09-11-2021

More documents

Recommendations

Info

TUESDAy, NOvEMBER 9, 20214Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alame-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.comTuesday, November 9, 2021Sustainable povertyreductionMany poor families in Bangladesh climb out ofpoverty one year to slip back into extreme povertyconditions in the next. Natural calamities likefloods, cyclones and river erosions increase the number ofthe poverty afflicted or push them back into poverty afterthey had achieved considerable success in getting rid ofpoverty from their lives.What can the policies be to conquer poverty on asustainable basis ? One way can be hedging the rural poorwith insurance policies to cover risks like crop losses,damage to homesteads by floods, loss of poultries andcattle, etc. According to media reports, a crop insurancepilot project was about to be launched in a limited way. Theproject would be funded jointly by GOB, AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) and Japan.But further developments on this project are not heardnowadays. This project's outcome should be monitoredand, if found effective, should be replicated all over thecountry. The small insurance policies can help poor peopleat the grass roots from getting some financial assistancedirectly at the time of their acute distresses.Rural marketing systems may be improved so that ruralproducers can sell directly to buyers at good value,regularly, without having to sell to exploitativemiddlemen at a loss. The overall availability of microcredits to the poor must be increased with repaymentof the loans at substantially lower rate of interests andon other easy terms.Government will have to run special programmes to takecare of the needs of the victims of river erosion, monga(periodic famine conditions in northern areas). It shouldprovide food and housing supports and create plannedemployment for affected people under these specialprogrammes and operate them with some regularity.Greater availability of energy and other means ofproduction in the rural areas that have the highestconcentration of poverty can also have a positive effectagainst poverty.The fastest results against poverty at the national levelcan come from much increasing the rate of economicgrowth. Economic growth creates jobs, earnings andemployment that have the most effect in reducing poverty.But the economic growth is vitally dependent on greaterinvestment activities. The first requirement, thus, is tocreate an environment more conducive to investments.The creation of an investment-friendly environment inthe country is linked to a host of factors such as increasingthe availability of power and other forms of energy, longterm favourable and unchanging fiscal and monetarypolicies of the government that create confidence for theinvestors, improved law order conditions, upgradation andaddition to infrastructures supportive of investments,prevention of smuggling, etc.There was a time when landlessness which accompanyinevitably poverty and its attendant ills, affected a smallerpart of the Bangladesh population than today.But the number of the landless ones is noted to be risingin the country. People are forced to sell their last parcels ofancestral holdings after falling into worse povertyconditions in the wake of natural calamities ; rivererosion regularly leads to loss of homesteads andcroplands for a large number of people.The ones without land join the ranks of the worst ones inextreme poverty and the tasks of poverty alleviationbecomes even more difficult. According to one reliableassessment, the number of the landless in thepopulation was 28 per cent in 1972 ; the number hasincreased to 50 per cent at present. BhumiAdhikarParisad, an NGO, claims that the number ofthe landless today is as high as 54 per cent.Considering the links between landlessness and povertyor the need to score better successes against poverty, it isso important to put a hard brake on the process ofbecoming landless. One way of doing it involvesdistributing government owned lands, called khas lands,among landless people. There is also a countywideprogramme for doing this but it suffers from pervasivecorruption and neglect.A report in this paper sometime ago highlighted that inthe Sylhet district about 53 per cent of the distribution ofkhas lands remained pending while the 47 per cent ofthose who received khas lands against their names wereundeserving persons.Locally influential groups could get their targetpersons to become beneficiaries in the settlement ofkhas lands to the exclusion of ones who should have gotownership rights over these lands in view of theirlandless state and acute poverty.In the cases of both undistributed and distributed