Category: General

The COP26 climate summit is taking place against the backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic. As richer nations begin to reopen, thanks to rapid vaccination programs, most people in developing countries are still waiting for their first dose, despite global pledges to distribute more vaccines.

Analysts say distrust between richer and poorer nations could hamper climate negotiations at the COP26 summit.

In most high-income countries, more than 70% of the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But in low-income countries, the figure is less than 4%, according to figures from the University of Oxford.

“If this level of vaccine inequity remains in place, 5 million people will die unnecessarily next year,” said Robert Yates, director of the global health program at Chatham House.

At the G-7 summit in June, leaders of the world’s richest nations pledged to share 1 billion vaccine doses with poorer countries — half from the United States. In total, the U.S. has now pledged to share 1.1 billion doses through 2022.

Yet, while many Western nations are offering a third booster shot for fully vaccinated adults, most people in developing nations still await their first dose.

As negotiations on combating climate change continue at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, trust between poorer and richer nations is fragile, Yates said.

“You can very much see countries, particularly in the South, saying, ‘Well, why should we cooperate with you on this issue which is happening now but is going to get worse — on the situation around climate change — when you’re patently not helping us at sufficient scale on something of a much, much more immediate nature that can threaten millions of people's lives next year?’”

COP26 organizers offered free vaccines to registered delegates unable to get them in their home countries. However, high travel costs, a lack of hotel rooms and concerns over high COVID-19 infection rates in Britain have kept some participants away.

Musonda Mumba, director of the Rome Center for Sustainable Development, part of the United Nations Development Program, chose not to attend the summit. She recently spoke to VOA from Nairobi.

“Climate change is not just a climate issue, it's a climate justice issue. And so, you see an intersection on the COVID side of things and on the climate change side of things, as well, really converging. The issue of trust and empathy and transparency has come up over and over and over again. And I think this will be the test case. This will be a testing moment for the world, this Glasgow COP,” she said.

Scientists say the world is facing two emergencies at once. At the COP26 summit, there is a recognition that countries must work together to tackle the existential threat of climate change. But many of the delegates will return home to countries still gripped by the coronavirus pandemic in urgent need of lifesaving vaccines.

Source: Voice of America

The COVID-19 pandemic global death toll has hit the 5 million mark, according to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The tally comes a little more than four months after 4 million deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in June.

The milestone arrives as some countries struggle to get one vaccine into their citizens' arms, while other countries have begun inoculating their population with booster shots.

“The current vaccine equity gap between wealthier and low resource countries demonstrates a disregard for the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable,” the World Health Organization recently said in an open letter to the leaders of the G-20 nations who are meeting in Rome.“For every 100 people in high-income countries, 133 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, while in low-income countries, only 4 doses per 100 people have been administered.”

The WHO letter also warned, “Vaccine inequity is costing lives every day, and continues to place everyone at risk. History and science make it clear: coordinated action with equitable access to public health resources is the only way to face down a global public health scourge like COVID-19. We need a strong, collective push to save lives, reduce suffering and ensure a sustainable global recovery.”

Source: Voice of America

The White House COVID-19 response team said Monday it is anticipating final approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is prepared to administer the first vaccines to U.S. children ages 5-11 later this week.

Last Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave emergency approval for the distribution of children’s doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC’s advisory committee will consider the children’s doses of the vaccine for approval on Tuesday.

But during the White House COVID-19 briefing Monday, response coordinator Jeff Zients said the White House has been preparing for this moment for weeks. He said almost two weeks ago officials reached out to states and took their initial orders for the vaccine.

The FDA’s announcement Friday prompted the White House to begin sending the children’s doses of the vaccine to pediatricians, pharmacies and community health centers all over the country. Zients said, pending CDC approval, the first children will get their initial vaccinations perhaps as early as Wednesday, and certainly by the end of the week.

He said by this time next week - the week of Nov. 7 - the children vaccination program will be fully up and running across the country. Zients said again, the White House has procured 28 million children’s doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for every child between the ages of 5 and 11 in the United States.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky offered assurance the CDC advisory committee will conduct a comprehensive, fair and open review of the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine for children. She said the vaccine, once approved, will be an important tool for protecting children from the virus that causes COVID-19. Walensky added that the best protection for children is surrounding them with vaccinated adults.

