks of cigarette smoking, including stunted fetal growth, age-related macular degeneration, bladder cancer, cataracts, COPD, heart disease, strokes, head and neck cancer, type 2 diabetes and erectile dysfunction.

"These graphic cigarette warning labels have been proven to be very effective, especially at prompting current smokers to end their addiction because they're staring at that pack," said Erika Sward, national assistant vice president of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Washington, D.C.

Rather than lung cancer, the warnings focus on "other diseases that are perhaps not as top-of-mind for smokers when they are thinking about the health consequences of their addiction," Sward added.

For this study, the researchers created a simulation model of how graphic warning labels might affect smoking trends.

They took estimates from previous studies regarding the effectiveness of explicit warning labels, and applied those estimates to federal data about the number of smokers and smoking deaths in the United States.

If the labels do go into effect next year, the model projects that the percentage of people smoking in the United States will drop from an estimated 13.6% in 2022 to 4.2% by 2100.

Only about 12.3% of Americans would now be smoking had the warning labels gone into effect in 2012, the model's results showed.

In 2019, about 14% of U.S. adults smoked, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"When you think about a large country like the U.S., even if you can reduce prevalence by 1%, you're talking about millions of smokers," Meza said. "Just preventing a few smokers from engaging in the habit or helping them quit will result in considerable health gains."

These graphic label warnings would have added to other policies that have effectively curbed U.S. smoking, including tobacco taxes, smoke-free area laws, and bans on cigarette advertising, Sward and Meza said.


"This study really underscores why the tobacco industry views delays as wins, and why it's so important to move forward promptly with these effective policies," Sward said.

One of the tobacco industry's strategies over the years has been "delay, delay, delay," she said.

"The industry has delayed graphic warning labels for a decade now because they're putting profits over people's lives," Sward added.

She hopes studies like these will spur the FDA toward quicker action in other areas of tobacco control.

For example, the FDA said last spring that it would propose a rule to remove menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars from the marketplace, but nothing has been seen since, Sward said.

"That's kind of in the announced-but-not-acted-upon-yet category," she said of the April announcement.

Other actions being considered by the FDA and federal and state lawmakers include removing all flavored tobacco products from the market, imposing larger tobacco taxes, and funding a wider array of smoking cessation programs, Sward said.

Her group plans to support the FDA against any legal threat that might cause the graphic warning labels to be delayed again.

"The American Lung Association and our public health partners brought the lawsuit against FDA to compel them to move forward with the graphic warning labels as they were required to do under the Tobacco Control Act," Sward said. "Now we are working to support them fighting back against the tobacco industry."

The new study was published Friday in JAMA Health Forum.More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about the proposed warning labels, including interactive examples.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

'Belly of the beast': From 13, kids treated as adults online

Issued on: 30/09/2021 - 

Thirteen effectively serves as the age of majority online under a two-decade old US law, and is the minimum set by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat -- all of which are massively popular among children 

MARVIN RECINOS AFP


Washington (AFP)

Facebook drew outrage for its now paused plans for an Instagram app for kids aged 12 and under. But 13-year-olds are already welcome on social media with few protections and sometimes tragic effects, experts and parents said.

That's because 13 effectively serves as the age of majority online under a two-decade-old law, and is the minimum set by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat -- all of which are massively popular among children.

Josh Golin at advocacy Fairplay said the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) intended to protect the privacy of kids aged 12 or under, but was crafted well before social media and is now dangerously outdated.

"At age 13, essentially the internet treats you as an adult," Golin told AFP. "I doubt very many people now would say... 'That seems like a good time to throw them into the belly of the beast.'"

US senators have called a hearing Thursday about the "toxic effects of Facebook and Instagram" on young people, which will include the questioning of Facebook executive Antigone Davis.

Worries over the platforms' potential to harm youth have spiked after a scathing Wall Street Journal series revealing the social media giant's own research showed it knew of the damage Instagram can do to teenage girls' well-being.

In the wake of those reports, Facebook announced Monday it was suspending development of the kids' version of the photo-sharing app to consult with the parents and advocacy groups who fought against the plan.

Yet, Tristan Harris, president and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, noted: "That doesn't stop all the kids who are on there already, whose suicidal ideation, body dysmorphia, anxiety and depression are still there."

