Day: May 18, 2022

Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rises, ocean heat levels and acidification, all set new records during 2021, while some glaciers reached the point of no return, according to the latest flagship report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), published on Wednesday.

The State of the Climate 2021 indicates that extreme weather – the day-to-day face of climate change – wreaked a heavy toll of human lives, triggered shocks for food and water security, and led to hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses last year.

The report, which describes yet more clear signs that human activity is causing harm on a planetary scale – to our land, ocean and atmosphere – also confirms that the past seven years have been the warmest on record, with global temperature in 2021 reaching about 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels.

“It is just a matter of time before we see another warmest year on record. Our climate is changing before our eyes. The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come”, warned WMO chief Petteri Taalas. “Sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification will continue for hundreds of years unless means to remove carbon from the atmosphere are invented”.

A plan for renewables

Calling the report, a “dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that while time is running out to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis, there is a ‘lifeline’ right in front of us.

“We must end fossil fuel pollution and accelerate the renewable energy transition before we incinerate our only home… Transforming energy systems is low-hanging fruit”, he emphasized in a video message.

Highlighting that renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar are readily available and in most cases, cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels, the UN chief proposed five critical actions to jump-start the energy transition, which he called the “peace project of the 21st century”.

1. Treating renewable energy technologies as essential global public goods

This means removing obstacles to knowledge sharing and technological transfer, including intellectual property constraints.

Mr. Guterres called for a new global coalition on battery storage led by governments and bringing together tech companies, manufacturers and financiers to fast-track innovation and deployment.

2. Secure, scale up and diversify the supply components and raw materials for renewable energy technologies

Supply chains for renewable energy technology and raw materials are concentrated in a handful of countries, and more international coordination is needed to overcome this obstacle.

3. Build frameworks and reform fossil fuel bureaucracies

The UN chief is calling for governments to fast-track and streamline approvals of solar and wind projects, modernize grids and set ambitious renewable energy targets that provide certainty to investors, developers, consumers and producers.

4. Shift subsidies away from fossil fuels

Each year, governments around the world pour around half a trillion dollars into artificially lowering the price of fossil fuels – more than triple the subsidies given to renewables.

“While people suffer from high prices at the pump, the oil and gas industry is raking in billions from a distorted market. This scandal must stop”, Guterres highlights.

5. Private and public investments in renewable energy must triple

The UN chief is calling for and adjustment to risk frameworks and more flexibility to scale up renewable finance.

“it’s time to jump-start the renewable energy transition before it’s too late”, the Secretary-General urged.

Climate emergency

The UN chief’s plan is long overdue, at a time when extreme weather continues to impact the lives of millions in recent weeks, as seen with the drought emergency in the Horn of Africa, the deadly floods in South Africa, and the extreme heat in India and Pakistan.

The WMO State of the Global Climate report complements the latest assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which only included data up to 2019, and it will be used as a negotiation document during the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Egypt (COP 27) later this year.

Here are some of its key findings:

· Greenhouse gas concentrations

Levels reached a new global high in 2020 and continued to increase in 2021, with the concentration of carbon dioxide reaching 413.2 parts per million globally, a 149% increase on pre-industrial levels.

“We have broken records in main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and especially the record in carbon dioxide is striking; we haven’t seen any improvement despite of the lockdowns caused by COVID in 2020, so the concentrations continue growing”, explains WMO chief Petteri Taalas.

· Ocean heat

Another record high. The upper 2,000m depth of ocean water continued to warm in 2021 and it is expected that it will continue to warm in the future – a change which is irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales, and affects deeply marine ecosystems such as coral reefs.

· Ocean acidification

Because of the excess carbon dioxide (CO2) the ocean is absorbing (some 23% of annual emissions), its waters are increasingly acidifying.

This has consequences for organisms and ecosystems, and also threatens human food security and tourism.

The decreasing PH level also means the ocean’s capacity to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere also decreases.

“90 per cent of the excess heat that we have produced to the planet, they are stored in ocean”, informs Prof. Taalas.

· Sea-level rise

Sea level increased a record of 4.5 mm per year over the period 2013-2021, mainly due to the accelerated loss of ice mass from the ice sheets.

This has major implications for hundreds of millions of coastal dwellers and increases vulnerability to tropical cyclones.

· Cryosphere

The world’s glaciers that scientists use as a reference have thinned by 33.5 meters since 1950, with 76% happening since 1980.