khaslands, unlawful squatters are in possession by using theirlinks to locally powerful vested interest groups.The situation in Sylhet is symbolic of khas landsdistribution in other areas of the country. Clearly, thereport indicates the need to take action in two fronts : toensure that truly landless and very poor persons getentitlement as well as effective possession of khas landsand the eviction of undeserving people from theircurrent occupation of these lands.Amputating Lebanon from the Arab worldThe dismissive retort ofLebanon's ridiculous ForeignMinister Abdullah Bou Habibto GCC proposals for addressing thelatest crisis was: "If they just wantHezbollah's head on a plate, we can'tgive them that." Healso ludicrouslyblamed Saudi Arabia for Hezbollahflooding the Gulf states withnarcotics. Such was BouHabib'svolley of abuse that he may need toserve up his own head on a plate ifthere is to be any hope of salvagingthis shattered relationship.The logic of abandoning Hezbollahand Lebanon to drown together, asadvocated by some Arab opinionleaders, may appear seductive.However, this would be disastrouslycounterproductive. Gaza wasabandoned to Hamas; the economycollapsed and people starved, butHamas entrenched its monopoly.Gulf states disassociated themselvesfrom post-2003 Iraq, surrendering itto Tehran. Arab abandonment ofSyria rendered it a hellish playgroundfor Iranian-Hezbollah-Russianinterests. Lebanon would be thecherry on the cake for Iraniandominance of the Arab world. Andonce it is given away, wresting it backwill be no easy feat.Hezbollah is Tehran's Trojan horsefor colonizing the Arab world. Wemust dismantle it, not welcome it in.The Houthis in Yemen thrived thanksto Hezbollah training and support.Hezbollah waded through a river ofSyrian Arab blood to maintainTehran's puppet in power, withHezbollah deputy leader NaimQassim now threatening to sendadditional Hezbollah forces back toSyria. Hezbollah leader HassanNasrallah is the idol of thousands ofbearded Hashd thugs in Iraq - andafter their recent electoral wipeout,Tehran wants Hezbollah to play aneven more direct role.The international community iswrong to consider Lebanon inisolation. In the context of escalatingstakes in Iran's game of nuclearbrinkmanship, Hezbollah is just onegrants victory to Iranof the cards in Tehran's efforts todominate the region, buttressed bynuclear and ballistic weapons. If weare to abandon Lebanon, we may aswell go the whole way and recogniseAyatollah Khamenei as SupremeLeader over the entire region.Iran and Hezbollah made inroadsonly because of the eclipse of Arabnationalism - the belief that Arabsshould stand together locally and onthe world stage. From Jerusalem toSanaa, from Baghdad to Beirut, weshould treat every inch of Arabterritory as sacrosanct and worthfighting for, particularly when UNinstitutions, international law andmultilateral forums are undersustained attack. Every scrap ofterritory we relinquish only makesour enemies hungry for more. Withthe Arab world's mighty collectiveresources, the challenges posed bytiny Lebanon and hostile Iranianencroachment should be well withinour capabilities.Let's not rip our own heart out. TheArab world without Beirut - withoutthe Lebanon of Khalil Gibran,Mikhail Naimy, Fairuz - isinconceivable. Generations ofKhaleejis flocked to Lebanon and fellin love with the country and itspeople, which is why so many areblessed with Lebanese mothers! Thelargely Kuwaiti-owned town ofBhamdoun, near Beirut, is amicrocosm of this seamlessLebanese-Khaleej relationship.Generations of Arabs were raised onLebanese films and TV, art, music,poetry, and boundless creativity.Lebanon's cultural renaissancesince the civil war was achievedBARIA ALAMUDDINFAN HONGDAthanks to vast GCC investment. Itseconomy thrived thanks to millionsof Arab visitors every year, with tensof billions of dollars of investment inbanking, telecoms, media,infrastructure, culture and themilitary. Diaspora remittancesamount to about $7 billion a year,$2.2 billion from Saudi Arabia alone,and Lebanese assets in Saudi Arabiaare worth about $100billion. Eightypercent of Lebanese fruit andvegetable exports went to SaudiArabia until Nasrallah turnedLebanon into a narco state.This is not about gratitude, butrather a hard-headed understandingof the foundations of Lebanon's pastand future prosperity. Thetransformation into an Iranianappendage was always fated to fail.Aside from lavishing funds onHezbollah, would - or could - Tehransupply the merest fraction of Gulfinvestment in Lebanon? The trickleof Iranian tourists encouraged byHezbollah have minuscule spendingpower compared with their Gulfpredecessors.Other than in Houthi-land, whereGeorge Kordahi is hailed a hero (hisfamily must be so