Greta Thunberg says it’s ‘strange’ Joe Biden is considered a climate leader

Maya Yang

Environmental activist criticises US president for expanding fossil fuel infrastructure

Greta Thunberg poses for a photo with a sign reading ‘School strike for climate’ as she protests in front of the Swedish parliament in November. Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images

In an interview with the Washington Post, the 18-year old Swedish environmental activist rejected the idea that the US president is a leader on climate issues.

“It’s strange that people think of Joe Biden as a leader for the climate when you see what his administration is doing,” she said. “The US is actually expanding fossil fuel infrastructure.

“Why is the US doing that? It should not fall on us activists and teenagers who just want to go to school to raise this awareness and to inform people that we are actually facing an emergency.”

Asked what she wants politicians like Biden to do, Thunberg said: “First of all, we have to understand what is the emergency.

“We are trying to find a solution to a crisis that we don’t understand … it’s all about the narrative. It’s all about, what are we actually trying to solve? Is it this emergency, or is it this emergency?”

In November, Thunberg called the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow “a failure”, arguing it “turned into a PR event” in which “leaders are not doing anything” except “actively creating loopholes and shaping frameworks” in order to keep profiting from a “destructive system”.

Speaking to the Post, Thunberg said that a Cop26 final agreement “which is very much an achievement” will not amount to anything unless it increases ambitions which leaders then fulfill.

One of the positives of Cop26, she said, was that it revealed that “under current circumstances, within current systems, we won’t be able to solve the climate crisis unless there is massive pressure from the outside”.

'Cop26 is a failure': Greta Thunberg rallies climate activists in Glasgow – video

Thunberg said global summits like Cop26 presented a “big opportunity” for public mobilization to highlight the climate crisis.

In Glasgow, Biden vowed that the US would “lead by example” in the fight to avoid global heating beyond 1.5C. He made new promises to cut down on methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and to end deforestation, drawing widespread praise.

Nonetheless, when more than 40 countries announced a promise to end coal mining, the US was absent from the list.

In a recent report, the UN environment program and other researchers found that global production of oil and gas is on track to rise over the next 20 years at a rate that will result in double the fossil fuel production in 2030 consistent with a 1.5C rise.

The report found that the US projects increases in oil and gas production by 17% and 12% respectively by 2030.

The Biden administration has approved at least 3,091 new drilling permits on public lands at a rate of 223 permits a month, at a faster rate than the Trump administration.

In November, the US held the largest-ever auction of oil and gas drilling leases in Gulf of Mexico history, offering up more than 80m acres of seabed.

Thunberg told the Post: “What’s holding us back is that we lack the political will.

“Our goal is to find a solution that allows us to continue life [as it is] today,” she said. “… but the uncomfortable truth is that we have left it too late for that. Or the world leaders have left it too late for that.

“We need to fundamentally change our societies now. If we would have started 30 years ago, it would have been smoother. But now it’s a different situation.”

UNESCO marks semi-centennial anniversary of biosphere preservation

FAO/João Roberto Ripper I Farmers, who gatherer flowers in the Southern Espinhaço Mountain Range in Brazil, enhance biodiversity and preserve traditional knowledge.

“This is really a programme for the people, because people are part of nature…so they are incorporated in nature protection but also in sustainable use of natural resources”, said Miguel Clusener Godt, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) MAB Programme Secretary.

Where we stand

© UNESCO

Today 727 biosphere reserves integrate nature conservation and sustainable development in 131 countries, including 22 transboundary sites.

In Africa there are 86 sites in 31 countries; Arab States, 35 sites in 14 countries; Asia and the Pacific, 168 sites in 40 countries; Europe and North America 306 sites in 24 countries; and 132 sites in 24 Latin American and the Caribbean countries.

If bioreserves worldwide were to be put together, Mr. Godt said that they would be equivalent to about five per cent of the world’s surface, spanning  6,812,000 km² or “around the size of Australia”.  

Africa

The diverse vegetation and unique fauna in Tanzania’s Gombe Masito Ugalla Biosphere Reserve is also home to the largest chimpanzee community in the country and includes the Gombe National Park, forest land reserves and part of Lake Tanganyika.

Faunal species in the area include African elephants, ornate frogs and eight primate species.

© UNESCO I The core area of the Gombe Masito Ugalla Biosphere Reserve in Tanzania is endowed with natural, scenic, cultural and social attributes, including the largest chimpanzee community in the country.

Flora there includes a species discovered in, and named after, Gombe, while the biodiversity of Lake Tanganyika encompasses over 300 fish species, 250 bird species, and reptiles, such as the water cobra and the Tanganyika water snake. 

The core area of the Gombe Masito Ugalla Biosphere Reserve in Tanzania is endowed with natural, scenic, cultural and social attributes, including the largest chimpanzee community in the country.

Asia and the Pacific

The Maolan in China was listed as a biosphere reserve in 1996. It lies in the Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province and covers an area of 20,000 hectares, with a forest coverage of 88.61 per cent.

Renowned for its “hugging trees” which cling tenaciously to the rocks of the mountain landscape, the rich biodiversity also includes pheasants, orchids and magnolias.

The local Yao, Buyi and Shui indigenous peoples value their region’s environment and cohabit harmoniously with nature. As the trees provide them with vital resources, for over 1,000 years local communities have performed ceremonial practices and rituals to care for the trees. 

Arab States

© UNESCO

Located on the western slopes of the Mount Lebanon range and overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, the 6,500-hectare biosphere reserve of Jabal Moussa encompasses the ‘Mount of Moses’ – an important site to Christian pilgrims – and its seven villages.

Jabal Moussa’s landscape, preserved throughout centuries, conceals the markings of a region at the meeting point of civilizations, which archaeologists are still unearthing.

Only 40 km to the north-east of Beirut, the biosphere reserve is three times as large as the city, and together with the Shouf and Jabal Rihane biosphere reserves forms an ecological corridor running along Lebanon’s mountainous backbone.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Located in south-east Uruguay, Bañados del Este harbours a remarkable complex of ecosystems, including white sand beaches, dunes and lagoons along the Atlantic coast and is home to diverse wildlife that remains almost intact both on land and at sea.

The biosphere reserve covers 12,500 km² of Uruguay’s eastern coast and is also home to the State’s highest summit, Cerro Catedral.

Hidden among the dunes, this tourist destination is among the most popular in the biosphere reserve and the perfect spot to connect with nature. Due to its remoteness, there is no connection to the local grid or landlines, but the local population is able to access mobile networks and the internet.

Europe

In Spain, transitioning to clean energy at the El Hierro Biosphere Reserve exemplifies ongoing efforts to live in harmony with nature.

The biosphere reserve covers the entire island and some of its waters, with 60 per cent of the island integrated into the core zone and buffer areas.

© UNESCO I El Hierro, a volcanic island in Spain, has an incredibly diverse landscape and a great variety of plant and animal life.

El Hierro is aiming to produce 100 per cent of its electricity from renewables.

Meanwhile, at least 2,604 species of flora and fauna have been recorded on the island, and the reserve is a safe-haven for species of friendly sea-faring mammals.

Wood burners cause nearly half of urban air pollution cancer risk – study

Damian Carrington
Environment editor

Exclusive: Wood smoke is a more important carcinogen than vehicle fumes, finds Athens analysis

Scientists warn that as well as polluting the air outside, wood burners triple the level of harmful pollution inside homes. Photograph: Parmorama/Alamy

Scientists warn that as well as polluting the air outside, wood burners triple the level of harmful pollution inside homes. Photograph: Parmorama/Alamy

Wood burning stoves in urban areas are responsible for almost half of people’s exposure to cancer-causing chemicals found in air pollution particles, new research has shown.

The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in tiny pollution particles are produced by burning fuels and have long been known to have carcinogenic effects. The new study examined the sources of the PAHs and found wood burning produced more than the diesel fuel or petrol used in vehicles.

The analysis was done in Athens, Greece, but the researchers were clear that this was not an unusual case. They said that home wood burning was a significant issue for urban air quality throughout Europe and that excessive exposure to wood smoke could cause severe health effects.

“Athens is not an exception – it’s more representative of a rule,” said Athanasios Nenes, at the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas in Patras, Greece, and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and one of the team behind the new study. “On the one hand, it’s: ‘Oh, my goodness, this is terrible.’ But on the other hand, it points to something people can actually do to reduce this risk without too much effort. You basically stop burning wood. That’s the bottom line.”

Research published in the last year has shown wood burning in homes is the single biggest source of small particle air pollution in the UK, producing three times more than road traffic, despite just 8% of the population using wood burners.

Even new wood burning stoves meeting the “ecodesign” standard still emit 750 times more tiny particle pollution than a modern HGV truck. Wood burners also triple the level of harmful pollution inside homes and should be sold with a health warning, according to scientists.

The new research, published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, took background samples of the air in Athens every day for a year. These were analysed for 31 PAHs and a wide range of other chemical markers.

Specific compounds are associated with different sources of pollution and these enabled the scientists to calculate the proportion of PAHs produced by each source. They found 31% of annual PAHs came from wood burning, mostly in the winter, 33% from diesel and oil, and 29% from petrol (gasoline).

