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More than a hundred senior lawmakers will send a joint letter to their counterparts in the US on 12 December, pleading for Congress to unlock further military aid to Ukraine at a time US lawmakers have struggled for a deal.

French lawmakers rejected the government’s immigration bill on Monday by 270 votes to 265, with the far-right, conservatives and left-wing coalition joining forces, marking the first time in 25 years that a motion to reject a bill has been passed....

Sweden presented a new aid package of some €144 million for Ukraine on Monday, just a few days ahead of this week’s EU summit where Swedish Prime Minister Ukraine warned of a need to find common ground amid Hungary’s continued...

Parties of the ruling majority in the Bulgarian parliament have agreed to cancel the tax on Russian gas imports transiting through Bulgarian territory, with GERB leader and former prime minister Boyko Borissov hoping it could help the country’s Schengen Area bid.

Polish parliament elected Donald Tusk as prime minister on Monday after Mateusz Morawiecki, the candidate of the previously ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, failed to obtain a vote of confidence on Monday with the new prime minister vowing to...

Norway and the UK will lead a maritime coalition to help Ukraine build up its coastal and maritime defences, the countries’ defence ministers announced after a meeting in London on Monday. Norwegian Defence Minister Bjørn Arild Gram was in London...

Pushing for a geopolitical EU bloc with a stronger alliance between Germany, France and Poland, known as the Weimar Triangle, has been presented as one of the core tenets of the new manifesto of Germany’s opposition CDU, which seeks to...

Hungary’s potential veto over financial aid to Ukraine and opening accession talks with Kyiv at the EU summit later this week will be a 'failure of the entire bloc, not only of one European leader', Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said in an interview.

À vingt-quatre heures du verdict, la Coupole est en ébullition. Stratégies secrètes, coups fourrés ou calme plat: voici notre scénario pour le jour J.

Hungary's potential veto on Ukraine accession talks threatens to cast a shadow of collective failure over the EU summit, Ukraine's deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna has warned.

Oncle AGBAYA

On vous l'avait bien dit, mon Neveu Patou dirige un pays de pagailleurs avec des pagailleurs partout ! Sinon que mon petit Neveu Romy Le Tontinier a paru quelque peu amer, que mes Neveux députés YAYI, aient voté contre son budget, malgré tous les gages qu'il leur a donné en commission, en acceptant tous leurs amendements, même les moins pertinents. C'est quand même curieux qu'il n'y ait, depuis vendredi, personne pour demander à Romy si en plus des gages il a donné le" djèkè " à ses cousins Democrtes, comme cela se faisait du temps de YAYI …
En tout cas, au-delà de tout, le courage et l'assurance du Manitou qui a organisé l'indisponibilité simultanée du Président Vlavonou et de son vice Kassa, pour que ce soit mon Cousin Basile Ahossi, deuxième vice-président qui préside cette plénière, la plus importante et statutaire d'une année parlementaire, doivent peut-être inquiéter le Président des Démocrates…
Mais vous mes Neveux et Nièces, qui ricanez que YAYI devrait déjà commencer à penser à un autre nom de parti, un autre logo et composer une autre hymne sur sa guitare, vous êtes tous des pagailleurs !
VOTRE ONCLE AGBAYA

Americas Collins Aerospace won a $34.7 million modification for B-52 aircraft wheels and brakes. The performance completion date is August 31, 2028. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2023 through 2028 Air Force working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. […]

B-52H: flyin’ low, dyin’ slow… (click to view full) Officially, it’s the B-52H Stratofortress. Unofficially, it’s the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat F–cker). Either way, this subsonic heavy bomber remains the mainstay of the U.S. strategic fleet after more than 50 years of service. A total of 102 B-52H bombers were delivered from FY 1961-1963, and […]

Liane Schalatek joins demonstrators at COP28. After the initial euphoria that accompanied the announcement, questions are being asked about how it will operate and how money will be disbursed. Credit: X

By Stella Paul
DUBAI, Dec 12 2023 (IPS)

On November 30, the first day of COP28, the much-awaited Loss and Damage Fund—a landmark decision to compensate the world’s most climate-affected and climate-vulnerable people—was declared operational. Announcing the decision, COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber said, ‘the fact that we have been able to achieve such a significant milestone on the first day of this COP is unprecedented. This is historic.”