Walensky said that while, as of Monday, 70 percent of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, there are still 60 million U.S. residents who are unvaccinated. She urged anyone who has not yet been vaccinated to do so.

Source: Voice of America

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is less than 4,000 short of the 5 million mark. The 4 million tally was reached a little more than four months ago.

India’s prime minister told world leaders at the G-20 summit in Rome that India will produce 5 million COVID-19 vaccines by the end of next year for use in his country and around the world.

Narendra Modi said Saturday, however, that the 5 million doses would be easier to produce if the World Health Organization were to approve India’s Covaxin vaccine and place it on the WHO’s emergency use list. Covaxin is produced by India’s Bharat Biotech.

Meanwhile, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, told the summit Saturday, via a video platform, that China has already produced more than 1.6 billion COVID-19 vaccines that have been distributed around the world.

New York City municipal workers rushed last week to receive COVID-19 vaccines to fulfill the requirements of a mandate that they show proof of being inoculated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Friday. One in six, or more than 26,000 workers, however, remain unvaccinated. The unvaccinated workers will be placed on unpaid leave.

Source: Voice of America

The latest round of climate talks are getting under way Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. They are billed as the most important since the Paris conference six years ago. Here are some of the main goals of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26.

Keep 1.5 alive

Negotiators pledged in Paris that they would aim to keep the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

Scientists have warned that the goal is slipping out of reach without drastic cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases.

The planet is already more than 1 degree warmer than it was in the late 1800s, producing more intense heat waves, stronger storms, deeper droughts, bigger wildfires, rising sea levels and more. The higher global temperatures go, the worse things will get, scientists say.

The plans that countries have submitted will not keep the world below the 1.5-degree goal. According to the latest United Nations Emissions Gap Report, current pledges put the world on a path to a disastrous 2.7-degree temperature increase.

Some experts are cautiously optimistic, however.

While 2.7 degrees of warming is dangerous, the world was headed for 3.7 degrees or more before the Paris conference, they note.

Plus, dozens of countries have pledged that by 2050 they will produce "net-zero" emissions. That means slashing carbon-generating sources and balancing the remaining emissions with carbon-absorbing measures such as planting trees.

Following through on these pledges would limit warming to about 2.2 degrees, according to the U.N. report — still too much, but getting closer.

"The Paris agreement is working, but it was never meant to work in one step," Kaveh Guilanpour, vice president for international strategies at C2ES, a climate policy analysis nonprofit, said in a call with reporters.

Under the agreement, countries update their plans every five years, with the expectation that they will make deeper cuts. After a COVID-19-induced delay, COP26 will be the first chance since Paris to formally revisit those plans.

Most countries have increased their ambitions, with some important exceptions. China has not submitted a new plan. Nor has India, the world's third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter. Russia's new plan is no more ambitious than its old one. And Mexico and Brazil backslid.

Guilanpour does not expect negotiators to get to 1.5 degrees by the end of Glasgow. But all is not lost. "COP26 will be an important step, but not the last one," he said.

Pay up

Developing countries are angry that industrialized nations have fallen short on a 12-year-old pledge to help them fight climate change.

They say they have little to do with warming the planet but are suffering the effects. Since industrialized nations caused the problem by burning fossil fuels as they developed, they say, these nations should take responsibility by helping developing nations pursue a low-carbon development path and adapt to a warmer planet.

Back in 2009, developed countries agreed. They pledged to commit $100 billion per year to developing countries.

They have not. Funding reached $79.6 billion in 2019, according to the latest available data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"These failures to deliver on the commitments agreed to by developed countries undermines trust and confidence in the multilateral system," said a sharply worded statement from a group of 24 developing countries including China, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

Last week, developed nations announced a plan to reach $100 billion by 2023, which did not satisfy critics.

Developing countries are also calling for additional financing to cover loss and damage from extreme weather disasters and other climate impacts.

The United States has vigorously opposed any language that suggests liability.

Other developed countries oppose separate funding, too. The European Union prefers to include it under adaptation. It's not clear that there will be any movement on this front in Glasgow.

Can the US deliver?

U.S. President Joe Biden will be attending the World Leaders Summit at the start of COP26. Biden aims to present a much different approach than his predecessor, Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement.