Some PAHs are more carcinogenic than others, however, and when this was taken into account, the proportion of the cancer risk to people as a result of wood burning rose to 43%, with diesel and oil at 36% and petrol at 17%.

“We know that [smoke from] wood burning is much more toxic than other types of particles,” said Nenes, and the results clearly highlight wood burning as a principal driver of long-term carcinogenic risk.

The level of PAH pollution in Athens was the same order of magnitude as found in studies of other European and North American cities, the researchers said, with much higher levels usually reported for cities in China.

The average annual concentration of the PAHs in the Athens study was below EU limits but double the World Health Organization’s reference level. Based on WHO data, the PAHs in Athens would be expected to cause 5 extra cancer cases for every 100,000 people, the researchers said.

“Given [the carcinogen exposure] and the extended usage of [wood] burning throughout Europe, eg France, Germany, Ireland and the UK, European action and policies aimed at the regulation of [wood] burning emissions are immediately required, as they can lead to considerable benefits for public health,” the scientists said.

Nenes said PAHs were not the only carcinogen in wood smoke, and it also had many other compounds that damaged health. “Wood smoke is particularly potent and causes all kinds of ailments from cancer to oxidative stress, which leads to heart attacks and strokes, obesity, premature ageing, diabetes – anything that has to do with inflammation in the body. So overall, I’m really worried about wood burning.”

Gary Fuller at Imperial College London, who was not part of the research team, said: “We tend to think that burning wood is somehow harmless, because wood is a natural product. These measurements remind us that wood burning is not pollution-free. The UK data on emissions of benzo(a)pyrene, one of the main PAHs, shows an increase of 16% since 2000 due to home wood burning.”

Prof Alison Tomlin at the University of Leeds, UK, said the move to electric cars would reduce PAH exposure from traffic. “However, unless suitable mitigation methods are developed to reduce PAH emissions from domestic wood burners and boilers, they will continue to pose a significant health risk.” she said.

The Athens study showed much of the PAH exposure occurred on winter days with low wind and rain, meaning the wood smoke did not disperse. Tomlin said implementing “no-burn days” at such times could be a useful short-term measure. “However, enforcing such a policy, or even wider restrictions on wood burning in densely populated areas, could be challenging,” she said.

Earlier in December, Utrecht council in the Netherlands announced subsidies of up to €2,000 (£1,700) to encourage people to replace their wood burning stoves and fireplaces in order to clean up the city’s air.

Earlier research by Nenes and colleagues found that wood smoke emitted at night time oxidised into more harmful compounds much faster than had been expected. This means the pollution becomes more dangerous to health while it is still concentrated near the source, rather than oxidising over a few days as it disperses.

Six dead giraffes: Kenya drought horror captured in single picture

Oliver Holmes

Aerial shot shows devastating effect of drought that has left people and animals without water

The bodies of six giraffes lie on the outskirts of Eyrib village in Sabuli wildlife conservancy. Photograph: Ed Ram/Getty Images

Six dead giraffes lie in a spiral on the dry earth, their bodies emaciated and interwoven. The aerial shot, taken by the photojournalist Ed Ram, shows the devastation of Kenya’s drought, which has left people and animals struggling for food and water.

Already weak, the animals had died after they got stuck in the mud, according to Getty Images. They were trying to reach a nearby reservoir, although it had almost dried up, the agency reported.

The carcasses were moved to the outskirts of Eyrib village in Wajir County to prevent contamination of the reservoir water.

The assistant chief of Eyrib village, Abdi Karim, looks at the bodies of the giraffes. Photograph: Ed Ram/Getty Images

It is not just animals that are at risk. An estimated 2.1 million Kenyans were facing starvation due to severe drought across half the state, the country’s drought management authority warned in September.

On Tuesday, the UN said 2.9 million people were still in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Some areas of Kenya had recently reported their worst rainfall in decades, it said.

“Water sources for both people and livestock have dried up, forcing families to walk longer distances and causing tensions among communities, which has led to an increase in intercommunal conflict,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its assessment.

Separately, the local Star news website reported that 4,000 giraffes risked being wiped out by the drought.

Ibrahim Ali, from the Bour-Algi giraffe sanctuary, told the Star the situation had worsened due to farming along rivers, which blocked wildlife from drinking spots.

COP26 defined by ‘reinvigorated multilateralism’

UN NEWS

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), held last month in Glasgow, was defined by a “reinvigorated multilateralism”, a top UN official said on Tuesday during an online discussion on how the summit’s outcomes will impact climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“The Glasgow Climate Pact to keep global warming to 1.5C and the other important commitments are a sign of progress”, UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) President Collen Kelapile told the special meeting.

Transform tragedy to opportunity

Ocean Image Bank/Brook Peterson I Coral reefs harbour the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem globally.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing our world & future generations. Joining @UNECOSOC @PEspinosaC @abdulla_shahid @andersen_inger @SelwinHart to share insights and reflections at #UNECOSOC briefing on the outcome of #COP26 for #ClimateAction and the #SDGs. pic.twitter.com/Fyl1k77TGr

— Achim Steiner (@ASteiner) December 14, 2021

As of last month, more than five million have now lost their lives during the pandemic and for the first time in over 20 years, extreme poverty increased as inequalities and gender-based violence rose, he said.

Yet, despite expressions of solidarity and commitments, vaccine equity remains elusive.

“As trillions are being spent on COVID-19 recovery, we must transform this tragedy into a historic opportunity…ensure that recovery efforts are aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the goals of the Paris Agreement to ‘build forward better’”, stated Mr. Kelapile.

He urged the world to swap traditional “siloed” approaches for cross-sectoral decision-making and innovative solutions that “unlock synergies across government portfolios, sectors of the economy, and the SDGs”.

“Recovery packages and policies to address the impacts of the pandemic must also bolster climate action and promote the transformative changes we need to realize the objectives of Paris and Glasgow as well as the SDGs”, upheld the ECOSOC chief.

‘Best tool’ forward

General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid, acknowledged that COP26 outcomes fell short of what was hoped for.

“We saw this in watered down language and in climate targets that had yet to reach the ambition needed…[and] in the wide gap between promises and the policies needed to deliver upon those promises”, he explained.  

On the other hand, he continued, solace was found in the fact that steps were taken to keep 1.5C alive, and to ensure that humanity reaffirmed its trajectory.

“What we need now is to agree on the pace, and to implement the measures to accelerate and get there”, he said.  

He also affirmed that COP26 outcomes remain “our best tool going forward”.   

‘Building a bridge’

The Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Change body (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, highlighted that during COP26, parties “built a bridge” between good intentions and measurable actions to lower emissions, increase resilience and provide much-needed finance.

“Now, we must build on this momentum to push actions forward in 2022”, she said.

Meanwhile, Selwin Hart, Special Adviser for Climate Action noted that from strong commitments to achieve the 1.5C goal to doubling adaptation finance, Glasgow demonstrated some “real progress”.

However, “we are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe and must go into the emergency mode to protect lives and livelihoods”, he argued, urging everyone to “get to work and make 2020s a decade to accelerate climate action”.

Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds

Damian Carrington Environment editor

Surprising discovery shows scale of plastic pollution and reveals enzymes that could boost recycling

Plastic washed ashore on Berawa Beach, Bali, Indonesia. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Microbes in oceans and soils across the globe are evolving to eat plastic, according to a study.

The research scanned more than 200m genes found in DNA samples taken from the environment and found 30,000 different enzymes that could degrade 10 different types of plastic.

The study is the first large-scale global assessment of the plastic-degrading potential of bacteria and found that one in four of the organisms analysed carried a suitable enzyme. The researchers found that the number and type of enzymes they discovered matched the amount and type of plastic pollution in different locations.

The results “provide evidence of a measurable effect of plastic pollution on the global microbial ecology”, the scientists said.

Millions of tonnes of plastic are dumped in the environment every year, and the pollution now pervades the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. Reducing the amount of plastic used is vital, as is the proper collection and treatment of waste.

But many plastics are currently hard to degrade and recycle. Using enzymes to rapidly break down plastics into their building blocks would enable new products to be made from old ones, cutting the need for virgin plastic production. The new research provides many new enzymes to be investigated and adapted for industrial use.

“We found multiple lines of evidence supporting the fact that the global microbiome’s plastic-degrading potential correlates strongly with measurements of environmental plastic pollution – a significant demonstration of how the environment is responding to the pressures we are placing on it,” said Prof Aleksej Zelezniak, at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

Jan Zrimec, also at Chalmers University, said: “We did not expect to find such a large number of enzymes across so many different microbes and environmental habitats. This is a surprising discovery that really illustrates the scale of the issue.”

The explosion of plastic production in the past 70 years, from 2m tonnes to 380m tonnes a year, had given microbes time to evolve to deal with plastic, the researchers said. The study, published in the journal Microbial Ecology, started by compiling a dataset of 95 microbial enzymes already known to degrade plastic, often found in bacteria in rubbish dumps and similar places rife with plastic.

The team then looked for similar enzymes in environmental DNA samples taken by other researchers from 236 different locations around the world. Importantly, the researchers ruled out potential false positives by comparing the enzymes initially identified with enzymes from the human gut, which is not known to have any plastic-degrading enzymes.

