Africa

Diego Matom, a member of the Ixil indigenous community, poses happily with his family, surrounded by fresh loaves of bread which were baked thanks to community electricity generation, which has given his business a big boost, in the 31 de Mayo village in the mountainous ecoregion of Zona Reina, in northwestern Guatemala. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
USPANTÁN, Guatemala, Apr 23 2019 (IPS)

In the stifling heat, Diego Matom takes the bread trays out of the oven and carefully places them on wooden shelves, happy that his business has prospered since his village in northwest Guatemala began to generate its own electricity.

And it managed to do so against all odds, facing down big business and the local authorities.

“The bakery used to operate with a gas oven, but the cost was very high because baking took a long time; now everything is faster and cheaper,” Matom told IPS, surrounded by his freshly baked loaves of bread.

Matom, a 29-year-old Ixil Indian, lives in the village of 31 de Mayo, located in the ecoregion of Zona Reina, Uspantán municipality, in the northwestern department of Quiché, Guatemala.

The village, some 300 kilometers north of the capital, was the first of four in the area to build its own hydroelectric plant, driven by necessity, since the state does not bring basic public services to this remote region.

There is no piped water, and medical and educational services are scarce, as is the case in many rural areas of this Central American nation of 17.3 million inhabitants.

In the communities of Zona Reina, water for human consumption comes from the springs perched in the mountains surrounding the villages, which is stored in tanks from which it is piped.

The 31 de Mayo power plant, called Light of the Heroes and Martyrs of the Resistance, consists of a turbine that generates 75 kW and is powered by the waters of the Putul River, channeled by a two-kilometer concrete channel into a 40-cubic-meter tank.

From there, the water runs down with enough pressure to move the turbine in the engine room.

The name of the village recalls the date on which some 400 Ixil and Quiché indigenous families were resettled there by the government in 1998, after the end of the 1960-1996 civil war.

These families were part of the so-called Communities of Population in Resistance, which during the conflict had to flee to the mountains due to repression by the army, which considered them supporters of the left-wing guerrilla.

Once resettled, each family received a small plot of land, where they plant corn and cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), of which Guatemala is the world’s largest producer and one of the top exporters.

Following the example of 31 de Mayo, three other communities in Zona Reina struggled to become self-sufficient in electricity: El Lirio in May 2015, La Taña in September 2016 and La Gloria in November 2017.

The machine house for the mini-hydropower dam in the 31 de Mayo village, which provides energy to some 500 families and has served as a model for self-generation from community dams to extend throughout the Zona Reina ecoregion in the municipality of Uspantán in northwestern Guatemala. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

Unlike large-scale dams, which typically use 100 percent of river flow, community dams use only 10 percent, maintaining normal flow and preventing communities from running out of water downstream.

The four mini-hydroelectric plants supply the four villages where they are located and five neighbouring villages, benefiting a total of 1,000 families. But much remains to be done to promote access to energy throughout the Zona Reina, where there are a total of 86 villages.

But word is spreading and there is already another project approved for eight other villages, in the neighbouring ecoregion of Los Copones, that will share the energy generated with 11 neighbouring communities. The plan has received 1.25 million dollars in development aid financing from Germany.

The population in the Zona Reina is mainly indigenous, composed mainly of the Q’eqch’is, although they live alongside other Mayan peoples, such as the Ixil.

“Now that we have electricity we can do whatever we want, the kids come home from school and plug in their computers and do their homework,” said Zaida Gamarro, 31, a resident of La Taña.

Life used to be more difficult because at night the villagers used candles or lanterns for which they had to buy kerosene regularly, Gamarro told IPS during a tour of the villages that have community dams, located in a mountainous area where travel by road is difficult.

Several businesses such as the Matom bakery have also emerged, along with mechanics’ garages, carpentry workshops and several shops that can now use refrigerators.

“The business is going well, because we are located on the main street, and people are interested in our refrigerated products,” said José Ical, 38, a native of La Gloria and the owner of a small grocery store.

These efforts were made possible thanks to European development aid funds and local work by the environmental collective MadreSelva, in charge of designing and executing micro-hydroelectricity projects.

The families pay an average of 30 quetzals (about four dollars) per month for energy – less than what is paid by families in municipalities on the main power grid.

Countercurrent self-generation

The idea for local inhabitants to produce their own energy clashed with the interests of international consortiums and ran into resistance from mayors allied with those groups, said those interviewed in the communities.

A man shows the 27-cubic-meter tank of the La Taña community hydropower system, one of four installed in this remote mountainous region populated mostly by indigenous people in the northwestern department of Quiché, Guatemala. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

Specifically, they accused the Italian transnational company Enel Green Power, which runs the Palo Viejo Hydroelectric Project in the area, of carrying out a smear campaign against community dams.

A community hydroelectric plant, they said, runs counter to the system by which the state grants concessions to companies, which become the sole providers of those services.

The company, they added, maneuvered to divide the 31 de Mayo community, convincing some 100 families to abandon the project and thus weaken it, through a South African Pentecostal evangelist, Gregorio Walton, who offered solar panels to those who left the community project.

“There is a great deal of manipulation on the part of Enel, it wants to make people believe that the community project can’t work, that only the company can provide good electricity,” said Regina Ramos, from the community of 31 de Mayo.

Enel Green Power representatives did not respond to IPS’ request for comment.

“We don’t want companies like Enel, they just come to destroy our rivers and leave the community nothing,” said Max Chaman Simac, president of the Amaluna Nuevo Amanecer Association of La Taña.

Enel’s Palo Viejo power plant began to operate in March 2012, with a capacity of 85 MW. The consortium now has five hydroelectric plants in Guatemala. In total, it has 640 plants in Europe and the Americas.

The inhabitants of these villages maintained that the consortium was able to enter the region thanks to the permit granted by the then mayor of Uspantán, Víctor Hugo Figueroa.

“He was part of a strategy of land grabbing, in favour of extractive projects,” one of MadreSelva’s members, José Cruz, told IPS.

Other projects flourish

Meanwhile, the MadreSelva collective has sought to develop agroecological projects that help conserve ecosystems, especially in watersheds, and at the same time generate incomes for families.

Taking advantage of the organisation originally set up for the energy projects, a group of women now produce eco-friendly shampoos and soaps made from plants, ash, salt and other ingredients.

The families thus save money on basic products, and some of the women have also started to market them.

“We are encouraging people to plant home gardens, including herbs like rosemary, chamomile, etc., as well as the usual vegetables,” Mercedes Monzón, an activist in charge of these projects on the part of Madre Selva, told IPS.

