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Propertymart lauds Fashola, proffers solution to housing challenges

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Propertymart lauds Fashola, proffers solution to housing challenges

Nigeria, by all indices and despite its challenges, represents a huge market for real estate development. The ongoing Federal Housing Scheme is being implemented to address the housing needs of Nigerians plug the housing deficit, which is put at about 17 million units.

Babatunde-Fashola
Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has said that the scheme is aimed at delivering affordable houses to workers based on the National Housing Policy.

“There is a National Housing Policy in place aimed at providing affordable housing but there has been no programme in place to deliver the houses. That is what this programme is all about,” said the minister.

Going by his antecedents while in office as the former governor of Lagos State, Mr. Fashola, as the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, seems to be the right candidate to push through such progressive policies.

Mr. Fashola has shown that he understands the business of government in providing an enabling atmosphere for investors, going by strategies being adopted in the implementation of the Federal Housing Scheme, which he has described as also a part of government’s multi-facet approach to economic development.

“The programme is part of government efforts to create value chain economic activities, aimed at empowering Nigerians all over the country. Workers will be happy on site getting paid from contractors to take care of their families and patronising food and others,” he had said, adding that the minister also said the ministry was training artisans like carpenters and bricklayers to be relevant technically.

Propertymart Real Estate Investment Limited shares in the housing provision dream of the minister for Nigeria, which needs almost one million housing units annually.

“Nigeria offers a high return on investment in prime real estate, and hosts one of the world’s fastest growing populations – a huge attraction for investors,” says Mr Fasunwon Deji, Deputy Managing Director of Propertymart.

To encourage investors, Mr Fasunwon believes that Nigeria’s policy makers need to ensure that access to long-term finance is guaranteed to enable investors attract consumers from the upper end of the market that play in the prime real estate sector.

According to him, the gaps in government-run infrastructure would also need to be plugged to guarantee efficient urban development, adding that roads, electricity, security, etc. are significant areas that the government would need to invest in to ensure that developers and clients enjoy best practice residential and commercial property standards.
“The government would also need to promote favourable macroeconomic policies which will in turn encourage private sector investors to partner with her in providing low-cost mass housing. These policies must result in low interest rates, stable exchange rates and low inflation to encourage investors move into mass housing projects and low-income earners move from rented (substandard in most cases) housing to their own affordable mortgage-enabled homes. These policies, in conjunction with a broader economic growth stimulation that results in lifting more Nigerians above the poverty line, will make low-cost housing actually affordable for the low-income earner,” he stated.
Additionally, he wants processes for land acquisition, construction permits and property registration must also be simplified and automated in line with global best practice.

“We cannot continue with a culture that frustrates estate developers and discourages prospective home owners. In extreme cases, prospective property owners have had to wait years to secure required approvals and documentation. Controversial legislation such as the 1978 Land Use Act and the 2012 National Housing Policy must be revisited to tackle areas of their implementation that stifle the growth of the real estate sector,” Mr Fasunwon stressed.

Meningitis: 33 dead in Niger, Sokoto to immunise 2m, WHO provides vaccine

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Meningitis: 33 dead in Niger, Sokoto to immunise 2m, WHO provides vaccine

Thirty-three people have died from the Cerebrol Spinal Meningitis in Niger State out of the 116 suspected cases recorded, an official disclosed to the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday, April 14, 2017.

Dr.-Wondimagegnehu-Alemu
Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu, the WHO Country Representative to Nigeria

Executive Director of the state Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Yahaya Na’uzo, said nine persons died from the type C meningitis, while the remaining 24 died of the types A and B since the outbreak of the disease.

Na’uzo said the disease is being contained in Magama, Agwara, Rijau, Kontagora Local Government Areas (LGAs).

According to him, the suspected cases in Suleja and Paiko were persons on transit from Sokoto State.

He explained that after the first fatality, the state embarked on sensitisation and awareness campaign to educate the people on preventive measures.

Na’uzo said: “We now have fewer cases reported per day because communities have been sensitised to report to the nearest hospital as soon as they suspect any case of meningitis.