In 2021, glaciers in Canada and the US Northwest had a record ice mass loss because of heatwaves and fires in June and July.

Greenland also experienced an exceptional mid-August melt and the first-ever recorded rainfall at its highest point.

· Heatwaves

The heat broke records across western North America and the Mediterranean in 2021. Death Valley, California reached 54.4 °C on 9 July, equalling a similar 2020 value as the highest recorded in the world since at least the 1930s, and Syracuse in Sicily reached 48.8 °C.

A heatwave in British Columbia, Canada caused more than 500 deaths and fuelled devastating wildfires.

· Flooding and Droughts

Flooding caused economic losses of US$17.7 billion in Henan province of China, as well as 20 billion in Germany. It was also a factor leading to heavy loss of life.

Droughts affected many parts of the world, including the Horn of Africa, South America, Canada, the western United States, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey.

The drought in the Horn of Africa has intensified through 2022. Eastern Africa is facing the very real prospect that the rains will fail for a fourth consecutive season, placing Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia into a drought of a length not experienced in the last 40 years.

“These [climate] impacts are unevenly distributed. If you’re living in Central America, South America, Central, East or West Africa, South Asia or in a Small Island Developing State, you’re 15 times more likely to die from climate-related impact or a climate-related weather extreme”, explains Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Action, Selwin Hart.

· Food security

The compounded effects of conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, undermined decades of progress towards improving food security globally.

Worsening humanitarian crises in 2021 have also led to a growing number of countries at risk of famine. Of the total number of undernourished people in 2020, more than half live in Asia (418 million) and a third in Africa (282 million).

“There’s a component coming from this COVID crisis, and there’s a high risk now because of the war in Ukraine that we will see major hunger problems”, adds Prof. Taalas.

· Displacement:

Hazards related to water events continued to contribute to internal displacement. The countries with the highest numbers of displacements recorded as of October 2021 were China (more than 1.4 million), the Philippines (more than 386,000) and Viet Nam (more than 664,000).

The first ever International Day for Women in Maritime kicked off its inaugural celebration on Wednesday with a seminar to “take stock and identify areas where improvement is needed”, the top UN official representing seafarers said.

“Women account for just 20 per cent of the workforce in the maritime authorities of Member States and 29 percent…across subsectors in the maritime industry,” International Maritime Organization (IMO) chief Kitack Lim told the virtual Symposium on Training-Visibility-Recognition: Supporting a barrier-free working environment for Women in Maritime.

Noting that these numbers are “significantly higher than those at sea, where women make up as little as two per cent of the workforce,” he added, “we can and must do better”.

Gender inclusivity commitment

The day intends to celebrate and promote the recruitment, retention and sustained employment of women in the maritime sector.

By raising the profile of women in maritime, IMO is strengthening its commitment to the fifth Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5) of gender equality while addressing gender imbalances in maritime.

“IMO is committed to gender inclusivity,” underscored Mr. Lim.

Ample evidence supports that investing in women is the most effective way to lift up communities, companies, and even countries. Countries with more gender equality, enjoy better economic growth.

Progress for all

For over three decades IMO has been working to address the gender imbalance in its maritime programme.

“We have committed to this important cause – and we are seeing these efforts bear fruit,” said Mr. Lim.

As enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, women in the maritime workforce is a benefit for everyone.

The IMO chief outlined the need for “creative thinking to navigate maritime towards a more sustainable, more diverse, and more inclusive green future,” which requires “the brightest minds to address the challenges” thrown up by decarbonization and digitalization.

“People must be empowered to participate in discussions about maritime’s future, irrespective of gender,” he said, calling collaboration “the best pathway to find optimal solutions”.

“I am pleased that there are more women in our sector than in the past – as well an increasing number of diversity champions and allies”.

Targeting equality

Across the world, IMO has helped to establish eight thriving Women in Maritime Associations (WIMAs): three in Africa and one each representing Arab States, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific.

There women can gain technical expertise via IMO-funded opportunities at the IMO International Maritime Law Institute, Women in Port Management course and most recently the Maritime SheEO leadership accelerator programme, which was launched in March.

“We must build on this progress,” said Mr. Lim.

Revealing data

Despite the challenges of the COVID pandemic, IMO was able to conduct a global survey that lays bare the sector’s gender gap.

The 2021 IMO-Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) Women in Maritime Survey Report details the proportion and distribution of women working in the maritime sector from IMO Member States and the maritime industry.

Launching the publication, he said gender diversity in maritime was “extremely fragmented by sector”.