He was referring to some of the long list of harms attributed to steady social media use among young people.

The worries are only amplified for 13-year-olds, who are about a decade from having the fully developed parts of the brain key to making choices and controlling impulses.

Facebook and Instagram had argued that kids are getting phones steadily younger, lying about their ages, getting apps and need something designed for them.

However, Alex Stamos, a former chief security officer for the social media giant, said that the problems online go beyond software and apps.

"The business model is reaching deeper and deeper down the brainstem at a younger and younger age, much like the tobacco companies had to get kids addicted early," said Tristan Harris, president co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology 

WANG Zhao AFP/File

"Preteens probably shouldn't have phones, but parents give them anyway... Young teens shouldn't be on social media, but parents allow," Stamos tweeted.

Lawmakers have put forth bills -- including Senator Ed Markey, who helped craft COPPA -- but their glacial speed has failed to even come close to the frantic speed of technology's changes on human lives.

- 'Get kids addicted early' -

The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly now considering beefing up online privacy safeguards, including for children, but changes would likely be years away if the watchdog took up the problem.

"Raise the age to 16, for everybody involved that would be way smarter," James Steyer, founder and CEO of advocacy group Common Sense Media, told AFP.

The US Federal Trade Commission is reportedly now considering beefing up online privacy safeguards, including for children, but changes would likely be years away if the watchdog took up the problem Paul J. RICHARDS AFP

He added that the tech companies also need to put real resources -- on the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars -- into enforcing the age limits already in place.

Behind the fear and outrage directed at social media are horrific accounts of online bullying, self-harm and toxic body obsessions exacerbated by posts.

Joann Bogard's 15-year-old son Mason told her he loved her before running off to take a shower at their home in 2019, but a loud thump soon alerted the family something was wrong.

The boy had tied a belt around his neck and would eventually die from his injuries, which Bogard told AFP were inspired by a social media trend of kids choking themselves.

The family found a recording on his phone of an earlier attempted choking and the local coroner later ruled the death an accident.

Children "don't even understand what they are watching and what they are doing is dangerous," she said.

Experts noted that social can have powerful, beneficial effects in teens' lives, for example LGBTQ young people in isolated areas who find support and connection online.

But a lack of protection for children online means they will remain sought after targets for social media, especially the youngest users.

"The real problem is that the business model is reaching deeper and deeper down the brainstem at a younger and younger age, much like the tobacco companies had to get kids addicted early," said Harris.

© 2021 AFP

Scientists race to save Florida coral reef from mysterious disease

Issued on: 30/09/2021 

A staff member works on restoring Florida’s coral reef at the Florida Coral Rescue Center in Orlando on September 20, 2021, as the state's reef suffers from the fatal stony coral tissue loss disease 

CHANDAN KHANNA AFP

Orlando (AFP)

At a laboratory in central Florida, biologist Aaron Gavin uses tiny pipettes to carefully feed shrimp to more than 700 corals living in huge saltwater tanks, with sunlight-mimicking lamps glowing above them.

The work of the scientists here could be the last chance to save the species that make up the only coral reef in the United States' continental waters.

Gavin and his team have diligently recreated the coral reef habitat found in the waters off the southern tip of the state, complete with artificial currents and local fish.

They hope to prevent the 18 species of coral in their care from suffering the same mysterious ailment, called SCTLD (stony coral tissue loss disease), that is afflicting their wild cousins.

Among the sprawling mangroves and darting schools of fish off the Florida Keys, the damaged corals -- normally dark -- now appear as large white patches on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

The situation is the same all along the Florida Reef Tract, which stretches 360 miles (580 kilometers) from the Dry Tortugas, which are the westernmost islands in the Florida Keys, all the way to the town of St Lucie, located about 120 miles north of Miami.

Dead coral sit on the ocean bed in the Straits of Florida near Key Largo, Florida, on September 23, 2021, as the reef has been suffering from a mysterious disease first discovered in 2014 

CHANDAN KHANNA AFP

"It's heartbreaking, and I think the most alarming (thing) about it is that most people don't know it's happening," said Michelle Ashton, the communications director of the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida.

- Rescue -

What Gavin and his colleagues discover at the Florida Coral Rescue Center could change the future of the state's marine ecosystems.