About 12,000 of the new enzymes were found in ocean samples, taken at 67 locations and at three different depths. The results showed consistently higher levels of degrading enzymes at deeper levels, matching the higher levels of plastic pollution known to exist at lower depths.

The soil samples were taken from 169 locations in 38 countries and 11 different habitats and contained 18,000 plastic-degrading enzymes. Soils are known to contain more plastics with phthalate additives than the oceans and the researchers found more enzymes that attack these chemicals in the land samples.

Nearly 60% of the new enzymes did not fit into any known enzyme classes, the scientists said, suggesting these molecules degrade plastics in ways that were previously unknown.

“The next step would be to test the most promising enzyme candidates in the lab to closely investigate their properties and the rate of plastic degradation they can achieve,” said Zelezniak. “From there you could engineer microbial communities with targeted degrading functions for specific polymer types.”

The first bug that eats plastic was discovered in a Japanese waste dump in 2016. Scientists then tweaked it in 2018 to try to learn more about how it evolved, but inadvertently created an enzyme that was even better at breaking down plastic bottles. Further tweaks in 2020 increased the speed of degradation sixfold.

Another mutant enzyme was created in 2020 by the company Carbios that breaks down plastic bottles for recycling in hours. German scientists have also discovered a bacterium that feeds on the toxic plastic polyurethane, which is usually dumped in landfills.

Last week, scientists revealed that the levels of microplastics known to be eaten by people via their food caused damage to human cells in the laboratory.

THE GREEN ROOM (Episode 16): Alberto Saldamando on Indigenous Activism for Better Climate and Global Environmental Justice

GREEN ROOM: LIVE WEBINAR TRANSCRIPT

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Summary of the Discussion

This month’s episode focuses on Indigenous People's involvement in the achievement of a greener planet. the topic of discussion was Indigenous Activism for Better Climate and Global Environmental Justice. Our guest, Alberto Saldamando a legal activist for the Indigenous Environmental Network and an internationally acknowledged expert on human rights discusses extensively the marginalization of the indigenous community in decision making that affects their homeland. He further stated his active participation in the negotiations leading to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples.

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LISTEN TO PODCAST

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Alberto Saldamando (Xicano/Zapoteca) is an internationally acknowledged expert on human rights/Indigenous rights and has represented Indigenous Peoples, organizations and communities from various countries from most regions of the world, before United Nations human rights mechanisms, as well as the International Labor Organization, the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Dr. Jason J. McSparren is an educator, researcher, and administrator with a PhD. in Global Governance and Human Security from Massachusetts Boston.He is also a Pre-Doctoral Fellow (2017-18) for the West African Research Association (WARA).

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Favourite Quote

“Silence does not protect anybody from the state”

— Alberto Saldamando

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‘Disastrous’ plastic use in farming threatens food safety – UN

Damian Carrington
Environment editor

Food and Agriculture Organization says most plastics are burned, buried or lost after use

Farmers cover a field with plastic films in Yuli county, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northern China. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

The “disastrous” way in which plastic is used in farming across the world is threatening food safety and potentially human health, according to a report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

It says soils contain more microplastic pollution than the oceans and that there is “irrefutable” evidence of the need for better management of the millions of tonnes of plastics used in the food and farming system each year.

The report recognizes the benefits of plastic in producing and protecting food, from irrigation and silage bags to fishing gear and tree guards. But the FAO said the use of plastics had become pervasive and that most were currently single-use and were buried, burned or lost after use. It also warned of a growing demand for agricultural plastics.

There is increasing concern about the microplastics formed as larger plastics are broken down, the report said. Microplastics are consumed by people and wildlife and some contain toxic additives and can also carry pathogens. Some marine animals are harmed by eating plastics but little is known about the impact on land animals or people.

“The report serves as a loud call for decisive action to curb the disastrous use of plastics across the agricultural sectors,” said Maria Helena Semedo, deputy director general at the FAO.

“Soils are one of the main receptors of agricultural plastics and are known to contain larger quantities of microplastics than oceans,” she said. “Microplastics can accumulate in food chains, threatening food security, food safety and potentially human health.”

Global soils are the source of all life on land but the FAO warned in December 2020 that their future looked “bleak” without action to halt degradation. Microplastic pollution is also a global problem, pervading the planet from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest ocean trenches.

The FAO report, which was reviewed by external experts, estimates 12.5m tonnes of plastic products were used in plant and animal production in 2019, and a further 37.3m in food packaging.

Plastic is a versatile material and cheap and easy to make into products, the report says. These include greenhouse and mulching films as well as polymer-coated fertiliser pellets, which release nutrients more slowly and efficiently.

“However, despite the many benefits, agricultural plastics also pose a serious risk of pollution and harm to human and ecosystem health when they are damaged, degraded or discarded in the environment,” the report says.

Data on plastic use is limited, it says, but Asia was estimated to be the largest user, accounting for about half of global usage. Furthermore, the global demand for major products such as greenhouse, mulching and silage films is expected to rise by 50% by 2030.

Only a small fraction of agricultural plastics are collected and recycled. The FAO said: “The urgency for coordinated and decisive action cannot be understated.”

Prof Jonathan Leake, at the University of Sheffield in the UK and a panel member of the UK Sustainable Soils Alliance, said: “Plastic pollution of agricultural soils is a pervasive, persistent problem that threatens soil health throughout much of the world.”

He said the impact of plastic was poorly understood, although adverse effects had been seen on earthworms, which played a crucial role in keeping soils and crops healthy.

“We are currently adding large amounts of these unnatural materials into agricultural soils without understanding their long-term effects,” he said. “In the UK the problems are especially serious because of our applications of large amounts of plastic-contaminated sewage sludges and composts. We need to remove the plastics [from these] before they are added to land, as it is impossible to remove them afterwards.”

As a solution, the FAO report cites “the 6R model” – refuse, redesign, reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover. This means adopting farming practices that avoid plastic use, substituting plastic products with natural or biodegradable alternatives, promoting reusable plastic products and improving plastic waste management.

The world's newest nation is both drying up and drowning

Bentiu, South Sudan (CNN)

Many of the main roads running through Unity State are now completely submerged, yet the traffic remains. There are no cars, just people, some of whom swim, others wade, pushing their way through the heavy silt-laden water. The more fortunate glide by on canoes with their livestock and whatever possessions they could salvage from the floods.

In this traffic, between the cities of Bentiu and Ding Ding, is a group of women, pushing to dislodge their makeshift raft that has become stuck in mud, weighed down by six children. The men in the family went back north to keep their cattle safe, and the women were left to push for four days in the hope of reaching higher ground. Along the way, their food ran out, said one of the women, named Nereka. Her 5-month-old baby wails as she talks.

"Of course, I'm worried about my children," she said. "That's why we keep moving."

Ravaged by years of conflict, there has barely been enough peacetime in the world's newest nation to begin building. Only 200 kilometers of its roads are paved. Now, South Sudan is dealing with biblical floods that began as early as June and were made worse by the climate crisis, which it had little hand in creating.

Young displaced people return to a camp from Bentiu.

A hut with a straw roof pokes out from the floodwaters in the town of Ding Ding.

This deluge, which is the worst in 60 years according to the UN, has swallowed not only the very roads that people here need to escape, but also their farms, homes and markets.

For years, South Sudan has been experiencing wetter-than-normal wet seasons, while its dry seasons are becoming even drier. The rainy season has ended, yet the water that has accumulated over months has yet to recede.

South Sudan is one of many places in the world struggling with this twin problem of drought followed by extreme rainfall, which together create prime conditions for devastating floods.

More than 850,000 people have been impacted by the floods, the UN agency coordinating the relief effort there told CNN, and some 35,000 of them have been displaced.

Remote towns like Ding Ding now sit largely abandoned. The traditional straw roofs of many homes here peak above the waterline, their walls still submerged.

Some people searching for food here have resorted to eating the lilies that have started to sprout on the floodwater's surface, as an entirely new ecosystem begins to form in this radically changed landscape.

It's a grim picture for a country that is only 10 years old. After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, just two and a half years later, South Sudan descended into a brutal civil war that only ended last year. Deadly, inter-communal violence continues to be common as people fight over increasingly scarce grazing land.

Competing for resources

South Sudan is no stranger to seasonal flooding, but officials in Unity State say they haven't seen anything on this scale since the early 1960s. Ninety percent of the state's land has been affected by the flooding, and the next rainy season is only five months away. Officials in Bentiu say they are worried the situation will only get worse.

"We are told the water behind me will not go now, it will not recede or dry up. It's going to take a while because it's deep water," said Minister Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, the state's minister of land, housing and public utilities.

Scientists are now able to calculate how much the climate crisis may have played a role in most extreme weather events. But in this part of the world, it is notoriously difficult to measure with certainty because it has such huge variations in its natural climate to begin with.

Making projections for drought is particularly hard here, but what scientists do know is that the more the Earth warms, the more the Horn of Africa and its surrounding countries will experience extreme rainfall, making it more susceptible to flooding. That's largely because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which triggers more rain.

The world is already 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than it was before it began industrializing, and Africa overall is seeing higher rises in temperature than the global average.

To those dealing with this problem in South Sudan, the climate crisis is clearly here already and offers the rest of the world a glimpse of what complications it could bring.