Formed first at the 27th Conference of the Parties held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2022, the Loss and Damage Fund has been demanded for several years by climate action advocates and countries seeking financial compensation for people who are most adversely affected by climate change. Different contributors have so far pledged about $700 million to the fund.

The announcement by Al Jaber on November 30 was, as expected, overwhelmingly welcomed by parties and delegates. However, as the conference nears its conclusion, the focus has now shifted towards its implementation, and many participants are expressing their general lack of clarity on the exact next steps.

“We know that the World Bank is going to manage it, and there will be a board for basic assessment. But the money that has come in so far is very small. How this money then goes to small CSOs (civil society organizations) and women-led organizations is anyone’s guess,” says Dilruba Haider, who leads the Women’s Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Humanitarian Portfolio in Bangladesh, one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world.

The Loss and Damage Fund: A Brief History

Loss and damage refer to the negative consequences that arise from the unavoidable risks of climate change, like rising sea levels, prolonged heatwaves, desertification, the acidification of the sea, and extreme events such as bushfires, species extinctions, and crop failures. As the climate crisis unfolds, these events will happen more and more frequently, and the consequences will become more severe.

For example, in 2022, Pakistan witnessed severe flooding, now known as the ‘super flood,’ which caused damage amounting to US$30 billion. But as a nation, Pakistan only emits less than 1 percent of global emissions. Combined with Bangladesh, another highly impacted country in South Asia, in 2022 alone, climate change caused losses worth approximately USD 36 billion and the displacement of about 50 million individuals.

The core thought behind the Loss and Damage Fund is that it is necessary to tackle the gaps that current climate finance institutions such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) do not fill. The combined adaptation and mitigation finance flows in 2020 were USD 17 billion short of the total USD 100 billion pledged to developing countries. Despite the US’s current pledge of USD 1 billion, the need has since multiplied due to the rise in losses and damages brought on by numerous disasters, making USD 100 billion woefully insufficient.

Access Mechanism: What’s Clear, What’s Not

Liane Schalatek is the Associate Director of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Washington, DC, where she spearheads the foundation’s work on climate finance. Schalatek has been tracking the flow of finance into the GCF for years and is also actively following the developments at the Loss and Damage Fund since its inception.

Schalatek, who has created an infographic to explain the basic facts and characteristics of the fund, says that, like the Green Climate Fund, contributions to the Loss and Damage Fund are also voluntary and without a strict timeline for fulfilling the pledges. The World Bank will be the main facilitator of the fund, but a 26-member board will be constituted to govern it. Of them, 14 members will be from developing countries, and the members will have a rotational tenure. The remaining 12 members will be from developed countries.

The first meeting of the board, according to the COP28 document, is expected to be held in January 2024, while three meetings of the board are expected to be held before the next COP.

It is also known that the Loss and Damage Fund will have multiple modalities, meaning that the funding will be given in different ways. For example, some money may be going through the organizations that are already accredited for managing climate finance; some money may be going to the national governments; and others, like NGOs, may also receive some. So far, the developing countries are demanding that the money be given to their governments, Schalatek says.

What Most-Affected Countries Want

Mirza Shawkat Ali is one of the most senior and experienced members of the Bangladesh delegation and has represented his country at multiple COPs. Ali says that while the concept of giving communities direct access to the fund is noble, from an operational perspective, it would be far easier if the funding was channeled through the national government. The reason, explains Ali, is that it could be extremely difficult to track the flow of the fund and also coordinate with various organizations in a timely manner unless detailed information is not shared in a timely manner.

