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The French newspaper Ouest-France has announced that it will not conduct any polls for the 2022 presidential election on the grounds that they distract from the essential issues. With the exception of the free papers, Ouest-France is the French daily with the highest circulation. Can this move strengthen democracy and the culture of debate?

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez confirmed last week that he will present a law abolishing prostitution in Spain by the end of this legislative period. The ruling parties plan to introduce a version of the so-called "Nordic model" which makes using sexual services a punishable offence. Commentators call for a broadbased debate.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

Speaking at the World Health Summit, President Charles Michel highlighted the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, the European response and how it can support global solutions.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

The Southern African region is particularly vulnerable to climate change while only being responsible for a fraction of emissions. It is hoped that COP26 will deliver tangible benefits to the area which has already suffered severe impacts of climate change like the effects of Cyclone Idai, Mozambique, in March 2019. Credit: Denis Onyodi: IFRC/DRK/Climate Centre

By Kevin Humphrey
Johannesburg, Oct 26 2021 (IPS)

COP 26 is almost upon us, and dire warnings abound that it’s boom or bust for a greener future. Meanwhile, everybody boasts about what they will do to cool down our planet, but there is a disjuncture between talk and action. Even Queen Elizabeth II of the host country, the United Kingdom, has grumbled publicly that not enough action is taking place on climate change.

In the Southern Africa region, the SADC’s member countries are clear that the developed countries must stump up the money to help them deliver their promises to reduce carbon emissions and carry out a raft of measures to combat global warming. All the SADC countries are signatories to the Paris Agreement.

The region has joined the cry of other African countries that the continent suffers most from climate change but hardly contributes to the causes of the phenomenon – emitting less than 4% of the world’s greenhouse gasses.
According to research undertaken on behalf of the UN, climate change adaptation needs for Africa were estimated to be $715 billion ($0.715 trillion) between 2020 and 2030.

In southern Africa, each country has its own Nationally Developed Contribution plan for dealing with climate change, including costs. Of course, funding will be needed to achieve these goals. Developing countries have pledged a $100bn annual target to help the developing world tackle climate change. All the Southern African countries will need a slice of this funding. The Green Climate Fund was established under the Cancun Agreements in 2010 as a dedicated financing vehicle for developing countries.

In the lead up to COP26, the fund is under scrutiny. Tanguy Gahouma, chair of the African Group of Negotiators at COP26, has said: “African countries want a new system to track funding from wealthy nations that are failing to meet the $100bn annual target.”

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates this funding stood at $79.6bn in 2019. OECD data reveals that from 2016-19 Africa only got 26 percent of the funding.

Gahouma said a more detailed shared system was needed that would keep tabs on each country’s contribution and where it went on the ground.

“They say they achieved maybe 70 percent of the target, but we cannot see that,” Gahouma said.
“We need to have a clear road map how they will put on the table the $100bn per year, how we can track (it),” he said. “We don’t have time to lose, and Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world.”

Amar Bhattacharya, from the Brookings Institution, says about the fund, “Some progress has been made – but a lot more needs to be done.”

Denmark’s development coordination minister Flemming Møller Mortensen has warned that only a quarter of international climate finance for developing countries goes to adaptation.

COP26 may turn into a squabble over money and perhaps an attack on developed countries as they are blamed for creating the problems of climate change in the first place by using fossil fuels for the last two centuries. G20 countries account for almost 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Again, it is all about the money. Many developed countries do not want to change; their economies (and their rich elites) are wedded to fossil fuels. There are also problems with paying for adaptation. Will the rich countries fund the developing countries to green themselves up?

Southern Africa will need to deal pragmatically with the outcomes of COP26 as it becomes crucial to deal with climate change impacts – like the vulnerability to intense storms like Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique in March 2019. Credit: Denis Onyodi: IFRC/DRK/Climate Centre

Professor Bruce Hewitson, the SARCHI Research Chair in Climate Change Climate System Analysis Group, Dept Environmental & Geographical Sciences at the University of Cape Town, told IPS: “The well-cited meme that Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate change impacts is true, as is the common response that Africa needs external aid to implement adaptation and development pathways compatible to climate mitigation. However, such messages hide a myriad of political realities about the difference between what is ideal and what is likely.”

Hewitson argues that what emerges from COP26 is an exercise in hope and belief.

“It’s a tightrope walk trying to balance competing demands and self-interests. At the end of the day, Africa will need to pragmatically deal with a compromised outcome and face the climate challenges as best possible under limited resources,” he says.

If Africa goes to COP26 with a begging bowl attitude, it could face the risk of dancing to the strings of the powerful and rich nations.