"We are feeling climate change. We are feeling it," said John Payai Manyok, the country's Deputy Director for Climate Change.

"We are feeling droughts, we are feeling floods. And this is becoming a crisis. It's leading to food insecurity, it's leading to more conflict within the area because people are competing for the little resources that are available."

While droughts and floods may seem like polar opposites, they have more of a relationship than is obvious.

A woman carries her baby on her head as she wades through the floodwaters.

"After you've had a long period of drought, soil may be hardened, may be very dry, and so you're going to get more (rainwater) runoff, and that will exacerbate the risk of flooding," said Caroline Wainwright, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, who studies the East African region.

"And all this potentially aids bigger storms too, and more intense rainfall. That's something we might expect to see more of -- periods of drying and these really intense storms."

The question now is not only how to clean up the mess, but how to adapt to better withstand these extreme weather disasters.

Like many nations suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis, South Sudan accounts for 0.004% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The US, by contrast, accounts for more than 15%. But much of the suffering here comes from a lack of tools and systems to prevent an extreme weather event turning into a humanitarian disaster.

Still, the industrialized world, which played the biggest role in the climate crisis, is still failing to deliver on a $100 billion a year it promised the developing world to help it cut emissions and adapt to the enormous changes. A UN report released in last month found that adaptation costs in the developing worlds are already five to 10 times greater than current funding. By mid-century, it is expected to reach $500 billion dollars.

While its neighboring countries move ahead building dams and more permanent dikes, South Sudan has failed to adapt and remains at the mercy of its rivers, Manyok said. Human activity is also worsening the health of rivers and their capacity to hold water in during heavy rainfall.

Manyok said the country desperately needs to adapt.

"We must introduce technologies which are water friendly and efficient, and along the Nile, we must construct dams and remove the siltation," Manyok said.

Siltation is usually caused by sediment or soil erosion, and can build up in rivers and block the natural flow of water, exacerbating flooding.

The town of Rubkona.

A UN mission repairs a damaged dike.

A school destroyed

Swaths of Rubkona, a market town next to Unity State's capital Bentiu, have been abandoned. The markets and homes here sit ghostlike, submerged under water that continues to rise at a slow, tortuous pace.

Nearby, Pakistani engineers from the UN mission are using the few heavy machines available to repair and strengthen a hastily constructed mud dike that has kept the airport and a camp of nearly 120,000 displaced people on dry ground. UN officials say a breach here would be catastrophic.

The battle is constant as each day water continues to crawl up the dike's wall. It seeps across the red clay road toward the runway and the camp's gates.

The vast majority of the IDP's arrived years ago, having fled South Sudan's brutal civil war. They are now sharing space and increasingly limited resources with the new arrivals.

A Doctors Without Borders hospital inside the camp is over capacity. Staff are treating a massive spike in the number of malnourished babies since the flooding began.

"We had 130 cases in the past month. Previously, we might have 30-40 in a month," Managing Director Kie John Kuol said.

Back in Ding Ding, the town's school, which was rebuilt in 2017 after it burned down during the civil war, is also partially submerged in the water -- progress is once again suspended. According to UNICEF, the flooding has destroyed, closed, or impeded access to more than 500 schools in South Sudan.

Kuol Gany, a school teacher, is worried he will need to leave his hometown soon.

As teacher Kuol Gany tours his classroom, the water reaches his knees. Behind him is a chalkboard scrawled with equations and English-language definitions for words.

"Relief is the assistance given to the people during disaster," one definition reads.

Gany only had a few years of teaching in this new building before the floods hit. He worries he'll have to abandon it, and even his town, for good.

"It's still increasing, the water," he said. "There are diseases and there are snakebites. And we are drinking this water too.".

James Ling, a resident of Ding Ding, said he returned briefly to see what he could salvage from his home of eight years. He waded through the water to reach his home, only to find nothing left, except for his children's drawings on the walls.

"Since the conflict erupted, we have never had a rest," he said. "We have been constantly running, displaced. Our children have had no relief from the dangers."

Pacific Ocean garbage patch is immense plastic habitat

Victoria Gill
BBC NEWS

Scientists have discovered marine animals living on plastic debris in an area of the open ocean dubbed "the Great Pacific Garbage Patch".

OCEAN VOYAGES INSTITUTE I The researchers collaborated with the Ocean Voyages Institute to collect ocean debris

Many of the creatures are coastal species, living miles from their usual habitats, on a patch halfway between the coast of California and Hawaii.

Plants and animals, including anemones, tiny marine bugs, molluscs and crabs, were found on 90% of the debris.

Scientists are concerned that plastic may help transport invasive species.

The study examined plastic items more than 5cm (2in) in diameter gathered from a gyre - an area where circulating currents cause floating debris to accumulate - in the Pacific.

Lead researcher Dr Linsey Haram, who carried out the work at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre, said: "Plastics are more permanent than many of the natural debris that you previously have seen in the open ocean. They're creating a more permanent habitat in this area."

Dr Haram worked with the Ocean Voyages Institute, a charity that collects plastic pollution on sailing expeditions, and with oceanographers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

SMITHSONIAN I More than half the items the researchers examined contained species usually found on the coast

The world has at least five plastic-infested gyres. This one is thought to hold the most floating plastic - an estimated 79,000 tonnes in a region of more than 610,000 square miles (1.6m sq km).

"All sorts of stuff ends up out there," said Dr Haram. "It's not an island of plastic, but there's definitely a large amount of plastic corralled there."

Much of that is micro-plastic - very difficult to see with the naked eye. But there are also larger items, including abandoned fishing nets, buoys and even vessels that have been floating in the gyre since the Japanese tsunami in 2011.

The researchers, who reported their findings in the journal Nature Communications, initially embarked on the investigation following that devastating tsunami.

REUTERS I The research began following the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan, which sent tonnes of debris into the Pacific Ocean

The disaster caused tonnes of debris to be ejected into the Pacific ocean, and hundreds of coastal Japanese marine species were found alive on items that landed on the shores of the North American Pacific coast and the Hawaiian Islands.

"We want to get a handle on how plastics may be a transport for invasive species to coasts," Dr Haram told BBC News.

Some of the organisms the researchers found on the plastic items they examined were open-ocean species - organisms that survive by "rafting" on floating debris. But the most eye-opening finding, Dr Haram said, was the diversity of coastal species on the plastic.

"Well over half of the items had coastal species on them," she said. "That creates a lot of questions about what it means to be a coastal species."

The scientists said the discovery highlighted another "unintended consequence" of plastic pollution - a problem only expected to grow.

One previous study estimated that a total of 25,000 million tonnes of plastic waste would be generated by 2050.

OECD warns Omicron variant could cause severe global slowdown

Richard Partington

Fears variant will amplify shortages, driving up inflation, or even force repeat of earliest phase of pandemic

Western governments could be forced to bring in fresh emergency financial support for businesses and households if the Omicron coronavirus variant causes a severe global slowdown, a leading economic thinktank has warned.

Sounding the alarm as more cases are identified, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said a renewed wave in the pandemic threatened to add to the existing strain on the world economy from persistently high levels of inflation.

Should Omicron prove more transmissible than other variants or more resistant to existing vaccines, it could exacerbate disruption to already battered supply chains and risk driving up inflation for a prolonged period, the Paris-based organisation said.

If it takes a more severe turn, it could also force governments to impose tighter mobility restrictions, hurting demand for goods and services, and leading to a sharp fall in economic activity and lower inflation, similar to the earliest phase of the pandemic.

Laurence Boone, the chief economist of the OECD, said there were two scenarios facing the international economy as Omicron adds to the uncertainties in the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

“One is where it creates more supply disruptions and prolongs higher inflation for longer. And one where it is more severe and we have to use more mobility restrictions, in which case demand could decline and inflation could actually recede much faster than what we have here,” she said.

If the Omicron turned out to be “more evil” than other variants, Boone said, governments could be called upon to step in to cushion the blow for businesses and households. “That could be a scenario where we need more fiscal support at this stage,” she added.

Already in the UK, bosses of pubs, bars and restaurants are reporting a wave of cancellations for Christmas party bookings amid fears over the new variant, in an early sign of its harmful economic impact.

Publishing its latest economic outlook report, the OECD said the world’s recovery from previous lockdowns was continuing but that momentum had eased and was becoming increasingly imbalanced.

It added that the failure to ensure rapid and effective vaccination around the world was proving costly, with uncertainty remaining high and as new Covid variants are identified.

The outlook projects global GDP growth at 5.6% this year and 4.5% in 2022, before settling back to 3.2% in 2023, close to rates before the pandemic.

Boone said the G20 group of wealthy nations had spent about $10tn (£7.5tn) in emergency support since the start of the pandemic, but that it would take just $50bn to ensure vaccination worldwide.

“The news about the Omicron variant may actually be a reminder of how shortsighted that failure has been. We’re spending to support our economies, while we’re failing to vaccinate the whole world,” she said. “As a result the world really is not looking better.”

The intervention by the OECD comes as concern grows over persistently high levels of inflation across the world economy. While demand for goods and services has soared after the easing of lockdown measures earlier this year, supply constraints and freight bottlenecks caused by continuing pandemic disruption have led to shortages of materials, pushing up prices.