“People have been educated to quickly report to the nearest hospital once they experience symptoms such as fever, vomiting and stiffness of the neck.

“With this, more people have been coming and the situation has stabilised as no more high report of confirmed cases.”
Na’uzo said vaccination would commence immediately the state receives the Type C meningitis vaccines from international communities.

Similarly, the Sokoto State Government says plans have reached an advanced stage to immunise two million people against Cerebro Spinal Meningitis across the 23 LGAs of the state.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Balarabe Kakale, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Sokoto on Friday.

Kakale said the exercise would cover mostly persons between the ages of one to 30.

Kakale said: “We have already received 20,000 doses of the type C strain of CSM from the Federal Government, out of the initial request of 800,000 doses we made.

“We are expecting more consignments of the vaccines and we will soon commence the statewide vaccination.”

Kakale stated the World Health Organisation (WHO) would train the vaccinators to ensure the exercise was error-free.

He said: “WHO provided the vaccines to the Federal Government, while the Federal Government distributed them to the states, including Sokoto State.

“The organisation will therefore train the vaccinators for them to conduct the exercise in line with the risk assessment tools.”

The commissioner, however, noted that the meningitis epidemic had been brought under control across the state.

Kakale further said a referral centre had been established by the state government at the Murtala General Hospital, Sokoto.

According to him, the centre is being manned jointly by medical personnel deployed by the state government and Medicines Sans Frontiers.

In a related development, the WHO has disclosed that Nigeria has received 500,000 doses of meningitis C containing vaccine to combat the epidemic in the country.

The doses were sent by the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision, an organisation that coordinates the provision of vaccine during outbreak emergencies.

Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu, the WHO Country Representative to Nigeria, said this in a statement in Abuja on Friday.

Alemu said the vaccines, funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have been administered in Zamfara and Katsina states, where the disease was most endemic.

Alemu said an additional 820,000 doses of the meningitis C conjugate vaccine donated by the UK government to WHO was currently being sent to Nigeria.

He said that, in the past week, the ICG also sent 341,000 doses of the meningitis C-containing vaccine to Niger Republic.

He said this was because over 1,300 suspected cases of the disease had been found in the region particularly in districts that border with Nigeria and in the Niamey region of the country.

Alemu said: “A vaccination campaign is underway in Nigeria to contain an outbreak of meningitis C, a strain of meningitis which first emerged in the country in 2013.

“In 2013, the outbreak was initially limited to a few areas in Kebbi and Sokoto States. However, in 2015, more than 2,500 cases of the disease have been reported across 3 states in the country.

“Since the beginning of this year, the country has reported 4,637 suspected cases and 489 deaths across five states.

“WHO’s Country Office in Nigeria, including a number of field offices, have been supporting the government since the meningitis outbreak began.

“In addition to improving the care of the sick, we are focusing on ensuring accurate information about the spread of the outbreak is available as quickly as possible to help us make the most effective use of vaccines.”

Alemu said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control with support from WHO, the US Centre for Disease Control, UNICEF and other partners were leading the response to the ongoing outbreak.

He said these organisations were also carrying out intensified surveillance, capacity building for case management and risk communication.

Alemu said in addition to the use of vaccinations to prevent the transmission of meningitis, 20,000 vials of antibiotics have been sent by the ICG to treat people who had the disease in Nigeria.

He said most vaccines currently being used for meningitis C outbreaks in Africa were polysaccharide vaccines, adding that they were in short supply as they were being phased out in other parts of the world.

He said: “The more effective and long-lasting conjugate vaccines, however, are not readily accessible for outbreak response in the region. The ICG global emergency stockpile currently has approximately 1.2 million doses of meningitis C-containing vaccines left.

“The very limited supply of vaccines to control outbreaks of meningitis C can affect our ability to control these epidemics.

“In the long term, the accelerated development of affordable and effective conjugate vaccines to cover all epidemic types of meningitis is a high priority for WHO and partners.”