Another initiative in this direction is the production of natural broths, based on rosemary, basil, dill, parsley and other aromatic herbs, which reduces the purchase of these products, whose wrappers bring pollution to the area.

Related Articles

• Farmers Generate Their Own Electricity in El Salvador

The post Against All Odds, Indigenous Villages Generate Their Own Energy in Guatemala appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Lahai J. Samboma
LONDON, Apr 23 2019 (IPS)

When former footballer George Weah became president of Liberia in 2018, media practitioners felt they had in him a democrat who would champion media freedoms. “But we were mistaken,” journalist Henry Costa told IPS.

Any objective assessment of the relationship between West Africa governments and media organisations will conclude that, but for a few exceptions, the outlook for press freedom in the sub-region is a bleak one.

From Cameroon and Ghana, to Nigeria, Liberia and Senegal, journalists and media organisations are being attacked for simply doing their jobs. The fact that these attacks emanate from mostly state actors, who as a rule remain unpunished, points to a culture of impunity.

Liberia is a case in point.
“The president does not like criticism,” said Costa, owner of Roots FM and host of the station’s popular Costa Show. “And because we are critical of some policies, our offices have been attacked on two occasions by armed men and our equipment damaged and some stolen.”

Some would say Costa was lucky, for the corpse of another journalist, Tyron Brown, was dumped outside his home last year by a mysterious black jeep. A man has confessed to killing the journalist in self-defence but his colleagues are not convinced. They believe the murder was a message – mind your words or you could be next.

This climate of fear was heightened when Weah accused a BBC correspondent being against his government. Then Front Page Africa, a newspaper that has been critical of successive governments, was fined 1.8 million dollars in a civil defamation lawsuit brought by a friend of the president.

Mae Azango, a senior Front Page Africa reporter, said the government’s new tactic was to “strangulate the free press” by refusing to pay tens of thousands owed for media advertisements. “One minister said since the media does not write anything good about the government, it won’t pay debt owed, which will compel some media outlets to shut down,” she said. “Some media houses have not paid staff for up to eight months.”

In Ghana, once Africa’s top-ranked media-friendly country, things have deteriorated to the level where a sitting politician openly called on supporters to attack a journalist whose documentary on corruption in Ghanaian football exposed him. Ahmed Divela was subsequently shot dead last January. In 2015 another journalist, George Abanga, was also shot dead on assignment.

In March 2018 Latif Iddrisu, a young reporter, was covering a story when he was dragged into the Accra headquarters of the police and given a merciless beating which left him with a fractured skull.
Iddrisu told IPS by phone: “Journalists are being threatened with assault and death by politicians and people in power because they feel threatened by our exposés.” He doubts whether the passage of freedom of information (FOI) legislation will improve matters.

This position is borne out in Nigeria where the passing of FOI laws has not deterred officials from denying journalists access to information they need to carry out their jobs. According to Dapo Olorunyomi, the Central Bank and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (the NNPC) are the “most opaque institutions” in the country. Olorunyomi, editor-in-chief of Premium Times Newspaper, added: “So you are allowed to write what you want, but if you get it wrong you suffer the consequences.” He and journalists working for him have been arrested on several occasions to get them to reveal their sources.

The case of Jones Abiri is instructive. The journalist was incarcerated for two years without trial. And physical attacks on reporters have increased four-fold in recent times. Figures show that attacks on journalists and the press quadrupled in 2015-2019, compared to the preceding five year period.

Media academic Dr Chinenye Nwabueze maintains that the violence heightens during elections. “In the ‘season’ of elections, a journalist operates like a car parked – at owner’s risk,” he told IPS. “You could end up in the crossfire between opposing parties or thugs.”

The same story of violence and intimidation against journalists is replicated in francophone countries like Cameroon, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali. The most serious of them is Cameroon, where the government continues to prosecute media critics in military or special courts. As Angela Quintal, Africa Program Coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told IPS, “Cameroon is the second-worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa, and the second in the world for jailing journalists on false news charges.”

Sierra Leone and the Gambia are the two countries that emerge relatively blemish-free in our survey of the landscape of press freedom in West Africa. Both have relatively new governments that have promised repeal criminal libel laws that their predecessors had used to clamp down on the media. From Sierra Leone, reporter Amadu Lamrana Bah of AYV Media told IPS: “The president says he is committed to repealing [criminal libel laws] and the process is on.”

His statement echoes that of Sheriff Bojang Jr, president of the Gambia Press Union, who said: “We no longer work in a fearful or repressive environment, but our major problem is the lack of information coming out of government, the total lack of transparency. But the government have promised to make changes.”

This is a reference to the absence of FOI legislation in the country, which the government has promised to “deal with in due course”. But the Gambians only have to look to similarly “blemish-free” Sierra Leone, to realise that FOI will count for nought if the authorities are not prepared to honour its provisions – as this reporter discovered while researching a story on sexual violence against Sierra Leonean women and another on diamond mining.

The Ministries of Justice, Mines, and Information in Freetown refused to provide the information we requested, even though they had initially promised they would. That recent experience came to mind when, during his interview for this piece, Liberian reporter Henry Costa said the Weah government “were pretending to be tolerant” but “would go to their old tricks” when economic hardships trigger anti-government protests and the media begin to report on them.

Since Sierra Leone and the Gambia are currently implementing International Monetary Fund policies, it is only a matter of time before those policies begin to bite the people. If the “Costa equation” is correct, then it is likewise only a matter of time before we find out whether the “blemish-free” authorities in Freetown and Banjul are as toxic to press freedom as their counterparts in Cameroon and Ghana, or indeed, their immediate predecessors.

“Journalists do essential work to keep the public informed, often in difficult circumstances in West and Central Africa,” Sadibou Marong, the Regional Media Manager for Amnesty’s West and Central Africa Office, told IPS.  “They must be protected to do their work freely, and without fear of attacks or threats. Governments in the region should promote media freedom and protect media workers and organisations.”

Related Articles

• ‘You Cannot Muzzle the Media’: Nigerian Journalists on Press Freedom under Buhari
• Attacks on Media in the Balkans Sound Alarm Bells for Democracy
• Q&A: Rodney Sieh on how Liberia’s press is faring under Weah presidency
• Sudan’s Journalists Face Continued Extortion and Censorship by National Security Agency
• The Shrinking Space for Media Freedom in Uganda

The post Bleak Outlook for Press Freedom in West Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The new Bombardier jets landed in Uganda bearing the national colours and symbol of the crane.