Central banks around the world are grappling with rising inflationary pressures. The chair of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, signalled on Tuesday he would support a quicker withdrawal of emergency pandemic stimulus measures in response, while the Bank of England has been tipped to raise interest rates within weeks.

The OECD increased its inflation forecast for next year to 4.4%, up from the 3.9% estimated in September. It predicts largest increases in the US and the UK, with rates of 3.1% and 4.4% next year respectively.

Although warning that the new variant could lead to higher and more persistent inflation, Boone said most central banks had been waiting to see whether supply tensions would diminish, “and rightly so”.

“Faced with supply bottlenecks and where overall demand is not excessive, the best central banks can do is actually to signal that they will act if the pressure continues to increase. But it is for companies and governments to address the bottlenecks,” she added.

Financing sustainable development needed more than ever, says UN deputy chief Mohammed

Securing the funding needed for sustainable development by involving as many actors from different sectors as possible, is more urgent than ever, amid a widening “trust deficit” between the haves and the have-nots, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said on Monday.

Speaking at the Building Bridges Summit for sustainable finance in Geneva, Amina Mohammed urged all those present from Government, the private sector, international organisations and civil society, to do more to push ahead with a common investment framework to improve people’s lives everywhere. 

More ambition, action 

“We need more ambition, more action, more scale, greater urgency in delivering the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement – and we certainly need more fuel, more financial resources and more investments,” she said. “The good news is that we already have a shared narrative or a linguistic bridge in the 2030 Agenda. But we still face a mismatch of metrics and languages between diplomacy and business; public and private actors.” 

Representing the Swiss federal government at the summit’s second iteration, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer highlighted its potential for concrete action, along with the need to be inclusive and transparent in the way that sustainable financing is handled. 

“We need more ambition, more action, more scale, greater urgency in delivering the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement – and we certainly need more fuel, more financial resources & more investments," -- Deputy Secretary-General @AminaJMohammed at the @BBridgesCH Summit in Geneva pic.twitter.com/QMMZMP1dOU

— UN Geneva (@UNGeneva) November 29, 2021

“I think Building Bridges, we have to do it between the population and the Government, we have to explain what we have to do,” he said. “Then we need bridges between the private sector and the Government and then I think we need bridges from Switzerland to the world.” 

According to the summit’s organisers, between 2019 and 2020, sustainable investment rose by 31 per cent in Switzerland, to over 1,500 billion francs. 

In addition to highlighting opportunities for investors and fund managers, it is hoped that the summit will contribute to creating an ordered and common approach to “net zero” financing, said Patrick Odier, President of Building Bridges initiative and chair of Lombard Odier bank. 

“We are trying actually to bring capital closer to the whole array of the Sustainable Development Goals, i.e. to try to find not only bridges - but to be concrete - instruments, metrics, methodologies that allow capital not only to set targets in certain areas that are covered by the SDGs, but also to be measurable in terms of reaching all those targets that I have said. And this is where finance is at this very moment.” 

Mr. Odier also responded to the call to end subsidies for fossil fuel industries to create a level playing field for renewable energy investment: “We all know that we have to deal with these issues of subsidies, but finance itself is not at the helm of addressing this issue,” he said. “What finance can do is basically ask the Government to play its role when it comes to trying to address the fossil industry and of course the emission problematic.” 

Unlock resources 

Highlighting the convening ambition of the summit at Geneva’s Maison de la Paix, Deputy Secretary-General Mohammed listed the issues that she hoped the week-long summit might address. 

“We need the private sector and its leadership to unlock resources for key transitions in sustainable energy and connectivity, food systems, health, education, social protection, digitalization." 

“Innovative instruments including blended finance can all play an important role, but we need to massively scale-up that delivery.” 

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed addresses the Building Bridges Summit in Geneva.

Building Bridges

Trust deficit 

Despite the fact that there was the “leadership”, “expertise” and “tools” to achieve so much, Ms. Mohammed warned that “the truth is that the trust deficit is widening in our world”.  

And amid World Health Organization data showing that more than 80 per cent of COVID-19 vaccines have gone to G20 countries and low-income countries have received just 0.6 per cent, the UN deputy chief maintained in particular that “we have not been able to rise” to the global solidarity call. 

“Until everyone gets the vaccine, we will all be at risk, and we will not be able to take the SDGs to where they ought to be by 2030, she said. “For many, the health pandemic has been a tragedy, particularly in developed countries, but for developing countries it has a socio-economic impact that will take so much longer to recover from. 

“And so, we need the urgency of the investments in climate action, which will have multiplier effects on the SDGs.”

‘It’s as if we’re in Mad Max’: warnings for Amazon as goldmining dredges occupy river

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro

Hundreds of illegal gold mining dredges converge in search of metal as one activist describes it as a ‘free-for-all’

An aerial view shows hundreds of dredging rafts operated by illegal miners who have gathered in a gold rush on the Madeira, in Brazil, on Tuesday. Photograph: Bruno Kelly/Reuters

Environmentalists are demanding urgent action to halt an aquatic gold rush along one of the Amazon River’s largest tributaries, where hundreds of illegal goldmining dredges have converged in search of the precious metal.

The vast flotilla – so large one local website compared it to a floating neighbourhood – reportedly began forming on the Madeira River earlier this month after rumours that a large gold deposit had been found in the vicinity.

“They’re making a gram of gold an hour down there,” one prospector claims in an audio recording obtained by the Estado de São Paulo newspaper.

Danicley Aguiar, an Amazon-based Greenpeace activist who flew over the mining flotilla on Tuesday, said he had been stunned by the magnitude of the illegal operation unfolding just 75 miles east of the city of Manaus.

“We’ve seen this kind of thing before in other places – but not on this scale,” Aguiar said of the hundreds of rafts he saw hoovering up the Madeira’s riverbed near the towns of Autazes and Nova Olinda do Norte.

“It’s like a condominium of mining dredges … occupying pretty much the whole river.”

Aguiar added: “I’ve been working in the Amazon for 25 years. I was born here and I’ve seen many terrible things: so much destruction, so much deforestation, so many illegal mines. But when you see a scene like that it makes you feel as though the Amazon has been thrust into this spiral of free-for-all. There are no rules. It’s as if we’re living in Mad Max.”

There was outrage as footage of the riverine gold rush spread on social media.

Dredging rafts operated by illegal miners on the Madeira river, Brazil. Photograph: Bruno Kelly/Reuters

“Just look at the audacity of these criminals. The extent of the impunity,” tweeted Sônia Bridi, a celebrated Brazilian journalist known for her coverage of the Amazon.

André Borges, another journalist whose story helped expose the mining flotilla, tweeted: “We are witnessing, in 2021, a goldminers’ uprising with all the aggressiveness of the days of discovery.”

Brazil’s multimillion-dollar illegal mining industry has intensified since the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right nationalist who backs the wildcat garimpeiros who trawl the Amazon’s rivers and rainforests for gold.

As many as 20,0000 garimpeiros are believed to be operating within the supposedly protected Yanomami indigenous reserve in Roraima, one of nine states that makes up the Brazilian Amazon.

Deforestation has also soared under Bolsonaro, who has stripped back environmental protections and been accused of encouraging environmental criminals. Amazon destruction rose to its highest levels in 15 years between 2020 and 2021 when an area more than half the size of Wales was lost.

Last week the Bolsonaro administration was accused of deliberately withholding new government data laying bare the scale of the deforestation crisis to avoid international humiliation during the Cop climate summit, which Brazil’s president declined to attend.

Aguiar, a Greenpeace spokesperson for the Amazon, said Bolsonaro’s pro-development rhetoric was partly to blame for the gold rush playing out on the Madeira River. He also pointed the finger at regional politicians in the Amazon who supported plans to allow miners to exploit gold deposits in riverbeds.

In a recent interview, the former head of Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama, Suely Araújo, said she saw only one way of saving her country’s environment: electing a different president.

“It’s hard to believe that this government is going to look after the environment because they are destroying everything,” said Araújo, a public policy specialist for the Observatório do Clima environmental group.

Libya at ‘delicate and critical juncture’ ahead of landmark elections: UN envoy

UN NEWS

With one month left until elections in Libya, it is important that the international community remains united in support of the process, UN Special Envoy Ján Kubiš told the Security Council on Wednesday.

He reported that the political climate remains “heavily polarized” ahead of the presidential and parliamentary polls, which are being held in line with a roadmap adopted last year following a historic ceasefire and the establishment of an interim government. 

Even though Libyans are eager to cast their votes, “vocal opposition” persists surrounding the legal framework for the elections, said Mr. Kubiš, who has recently resigned. 

A delicate juncture  

Tensions are also rising over the eligibility of some high-profile presidential candidates, as are fears of armed confrontation.   

The envoy urged objectors to channel their concerns through existing judicial mechanisms and to respect the verdicts. 

“Libya continues to be at a delicate and fragile juncture on its path to unity and stability through the ballot boxes”, said Mr. Kubiš, who also heads the UN mission in the country, UNSMIL. 

“While risks associated with the ongoing political polarization around the elections are evident and present, not holding the elections could gravely deteriorate the situation in the country and could lead to further division and conflict”. 