“The biggest problem we could face is while reporting to the UN on the progress achieved with the fund that has been received. How can we do that if we don’t know the details of how and how much of the fund is coming and to whom it is coming?” Ali asks.

“For us, it would be both easier and more realistic if the government received the fund. We have the infrastructure that is needed to receive, disburse, and utilize the fund. We can also track and report back to the funder,” Ali says.

Haider of UN Women appears to agree with Ali: “I think the government could take some initiatives. If the government could access the funding, it could provide some budgeted support. And if the government then comes with some policies, some directives, selection criteria, and prioritization to support women-led initiatives, then that might be one way.”

María Elena Hermelinda Lezama Espinosa, Governor of Quintana Roo Province, Mexico, also supports the channeling of loss and damage funding through the government.

“We have already been implementing so many programs to help local communities overcome climate change impacts, especially in the areas of water and land. We will be happy to receive this fund to advance our work further,” she says.

From a different perspective, many civil society leaders are strongly advocating for direct access to the fund for extremely vulnerable and highly affected communities.

Anika Schroeder, Climate Policy Officer at Germany-based environmental organization Miseroer, who works with climate-affected communities globally, including Indonesia and Nepal, says that climate vulnerabilities are also about human rights, and giving climate-vulnerable groups and communities access to the Loss and Damage Fund is important to ensure their basic human rights.

A complex and time-consuming mechanism of accessing the fund could result in the already vulnerable people suffering more, which would then mean greater violations of their human rights, Schroeder argues.

“People think that giving one-time aid support to a disaster-hit community is enough, but that is not right; the same community will keep facing more disasters. And every time they are hit, they cannot go to school, they do not have a house, and they do not have water, so it’s about meeting their basic human rights. If this is not integrated while designing the funding access, then it will not be taken seriously,” Schroeder says.

The Devil Lies in the Details

However, Schalatek reminds us that although the fund mentions direct access for affected communities (such as neighborhood non-governmental organizations), the board will likely only approve a small portion of it. In fact, at present, the money that has been contributed is for the setting up of access mechanisms such as the formation of the board, the selection of the board members, deciding the location of the fund, and other infrastructural details.

“In the jubilations of the approval of the Loss and Damage Fund, people are forgetting that the contributions that have come so far are meant for operationalizing the fund, meaning getting the system and infrastructure in place, and not really for providing to the countries right away. For that, we need more pledges to be made and fulfilled,” Schalatek says. “Will the Loss and Damage Fund go directly to small community organizations? No, we don’t have those commitments right now because none of the windows and the substructures are set up yet; the board will decide on that,” she adds.

Developments on the Green Climate Fund

The first replenishment of the fund—$100 billion—is almost complete, except for the USD 1 billion from the United States that is yet to come. The 2nd replenishment has so far seen pledges of 12.8 billion, of which USD 3.3 billion was announced since the COP28 started, according to a press statement from the Green Climate Fund.

However, there is no fixed timeframe for these pledges to be fulfilled, and contributing countries can give their shares of the money anytime between January 2024 and the end of 2027. “A pledge is as good as a fulfilled commitment, so we will know more about the status of the new pledges once we see the signed contribution agreements from those who are pledging them,” Schalatek says.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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La stabilité des taux de change est un indicateur crucial pour l’économie d’un pays. En Algérie, les fluctuations significatives sur les marchés des devises dévoilent […]

L’article Cotations Banque d’Algérie et marché informel : stagnation des devises ce 12 décembre ! est apparu en premier sur .

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L’article Prévisions météo en Algérie : persistance du beau temps ce mardi 12 décembre ! est apparu en premier sur .

L'ONG Citoyen Des Rues International Bénin (CDRIB) Foyer SONAGNON organise du jeudi 21 au samedi 23 décembre 2023 la Noël Solidaire 2023 dans le cadre de la Journée de l'Enfant Béninois (JEB).

