Invenergy, North America’s largest independent, privately-held renewable energy company, along with GE Renewable Energy, has announced a 2,000megawatt wind farm that will be the largest in the U.S. and second-largest in the world, once operational. The Wind Catcher facility is currently under construction in the Oklahoma panhandle and will generate wind electricity from 800 state-of-the-art GE 2.5 megawatt turbines.
An offshore wind energy farm. Photo credit: offshorewind.biz
The wind facility is part of the $4.5 billion Wind Catcher Energy Connection that also includes an approximately 350-mile dedicated, extra-high voltage power line. American Electric Power (AEP) utility subsidiaries Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO) and Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) are asking utility regulators in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma to approve plans to purchase the wind farm from Invenergy upon completion of construction and to build the power line to serve PSO and SWEPCO’s more than 1.1 million customers.
“Wind Catcher shows American leadership in bringing low-cost clean energy to market at giga scale,” said Invenergy’s Founder and CEO, Michael Polsky. “This project reflects Invenergy’s innovative spirit and unparalleled execution ability, and we are proud to be working with forwardlooking utilities like PSO and SWEPCO whose customers and communities will benefit from this project for decades to come.”
Wind Catcher Energy Connection is expected to save SWEPCO and PSO customers more than $7 billion, net of cost, over 25 years. AEP estimates that the project will support approximately 4,000 direct and 4,400 indirect jobs annually during construction and 80 permanent jobs once operational. It also will contribute approximately $300 million in property taxes over the life of the project.
The 2.5 megawatt GE turbines that will power the project are GE’s latest model, designed to enhance siting efficiency, offer industry-leading reliability and allow for higher energy production. GE will also implement its Digital Wind Farm solutions, providing software to support wind operations including Asset Performance Management (APM) and Operations Optimisation (OO).
All machine heads and hubs will be manufactured in the U.S., and additional components will be manufactured in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. “GE is delighted to be a part of the groundbreaking Wind Catcher project with Invenergy and American Electric Power,” said Pete McCabe, President and CEO of GE’s Onshore Wind business. “We look forward to putting our teams to work in these communities as we continue to move toward our goal of ensuring that no one has to choose between sustainable, reliable and affordable energy.”
Construction of the Wind Catcher facility started in 2016, and it is expected to be fully operational in mid-2020. Invenergy is contracted to operate the facility for the first five years.
New World Health Organisation (WHO) data from 28 countries – representing approximately 70% of the global hepatitis burden – indicate that efforts to eliminate hepatitis are gaining momentum.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Photo credit: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
Published to coincide with World Hepatitis Day, the data reveal that nearly all 28 countries have established high-level national hepatitis elimination committees (with plans and targets in place) and more than half have allocated dedicated funding for hepatitis responses.
On World Hepatitis Day, WHO called on countries to continue to translate their commitments into increased services to eliminate hepatitis. This week, WHO has also added a new generic treatment to its list of WHO-prequalified hepatitis C medicines to increase access to therapy, and is promoting prevention through injection safety: a key factor in reducing hepatitis B and C transmission.
From commitment to Action
“It is encouraging to see countries turning commitment into action to tackle hepatitis.” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Identifying interventions that have a high impact is a key step towards eliminating this devastating disease. Many countries have succeeded in scaling-up the hepatitis B vaccination. Now we need to push harder to increase access to diagnosis and treatment.”
World Hepatitis Day 2017 is being commemorated under the theme “Eliminate Hepatitis” to mobilise intensified action towards the health targets in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. In 2016, the World Health Assembly endorsed WHO’s first global health sectors strategy on viral hepatitis to help countries scale up their responses.
The new WHO data show that more than 86% of countries reviewed have set national hepatitis elimination targets and more than 70% have begun to develop national hepatitis plans to enable access to effective prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care services. Furthermore, nearly half of the countries surveyed are aiming for elimination through providing universal access to hepatitis treatment. But WHO is concerned that progress needs to speed up.
“The national response towards hepatitis elimination is gaining momentum. However, at best one in ten people who are living with hepatitis know they are infected and can access treatment. This is unacceptable,” said Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, WHO’s Director of the HIV Department and Global Hepatitis Programme.
“For hepatitis elimination to become a reality, countries need to accelerate their efforts and increase investments in life-saving care. There is simply no reason why many millions of people still have not been tested for hepatitis and cannot access the treatment for which they are in dire need.”