"We are holding the corals safely and healthy in our care," explained Justin Zimmerman, the director of the Orlando-based lab, which opened in 2020 and is managed by aquatic theme park company SeaWorld.

Rescued corals are kept in a tank as staff members work on restoring Florida's coral reef at the Florida Coral Rescue Center in Orlando

 CHANDAN KHANNA AFP

"If they were still in the wild, up to 90 percent of them would have been dead," Zimmerman said.

The potentially catastrophic SCTLD was first discovered in 2014, near Miami, and has continued to spread rapidly, killing about half of stony coral species, a cornerstone of marine biodiversity.

The disease, whose causes are unknown, is now plaguing the animals further into the Caribbean, all the way in Mexico and Belize.

The rescue lab's work is part of a project created in 2018 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and includes dozens of public and private organizations.

The group, faced with the threat of more than 20 of the 45 species of hard corals in the area going extinct, devised the unprecedented plan to extract healthy corals from the region's waters and care for them in these artificially equipped aquariums in the hope they can be returned to their wild habitats in the future.

A fish swims near rescued coral at the Florida Coral Rescue Center in Orlando on September 20, 2021 

CHANDAN KHANNA AFP

"You are looking at the future of Florida Reef Tract in this room," Aston said of the corals in the Orlando aquariums. "And their grandchildren will be what goes back out to the water."

- Return to the sea –

The first part of the rescue plan has allowed wildlife authorities to save nearly 2,000 colonies of corals, now stored at more than 20 institutions in 14 different states.

The second part of the plan requires researchers to successfully return the corals to the ocean -- though such an operation would likely take place a long time from now, as corals reproduce very slowly.

A tourist snorkels over dead coral on the ocean bed in the Straits of Florida near Key Largo on September 23, 2021 

CHANDAN KHANNA AFP

The scientists are studying the genetics of the rescued animals in an effort to cultivate new specimens that could be more resistant to disease, as well as other threats such as warming water temperatures and pollution.

The success or failure of these endeavors could have huge consequences for the region.

Stony corals, made up of limestone skeletons, are what create coral reefs, which in turn provide a home for a quarter of marine life.

Plus, the structures are natural barriers between the open ocean and land, reducing the strength of waves that hit the coastline, especially during hurricanes and other storms.

And a hit to coral health could mean a hit to Florida tourism revenue, as one study estimated that visitors drawn to the state for fishing and diving along the reef generate $8.5 billion.

Key Largo resident Steve Campbell, 59, is worried about what comes next. He is sitting next to the small tourist boat he captains, currently anchored in the port.

A staff member works on restoring Florida's coral reef, which is suffering from stony coral tissue loss disease, at the Florida Coral Rescue Center in Orlando on September 20, 2021 CHANDAN KHANNA AFP

He said the coral disease has already had an impact on his business.

"I've been in the Florida Keys now for 20 years, and I'm out on the water every day," he said.

"Obviously we make our living out here, so we take people out to the reef for the enjoyment of seeing the reef."

"So for us it's extremely important."

© 2021 AFP

Algeria-Morocco standoff threatens Spain gas supplies

Issued on: 30/09/2021

For a quarter of a century, gas from Algeria's vast southern desert has been transported to Spain and Portugal through Morocco but a deepening rift between the North African neighbours means the taps could soon be turned off 

KJETIL ALSVIK STATOIL/AFP/File

Tunis (AFP)

Algeria pumps huge volumes of gas through Morocco into Europe, but with Algiers and Rabat at loggerheads as a pipeline agreement nears expiry, experts say the taps could soon be turned off.

That would hit Spain's gas supplies just as prices soar across Europe and with winter approaching, and Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares was due in Algeria on Thursday to discuss the issue, his office told AFP.

Algeria, Africa's biggest natural gas exporter, has been using the Gaz-Maghreb-Europe (GME) pipeline since 1996 to deliver several billion cubic metres (bcm) per year to Spain and Portugal.

But the GME contract is due to expire at the end of October -- just over two months after Algiers severed diplomatic ties with Rabat over "hostile actions".

And in August, Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab told Spanish ambassador Fernando Moran that Algeria was ready to deliver all its Spain-bound gas exports via an alternative undersea pipeline, bypassing Morocco.

