Category: World

Doubts Raised Over Conditions of Mexicos Mangroves — Global Issues

Aerial view of San Crisanto and its preserved mangrove, in the state of Yucatan, in southeastern Mexico. In addition to trapping and storing CO2, mangroves control coastal erosion, protect against hurricanes and clean water. However, in Yucatan, as in other similar ecosystems, they face threats from increasing urbanization, mass tourism and the effects of the climate crisis. Credit: Juan Pablo Ampudia / IPS
  • by Emilio Godoy (sinanchÉ, mexico)
  • Inter Press Service

SINANCHÉ, Mexico, Aug 02 (IPS) – Two extremes of coastal development can be found side-by-side in the small community of San Crisanto, in the municipality of Sinanché in Mexico’s southeastern Yucatán state.

On one side is the mangrove forest that the community has conserved since 1995. It protects the settlement from coastal erosion, supports local fisheries and provides jobs in ecotourism. And, as of 2022, it is generating income from carbon credits.

On the other side, two large housing developments are taking shape. Such building work in the coastal zone is one of the biggest threats to mangrove ecosystems in Mexico and worldwide. But in San Crisanto, the forest is safe — for now.

“Fortunately, the mangroves are well,” says to IPS José Loria, president of the community-based San Crisanto Foundation, which oversees efforts to protect and restore them. “We’re working. Thanks to this, there is a better perspective regarding their environmental services.”

But elsewhere in Mexico threats to mangroves are rising. Meanwhile, uncertainty surrounds government-funded efforts to restore the coastal forests, and it is unclear whether the mangroves can cope with rising sea levels the global warming is creating.

Aerial view of San Crisanto and its preserved mangrove, in the state of Yucatan, in southeastern Mexico. In addition to trapping and storing CO2, mangroves control coastal erosion, protect against hurricanes and clean water. However, in Yucatan, as in other similar ecosystems, they face threats from increasing urbanization, mass tourism and the effects of the climate crisis. Credit: Juan Pablo Ampudia / IPS

Loss and restoration

Only three countries — Indonesia, Australia and Brazil — have a greater area of mangroves than Mexico, which had 905 086 hectares of these forests in 2020.

These fragile ecosystems have a dual role to play in the fight against the climate crisis. On one hand, they absorb and store vast amounts of carbon. On the other, they protect coastlines from storms and rising seas.

But they are under threat from the construction of aquaculture farms, infrastructure, and tourist development. Regulations intended to protect mangroves and wetlands haven’t stopped their devastation.

Mangrove deforestation affects three states in particular, according to Mexico’s Mangrove Monitoring System. In the northern territory of Sinaloa, it totaled 5 258 hectares between 2015 and 2020, in Baja California Sur it amounted to 1 068 and in the northern state of Nayarit, 247 hectares.

As well as deforestation, large areas of mangroves are being degraded by human activities. While the total area of degraded mangroves fell from 18 332 hectares in 2015 to 9 680 hectares in 2020, it increased in the states of Baja California Sur and Chiapas, in the south.

Replanting lost mangrove forests is one of the aims of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, which was launched in 2019, but so far no mangrove restoration projects in Mexico have been registered on the UN’s database.

But many mangrove restoration projects are in fact taking place. Between 2006 and 2020, for example, Mexico’s National Forestry Commission (Conafor) approved 74 mangrove planting projects to compensate for deforestation elsewhere. These projects took place in 13 states, covered 11 479 hectares and cost 200 million dollars, according to Conafor data. Nayarit state has hosted 21 initiatives and the southeastern state of Veracruz, 18.

In addition to these deforestation-compensation projects, Conafor funded 11 mangrove restoration initiatives in 2021. Together, they planted 1,34 million mangrove seeds on 1 048 hectares, and cost 2,52 million dollars.

Mangrove logging in Puerto Morelos, in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, in the Yucatán Peninsula, a forbidden activity by the environmental laws. In Mexico, mangroves face threats from urbanization, tourism development and the installation of aquaculture farms. Credit: Emilio Godoy / IPS

Information vacuum

Claudia Teutli, a mangrove researcher at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the state-run National Polytechnic Institute, critiques some aspects of policies towards mangroves.

“We don’t know the success of the projects, due to how the restoration has been done,” she told IPS. “It has been done mostly for offsets requirements . There wasn’t a goal of recovering the ecosystem.”

Teutli says the government’s monitoring system is out of date, and that restoration requires better strategies and knowledge of restoration sites.

“There is a confusion between restoration and reforestation,” she says. “We don’t know what was done and how. Success is more than the number of planted trees.”

Joanna Acosta, a professor of conservation biology at the state-run Autonomous University of Carmen in the southeastern state of Campeche, agrees.

“We don’t know where restoration has worked or where it has failed,” she says. “The governmental cartography doesn’t clarify if the mangroves are restored or not. We have to introduce transparency strategies, because there shouldn’t be intervention in areas already under restoration.”

The scale of the challenge is huge — Acosta estimates that Mexico has at least 235 000 hectares of mangroves that are not covered by conservation or management programs. She says that acknowledgement of the value of mangroves should work in favor of the design of public policies.

“Mangroves are the most resilient to the climate crisis, that’s why they should be protected,” she says. “It’s important to protect them due to their capacity for capturing and storing carbon, and because their degradation releases carbon dioxide.”

Inside San Crisanto’s large coastal mangrove swamp, in the southeastern state of Yucatán, which survives thanks to the local community’s efforts. Mexican policies for mangrove protection haven’t yielded clear results, as there is a lack of follow-up for monitoring and evaluation of the governmental support programs. Credit: Emilio Godoy / IPS

Resisting rising seas?

The community in San Crisanto is capitalizing on this. It has begun selling carbon offsets based on the carbon its 850 hectares of mangrove forest stores.

San Crisanto is an ejido — an area of land owned by the state but held and managed communally by local people. Its mangroves also generate revenue from Conafor’s Environmental Services Payment Program. This year, the program is paying the ejido 53 dollars for each of 340 hectares of mangroves.

The ejido suggests the creation of a national mangrove network and a national coastal resources system.