The protesters are digging in but it's unclear how they can persuade the army to hand over power.

The head of the military council tells the BBC force will not be used against protesting civilians.

The West African girl was forced to clean and cook for the Texas family for 16 years.

Illustration by Cliff van Thillo

By Karishma Asarpota
DUBAI, Apr 23 2019 (IPS)

Though climate policies aim to reduce GHG emissions, they miss out on emphasizing the importance of urban planning policies

Cities that have ratified the Paris Agreement and pledged to reduce carbon emissions are adopting climate action plans aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

These plans promote the improvement of infrastructure efficiency in urban areas, incentivize residents to reduce energy consumption and increase renewable forms of energy production. These goals are becoming the accepted global norms for climate action policies whether it is based in Vancouver, Oslo, Dubai or Hong Kong.

A common theme amongst these strategies is the emphasis on improving the environmental performance of urban infrastructure such as transport, energy production, building design and waste management. Another point to note is that a lot of cities orient their climate strategies to respond to the contribution from GHG emissions.

For example, in Oslo 63% of GHG emissions are contributed from transportation. This is reflected in Oslo’s Climate and Energy Strategy where most of the actions are aimed at reducing transport related GHG emissions.

On the contrary, in Hong Kong, about 70% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused from generating electricity almost entirely used in buildings. Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan places a heavy emphasis on reducing building related energy use and GHG emissions.

This seems like a sensible approach that is based on emissions data accompanied by engineered solutions that are tested by simulation models. For example, energy policies suggest that the efficiency of heating systems in a building can be increased by upgrading to a heat pump or improving circuiting.

This is no doubt a viable solution. But heating efficiency can also be improved if buildings are designed in response to the local microclimate to be able to retain heat thus reducing the amount of energy needed in the first place.

However, modelling tools lack the precision and capability of integrating factors like microclimate and density. This gap is visible in climate strategies as the emphasis on urban development patterns is weak.

The link between climate action plans & urban development plans

A lot of policies in climate strategies propose changes to the organization of urban areas. For example, almost every city encourages its residents to walk and cycle more to reduce the dependency on cars.

While they also emphasize that more infrastructure to support pedestrians and cyclists should be put in place, they fail to demonstrate what this will look like. Will this change the way in which we build our neighborhoods?

Perhaps we will need wider pavements and narrower roads? These questions are left for urban development plans to answer. But how many of them actually pick up where climate strategies leave off?

Urban development plans in cities are usually responsible to lay out the vision for future developments or to make changes to existing development. Cities that have tried to respond to energy efficiency or GHG reduction in their urban development plans do so by promoting the implementation of neighbourhood energy systems (NES), increasing walkability or advocating for green building design.

All these measures can undoubtedly help, but are not being implemented fast enough through policies or regulations. Promoting this through awareness programs or pilot projects is not as effective for a widespread change.

For example, In Oslo, ‘role model’ or pilot projects aimed at reducing energy consumption or GHG emissions are meant to inspire change and serve as an example of efficient and sustainable urban development.

Oslo’s Climate and Energy Strategy presents an example of best practice but does not mandate the adoption of sustainable design principles as a norm for future urban development.

A similar example is seen in Dubai, where Dubai Sustainable City – which is a neighbourhood with a low carbon impact – is seen as a pioneer example of sustainable urban development in the city.

But the development lies about 30 km away from the center of the city, disconnected from any public transit line making residents dependent on using a car for daily commute. This counters emissions that residents save by living in the neighbourhood. Are these disconnected sustainable urban development projects really helping?

The impact of neighbourhood energy systems

One can argue that it is perhaps easier to implement regulations that have a direct technological application, for example, implementing green building design or a Neighbourhood Energy System (NES). Even though these measures are beneficial, they undermine the importance of architectural or urban design and planning solutions.

Let’s take an example of a neighbourhood urban development plan for West End in Vancouver. One part of the plan advocates for policy based design solutions such as passive design, climate change adaptation for infrastructure and public space design.

The plan also strongly advocates for a Neighbourhood Energy System (NES), where heat is produced at a central point and then distributed to individual buildings. This is a viable option only in a dense neighbourhood. So, in a way, urban development is guided by the implementation of energy infrastructure.

The West End plan is one of the better examples. But what it fails to address is space between buildings. Energy systems, building design and infrastructure design are addressed individually. Will the connection between these areas make a difference to how the neighbourhood is planned?

Green Building Design

Let’s look at building design. Globally, about 36% of emissions are contributed from buildings and about 39% of energy is consumed by buildings. This can be helped if buildings consider the local microclimate and use principles of passive solar design, which means that buildings are designed to store, reflect and distribute the sun’s energy.

This would result in the building consuming less energy for heating or cooling. Many studies show that passive design strategies in buildings can help to decrease energy consumption by almost 80%! Yet climate strategies don’t mandate the adoption of passive building design strategy for every building in the city.

We often find that cities promote green building rating systems like LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficient Design) or BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).

For example, in Hong Kong, BEAM is the prefered green building rating system. In addition to this, the city has developed two additional regulatory tools, B(EE)R (or Building Energy Efficiency Regulations) and BEEO (or Building Energy Efficiency Ordinance).

Energy use is monitored and improved through these measures. However, these regulations don’t say much about passive solar design.

In Dubai, Al Safat Green Building regulations, which is a locally developed building regulation aimed at improving efficiency and life cycle of buildings, has been implemented only since 2017. Since its inception the first level of the guidelines are mandatory for all new buildings.

But this does not include essential passive design principles such as building orientation or the proportion of glass that buildings are allowed to use. Going forward, all building councils and municipalities need to ask if there is any purpose of buildings regulations that are not able to mandate passive solar design strategies.

But can climate strategies still be successful?

Climate strategies in cities are able to provide directives and set out targets to align with the global emissions target. This is a step in the right direction but is not sufficient. Climate strategies set out concrete targets to reduce GHG emissions and energy use.

However, climate action plans are never able to say that they can achieve their goals through adopting the proposed measures. The proposed actions are never equated to any numerical data that can indicate to what extent it can help to achieve the goals.

This shows that although climate strategies are able to provide directive a lot more needs to be done if we want to truly achieve a low-carbon future. The role of urban planning and design is crucial in responding to climate sensitive design because it is able to challenge existing norms that don’t contribute to energy efficiency. Planning can help to bridge the gap between the organization of space (architectural and urban design) and decision making in cities.

