World in ‘wrong direction’ as climate impacts worsen: UN

by Agence-France-Presse

PARIS, France – Humanity is “going in the wrong direction” on climate change due to its addiction to fossil fuels, the UN said Tuesday in an assessment showing that planet-warming emissions are higher than before the pandemic.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization and its Environment Programme warned catastrophes will become commonplace should the world economy fail to decarbonise in line with what science says is needed to prevent the worst impacts of global heating.

They pointed to Pakistan’s monumental floods and China’s crop-withering heatwave this year as examples of what to expect.

“Floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms and wildfires are going from bad to worse, breaking records with alarming frequency,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The UN warned last month that the drought gripping the Horn of Africa and threatening millions with acute food shortages was now likely to extend into a fifth year.

“There is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters. They are the price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” said Guterres.

The UN’s United in Science report underscores how, nearly three years since Covid-19 handed governments a unique opportunity to reassess how to power their economies, countries are ploughing ahead with pollution as normal.

It found that after an unprecedented 5.4 percent fall in emissions in 2020 due to lockdowns and travel restrictions, preliminary data from January-May this year shows global CO2 emissions are 1.2 percent higher than before Covid-19.

This is largely down to large year-on-year increases in the United States, India, and most European countries, the assessment found.

“The science is unequivocal: we are going in the wrong direction,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

“Greenhouse gas concentrations are continuing to rise, reaching new record highs. Fossil fuel emission rates are now above pre-pandemic levels. The past seven years were the warmest on record.”

Last week the European Union’s Copernicus climate monitor said that summer 2022 was the hottest in Europe and one of the hottest globally since records began in the 1970s.

Tuesday’s report said there was a 93 percent chance that the record for the hottest year globally — currently, 2016 — will be broken within five years.

It warned the continued use of fossil fuels meant the chance of the annual mean global temperature temporarily exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in one of the next five years was roughly even (48 percent).

Keeping longer term temperatures below 1.5C is the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Despite more than three decades of UN-lead negotiations, rich polluters show little sign of being willing to make the kind of swingeing emissions cuts that would keep the 1.5C goal in play.

The UN’s Environment Programme, in an update to its annual “emissions gap” assessment following new pledges made at last November’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, said Tuesday that even these promises were far from adequate.

In fact, it said the ambition even in countries’ most recent pledges would need to be four times greater to limit warming to 2C, and seven times higher to make 1.5C.

All told, current worldwide climate policies put Earth on course to warm 2.8C by 2100, UNEP said.

Guterres said that Tuesday’s assessment showed “climate impacts heading into uncharted territory of destruction”.

“Yet each year we double-down on this fossil fuel addiction, even as the symptoms get rapidly worse,” he said in a video message.

Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network, said that the forthcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt needed leaders to agree to new funding to help communities in at-risk nations rebuild after extreme events.

“The terrifying picture painted by the United in Science report is already a lived reality for millions of people facing recurring climate disasters,” she said.

Philippines wins seat in UN Human Rights Council

ABS-CBN News

Posted at Oct 13 2018 01:16 AM | Updated as of Oct 13 2018 06:22 AM

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The Philippine Delegation to the United Nations led by Permanent Representative Teodoro T. Locsin Jr. with Maria Fernanda Espinosa, President of the UN General Assembly, after the Philippines won its bid for a seat in the UN Human Rights Council during elections in New York on Friday. Handout

MANILA (UPDATED) The Philippines on Friday won a seat at the United Nations Human Rights Council despite strong opposition from an international human rights group, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

The Philippines garnered 165 votes of 192 votes cast by member-states, the DFA said in a statement.

With the victory, the Philippines will get to serve another three-year term in the 47-member Council based in Geneva from 2019 to 2021.

“Our election to another term in the Human Rights Council would not have been possible without the support of other UN Member-States who clearly understood where we are coming from,” DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said, after he was informed of the election results by Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN Teddy Locsin, Jr.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch earlier said the Philippines, along with Eritrea, should not be given seats at the council because of its "egregious human rights records."

“Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s abusive ‘war on drugs’ has been a killing frenzy that has left thousands dead. In Eritrea, the authorities persecute and jail government critics and force citizens into indefinite national service," the group said in a statement.

At least 4,854 drug suspects have been killed in police anti-drug operations, but human rights groups and government critics said the figure is understated.