“Benchmarking the current state of the sector is vital to measure where we are, and where we need to go,” added the IMO chief.

“By actively empowering women with the requisite skills, maintaining a barrier free working environment, we create truly sustainable systems of gender equality.”

Respect for migrants at sea

Meanwhile, the Inter-Agency Group on Protection of Refugees and Migrants have called upon States to investigate and prosecute abuses committed against migrants who are being smuggled on board vessels at sea, including in transit and destination countries.

In a joint statement, UNHCR, IOM, OHCHR, UNODC, UNICEF and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants, recalled that people take to the seas across the world’s regions in search of dignity, safety and refuge.

The drivers are complex and without safe and legal alternatives, people are increasingly compelled to turn to smugglers and traffickers for irregular migration across the seas, who frequently have little regard for human life.

Against this backdrop, the group called upon all States to create the conditions that respect the human rights of people rescued at sea on their territories.

Source: United Nations

Health authorities in Mozambique declared an outbreak of wild poliovirus on Wednesday after confirming that a child in the country’s north-eastern Tete province, had contracted the disease.

This marks the second imported case of wild poliovirus in southern Africa this year, following an outbreak in Malawi in mid-February, said the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa, in press release.

The lone case so far, is the country’s first since 1992. The infected child began experiencing onset of paralysis in late March. Genomic sequencing analysis indicates that the newly confirmed case is linked to a strain that had been circulating in Pakistan in 2019, similar to the case reported in Malawi earlier this year, WHO noted.

Polio is transmitted mainly via contaminated water and food, or through contact form an infected person. The virus can cause paralysis, which is sometimes fatal.

‘Polio free’?

The case in Mozambique and the earlier one in Malawi do not affect Africa’s wild poliovirus-free certification, because the virus strain is not indigenous, WHO stressed.

Africa was declared free of indigenous wild polio in August 2020 after eliminating all forms of wild polio from the region.

“The detection of another case of wild polio virus in Africa is greatly concerning, even if it’s unsurprising, given the recent outbreak in Malawi. However, it shows how dangerous this virus is and how quickly it can spread,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa.

UN support

“We are supporting southern African governments to step up the polio fight including carrying out large-scale, effective vaccination campaigns to halt the virus and protect children from its damaging impact.”

An investigation is underway in Mozambique to determine the extent of the risk posed by the new wild poliovirus case and the targeted responses needed. Preliminary analysis of samples collected from three contacts of the newly-detected case, were all negative for wild poliovirus type 1, said WHO.

Mozambique recently carried out two mass vaccination campaigns – in response to the Malawi outbreak – in which 4.2 million children were vaccinated against the disease.

Efforts are currently underway to help strengthen disease surveillance in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. All those countries will continue with mass vaccinations, with plans to reach 23 million children aged five, and below, with the polio vaccine in the weeks ahead, WHO assured.

Virus pockets

Wild poliovirus is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Polio is highly infectious, and largely affects children younger than five years. There is no cure for polio, and it can only be prevented by immunization.

Children across the world remain at risk of wild polio type 1 as long as the virus is not eradicated in the final remaining areas where it still circulates.

Source: United Nations

The new Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations, Chola Milambo, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

Mr. Milambo is an international public servant with nearly three decades of experience in macroeconomic management and development at both the global and national levels.

Before his latest appointment, Mr. Milambo worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C., holding various positions, including Senior Adviser to the World Bank Group Executive Director for Africa Group 1 Constituency, which covers the interests of 22 member countries. In that role, he was lead adviser for Botswana, Ethiopia and Zambia.

Mr. Milambo also served as Technical Adviser to the Executive Director on the policies and financing framework for the World Bank Group’s International Development Association, where he was instrumental in strengthening relations with Zambia, including in the country’s selection as the host of the Association’s eighteenth replenishment in November 2018.

At the national level, Mr. Milambo worked at the Bank of Zambia, the Zambia Revenue Authority and the Ministry of Finance, under the Department of Taxes.

A Fulbright Scholar, Mr. Milambo holds a doctorate in economics from Howard University in Washington, D.C., a Master of Arts in economics from the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Zambia.

Source: United Nations

Durban – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is adding its voice to renewed calls for an end to child labour in agriculture, at the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, underway in South Africa this week.

“In Sub-Saharan Africa, four out of five child labourers are found working too many hours, undertaking heavy and dangerous work in crop farming, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture. Those children are not able to benefit from compulsory education. This needs to stop,” QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, said by video message at the conference.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, numbers of child labourers rose by more than 15 million from 2016 to 2020. There are now more children in child labour in sub-Saharan Africa than in the rest of the world combined – the majority work on family farms.