"A deal to continue the GME agreement before October 31 is very unlikely," Maghreb geopolitics expert Geoff Porter told AFP.

"In light of the lack of diplomatic channels between Rabat and Algiers, it's difficult to see any pathway for negotiations."

Unlike their border, closed since 1994, the GME pipeline has stayed open for a quarter of a century, despite repeated crises.

Both sides benefit. Morocco receives around one bcm of gas per year, half of which it buys and the other half of which it receives as transit fees in kind -- worth some $50 million per year, according to a Moroccan energy expert who asked to remain anonymous.

In return, Algeria gets a cost-effective route for around half of its piped gas exports to Spanish and Portugese markets.

Yet with another diplomatic spat flaring just as the contract expires, a new deal is far from certain.

- Economic weapon -

The latest crisis followed months of tensions, partly over Morocco's normalisation of ties with Israel in exchange for Washington recognising Rabat's sovereignty over Western Sahara.

Diplomatic crisis between Algeria and Morocco threatens gas supplies to Spain 

Patricio ARANA AFP

Algiers, which has hosted the Polisario independence movement and supported the Palestinian cause, in August accused its neighbour of "hostile actions", including complicity in deadly forest fires, backing separatists in the Kabylie region and using Pegasus spyware against Algerian officials.

Morocco called the Algerian move "completely unjustified", but experts say Algeria is keen to hit its rival where it hurts -- in the pocket.

"Algeria could deprive Morocco of transit fees, which are a major and stable source of revenue, but also of gas supplies at a good price," said North Africa energy expert Roger Carvalho.

But, he added: "Algeria has obligations (towards Spain and Portugal) and can't deprive itself of international revenues from these contracts. So it has to find another delivery route."

- International revenues -

Algeria does have two alternatives to the GME, but both have shortcomings.

The Medgaz undersea pipeline, which transports Algerian gas directly to Spanish shores, is already operating near its full capacity of 8 bcm per year -- around half total Algerian gas exports to Spain.

"If the Algerians manage to deliver enough gas via Medgaz, they probably will," Carvalho said.

But while Algeria's state energy firm Sonatrach and its Spanish partner Naturgy have vowed to boost Medgaz's capacity to 10 bcm per year in the coming months, that still falls far short of the total needed at current levels.

The second option is liquefying the gas and sending it to Spain by ship.

But Porter says the short distance means this option "does not make financial sense".

As a result, "Algeria is potentially going to lose some gas export sales revenue in order to deprive Morocco of its primary (97 percent) source of natural gas," he told AFP.

The Moroccan energy expert told AFP that closing the pipeline would hurt Algeria but have only "marginal" impact on Morocco.

"The GME is an opportunity for the Algerians. If they passed it up, it would be an irrational decision and they would be the biggest losers," he said.

Porter says that could force Morocco, which uses GME gas to generate around 10 percent of its electricity, to boost coal imports to cover the shortfall.

- 'Costs will rise' -

Rabat has said it wants to keep the GME open. But notwithstanding a deal directly between the firms managing the contract, many analysts are betting the taps will be turned off.

Matthew Cunningham, an economist at Barcelona-based consultancy FocusEconomics, said that would cause considerable supply disruptions for Spain, which has already been pushed to lower electricity taxes and impose price caps as gas bills soar across Europe.

"Despite this, Spain should be able to satisfy its energy needs by obtaining natural gas from different places or by using other energy sources, even though costs will rise significantly," he said.

Spain's environment ministry told AFP this week that Algeria had given it "the necessary guarantees that gas imports from Algeria will not be jeopardised despite the current crisis".

But Carvalho warned that long term, closing the GME could push Spain and Portugal to diversify their supplies away from Algeria.

"Using gas deliveries as an economic weapon isn't a good calculation in the long term for Algeria," Carvalho said.

© 2021 AFP

Taliban disperse women protesters with gunfire in Kabul

Issued on: 30/09/2021

The Taliban pushed back women protesters as they tried to continue with the small demonstration in Kabul, while a foreign journalist was hit with a rifle and blocked from filming 

BULENT KILIC AFP

Kabul (AFP)

The Taliban on Thursday violently cracked down on a small women's rights demonstration, firing shots into the air and pushing back protesters, AFP journalists witnessed.