“There should be some work for building the organization,” says Loria. “We are the starting point for correcting environmental processes and generating resilience.”

But despite San Crisanto’s successes, Loria acknowledges problems such as coastal erosion. This raises the questions of how Mexico’s mangroves will tolerate rising seas as the planet warms.

Some researchers say rising sea levels will outpace the rate at which mangroves accumulate sediment in the next 30 years if warming continues at its current rate. This would drown the mangroves. Other scientists, working in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, say mangrove forests will vary in their ability to cope with rising seas.

Teutli is upbeat, saying that as the sea level rises, mangrove sediments will accumulate, keeping the trees above the water level.

“ are adapting to flooding,” she says. “Before we thought they didn’t tolerate it. Tropicalization is coming and it is going to help the mangroves.”

This article is part of a two-story series that was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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Biogas Production Awaits Greater Incentives in Cuba — Global Issues

Farmer Mayra Rojas says that the Chinese-type fixed-dome biodigester built in back of her home in Carambola, in the municipality of Candelaria in western Cuba, has become part of her daily life and a key factor in improving her family’s quality of life. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
  • by Luis Brizuela (havana)
  • Inter Press Service

HAVANA, Aug 02 (IPS) – Standing in front of a blue flame on her stove, getting ready to brew coffee, Mayra Rojas says the biodigester built in the backyard of her home in western Cuba has become a key part of her daily life and a pillar of her family’s well-being.

“Biogas is a blessing,” says Rojas, a farmer who lives in the rural community of Carambola, in the municipality of Candelaria, located about 80 kilometers from Havana in the western province of Artemisa.

A pioneer in the use of this form of renewable energy in her town, she explains that with biogas “I spend less time cooking and pay less for electricity,” while the savings have enabled the gradual upgrade of her old wooden house to a more solid cinderblock structure.

In addition, “it doesn’t blacken the pots, like when I used firewood. And now I get my nails done and they last, as does my hair after I wash it,” says the environmental activist who raises awareness about caring for nature among elementary school children, in an interview with IPS at her farm.

She also specifies that greater support from her husband and two children in household chores, cleaning the yard and taking care of the animals on the family farm, “and greater awareness of environmental care,” are other benefits brought about by the use of this alternative energy.

In fact, it was her husband, Edegni Puche, who built the biodigester, for which the family put up part of the cost, while receiving contributions from the municipal government and the local pig farm company.

At the back of the house are the pigsties where they raise pigs, as well as fruit and ornamental trees, while on an adjoining lot Rojas is setting up an organoponic garden, where she will grow different vegetables.

As she pours the freshly brewed coffee, she says that “before, when the pens were cleaned, the manure, urine and waste from the pigs’ food accumulated in the open air, in a corner of the yard. It stank and there were a lot of flies.”

But in 2011 she learned about the potential of biodigesters, where organic matter is decomposed anaerobically by bacteria, but in a closed, non-polluting environment that provides gas as an energy resource.

Training workshops and advice from specialists from the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (Cubasolar) and the Movement of Biogas Users (MUB) encouraged people to build biodigesters, Rojas said.

Founded in 1983, MUB brings together some 3,000 farmers who use the technology in this Caribbean island nation of 11.1 million inhabitants.

An incentive to expand biogas in Cuba was provided by the international Biomas-Cuba project, which began in 2009 and is due to finish this year, focused on helping to understand the importance of renewable energy sources in rural environments, the role of biodigesters on farms and in waste treatment systems on pig farms, among other objectives.

With funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Cosude), the initiative is coordinated by the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station, a research center attached to the University of Matanzas in western Cuba, and involves related institutions in several of the country’s 15 provinces.

Mayra Rojas, her husband Edegni Puche and the couple’s youngest son stand in the backyard of their home. Family support for household chores, cleaning the yard and caring for the family’s animales, along with increased awareness of environmental care are other benefits that the biodigester has brought to the life of this rural Cuban woman. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Methane, from enemy to ally

Experts agree that the proper management of biological methane resulting from the decomposition of agricultural waste and livestock manure can generate value and be a cost-effective solution to prevent water and soil contamination.

As a potent greenhouse gas, methane has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, according to studies.

Therefore, its extraction and use as energy, especially in rural and peri-urban environments, can be a solution for reducing electricity consumption and for helping to combat climate change.

More than 90 percent of Cuba’s electricity generation is obtained by burning fossil fuels in aging thermoelectric plants and diesel and fuel oil engines, which pollute the air and contribute to global warming.

There are an estimated 5,000 biodigesters in Cuba, in a nation where a significant percentage of the 3.9 million homes use electricity as the main energy source for cooking and heating water for bathing.

“We have to make people more aware that the biodigester not only protects the environment and provides energy, but also brings savings, because the manure that is not used is money that is thrown away,” says Rojas.

It also provides biol and biosol, liquid effluent and sludge, respectively – end products of biogas technology that are rich in nutrients, ideal for fertilizing and restoring soils, “as well as watering and keeping plants green,” says Rojas as she proudly shows the varieties of orchids in her leafy yard.

Her biodigester has also proven its usefulness to the community, because when there are blackouts due to tropical cyclones that frequently affect the island, “neighbors have come to heat up water and cook their food,” she adds.

Mayra Rojas turns on biogas on her small stove to brew coffee in her home in the rural community of Carambola, in the municipality of Candelaria, in the western Cuban province of Artemisa. She says that with this clean energy source she spends less time cooking and saves electricity. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Obstacles

Rojas says that a major impediment to the spread of biodigesters in local communities and the country is the island’s economy, whose three-decade crisis was aggravated by the COVID pandemic and the tightening of the U.S. embargo.

The decapitalization of the main industries and financial problems are major factors in the low levels of production of cement, steel bars, sand and other elements used to make biodigesters, which are also necessary to reduce the high housing deficit and fix the portion of homes that are in poor condition.

The availability of manure is another stumbling block with a deficient pig and cattle herd, which will have to wait for the most recent government measures aimed at stimulating their growth and balancing it with domestic demand for meat to take effect.