Libya’s High National Election Commission (HNEC) has confirmed that the first round of presidential elections will be held on 24 December.  

Candidates step forward 

The second round, as well as the parliamentary elections, are set to take place 50 days later.  All final results will be announced simultaneously. 

Registration for presidential candidates ended this week. Mr. Kubis said that a preliminary list was expected on Thursday afternoon, with some 98 people, including two women, putting their names forward. 

Candidates include the interim Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former President Muammar Gaddafi, who was deposed in 2011, following which the country descended into crisis, with two rival administrations battling for power until recently.

The ongoing registration for parliamentary elections will conclude on 7 December.  So far, more than 2,000 people, including 276 women, have stepped forward as candidates. 

‘Yearning’ to vote 

Meanwhile, nearly two million voter cards have been distributed to date.  Additionally, more than 3,200 domestic observers, 320 national media representatives, 20 international media, and nine international observation organizations have applied for HNEC accreditation. 

Mr. Kubiš said the high number of registered voters and candidates shows Libyans “are yearning for an opportunity to elect their representatives and give them a mandate to govern Libya through democratic legitimacy”. 

This aspiration must be fulfilled, he added, underlining the need for international support to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process.  

He stressed that while the judiciary will have final word on any objections raised, whether concerning the process or the presidential candidates, the final decision will ultimately be made by the Libyan people.  

“It is the Libyans that have their future and the future of Libya in their hands”, said the Special Envoy.  

“They should participate in the elections, vote for those that are committed to stable, prosperous, united, sovereign and democratic Libya, governed by the rule of law and committed to fight corruption, pursue national reconciliation, justice and accountability”. 

Special Envoy resigns 

Mr. Kubiš also addressed his decision to step down, having submitted his resignation letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres last week. 

Given the ongoing political and security transitions in Libya, as well as the “delicate and complex electoral processes”, the need for a UN-mediated process and good offices role has intensified, he said. 

Therefore, he has suggested that the Head of UNSMIL should be urgently relocated to the capital, Tripoli, which he has long supported, along with splitting the positions of Special Envoy and UN mission chief.  

“In order to create conditions for this, on 17 November 2021, I tendered my resignation”, said Mr. Kubiš, who has expressed readiness to continue for a transitional period covering the electoral process. 

Speaking on Tuesday, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Mr. Guterres has accepted the envoy’s resignation “with regret” and is working on an appropriate replacement. 

“We are all fully aware of the electoral calendar and are working as quickly as possible to ensure continuity of leadership”, he said. 

Covid deaths in Europe to top 2 million by March, says WHO

Jon Henley, Europe correspondent

Dr Hans Kluge describes situation as ‘very serious’ with increasing strain on health services

Hans Kluge, pictured on a visit to a refugee camp in Belarus on Monday, has urged all European countries to take a ‘vaccine plus’ approach to the pandemic. Photograph: Sergei Bobylev/Tass

Total deaths across Europe from Covid-19 are likely to exceed 2 million by March next year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, adding that the pandemic had become the number one cause of death in the region.

Reported deaths have risen to nearly 4,200 a day, double the number being recorded in September, the agency said, while cumulative reported deaths in the region, which includes the UK, have already surpassed 1.5 million.

Describing the situation as “very serious”, the WHO said it expected “high or extreme stress” on hospital beds in 25 of the region’s 53 countries, with intensive care units in 49 countries set to come under similar strain.

On current trends, the region’s cumulative death toll would surpass 2.2 million by 1 March, it said.

As Europe again becomes the centre of the pandemic, with tighter controls mainly on the unvaccinated and heated debate in several countries about making vaccination obligatory, Austria this week became the first west European country to re-enter lockdown since inoculation began earlier this year.

The increase in cases was being driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant which is now dominant across the region, the WHO said, fuelled by a widespread relaxation of preventive measures, such as mask wearing and physical distancing, since the summer.

With more and more people gathering indoors in the colder late-autumn weather, a large number still not vaccinated, and vaccine efficacy against severe forms of the disease waning, “many people are left vulnerable to the virus”.

Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said it was essential that countries adopted a “vaccine plus” approach. “This means getting the standard doses of vaccine and taking a booster if offered,” he said, “but also incorporating preventive measures into our normal routines.”

In combination with the vaccines, Kluge said, wearing a mask, washing your hands, ventilating indoor spaces, keeping physical distance, and sneezing into your elbow were “simple, effective ways of gaining control over the virus”.

He added: “All of us have the opportunity and responsibility to help avert unnecessary tragedy and loss of life and limit further disruption to society and businesses over this winter season,” by avoiding “the last resort of lockdowns and school closures”.

The WHO said more than 1bn vaccine doses had been administered in the WHO European region and 53.5% of people had completed their inoculation programme, but added that the figure “hides wide differences between countries”, with some populations less than 10% vaccinated and others more than 80%.

The vaccines were “are a vital tool to prevent severe disease and death” and had saved hundreds of thousands of lives, it said, calling for governments to do more to increase coverage, including by working with behavioural and cultural scientists to understand individual and community reluctance.

But with evidence growing that the vaccines’ protection against infection and mild disease declined over time, it urged that booster doses “should be given to protect the most vulnerable, including the immunocompromised, as a priority”, as well as to the over-60s and heathcare workers as a precaution.

Data showed only 48% of people across the region wear a mask when they leave home, it said, estimating that 95% mask usage could prevent more than 160,000 deaths that could otherwise occur before 1 March.

“Today, the Covid-19 situation across Europe and central Asia is very serious,” Kluge said. “We face a challenging winter ahead, but … all of us – governments, health authorities, individuals – can take decisive action to stabilise the pandemic.”

UK will press governments to stick to climate pledges, says Cop26 president

Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent

Alok Sharma says shared goals must be steered to safety by ensuring countries deliver on their promises

Alok Sharma says the ‘UK’s work as the Cop26 presidency is really only just beginning’. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The UK will continue to press governments around the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions urgently in the next year to limit global heating to 1.5C, after the UN climate talks that concluded last week, the president of the summit has pledged.

Alok Sharma, the cabinet minister who led the Cop26 talks, said the world had shown in Glasgow that countries could work together to establish a framework for climate action but the next year must focus on keeping the promises made there.

“The 1.5C limit lives,” he writes in today’s Guardian. “We brought it back from the brink. But its pulse remains weak. We must steer it to safety by ensuring countries deliver on the promises they have made.”

Some argued the talks had failed because the pledges on emissions cuts made at Cop26 were insufficient to meet the 1.5C goal.

Sharma acknowledged that countries must increase their pledges and turn them into action and policies. Referring to youth activists from around the world who urged political leaders to act in Glasgow, he said: “We owe it to all of them to deliver what we agreed.”

Two weeks of Cop26 talks ended in dramatic fashion as Sharma feared the carefully constructed deal among nearly 200 countries was about to collapse at the last moment, when China and India objected to a reference in the final agreement to the “phase out” of coal-fired power.

In the end a compromise was reached, with Sharma on the brink of tears as he apologised to developing countries for the change. The pledges on emissions cuts made at the talks would lead to heating of about 2.4C above pre-industrial levels, far above the 1.5C threshold, so the Glasgow pact also requires countries to revise their targets upwards in the next year.

Under the UN rules, the UK will retain responsibility for climate negotiations for the next year, until the Egyptian government assumes the presidency next November. In his first public writing since the talks concluded, Sharma sets out his aims.

“The UK’s work as the Cop26 presidency is really only just beginning,” he writes. “Over the course of the next year, we will work with countries urging them to take action and honour their promises.

“There is no formal policing process in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change system, and so we must keep up the constructive pressure, and build on the trust and goodwill generated through Cop26.”

The lack of any policing process or sanctions for countries that fail to revise their national targets on emissions, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), means that the main ways of holding governments to account are through public scrutiny and political pressure.

Australia’s government has already made clear that it does not intend to increase its targets, which are widely regarded as inadequate. The US and the EU have also indicated they do not intend to increase their ambition.

Key countries under the spotlight are the world’s biggest emitter, China, whose promise to peak emissions by the end of this decade disappointed many analysts who argued it could go further; and the third biggest emitter, India, which announced new targets in Glasgow but has yet to formally detail them. Russia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil are also under scrutiny.

Sharma argues that business and finance will play a key role. “Markets are falling into line, with the value of shares in coal firms around the world dropping since we sent a signal that coal is no longer king,” he writes.

Green campaigners have told the Guardian that if the UK wants to show leadership this year, ministers must also look to their own actions. Proposals for a new coalmine in Cumbria, new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, airport and road expansion and dithering on green policy have tarnished the UK’s reputation, while above all the decision to slash overseas aid – even while the Cop26 talks centred on climate finance for poor countries – caused deep alarm.

Sharma was widely regarded as isolated within the cabinet at Cop26, as insiders told the Guardian of a rift between the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and prime minister, Boris Johnson, over green measures.

Sunak visited the summit briefly but made little impact on senior figures from other countries present. The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, also played a little role in Glasgow.