A group of six women gathered outside a high school in eastern Kabul demanding the right for girls to return to secondary school, after the hardline Islamist group excluded them from classes earlier this month.

The women unfurled a banner that read "Don't break our pens, don't burn our books, don't close our schools", before Taliban guards snatched it from them.

They pushed back the women protesters as they tried to continue with the demonstration, while a foreign journalist was hit with a rifle and blocked from filming.

A Taliban fighter also released a brief burst of gunfire into the air with his automatic weapon, AFP journalists saw.

The demonstrators -- from a group called the "Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women Activists" -- took refuge inside the school.

Taliban guard Mawlawi Nasratullah, who led the group and identified himself as the head of special forces in Kabul, said the demonstrators "did not coordinate with security authorities regarding their protest".

The demonstrators -- from a group called the "Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women Activists" -- took refuge inside the school 

BULENT KILIC AFP

"They have the right to protest in our country like every other country. But they must inform the security institutes before," he said.

Isolated rallies with women at the forefront were staged in cities around the country after the Taliban seized power, including in the western city of Herat where two people were shot dead.

But protests have dwindled since the government issued an order that unsanctioned demonstrations and warned of "severe legal action" for violators.

It has been almost two weeks since girls were prevented from going to secondary school.

The Taliban follow a strict interpretation of sharia law that segregates men and women, and have also slashed women's access to work.

They have said they need to establish the right conditions before girls can return to the classroom, but many Afghans are sceptical.

© 2021 AFP

Australia returns world’s oldest tropical forest to indigenous owners

Issued on: 30/09/2021 

Australia's Daintree National Forest is famed for its rich biodiversity, including ancient and rare species. In this file photo taken June 30, 2015, an endangered cassowary roams in the forest. 

© Wilson Ring, AP

Text by: FRANCE 24
Video by :Simon Harding

Australia's Daintree Rainforest has been returned to its original Indigenous owners, the state of Queensland, Australia's third most populous, said on Wednesday, as the government begins to cede control of the world's oldest tropical forest.

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988, the Daintree National Park was handed back to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people in a ceremony in the remote town of Bloomfield on Wednesday.

The 135-million-year-old tropical rainforest is famed for its rich biodiversity - from a giant clawed cassowary bird to plants that have existed since the age of the dinosaurs. But it has come under sustained pressure from climate change and industries such as logging.

In striking a new deal to manage the rainforest, Queensland said the Daintree would be returned to the traditional owners of the land.

Queensland state environment minister Meaghan Scanlon said the return of lands was a key step on the path toward reconciliation after an "uncomfortable and ugly" past.

"The Eastern Kuku Yalanji people's culture is one of the world's oldest living cultures and this agreement recognises their right to own and manage their country, to protect their culture, and to share it with visitors as they become leaders in the tourism industry," Scanlon said in a statement.

Eastern Kuku Yalanji traditional owner Chrissy Grant said the move was a historic event that put the community "in control of our own destinies".

In total, 160,000 hectares (about 395,000 acres) of land on the Cape York peninsula - the northeast tip of Australia - is being returned to the area's traditional Aboriginal owners as part of reconciliation measures, Scanlon added.

British settlers arrived in Australia in 1788, colonising the continent and leaving Aboriginal groups marginalised.

The deal is the first time Queensland has transferred the ownership of a national park in the Wet Tropics region of the state's northeast to an Indigenous group.

Australia's Uluru and Kakadu parks in the country's remote north are already owned by a local Indigenous population.

The national parks will initially be jointly managed with the Queensland state government, before being transferred into the sole care of the Indigenous group.

Grant said a foundation would be created to provide training and employment for local First Nations people in areas such as land management, tourism and research.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP & REUTERS)

Tunisia leader picks first woman as PM at moment of crisis

Publishing date: Sep 29, 2021 • 

TUNIS — Tunisian President Kais Saied named Najla Bouden Romdhane, a little-known university engineer with World Bank experience, as prime minister on Wednesday nearly two months after he seized most powers in a move his foes call a coup.

Romdhane, Tunisia’s first woman prime minister, will take office at a moment of crisis, with the democratic gains won in a 2011 revolution in doubt and as a major threat looms to public finances.

A geological engineer, Romdhane was responsible for implementing World Bank projects at the education ministry, but she has little experience of government.