“I received the support of the municipal government, the local pig company, plus the technical advice from Cubasolar” to build the six-cubic-meter Chinese-type fixed dome biodigester, explains Rojas. “But not all families have enough animals or can afford to build one.”

Perhaps that is why in Carambola it is only possible to find five biodigesters in a community of about 120 homes and 400 local residents, she added.

“Building a biodigester has become too expensive,” acknowledged Lázaro Vázquez, coordinator of Cubasolar in San Cristóbal, a municipality adjacent to Candelaria, who provided advice for the construction of the one on the Rojas farm, which is considered small-scale (up to 24 cubic meters per day).

Although costs depend on factors such as the size, type and thickness of the material, and even the characteristics of the site, specialists estimate that the average minimum cost for the construction of a small-scale biodigester cooker for household use is around 1,000 dollars, in a country with an average monthly salary of about 160 dollars at the official exchange rate.

Vázquez told IPS that low-interest loans should be made available, because “it will always be more economical to make biodigesters using domestic products.”

He pointed out that in Cuba “there is potential” to expand the network of biodigesters, which could reach 20,000 units, at least small-scale ones, according to conservative estimates by experts.

Two pigs stand in a pen built next to the biodigester in the backyard of the home of farmer Mayra Rojas. Experts agree that proper management of the biomethane resulting from the decomposition of agricultural waste and livestock manure can generate value and be a profitable solution to prevent water and soil contamination in Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Biogas, circular economy and local development

During a Jul. 21 session of Cuba’s single-chamber parliament, economic stimulus measures were announced, including an aim to increase the production and use of biofuels and biogas.

“Although it can be used in transportation…the main benefit of the biodigester is environmental and the efficiency of biogas lies in its final use,” José Antonio Guardado, a member of Cubasolar’s National Board of Directors and coordinator of MUB, explained to IPS.

In this regard, Guardado reflected that the direct use of biogas for cooking is much more efficient than if it is transformed into electrical energy or used to power a vehicle.

The head of MUB recommended “understanding the value of biogas technology in a comprehensive manner, taking advantage of all of its end products. This includes the supply of basic nutrients for soil fertilization that has a direct impact on food production.”

This would contribute to the closing of cycles of the circular economy, based on the principles of reduce, recycle, reuse, which promotes the use of green energies and diversification of production to achieve resilience.

“Evidently this final product, from biogas technology, will only be achievable locally, with the participation of all the actors of the Cuban economy, and social inclusion,” Guardado said.

Ministerial Order 395, issued in 2021 by the Ministry of Energy and Mines, stipulated that each of Cuba’s 168 municipalities must have a biogas development program and strategy, and must coordinate their management and implementation with their respective provinces.

The appointment of a government official to head the commission, to prioritize the allocation of materials to build biodigesters, seems to confirm the authorities’ decision to promote sustainable energy development from the local level.

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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Frugal Innovation is Key to Advancing the UNs Global Goal for Education — Global Issues

  • Opinion by Jaideep Prabhu (cambridge, uk)
  • Inter Press Service

CAMBRIDGE, UK, Aug 02 (IPS) – The world needs tens of millions of new teachers by 2030, according to UNESCO – an order of magnitude that requires “frugal innovation.” I’ve studied frugal innovation for more than a decade, and it holds a vital key to this global challenge. A model created by BRAC in Bangladesh deserves special attention in this worldwide pursuit.

Frugal innovation is not innovation on the cheap. Rather it’s innovation that is designed from the outset to be affordable, scalable – and better performing than traditional models. That’s why it’s so important to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

That goal requires that education be both universally available and able to meet quality standards. It must, therefore, be affordable, or it won’t be scalable globally.

I co-authored an early book on frugal innovation in emerging markets 10 years ago, titled Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth. It focuses on the private sector in emerging markets like India, China, and Bangladesh. Its thesis is that in such markets, innovation – the creation of new products and services – needs to be very different from innovation in the West, where it is synonymous with high technology, typically expensive and highly structured, and often elitist. In contrast, we argued that to reach large numbers of people on low incomes in informal economies of emerging markets, firms need products and services that are affordable and an approach that is frugal, flexible, and inclusive.

At that time, I was introduced for the first time to the founder of BRAC, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, and many other inspiring people at BRAC. From them I learned that the ideas we had written about in 2012 had been discovered and perfected by BRAC over four decades, and not for private profit but for social impact instead.

When BRAC started its work in education in 1985, poverty was widespread in Bangladesh. Forty percent of Bangladesh’s primary-aged children were not in school, and only 30 percent went on to complete primary education.

At that time, like elsewhere in the world, delivering education at scale in Bangladesh prioritized developing new infrastructure: building schools and hiring credentialed teachers to meet the demand. But building new schools in every community was impossible, and highly trained teachers were scarce.

Many children could not arrange to travel the distance to school because it was too far or unsafe – or they were needed at home during harvests. Children in ethnic minority groups faced additional obstacles, as did those with disabilities. Most teachers were men, which made parents unwilling to send young girls to school.

The key to BRAC’s approach to providing education at scale was not new infrastructure, but a new mindset. Indeed, the hallmarks of the BRAC approach were more or less exactly those we had written about in our book Jugaad Innovation: it was all about being frugal, flexible and inclusive. It was all about lateral thinking and working backwards from a deep understanding of the problem as faced by the people in the communities being served. And it was all about empowering those communities to be part of the solution.

BRAC’s eventual solution was ingenious. Instead of requiring students to go to distant schools, with all the related burdens and costs, BRAC brought schools to the students.

Instead of building expensive school infrastructure, BRAC took already existing infrastructure. It stitched together an extensive system of rented one-room schools in almost every community.

Instead of taking urban trained teachers, it trained local women to teach grades one through five, with up to 30 children maximum per classroom, instead of 50 to 60. Training non-formal women teachers from within the communities made scaling possible.

The outcomes were impressive. Almost 100 percent of students completed fifth grade, and BRAC students consistently did better than public school students on government tests. At its peak, this network consisted of 64,000 schools, and it has graduated 14 million students, mostly at the pre-primary and primary levels.

That is frugal innovation at its best: affordable, scalable, and better. It is community-based and locally led.

