Day: April 4, 2022

PARIS— UN climate experts are set to release what is expected to be the definitive guide to halting global warming on Monday, in a report that lays out how societies and economies must transform to ensure a “liveable” future.

With war in Ukraine spurring an urgent energy rethink in the West, analysts say the latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will also be an important resource for nations seeking a rapid

transition away from Russian oil and gas.

In recent months the IPCC has published the first two instalments in a trilogy of mammoth scientific assessments covering how greenhouse gas pollution is heating the planet and what that means for life on Earth.

This third report will outline what to do about it.

But that answer has sweeping political ramifications as climate solutions touch on virtually all aspects of modern life — and require significant investment.

Two weeks of gruelling negotiations have seen nearly 200 nations struggling to thrash out line-by-line a high-level “summary for policymakers” that distils the hundreds of pages of underlying assessment.

That meeting was supposed to wrap up on Friday, but dragged on through the weekend. The IPCC assessment was originally due to be published publicly on Monday at 0900 GMT, but that is now likely to be delayed until later in the

day.

“Everybody has something to lose and everybody has something to gain,” said one person close to the process.

Easy answers are unlikely, with the IPCC expected to detail the need for transformational changes to energy generation and industry, as well as to cities, transportation and food systems.

To save the world from the worst ravages of climate change, the report is also expected to warn that slashing carbon dioxide pollution is no longer enough.

And technologies that are not yet operating to scale will need to be ramped up enormously to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere.

A 1.5C cap on global warming — the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris climate accord — has been embraced as a target by most of the world’s nations.

Barely 1.1C of warming so far has ushered in a devastating surge of deadly extreme weather across the globe.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned last month that major economies are allowing carbon pollution to increase when drastic cuts are needed.

“We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe,” he said.

In February, the IPCC report on past, present and future climate change impacts and vulnerabilities detailed what Guterres called an “atlas of human suffering”.

The report concluded that further delays in cutting carbon pollution and preparing for impacts already in the pipeline “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all”.

Current national carbon-cutting commitments still put the world on a catastrophic path toward 2.7C of warming by 2100.

“How much more destruction must we witness, and how many more scientific reports will it take, before governments finally acknowledge fossil fuels as the real culprits behind the human suffering being felt across the globe?”, said Namrata Chowdhary of 350.org.

The main focus of the report is on weaning the global economy off fossil fuels and moving to low- or zero-carbon sources of energy, from solar and wind to nuclear, hydro and hydrogen.

Helping that transition is the fact that renewable energy is now cheaper than energy generated by fossil fuels in most markets.

The IPCC also details ways to reduce demand for oil, gas and coal, whether by making buildings more energy-efficient or encouraging shifts in lifestyle, such as eating less beef and not flying half-way around the world for a

holiday or business meeting.

With intense political wrangling over the high level policy summary, some fear the message will have been watered down.

“The climate crisis is accelerating and fossil fuels are the overwhelming cause. Any report on mitigation that fails to emphasise that fact is denying the very science to which the IPCC is committed,” said Nikki Reisch of the

Center for International Environmental Law.

The report’s finding will feed into UN political negotiations, which resume in November in Egypt at COP 27.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Stunned residents of the northern Somali city of Hargeisa were struggling to pick up the pieces Sunday after a massive inferno destroyed the central market, and with it the livelihoods of thousands.

The mayor of Hargeisa, capital of the breakaway region of Somaliland, estimated the blaze that engulfed the Waheen market had caused losses of up to $2 billion.

Officials have issued urgent appeals for help to rebuild the open-air market, which was the bustling economic heart of Hargeisa with an estimated 2,000 shops and stalls.

The fire broke out late Friday and the flames rapidly swept through the market, consuming everything in their path before they were largely brought under control on Saturday.

No-one was killed in the disaster that struck at the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, but 28 people were injured and hundreds of businesses destroyed, officials said. The cause is not yet known.

“According to preliminary information about the damage the fire caused, there is an estimated loss of property ranging between $1.5 billion to $2 billion,” Hargeisa mayor Abdikarim Mohamed Moge told reporters late Saturday.

“The town has never witnessed such a massive calamity.”

He said the clean-up operation would begin in earnest on Tuesday after allowing local residents and traders to try to retrieve any property that survived the blaze.

A five-member committee has been set up by Somaliland’s president Muse Bihi Abdi to lead the rescue operation and efforts to assist those whose livelihoods have been ruined by the disaster.

Information minister Saleban Yusuf Ali Kore told reporters the flames destroyed an area of about 99,000 square metres (about 24 acres).

– Problems of congestion –

Images from the scene showed huge flames and clouds of smoke billowing into the sky over Hargeisa as the fire took hold, with many buildings destroyed or turned into charred wrecks, their windows blown out.

Somaliland’s fire and rescue chief Ahmed Mohamed Hassan said at least 24 vehicles were used in the firefighting operation but were hampered by poor access in the sprawling market and the difficulty of breaking into shops locked up with iron bars.

“We have been complaining about the overcrowding here for some time and sent our concerns to the business owners, but they have ignored our calls to clear the clogged pathways,” he said.

“I hope they will learn from this.”

Several countries including Britain, which once ruled Somaliland as a protectorate, and neighbouring Ethiopia and Djibouti have offered support and sympathy over the disaster.

“Your city will rise again and the UK will do what we can to support Somaliland’s rebuilding effort,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted on Saturday, without giving details.

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991, an act not recognised by the international community that has left the region of 4.5 million people poor and isolated.

Somaliland has however remained a comparative beacon of stability while Somalia has been wracked by decades of political violence.

Source: Seychelles News Agency