Biden rejoined the agreement on his first day in office. He has quadrupled the U.S. commitment to climate finance. And he has pledged that the United States will be at net-zero emissions by 2050.

Political realities are complicating his goals, however.

Congress has stripped key provisions from a major bill addressing climate change. The bill is still under negotiation.

The mood going into Glasgow is fairly downbeat.

"Progress on these issues will not be easy," Lorena Gonzalez of the World Resources Institute Finance Center told reporters. Many of the agenda items "have been put off in years past because they're among the most complex issues that negotiators are trying to tackle."

Source: Voice of America

The G-20 Summit hosted by Italy kicked off Saturday in Rome, where leaders from the world’s major economies discussed issues of mutual concern, including pandemic recovery and climate change.

The red carpet was rolled out at “La Nuvola,” Rome’s convention center, as Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders amid strict COVID-19 protocols.

This weekend’s summit is the leaders' first face-to-face meeting in two years, following last year’s virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia. Notably absent are Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. They will join virtually, citing pandemic concerns at home.

Global minimum tax

On day one, G-20 leaders voiced their support for a global corporate minimum tax deal agreed to by finance ministers from 136 countries earlier this month after four years of negotiations led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The deal would mean a sweeping overhaul of international tax rules. Under the deal, countries will apply a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15% for companies with annual revenues of more than $870 million, while large multinational companies must pay taxes where they operate, not just where they are headquartered.

“The president emphasized the importance of this historic deal during his intervention,” a senior administration official said.

“G-20 members are right to celebrate this deal,” said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. The question is whether and how soon G20 members can implement the agreement within their respective domestic legal frameworks.

“That's going to be, frankly, quite challenging in the United States and several other countries,” said Goodman.

Pandemic response and prevention

On Friday, G-20 health and finance ministers released a communique committing to bringing the pandemic under control globally as soon as possible, and strengthening collective efforts to prepare for, prevent, detect, and respond to future pandemics. The communique says the G-20 will take all necessary steps needed to advance global goals of vaccinating at least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022, as recommended by the World Health Organization.

The ministers announced the formation of a new panel to improve the global response to future pandemics but did not specify any funding for the task force. They could not reach agreement on a separate financing mechanism proposed by the U.S. and Indonesia to prepare for future pandemics.

“We’re looking for not the ultimate final product of a financing mechanism or the ultimate final product of a taskforce or a board that would operate as kind of a global coordinating body going forward,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA aboard Air Force One on Thursday. “So the hope is to have in the communiqué a statement of intent that we will work towards these two outcomes.”

Climate change

On Sunday, G-20 leaders will shift their focus to climate change. From Rome, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the summit an opportunity to “put things on track” ahead of the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow that G-20 leaders will participate in following their Italy meeting.

“There is a serious risk that Glasgow will not deliver,” Guterres said. “The current nationally determined contributions — formal commitments by governments — still condemn the world to a calamitous 2.7-degree increase,” he said referring to the pledge made at the 2015 Paris Climate Accord to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, ideally to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Countries are expected to announce more emissions reduction pledges to reach the target of net-zero emissions by around mid-century. But some analysts are skeptical of these voluntary commitments that come without enforcement mechanisms.

“There'll be pledges, the best-case scenario something along the lines of what we saw in Paris,” said Dalibor Rohac, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Rohac added that to make progress on climate change, the world needs tangible actions. “Rather than to proceed with this habit of looking for a Big Bang multilateral solution, to pursue sound domestic policies that accelerate decarbonization.”

A key issue to watch is whether G-20 members can agree on coal. The U.N. has called for wealthy countries to phase out coal by 2030, but G20 environment ministers have failed to agree on a timeline.

Guterres also called on wealthy nations to uphold commitments to provide funding to help developing nations mitigate the impacts of climate change. Under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, wealthy nations pledged a minimum of $100 billion per year in climate funding to lower-income countries. Much of that money has not been delivered. enario something along the lines of what we saw in Paris,” said Dalibor Rohac, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Rohac added that to make progress on climate change, the world needs tangible actions.

“Rather than to proceed with this habit of looking for a big-bang multilateral solution, to pursue sound domestic policies that that accelerate decarbonization,” he said.

A key issue to watch is whether G-20 members can agree on coal actions. The U.N. has called for wealthy countries to phase out coal by 2030, but G-20 environment ministers have failed to agree on a timeline.