It is transformational on many levels: the number of children educated; the number of girls educated; the number of communities with schools; the number of women trained as teachers; the pipeline of students prepared for ongoing education.

Making significant progress toward achieving SDG 4 will require that kind of frugal innovation. BRAC is pointing the way.

The author is the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Business and Enterprise at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge in England.

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The Myanmar Junta Continues to Wreak Death & Destruction — Global Issues

  • Opinion by Jan Servaes (brussels)
  • Inter Press Service

BRUSSELS, Aug 02 (IPS) – Myanmar has been embroiled in violence and civil unrest since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February 2021. The initially widespread peaceful protests were crushed with deadly force by the military and police.

The nonviolent opposition has since turned into armed resistance and the country has slipped into what some UN experts characterize as civil war. More than 1 million people are displaced by the violence, according to the UN.

In the first six months after the Myanmar military coup, civilians have been killed, imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, forcibly displaced and persecuted, as documented in a detailed report by Fortify Rights and the Schell Center for International Human Rights at the Yale Law School. The report argues that these acts amount to crimes against humanity.

Execution by Hanging

The executions of four political prisoners by the illegal military junta in Myanmar have also briefly disturbed some Western media and governments. Even the UN Security Council, including China and Russia, condemned the executions.

The G-7 also followed. They said the executions reflect “contempt” for the Myanmar people’s desire for democracy. These executions of four political prisoners, despite international appeals, set Myanmar back decades, it is said.

The brutal and inhumane nature of the military junta was reaffirmed when the families asked to collect the bodies after the hanging, the junta stated that they were not required by law to release the bodies.

“These horrific acts by a ruthless junta that has shown no qualms about waging war against the Myanmar people to bolster its power. The world community, and all ASEAN members in particular, should view these cold-blooded killings as yet another wake-up call about the true nature of the terror regime that Myanmar’s military is trying to impose on the country,” said Eva Sundari, former member of the Indonesian House of Representatives and board member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).

Through spokesman General Zaw Min Tun, the junta boasted in its response about the junta’s justice system, claiming that the four detainees enjoyed “full rights” and were “allowed to defend themselves in court”.

The question is what this means for the rest of the world — including India, China, Russia and ASEAN — and their involvement with the junta? The seriousness of the situation is compounded by the fact that the Myanmar regime plans to execute 41 additional political prisoners, and given the current situation, Myanmar’s military regime has nothing to lose in the proceedings.

“When the principles of civilized societies are challenged, it is not only an act of resistance to the principles in question, but also a demonstration of contempt for civilization itself,” said Youk Chhang, a survivor of the killing fields of the war under the Khmer Rouge, in the authoritative The Diplomat.

Landmines

Amnesty International has accused Myanmar’s military of committing widespread atrocities in Kayah, in the eastern part of the country. These war crimes are probably crimes against humanity. “The use of landmines by the Myanmar military is abhorrent and cruel.

At a time when the world has overwhelmingly banned these inherently arbitrary weapons, the military has placed them in people’s gardens, homes and even stairwells, as well as around churches,” said Matt Wells, Amnesty International’s deputy director of Crisis Response, in a statement.

Amnesty’s report states that landmines have been deployed in at least 20 villages in Kayah. Earlier this month, the Karenni Human Rights Group also accused military forces of planting landmines in villages and settlements in Kayah state. Villagers whose livelihoods depend on working their fields live in perpetual fear due to the presence of these landmines.

Earlier, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, reported that landmines and unexploded ordnance have maimed or killed children in many regions of the country, with the highest casualty rate in Shan State in northeast Myanmar.

Beyond the immediate danger, planting landmines could prevent people fleeing violence from returning to their homes and fields, Amnesty International noted. “The military appears to be systematically laying landmines near where it is stationed and in areas from which it is withdrawing.”

Thailand

The Thai government appears increasingly complicit in the deadly reign of terror by the Myanmar junta. On June 30, a plane from Myanmar, identified as a Russian-made MiG-29, violated Thai airspace during a bombing raid in eastern Myanmar. The jet raid led to the evacuation of homes and classrooms in the Phop Phra district in Thailand’s Tak province.

Videos taken from Thai territory and shared on social media show Myanmar jets shelling and bombing villages in Karen state, where deadly fighting rages between junta forces and armies controlled by the ethnic Karen National Union and the anti-coup People’s Defense Forces (PDF). In response, the Thai Air Force dispatched two of its own fighter jets and the Thai embassy in Yangon has reportedly issued a diplomatic warning to the junta.

Commenting on the incident, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said in his typical nonchalant and authoritarian manner that the invasion of Thai sovereignty was “no problem”. The Thai government obviously wants to downplay and cover up the scale of the atrocities and humanitarian disasters unfolding in Myanmar.

Just a day before the Myanmar plane caused Thai schoolchildren to flee in panic, a Royal Thai Army delegation in Naypyidaw was shaking hands and exchanging gifts with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the genocidal junta. While Thai authorities appear to be promoting ‘business as usual’ with Min Aung Hlaing’s criminal regime, the people of Myanmar and border communities in both countries are paying the price.

The desperate situation for the citizens of Myanmar has been exacerbated by the actions of the Thai authorities. Forced to live in the shadows, unable to gain legal status and faced with dwindling aid and resources, Myanmar refugees in Thailand have reported extortion and arbitrary arrest and detention.

Thai foreign policy towards Myanmar has arguably moved from deliberate blindness to complicity in mass atrocities at this point, https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/thailands-myanmar-policy-is-costing-communities-on-both-sides-of-the-border/ said.

Judgment of the ICC in The Hague

On Friday, July 22, the International Court of Justice ruled definitively that The Gambia has jurisdiction to continue its case against Myanmar for the genocide of the Rohingya. This is the first time a Genocide Convention case has been accepted from a country with no direct connection to the alleged crimes – resulting in a vote against by Chinese judge Xue Hanqin.

She agreed with the junta’s second objection which stated that “the applicant must have some territorial, national or other form of connection with the alleged acts”.