Viral hepatitis affected 325 million people worldwide in 2015, with 257 million people living with hepatitis B and 71 million people living with hepatitis C – the two main killers of the five types of hepatitis. Viral hepatitis caused 1.34 million deaths in 2015 – a figure close to the number of TB deaths and exceeding deaths linked to HIV.
Improving access to hepatitis C cure
Hepatitis C can be completely cured with direct acting antivirals (DAAs) within three months, according to the WHO. However, as of 2015, only 7% of the 71 million people with chronic hepatitis C had access to treatment.
WHO is working to ensure that DAAs are affordable and accessible to those who need them. Prices have dropped dramatically in some countries (primarily in some high-burden, low-and lower middle income countries), facilitated by the introduction of generic versions of these medicines. The list of DAAs available to countries for treating hepatitis C is growing.
WHO has just prequalified the first generic version of one of these drugs: sofosbuvir. The average price of the required three-month treatment course of this generic is between $260 and $280, a small fraction of the original cost of the medicine when it first went on the market in 2013. WHO prequalification guarantees a product’s quality, safety and efficacy and means it can now be procured by the United Nations and financing agencies such as UNITAID, which now includes medicines for people living with HIV who also have hepatitis C in the portfolio of conditions it covers.
Hepatitis B treatment
With high morbidity and mortality globally, there is great interest also in the development of new therapies for chronic hepatitis B virus infection. The most effective current hepatitis B treatment, tenofovir, (which is not curative and which in most cases needs to be taken for life), is available for as low as $48 per year in many low and middle income countries. There is also an urgent need to scale up access to hepatitis B testing.
Improving injection safety and infection prevention to reduce new cases of hepatitis B and C
Use of contaminated injection equipment in health-care settings accounts for a large number of new HCV and HBV infections worldwide, making injection safety an important strategy. Others include preventing transmission through invasive procedures, such as surgery and dental care; increasing hepatitis B vaccination rates and scaling up harm reduction programmes for people who inject drugs.
Today WHO is launching a range of new educational and communication tools to support a campaign entitled “Get the Point-Make smart injection choices” to improve injection safety in order to prevent hepatitis and other bloodborne infections in health-care settings.
The Government of Bolivia comes under international pressure to drop charges against Pablo Solón and Rafael Archondo, and stop the El Bala and Chepete dams
Pablo Solón (left) and Rafael Archondo
More than 70 organisations and 700 people from over 50 countries have called on the Bolivian government to drop what is widely believed to be false charges against its former UN representatives, Pablo Solón and Rafael Archondo, and to stop the proposed hydroelectric power projects, El Bala and Chepete.
The signatories include prominent public intellectuals, such as Noam Chomsky, Walden Bello and Susan George; Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine; US environmental leader, Bill McKibben; Nigerian award-winning environmentalist, Nnimmo Bassey; renowned author, Amitav Ghosh; Hollywood actress and indigenous rights activist, Qorianka Kilcher; as well as a number of European parliamentary representatives, such as Philippe Lamberts, Helmut Scholz and Soren Sondergaard.
The statement has also been supported by leading international human rights, peace and justice organisations such as Focus on the Global South, Transnational Institute, Global Justice Now, ATTAC, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, International Peace Bureau, CETRI, Migrant Forum Asia and FIAN International.
Many of the signatories have supported the Bolivian government since the election of Evo Morales in 2005, backing the country for its leadership on international issues, such as the Right to Water, the Rights of Mother Earth and Buen Vivir.
The statement expresses their “profound disappointment” that the government is now persecuting its prominent former statesmen for daring to speak out against the presumably environmentally-destructive hydroelectric power project and the El Bala and Chepete dams. The statement also expresses concern at alleged attempts to silence dissent to extractive projects.
The statement concludes: “Bolivia will have no credibility on climate change and the rights of Mother Earth if it invests in mega-dams and persecutes its principal environmental defenders.”
Shalmali Guttal of Focus on the Global South and one of the initiators of the sign-on statement said: “This is a clear case of criminalisation of resistance to extractivist, destructive development. We are shocked to see this happening in Bolivia to advocates of climate justice and indigenous peoples’ rights by a government we had so much hope in.”