Rachel Kyte, a former World Bank top official on climate change, now dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University in the US, told the Guardian that getting other donor countries to increase climate finance “was made even more complicated by UK Treasury’s insistence on cutting overseas aid. While this was then confirmed as being temporary the damage was done ... The UK lost moral authority, and leverage as the presidency which we saw them struggling with. Alok was liked and respected wherever he went but it was not lost on people that he was a little alone [in the cabinet as a champion of climate action]. ”

Rachel Kennerley, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “The fight to curb climate breakdown didn’t end with Mr Sharma’s gavel coming down on an underwhelming deal. Just next week the high court will hear about UK-financed gas drilling in Mozambique, so this is the perfect time for the government to withdraw support for that damaging project, laden as it is with climate hypocrisy.

“Given the UK’s historical contributions to emissions alongside our role as Cop host, it’s right that we take a good look at the fact that we are still supporting fossil fuel extraction, here and overseas.”

Interview: The most impactful actions at COP26 point to progress on climate change

UN NEWS

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Alexandre Soares of UN News, Martina Donlon acknowledged that after two weeks of tough negotiations, the text that serves as the conference's outcome is “a compromise that it is not enough”, especially for small island States and other vulnerable countries. 

However, it does provide some “positive steps forward”. 

Indeed, she said, with the agreement by negotiators at COP26 to begin moving away from fossil fuels, “we will see more electric cars and they will become more affordable, and increasingly powered by wind and solar energy”. 

Phasing down coal 

Ms. Donlon pointed out that at the conclusion of the conference, countries agreed to accelerate action during “this decisive decade” to cut global emissions in half, to reach the temperature goal of 1.5C, as outlined in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. 

The COP26 outcome document, known as the Glasgow Climate Pact, also calls on 197 countries to present stronger national action plans for increasingly ambitious climate actions next year – moving up the 2025 deadline set out in the original timeline – at COP27, which is scheduled to take place in Egypt. 

Moreover, Ms. Donlon noted that the pact calls for a phase down of coal and a phase out of fossil fuel subsidies, “two key issues that had never been explicitly mentioned in a decision at climate talks before – despite coal, oil and gas being the key drivers of global warming”. 

According to the UN official, Glasgow signaled “an accelerated shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy”. 

Doubling financial support 

The second most impactful outcome of the Glasgow pact is its call for the doubling of finance to support developing countries in adapting to the impacts of climate change. 

“Although this will not provide all of the funding needed by poorer countries, the fact that developed countries agreed to double their collective funds for adaptation is a major improvement,” Ms. Donlon underscored.  

She stressed that the UN Secretary-General has been pushing for increased financing to protect lives and livelihoods, and said that this would “especially benefit least developed countries and small island” States. 

Unsplash/Patrick Federi

Burning fossil fuels emits a number of air pollutants that are harmful to both the environment and public health.

Methane, coal and forests 

There were a host of other deals and announcements, such as on methane, coal, forests and sustainable transport that could all have very positive impacts if they are implemented, the UN official said. 

“However, most of these are voluntary commitments so there are no guarantees that Governments, investors and corporations will deliver,” she said. 

Ms. Donlon acknowledged that while there would not likely be an immediate impact in our daily lives, she stressed that the decisions taken at COP26 will affect Governmental actions on a range of measures and would eventually translate into noticeable differences in people’s lives. 

And COP26 also sent a signal to markets that it is no longer acceptable to invest in heavily polluting sectors. 

“So, these changes will have an impact on our lives, and probably sooner than we think,” she said. 

Glasgow’s ripple effects 

The phasing out of coal means people in heavily polluted cities will have cleaner air to breath and fewer respiratory illnesses, the UN official explained.  

Moreover, the increase in finance for protecting lives and livelihoods would allow small islands to put in place early warning systems for floods and storms.  

And small farmers would have more resilient crops and seeds to protect food security. 

Decisions made at the global level “eventually impact everyone’s lives”, Ms. Donlon attested. 

See below for the full interview. 

Want to know more? Check out our special events page, where you can find all our coverage of the COP26 climate summit, including stories and videos, explainers, podcasts and our newsletter.

House sparrow population in Europe drops by 247m

Patrick Barkham

New study reveals huge declines in once common species amounting to loss of one in six birds since 1980

The house sparrow has been the hardest hit species, losing half its population in Europe since 1980. Photograph: Keith J Smith./Alamy

There are 247m million fewer house sparrows in Europe than there were in 1980, and other once ubiquitous bird species have suffered huge declines, according to a new study.

One of every six birds – a net loss of 600 million breeding birds in total – have disappeared over less than four decades. Among the common species that are vanishing from the skies are yellow wagtails (97m fewer), starlings (75m fewer) and skylarks (68m fewer).

The study by scientists from the RSPB, BirdLife International and the Czech Society for Ornithology analysed data for 378 of 445 bird species native to countries in the EU and UK, finding that the overall abundance of breeding birds declined by between 17% and 19% between 1980 and 2017.

The total and proportional declines in bird numbers are particularly high among species associated with farmland.

The house sparrow has been hardest hit, losing half its population, while its close relative, the tree sparrow, has seen a fall of 30 million birds. Both species have declined because of changing farming practices, but house sparrows have also vanished from many cities for reasons that have not yet been established but are likely to include shortages of food, diseases such as avian malaria, and air pollution.

Long-distance migrants, such as the yellow wagtail, have declined proportionally more than other groups. Photograph: Andy Hay/RSPB/PA

While agricultural intensification causing habitat loss and chemical farming triggering big declines in insects that feed many birds is a cause of many population falls, long-distance migrants, such as willow warbler and yellow wagtail, have declined proportionally more than other groups. Shorebirds such as lapwings and dotterels have also slumped.

“Our study is a wake-up call to the very real threat of extinctions and of a Silent Spring,” said Fiona Burns, lead author of the study and a senior conservation scientist for the RSPB.

Burns said next year’s meeting of the UN convention on biological diversity was crucial to creating a strong framework for preventing extinctions and recovering the lost abundance of many species.

She added: “We need transformative action across society to tackle the nature and climate crises together. That means increasing the scale and ambition of nature-friendly farming, species protection, sustainable forestry and fisheries, and rapidly expanding the protected area network.”

While 900 million birds vanished in total, 203 of the 378 species studied increased in number. Sixty-six per cent of the 340 million additional birds were from just eight booming species: blackcap, chiffchaff, blackbird, wren, goldfinch, robin, woodpigeon and blue tit.

Eleven birds of prey species have more than doubled since 1980, including the buzzard. Photograph: Edo Schmidt/Alamy

Numbers of 11 species of birds of prey have more than doubled since 1980, including peregrine falcon, marsh harrier, buzzard, white-tailed eagle and golden eagle, although such species are relatively rare and so their populations are still mostly small.

Scientists say these raptors have benefited from increased protection and reductions in harmful pesticides and persecution, as well as specific species restoration projects. The EU’s Birds Directive and Habitats Directive have also provided legal protection to priority species and habitats that have been found to benefit bird species.

While rates of decline in many species have slowed in the last decade, the declines are not just a hangover from the damaging practices of previous decades, and the study supports previous research that reveals substantial recent losses in biodiversity.

The scale of losses and types of bird disappearing are comparable with declines in North America, where 3bn birds were found to have disappeared since 1970.

Anna Staneva, interim head of conservation at BirdLife Europe, said: “This report loudly and clearly shows that nature is sounding the alarm. While protecting birds that are already rare or endangered has resulted in some successful recoveries, this doesn’t seem to be enough to sustain the populations of abundant species.

“Common birds are becoming less and less common, largely because the spaces they depend on are being wiped out by humans. Nature has been eradicated from our farmland, sea and cities. Governments across all of Europe must establish legally binding targets for nature restoration. Otherwise the consequences will be severe, including for our own species.”

Record rainfall prompts evacuations along the Pacific north-west

Leyland Cecco

Communities in western Canada and Washington state forced to flee homes after record downpour leads to severe floods

A view of the Coquihalla Highway following mudslides and flooding in British Columbia, Canada, on Sunday. Photograph: British Columbia Transportation/Reuters

Communities in western Canada who were forced to flee their homes this summer by wildfires and extreme heat are once again under evacuation orders after overwhelming floods across the region.

The heavy rainfall and pounding storms are also taking a toll on the US Pacific north-west, where flooding and mudslides in Washington state have also forced evacuations and school closures.

Helicopters were dispatched on Monday to Highway 7, more than 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Vancouver, to rescue about 275 people, including 50 children, who had been stranded on the road since it was blocked by a mudslide late on Sunday.

Footage from the area shows stranded travelers heading toward a yellow emergency helicopter during the rescue operation. The surrounding landscape is littered with debris from a landslide blocking access to the highway.

“I definitely heard people screaming for help,” Adam Wuisman, who was driving the section of the highway when a landslide hit, told CBC News. “It’s kind of helpless to feel like you’re between a very vulnerable mountainside on one side and the Fraser River on the other side. And there’s really nothing you can do about it, but hope nothing comes down on top of you.”

Images of surging rivers, mudslides, flooded cities and destroyed highways circulated on social media as officials scrambled to assess the full extent of the damage, warning residents the situation could deteriorate further as winds picked up throughout the day.

According to Environment Canada, 225 millimetres of rain fell on the community of Hope since the storm began Saturday and 180 millimetres had fallen around Agassiz and Chilliwack in the eastern part of the Fraser Valley.