“Climate change impacts Africa in a multiplicity of ways, but at the root is when the local climate change exceeds the viability threshold of our infrastructural and ecological systems. Hence, arguably the largest challenge to responding to climate change is to expand and enable the regional capacity of the science and decision-makers to responsibly steer our actions in an informed and cohesive way; Africa needs to lead the design of Africa’s solutions,” says Hewitson.

While he argues that some of the best innovation is happening in Africa, it requires resources, and the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased international funding.

“Each community has unique needs and unique challenges, needing unique local solutions that are context-sensitive and context-relevant, and this will inevitably include the pain of some socio-economic and political compromise.”
The southern African region’s climate woes chime with the problems faced by a legion of developing countries. We have Mauritius’s threatened Indian Ocean islands, Seychelles, Madagascar, Comoros and those offshore of Tanzania and Mozambique, plus many thousands of miles of coastline. We have inland waterways. We have jungles, forests, vast plains and deserts. All prey to the viciousness of global warming.

The SADC’s climate change report quotes an academic paper by Rahab and Proudhomme that from 2002 “there has been a rise in temperatures at twice the global average.”

According to the SADC, “A Climate Change Strategy is in place to guide the implementation of the Climate Change Programme over a Fifteen-year period (2015 – 2030). The plan is innovative in terms of food security, preserving and expanding carbon sinks (which play a major role in stabilising the global climate) and tackling problems in urban areas that cause global warming like high energy consumption, poor waste management systems and inefficient transport networks.

Out of the region’s fifteen member countries, South Africa is the biggest culprit when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently said, “We need to act with urgency and ambition to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and undertake a transition to a low-carbon economy.”

This is a big ask for the region’s economic powerhouse with entrenched mining interests, an abundance of coal and a huge fleet of coal-fired power stations.

Recently, Mining and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said South Africa must systematically manage its transition away from coal-fired power generation and not rush a switch to renewable energy sources.

“I am not saying coal forever… I am saying let’s manage our transition step by step rather than being emotional. We are not a developed economy, we don’t have all alternative sources.”

Angola has some of the most ambitious targets for transition to low-carbon development in Africa. The country committed to reducing up to 14% of its greenhouse gas emissions – commentators have met this with scepticism.
Mozambique, not – as yet – a significant carbon emitter, has potential, through its vast natural gas resources, to provide the wherewithal to heat the planet in a big way.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo – a least-developed country, has committed to a 17% reduction by 2030 in emissions. The DRC has the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest – a major carbon sink.

Other SADC countries that suffer from climate change but do very little to cause it are Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Madagascar, which is currently suffering from a climate-induced famine; Malawi, Tanzania, Namibia and Zambia.

While talking up the need to cut emissions, Zambia’s neighbour Zimbabwe said it would increase electricity and coal supply to the iron and steel sectors, thus adding to emissions.

Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros are all vulnerable Island economies and have a lot in common with the many other island states throughout the world and are very low carbon emitters but extremely vulnerable to climate change especially rising sea levels.

Despite all the problems emerging in the lead up to COP 26, we need to take to heart the fact that scientists and commentators worldwide are warning that COP26 must deliver a way forward that works for our planet and our people. Southern Africa and the African continent as a whole can contribute with innovation and enthusiasm by tapping into the vast potential of our youthful population.

 

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Eine Kombination aus kürzlich veröffentlichten Daten und Umfragen hat Zweifel an der Transparenz der albanischen Regierung im Umgang mit der COVID-19-Pandemie im Land aufkommen lassen.

Les bonnes nouvelles dans le secteur des transports continuent. En effet, après la réouverture partielle des frontières aériennes les vols internationaux s’ajoutent au programme, la liste des destinations s’élargit et les compagnies aériennes étrangères reprennent avec l’Algérie.

C’est le cas de la compagnie aérienne nationale du Royaume-Uni, British Airways. Alors que le gouvernement a autorisé des vols pour la ligne Alger – Londres qu’Air Algérie a repris, c’est maintenant autour de British Airways qui reprendra à partir du mois de novembre ses vols avec l’Algérie.

Le 14 novembre verra le premier vol à partir de Londres sur cette compagnie depuis plus d’un an et demi à cause de la pandémie. La ligne Alger (Houari Boumediene) – Londres (Heathrow) se fera deux fois par semaine : dimanche et jeudi.

Qu’en est-il des prix ?