Walden Bello said: “Pablo Solón should be given an award for fighting for Bolivia’s environment instead of being persecuted. The Bolivian government should drop all charges against him and Rafael Archondo immediately.”
Brid Brennan of Transnational Institute said: “We hope the Bolivian government can live up to its rhetoric of ‘Buen Vivir’, by protecting its environmental defenders and advancing a new energy future-based not on mega-dams and fossil fuels – but on democratically – controlled public wind and solar energy.”
Dorothy Guerrero of Global Justice Now said: “We applauded Bolivia for enshrining the Law of Mother Earth in your constitution, making it the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. We also supported Bolivia’s strong Southern voice in demanding for big countries like the US and Britain to do steep carbon emission cuts in the UNFCCC. Pablo Solon and Rafael Orchondo are speaking for all of us and for nature with their opposition against El Bala and Chepete mega dams.
“It has just come to light that the criminal complaints against Solon and Archondo have expired and the charges against them hold no legal validity, so any pursuance of this case would be an even clearer case of political persecution.”
Pablo Solon, said: “Even if they put me in jail, the mega dams of El Bala and Chepete will be a disaster for nature, indigenous peoples and Bolivia’s economy.”
The Dominican Republic aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the coffee cultivation through implementation of Low Carbon Coffee NAMA.
A farmer harvests coffee beans in a plantation in the Dominican Republic
A NAMA, or Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action, refers to any action that reduces emissions in developing countries. These can be policies directed at transformational change within an economic sector, or actions across sectors for a broader national focus.
The Coffee NAMA aims to reduce emissions in the Dominican Republic’s agriculture sector, which is said to be the second highest source of GHG emissions, at 31.6% of total emissions. The NAMA specifically focuses on reducing emissions contributed by coffee farms and mills, which are large emission sources within the agriculture sector.
The Low Carbon Coffee NAMA of the Dominican Republic aligns with the Dominican Republic National Policy of Climate Change (PNCC), as well in the National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Agricultural Sector of the Dominican Republic (NASAP). The NAMA will facilitate more intensive cooperation between the leading institutions like, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism and Dominican Coffee Council (CODOCAFE), as well with the private sector to make coffee production more climate-friendly.
In a participatory process between 2017 and 2028, emission reduction will be achieved through a number of actions. Plans include providing technical advice to coffee farmers, transforming coffee production practices, creating partnerships with the international coffee and fertiliser industry, and leveraging financial support instruments like grants, concessional loans or guarantees for coffee farmers and mills.
The Coffee NAMA includes four measures for reducing GHG emissions:
Reduction in the use of nitrogenised fertilisers and N2O emissions
Avoidance of methane through improved treatment and reuse of wastewater in mills
Improved use and management of biomass as and energy source
Carbon capture through the development of agro-forestry system
The NAMA offers the potential to scale up and roll-out to other sectors of agricultural production, and relies on the engagement and innovation of farmers and millers. Successful implementation will require intensive cooperation with the private sector, technology providers, and with global coffee distributors.
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, on Thursday, July 27, 2017 briefed embassies in Berlin, Germany regarding the UN Climate Change Conference (COP23) holding in Bonn, Germany from November 6 to 17, 2017. The UNFCCC secretariat is hosting COP23, in close collaboration with the Government of Fiji, who will serve as the President of the meeting and will provide the political leadership to move forward international cooperation on climate change.
The Government of Germany, as the host country of the secretariat, along with the City of Bonn and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, are providing valuable political and budgetary support to the organisation of this major international event, which is expected to attract more than 20,000 people.
In her address, Espinosa says that such cooperation makes COP23 possible, while raising awareness of the vulnerability of islands and all nations. She called for the countries’ support for Germany, support for cooperation with Fiji, and support for the commitment to make Bonn a UN-led hub of sustainable development and climate action
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, briefing the diplomats in Berlin
The arrangements for this year’s climate conference are not unprecedented – the COP has been held in Bonn before – but they are unusual. The country where the conference will be held will not preside over the meeting. This unusual arrangement is extremely important.
This year, the Government of Fiji will assume the COP presidency.
The cooperation, mainly from the German government, that enables the small island state to step up and lead is important because it embodies exactly what is needed at a global level. The world must work together to meet the challenges of climate change and sustainable development.
The developed world must support all nations – regardless of size, or location, or contribution to greenhouse gas emissions – in the effort to fulfill national climate plans and chart their own low-emission, highly resilient development path.
