Africa

In this dated picture, a child collects bullets from the ground in Rounyn, a village in North Darfur, Sudan. Armed conflict on the African continent poses huge risk on any potential investments to address climate change. Credit: Albert Gonzalez Farran / UNAMID

By Issa Sikiti da Silva
KINSHASA, Jul 5 2018 (IPS)

Africa’s political instability, its armed conflicts and regulatory issues are placing at risk investment needed to tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the continent. 

“A renewable energy developer or investor faces increased risk that their returns and earnings could decline as a result of political change, such as terrorism, expropriation (dispossession of property for public use), and sovereign breach of contract,” Dereje Senshaw, the principal specialist at Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), told IPS. He added that credit, market and technological risks were also obstacles towards reducing GHG emissions.

According to International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development papers, green investment refers to the investment necessary to reduce GHG and air pollutant emissions without significantly reducing the production and consumption of non-energy goods. It covers both public and private investment.

Senshaw’s explanations come against the backdrop of several armed conflicts that are tearing the resource-rich continent apart. Millions of people have been uprooted from their homes and the instability has dealt a blow to development projects and poverty-eradication programmes.

This month, the Norwegian Refugee Council listed the world’s 10-most neglected crises. Six were from Africa. In the Central African Republic, conflict began in 2013 after a coup. The country held elections three years later but peace has been elusive. The Democratic Republic of Congo is listed as having the world’s second-most neglected crisis as the central African nation has experienced almost two decades of conflict. Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia are also on the list.

Tariffs too high

Apart from political risks, green investments could also be compromised by regulatory issues or tariffs, Senshaw said.

“Some African countries set tariffs at very high rates, making it very unattractive to investors as they may not have the chance to recover their incurred costs in the future,” he explained.

Another major risk is the delay of utility contracts. Circumstances could change during the lifetime of a project in many sub-Saharan Africa countries and even essential services, like the provision of electricity, may stop. In addition, risk arises when regulatory agencies start to interfere with the operations of private companies.

“Similarly, there is the risk of the nationalisation of utilities and policy changes. In addition there are various regulatory risks related to biddings, procurements and hiring, and contracts,” Senshaw said, explaining that bids are frequently cancelled, postponed or disputed. “This discourages interested private actors from spending time and money on these bids. Also, some African countries put in place bureaucratic procurements and hiring procedures that hamper operations of private energy companies,” he said.

He added that corruption was another risk.

“However, I think corruption has not been overlooked by investors, rather it is still considered as one of the potential investment risks,” he said.

Senshaw said African governments needed to establish an enabling environment for private investors in renewable projects, which he described as the main driver for accelerating the deployment of renewable energy in Africa.

USD225 billion by 2030

The search for money to fund these green projects continues unabated.

Tokiashi Nagata, an expert from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), said recently that Africa would need USD225 billion by 2030 to implement energy targets set out in national determined contributions (NDCs), of which 44 percent are for unconditional targets. In the Paris Agreement, a global agreement to tackle climate change, countries declared their NDCs, which are outlines of the actions they propose to undertake in order to limit the rise in average global temperatures to below 2°C.

Unconditional targets, Nagata explained, are the targets that countries are committed to meet without international support, while conditional targets are the ones that countries would only be able to meet with international support in areas of finance and technology, among others.

Nagata, who made the announcement in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, at a GGGI capacity building summit, told IPS that the amount applied to African countries that have quantified renewable energy targets.

Virtually all African countries mention renewables in their NDCs and 85 percent of them include quantified renewable energy targets, Nagata said. He said 23 countries in Africa have renewable energy action under adaptation, while 15 have targets with off-grid renewables.

USD470 billion to fund NDCs

Currently, USD470 billion is available to fund the implementation of NDCs globally, according to IRENA. However, the agency warned that barriers to investment could come in the form of insufficient or contradictory incentives, limited experience and institutional capacity and immature financial systems.

NDCs, Nagata pointed out, provided an opportunity to capture the benefits renewables offer for climate resilient infrastructure. 