Vu la cherté des prix des billets actuellement, la question des tarifs se pose à chaque annonce de ce genre. En effet, des prix excessivement chers se répandent de plus en plus sur les destinations et les sites des compagnies aériennes : Canada, Dubaï et France sont affichés à des prix choquants, et ce, pas que sur le site d’Air Algérie mais aussi chez d’autres compagnies à l’instar de Transavia et Air France.

La ligne Londres – Alger était également affichée à un prix élevé sur le site d’Air Algérie, un billet aller simple de Londres est fixé à partir de 525 livres sterling. Sur le site de British Airways, le prix est encore plus élevé. Pour un vol Londres – Alger le 14 novembre départ à 8h10 et arrivée à 12h05, on ne dépensera pas moins de 731 livres sterling.

L’article Vols Algérie – Royaume-Uni : British Airways reprend du service est apparu en premier sur .

Les forces de l’ordre de onze pays européens utilisent déjà des systèmes de reconnaissance biométrique dans leurs enquêtes et huit autres vont bientôt suivre ce mouvement, indique une nouvelle étude.

Acht weitere werden folgen, so eine neue Studie, die vor den Auswirkungen der Technologie auf die Grundrechte warnt.

La 27e édition du Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou (Fespaco), qui récompense les meilleures productions cinématographiques, séries et documentaires d'Afrique, a dévoilé son palmarès officiel ce samedi 23 octobre.

CANAL+ se réjouit de ce palmarès attribuant des récompenses prestigieuses à des productions et co-productions cinématographiques, séries et documentaires, adressant tout particulièrement ses félicitations aux productions ayant bénéficié d'un financement et d'un accompagnement par le Groupe CANAL+ : Une Histoire d'amour et de désir, de Leyla Bouzid (Tunisie), Prix Étalon de bronze de Yennega, d'une valeur de 5 millions de FCFA, dans la catégorie « Fiction long-métrage ».

Par ailleurs, des prix spéciaux ont été décernés aux séries et films long-métrage suivants : Mami Wata, le mystère d'Iveza, une série CANAL+ ORIGINAL créée par la réalisatrice gabonaise Samantha Biffot, 2ème prix dans la catégorie Séries ; Les Trois Lascars, du réalisateur burkinabè Boubacar Diallo, Prix spécial CEDEAO de l'intégration pour le meilleur film ouest-africain, d'une valeur de 15 millions de FCFA ; Le Père de Nafi (Baamum Nafi), du réalisateur sénégalais Mamadou Dia, Prix spécial UEMOA de long-métrage, d'une valeur de 10 millions de FCFA ; Lingui, du réalisateur tchadien Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Prix spécial de l'Assemblée nationale du Burkina Faso, d'une valeur de 5 millions de FCFA.

Enfin, CANAL+ tient également à chaleureusement saluer les talents primés personnellement dans la catégorie « Meilleure collaboration artistique » : Alassane Sy, récompensé par le Prix de la meilleure interprétation masculine pour sa performance dans Le Père de Nafi (Baamum Nafi) ; Samuel Teisseire, Prix du meilleur décor pour le film La Nuit des rois du réalisateur Philippe Lacôte (Côte d'Ivoire).

A travers ces différentes récompenses, le Groupe CANAL+ est fier d'accompagner et de mettre sous les projecteurs des talents africains, aujourd'hui applaudis et reconnus pour la qualité de leurs productions, réalisations et interprétations artistiques.

En tant que partenaire historique de la production audiovisuelle africaine, le Groupe CANAL+ soutient le Fespaco, véritable carrefour stratégique de l'art cinématographique continental.

A propos du Groupe CANAL+
Le Groupe CANAL+ est leader dans l'édition de chaînes premium, les chaînes CANAL+ et de chaînes thématiques ainsi que dans la distribution d'offres de télévision payante. Il est également un acteur de référence dans la télévision gratuite avec trois chaînes nationales, C8, CSTAR et CNEWS, et sa régie publicitaire. À l'international, le Groupe CANAL+ connait une forte croissance avec une présence en Europe, en Afrique et en Asie.
Au total, le Groupe CANAL+ compte 21,8 millions d'abonnés dans le monde, dont 8,7 millions en France métropolitaine. Avec STUDIOCANAL, le Groupe CANAL+ est par ailleurs un leader européen dans la production, l'acquisition et la distribution de films de cinéma et de séries TV.
Le Groupe CANAL+ est détenu à 100% par Vivendi, groupe international dans la production et la création de contenus.

Alors que les traitements d’automne sont en cours, les agriculteurs bio s’inquiètent de la contamination de leurs cultures aux herbicides. Du côté des apiculteurs, la révision de la réglementation sur les insecticides suscite des craintes pour l’avenir de la filière.