For Fiji, this path is critical. Pacific islands – and all low-lying islands – are some of the most vulnerable nations. For many, the threat of climate change is existential. We are already losing islands to rising seas and many struggle to adapt to costly extreme weather events, eroding coastlines and saltwater intrusion into water supplies and agricultural lands.
Cooperation makes COP 23 possible. It also raises awareness of the vulnerability of islands and all nations. And it opens the door to even more collaboration and support – for resilient communities and for the transition to growth powered by clean energy.
Fiji and Germany are laying the groundwork for success in Bonn in November. But it is not just cooperative planning and preparation that will signal success for COP23. We must also see steps forward in the process and in global climate action.
With 155 nations that have ratified the agreement – and if your nation is among those I thank you – please allow me to share what we must get done at this year’s conference. And let me share how you can contribute to its success.
The step forward by governments this year must be significant. In this new and dynamic era of implementation of the Paris Agreement, work must progress quickly to make the agreement fully operational.
Right now, focus is on the operating manual – the technical guidelines and procedures – of the agreement.
This work has a 2018 deadline, so our step forward at COP 23 needs to be a full stride towards a strong implementation system that is effective in achieving the goals outlined in the agreement and goal 13 of the Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In 2018, there will be an initial opportunity to take stock of progress towards those goals. COP23 must also be a full stride forward towards an effective and equitable plan to assess progress at the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue.
Taking these significant steps forward will be a challenge, especially considering recent shifts in the global political landscape. But movement forward by the community of nations takes us closer to transforming our on-the-ground reality.
For this reason, COP23 must advance several crucial issues:
Building greater resilience for vulnerable nations through strong support.
Improving access to adaptation finance and affordable climate risk and disaster insurance.
Strengthening the link between climate change solutions and the health of the world’s ecosystems – oceans, forests, coastlines and polar regions.
And harnessing innovation, enterprise and investment to fast track development of these solutions.
Moving the needle on these issues is not easy. But it is imperative.
We must now turn the national contributions by all nations – backbone of the Paris Agreement – into blueprints for a new model of investment, trade, energy, transportation, urban growth and meeting human need.
So COP23 must advance global climate action, action by key groups that hold great potential to truly transform reality – businesses and investors, regions and cities.
These groups – non-Party stakeholders in our process – were instrumental to a strong agreement in Paris and further strengthened their support in the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action.
They have also been vocal advocates for climate action in recent months.
Businesses and asset owners worth trillions of dollars have reiterated their support for the Paris Agreement. Clean energy, efficient operations, green bonds and sustainable supply chains are already delivering bottom line gains to businesses and investors.
Cooperative city initiatives like Bonn-based ICLEI, C40 and the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy are growing and helping countries achieve their emission reduction goals. I was recently at the Austrian World Summit, where I heard many examples of regional governments taking action.
COP23 must build on this foundation and make global climate action ‘the way business is done now.’ And not just in respect to Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals but across the 2030 agenda.
This action must inspire country-level policies and practices that incentivise transformation. It can take each and every nation one step closer to fulfilling their national Paris Agreement contribution – and a blueprint to build on.
This is where the COP23 leadership opportunity – for Fiji and for Germany – is also your leadership opportunity. It is your opportunity to contribute to COP23 success.
Just as no one government alone and no one sector of the economy alone can meet the climate change challenge – no one ministry or government department can rise to the challenge. We must have action by all.
Embassies are central to this effort. In supporting the ministers and leaders who come to Bonn, you can also support those that cannot be there and support action.
So, let me be specific in terms of what you may wish to communicate from our meeting here today back to your capitals.
We need outcomes in Bonn in November 2017 that reflect the extraordinary action happening across the globe nationally, internationally and among many, many partners.
We need governments – and also wider society – to have no doubt that the vision forged in Paris 2015 is being realised and implementation is well underway.
We already know of many new and inspirational initiatives that are set to be announced between the opening of the UN General Assembly and Climate Week in New York in September and at COP23 – but we need many more.
At the various events planned, including the high-level events, I would ask your governments to outline in clear and powerful terms the achievements that have been made in the past two years and deliver inspiring announcements about the new ones to come.