Speaking in a video published online, Saied said her appointment honored Tunisian women and asked her to propose a cabinet in the coming hours or days “because we have lost a lot of time.”

The new government should respond to the demands and dignity of Tunisians in all fields, including health, transport and education, he added.

Saied dismissed the previous prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed wide executive powers in July and has been under growing domestic and international pressure to form a new government.

Last week he brushed aside much of the constitution, saying he could rule by decree and control the government himself, during an emergency period that has no defined endpoint.

Tunisia faces a rapidly looming crisis in public finances after years of economic stagnation were aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic and political infighting. Government bonds are under pressure and the cost of insuring against their default has hit a record high.

The new government will have to move very quickly to seek financial support for the budget and debt repayments after Saied’s power grab in July put talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on hold.

However, after Saied’s announcement last week that the government will be responsible to the president and that he can select or sack cabinet ministers, the role of prime minister will be less important than in previous administrations.

Most of Tunisia’s previous political elite, including most parties in the suspended parliament, have said they oppose Saied’s power grab.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Alison Williams, William Maclean)

 

UK govt mobilises 150 army tanker drivers to alleviate fuel crisis

Motorists queue for fuel at East Barnet Esso in London

The UK government has mobilised 150 military tanker drivers to help alleviate the supply gridlock at petrol stations caused by Britons panic buying.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on Wednesday confirmed that drivers around the country are queuing again for fuel, despite claims from Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the situation was improving.

"I think in the next couple of days, people will see some soldiers driving the tanker fleet. The last few days have been difficult. We’ve seen large queues but I think the situation is stabilising, we’re getting petrol into the forecourts. I think we’re going to see our way through this," Kwarteng said.

Fears are now mounting that Britain's already critical supply-chain problems could worsen in the weeks leading up to the crucial Christmas trading period.

By the early morning rush hour there were already long queues of cars in and around London and on the busy M25 motorway circling the capital. Social media has carried footage of fights breaking out as tempers fray at petrol stations.

Britain left the EU single market at the start of this year, which stopped haulage companies from recruiting drivers in the bloc. To tackle the driver shortage, the government has said it will issue temporary visas to 5,000 foreign drivers, a measure it had previously ruled out on ideological grounds.

European truck drivers have suggested that takeup could be low, given applicants would have little chance of finding short-term accommodation, the poor state of facilities for truckers while on the road and low pay.

Nepal introduces third gender category in latest census
Agence France-Presse
September 29, 2021

Officials from the Central Bureau of Statistics have been visiting homes across the country of 30 million people since Saturday PRAKASH MATHEMA AFP

Nepal has introduced a third gender category in its census for the first time, a move the Himalayan nation's LGBTQ community hopes will bring them greater rights.

Officials from the Central Bureau of Statistics have been visiting homes across the country of 30 million people since Saturday, giving respondents the option of choosing "others" as their gender, alongside male and female.

Nepal already has some of South Asia's most progressive laws on homosexuality and transgender rights, with landmark reforms passed in 2007 prohibiting gender or sexual orientation discrimination.

A third gender category for citizenship documents was introduced in 2013 and Nepal began issuing passports with the "others" category two years later.

But gay and transgender Nepalis and rights activists say the LGTBQ community -- estimated at 900,000-strong -- still faces discrimination, particularly for jobs, health and education.

LGBTQ activists say a lack of data has hampered access to benefits they are entitled to.

"When there is data after the census, we can use it as evidence to lobby for our rights. We can make demands in proportion to our size of the population," said Pinky Gurung, President of LGBTQ rights group Blue Diamond Society.

However, in more than 70 census questions there is only one linked to gender and critics say the results will still be limited.

Rukshana Kapali, a transgender woman and activist, who has filed a Supreme Court writ against the methodology, said the census was "problematic" and "cannot capture the real data of the LGBTQ community in Nepal".

Rights groups say LGBTQ people have also been scared to identify themselves in the past but they are encouraging them to be more open this time.

"We are counting the population with the 'others' category as part of our commitments toward gender equality," Dhundi Raj Lamichhane, director at the statistics bureau's population section, told AFP.

"We have worked with members of LGBTQ organisations this time and hope for a more reflective output to publish."

© 2021 AFP