A good example of this the ‘complete streets’ program launched in Vancouver. This policy based design strategy aims to promote safe, well maintained and environmentally responsible streets in Vancouver at the neighbourhood level.

Through this program communities can come together and design the components of streets in their neighbourhood. What makes this program likely to be successful is that it is a part of the city’s 2040 transport vision and funding for its implementation has been secured in late 2018.

We need to start seeing more policy-based design solutions that respond to local conditions in cities. These solutions should be accompanied by an implementation strategy to help it become more widespread.

• Karishma Asarpota’s work addresses climate changes related issues in cities, especially involving the energy transition. She is experienced in working on urban development projects in Europe, Middle East, India and Brazil and is actively engaged with YOUNGO (youth constituency of UNFCCC) as a coordinator of the Cities Working Group.

The post Why Climate Action Plans are not Good Enough to Deliver a Low-Carbon Future in Cities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Karishma Asarpota* is an urban planner, blogger and researcher who holds a Master of Science degree in Urbanism from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

The post Why Climate Action Plans are not Good Enough to Deliver a Low-Carbon Future in Cities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The French police and the Tunisian Football Federation are looking into suspicious betting patterns involving football matches in Tunisia.

Privatization is expected by many to promote competition and eliminate corruption. In practice, the converse has been true as privatization beneficiaries have successfully colluded and engaged in new types of corruption to maximize their own gains.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 23 2019 (IPS)

At the risk of reiterating what should be obvious, the question of private or public ownership is distinct from the issue of competition or market forces. Despite the misleading claim that privatization promotes competition, it is competition policy, not privatization, that promotes competition.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Privatization the problem, not the solution
Instead, privatization has typically been accompanied by collusion, which undermines competitive pricing. Formal and, more commonly, informal collusion is rife. Informal collusion is more likely among those involved in public or transparent bidding to provide privatized or contracted-out services.

Transparent institutions and arrangements, such as public auctions and open, competitive bidding for contracts, have often been compromised by secret, informal collusion. Typically, those with political connections and insider information are better able to secure lucrative contracts and such other business opportunities.

Greater public transparency and accountability were expected to promote greater efficiency in achieving the public interest while limiting waste and borrowing. But contrary to such claims, privatization itself does not ensure transparency and accountability, or address corruption. As it is rarely implemented on an arm’s length basis, it may also contribute to other problems, including new types of corruption.

Hence, privatization does not enhance efficiency except to augment profits. The public sector can be more efficiently run, as in some economies. Hence, the challenge is to ensure that the public sector is better run. Greater public accountability and a more transparent public sector can help ensure greater efficiency in achieving the public and national interest while limiting public sector waste and borrowing.

Ascertain problems to determine solutions
Correlation does not imply causation. An enterprise may be better run after privatization due to managerial reforms, behavioural changes or organizational improvements. But if such improvements could have been achieved without privatization, then one cannot conclude that privatization is needed to bring about desired reforms.

It is important to consider the organizational and managerial reforms, including incentive changes, which might be desirable to achieve superior outcomes. One should not assume that privatization is the answer regardless of the question or the problem at hand.

After all, many SOEs were set up precisely because the private sector was believed to be unable or unwilling to provide certain services or goods. In many instances, the problems of an SOE are not due to ownership per se, but rather to the absence of explicit, feasible or achievable objectives, or the existence of too many, often contradictory goals.

In other cases, poor managerial and organizational systems, blocking flexibility, autonomy and needed reforms, as well as cultures supportive of them, may be the key problem. Such reforms may well achieve desired objectives and goals, or even do better, at lower cost, thus proving to be the superior option.

Many SOEs have undoubtedly proven to be problematic and inefficient. However, privatization has not proved to be the universal panacea for the myriad problems of the public sector it has been touted as. As such, the superior option cannot be presumed a priori, but should instead be the outcome of careful consideration of the nature and roots of an organization’s malaise.

SOE reform or government procurement often superior
SOE reform is often a superior option for a variety of reasons although there are no ‘one size fits all’ solutions regardless of circumstances. Problems need to be analysed in context and solutions cannot be assumed a priori.

It would be erroneous to presume that public ownership is always a problem. There may be other problems which are not going to go away without properly identifying and resolving them.

Desirable changes, resulting in improved performance and outcomes, may take place following the privatization of a particular SOE. But even this does not mean that privatization per se is responsible for these improvements unless state ownership itself has blocked needed changes, in which case there may well be compelling cases for privatization in such situations.

Another alternative, of course, is government or public procurement. Generally, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are much costlier than government procurement. With a competent government, government procurement is generally more efficient and much cheaper.

Yet, international trade and investment agreements are eroding the rights of governments to pursue government procurement. With a competent government and an incorruptible civil service, and competent accountable consultants doing good work, efficient government procurement has generally proved far more cost-effective than PPP alternatives.

The post Privatization Promotes Collusion and Corruption appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Privatization is expected by many to promote competition and eliminate corruption. In practice, the converse has been true as privatization beneficiaries have successfully colluded and engaged in new types of corruption to maximize their own gains.

The post Privatization Promotes Collusion and Corruption appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 23 2019 (IPS)

Trump´s electoral success was preceded by a rise of chauvinistic politics in most of Europe, paired with electoral triumphs of far-right candidates in several other countries. A development accompanied by revelations of corrupt leaders laundering and transferring illegally obtained money, aided by financial institutions finding the means to do so. The world seems to move away from a rule-based order to a state of affairs dominated by might and wealth. World leaders´ private business dealings thrive within a global environment where laws intended to protect human rights are becoming increasingly ineffective. Foreign policies appear to be adapted to private gains and personal vendettas. Global financial systems seem to be crafted to facilitate kleptocracy and money laundering, while repression and violence smite whistle-blowers and daring journalists. Endeavours supported by propaganda and smear campaigns orchestrated by political/financial consultants and private investigation firms. All this is made possible through complicated schemes using the internet.

Within the boundless ambiance of cyberspace, we find WikiLeaks, founded to facilitate the proliferation of classified documents revealing opaque, often illicit activities. Julian Assange was, and remains a member of the organisation’s nine-member advisory board, making final decisions about which documents to be published on the site. Wikileaks´s servers are located in Sweden, nevertheless, this has not hindered Swedish authorities from rejecting Assange´s applications for a working permit.

WikiLeaks publishes information that people in power does not want the multitude to know and thus constitutes a kind of investigative journalism, which is particularly relevant today. An example – in 2016 more than 11 million documents detailing financial information about 214,488 offshore entities were leaked from a Panamanian law firm to the German newspaper Südeutsche Zeitung. These documents revealed hidden theft and corruption endemic to several Governments. No one could seriously repudiate the correctness of publishing them.