Governments should also encourage high-level private sector and subnational leaders to do the same across key sectors like energy, transport cities, investment and agriculture. And across the sustainable management of natural systems like forests and oceans and enabling measures like gender and education.
There is so much happening and so many positive things to tell and to showcase, and COP23 is the platform.
The UN will – working with you and with others – provide the amplification and the public awareness so these example of positive, far reaching action are communicated and understood worldwide.
Indeed, what you say about what you are doing – and what you are poised to do – should leave the world with no doubt that national and cooperative engagement is speeding ahead in what were once unimaginable ways.
In turn, this wealth of current action and the future ambition planned must also find expression in the Paris Agreement’s operational guidelines when finalised in 2018.
Indeed, these guidelines need to be rich in purpose, clear and readable in intent and able to give the Agreement the longevity it requires for taking the world to a future that is well below a 2-degree C temperature rise.
We have 100 days until COP23 opens in Bonn. I ask that, over the next 100 days, you actively seek to support Germany, support cooperation with Fiji and support the commitment to make Bonn a UN-led hub of sustainable development and climate action.
In doing so, you support the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement and your country’s contribution to the agreement. But perhaps more importantly, you join the growing momentum towards development that does not come at the expense of other people or the planet we all share.
Together, we can get the world on course to a stable and secure future, where peace and prosperity flourish and opportunity is open to all. COP23 takes us one big step closer to this vision.
Cholera continues to spread in Yemen, causing more than 390,000 suspected cases of the disease and more than 1,800 deaths since April 27, 2017.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners are responding to the cholera outbreak in Yemen, working closely with UNICEF, local health authorities and others to treat the sick and stop the spread of the disease.
Each of these cholera cases is a person with a family, a story, hopes and dreams. In the centres, where patients are treated, local health workers work long hours, often without pay, to fight off death and help their patients make a full recovery.
Here are their stories, courtesy of the WHO.
Fatima Shooie sits between her 85-year-old mother and 22-year-old daughter who are both receiving treatment for cholera at the crowded 22 May Hospital in Sana’a. “We have no money even for transportation to the hospital. My husband works as a street cleaner but he hasn’t received a salary for eight months and he is our only breadwinner,” Fatima said. “I’m afraid that the disease will transmit to other family members.”Dr Adel Al-Almani is the head of the diarrhoea treatment centre in Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sana’a. He and his team often work 18 hours a day to deal with the influx of patients. More than 30 000 Yemeni health workers have not been paid in more than 10 months. Yet many, like Dr Al-Almani, continue to treat patients and save livesA health worker tends to Khadeeja Abdul-Kareem, 20. Khadeeja was forced to flee the conflict in Al-Waziya District, Taiz. Displaced from her home, she struggles to make ends meet – a situation compounded by her illnessIt was a long and painful journey in search of treatment for Abdu Al-Nehmi, 53. The road from his village in Bani Matar District to Sana’a City was bumpy and the car broke down along the way. The whole time he was suffering from kidney pain in addition to severe diarrhoea and vomiting. “There is no health centre in our area. We have to spend two to three hours to arrive at a proper health facility in Sana’a,” he said. To date, WHO, UNICEF, and partners have supported the establishment of 3,000 beds in 187 diarrhoea treatment centres and 834 fully operational oral rehydration therapy cornersNabila, Fatima, Amal, Hayat and Hend are working as nurses in Azal Health Centre in Sana’a and have dedicated themselves to treating patients arriving with severe dehydration. “Every day, we receive severe cases that come with complicated conditions, but we manage to save the lives of most of them. Sometimes, a new severe case arrives while we’re so busy treating another case,” said Nabila Al-Olofi, one of nurses working in the centre. “Yes, we have no regular salaries as nurses, but saving lives is our biggest gain.”
Yemen is experiencing one of the world’s worst cholera outbreaks in the midst of a large scale conflict that has crippled vital health facilities. In the last three months almost 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and nearly 1,900 associated deaths have been recorded. The country is also on the brink of famine, with nearly two million Yemeni children acutely malnourished.
More than 30,000 health workers haven’t been paid their salaries in more than 10 months, but many still report for duty.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have also reported for duty, as the heads of the three UN agencies traveled together to Yemen to see the scale of this humanitarian crisis and to step up combined efforts to help the people of Yemen.
UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake; WFP Executive Director, David Beasley; and WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, following their joint visit to Yemen, conclude in this statement that the Yemeni crisis requires an unprecedented response
Eight-year-old Mohannad has overcome cholera following 3 days of treatment in the diarrhoea treatment centre at Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sana’a. Mohannad lost his mother and sister when a bomb went off near their home in Hajjah. He and his father have since fled to Sana’a. Photo credit: WHO/S. Hasan
As the heads of three United Nations agencies – UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and WHO – we have travelled together to Yemen to see for ourselves the scale of this humanitarian crisis and to step up our combined efforts to help the people of Yemen.
This is the world’s worst cholera outbreak in the midst of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. In the last three months alone, 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and nearly 1,900 associated deaths have been recorded. Vital health, water and sanitation facilities have been crippled by more than two years of hostilities, and created the ideal conditions for diseases to spread.
The country is on the brink of famine, with over 60 per cent of the population not knowing where their next meal will come from. Nearly two milllion Yemeni children are acutely malnourished. Malnutrition makes them more susceptible to cholera; diseases create more malnutrition. A vicious combination.
At one hospital, we visited children who can barely gather the strength to breathe. We spoke with families overcome with sorrow for their ill loved ones and struggling to feed their families.
And, as we drove through the city, we saw how vital infrastructure, such as health and water facilities, have been damaged or destroyed.
Amid this chaos, some 16,000 community volunteers go house to house, providing families with information on how to protect themselves from diarrhea and cholera. Doctors, nurses and other essential health staff are working around the clock to save lives.
More than 30,000 health workers haven’t been paid their salaries in more than 10 months, but many still report for duty. We have asked the Yemeni authorities to pay these health workers urgently because, without them, we fear that people who would otherwise have survived may die. As for our agencies, we will do our best to support these extremely dedicated health workers with incentives and stipends.
We also saw the vital work being done by local authorities and NGOs, supported by international humanitarian agencies, including our own. We have set up more than 1,000 diarrhoea treatment centres and oral rehydration corners. The delivery of food supplements, intravenous fluids and other medical supplies, including ambulances, is ongoing, as is the rebuilding of critical infrastructure – the rehabilitation of hospitals, district health centres and the water and sanitation network. We are working with the World Bank in an innovative partnership that responds to needs on the ground and helps maintain the local health institutions.
But there is hope. More than 99 per cent of people who are sick with suspected cholera and who can access health services are now surviving. And the total number of children who will be afflicted with severe acute malnutrition this year is estimated at 385,000.
However, the situation remains dire. Thousands are falling sick every day. Sustained efforts are required to stop the spread of disease. Nearly 80 percent of Yemen’s children need immediate humanitarian assistance.
When we met with Yemeni leaders – in Aden and in Sana’a – we called on them to give humanitarian workers access to areas affected by fighting. And we urged them – more than anything – to find a peaceful political solution to the conflict.
The Yemeni crisis requires an unprecedented response. Our three agencies have teamed up with the Yemeni authorities and other partners to coordinate our activities in new ways of working to save lives and to prepare for future emergencies.
We now call on the international community to redouble its support for the people of Yemen. If we fail to do so, the catastrophe we have seen unfolding before our eyes will not only continue to claim lives but will scar future generations and the country for years to come.
Recent expansion of assistance by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to countries preparing to implement climate finance is targeting Africa and the Pacific.
Executive Director, Green Climate Fund (GCF), Howard Bamsey
The GCF has provided $700,000 to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Rwanda, a GCF direct access Accredited Entity, to assist the development of projects under the Fund’s Project Preparation Facility (PPF). This is an additional tranche within a $1.5 million grant under this funding package, which GCF provides to support various phases in developing climate finance projects.
The Fund has also disbursed $120,000 to Mauritania for activities under GCF’s Readiness Programme, which provides developing countries with resources to enhance country ownership and access to climate finance.
Through a partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), over $1.4 million have been disbursed to help boost the capacities for climate programmes in Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, Maldives, Nepal and Tonga.
GCF also has provided $130,000 in Readiness assistance, the second part of a $300,000 grant, to the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), an organisation governed by 26 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that coordinates the design and implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation projects across the Pacific.
To date, the Green Climate Fund has disbursed more than $9 million for Readiness activities in developing countries across all regions.
Nigeria’s Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday, July 27, 2017 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, inaugurated an imposing fertiliser plant, built by Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemicals Limited at the cost of $1.5 billion.