proud!) Lebanon'shapless information minister is anobody who once had a lucky breakvia a Saudi TV channel. The problemis infinitely larger than his bigotedviews. Virulent anti-Gulf propagandahas been pumped out for decades byAl-Manar and dozens of other IransponsoredBeirut media channels.The damage is entirely to Lebanon,cutting off its nose to spite its face ingratuitous self-mutilation againstLebanon's Arab identity.GCC political leaders andintellectuals I speak to aren't so muchangry as puzzled and saddened. Theyhave lifelong ties with Lebanon andinstinctively desire to help. But howcan you assist someone who isdestroying themselves and doesn'twant to be rescued?Lebanon's criminal leaders arebeyond redemption (not justHezbollah - kullun!), but Lebanon'scitizens - Christian, Shiite, Druze,Sunni - are Arab to the bone. Theyknow where their interests lie. Theyknow what severing ties with theArab world has cost them. They allhave brothers, uncles, sons in Gulfand Arab states, and so retainintimate material and emotionalconnections to the Arab world.Lebanon is drowning but it is notlost. Particularly with elections justmonths away and a vigorous upswellof progressive anti-sectarianindependents arising from the 2019movement, there is everything to playfor. Hashd electoral losses in Iraqdemonstrate how public anger can betranslated into political losses forIranian proxies. In Lebanon,Hezbollah's political dominance iswholly reliant upon hollowed-outChristian factions whose supportbase has cratered.Lebanese citizens who losteverything are desperately lookingfor a savior. Arab states can use theelections to toss Lebanon a lifeline. Ifcitizens elect new and nondiscreditedleaders who canmarginalize Hezbollah then the GCCwill fully re-engage, while alsoencouraging international donorssuch as the IMF to refloat theeconomy. This is a vision that everypatriotic Lebanese citizen can rallyaround, simultaneously giving thema reason to participate in thedemocratic process, providing an exitroute from their hellish situation, andsweeping aside these ridiculous,hated figures who have dominatedLebanese politics for decades too long.Source: Arab newsThe Palestine question cannot be viewedthrough an old lensDespite the fact that the Palestinequestion has waned in importance inthe hotspot-ridden Middle East, it stillmanages to attract some attention. Not onlydo Palestinians, Israelis, and other closelyinvolved parties have differing perspectiveson the issue, but Chinese public opinion is alsobecoming increasingly divided.The Palestine question must be divided intostages, taking into account the differences inthe characteristics of the issue at varioustimeframes, in the sense that the presentcannot be viewed through the lens of the past.The question of Palestine, which hashampered peace in the Middle East for morethan a century, has its roots in the rise ofZionism in the late 19th century. It can bedivided into three stages of development,from its inception to the present: territorialcompetition between Jews and Palestinians;successive wars between Israel and the Arabstates; and Palestine's current claim to Israeliheldterritories for the establishment of anindependent state.The United Nations Resolution 181 on thepartition of the Palestine Mandate, which wasissued on November 29, 1947, marked theend of the first stage of the question ofPalestine. With the rise of the Zionistmovement and increased Jewishimmigration to Palestine, competition forland between Jews and Palestinians becamemore intense.At the urging of the major powers, the UNvoted on the partition and the establishmentof a Jewish state and a Palestinian Arab state.All Arab countries voted against thepartition, and when Israel declared statehoodon May 14, 1948, many of them waged war onthe new state in the name of defendingPalestinian interests. The Arab states wereadamant about standing up for Palestiniansbecause they saw Palestine as part of the Arabworld and Palestinians as part of the Arabpeople.As a result, the history of the Palestinians, asseen through their eyes, can be traced back tothe Arab conquest of Palestine following therise of Islam in the 7th century AD.Until the adoption of the UN resolution onthe partition of Palestine in 1947, Palestinianswere a people ruled by others, never havingestablished their own independent state andseverely lacking the capacity and ability to doso. The Arab states' collective boycott andLebanon's cultural renaissance since the civil war wasachieved thanks to vast GCC investment. Its economythrived thanks to millions of Arab visitors every year, withtens of billions of dollars of investment in banking,telecoms, media, infrastructure, culture and the military.rejection of Resolution 181 pushed