Guterres also called on wealthy nations to uphold commitments to provide funding to help developing nations mitigate the impacts of climate change. Under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, wealthy nations pledged a minimum of $100 billion per year in climate funding to lower-income countries. Much of that money has not been delivered.

Source: Voice of America

The World Health Organization has written an open letter to the heads of state gathered in Rome for the G-20 meeting, urging them to increase vaccine supplies for the world's poorest, ensure access to vaccines for all people on the move and support low- and middle-income countries in combating COVID-19 with all available means.

“The current vaccine equity gap between wealthier and low resource countries demonstrates a disregard for the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable,” the open letter said. “For every 100 people in high-income countries, 133 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, while in low-income countries, only 4 doses per 100 people have been administered.”

The WHO letter also warned, “Vaccine inequity is costing lives every day, and continues to place everyone at risk. History and science make it clear: coordinated action with equitable access to public health resources is the only way to face down a global public health scourge like COVID-19. We need a strong, collective push to save lives, reduce suffering and ensure a sustainable global recovery.”

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, joined WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in signing another open letter to the G-20 leaders, urging them to make good on their promised vaccine donations to poor countries. “When the leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations met at the G-7 Summit in June, they collectively announced that 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines would be sent to low- and low-and-middle-income countries to help vaccinate the world. Pharmaceutical companies have pledged almost the same.

“Yet, as several nations still don’t even have enough vaccines for their own health workers, the world is left asking: Where are the doses?” the letter said. “Of the almost 7 billion doses that have been administered globally, just 3% of people in low-income countries have had a jab so far. Where are the rest? ... Promises aren’t translating into vaccines reaching the people that need them.”

British media has reported that Prime Minister Boris Johns is expected to announce at the G-20 summit that the U.K. will donate 20 million vaccine doses to low-income countries by the end of the year.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Saturday that it has recorded more than 246 million global COVID infections and nearly 5 million global deaths. The center said nearly 7 billion vaccines have been administered.

Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in children 5-11 years old.

The FDA approved doses for children that are one-third the amount that teens and adults receive.

"With this vaccine kids can go back to something that's better than being locked at home on remote schooling, not being able to see their friends," Dr. Kawsar Talaat of Johns Hopkins University said, according to The Associated Press. "The vaccine will protect them and also protect our communities."

Tuesday, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make detailed recommendations, and the CDC director will have the final say.

Approval by the regulatory agencies would make the vaccine available in the coming days to 28 million American children, many of whom are back in school for in-person learning. Only a few other countries, including China, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates, have so far cleared COVID-19 vaccines for children in this age group and younger.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe on Friday called for schools to stay open, provided appropriate prevention and response measures are in place.

The recommendation comes after WHO reported the European region has now seen four consecutive weeks of growing COVID-19 transmission, the only WHO region to do so. The agency said Europe's rising numbers accounted for 57% of new cases worldwide in the third week of October.

In a statement from the agency's website, WHO/Europe says instead of closing educational institutions in response to this latest surge, it recommends a "whole-of-society approach" to reducing transmission through mitigation measures such as physical distancing, cleaning hands frequently, wearing masks and ensuring adequate ventilation.

The WHO regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Henri Kluge, said, "Last year's widespread school closures, disrupting the education of millions of children and adolescents, did more harm than good, especially to children's mental and social well-being. We can't repeat the same mistakes."

Kluge said that in the coming months, decisions by governments and the public to reduce the impact of COVID-19 should be based on data and evidence, "with the understanding that the epidemiological situation can change, and that our behavior must change with it. Science must trump politics."

The Pacific island of Tonga has recorded its first COVID infection. The fully vaccinated infected person arrived on the island Friday on a commercial flight from New Zealand.

Source: Voice of America

The World Food Program says that without consolidated global action to stop the acceleration of climate change, the world faces a crisis of acute hunger.

The WFP says climate shocks are destroying lives, crops and livelihoods and are undermining people’s ability to feed themselves. It cites Mozambique as an example of a country particularly vulnerable to climate change. It notes millions of people are suffering from food scarcity because of punishing cyclones, drought and pest infestations leading to agricultural losses.

WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri said Friday that hunger would increase rapidly throughout vulnerable communities worldwide if global action is not taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are leading to climate change.