By 2015, WikiLeaks had published more than 10 million documents and was by Assange described as” a giant library of the world’s most persecuted documents.” 1 In 2009, WikiLeaks posted a classified video showing US helicopter crews killing18 people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists. The same year, WikiLeaks published a quarter of a million diplomatic cables originating from classified US Government files, followed by the publication in 2010 of a trove of secret documents related to the US detention facility in Guantánamo.

The Empire stroke back. Shortly after the Iraqi videos had been released United States authorities began to investigate Assange, intending to prosecute him under an Espionage Act from 1917. Assange was by then a hero of free speech. WikiLeaks had uncovered indiscriminate killing, hypocrisy, and corruption, as well as being instrumental in sparking the Arab Spring. In 2009, Assange received Amnesty International Media Award for WikiLeaks´s reporting of extrajudicial executions in Kenya. He was being called The Rockstar of Free Speech.

However, after 2010 rumours surfaced about Assange as being excessively self-asserting, blinded by success and ruling WikiLeaks as his personal fiefdom. Furthermore, Assange was accused of being biased, curbing anything criticising Russia. Suspicions accentuated during the 2016 US presidential election when WikiLeaks published emails from Hillary Clinton´s private email account, apparently leaked by Russian agents. 2

Since 2011, Assange had under constant surveillance been isolated in London´s Ecuadorean embassy, living in a small windowless room equipped with a mattress, sunlamp, computer, kitchenette, shower, treadmill, and bookshelves. In an adjoining room he received a steady stream of visitors. Assange suffered from the horrors of confinement, though until the last few months of his immurement he was, like he had been for most of his life, through his computer connected with the world. He reminded of the Genii of Disney´s Aladdin, who confined to his golden lamp stated: ”It’s all part of the whole genie gig: Phenomenal cosmic power … itty-bitty living space.”

Whenever Assange was displeased he unloaded his WikiLeaks weapon. When the Ecuadorean president Lenin Moreno during the last year of Assanges´s stay at the London embassy ordered the closing down of his internet connection, Assange threatened to release documents proving that Moreno was guilty of corruption, perjury and money laundering. Assange´s account was reopened, though on 11 April this year he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy. How had he ended up there?

In August 2010, Assange visited Sweden to inspect WikiLeaks´s servers. During his stay he was by two women accused of rape and sexual misconduct. Assange was arrested in his absence, after initial questioning he had escaped to London, where he was apprehended. A British court decided to extradite Assange, though by then Ecuador had already granted him political asylum and a safe haven within its embassy.

There may be good reasons for Assange´s fear of being extradited to the US, though that does not exempt him from suspicions of sexual misconduct. The women´s detailed stories about their encounters with Assange and his statements about Sweden as the” Saudi Arabia of Feminism” suggest that tales about his sordid behaviour might be true, indicating that the Swedish incident was not the ”honey trap” his defenders claimed it to be.

Julian Assange had a difficult childhood, growing up in over thirty Australian small towns before he in his mid-teens settled with his mother in Melbourne. His father left even before Julian was born and since then his mother was involved with several men, among them Leif Meynell, a controversial cult leader. Assange´s schooling was capricious, though since childhood he was a computer wizard and later studied programming, mathematics and physics at the University of Melbourne, though not completing any degree, busying himself with computer related business. In his teens, Assange married and had a son, but divorced after a few years. Assange´s family life is enigmatic. A former spokesperson of WikiLeaks claimed that Assange admitted having ”multiple children” with various women. According to police documents he has ”at least” four children, though the locations of the children and their mothers are unknown. It appears as if Assange, like many other computer nerds, spends more time in cyberspace than in the real world.

Apparently was Assange´s mistrust of the West fuelled during his years of confinement, making him increasingly numb to abuses committed by the Kremlin, which he viewed as a ”bulwark against Western Imperialism”. The US, Great Britain and Sweden caused him trouble, something Russia never did, it even supported him. Assange has declared that the US Democratic Party is “whipping up a neo-McCarthyist hysteria about Russia” and defends WikiLeaks´s lenient treatment of Russian offences by stating: “Every man and his dog is criticizing Russia. It’s a bit boring, isn’t it?” In April 2012, when WikiLeaks’s funding was drying up under American pressure, with Visa and MasterCard refusing to accept donations, the state/controlled network Russia Today began broadcasting a show hosted by Assange through a link from the Ecuadorian embassy. In 2016, Assange criticized the regime-critical Novaya Gazeta’s coverage of the Panama Papers, suggesting it “cherry-picked” documents to achieve ”optimal Putin bashing, North Korea bashing, sanctions bashing, etc.” 3

Should Assange be deported to and convicted in the US? It could be a dangerous stimulus for others to persecute whistle-blowers and truth-tellers. Nevertheless, did he not serve Russian interests? Probably, but that does not affect the truth of and benefits from other WikiLeaks disclosures. Is not Assange a flawed individual? Maybe, and if he committed crimes he ought be judged for them, but not for being a journalist and whistle-blower.

What in the eyes of some jurists makes Assange a dubious hero is that his methods might have violated press ethics by supporting criminal activities . When Chelsea Manning in 2009 revealed military secrets to WikiLeaks he was a US soldier, serving as intelligence analyst at an army unit in Iraq. He was working under oath to maintain secrecy and was accordingly in 2013 convicted for ”aiding the enemy”. Legal scholars argued that the relationship between Assange and Manning was that of a journalist and his source, while others maintained that Assange went beyond press ethics by actively helping Manning to crack passwords to gain access to secret military databases.

If guilty or not of crimes committed in Sweden and the US, Assange´s case nevertheless reveals the precariousness of journalism. He was by Trump hailed as a hero when WikiLeaks revealed information supporting his candidacy. However, he might just as well be condemned as a villain by anyone who considers Wikileaks´s information to be damaging. Under all circumstances, as long as corrupt criminals and politicians use cyberspace for transgressions and enrichment, we are in dire need of other visitors to that space; journalists and computer nerds willing to enter it to reveal misdeeds and crimes.

1 . Sontheimer, Michael (2015) ”Spiegel-Gespräch: ´Wir haben es noch drauf´,” Der Spiegel 18.7, Nr. 30.
2 . Mazetti, Mark and Katie Benner (2018) ”12 Russian Agents Indicted in Mueller Investigation”, The New York Times, July 13.
3 . Erlanger, Steven and Nicholas Casey (2019) ”Julian Assange’s Seven Strange Years in Self-Imposed Isolation”, The New York Times, April 11.