The Indorama Fertiliser Plant in Port Harcourt, River State
The Acting President used the opportunity to remind all Nigerians that time has come for them to grow whatever they eat and produce whatever they consume.
“What Indorama is accomplishing today is very much in line with President Buhari’s vision for a country that produces what it consumes and grows what it eats. If you had to sum up our vision for the Nigerian economy in a few words, these would suffice. Grow what we eat, produce what we consume,” he said.
Prof Osinbajo commended Indorama for keying into the Presidential Fertiliser initiative which President Buhari launched last year to make fertilisers cheaper nationwide.
“At the end of last year, the President launched a Presidential Fertiliser Initiative, to ensure the availability of cheaper fertiliser to our farmers, to support what we’re doing in agriculture, in the production of rice and wheat and other staples.
“That Fertiliser Initiative, now well underway, has created significant economic opportunities for companies like Indorama Eleme Fertiliser & Chemicals Limited.
“I have been informed that Indorama will this year alone supply about 360,000 Metric Tons of Urea to Fertiliser blenders, which, in turn, will produce NPK fertiliser for the benefit of farmers across the country.
“This is the kind of economic progress we’re after, in which every unlocked opportunity proceeds to unlock several others, across multiple sectors of the economy.”
The Acting President said that the Buhari administration will continue to support Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited, which was privatised in 2006 by the Federal Government.
According to him, the company has turned out to be a huge success story. “I am glad that we’re here today to see one of the success stories of the Federal Government’s privatisation programme,” he said.
“We will continue to support Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited’s expansion ambitions. Our commitment to the privatisation programme is equally assured, and we will continue to do everything to support investors to maximise the potential of their assets,” he said.
Earlier in his address, the Chairman of Indorama Corporation, Mr Sri Prakash Lohia, said that the plant which has capacity to produce 1.5 million metric tons of fertiliser per annum is the largest single-train Urea plant in the world.
The Acting President also presented a Certificate of Discharge to Mr Lohia and the Managing Director, Mr Manish Mundra, for successfully accomplishing the post purchase agreement entered into with the Bureau of Public Enterprises on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“Following the 2006 handover, the BPE carried out routine monitoring on the enterprise to ensure that the core investor adhered to and implemented the post-acquisition plan it had laid out for the company.”
“Today is the culmination of that process of monitoring and oversight by the BPE. I am delighted that it is taking place on an inspiring and hopeful note, and that we are all here today celebrating a thriving and promising company. We should not take this state of affairs for granted,” he said.
The Plant has a production capacity of 4000 metric tons (MT) of nitrogenous fertilisers per day or 1.5 MT per annum. The world-scale plant has been built with an investment of $1.5 billion, a huge Foreign Direct Investment, funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and a consortium of 15 European and African banks and financial institutions.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State in his speech said that for Indorama to invest a whopping $1.5 billion in the state, it shows that the state is safe for investors and their investments. He called on other investors to emulate the footsteps of Indorama.
The fertiliser plant is well supported by Port Terminal at the nearby Onne Port Complex, and a gas pipeline of 83.5KM for gas supply.
The plant will bring about a green revolution in the agriculture sector not only in Nigeria but also in other parts of Africa and world at large.
Besides, making the fertiliser products to be available at affordable cost, the plant will boost crop yield to farmers and greatly help in minimising the food grain deficit in Nigeria.
The plant is said to have generated job opportunities, thereby contributing to the economic prosperity of Nigeria.
The construction of the plant commenced in April 2013 and was completed in December 2015. The commissioning activities were concluded in March 2016 and the commercial production started in June 2016.
The Government of the United Kingdom confirmed on Wednesday, July 26, 2017 that it will end the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040, as it unveiled new plans to tackle air pollution.
Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations produced by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Transport outlines how councils with the worst levels of air pollution at busy road junctions and hotspots must take robust action.
Wednesday’s announcement is focused on delivering nitrogen dioxide (NO2) compliance at the roadside in the shortest amount of time. This, according to the Government, is one part of its programme to deliver clean air – next year it says it will publish a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy which will address other sources of air pollution.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the authorities say air quality in the UK has been improving significantly in recent decades, with reductions in emissions of all of the key pollutants, and NO2 levels down by half in the last 15 years.