• Drug war death toll breaches 4,000 mark: PNP

The Philippine government has several times denied involvement in summary killings, saying drug suspects slain in police anti-drug operations had put up violent resistance.

Malacañang, meanwhile, has defended the Duterte administration’s human rights track record.

• Group says PH should be kept off UN council; Palace defends rights record

“Our successful bid to keep our seat in the Council is proof that many in the international community remain convinced the Philippines respects and protects human rights and have seen through the efforts of some to politicize and weaponize the issue,” Cayetano said in a statement. 

He described it as "a vindication of President Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs".

Aside from the Philippines, the other Member-States elected by the General Assembly were Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eritrea, Fiji, India, Italy, Somalia, Togo, and Uruguay.

The Philippines is serving a fresh three-year term in the Council after its election in 2015. It is serving as Vice President representing the Asia-Pacific Group, according to the DFA. The Philippines first served in the Council from 2007 to 2009 and then from 2012 to 2014.

Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN Teddy Locsin, Jr. and Maria Fernanda Espinosa, President of the UN General Assembly. DFA handout​

Hours before the vote, Cayetano lashed out at HRW and other non-government organizations.

He accused human rights groups of criticizing the human rights record of the Philippines "in order to solicit more funds from donors", according to the DFA statement.

“Why moral bankruptcy? Katulad ngayon, budget season sa Europe. Kaya sila maingay, kasi gusto lang kumuha ng additional budget,” he said. “If you want to talk human rights, we’re here. Upuan natin. But [if] you just want to criticize us from afar and don’t want to give solutions, and just keep saying kayo tama kami mali, it’s helping no one except you and your finances." 

Cayetano, who is leaving the DFA to run as congressman of Taguig in the 2019 elections, also took a swipe at Iceland, which has criticized the Duterte administration's campaign against illegal drugs.

“Even yung pinakamaingay sa atin na Iceland. Alam mo ang number one problema ng Iceland sa human rights? It’s domestic violence,” Cayetano claimed. “Ang ingay-ingay nila sa atin. Samantalang ang sa kanila the kind of violence is at home, which is the worst kind of violence kasi your home is supposed to be your castle.” 

Locsin is set to replace Cayetano as DFA secretary.

• 'I said yes': Teddy Boy Locsin, Jr. is next DFA secretary

The Philippines' seat was virtually assured in Asia Pacific regional group, because there were only five countries vying for the five seats

EU and UN hail Rody's Bangsamoro Law

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By Helen Flores, Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star) 

MANILA, Philippines — The European Union and the United Nations hailed President Duterte’s enactment of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) which, according to the EU, represents an opportunity for the Filipino people to embrace peace and stability after decades of conflict, and which the UN called a “landmark achievement on the road to lasting peace in southern Philippines.”

European Commission for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations spokesperson Maja Kocijancic on Friday said the signing of the BOL comes after 21 years of formal talks after the first ceasefire agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“It underlines both parties’ commitment to peace and their ability to tackle a variety of complex matters through a comprehensive and inclusive law,” she said.

The regional group also hailed those involved in the negotiation and adoption of the law who have undertaken important work to bring stability and well-being to the people of Mindanao.

Kocijancic said the EU remains a staunch supporter of the Mindanao Peace Process and is prepared to support the implementation of the BOL in the future, in view of long-lasting peace, development and prosperity in Mindanao and for the Filipinos.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres yesterday congratulated negotiators of the Philippine government and the MILF, the Bicameral Conference Committee, the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and civil society groups for their efforts.

“The United Nations will continue to support the Philippines in the implementation of the law and to help build the capacity of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority as an effective conduit for peace, democratic governance and human rights,” the UN said in a statement.

‘Important step’

Japan also welcomed the enactment of the BOL for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said “the enactment of this law is an important step toward the establishment of the new (Bangsamoro) autonomous government in Mindanao.”

“Japan sincerely commends the efforts of the government of the Philippines, the MILF and all others concerned,” Kono said.

Japan strongly hopes that the transition process toward the inauguration of the Bangsamoro will be steadily implemented, including ratification of the organic law and establishment of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

Japan has been supporting the peace process for many years under the conviction that peace in Mindanao will contribute to regional peace and stability, as declared in the Japan-Philippines Joint Statement on Bilateral Cooperation for the Next Five Years announced in October 2017.

Kono said Japan would enhance its support for the development of Mindanao in a wide range of fields, in accordance with progress in the peace process.