“We want children to become young people who are enthusiastic about farming and agriculture. We need educated young farmers who are innovative and can feed both their families and the world, to protect the planet and sustain peace,” the FAO Director-General said.

Child labour overwhelmingly occurs in agriculture – the sector accounts for more than 70 percent of child labour worldwide. This means 112 million boys and girls in total working long hours and often performing hazardous tasks in the agricultural sector. The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the situation: Child labour often filled gaps in agriculture production due to movement restrictions, or compensated income loss within families.

Household poverty remains one of the main drivers of child labour in the agricultural sector. Many families and communities feel that they have no other choice than to rely on their children to meet their needs for food and income. Children who work are likely to become the hungry of tomorrow, perpetuating the cycle of rural poverty.

To drive progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal target of eliminating all forms of child labour (SDG 8.7), FAO is calling for a breakthrough in agriculture.

“We need to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security, nutrition and livelihoods of the most vulnerable families. We need financial instruments in agriculture that address the vulnerabilities of small-scale farmers to climate change effects and conflicts [to eliminate child labour],” Abebe Haile-Gabriel, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa said during today’s conference session on policy priorities to end child labour in Africa.

Solutions – Acting together

Child labour in agriculture is a cross-sectoral problem that requires a cross-sectoral solution. FAO is calling on all actors in agrifood systems to take on an active role in ending child labour.

Research institutions can contribute to building evidence, which is essential to raising awareness, initiating dialogue and designing appropriate actions.

Producers’ organizations are able to provide services that contribute to ending the dependence of family farms and enterprises on child labour. These include training to increase the efficiency of adult workers and promotion of sustainable technologies and alternative practices that improve safety and productivity. They also can help identify and address the use of child labour in the supply chains.

Agricultural extension agents are on the frontline, interacting with farmers, fishers, livestock raisers daily, they can address some of the root causes of child labour in agriculture by supporting shifts to improved practices and technologies.

The private sector must be more proactive and comply with human rights obligations.

FAO at the 5th Global Conference

FAO is organizing a dedicated high-level thematic panel on child labour in agriculture and a side-event focused on the artisanal fisheries and aquaculture sector. These sessions will present solutions, renew commitment from agricultural actors, and call for more cross-sectoral actions and investments to alleviate poverty and transform our agrifood systems. FAO is also presenting during the high-level thematic panel on thecentral role of social protection in tackling child labour.

On the sidelines of the conference, FAO has launched a new publication: Ten years of FAO experience on ending child labour in agriculture in Africa. The compendium is the result of an inventory exercise, the first of its kind, examining FAO’s activities to combat child labour in agriculture in Malawi, Mali, Uganda, Niger and the United Republic of Tanzania over a decade (2010-2020). It aims to make a practical contribution to the field of the elimination of child labour in agriculture, highlighting some of the activities supported by FAO, processes and practices within countries, achievements and lessons learned.

The 5th Global Conference On Child Labour is being held in Durban from 15-20 May and is co-organised by the Government of South Africa and the International Labour Organization.

FAO’s events at the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour

Visit here to find out more about the high-level thematic panel on child labour in agriculture on Thursday 19 May, 12:30-14:15 CET

Click here to join the side-event focused on the fisheries sector on Thursday 19 May, 11:15-12:15 CET

Visit here to find out more about the high-level thematic panel on the central role of social protection in tackling child labour on Wednesday 18 May, 12:30-14:15 CET

Fast facts:

Child labour is a grave violation of human rights: it is harmful for children, it hinders their education, health and future employability, perpetuating poverty.

Worldwide, 160 million children are trapped in child labour – an increase of 8.4 million in the last four years, which marks a dramatic reversal of years of progress.

Today, nearly 1 in 10 children are trapped in child labour worldwide.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of child labourers rose by more than 15 million since 2016. There are now more children in child labour in sub-Saharan Africa than in the rest of the world combined.

Worldwide, agriculture accounts for 70 percent of child labour (112 million boys and girl), with children starting to work as young as 5 years old as unpaid family labour.

An additional four million children were drawn into child labour in agriculture over the period 2016-2020.

The socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on rural populations has been dramatic. Children have been used to compensate for income loss and the lack of workforce in food and agriculture production.

Source: Food and Agricultural Organizations of the United Nations