It's often stated by climate scientists and activists that humans must stop the planet from warming an additional 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid the most destructive effects of climate change. “Research shows that if global temperatures keep rising to hit the 2 degrees Celsius mark, an additional 189 million people could become food insecure," Phiri said. "Now, in a 4 degree Celsius warmer world, this number could increase by as many as 1.8 billion people.”

Trouble spots

The WFP describes the devastating wide reach climate change is having on the livelihoods in communities in the “dry corridor” of Central America; in Afghanistan, where drought was officially declared in June; and in Yemen, where severe and frequent floods have damaged and destroyed infrastructure and homes.

Phiri said the WFP is helping people in communities where food is in short supply to prepare for, as well as respond and recover from, climate shocks and stresses. He said the agency has reached more than 6 million people in 28 countries with climate risk management solutions.

For example, he said, the WFP provided cash assistance for 120,000 people in Bangladesh four days ahead of severe flooding to help them protect critical assets. In Madagascar, he said, the WFP has launched a microinsurance program to help farmers who have lost their crops because of drought.

“Ahead of COP26, the World Food Program is calling for coordinated global climate action to urgently address the challenges of the climate crisis and to reduce its impact on hunger," Phiri said. "More specifically, we are advocating for a shift from crisis response to risk management.”

Phiri said governments should manage risks rather than disasters. He said a more forward-looking perspective is needed to prepare for bigger and more frequent climate shocks and enable early action to help prevent predictable climate emergencies.

Source: Voice of America

The U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) Friday issued a Strong Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Saturday, saying power and communications systems could be affected after a significant solar flare was observed on the sun.

The U.S. space agency NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory reported observing a significant solar flare — or "coronal mass ejection" (CME) — Thursday. Flares or CMEs are powerful eruptions on the sun’s surface that send tons of superheated gas and radiation into space. The observatory, which constantly monitors solar activity, captured an image of Thursday’s event.

The bursts of radiation often head toward Earth, and while harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans, if they are strong enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and other communications signals travel.

When solar activity could affect day-to-day activity on earth the SWPC, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), issues a watch or warning.

In this case, the center issued a strong, or G3, storm watch for Saturday, indicating the radiation could affect power systems, creating voltage irregularities, interference with communications systems or the operation of spacecraft, such as satellites. The watch is in effect from the North Pole south to the 50th parallel, roughly halfway to the equator.

The prediction center said the aurora borealis — also known as the northern lights — may also be visible Saturday at unusually lower latitudes. It issued a G2 or moderate geomagnetic storm watch for Sunday.

NASA and NOAA have developed the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan to help mitigate the effects of solar events. NASA works as the research arm of the nation's space weather effort, using a fleet of spacecraft that monitor the sun's activity, the solar atmosphere, as well as particles and magnetic fields in space surrounding Earth.

NOAA established the SWPC in Boulder, Colorado, to monitor solar activity, much the way NOAA’s National Hurricane Center monitors tropical cyclones. Using NASA’s satellites and solar observatories, SWPC can give forecasts and warnings of solar activity that could impact the Earth.

Source: Voice of America

A new British research ship, named for British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, has arrived in London to call attention to climate change ahead of next week’s Glasgow climate summit.

The 129-meter RSS Sir David Attenborough has completed sea trials and is ready for service. It sailed up the Thames River on Wednesday to be part of a three-day public celebration hosted by the British Antarctic Survey to raise awareness of the importance and relevance of polar science and why it matters to everyday life.

In a launch event on the ship Thursday, Attenborough, known for his documentaries on nature and the planet, reminded people of the dangers caused by climate change and called for action from delegates attending the summit next week in Glasgow.

Commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and operated by the British Antarctic Survey, the new research platform will transform how U.K. teams conduct ship-borne science in polar regions.

The vessel enjoys a bit of infamy as well. As it was being built in 2016, NERC decided to open the naming of the ship to the public through an internet vote. The winning name was Boaty McBoatface.

The vote was overruled in favor of naming it for Attenborough, but an unmanned research submarine carried on the ship bears the name Boaty McBoatface, out of respect for the popular vote.

The ship will embark on its first Antarctic mission later this year. It has a crew of about 30 and can accommodate up to 60 scientists.

Source: Voice of America