Day: October 26, 2021

Global pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions are just a fraction of what’s needed to prevent catastrophic global warming, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Program.

The warning comes ahead of the critical COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow which begins next week.

World leaders pledged to restrict global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels at the Paris Climate Summit in 2015. However, those promises are not being matched with policies, according to the United Nations Emissions Gap Report 2021, published Tuesday.

The report warns that new commitments to reduce emissions made in the run-up to the Glasgow summit — known as Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs — will reduce greenhouse gases by just 7.5% by 2030, compared to previous pledges. Restricting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would require emissions cuts of 55 percent.

“Following an unprecedented drop of 5.4 percent in 2020, global carbon dioxide emissions are bouncing back to pre-COVID-19 levels,” the report says.

“A strong rebound in emissions is expected in 2021. Preliminary estimates suggest fossil energy CO2 emissions could grow by 4.8 percent in 2021… and global emissions in 2021 are expected to be only slightly lower than the record level of 2019.”

Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization, said Monday the world is on course for potentially disastrous climate change. “So far, we have heard lots of political support for enhanced ambition of mitigation, but the concrete pledges have still been missing, and at the moment, we are heading towards 2.5 to 3 degrees [Celsius] warming rather than 1.5 to 2 degrees.”

So what does that mean for the planet — and for humankind?

Scientists say climate change is already increasing the frequency and intensity of heat waves. A recent report from Chatham House calculated that globally, heat-related mortality has increased by nearly 54% among the elderly since the turn of the century, reaching 296,000 deaths in 2018.

“We expect around about 400 million people to be experiencing heat waves to the extent that they’re no longer able to work outside,” Chatham House report co-author Daniel Quiggin told VOA.

Heatwaves and droughts would have a big impact on global food security. Crop failures and the increased prevalence of pests and diseases — such as the locust plague in east Africa last year — would lead to soaring prices.

“Over the next 30 years, about 50% more food is going to be required due to more people being on the planet, but also expectations around eating more meat — particularly in countries like China and Southeast Asia and so on. But at the same time, under our assessment we anticipate that yields, harvests decline by around about 30%. That will only result in food price rises, making it more expensive so the poorest are unable or unlikely to be able to afford them,” Quiggin said.

Warmer temperatures lead to more intense tropical storms and flooding. Longer term, melting ice caps will lead to sea level rises, putting coastal cities at risk.

Extreme weather fluctuations also mean more intense and more prolonged droughts. Scientists say richer nations must deliver on their 2015 promise to help poorer nations pay for combating climate change and deal with its impacts.

“The big cascading impacts that we see coming out of drought, heat waves, agricultural drought, are migration, food insecurity for everyone, and the increased prevalence of pests and diseases. So, there’s a vested interest for those wealthy countries to ensure the climate finance — that $100 billion per year that’s been pledged for some time, since Paris [climate summit] and before, is actually delivered upon. And it’s not being delivered upon at the moment,” Quiggin told VOA.

As world leaders prepare for Glasgow, the stakes for our planet — and for the human race — are getting higher; the impacts close to irreversible. Can a new global agreement be reached to slash emissions well beyond current commitments?

Summit host British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave his assessment Monday. “I’m very worried. Because it might go wrong. And we might not get the agreements that we need. It’s touch and go, it’s very, very difficult,” Johnson told an audience of children in London.

Scientists say the outcome of the Glasgow summit will likely affect each and every one of us, on a warming Planet Earth.

Source: Voice of America

U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Moderna says a clinical trial shows that a low dose of its COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children between 6 and 11 years old.

The company says it inoculated more than 4,700 children with its two-dose vaccine about 28 days apart, with each shot about half the strength given to adults. Preliminary results show the antibody levels in the children were the same levels as those seen in young adults who received a full dose of the vaccine.

Moderna says the children suffered mild side effects from the vaccine such as fatigue, headache, fever and pain at the site of the injection. The number of test subjects was too small to detect any rare side effects such as myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, which has been detected mostly among boys and young men who received either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine.

The study has not been published by any peer-reviewed journal, but Moderna says it will soon present its findings to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other global drug regulators. The FDA is meeting Tuesday to review an application by Pfizer and its German-based partner, BioNTech, to offer its vaccine for children between 5 and 11 years old.

In a related development, Reuters is reporting that the African Union will purchase up to 110 million doses of the Moderna vaccine. The AU will receive 15 million doses before the end of the year, with another 35 million doses arriving in the first quarter of 2022 and up to 60 million in the second quarter.

The purchase was facilitated by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which is deferring delivery of 33 million doses it had purchased from Moderna to give the AU an opportunity to negotiate with the company.

“This is important as it allows us to increase the number of vaccines available immediately,” AU coronavirus envoy Strive Masiyiwa said in an email, according to Reuters. “We urge other vaccine producing countries to follow the lead of the (U.S. government) and give us similar access to buy this and other vaccines.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended the coronavirus health rules for cruise ships until January 15, 2022. The current regulations, which were first imposed in March 2020 and include a requirement for ships to sail with at least 95 percent of passengers and crew fully vaccinated, were set to expire on November 1.

The CDC says when the current regulations expire in January, it will shift to a voluntary program for cruise ship operators to detect and control the spread of COVID-19 on their vessels.

In Hong Kong, chief executive Carrie Lam announced Tuesday that the city will tighten its coronavirus travel restrictions to bring it more in line with mainland China.

Lam told reporters the government will cancel most of the quarantine exemptions granted to certain groups of visitors coming from overseas and the mainland, with the exception of cross-border truck drivers. Diplomats, airline crews, business executives and airline crews are currently exempt from the city’s mandatory 14-to-21 day hotel quarantine period, one of the tightest restrictions in the world.

Lam defended the tightened restrictions, saying they are necessary to give authorities in Beijing the confidence to resume quarantine-free travel between the mainland and Hong Kong,

But a leading regional financial industry group, the Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said Monday that Hong Kong’s strict zero-COVID policy and quarantine requirements for international travelers is eroding the city’s status as a global financial hub.

Source: Voice of America