The House of Representatives approved the proposed BOL, which the administration and its authors said is the key to promoting lasting peace in Mindanao.

The BOL will create a new Muslim regional entity and replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

A world without water?

TUE, AUGUST 30, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

As the world marked again the UN’s World Water Day last March 2016, global residents are still struggling to access fresh water. Water scarcity has long been a problem. But climate change, a growing global population and economic growth are putting the natural resource under even more stress. A world without water? Sounding impossible and crazy, while in some parts of the world, especially in Asia, the monsoon rain keeps large areas land-under.

One example of many: since the late 1950's, the Aral lake in Uzbekistan, once the world’s fourth largest, has been rapidly shrinking. Water that had flowed into the lake was diverted to provide irrigation for Uzbekistan’s ‘white gold’, cotton plantations spread across the arid region, while hydro power facilities and reservoirs across Central Asia have also taken their toll.

It is one of the major environmental disasters of the last half century with animal and plant life in the region dying out as a result. But it is not the only place where water has been disappearing. Bolivia’s second-largest lake, Poopó has all but vanished, with severe consequences for both wildlife and people.

Scarcity of water all over the world is becoming an increasing problem. And it’s only going to get worse, said Richard Connor, editor-in-chief of the United Nation’s World Water Development Report 2016 (WWDR), released last month.

“Water has already been relatively scarce,” he explained in German Television. “It’s just that populations are growing and economies are developing, so demand for water keeps increasing, but the quantity of water that is available does not.”

More than 70 percent of the freshwater that is taken from natural re-sources is used in agriculture, for food crops like wheat and rice, but also for plants like cotton. Energy production ac-counts for 15 percent of water usage and another 5 percent is for household usage.

But with the population expected to grow – the WWDR predicts that by 2050 there will be 9.3 billion people, 33 percent more than in 2011 – the world’s water resources are likely to come under increasing pressure. Regions like Central Asia, the Arab world, parts of China, India and the western United States, already suffer from a physical shortage of water. But storage and infra-structure enable countries to collect water and keep it ready in times of drought.

“The magnitude will be proportional to its vulnerability,” said Connor. “Developed countries are much less vulnerable because they have the storage capacity – dams and reservoirs.” But in the developing world, water scarcity is having the greatest impact. There are already more than 1.8 billion people, who only have access to water that is not safe for human consumption, according to the WWDR. And even in areas where there is an abundance of water, like in Sub-Saharan Africa, economic factors mean that people are not getting enough access to the natural resource.

“The water resource is there, but it doesn’t get to the fields, the factories and the cities because infrastructure and institutions are lacking there,” said Connor, adding that crops there are rain-fed because water cannot be used for irrigation. “When there is a drought, like in Ethiopia, they have serious problems that lead to food crises.”

Without improved efficiency measures, agriculture is expected to need 20 percent more water in the coming years to feed the growing population. And let’s face it again: climate is expected to exacerbate the problem, with some countries becoming drier and hotter, while others experience extreme weather in the form of storms and flooding.

A world with less water translates into hardship for unknown millions. Solution must be find. Or is it already too late?

It is only better water management that will help deal with increasing water scarcity, according to experts worldwide. .

Better irrigation techniques that don’t see water wasted through runoff from flooded fields are one way of saving the resource. But any changes in measures would have to be introduced by individual governments and in some cases individual farmers and other stakeholders.

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Email: doringklaus @gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visit www.germanex patinthephilippines.blogspot. com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.

Good Bye World? Good Bye Philippines?

A UN panel believes the world could meet a maximum target for global warming if it significantly cuts annual emissions by 2050. According to a report, however, few nations are doing enough to meet the stated goal. 

Annual emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases must drop 40-70 percent by 2050 to keep the global temperature rise below the 2-degree Celsius (3.6-degree F), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced in a report released last Sunday. So far, the opposite has happened: On average global emissions rose by 1 billion tons a year between 2000 and 2010, outpacing growth in previous decades to reach "unprecedented levels" despite some efforts to contain them, the IPCC announced.

"There is a clear message from science," IPCC co-chair Ottmar Edenhofer said. "To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual."

According to scientists, failure to meet the 2-degree target could lead to further droughts, rising seas and heat waves. The IPCC adopted its 33-page summary at a weeklong session in Berlin to help guide the nearly 200 governments negotiating a new climate agreement for next year.