All 16 judges unanimously rejected three of Myanmar’s objections. It is worth noting that while Myanmar is now represented by a junta-led legal team, the objections in question are the same as those filed under the National League for Democracy government in 2020.

So now that the matter has been given the green light, it will probably take a few more years before real progress can be made.

A ‘murder regime’

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing has made Myanmar a murder republic, claims David Scott Mathieson in The Irrawaddy: “The execution of four dissidents was not necessary to know that the regime of the coup leader Supreme General Min Aung Hlaing now falls into the same category as the Iraq of Saddam Hussein or a Latin American dictatorship in the 1980s.

That should have been clear since the day of the coup, given his decade-long massacre during the so-called ‘transition.’ But Min Aung Hlaing’s Myanmar is a new category of repressive military junta: a murder republic.” He hopes that “Min Aung Hlaing and his clique will eventually face trial.

Ideally, it should be more humanistic than how the killers of the SAC (the junta) have treated the people of Myanmar. Stand against a wall in front of a firing squad. That is what tyrants should be afraid of.”

Jan Servaes was UNESCO-Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He taught ‘international communication’ in Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, the US, Netherlands and Thailand, in addition to short-term projects at about 120 universities in 55 countries. He is editor of the 2020 Handbook on Communication for Development and Social Change
https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-981-10-7035-8

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Humanity’s just one misunderstanding away from ‘nuclear annihilation’ warns UN chief — Global Issues

The UN chief was speaking at the opening of the Tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which runs through 26 August. 

Mr. Guterres highlighted some of the current challenges to global peace and security, with the world under greater stress due to the climate crisis, stark inequalities, conflicts and human rights violations, as well as the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Disarmament not disunity 

He said the meeting is taking place amid these challenges, and at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War. 

“Geopolitical tensions are reaching new highs.  Competition is trumping co-operation and collaboration.  Distrust has replaced dialogue and disunity has replaced disarmament.   States are seeking false security in stockpiling and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on doomsday weapons that have no place on our planet,” he said. 

Currently, almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are now being held in arsenals around the world, he added. 

“All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening.   And when crises — with nuclear undertones — are festering, From the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula. To the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and to many other factors around the world.” 

He said today, humanity was “just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.” 

A new path 

The Secretary-General underlined the importance of the non-proliferation treaty, saying it is needed “as much as ever”, while the review meeting provides an opportunity “to put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons.” 

He outlined five areas for action, starting with reinforcing and reaffirming the norm against the use of nuclear weapons, which requires steadfast commitment from all parties to the treaty. 

“We need to strengthen all avenues of dialogue and transparency. Peace cannot take hold in an absence of trust and mutual respect,” he said. 

Countries also must “work relentlessly” towards the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, which begins with new commitment to shrink their numbers. 

This will also mean reinforcing multilateral agreements and frameworks on disarmament and non-proliferation, which includes the important work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  

Address ‘simmering tensions’ 

For his third point, Mr. Guterres focused on the need to address the “simmering tensions” in the Middle East and Asia.  

“By adding the threat of nuclear weapons to enduring conflicts, these regions are edging towards catastrophe. We need to redouble our support for dialogue and negotiation to ease tensions and forge new bonds of trust in regions that have seen too little,” he said.   

The Secretary-General also called for promoting the peaceful use of nuclear technology, such as for medical purposes, as a catalyst for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Finally, he urged governments to fulfill all outstanding commitments in the treaty, “and keep it fit-for-purpose in these trying times.” 

Unexpected dimension

The head of the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, spoke of how the “spectre of war” has brought a new and unexpected dimension to nuclear safety in Ukraine.

Rafael Mariano Grossi said that at the beginning of the conflict, now nearly six months old, he outlined Seven Pillars of nuclear safety that should never be violated.  They include respecting the physical integrity of nuclear power plants, and ensuring staff can carry out their duties without undue pressure.

“All these seven principles have been trampled upon or violated since this tragic episode started,” he told the conference.

While the IAEA was able to work with Ukraine to restore the systems at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the 1986 disaster, Mr. Grossi continues to push for a mission to the Zaporizhzhya plant, the largest in the country, which is occupied by Russian forces.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to go,” he said. “We hope to be able to come to Zaporizhzhya because if something happens there, we will only have ourselves to blame for it. Not a catastrophe, not an earthquake, or tsunami.  It will be our own inaction to blame for it.”

Iran and DPRK

Mr. Grossi also addressed other issues, including related to monitoring of Iran’s nuclear programme. 

“We know that for us to be able to give the necessary and credible assurances that every activity in the Islamic Republic of Iran is in peaceful uses, we need to work collaborative(ly) with them,” he said.

“It can be done, we have been doing it in the past, but we need – and I say this very clearly – we need to have the access that is commensurate with the breadth and depth of that nuclear programme.”

The situation in the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) also remains a concern, and he expressed hope that IAEA inspectors will be able to return to the country.
 

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UN and partners roll out #LetMeLearn campaign ahead of key education summit — Global Issues

“Across the globe, education is in crisis”, warned Secretary-General António Guterres, noting that the crisis in classrooms was “slow burning and often unseen” but with “profound consequences for individuals, societies, and our collective future.”

Still missing out

Reeling from the disruption caused by the pandemic, hundreds of millions of children and young people are still out of school. Many of those who are in school are not learning the basic skills they need, as citizens and participants in society.

Many more are questioning the relevance of their education systems and curricula for today’s world.

A global survey, commissioned by Theirworld, shows more than two-thirds of youth polled feel that leaders are betraying their promise to provide quality education.

The launch of the #LetMeLearn campaign is intended to build the momentum towards the Transforming Education Summit the Secretary-General will convene on 19 September to set out a new vision for education that equips learners of all ages and backgrounds with the skills, knowledge and values they need to thrive.

World leaders will decide what action needs to be taken to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (quality education).

Need for national leadership

The UN chief said the campaign was “to make sure world leaders attending the summit pay attention to the voices and opinions of learners. Through this campaign, the diverse experiences and views of young people and lifelong learners everywhere will feed into the discussions, decisions and outcomes of the summit.”

Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, describes the historic summit as “global education’s COP26 moment – a last chance for action to avert an education catastrophe” for a generation of young people directly impacted by the pandemic, the climate crisis, conflicts and many other challenges.

Crisis of ‘quality and relevance’: Theirworld

The President of Theirworld, Justin van Fleet, said that the decisions that will be made by global leaders next month at the Transforming Education Summit, “will affect the lives of hundreds of millions of children around the world, and reverberate through every community on the planet.”

“Global education is facing a crisis of equity, quality and relevance. Currently, education is a privilege, not a right, and denied to children ased on factors beyond their control at birth”, he said.

“It’s time for world leaders to listen to young people and take action today. Time is running out and inaction is not an option.”

Organizations and individuals can take part in the campaign by creating and sharing short videos in the coming weeks.

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‘More critical than ever’ start to life — Global Issues

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UNICEF chief Catherine Russell, issued a joint statement on Monday, marking the start of World Breastfeeding Week, and pointed out that global crises, supply chain shocks and insecurity threaten the health and nutrition of millions of babies and children like never before.

This World Breastfeeding Week, under its theme Step up for breastfeeding: Educate and Support, UNICEF and WHO are calling on governments to allocate increased resources to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding policies and programmes, especially for the most vulnerable families living in emergency settings.

Safe, nutritious, accessible

During emergencies, including those in Afghanistan, Yemen, Ukraine, the Horn of Africa, and Africa’s vast Sahel region, breastfeeding guarantees a safe, nutritious and accessible food source for babies and young children, the agency chiefs noted.

“It offers a powerful line of defence against disease and all forms of child malnutrition, including wasting. Breastfeeding also acts as a baby’s first vaccine, protecting them from common childhood illnesses.

Yet, they added, “the emotional distress, physical exhaustion, lack of space and privacy, and poor sanitation experienced by mothers in emergency settings, mean that many babies are missing out on the benefits of breastfeeding to help them survive.”

Breastfeeding deficit

According to the UN, fewer than half of all newborns are breastfed in the first hour of life, leaving them more vulnerable to disease and death. And only 44 per cent of infants are exclusively breastfed in the first six months of life, short of the WHO run World Health Assembly’s target, of 50 per cent by 2025.

“Protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding is more important than ever, not just for protecting our planet as the ultimate natural, sustainable, first food system, but also for the survival, growth, and development of millions of infants”, said Tedros and Ms. Russell.

Action points

The agency chiefs said that to increase the numbers of babies being breastfed worldwide, governments, donors, civil society, and the private sector need to focus on four key areas.

  1. Prioritizing investing in breastfeeding support policies and programmes, especially in fragile and food insecure situations.
  2. Equip health and nutrition workers in facilities and communities with the skills they need to provide quality counselling and practical support to mothers.
  3. Protect caregivers and healthcare workers from the unethical marketing influence of the baby formula industryby fully adopting and implementing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes, including in humanitarian settings.
  4. Implement family-friendly public health policies and initiatives, that provide mothers with the time, space, and support they need to breastfeed.

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Bangladesh Plans to Launch Toll-free SMS Flood Warning — Global Issues

Farmers in Bangladesh would welcome an early warning system that does not rely on smartphones. Authorities and devising an SMS service after devastating floods killed many people and destroyed harvests. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS
  • by Rafiqul Islam (dhaka)
  • Inter Press Service

DHAKA, Aug 01 (IPS) – Ziaur Rahman, a farmer of Pakuar Char under Sariakandi Upazila in Bogura, cultivated jute on a newly emerged river island (char) in the Brahmaputra River, but this year’s flood washed away his crop.

“Flood is very common in the char areas during the monsoon. Despite that, I sowed jute seeds on the char. This year, the flood hit our locality too early, damaging my jute field,” he said.

Ziaur said his jute field was almost mature and could have been harvested within a couple of weeks, but the sudden deluge damaged it.

“I did not get flood forecast in time, and that was why I failed to harvest jutes, incurring a heavy loss this year,” he said.

Like Zillur, many farmers lost their crops to the devastating flood that swept Bangladesh’s northeast and northwestern regions in June this year.

According to Bangladesh Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque, floods damaged Aus (a type of rice) paddies of around 56,000 hectares across the country this year.

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) under Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) issues daily flood bulletins and warnings, but the people living in remote and vulnerable areas hardly benefit because they do not have the proper technology.

Under the digital flood forecasting and warning system introduced in 2021, the FFWC issues flood warnings to the people living in flood-prone areas through ‘Google push notifications’ three days to three hours before a flood hits.

To receive flood warnings, people need an android mobile phone. The notifications are sent to these devices through a Google alert between three days and three hours before the onset of a flood, depending on the system’s predictive capacity.

BWDB, in collaboration with tech-giant Google and Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, developed the system, which is now functional in the 55 districts of the country.

Sarder Udoy Raihan, an FFWC sub-divisional engineer, said the BWBD has available data on floods and sends those to Google.

Google improved flood mapping using its topographical data and sends ‘push flood notifications’ to those living in flood-prone areas.

While this system has been helpful, many people living in remote chars and flood-prone areas do not have access to smartphones and the internet, so they don’t receive digital flood warnings.

BWDB has decided to launch a toll-free SMS service containing flood-related messages and information, said officials at BWDB.

The BWDB, a2i, Google, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have already started a collaboration to reach the flood warnings and information at the doorsteps of the people living in the country’s flood-prone areas through toll-free mobile SMS service. This will enable them to take measures to protect their properties before a flood hits.

FFWC executive engineer Arifuzzaman Bhuyan said talks continue with the stakeholders concerned, including Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), to introduce the SMS service.

“Introduction of the SMS flood alert service depends on the BTRC as there is an issue of cost involvement,” he said, hoping that the BWDB would be able to launch the SMS service in the next season.

Once the toll-free SMS service is introduced, mobile phone users living in flood zones will be identified using their cellphone tower ping, and SMS will be sent to them containing information on the rise or fall of river water level, severity of flood and details of the nearest shelter.

Raihan said it would be possible to send around 36 million SMS per year through mobile phone operators if flood warnings could be sent to people through SMS.