“Some renewables, especially solar, can bring electricity in a cost-effective manner to those areas where electricity cannot be brought otherwise. This will enhance their resilience. In many cases, remote areas use diesel for power,” he said, adding that it was costly and therefore not environmentally sustainable.

While the commitment of African governments plays a role in countries reaching their NDCs, the major investment driver for establishing renewable energy projects remains the attractiveness of financial returns, says Senshaw.

• Building West Africa’s Capacity to Access Climate Funding
• West Africa Building Renewable Energy Sector Partnership and Capacity
• Ethiopia’s Green Growth Goals: A Launchpad for Wider Climate Action in Africa

The post War, High Tariffs and Nationalisation – their Cost to Africa’s Climate appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By WAM
GENEVA, Jul 5 2018 (WAM)

The United Arab Emirates, UAE, has welcomed the attention and support provided by the UN Human Rights to member states regarding the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the complementarity of the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights obligations.

”Technical assistance remains the most effective tool to assist economically vulnerable countries to achieve sustainable development goals enshrined in reports and recommendations issued by the council’s various mechanisms,” said Mohammed Saleh Al Shamsi, Second Secretary at the UAE Mission in Geneva, before a panel discussion, held today as part of the 38th session of the Human Rights Council on human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on enhancing human rights technical cooperation and capacity-building to contribute to the effective and inclusive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

He said that the 2030 Agenda set out many development goals, which were complementary to socio-economic and environmental dimensions.

”A National Commission was established in 2017 to implement the Sustainable Development Goals in the UAE,” he added.

He stated that the UAE will be among 47 countries which will carry out Voluntary National Reviews, VNR, of their 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development during the UN High-level political forum on sustainable development, HLPF, which will meet from 9th to 18th July, 2018.

WAM/Tariq alfaham

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By WAM
DUBAI, Jul 5 2018 (WAM)

The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the French Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) have signed for the first time a bilateral technical cooperation agreement. The agreement covers all topics related to the development of civil aviation, in particular those of safety and cyber-security. The signing took place in the presence of the French Ambassador to the UAE, Ludovic Pouille.

The cooperation will include exchanging experts, holding joint seminars, organising on-the-job trainings and participating in academic courses.

This agreement is the achievement and formalisation of a cooperation between both countries that has already started in 2017 when a UAE delegation visited DGAC for discussions on the organisation of safety oversight, and then followed by the participation of an expert from DGAC at the first ICAO Aviation Cyber-Security Summit and Exhibition hosted by the GCAA. Since then, both aviation authorities regularly exchanged technical information and practises for the benefit of enhancing safety.

The Director-General of GCAA, Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, said, “This cooperation is a new achievement for the UAE, France and the whole international civil aviation system. It is a bridge between nations and regions of great importance that have committed to building strong capacity in ensuring a safe, secure and sustainable civil aviation system that will benefit citizens from all the over the world. We at the GCAA manage and regulate the UAE airspace and the aviation sector in order to serve the public in a dynamic and thriving aviation environment.”

The Ambassador Pouille, said, “This comes to show the strength of UAE and France’s bilateral relations. Safety and cyber-security are important factors in civil aviation and this cooperation will help both countries to benefit from each other’s expertise and knowledge”.

According to Bertrand de Lacombe, DGAC’s Director of International Cooperation, “The GCAA has become a key player in air transport regulation, at the heart of a region where activity is tremendously dynamic. The characteristics of our countries are different but it is precisely the interest of our bilateral cooperation: it will enable us to benefit from our experiences, as we face common challenges (safety oversight, airport management, security, emergence of UAVs, etc.).”

WAM/Rasha Abubaker

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By WAM
ABU DHABI, Jul 5 2018 (WAM)

The joint European-UAE Human Rights Working Group held its eighth meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Abu Dhabi yesterday (Wednesday).

The meeting is part of an initiative launched by H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policies in 2013, as part of efforts to raise EU awareness on the UAE’s human rights achievements. The initiative includes constructive dialogue held between the two sides twice alternately in Abu Dhabi and Brussels each year.