La communauté est appelée à se mobiliser autour de la protection des droits des enfants notamment sur la situation des enfants en situation de rue et de vulnérabilité. C'est à l'occasion de la Journée de l'Enfant Béninois/Noël solidaire qui se déroulera du jeudi 21 au samedi 23 décembre 2023 au Foyer Sonagnon sis à Cotonou.
Panels sur l'état des lieux des droits des enfants au Bénin, en particulier des enfants (filles et garçons) en situation de rue ; instant de bonheur aux enfants le 23 décembre dans un environnement inclusif à travers un repas pour 500 enfants ; exposition du savoir-faire des enfants en art culinaire et en technologie textile ; présentation des actions du Centre d'accueil et de protection de jour du Foyer Sonagnon, etc. sont au menu de l'édition 2023 de la JEB/Noël solidaire.
La JEB, c'est une semaine de sensibilisation et d'animation grand public avec la collaboration de plusieurs partenaires et acteurs de la chaîne de protection de l'enfant et une Distribution de 500 repas aux enfants.

Comment participer à la JEB/Noël solidaire ?
Pour participer aux journées d'activités : panels, animations, collations, jeux…, obtenez un ticket d'entrée en donnant le montant de votre choix via via Momo au +229 61 05 78 32 ou sur place au Foyer Sonagnon.
Les dons en numéraire, de vêtements, de jeux ou autres cadeaux feront également la joie des enfants.

À propos de CDRIB – Foyer SONAGNON
Citoyen Des Rues International Bénin (CDRIB) est un foyer d'accueil et de protection des enfants en situation de rue.
Dénommé Foyer Sonagnon, il accueille dans la journée de 08h30 à 17h00 des enfants âgés de 9 à 17 ans tous les jours du lundi au vendredi.
Il offre un cadre de sécurisé de protection aux enfants en situation de rue et de vulnérabilité.
Une assistance d'urgence avec accès aux soins, à l'hygiène et à trois repas quotidiens.
Il contribue enfin à leur réinsertion socio professionnelle à travers des activités pédagogiques, socio-éducatives, un soutien psychologique et une orientation.
Quelques chiffres :
Plus de 2000 enfants accueillis au Foyer Sonagnon
Plus de 3000 repas quotidiens servis dans la cantine du Foyer
Plus de 300 enfants scolarisés
Plus de 200 enfants qui ont réintégrés un cadre familial stable
Foyer Sonagnon est situé à Cotonou dans la 2eme von à gauche en quittant la place de l'Etoile rouge pour
Cadjèhoun.
M. M.

L'exposition « Révélation ! Art contemporain du Bénin » sera présentée à la Fondation Clément à la Martinique du 15 décembre 2023 au 30 mars 2024. C'est l'un des points inscrits dans l'agenda du chef de l'Etat pour dans le cadre de sa visite travail à la Martinique qui démarre mercredi prochain.

Du mercredi 13 au dimanche 17 décembre 2023, le chef de l'Etat Patrice TALON effectue une visite à la Martinique. Le volet culturel occupe une bonne partie de l'agenda du président de la République. Selon un communiqué de la direction de la communication de la Présidence de la République, « l'actualité de l'itinérance internationale de l'exposition « Révélation ! Art contemporain du Bénin », est au programme. Après avoir été produite à Cotonou en février 2021, invitée à Rabat, capitale du Maroc au Musée Mohamed VI de janvier à juin 2023, cette exposition selon le communiqué, sera présentée à la Fondation Clément à la Martinique du 15 décembre 2023 au 30 mars 2024 avant de faire escale dans une institution muséale à Paris, en octobre 2024.
La diplomatie territoriale et de la coopération décentralisée entre le Bénin et la Collectivité territoriale de la Martinique sur des axes prioritaires et stratégiques de coopération culturelle et artistique, universitaire, économique et touristique ;
– La visite de sites historiques, mémoriels et culturels emblématiques de la Martinique tels que le Fort Tartenson, Fort militaire où a été déporté et exilé le Roi Béhanzin, l'espace muséal du Théâtre Aimé Césaire à Fort-de-France, le Mémorial du Cap 110 au Diamant ;
– La préfiguration du Musée d'Art contemporain de Cotonou en plein cœur du Quartier culturel et créatif de Cotonou – le MACC : un équipement muséal dédié à la création contemporaine de l'Afrique et de ses diasporas, déployé sur 14.500m2. Le MACC se positionne comme le symbole de l'ouverture du Bénin sur le monde et de son engagement en faveur de la création contemporaine africaine et afro-descendante en dialogue avec le Monde, sont entre autres les points inscrits à l'agenda du chef de l'Etat.