thePalestinians even further away fromestablishing an independent and sovereignstate on that basis.The First Middle East War began on May15, 1948, the day after Israel was establishedin accordance with UN Resolution 181, whenseveral Arab countries launched a militaryattack on Israel under the banner ofdefending Palestinian interests. This led to thesecond stage of the question of Palestine, theArab-Israeli War, which ended with the ThirdMiddle East War in 1967.When the First Middle East War ended in1949, the land given to the Palestinians forstatehood by UN Resolution 181 was dividedamong Israel, Transjordan (later renamedJordan), and Egypt. When the Third MiddleEast War ended in 1967, Israel also tookcontrol of Palestinian land that had beenoccupied by Jordan and Egypt, worsening thePalestinian situation even further. With thedefeat of the Arab states, the second stage ofthe question of Palestine also came to a close.Where war had failed to bring a solution,Yasser Arafat, the leader of the PalestinianLiberation Organization (PLO), made thedecision to pursue a path of peace with Israel,bringing the question of Palestine to its thirdstage. Arafat declared the establishment of theState of Palestinian in 1988, despite the factthat he had no physical control over theterritory, signaling to Israel that a peacefulsolution to the question of Palestine was onthe table.After the Middle East Peace Conference inMadrid in 1991, the Palestinian-Israeli peaceprocess became the primary means ofresolving the question of Palestine. Sincethen, the core of the question of Palestine hasshifted to Palestinian demands for the returnof occupied Palestinian lands from Israelihands and for the establishment of anindependent state.Since 1967, when Israel seized more than6,000 square kilometers of Palestinian landsin the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and theGaza Strip from Jordan and Egypt during theThird Middle East War, these lands have beenthe focus of Palestinian statehood claims.After the Madrid Middle East PeaceConference and ongoing Palestinian-Israelipeace talks, the Palestinian NationalAuthority gained control of a portion of theland from Israel, and the de jure sovereignState of Palestine now administers 2,500square kilometers of territory.Despite the current perceptions of a fewcountries, such as Israel and the US, theinternational community continues tosupport a two-state solution to the question ofPalestine (that is, an independent Israel and aPalestinian state).The Palestinian territory controlled byEgypt and Jordan prior to the outbreak of theThird Middle East War in 1967 is the basis forthe current Palestinian claim to statehood.After the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference andongoing Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, the PalestinianNational Authority gained control of a portion of the landfrom Israel, and the de jure sovereign State of Palestinenow administers 2,500 square kilometers of territory.However, objectively, this is an unattainabledream.Israel will never give up East Jerusalem,and no Israeli decision-maker will ever ordera withdrawal from the West Bank's Jewishsettlements against the will of 400,000Jewish settlers. It is a matter of nationalstability for Israel, and the careers of itspoliticians are on the line, whereas nointernational force is strong enough to forceIsrael to withdraw from these lands; thePalestinians are all the more powerless in thisregard.The Palestinians must be more realisticabout the boundaries of their future state, andthe international community must fully takethis into account. The hitherto fragmentedPalestinian political forces need to unite assoon as possible and define a realistic pathand objectives for the sake of their ownstatehood.Some nations and individuals blame Israelfor the current plight of the Palestinians, withsome even criticizing 19th-century Zionists forreturning to Palestine and establishing anation-state. The fact remains that one of theworld's most widely influential books - theBible - makes their case; not even atheists candeny the enormous impact this tome has hadand continues to have on the world.How can a Zionist ignore the Bible'saccount of the Jews and their forefathers anddeny the connection between the Jewishpeople and Palestine?Furthermore, Israel is a state that wasestablished under international law and inaccordance with UN resolutions, and Israel'soccupation of Palestinian land is the result ofwars that the Arab states waged against it;most of the territories were won fromprevious occupiers of Palestinian lands,namely Jordan and Egypt. The plight of thePalestinians today is clearly not the fault ofIsrael alone.Third parties must have a more