During the meeting – which aims at strengthening the human rights situation regionally and internationally – the two sides reviewed a number of issues of common interest, including recent human rights developments in the UAE and the EU, joint cooperation in UN mechanisms, and efforts to promote religious tolerance.

The meeting was chaired by Ahmed Abdulrahman Al Jarmin, Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Human Rights and International Law, in the presence of representatives from a number of government ministries, bodies and institutions in the country.

WAM/Rasha Abubaker

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One of the offices in Buenos Aires of La Poderosa, the social organisation that publishes the magazine La Garganta Poderosa and is involved in a number of activities, ranging from soup kitchens to skills training for adults and workshops for youngsters in the “villas” or slums in the capital and the rest of Argentina. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

By Daniel Gutman
Jul 5 2018 (IPS)

Between the dimly-lit, narrow alleyways of Villa 21, only 30 minutes by bus from the centre of the Argentine capital, more than 50,000 people live in poverty. It was there that La Garganta Poderosa (which means powerful throat), the magazine that gave a voice to the “villeros” or slum-dwellers and whose members today feel threatened, emerged in 2010.

“’Villeros’ don’t generally reach the media in Argentina. Others see us as people who don’t want to work, or as people who are dangerous. La Garganta Poderosa is the cry that comes from our soul,” says Marcos Basualdo, in one of the organisation’s offices, a narrow shop with a cement floor and unpainted walls, where the only furniture is an old metal cabinet where copies of the magazine are stored.

Basualdo, 28, says that it was after his house was destroyed by a fire in 2015 that he joined La Poderosa, the social organisation that created the magazine, which is made up of 79 neighbourhood assemblies of “villas” or shantytowns across the country.

From that time, Basualdo recalls that “people from different political parties asked me what I needed, but nobody gave me anything.”

“Then the people of La Poderosa brought me clothes, blankets, food, without asking me for anything in return. So I decided to join this self-managed organisation, which helps us help each other and helps us realize that we can,” he tells IPS.

Villa 21, the largest shantytown in Buenos Aires, is on the south side of the city, on the banks of the Riachuelo, a river polluted for at least two centuries, recently described as an “open sewer” by the Environment Ministry, which has failed to comply with a Supreme Court ruling ordering its clean-up.

Small naked cement and brick homes are piled on each other and crowded together along the narrow alleyways in the shantytowns and families have no basic services or privacy.

As you walk through the neighbourhood, you see sights that are inconceivable in other parts of the city, such as police officers carrying semi-automatic weapons at the ready.

Across the country, villas have continued to grow over the last few decades. Official and social organisation surveys show that at least three million of the 44 million people in this South American country live in slums, without access to basic services, which means approximately 10 percent of the urban population.

In this alleyway in Villa 21, a slum in the capital of Argentina, is located the house where nine-year-old Kevin Molina was hit and killed by a stray bullet in a shootout between drug gangs in 2013, and the police refused to intervene, according to reports. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

La Garganta Poderosa, whose editorial board is made up of “all the members of all the assemblies” of the villas, also grew, both in its monthly print edition and in its active participation in social networks and other projects, such as a book, radio programmes, videos and a film.

It has interviewed politicians such as former presidents Dilma Rousseff or Brazil and José “Pepe” Mujica of Uruguay or sports stars like Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona of Argentina, and has established itself as a cultural reference in Argentina, with its characteristic covers generally showing the main subjects of that edition with their mouths wide open as if screaming.

The writing style is more typical of spoken than written communication, using idioms and vocabulary generally heard in the villas, and the magazine’s journalism is internationally recognised and is studied as an example of alternative communication at some local universities.

The work this organisation carries out, as a means of creative and peaceful expression of a community living in a hostile environment, was even highlighted by the U.N. Special Rapporteur against Torture, Nils Melzer, who visited the villa in April.

However, recently, after the magazine denounced abuses and arbitrary detentions by security forces in Villa 21, the government accused it of being an accomplice to drug trafficking.

On Jun. 7, all media outlets were summoned by e-mail to a press conference at the Ministry of National Security, “to unmask the lies told by La Garganta Poderosa.”