Alemu noted that in the past, Nigeria had suffered large-scale outbreaks of meningitis A stating that in 2009, such an outbreak in the country caused over 55, 000 cases with close to 2,500 deaths.

He, however, said that preventive mass vaccination campaigns supported by Gavi and partners have provided high and long-term protection against the bacteria.

Abu Dhabi to host 2020 World Urban Forum

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Abu Dhabi to host 2020 World Urban Forum

Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates, will host the Tenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10) in 2020. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), as the convener of WUF, announced the decision recently, concluding the bidding process for WUF10.

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City of Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, at dusk. Photo credit: Philip Lange

United Nations Under-Secretary-General and UN-Habitat Executive Director, Dr. Joan Clos, has informed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, of the decision.

WUF10 will be the first Forum to be held in the Arab region and it will be particularly relevant to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda after its adoption in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016, and the Ninth session of the World Urban Forum to be held in Kuala Lumpur in February 2018.

Dr. Clos has extended his congratulations to Abu Dhabi and the Government of the United Arab Emirates and has highlighted the importance of organising WUF10 in a region that has experienced rapid urbanisation in the past years and that is now focusing on directing urban development in a sustainable way.

Clos said: “WUF9 and WUF10 are key platforms where we will be able to review how we are all managing sustainable urban development, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and implementing the New Urban Agenda”.

 

The World’s Premier Conference on Cities
The World Urban Forum (WUF) is a non-legislative technical forum convened by the UN-Habitat since 2002.

The United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 69/226 recognises the World Urban Forum as the foremost global arena for interaction among policymakers, local government leaders, non-governmental organisations and expert practitioners in the field of sustainable urban development and human settlements.

Global investments towards meeting water, sanitation SDGs targets inadequate – WHO

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Global investments towards meeting water, sanitation SDGs targets inadequate – WHO

Countries are not increasing spending fast enough to meet the water and sanitation targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says a new report published on Thursday, April 13, 2017 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on behalf of UN-Water – the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for all freshwater-related issues, including sanitation.

MariaNeira
Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health

“Today, almost two billion people use a source of drinking-water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio,” says Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health.

“Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause more than 500 000 diarrhoeal deaths each year and is a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma,” added Neira.

The report stresses that countries will not meet global aspirations of universal access to safe drinking-water and sanitation unless steps are taken to use financial resources more efficiently and increase efforts to identify new sources of funding.

According to the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2017 report, countries have increased their budgets for water, sanitation and hygiene at an annual average rate of 4.9% over the last three years. Yet, 80% of countries report that water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) financing is still insufficient to meet nationally-defined targets for WASH services.

In many developing countries, current national coverage targets are based on achieving access to basic infrastructure, which may not always provide continuously safe and reliable services. Planned investments have yet to take into account the much more ambitious SDG targets, which aim for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services by 2030.

In order to meet the SDG global targets, the World Bank estimates investments in infrastructure need to triple to $114 billion per year – a figure which does not include operating and maintenance costs.

While the funding gap is vast, 147 countries have previously demonstrated the ability to mobilise the resources required to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people without an improved source of water, and 95 met the corresponding target for sanitation. The much more ambitious SDG targets will require collective, coordinated and innovative efforts to mobilise even higher levels of funding from all sources: taxes, tariffs (payments and labour from households), and transfers from donors.

“This is a challenge we have the ability to solve,” says Guy Ryder, Chair of UN-Water and Director-General of the International Labour Organisation. “Increased investments in water and sanitation can yield substantial benefits for human health and development, generate employment and make sure that we leave no one behind.”

Report identifies Philippines’ renewable energy potential

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Report identifies Philippines’ renewable energy potential

Renewable energy sector policy making and institutional evolution can support maintaining Philippines’ development momentum and allow it to achieve energy independence, according to a new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Titled “Renewables Readiness Assessment: Philippines”, the report identifies issues that the country needs to resolve to unlock the full potential of its renewable energy resources.