up-to-dateand objective understanding of the questionof Palestine. Because the two parties directlyinvolved - Israel and the Palestinians - are themost important to a future resolution of thequestion of Palestine, third parties should bemore mindful of their respective viewpoints.For instance, what is the Palestinianposition on establishing a truly independentstate? How much land is Israel likely to giveup and what land will it give up?In addition, what is the Arab states' actualstance on the question of Palestine? Extraregionalthird parties should also factor thisinto their disposition toward the question ofPalestine, which is, after all, closely linked toArab states. What's more, despite its waninginternational clout, the US continues to wieldinfluence over the question of Palestine thatsimply cannot be matched by outside players.Without these fundamental understandings,simply supporting Palestine or Israel will notbe beneficial to the resolution of the questionof Palestine, and may even be detrimental tothe process. When a third party's approach tothe conflict becomes overtly biased towardone side, it will undoubtedly undermine theother party's desire to cooperate, causingmore harm than good to the resolution of thequestion of Palestine.Source: Asia times
TuESdAY, novEMbER 9, 20215Young activists sounding the alarmfrom climate tipping pointsMéLISSA GodInFor millions of young peoplearound the world, climatebreakdown is something theyhave known their entire lives.Many live in regions that areparticularly at risk of beingaffected by tipping points -parts of the Earth's systemwhere small changes, such asincreased temperatures,could lead to accelerated andirreversible impacts.A landmark IPCC reportearlier this year warned thattipping points such asmelting ice sheets or Amazonforest loss could soon betriggered, with the potentialto bring catastrophic changeto vulnerable areas.But rather than beparalysed by fear, these youngactivists are taking action.From protecting coral reefs toorganising protests, they aredoing what they can to try tostop the tipping points frombeing passed. on Bonifaciogrew up hearing about thePhilippines' coral reefs. Hepictured brightly colouredunderwater worlds, wheremarine life could flourish.But when he finally got tovisit a reef a few years ago,what he saw told a differentstory. "The coral reefsseemed completely lifeless,"he says. Rising seatemperatures are pushing theworld's tropical coral reefspast a tipping point wherethey now suffer bleachingevents almost every year.While scientists say there isstill a chance to preventseveral tipping points, coralreefs face a bleak future: evenif temperature rise is limitedto 1.5C above pre-industriallevels, it has been projectedthat 70%-95% of coral reefswill be gone by the end of thecentury.When Bonifacio learnedabout this, he dropped out ofmedical school to pursueclimate and environmentaladvocacy full-time. He joinedlocal environmental groups,advocating for companiesand governments to dobetter, tried to preventreclamation projects thatthreaten to bury marinereserves, and even swam toreefs to remove crown-ofthornsstarfish that eat corals- a small cause of reef die-off."I like what they're doing,"says Lenton. "Even if it's hardto change the global climate,activists can reduce otherpressures on the reef." Whilethere are days whenBonifacio is "paralysed by theanxiety of what the next fewyears and decades couldbring," he has not given uphope. Supporting localscience and researchinstitutions, he says, is aconcrete way to help. "Westill do have a chance at lifeworth fighting for."Over the course of AdriMafoletti's life, the Amazonrainforest she grew up in haslost more than one-third of itscapacity to absorb carbon.Logging and the climate crisishas resulted in the loss oftrees. Now, scientists estimatethat 40% of the existingAmazon rainforest couldbecome a savannah, pushingit past its tipping point andreducing the planet's ability toabsorb carbon.Forindigenouscommunities living in theAmazon, crossing this tippingpoint would also mean anend to their way of life."Indigenous peoples cannotlive without forests and rivers- it's all we have, it's part ofus," says Mafoletti, who ispart of the Guaranícommunity. "We are nature,without it we don't exist."Mafoletti is doing all shecan to fight climate change.She makes sure indigenousgroups on the frontlines haveaccess to basic goods andraises awareness of how theclimate crisis exacerbatesgender inequality.Nanna ChemnitzFrederiksen grew up inNuuk, Greenland, whereevery fraction of a degree ofheating is made visible by theever-shrinking Greenland iceA young person reaches for an inflated globe during a 'Fridays for Future'protest in Muenster, north-west Germany. Photo: Getty