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

The post Lost in the Cyberworld? The Enigmatic Mr Assange appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Meet the choir in Nairobi promoting peace and education.

Nine-year-old chef Sammy started cooking two years ago and now works with local orphanages in Lagos.

It is a topic shrouded in shame, but traction alopecia may affect one-third of women of African descent.

Students from the Agrarian University La Molina in agrometeorology field practice, in Lima, Perú. Photo: WMO/Marlene Dapozzo Moali.

By Editor, UN
Apr 22 2019 (IPS-Partners)

Mother Earth is a common expression for the planet earth in a number of countries and regions, which reflects the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet we all inhabit.

The Earth and its ecosystems are our home. In order to achieve a just balance among the economic, social, and environmental needs of present and future generations, it is necessary to promote harmony with nature and the Earth.

International Mother Earth Day is celebrated to remind each of us that the Earth and its ecosystems provide us with life and sustenance.

This Day also recognizes a collective responsibility, as called for in the 1992 Rio Declaration, to promote harmony with nature and the Earth to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations of humanity.
International Mother Earth Day provides an opportunity to raise public awareness around the world to the challenges regarding the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports.

Mother Earth: Education and Climate Change

Climate change is one of the largest threats to sustainable development globally and is just one of many imbalances caused by the unsustainable actions of humankind, with direct implications for future generations.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement encourage international cooperation among parties on climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information.

During the commemoration of 10th anniversary of International Mother Earth Day, the Ninth Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature will be held on 22 April 2019 in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. The Interactive Dialogue is to discuss the contributions of Harmony with Nature in ensuring inclusive, equitable and quality education on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts and to inspire citizens and societies to reconsider how they interact with the natural world in the context of sustainable development, poverty eradication and climate justice, so as to ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in Harmony with Nature.

Climate Action

To boost ambition and accelerate actions to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will host the 2019 Climate Action Summit on 23 September to meet the climate challenge.

The post International Mother Earth Day appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Purnaka L. de Silva
NEW YORK, Apr 22 2019 (IPS)

I returned from attending a three-hour Easter Sunday mass at the Fordham University Church around midnight New York time on April 20, 2019, when my phone rang and a colleague asked me what’s going on in Sri Lanka? I said what is going on? He said there were a series of coordinated terrorist bombings with multiple fatalities and scores of injuries in my native country. For the next four and a half hours I was on the phone trying to piece together what happened, including reaching out to Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Defence Hemasiri Fernando.

The toll as of Monday, April 22 is 290 dead and 500 injured. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that 36 foreigners died, with 20 still unidentified; and those identified include: 5 British (2 with dual US nationality), 3 Danes, 1 Dutch, 1 Portuguese, 2 Turks, 3 Indians and 1 Japanese.

This is the second time in history that the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka has been bombed on an Easter Sunday morning when the faithful were at prayer. The first was a coordinated air attack on the capital Colombo, launched from aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy at 7:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942 – the same date that the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor was also attacked in a different time zone.

Timeline in infamy – April 21, 2019

Around 8:45 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning five massive explosions simultaneously rocked Colombo, western Sri Lanka:

• 18th century St. Anthony’s Shrine Roman Catholic Church in Kochchikade, near Colombo harbor, 3.4 km from Colombo.
• St. Sebastian’s Roman Catholic Church in Katuwapitiya, Negombo, 10.2 km north of Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike International Airport (32.4 km north of the capital).
• Shangri-La 500 room 5-star hotel downtown Colombo
• Kingsbury 229 room 5-star hotel downtown Colombo
• Cinnamon Grand 483 room 5-star hotel downtown Colombo

9:05 a.m.

• Zion Protestant Christian Church in Batticaloa on the eastern seaboard of Sri Lanka, 318.1 km from Colombo.

1:45 p.m.

• Tropical Inn Guest House in Dehiwala near the zoo, 10.2 km south of Colombo.

2:15 p.m.

• Two explosions at suspected safe house in Dematagoda on the northwestern outskirts 3.1 km from Colombo, owned by a spice trader, allegedly the father of one of the suicide bombers. At least three police officers died in the blasts including Special Task Force (STF) police commandos, with seven suspects arrested.

Late Sunday night

• A 6-foot pipe bomb was located and destroyed near Bandaranaike International Airport by the Sri Lanka Air Force.

 
Perpetrators

An internal Sri Lanka Police circular dated April 11, 2019 issued by Deputy Inspector General Srilal Dassanayake noted: “warning of plan to launch a campaign of suicide attacks led by Mohammed Zahran of National Thawheed Jama’ath (NTJ) has been received by intelligence sources, and request extreme precautions be taken.”

A fact commented on in the aftermath of the first wave of bombings by Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, who confirmed that some of the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers.

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested 24 suspects and at least 1 woman as of Monday in an ongoing investigation to root out all the terrorists, who may number 30 with 20-30 targets, according to a suspect arrested down Ramakrishna Road, Wellawatte, 8.0 km south of Colombo.

At least three of the suicide terrorist bombers have been identified, all local Sri Lankan Muslims allegedly from eastern Sri Lanka:

• Mohamed Azzam Mohamed registered as a guest the previous night and blew himself up during the Easter breakfast buffet in Taprobane Restaurant – Cinnamon Grand Hotel. Apparently he queued patiently before triggering his explosives.
• Zahran Hashim – Shangri-La hotel.
• Abu Mohammad – Zion Protestant Christian Church, Batticaloa.

Active measures taken

• 3:00 p.m. curfew lifted at 6:00 a.m. Monday morning to enable security forces to apprehend wanted terror suspects in ongoing hunt and stop escapees.
• Blocking all major social media platforms and messaging Apps to prevent spread of misinformation and rumors.
• Maintaining law and order to stop any retaliation (e.g. Mosque petrol bombed in Putlam, 132.9 km north of Colombo; arson attacks on two Muslim owned shops in Kalutara, 43.5 km south of Colombo).
• U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Australian police teams in place to help with forensic investigations.

National Thawheed Jama’ath (NTJ)

Five years ago on March 24, 2014 the Peace Loving Moderate Muslims in Sri Lanka (PLMMSL) urged the Government of Sri Lanka to ban without delay an Islamic religious movement calling itself the (National) Thawheed Jama’ath “because it was fast becoming a cancer within Sri Lanka’s Muslim community.”