Sardar Mohammad Shah-Newaz, a former director of Flood Division at Dhaka-based think tank, Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), said if the flood forecast were not appropriately disseminated to those living in flood-prone areas, it wouldn’t help.

“Almost all people of the country use mobile phones. If the flood warnings could reach the people living in flood-prone zones through toll-free mobile SMS, they would be able to take precautionary measures to save their properties and minimise their loss and damage to this end,” he said.

Suggesting automation of the flood forecasting system in Bangladesh, Shah-Newaz said the BWDB could introduce the SMS service, and it should launch the service as soon as possible.

Deluge is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. During every monsoon, flood hits different parts of the country, causing a huge loss of lives and assets.

Due to heavy precipitation upstream in India’s northeast states, Bangladesh experienced devastating floods in its northwestern districts and Sylhet division, leaving millions of people stranded and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the death toll from this year’s floods has reached 123 in the country. The total deaths were recorded from May 17 to July 17 in 2022.

Of the total deceased, 69 people died in Sylhet, while 41 in Mymensingh, 12 in Rangpur and one in Dhaka.

IPS UN Bureau Report


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Germany’s coal revival may threaten its climate goals

Updated August 1, 2022 at 10:24 a.m. EDT|Published August 1, 2022 at 9:34 a.m. EDT

The power plant in Bexbach, Germany, is stocking up its coal depot in preparation for returning to full-time energy production. (Daniel Etter for The Washington Post)

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BEXBACH, Germany — The last coal pits around Bexbach closed a decade ago, leaving the power plant puffing plumes of pollutants as a relic of a dying regional industry.

But now plant equipment is being repaired, contractors have come out of retirement, and manager Michael Lux is faced with a novel prospect: expanding the head count.

“It’s a good feeling to be hiring,” he said, as he sat down to discuss plans to transition Bexbach, in the southwestern German state of Saarland, from “reserve” status back to full capacity. By winter, Lux expects to be burning a minimum of 100,000 metric tons of coal a month, in what some in the industry have dubbed a “spring” for Germany’s coal-fired power plants.

It’s part of a pan-European dash to ditch Russian natural gas and escape President Vladimir Putin’s energy chokehold. While the war in Ukraine has simultaneously turbocharged the European Union’s race to renewables, fossil fuels still provide the quickest fix.

Amid summer heat wave, Germany worries about having enough gas for winter

France, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands have all announced plans to reactivate old coal power plants. But nowhere are the plans as extensive as in Germany, which is allowing 21 coal plants to restart or work past planned closing dates for the next two winters.

That means a scramble for an industry that has been in its death throes in Germany. The country will have to import more coal from producers like Australia and South Africa, even as those countries face pressure to cut back on coal-burning at home. And some experts warn the coal revival may make it harder for Germany to meet its climate goals.

Horst Haefner gestured toward the stacks of coal in Bexbach’s storage yard: “Everyone wants to get rid of it, but they can’t do without it.”

Haefner, 70, agreed to come out of retirement to work at Bexbach, checking plant machinery he last inspected back in 2004. It beats pottering around in the garden, he said, as other workers took a break in the shade.

With temperatures hitting 91 degrees Fahrenheit, the day was so unusually hot for the region that the local beer garden had closed early for a “heat day.” It was a reminder of why countries have pledged to cut their carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels such as coal — and what’s at stake if they don’t.

More coal, more emissions

As Putin puts a squeeze on natural gas flows to Europe — in what E.U. officials claim is retaliation for their support of Ukraine — Germany is trying to conserve energy. It is also urgently seeking replacement sources of power. And it has few options.

Russia’s Gazprom to slash gas to Germany, as Putin fosters uncertainty in Europe

Ramping up renewables takes time. New liquid natural gas terminals are not yet finished. The government is considering keeping the last three nuclear power plants online beyond their planned end-of-year close date, but those account for a relatively small portion of the county’s power generation.

The German government, which includes Greens as part of its coalition, has described the coal revival as a painful but necessary move — and assures it will be temporary.

Germany has simultaneously committed to a new target of 80 percent of power from renewable sources by 2030 — double the current contribution. It has begun to ease the permitting process for windmills and to invigorate a renewables rollout that many analysts say stagnated under former chancellor Angela Merkel.

This push, the government maintains, will help the country stick to its climate goals and end the use of coal by 2030.

“If it was happening in a vacuum and we didn’t have all this other legislation paired, then I’d be worried,” said Ysanne Choksey, a policy adviser for fossil fuel transition at E3G, a climate think tank.

But some experts voice concern about the short-term increase in emissions for Germany — and about whether it will be harder for the country to meet that 2030 target: cutting emissions by at least 65 percent of 1990 levels.

To get there, emissions in the power sector need to be reduced “substantially and as soon as possible,” said Simon Müller, Germany director of Agora Energiewende, a climate-focused nonprofit.

Yet Agora estimates that the fossil fuel plants that have been revived or allowed to stay open will add between 20 million and 30 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to about 4 percent of Germany’s total emissions.

Whether Germany will overshoot its budget of 257 million tons of carbon emissions for the power sector this year remains uncertain, Müller said.

“What is certain,” he said, “is that only a massive rollout of renewable energies and grid expansion will break our dependence on fossil energy imports and put us on track to meet Germany’s climate target for 2030.”

Is nuclear energy green? France and Germany lead opposing camps.

In Germany last year, in part because of low winds and the already rising price of natural gas, hard coal and lignite accounted for 28 percent of electricity production — contributing to a rise of a 4.5 percent in overall emissions over the previous year.

To be sure, it’s not just Germany that is off track. Despite global commitments to reduced emissions, last year was a record year for coal globally. As the world emerged from the pandemic and demand for power surged, more coal was burned for electricity generation than at any other time in history. This year is poised to break records again.

Claudia Kemfert, head of the energy and environment department at the German Institute for Economic Research, said even with a government that has put climate policy at the forefront, red tape that has held back the country’s renewables industry has not been sufficiently stripped away.

“We will not meet climate goals in the short term,” Kemfert said.

Leaning more on coal is now a “necessary step,” she said. “We are paying the price of 10 years of failed energy policy.”