Joshua Amponsem, co-director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund, believes trusting those in the frontlines of climate change with agency and decision-making is pivotal for climate justice. Credit: Cecilia Russell/IPS

By Cecilia Russell
DUBAI, Dec 12 2023 (IPS)

During his childhood, Joshua Amponsem spent a lot of time in his dry rural community collecting water from the streams. “It was normal,” the co-director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund says in an interview on the sidelines of COP28. “We didn’t talk about climate change.”

Later, as a student at a university in Ghana, it was his love of the sea—this massive expanse of water he never experienced as a child—that led him to environmental youth activism. He would walk on the beach in awe of the sea but also notice the sand mining, plastic pollution, and mangrove deforestation.

In the classroom, Amponsem had been absorbing a lot of theory about coastal zone management and ecosystem management but saw little application of these concepts outside the university.

“So, for me, this was a dilemma,” he says, commenting to his professor, ‘it seems that we have a lot of solutions. But yet, when I leave, when I look outside, the communities are really struggling, and there are all these issues’.”

The professor told me that it was his “responsibility as a tutor to give us the exposure, the insight, and the knowledge, and it is our role as students to then figure out all what to do with those insights and those pieces of information.”

For Amponsem, this was a turning point. That day, he mobilized a group of students and started the Green Africa Youth Organization.

Amponsem moved from grassroots activism to influencing policymaking in the climate change arena and acknowledges the difficulties.

“It’s difficult because, on one hand, I’m working with a population that needs jobs. They want their start-ups to thrive; they will need access to energy in abundance so they can do the things that they want to do,” he says, and again pointing to a dilemma, there is a need to get people access to energy quickly to break the cycle of poverty, yet sustainably, to not break the planet.

“If you look at the energy sector (you ask), do you go the efficient way in the short term, get people access to energy so they can run their company, their businesses get income, and get out of poverty, or do you go the sustainable route?” he says.

To take the sustainable route, he says he needs to go on the “international stage and really fight the good fight to get the funding that is needed to go to the sustainable route… I see it is trying to find that fine balance to the just transition.”

“For many communities, it is expensive to go the renewable, sustainable route. It’s expensive for some communities to even consider a solar rooftop, even when there are subsidies available. The community also may not benefit from the jobs in installing the systems; a foreign company may come in and install the systems.

“That’s not a just transition.”

Crucial Policy Conversation

“The policy conversation is really around trying to look at the long-term benefits of just transitioning. And how do we do it in a way that we can retain as much as possible benefit to our local communities, which means that it is not enough to just put solar on the roof of houses and have them have access to energy? It is not enough to just say, ‘Oh! We’ve increased our energy mix to 20 percent renewables.

“We need to go the extra mile to ask the question of who is doing those projects and who is being contracted to do this work. Who is being trained to do the maintenance? Who has been trained to really do this on the ground? And have those local people, who have been paid directly to do this, been trained to take this forward and scale it? That is super essential.”

Amponsem admits it’s a hard sell.

“You don’t necessarily have absolute control or the money to make a just transition. You have an agreement with a multilateral bank or development bank that sets conditions for how projects are supposed to roll out.”