Top three emitters

Counting all emissions since the 18th century, the United States remains the top carbon polluter. However, China's current emissions run much greater than those of the US.

Along with China and the US, the EU as a bloc is in the world's top-three emitters. About half of the world's combined emissions since 1750 have come in the past 40 years.

The IPCC will release a larger scientific report this week. A report last month warned that flooding, droughts and other climate impacts could have devastating effects on economies, agriculture and human health, particularly in developing countries.

Global temperatures have risen about 0.8 Celsius since record-keeping started in 1850. The IPCC found that keeping warming below 2 C by the year 2100 will require a shift from oil and coal. That would mean a near-quadrupling of energy from zero- or low-carbon sources such as solar and wind power.

Current pledges by governments to reduce emissions by 2020 have set the world on a path between 3 and 5 degrees C of warming by 2100, according to the IPCC - a potentially catastrophic level. UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, in charge of the talks, has urged countries to raise their collective ambition.

"The only safe path forward is to arrive at a carbon neutral world in the second half of this century," Figueres said.

Typhoon-hit Philippine Farmers to Reap Harvest

AFP Typhoon-hit Philippine farmers to reap harvest: UN

Farmers in the Philippines will soon reap a harvest after using emergency seed supplies to grow crops following a devastating typhoon that struck during planting season, the UN food agency said Monday.

Super Typhoon Haiyan raked across the central Philippines last November, killing at least 6,200 people with around 2,000 others still missing, while also displacing four million and leaving tens of thousands of farmers without their livelihoods.

Haiyan hit at a "terrible time" between rice planting seasons but timely seed replacements have ensured a second harvest is not lost, said Jose Graziano da Silva, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Last year the agency had voiced concerns that without the harvest, vulnerable farmers would not have been able to collect rice for almost a year -- until October or November 2014.

"I am pleased to say that our support got there in time," he said in a speech to local farmers who received 1.76 million tonnes of seeds from the FAO after the typhoon.

"When the crop is harvested (in March or April)... it should yield enough rice to feed 800,000 people for more than a year," he added.

"This means that they will not only be able to feed their families, but also sell the surplus and generate extra income which is crucial for them to fully recover."

Graziano da Silva said Haiyan had destroyed 1.1 million tonnes of crops, along with 33 million coconut trees in a major farming region described by the Philippine government as among the poorest.

He said providing coconut farmers with other sources of income, such as helping them plant faster-yielding crops, was a top FAO priority in the six to eight years it will take for new coconut trees to start bearing fruit.

Philippine Christians on Charity Walk for Typhoon Victims

Thousands of members of an influential Christian group in the Philippines have walked in a fundraising rally for victims of November's typhoon. Former footballer and UNICEF ambassador David Beckham also paid a visit. 

Police in Manila said 200,000 people took part in the walk on Saturday to raise money for survivors of one of the country's worst-ever typhoons. All those who walked the three kilometers along the capital's seaside avenue bought special white t-shirts to wear during the march, with all proceeds being donated to help victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

The walkers were members of the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) which has at least three million members in the largely Catholic nation of 100 million people. The group's conservative members tend to vote as a group and are, as a result, politically significant.

It is a hundred days since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on November 8, killing more than six thousand people and displacing four million. A million homes were either damaged or destroyed. Many people are still living in tents and other temporary shelters supplied by an international humanitarian effort led by the United Nations.

"We cannot afford to be complacent," Luiza Carvalho, the UN coordinator for the Philippines, said on Saturday. "The need for durable shelter for millions of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed is critical."

"Millions of livelihoods were similarly destroyed or impaired when the typhoon tore down or damaged 33 million coconut trees, flooded fields with saltwater and took away or wrecked 30,000 fishing vessels," Carvalho added.

Carvalho also called for more donations to help the survivors. She said that only 45 percent of the UN's aid appeal for $788 million (575 million euros) launched in December has been raised so far.

Beckham benefit

Former footballer David Beckham paid a two-day visit to typhoon-hit areas in his role as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). On Friday he played football with children on the sports field of a ruined school in Tanauan, one of the towns worst hit by the typhoon. Earlier he had visited a health care center.

“As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, seeing how children are being given a sense of normality amidst the rubble of their communities has been amazing,” Beckham said via a UNICEF blog. “I want to show people around the world how their generous donations have had an enormous impact on children and their families and how thankful people here are for their kindness.”

jm/dr (dpa, AFP)

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