A view of a road near Popkum following mudslides and flooding in British Columbia, Canada, on Sunday. Photograph: British Columbia Transportation/Reuters

After two bridges and its water treatment facility were overwhelmed by flood waters, the city of Merritt issued an evacuation order to all residents, warning that “continued habitation of the community without sanitary services presents risk of mass sewage back-up and personal health risk”.

Merritt last issued evacuation orders this summer after the wildfire that destroyed the village of Lytton came dangerously close to the city.

Since June, the province has experienced a record-setting “heat dome”, huge wildfires that destroyed two towns and choked the air for weeks, extreme events that experts say were worsened by the climate crisis. Last week, Vancouver, British Columbia’s largest city, was briefly placed under tornado watch, a rare event for the region.

In Washington state, the National Weather Service warned that winds nearing hurricane strength were possible in the region, which has seen nearly ceaseless rain for about a week. A wind gust of 58mph (93km/h) was reported on Monday at Sea-Tac international airport in Seattle.

More than 158,0000 customers were without power in western Washington at one point Monday, the Seattle Times reported.

Parts of the region have seen more than 6in (15cm) of rain in the past several days. Less than halfway into the month it is already the third wettest November that Seattle has seen in more than a century, according to the Washington Post, with rainfall records likely to be broken.

A state of emergency was declared over the weekend for the town of Hamilton, about 80 miles (129km) north-east of Seattle, and residents were urged to evacuate as soon as possible, the Skagit Valley Herald reported.

As the water was making its way down the Skagit River, people were warned to expect flooding in the cities of Sedro-Woolley, Burlington and Mount Vernon. Just south of the Canadian border in Sumas, Washington, officials said city hall was flooded and that the flooding event was the worst in decades.

Nicole Postma, who owns a coffee stand in Sumas and is president of the Sumas Chamber of Commerce, told the Bellingham Herald on Monday that people are nervous.

“We knew that the flood was imminent, but had no idea it would be like this,” she said.

COP26 closes with ‘compromise’ deal on climate, but it’s not enough, says UN chief

UN NEWS
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

N News/Laura Quiñones I Negotiators marking the closing of the United Nations climate summit, COP26, which opened in Glasgow, Scotland, on 31 October. The conference sought new global commitments to tackle climate change.

After extending the COP26 climate negotiations an extra day, nearly 200 countries meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, adopted on Saturday an outcome document that, according to the UN Secretary-General, “reflects the interests, the contradictions, and the state of political will in the world today”.

“It is an important step but is not enough. We must accelerate climate action to keep alive the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees”, said António Guterres in a video statement released at the close of the two-week meeting.

The UN chief added that it is time to go “into emergency mode”, ending fossil fuel subsidies, phasing out coal, putting a price on carbon, protecting vulnerable communities, and delivering the $100 billion climate finance commitment.

“We did not achieve these goals at this conference. But we have some building blocks for progress,” he said.

Mr. Guterres also had a message to young people, indigenous communities, women leaders, and all those leading the charge on climate action.

“I know you are disappointed. But the path of progress is not always a straight line. Sometimes there are detours. Sometimes there are ditches. But I know we can get there. We are in the fight of our lives, and this fight must be won. Never give up. Never retreat. Keep pushing forward”.

A snapshot of the agreement

The outcome document, known as the Glasgow Climate Pact, calls on 197 countries to report their progress towards more climate ambition next year, at COP27, set to take place in Egypt.

The outcome also firms up the global agreement to accelerate action on climate this decade.

However, COP26 President Alok Sharma struggled to hold back tears following the announcement of a last-minute change to the pact, by China and India, softening language circulated in an earlier draft about “the phase-out of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels”. As adopted on Saturday, that language was revised to “phase down” coal use.

Mr. Sharma apologized for “the way the process has unfolded” and added that he understood some delegations would be “deeply disappointed” that the stronger language had not made it into the final agreement.

By other terms of the wide-ranging set of decisions, resolutions and statements that make up the outcome of COP26, governments were,among other things, asked to provide tighter deadlines for updating their plans to reduce emissions.

On the thorny question of financing from developed countries in support of climate action in developing countries, the text emphasizes the need to mobilize climate finance “from all sources to reach the level needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, including significantly increasing support for developing country Parties, beyond $100 billion per year”.

UNFCCC/Kiara Worth I Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (standing near left), and Alok Sharma President for COP26 (seated centre), at the closing of the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

1.5 degrees, but with ‘a weak pulse’ 

“Negotiations are never easy…this is the nature of consensus and multilateralism”, said Patricia Espinosa, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

She stressed that for every announcement made during the past two weeks, the expectation is that the implementation “plans and the fine print” will follow.

“Let us enjoy what we accomplished but also prepare for what is coming,” Ms. Espinosa said, after recognizing the advancements on adaptation, among others.

Meanwhile, COP26 President Alok Sharma stated that delegations could say “with credibility” that they have kept 1.5 degrees within reach.

“But its pulse is weak. And it will only survive if we keep our promises. If we translate commitments into rapid action. If we deliver on the expectations set out in this Glasgow Climate Pact to increase ambition to 2030 and beyond. And if we close the vast gap that remains, as we must,” he told delegates.

He then quoted Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who earlier in the conference had said that for Barbados and other small island states, ‘two degrees is a death sentence.’  With that in mind, Mr. Sharma asked delegates to continue their efforts to get finance flowing and boost adaptation. 

He concluded by saying that history has been made in Glasgow. 

“We must now ensure that the next chapter charts the success of the commitments we have solemnly made together in the Glasgow Climate Pact, he declared.

The ‘least worst’ outcome

Earlier during the conference's final stocktaking plenary, many countries lamented that the package of agreed decisions was not enough. Some called it "disappointing", but overall, said they recognized it was balanced for what could be agreed at this moment in time and given their differences.

Countries like Nigeria, Palau, the Philippines, Chile and Turkey all said that although there were imperfections, they broadly supported the text.

“It is (an) incremental step forward but not in line with the progress needed. It will be too late for the Maldives. This deal does not bring hope to our hearts,” said the Maldives’ top negotiator in a bittersweet speech.

US climate envoy John Kerry said the text “is a powerful statement” and assured delegates that his country will engage constructively in a dialogue on "loss and damage" and adaptation, two of issues that proved most difficult for the negotiators to agree upon.

“The text represents the ‘least worst’ outcome,” concluded the top negotiator from New Zealand.

Other key COP26 achievements

Beyond the political negotiations and the Leaders’ Summit, COP26 brought together about 50,000 participants online and in-person to share innovative ideas, solutions, attend cultural events and build partnerships and coalitions.

The conference heard many encouraging announcements. One of the biggest was that leaders from over 120 countries, representing about 90 per cent of the world’s forests, pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030,  the date by which the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to curb poverty and secure the planet’s future are supposed to have been achieved.

"At #COP26, Parties built a bridge between good intentions and measurable actions (...)."@PEspinosaC at the closing plenary in Glasgow. pic.twitter.com/xPFXBR4l6x

— UN Climate Change (@UNFCCC) November 13, 2021

There was also a methane pledge, led by the United States and the European Union, by which more than 100 countries agreed to cut emissions of this greenhouse gas by 2030.

Meanwhile, more than 40 countries – including major coal-users such as Poland, Vietnam and Chile – agreed to shift away from coal, one of the biggest generators CO2 emissions.

The private sector also showed strong engagement with nearly 500 global financial services firms agreeing to align $130 trillion – some 40 per cent of the world’s financial assets – with the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, including limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Also, in a surprise for many, the United States and China pledged to boost climate cooperation over the next decade. In a joint declaration they said they had agreed to take steps on a range of issues, including methane emissions, transition to clean energy and decarbonization. They also reiterated their commitment to keep the 1.5C goal alive.

Regarding green transport, more than 100 national governments, cities, states and major car companies signed the Glasgow Declaration on Zero-Emission Cars and Vans to end the sale of internal combustion engines by 2035 in leading markets, and by 2040 worldwide.  At least 13 nations also committed to end the sale of fossil fuel powered heavy duty vehicles by 2040.

Many ‘smaller’ but equally inspiring commitments were made over the past two weeks, including one by 11 countries which created the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA). Ireland, France, Denmark, and Costa Rica among others, as well as some subnational governments, launched this first-of-its kind alliance to set an end date for national oil and gas exploration and extraction.

A quick refresher on how we got here

UNFCCC/Kiara Worth I COP26 attendants hang promises and petitions to world leaders in the form of leaves of different colors at the Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

To keep it simple, COP26 was the latest and one of the most important steps in the decades long, UN-facilitated effort to help stave off what has been called a looming climate emergency.

In 1992, the UN organized a major event in Rio de Janeiro called the Earth Summit, in which the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted.

In this treaty, nations agreed to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere” to prevent dangerous interference from human activity on the climate system. Today, the treaty has 197 signatories.

Since 1994, when the treaty entered into force, every year the UN has been bringing together almost every country on earth for global climate summits or “COPs”, which stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’.

This year should have been the 27th annual summit, but thanks to COVID-19, we’ve fallen a year behind due to last year’s postponement – hence, COP26.