Imagessheet. "People from allaround the world, politiciansand scientists come toGreenland to see the inlandice," she says. "We are at thecentre of this."A significant portion of theice sheet is thought to be onthe verge of a tipping point,where melting could soonbecome unavoidable even ifemissions are cut. The icesheet is hugely important tostabilising the global climate,as it provides a vast whiteregionthat reflects sunlightback into space. But as the icemelts, the reflective surfaceshrinks, leading to morewarming and melting and inturn, sea level rise. Scientistssay sea level rises of one totwo metres is probablyalready inevitable.Frederiksen knows that themelting ice sheet will havenegative impacts oncommunities acrossGreenland, especially innorthern settlements such asQaanaaq where permafrostmelting is destabilisinghomes and roads andimpacting how fishers andhunters operate.But her real concern lies onthe impact it will haveglobally. "I am not so scaredof what the effects of themelting of ice in Greenlandwill be," Frederiksen says, "Itscares me what effect it canhave for the rest of theworld."After school, FrederiksenvolunteerswithGreenland4Nature, acollection of youngGreenlandic people trying tomake their voices heardabout climate change. Butshe says it is hard to remainhopeful. "When this worldshows me how people dealwith CO2 emission, pollutionof the ocean, pollution of thesoil … I get scared."Roseline Mansaray has notslept in weeks. It is the rainyseason in Freetown, SierraLeone and she is scared. "Iam in panic, praying for mycountry not to experience anymore destructive floodingthis year," she says.West Africa is one of thefew places in the world thatexperiences monsoons. Butas the planet heats up, themonsoon patterns arechanging, potentially leadingto either significant increasesor decreases in rainfall."Some models say it will getwetter, others say it will getdrier," says Prof Lenton. "Buteither way would beproblematic." Already,Mansaray has watchedincreased rainfall duringmonsoon season devastateher community. She used tolive in Kroo Bay, an informalhousing settlement wherefloods destroyed homes inher community, injured herneighbours, contaminateddrinking water and led to thespread of waterbornediseases including cholera,diarrhoea and typhoid.Then on 14 August 2017,Mansaray witnessed a hillsidecollapse after heavy rains thatkilled an estimated 1,000people and displacedhundreds of families whowere moved into temporarycamps.Mansaray is doing her partto address the climate crisis:she is one of the mainorganisers for Friday forFutures in Sierra Leone,planning local street protestsas well as helping organisesome internationally. Forher, activism is less a choicethan a matter of survival. "Iam no stranger to climatechange," she says. "I havetasted its bitterness."A climate protestor in Glasgow this weekend.RobIn MCKIEIn terms of national carbonpledges, India provided thebest news last week, withprime minister NarendraModi announcing that thecountry - currently a majorpolluter - intends togenerate half its electricityfrom renewables by 2030and achieve net zeroemission status by 2070.Most experts rate thelatter target as extremelyambitious and, accordingto the journal Nature,many suspect it is morelikely that India's plan is toreach net zero only forcarbon dioxide by 2070,with other greenhousegases coming later.Nevertheless, the move issignificant and contrastssharply with the pooremission commitmentsmade to date by SaudiArabia, the planet'ssecond-biggest oilproducer, and by Russia,its second-biggest gasprovider. Much, in short,remains to be done.Felling trees contributesto climate change becauseit depletes forest cover,which is vital for absorbingcarbon dioxide. Forestsare, it's said, being clearedat a rate of 30 footballpitches' worth a minute. Anagreement to call a halt tothis staggering level ofdeforestation - reached onTuesday - was one of thehigh points of Cop26's firstweek. As part of the deal,more than 100 worldleaders agreed to reversedeforestation by 2030.Crucially, Brazil -which hascut down huge stretches ofthe Amazon rainforest inrecent years - was amongthe signatories. However,observers have pointed outthat a previousinternational agreement,in 2014, failed to slowdeforestation in any way.On the other hand, thelatest pledge is beingbacked with some seriousmoney: almost £14bn($19.2bn) of public andprivate funds. Some of thismoney will go todeveloping countries, torestore damaged land andhelp tackle wildfires.Carbon dioxide may bethe principal driver ofglobal warming, butmethane is also a potentgreenhouse gas, andatmospheric levels havesurged over the pastdecade. The commitment -by an alliance of more than90 nations, representingtwo-thirds of the globaleconomy - to reducemethane emissions by atleast 30% from currentlevels by 2030 is thereforeconsidered an important,albeit belated, stepforward."Cutting back onmethane emissions is oneof the most effective thingswe can do to reduce neartermglobal warming andkeep it to 1.5°C," saidEuropean Commissionpresident Ursula von derLeyen. Methane is emittedfrom gas and oil wells,pipelines, livestock, andmunicipal landfill sites,and much of the effort - tobe led by the US - willinvolve companies beingobliged to plug leaks inmore than 3 million milesof pipelines. Significantlyhowever, China, India andRussia have not pledged tocut their methaneemissions.Greenhouse gasesproduced by burning coalare the single biggestcontributor to climatechange. Weaning the worldoff coal is consideredcritical in limitingtemperature rises acrossthe planet."I think we can say theend of coal is in sight," saidAlok Sharma, Britishpresident of the two-weeksummit, detailing anagreement to phase outexisting coal-fuelled powerplants and stop buildingnew ones. Signatories ofthe non-binding pledgeinclude major banks and,he said "46 countries … 23of which are makingPhoto: Christopher FurlongWhat has Cop26 achieved so far?commitments on endingcoal for the first time".However, the absence ofAustralia, India, the USand China from the pledgeto drop coal has drawncriticism. "The key point inthis underwhelmingannouncement is that coalis basically allowed tocontinue as normal foryears yet," said JamiePeters, director ofcampaigns at Friends ofthe Earth.The International EnergyAgency (IEA), the world'senergy watchdog, reactedfairly enthusiastically tothe pledges made so far."New @IEA analysis showsthat fully achieving all netzero pledges to date & theGlobal Methane Pledge bythose who signed it wouldlimit global warming to1.8C," the agency'sdirector, Fatih Birol, wroteon Twitter last Friday. ButSelwin Hart, the specialadviser to the UNsecretary-general onclimate action, challengedthe assertion. "Fatih, Iheard your numbers," hesaid in Glasgow. "Butbased on the nationallydetermined contributionsthat have been submitted,the world is on a 2.7 degreepathway - a catastrophicpathway."nInA LAKhAnIA counter climate summit kicks off inGlasgow on Sunday amid mountingcriticism from activists aboutgreenwashed solutions and stalledaction from corporations and richnations inside Cop26. The People'sSummit for Climate Justice will bringtogether movements and communitiesfrom across the world to amplifyvoices, ideas and solutions it believesare largely absent from Cop - includingthe global green new deal, polluters'liability, indigenous ecologicalknowledge and the gulf between netzero and real zero emissions.Organisers hope that sharingexpertise on equitable andtransformative non-market solutionsto the climate emergency will helpcreate a powerful grassroots collectiveto force governments to be moreambitious and less beholden to bigbusiness.The summit comes after worldleaders last week failed to commit tophasing out fossil fuels fast enough tocontain global heating to 1.5C. Itfollows several days of protests inGlasgow, London and another 200cities globally, with tens of thousandsof people taking to the streets todemand bold, fast and fair climateaction."Building power outside the Cop isessential if we are to hold world leadersto account inside the Cop, and forcethem to do what we know needs to bedone," said Asad Rehman, the directorof War on Want and co-founder of theCop26 Coalition which organisedSaturday's global protests and thesummit."We're creating a movement ofmovements in order to deepen andCounter climate summit kicksoff against Cop26 inactionreshape the understanding of theclimate crisis in the global norththrough a climate justice lens."The four-day summit includesparticipants from indigenous andfrontline communities, trade unions,racial justice and migrant rightsgroups, youth strikers, landworkers,NGOs, feminist movements and faithgroups, as well as progressivelawmakers such as Caroline Lucas,Mercy Barends and Rashida Tlaib, whosupport the green new deal.It opens with a People's Tribunal inwhich activists and former Copnegotiators will hear evidence oncharges against the UNFCCC,including the failure to come up withappropriate climate finance forplanetary and social survival and afailure to regulate corporations.Participants will share personalstories about the impact of climaterelatedland loss, water shortages andforced displacement, which they arguewill get worse if governments andcorporations forge ahead with unjustclimate solutions such as carboncapture and mass reforestation."Putting a price on natural resourcesis an act of colonialism andinhumanity. But there are other ways,humanity-based alternatives that we'llshare so they