Alfonso-Cusi
Alfonso G. Cusi, the Philippines’ Secretary of Energy

“Like many countries in its region, the Philippines faces a growing population and rising energy demand to power economic growth. Uniquely, the archipelago is also frequently exposed to tropical storms and natural disasters that affect its energy structure. Renewable energy can play a role in helping the country achieve greater energy security and distribution despite these challenges,” said IRENA Director-General, Adnan Z. Amin.

“The Philippines’ more than 7,000 islands hold great renewable energy potential that includes solar, wind, hydro, bioenergy, and geothermal resources. Utilising these resources, and guided with the support of IRENA, the country is in a strong position to reap the socioeconomic benefits of renewables and grow the Philippines economy,” Mr. Amin added.

“Renewables Readiness Assessment: Philippines” examines the energy sector holistically and identifies barriers, as well as key actions to accelerate renewable energy deployment. The report puts forward options to strengthen the Philippines’ renewable energy policy, regulatory and institutional framework. It includes an assessment of the country’s grid infrastructure and examines the institutional capacity in the Philippine renewable energy sector, along with the potential for electrification through renewable-based mini- and micro-grid solutions.

“The Philippines has been exploring a variety of options to build an energy independent future supplied by sustainable, stable, secure, sufficient, accessible and reasonably-priced energy sources. In pursuit of this ultimate goal, the Philippines has stepped up its efforts in promoting the deployment of indigenous renewables energy over the past few years,” said Alfonso G. Cusi, the Philippines’ Secretary of Energy.

Resolved to bolster its energy security, pursue low-carbon economic development, and address climate change, in 2011 the Philippines set an ambitious renewable energy target of 15.3 gigawatts by 2030 – a near tripling of 2010’s 5,438 megawatts.

Additionally, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations recently set a regional renewable energy target of 23 per cent by 2025, further committing the Philippines to the pursuit of clean and sustainable energy.

The readiness assessment recommends the country undertakes a number of concrete measures to support implementation of renewables and to fine tune the country’s renewable energy policy, and regulatory and institutional framework. These recommendations include:

  • Raising public awareness of renewable energy solutions to ensure sustained political commitment.
  • Assessing the country’s grid infrastructure to allow the development of proactive energy planning and training.
  • Examining institutional capacity in the Philippine renewable energy sector so as to identify skills and resource deficiencies and enable more effective capacity-building programmes.
  • Studying the potential for renewable electrification through mini- and microgrids, and develop policies and regulatory frameworks for attracting investment and private sector engagement.

Meningitis kills six, 24 hospitalised in Katsina

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Meningitis kills six, 24 hospitalised in Katsina

Funtua Local Government Council in Katsina State, northern Nigeria, on Thursday, April 13, 2017 confirmed the death of six persons and the hospitalisation 24 others as a result of outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis.

Isaac-Adewole
Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole

Muibat Abdullahi, the Primary Health Care Coordinator of the Council, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the outbreak started from a Quranic (Almajiri) school at Unguwar Dahiru area of Makera ward in Funtua town.

Abdullahi said authorities were alerted and in response, officials of Medicine San Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) conducted tests on isolated persons’ specimens and diagnosed meningitis type ‘C’, which is different with other cases of meningitis in the country.

Abdullahi said San Frontiers supported them with drugs and other relevant consumables while Katsina state government procured vaccines for immediate immunisation of people around the area.

She said that, so far, 5,535 out of the targeted 8,650 persons had been immunised against the disease, just as the Funtua Comprehensive Health Centre had been converted to an isolation centre due to ongoing rehabilitation of Funtua General Hospital.

The coordinator explained that the council deployed 25 health workers to conduct vaccination in Makera, Dikke and Sabon-Gari wards, as well as some fixed points at places of prevalence.
She added that persons aged 2 to 14 were targeted during exercise, and that Emergency

Response Teams were placed on alert, while Voluntary Community Mobilisation workers embarked on house-to-house mobilisation of people against the disease.
Malam Nuhu Dambo, the Director Water and Sanitation Department of the council, told NAN that environmental health workers also partnered with health officials in educating people on the disease and preventive measures.