Despite this, an analysis of over 1,800 of Britain’s major roads show that a small number of these – 81 or 4% – are due to breach legal pollution limits for NO2, with 33 of these outside of London.
To accelerate action, local areas will be asked to produce initial plans within eight months and final plans by the end of next year.
The Government adds that it will help towns and cities by providing £255 million to implement their plans, in addition to the £2.7 billion we are already investing.
Due to the highly localised nature of the problem local knowledge will be crucial in solving pollution problems in these hotspots. The government will require councils to produce local air quality plans which reduce nitrogen dioxide levels in the fastest possible time.
Local authorities will be able to bid for money from a new Clean Air Fund to support improvements which will reduce the need for restrictions on polluting vehicles. This could include changing road layouts, removing traffic lights and speed humps, or upgrading bus fleets.
Air pollution continues to have an unnecessary and avoidable impact on people’s health and evidence shows that poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing the country up to £2.7 billion in lost productivity in 2012, notes the statement.
The UK is one of 17 EU countries said to be breaching annual targets for nitrogen dioxide, a problem which has been made worse by the failure of the European testing regime for vehicle emissions.
The government will also issue a consultation in the autumn to gather views on measures to support motorists, residents and businesses affected by local plans – such as retrofitting, subsidised car club memberships, exemptions from any vehicles restrictions, or a targeted scrappage scheme for car and van drivers.
Measures considered will need to target those most in need of support, provide strong value for the taxpayer and be resistant to fraud.
Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, was quoted as saying: “Today’s plan sets out how we will work with local authorities to tackle the effects of roadside pollution caused by dirty diesels, in particular nitrogen dioxide.
“This is one element of the government’s £3 billion programme to clean up the air and reduce vehicle emissions.
“Improving air quality is about more than just transport, so next year we will publish a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy. This will set out how we will address all forms of air pollution, delivering clean air for the whole country.”
Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, said: “We are determined to deliver a green revolution in transport and reduce pollution in our towns and cities.
“We are taking bold action and want nearly every car and van on UK roads to be zero emission by 2050 which is why we’ve committed to investing more than £600 million in the development, manufacture and use of ultra-low emission vehicles by 2020.
“Today, we commit £100 million towards new low emission buses and retrofitting older buses with cleaner engines.
“We are also putting forward proposals for van drivers to have the right to use heavier vehicles if they are electric or gas-powered, making it easier for businesses to opt for cleaner commercial vehicles.
“Local authorities will have access to a range of options to tackle poor air quality in their plans such as changing road layouts to reduce congestion, encouraging uptake of ultra-low emissions vehicles and retrofitting public transport.
“If these measures are not sufficient to ensure legal compliance, local authorities may also need to consider restrictions on polluting vehicles using affected roads.
This could mean preventing polluting vehicles using some of these roads at certain times of the day or introducing charging, as the Mayor of London has already announced.
“The Government is clear that local authorities should exhaust other options before opting to impose charging. Any restrictions or charging on polluting vehicles should be time-limited and lifted as soon as air pollution is within legal limits and the risk of future breaches has passed.
“Plans will be assessed by government to make sure they are effective, fair, good value and will deliver the required improvements in air quality in the shortest time possible. If local plans do not meet that test, government will require councils to take action to achieve legal compliance.”
Government is supporting councils to develop these plans through:
A £255 million implementation fund for all immediate work required to deliver plans within eight months to address poor air quality in the shortest time possible;
A Clean Air Fund for councils to bid for money to introduce new measures such as changing road layouts to cut congestion and reduce idling vehicles, new park and ride services, introducing concessionary travel schemes and improving bus fleets. More details will be announced later this year.
A £40 million Clean Bus Technology Fund grant scheme – part of a £290 million National Productivity Investment Fund announced in the Autumn Statement – to limit emissions from up to 2350 older buses.
Government says it remains committed to putting the public finances back on a sustainable footing: so all money spent on air quality measures will be funded through changes to the tax treatment for new diesel vehicles or through reprioritisation within existing departmental budgets.
Also announced
Van drivers are set to be given the right to use heavier vehicles if they are electric or gas-powered, in measures that will help improve air quality in towns and cities across the country.
Manufacturers found to be using devices on their vehicles to cheat emissions tests could face criminal and civil charges, with fines of up to £50,000 for every device installed, under proposed new laws.