can't say that they didn'tknow," said Calfin Lafkenche, aMapuche organiser from Chile inGlasgow with the Minga movement, anIndigenous leaders march in ceremonial dress from Glasgow's Green Park tothe Cop26 Scottish Event Campus earlier this week. Photo: Murdo MacLeodindigenous solidarity network takingpart in an event on false climatesolutions.While some summit delegates arealso participating at Cop26 asobservers or panelists, the Mingamovement refuses - arguing that theterms and conditions of participationviolate their rights as autonomouspeoples. Still, organisers hope thepeople's summit will help build bridgesbetween civil society groups inside andoutside the UN talks in order to createa more unified and powerfulmovement.Another central theme will be netzero - the concept of offsetting orneutralising greenhouse gas emissions(rather than ending them) throughcarbon markets, new as-yetundevelopedtechnologies and massivereforestation programmes.Pledges to achieve net zero by 2050have been heavily promoted by worldleaders at Cop26 as signs of progress,despite warnings that the numbersdon't add up, and that in any case thiswould be too little too late to avoidcatastrophic climate disasters in someparts of the world."They are trying to sell net zero as aCop26 success, but it is nothing morethan the next more sophisticated phaseof climate denial to protect business asusual. It's mitigation denialism," saidScott Tully from Glasgow Calls outPolluters.At the people's summit, the RealZero, Real Solutions panel will alsofocus on liability, and why countriesand corporations responsible forgreenhouse gas emissions shouldcompensate communities who've losttheir homes, land and livelihoods torising sea levels and climate disasterssuch as floods and drought.Rich countries including the US andUK oppose the inclusion of liability innegotiations about averting andminimising loss and damageassociated with climate changeimpacts, even though manycommunities are already living withthe consequences of greenhouse gasemissions they did not contribute to.Hellen Kaneni, the Africa regiondirector for the US nonprofit CorporateAccountability, said: "People want bigpolluters to be held to account, andliability measures to guidegovernments exist but it's not beingdiscussed at Cop because of conflicts ofinterest. Polluters should leave theroom when we're creating checks andbalances to regulate them, instead it'slike they own the UNFCCC (UnitedNations Framework Convention onClimate Change) space while wecannot get in."Kaneni, who is based in Kampala,Uganda, was unable to attend inperson as she could not access a Covidvaccine. About two-thirds of civilsociety organisations who usually senddelegates to Cop have not travelled toGlasgow due to "vaccine apartheid",changing travel rules, extortionatetravel costs and Britain's hostileimmigration system.Migrant rights groups will also beheard at the summit. The climate crisisand environmental destruction arealready fuelling internal displacementand forced migration in communitiesaround the world, yet such stories havebeen largely absent inside the Copnegotiating rooms."Talking about climate change interms of fossil fuels is a Eurocentricperspective, it should be viewedthrough a human rights lens whichrecognises that everyone has the rightto thrive, not just survive," said YvonneBlake, social justice advocate atMigrants Organising For Rights andEmpowerment (More) in Glasgow - adispersal city for refugees and asylumseekers in the UK."Unless we shift the focus to people,we'll replicate the same colonialstructures in which black and brownpeople's bodies and lands will besacrificed," added Blake.In all, more than 200 events - panels,people's tribunals, workshops andartistic performances - will take placeat venues across the city and virtually,covering diverse yet interconnectedtopics such as health, indigenoustraditional knowledge, gender, nuclearpower, land rights, food sovereigntyand green jobs.In a virtual all-day event on Sunday,a people's health hearing will hear thevoices of those who "embody theimpact of extractivism, corporate greedand climate change," said TammamAloudat, a Syrian doctor and directorof the Global Health Centre in Geneva.Speakers from India, West Papua,Ecuador, Nigeria and the Philippineswill describe the health impacts ofmining, toxic waste, oil drilling andclimate disasters in their communities.
Page 1 and 2: tueSdayDhaka: November 9, 2021; kar
Page 3: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 20213DMP chief
Page 7 and 8: TueSDAY, November 9, 20217Sudan for
Page 9 and 10: tueSDAY, NoveMBer 9, 20219Milan der
Page 11 and 12: TUeSDAY, noveMbeR 9, 202111UK regis

09-11-2021

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?