Activists from La Poderosa, on Avenida Iriarte, the main street of Villa 21 in Buenos Aires, on Jun. 1, as they leave for the courthouse to follow a trial against six police officers for alleged brutality against two teenagers from the slum. Credit: Courtesy of La Garganta Poderosa

The next day, Minister Patricia Bullrich stated that the magazine and the social organisation that supports it are seeking to “free the neighbourhood so that it is not controlled by a state of law but by the illegal state.”

“This is a message that authorises violence against us. The minister showed images of our main leader, Nacho Levy, and since that day he has been receiving threats,” one of La Poderosa’s members told IPS, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons.

A few minutes walk from La Poderosa’s premises is the house where Kevin Molina, a nine-year-old boy, was shot in the head inside his house during a shootout between two drug gangs, in 2013.

“The neighbours called the police, but they didn’t want to get involved and said they would come and get the bodies the next day,” says the La Poderosa’s activist.

In recent weeks, the situation has become more tense.

Minister Bullrich’s accusation was a response to the repercussions from the arrest of La Garganta Poderosa photographer Roque Azcurriare and his brother-in-law. It happened on the night of May 26 and they were only released two days later.

Lucy Mercado and Marcos Basualdo, two members of La Poderosa’s social organisation, pose in front of a mural in Villa 21, a slum in Buenos Aires, that pays tribute to Marielle Franco, the Brazilian politician and human rights activist who was murdered in March in Rio de Janeiro. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

Using his cell-phone, Azcurriare tried to film police officers entering his house, which is located at the end of a short alleyway next to the house of Iván Navarro, a teenager who a few days earlier had testified about police brutality, during a public oral trial.

Navarro said that one night in September 2016, he and his friend Ezequiel were detained without cause in a street in the villa. He said the police beat them, threatened to kill them, stripped them naked, tried to force them to jump into the Riachuelo, and finally ordered them to run for their lives.

In connection with this case, which has been covered and supported by La Poderosa, six police officers are currently being held in pretrial detention awaiting a sentence expected in the next few weeks.

“Ivan Navarro was arrested because he was wearing a nice sports jacket. That’s how things are here in the villa. When someone is wearing brand-name sneakers, the police never think they bought them with their wages, but just assume that they’re stolen,” says Lucy Mercado, a 40-year-old woman born in Ciudad del Este, on the Triple Border between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, who has lived in Villa 21 since she was a little girl.

“It’s no coincidence that this is happening now. In April we had filed six complaints of torture by the police. And this very important oral trial. Never in the history of our organisation have we achieved anything like this,” another La Poderosa activist told IPS, who also asked not to be identified.

Azcurriare’s arrest gave more visibility in Argentina to the trial of the six police officers, to the point that on Jun. 1 there was a march from Villa 21 to the courthouse, in which hundreds of members of human rights organisations participated.

“We will no longer stay silent because it is not a question of harassing a charismatic reporter, but of systematically clamping down on all villa-dwellers,” La Garganta Poderosa stated on its social network accounts.

• “Them” and “Us”, a Metaphor for Urban Inequality

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Director General William Lacy Swing meets Libya Prime Minister Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj

By International Organization for Migration
Jul 4 2018 (IOM)

BREAKING — Ambassador William Lacy Swing, IOM Director General, arrived in Tripoli this morning (04/07) to visit the survivors of the latest migration tragedy off Libya’s shores, and Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj.

Over the weekend an estimated 218 migrants lost their lives in double tragedies. A boat packed with migrants capsized off Al Khums, east of Tripoli on Sunday (01/07). An estimated 41 people survived after the rescue, but roughly 100 people were reported missing by the Libyan Coast Guard after this shipwreck. On Saturday some 104 lives were lost in another mass drowning, including those of three babies who were being brought to Europe.