On the other hand, as a developing country’s government, you want the money to come in, and you know that it would be better to do the development sustainably, but the money often comes with strings.

“Sometimes you hear the word ‘technical’ and the phrase ‘we need to build technical capacity,’ and they need ‘technical assistance.’ And it ends up just bringing in a bunch of people from somewhere to do the work that, actually, local people could be trained to do.”

“I think, as the youth movement, being able to constantly remind policymakers of the role of equity and justice in developments in the green transition is super important.”

Amponsem says he also works with the Climate Justice Fund. Philanthropic entities also “constantly need reminding on issues of equity and justice when providing support directly to governments.”

It shouldn’t be solely focused on reducing emissions.

“Putting money in the hands of local communities is one of the most powerful things that you can do. It builds trust and confidence and allows local companies to realize that they have the agency to actually drive their own growth. And I think that when that is not done, and when it is external entities coming in, you really disempower communities.”

Cyclone Kenneth hit the Macomia district in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, earlier in 2023. Credit: IPS/OCHA/Saviano Abreu

Weather-Resilient Housing

Amponsem refers back to remarks he made earlier in the conference during the Open Society Foundations-facilitated session on ‘Financing for Resilience: Overcoming Hurdles to Catalyze Regional Action and Locally-led Adaptation and Loss and Damage Finance,’ during which he questioned why weather-resilient housing in the Mozambican coastal region was not yet a reality.

Tropical cyclones have been battering this area with increasing ferocity, including Idai in 2019, which caused a humanitarian crisis in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi and left more than 1,500 people dead, and Cyclone Freddy more recently, which reportedly became the longest-lived tropical cyclone ever observed and made landfall three times.

He spent time interviewing people impacted by the cyclones in 2020, and the interviews were emotional.

“I was in tears. I spoke to teachers who had to take responsibility for the kids in their class. Trying to keep them keeping their energy up while their parents are lost and missing.”

There was one interviewee who built a classroom for the children after Cyclone Idai, and a year later it was destroyed again. Another person built a house, only to have it wrecked by flooding the next year. So, the question, says Amponsem, is: “How do we invest in “preparedness in a way that people do not have to suffer the losses?”

“We can’t stop the cycle (of climate change-induced weather) at the moment, but we can work on the exposure and the vulnerability that are attached to the hazard. But this is not being done!”

There are issues with accessibility—getting access to funding—and when it comes, it doesn’t flow to the grassroots level.

“That is what we try to do with the new Climate Justice Fund: work with micro-funders that can actually help those countries,” he says, explaining that in Mozambique, they’re very excited to work on adaptation projects dealing with building climate-resilient houses. The project is in its early stages, and they are consulting with architects and construction companies to ensure that once built, they can survive the storms.

Preparedness and Prevention

“We need to invest in preparedness and prevention because it does save lives,” he comments, saying that he admires the resilience of people.

“Every single year, the cyclone comes, and yet the community has hope that we can solve this crisis. They have hope that we can do this, and they are working with us to make sure that we really break those barriers of access to funding, access to decision-making spaces, and access to the required infrastructure that will allow them to be able to build the adaptive capacity and resilience towards these.”

Amponsem says he particularly admires the women in Africa.

“I always say that the real hustlers in this world are African women and mothers,” explaining the lengths his mother would go to ensure her family was fed and educated. Yet the funding for them isn’t there. Likewise with minorities and Indigenous people. He speaks about a disconnect in the climate debates and how, when we speak about climate finance, we often speak about climate indicators.

“This is where we have the challenge because we need to realize that we are living in a world where economics or social justice issues and environmental justice issues are just as important.”

Amponsem is clear; he says the climate conversation needs to include those feeling its impact.

“If we cannot trust the frontline communities with agency, with decision-making, and with resources, then I think we’ve gotten it wrong.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

Joshua Amponsem, co-director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund, believes it is time to ensure climate finance and social justice issues are elevated to the top of the agenda and negotiations at COP28.