It is alleged that NTJ headed by Moulavi Zahran had holed up in Kattankudi, 327 km east of Colombo, and recruited impressionable Muslim high school students to travel to Syria via Turkey. The hypothesis is that following military defeat at the hands of multinational forces, these Daesh or so-called Islamic State (IS) associated recruits had returned to Sri Lanka.

These allegations are yet to be proven beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law. Having said that I would argue that the spectacular terrorist bombings on Easter Sunday perpetrated on wholly unsuspecting Christians, tourists and citizens could be a last hurrah from Daesh to demonstrate to their supporters and the world at large that they are not defeated. Every suicide bombing though is a defeat for Daesh as they are losing cadres on each occasion.

Quo Vadis?

So where do we all go from here? Sri Lanka will recover, as it has done commendably from the decades long brutal civil wars and bloodletting that ended ten years ago. What of the human spirit and fragile inter-communal harmony between minority Christians, Muslims and majority Buddhists in Sri Lanka, and beyond?

That is the greatest challenge moving forward and Sri Lanka’s fractious political leaders have to demonstrate true statesmanship, and invest the required time, effort and resources in partnership with all faith leaders to make a difference.

Thereby, defeating the forces of darkness, ignorance and evil, and bringing enlightenment, peace and harmony to a beleaguered land. Similar actions must be taken by world leaders to overcome growing dystopia and unchecked authoritarianism that is haunting the 21st century, putting the planet and liberal democracy in dire peril.

The post Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Carnage: Quo Vadis? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr. Purnaka L. (“PL”) de Silva is Director, Institute for Strategic Studies and Democracy (ISSD) Malta

 

“If we believe in absurdities we shall commit atrocities” - Voltaire

The post Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Carnage: Quo Vadis? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Attendees at an FAO sub-regional training workshop on gender and livestock in Harare, Zimbabwe.

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 22 2019 (IPS)

Government staffer Souhayata Haidara enjoys talking about her life in a patriarchal society. Her career is a triumph of patience and perseverance, she tells Africa Renewal with a smile and a wink.

Ms. Haidara, currently the Special Adviser to Mali’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, says she was lucky not to be married off at age 14 like some of her peers. Her father resisted pressure from suitors and relatives and insisted that the teenager be allowed to complete high school before getting married.

“In our culture, people believe education is for boys and that the women must marry and stay at home,” she says.

Women’s economic empowerment is anchored by education, maintains Ms. Haidara, who earned a degree in environmental science in the US on a scholarship from the United States Agency for International Development.

“I couldn’t be where I am today without education. I earn an income. I educated my three children—a boy and two girls, now grown. I have a six-year-old granddaughter who is getting the best grades in class. That makes me very happy.”

But Brandilyn Yadeta, a 32-year-old Ethiopian, missed out on education. “I had a baby at 19 and the father traveled abroad without letting me know. Since then, I continue to struggle to take care of my child, which is my priority, above my education.” She is a small-scale trader.

If the father refuses to pay child support for his child, what options does a woman have? “What can I do?” Ms. Yadeta asks with frustration and regret.

Ms. Yadeta and others like her in Africa are unsung heroes—taking care of the family, a job mostly unrecognized by their society. Yet in monetary terms, women’s unpaid work accounts for between 10% and 39% of GDP, according to the UN Research Institute for Social Development, which provides policy analysis on development issues.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) states that women are disproportionately laden with the responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work. It highlights this issue to make the case for economic empowerment of women, which is now a front-burner topic in development literature.

Countries making reforms

A World Bank report titled Women, Business and the Law 2019: A Decade of Reform states that sub-Saharan Africa “had the most reforms promoting gender equality [of any region].” In fact, six of the top 10 reforming countries are there—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Zambia.

Despite a protracted political crisis, the DRC made the most improvement based in part on “reforms allowing women to register businesses, open bank accounts, sign contracts, get jobs and choose where to live in the same way as men,” states the report.

Mauritius introduced civil remedies for sexual harassment at work and prohibited discrimination in access to credit based on gender. Among the civil remedies, employers are prohibited from sexually harassing an employee or a job seeker while an employee must not sexually harass a fellow employee. Mauritius also mandated equal pay between men and women for work of equal value.

$95 billion

is the amount that sub-Saharan Africa loses yearly because of the gender gap in the labour market. São Tomé and Príncipe equalized mandatory retirement ages and the ages at which men and women can receive full pension benefits—a move that increased the country’s female labour force participation by 1.75%.

The World Bank’s report by no means suggests that all is well with women in these countries. The report merely highlights the positive incremental changes that these countries are making.

The DRC, for example, may have implemented some pro–women’s empowerment reforms, but women in that country still have no land or inheritance rights, according to the Global Fund for Women, a nonprofit.

Theodosia Muhulo Nshala, Executive Director of the Women’s Legal Aid Centre, a nonprofit in Tanzania, tells Africa Renewal that “men and women [in Tanzania] have equal rights to land ownership, thanks to the Village Land Act of 1999; however, customary laws exist that prevent women and girls from inheriting land from their husbands and fathers.”

While women’s participation in the labour force (mostly in the informal sector) is high in many sub-Saharan Africa countries—86% in Rwanda, 77% in Ethiopia and 70% in Tanzania—only in eight countries (Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe) do more than 50% of women own bank accounts, according to the Global Financial Inclusion Database, which regularly publishes country-level indicators of financial inclusion.

Not a zero-sum game

Economically empowering women is not a zero-sum game in which women win and men lose, notes Urban Institute, a policy think tank in Washington, D.C. Rather, Mckinsey Global Institute, a US-based management consulting firm, forecasts that, “A ‘best in region’ scenario in which all countries match the rate of improvement of the fastest-improving country in their region could add as much as $12 trillion, or 11 percent, in annual 2025 GDP.”

And UN Women, an entity for gender equality and women’s empowerment, states: “Investing in women’s economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth,”

On the flip side, since 2010 sub-Saharan African economies have lost about $95 billion yearly because of the gender gap in the labour market, says Ahunna Eziakonwa, Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa (see interview on page 22). “So imagine if you unleash the power, talent and resolve of women.”

Empowerment is limited

Experts believe that women’s economic empowerment is the key to achieving the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a continental framework for socioeconomic transformation of the continent, and several goals in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

That includes Goal 1, ending poverty; Goal 2, achieving food security; Goal 3, ensuring good health; Goal 5, achieving gender equality; Goal 8, promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all; and Goal 10, reducing inequalities.

Aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063 envisages an “Africa whose development is people driven, relying on the potential offered by people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.”

Taking action

What can countries do to empower women economically?

In a blog for the World Bank, Cape Verde’s Minister of Finance, Planning and Public Administration Cristina Duarte and the World Bank’s Vice President for Infrastructure Makhtar Diop recently encouraged “support [for] young women during adolescence—a critical juncture in their lives.”

The Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents programme in Uganda, which “uses girl-only clubs to deliver vocational and ‘life skills’ training,” is a good example, according to Ms. Duarte and Mr. Diop.

The World Bank recommends, among other actions, the passage of laws that foster financial inclusion. Ms. Eziakonwa believes that countries must expunge laws that are obstacles in women’s way, including those that prohibit them from owning land.

South African journalist Lebo Matshego is urging women’s rights activists to use social media to lobby against those customs and traditions that infringe on the rights of women.

Vera Songwe, head of the Economic Commission for Africa, the first woman to lead the organization, says women, especially in rural areas, need access to the internet to be able to take advantage of new technologies.

The UN Secretary-General’s 2018 CSW report titled Challenges and Opportunities in Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Rural Women and girls advises countries to “design and implement fiscal policies that promote gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls by investing in essential infrastructure (ICT, sustainable energy, sustainable transport and safely managed water and sanitation).”

According to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former president of Liberia, affirmative action is the way to go. She says that “now is the time for preferential treatment of women,” such as quotas on jobs and access to credit.

UN Women supported a review of Kenyan public procurement in 2013, and Kenya now reserves a minimum of 30% of annual government spending for women. In 2017, through its Women’s Economic Empowerment programme,

UN Women reported successfully training 1,500 women vendors in Nairobi to participate and benefit from the government supply chain. This is one example of an action in line with Ms. Sirleaf’s suggestion.

The quality of jobs that women do also matters, writes Abigail Hunt, a researcher with the Overseas Development Institute, a UK-based think tank. “Empowerment is limited when women enter the labour market on unfavourable terms.

This includes women’s engagement in exploitative, dangerous or stigmatized work, with low pay and job insecurity.” In other words, women need access to high-paying, safe and secure jobs.

“The road to women’s economic empowerment is irreversible,” maintains Ms. Sirleaf. “It’s taking a while to get it, but it’s coming; no one can stop it.”

*Africa Renewal (ISSN 2517-9829) is published in English and French by the Strategic Communications Division of the United Nations Department of Global Communications. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or the publication’s

The post Economic Empowerment of Women Good for All appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Kingsley Ighobor is a writer at Africa Renewal,* published by the United Nations

The post Economic Empowerment of Women Good for All appeared first on Inter Press Service.

With few street names in The Gambia, people have to get creative about giving directions.

Illustration: Tarique Aziz

By Sunita Narain
NEW DELHI, Apr 22 2019 (IPS)

Our acceptance of climate change doesn’t keep pace with our energy consumption reduction. However, the latest International Energy Agency’s (IEA’S) Global Energy and CO2 Status Report for 2018 has some good news.

It offers where possible answers lie in our quest to mitigate climate change. This is what we should discuss. But transitions in energy use will be contested and even be more difficult, if we don’t factor in climate justice.

IEA’s report finds that global energy consumption is up — twice the average rate of growth since 2010. This is because of robust economic growth in the world and weird weather, ironically because of climate change.

As a result, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are up, with the power sector accounting for two-thirds of the growth in emissions. Oil demand increased by 1.3 per cent in 2018 and so has the demand for coal.

Sunita Narain

But the latter is slower and more sluggish than the period before. Still, coal-based power plants were the single largest contributor to the growth in emissions in 2018.

IEA estimates that CO2 emitted from coal combustion was responsible for over 0.3°C of the 1°C increase in global temperature over the pre-industrial levels.

But here is the good news that has the potential to turn around the energy trajectory that jeopardises our future. First, natural gas is replacing coal for generation of power — roughly 24 per cent of the growth in natural gas use in the world was because it was being substituted for coal in power plants.

This happened mostly in the US and also in China — where its domestic policy to clean air pollution (called the Blue Skies initiative) pushed for curtailment of coal use in industrial boilers and power plants.

Without this shift, CO2 emissions would have been 15 per cent higher, estimates IEA. However, we need to note that gas does have higher methane emissions — a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) — and this is not accounted for by the IEA assessment in its CO2 balance sheet.

Secondly, renewable energy — solar, wind, hydel and bioenergy — is now a big part of the power balance sheet of the world. Renewable-based electricity generation increased by 7 per cent.

This, as IEA puts in perspective, is Brazil’s total energy electricity demand and one-point higher than the annual growth rate since 2010. China accounted for 40 per cent of the increase in renewables; Europe some 25 per cent and interestingly, both the US and India witnessed 13 per cent increase in renewable energy growth.

Renewable energy accounted for a quarter of the global power output in 2018, second after coal. In Germany and also in the UK, renewable energy provided over 35 per cent of the electricity.

Without the switch to gas and increased use of nuclear and renewables, CO2 emissions would have been 50 per cent higher, for the same economic growth that the world saw in 2018, says IEA. This is not small. This is not to be scoffed at. But this is not enough.

The problem is the unequal nature of wealth in the world and the fact that this energy transition has to be made even as significant parts of the world need more energy — to light up homes, to cook food and to run their industries. This is the challenge and this is where we totally fall short.

The US, for instance, desperately needs to reduce its total GHG emissions — its contribution to the stock of gases already in the atmosphere is massive (almost a quarter). It has to reduce.

But in 2018, its CO2 emissions actually increased by 3.7 per cent. This is despite the fact that it substituted coal for gas and so, brought down its emission intensity. In other words, it has increased its emissions to such an extent that it has negated any gains it could have made because of this shift.

This is also when methane is not being added to its emission balance sheet. This is not good; not good at all.

Similarly, the use of oil — primarily used for road transportation — increased at higher rate in the US, even when compared to China and India. This is when ownership and use of personal vehicles is already gargantuan and gross in the country.

So, how will the world contract its emissions? How will it still provide the right to development of the poor and the now emerging countries? Will it and can it? This is what needs to be discussed. This is the inconvenient truth of climate change action.

The post Global Energy Consumption is Up — So Are Emissions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Sunita Narain is Editor, Down To Earth based in New Delhi

The post Global Energy Consumption is Up — So Are Emissions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A festival celebrating this year’s planting season brings together thousands of people in Nigeria.

Rights groups fear the referendum, which was organised in just a few days, won't be free or fair.