What it takes to resurrect a coal plant

It remains unclear how many of the coal plants that are now allowed to fire up fully will elect to do so this winter. Energy companies will be weighing the cost of necessary investments against potential profits. On Monday, the Mehrum plant in Lower Saxony was the first to move out of reserve status, according to the Federal Network Agency.

Managers at Bexbach say their 40-year-old plant is aiming to return to full-time service, along with its sister unit, Weiher, about 14 miles west.

“The responsibility is fully understood,” Lux said.

Just five years ago, power company Steag tried to shut these plants down, deeming them unprofitable as cheap gas flowed from Russia. The German government mandated they be put into “grid reserve” — so they could be called on when needed to supplement imbalances in the energy grid, with running costs paid by the government.

Bexbach burned for only 319 hours last year.

Ramping up again brings challenges. In addition to getting the plants up to full working order, managers must find qualified staff and get in supplies.

Bexbach was built to burn local coal, but the area’s last hard coal mine closed in 2012. Before the war in Ukraine, Russia had been supplying much of the coal imports used at German plants. Yet with an E.U. embargo on Russian coal coming into force in August, energy companies have had to look elsewhere: to South Africa, Australia and Colombia’s Cerrejón mine, also known as “the Monster” and notorious for its poor environmental and safety record.

To get to an inland plant like Bexbach, that coal has to be hauled hundreds of miles by land or by train from the ports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp. And contraction in the industry has resulted in bottlenecks, with coal stocks at European ports piled up to a three-year high.

“The whole market has expected the downturn of coal consumption: the ports, the rail operators, the barging operators,” said Stephan Riezler, head of trading at Steag.

For other plants that receive coal by barge, there’s an additional problem of low water levels on the Rhine River, a logistics artery for German industry, with boats unable to fully load.

The government has now given priority to coal cargo on its railway lines, in an attempt to expedite deliveries — which one transport alliance has warned could have a knock-on effect for public transportation.

As it ramps up, the industry is pushing for longer-term guarantees, which the country’s Green Economy Ministry is unlikely to offer.

Alex Bethe, chairman of Germany’s Association of Coal Importers, said there’s a need for a “signal” from the government that “we have a five-year perspective in order to justify the hiring of personnel, doing investments and improvements.”

Under the new coal law, plants like Bexbach that plan to get back in the market have been asked to fill their stocks to 180,000 tons of coal, which energy firms argue is a financial risk.

“So we are saying to the government: This is a wonderful idea, we want to save the country in the winter, but what we need is a credit line,” said Riezler, as he sat down with plant managers to discuss what was needed to reenter the market.

Still, even with rising coal prices, there’s money to be made, and managers say it’s just a matter of ironing out the details.

“We’ll do everything in our power to bring all of those millions of tons to the power plants,” Bethe said.

Florian Neuhof in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Guterres welcomes departure of first grain ship, to help ease food crisis — Global Issues

The Razoni, carrying a cargo of 26,527 tonnes of corn, is the first cargo ship to leave a Ukrainian Black Sea port since 26 February, just a few days after the Russian invasion began. It is bound for the Mediterranean port of Tripoli, in Lebanon.

‘Humanitarian imperative’

In a statement issued by his Spokesperson, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that ensuring “existing grain and foodstuffs can move to global markets is a humanitarian imperative.”

The deal dubbed a “beacon of hope” by Mr. Guterres when it was signed in the Turkish city of Istanbul on 22 July, is a “collective achievement” of the newly-established Joint Coordination Centre, or JCC, set up in Istanbul, under the auspices of the UN, by representatives from the three governments who inked the deal, known officially as the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

In a statement the JCC said it had agreed the specific coordinates and restrictions for what it termed the Safe Humanitarian Maritime Corridor, “and has communicated those details in accordance with international navigation procedures.”

“The JCC has requested all its participants to inform their respective military and other relevant authorities of this decision to ensure the safe passage of the vessel.”

The plan also paves the way for Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets, all of which it is hoped will help reduce soaring food prices worldwide, and avert the possibility of famine afflicting millions in the months ahead.

Since the deal was signed, the parties involved “have been working tirelessly” to begin the process of shipping grain and cereals out from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

‘The first of many’

The Secretary-General salutes their efforts, and he is grateful to Türkiye for its leadership”, the statement said, just after the vessel left port.

“The Secretary-General hopes that this will be the first of many commercial ships moving in accordance with the Initiative signed, and that this will bring much-needed stability and relief to global food security especially in the most fragile humanitarian contexts.”

The statement added that the UN emergency food agency, WFP, which is a major customer of Ukraine’s grain and cereals, was planning to buy, load and ship an initial 30,000 tonnes of wheat from Ukraine, on a UN-chartered vessel.

Ukraine: First commercial ship since February sails from Odesa – UN Chief Press Briefing

Hope for a lasting peace

Addressing correspondents at UN Headquarters in New York on the shipment, Mr. Guterres said the ship was loaded with two commodities in short supply, “corn, and hope.”

“People on the verge of famine need these agreements to work, in order to survive. Countries on the verge of bankruptcy need these agreements to work, in order to keep their economies alive.” 

While the “tragic war continues to rage”, said the UN chief, the UN would continue working every day, “to bring relief to the people of Ukraine, and to those suffering the effects of the conflict around the world.”

He said the war “must end, and peace must be established, in line with the Charter of the United Nations and international law.

“I hope today’s news can be a step towards that goal, for the people of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and for the world.” 

WFP charter ship

Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that more details from the World Food Programme would be released in the coming days.

According to news reports, Turkish authorities made clear that further shipments of grain were planned in the coming weeks, and many more journeys will have to be safely and successfully undertaken for the much-needed food supplies to make a difference.

Ukraine and Russia account for nearly a third of global wheat imports, with the two countries supplying more than 45 million tonnes annually, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Grain Initiative allows for significant volumes of exports from Odesa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny. Inspection teams will monitor the loading of grain at the ports, wit Ukrainian pilot vessels guiding the ships through the Black Sea, after which they will head out through the Bosphorus Strait, passing Istanbul, along an agreed corridor.



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