Moreover, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP) has recorded since 18 June some 483 fatalities off Libya, including these

• 29 June: 6 bodies recovered in Al Maya, 2 bodies recovered in Sayiad
• 24 June: 4 reported missing by 97 migrants rescued off the coast of Libya according to LCG.
• 21 June: 26 bodies recovered in multiple locations on the Libyan coast
• 20 June:
o 50 people reported missing by UNHCR off the coast of Garabuli
o 1 body recovered during SAR off the coast of Al Hamidiyah. 82 survivors reported by LCG
• 19 June:
o 95 missing/5 survivors reported by UNHCR
o 70 missing/60 survivors off the coast of Dela reported by UNHCR
o 6 bodies recovered from shipwreck near Al Maya, 50 survivors reported by LCG
• 18 June: 5 bodies recovered in shipwreck near Melittah/Tripoli, 115 survivors reported by LCG

“I’ve just returned to Libya after a series of tragedies and the loss of hundreds of migrant lives including several babies,” said Amb. Swing upon arrival. “My message is that all must focus on saving lives and protecting migrant rights.”

This is Amb. Swing’s third visit to Libya in recent months and upon arrival he was due to meet representatives from Prime Minister Sarraj’s government. Tomorrow he will visit migrants held in detention centres – IOM has been advocating for the closure of these centres because of their failure to respect migrants rights. Amb. Swing has also insisted that women and children be separated from the detainees as a minimum first step.

For more information please contact Leonard Doyle, Tel: +41 79 285 71 23, Email: ldoyle@iom.int

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By WAM
ABU DHABI, Jul 4 2018 (WAM)

In a bid to promote community participation in segregating waste at source, Tadweer (The Centre of Waste Management – Abu Dhabi) has opened its first civic amenity for recyclable waste next to Khalidiyah Park in Abu Dhabi.

A civic amenity for recyclable waste is a residential facility that allows the public to participate in the segregation of recyclable waste through allocating coloured bins for different types of wastes and reusable materials.

The opening ceremony was attended by Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Saif Badr Al Qubaisi, General Manager of Abu Dhabi Municipality City, Falah Al Ahbabi, Chairman of Department of Urban Planning and Municipalities, and Chairman of Tadweer, and Dr. Salem Al Kaabi, Acting General Manager of Tadweer, along with several senior government officials.

Following the opening ceremony, Dr. Thani Al-Zeyoudi and Falah Al Ahbabi toured the facility and were briefed on the scheme’s operation and its role in reducing the cost and time required for recycling, while enabling the centre to acquire important data on the types and quantity of waste generated. This will allow Tadweer to make well-informed decisions on waste management in line with the requirements of different areas.

In addition to promoting the culture of waste segregation at source and preventing indiscriminate dumping of waste through allocating designated bins for various types of recyclable waste, the scheme will help maintain a healthy and sustainable environment in Abu Dhabi and preserve the city’s aesthetic appeal.

Dr. Al-Zeyoudi said: “This community scheme will help achieve the objectives of the UAE National Agenda 2021, as it aims to segregate waste at source and dispose of it in an innovative manner. In addition to minimising per capita waste generation, we need to convert waste from landfills and turn it into useful materials that support recycling industries.”

Al Ahbabi said: “The civic amenity emphasises Tadweer’s priority to provide safe and environment-friendly facilities within Abu Dhabi’s residential communities and neighbourhoods to streamline the collection, separation and treatment of waste. In addition to its significant economic and environmental benefits to Abu Dhabi, the initiative that is in line with our sustained mandate to apply the latest waste management systems and technologies in the emirate, will help reduce the cost of waste segregation and preserve the environment.”

Dr. Salem Al Kaabi, Acting General Manager of Tadweer, said: “Tadweer places strong emphasis on enhancing community awareness about the importance of waste recycling among various segments as recycling is one of the most effective ways to curb waste generation. We are confident this initiative will deliver several positive outcomes and support Abu Dhabi’ efforts to achieve sustainable development.”

Tadweer is implementing the scheme in seven residential areas of Abu Dhabi including Khalidiyah Park. Colour-coded waste bins have been allocated to collect more than 12 different types of recyclable waste including glass, plastic, metal, electrical devices, paper, cartons and bulky waste. The bins display instructions on the type of waste collected and are attractively designed to best-in-class industry specifications to encourage the public to use them more frequently.

WAM/Rasha Abubaker

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