Dambo said nine teams of six persons each embarked on awareness campaign in the affected areas and neighbouring communities with Zamfara State.

He added that people were cautioned against sleeping in over-congested places and were told to always ensure adequate ventilation in their rooms.

Malam Abdullahi Bala, the Officer-in-Charge of Funtua Comprehensive Health Care, said only four persons remained on admission in the isolation centre and was responding to treatment, while others had been discharged.

Mohammed, Jallow-Tambajan, Ndume, others win African women awards

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Mohammed, Jallow-Tambajan, Ndume, others win African women awards

Gambia’s Fatoumatta Jallow-Tambajan, Minister of Women Affairs and Overseer – Vice President’s Office, is the New African Woman of the Year.

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The awardees with their prizes

The fearless Gambian human rights activist won New African Woman magazine Award at a ceremony that took place in Senegal on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. Fatoumatta Jallow-Tambajan is said to be instrumental in galvanising the opposition that eventually beat long-term now exiled leader Yahya Jammeh.

Held at a Gala Dinner at the Terrou-Bi Hotel in Dakar, the Senegalese capital city, the Awards, now in their second edition, recognise, celebrate and honour African women who have made exceptional impact and change in their countries or communities in the past 12 months.

Nigeria’s Amina J. Mohammed – the new United Nations Deputy Secretary – took home the New African Woman in Politics and Public Office award. Prior to her new post, she served as Minister of Environment of Nigeria, after playing key roles in both the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), on how both agendas impact Africa – more so its women.

Winners were selected by a special panel of judges from 68 shortlisted candidates across 12 categories. The Award for Women in Health, Science and Technology went to Namibia’s Dr Helena Ndume – a pioneering ophthalmologist and cataract surgeon, who has, to date, performed over 35,000 sight-restoring surgeries on Namibians, completely free of charge.

Morocco saw serial entrepreneur Salwa Idrissi Akhannouch, take home the New African woman Award in Business. Zimbabwean philathropists and educationist, Tsitsi Masiyiwa, received the New African Woman Award in Education for her work with Higherlife Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation she runs and offers scholarships to orphaned and vulnerable children to give them a better chance in education. Over 250,000 children have benefited from the work of Higherlife Foundation.

The much-talked-about New African Woman on the Rise (The Next Generation) – a category which received the most nominations – went to the Kenyan girls rights activist and UN Women youth advisor, Vivian Onano.

The New African Woman in Civil Society was given to Chief Theresa Kachindamoto, who annulled over 300 child marriages in her village in Malawi, a feat that played an important role in forcing the government to ban child marriages in the country all together.

Other winners were Nigeria’s Joan Okorodudu (New African Woman In The Arts & Culture) for her services to raising the profile of African models and fashion; Mali’s Binta Touré Ndoye (New African Woman – in Finance); Amira Yahyaoui of Tunisia (New African Woman in Media); and the former African Union Commissioner Agriculture and Rural Development Tumusiime Rhoda Peace from Uganda, is the New African Woman in Agriculture, for pushing the importance of food security and adding value chain to African goods while she was at the African Union (AU).

The New African Woman in Sport went to the Senegal’s Fatma Samoura – the world football body’s (FIFA) Secretary General – a position she was appointed to in 2016, becoming the first African woman to hold the post.

The New African Woman Awards was followed by a Forum on Thursday, April 13 under the theme “Changing The Game”.

Renewed push for Earth observations, as new partners emerge

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Renewed push for Earth observations, as new partners emerge

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) has disclosed that, as it moves into its second decade of operations, it is partnering with four new global partners who will help support its vision.

Daniel-Juhn
Daniel Juhn, Senior Director, Integrated Assessment and Planning Programme at Conservation International

In a statement made available to EnviroNews on Thursday, April 13 2017, GEO listed the new partner organisations to include: Conservation International (CI), Earthmind, Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“Each organisation has now joined GEO as a Participating Organisation, taking the total number to 110 working internationally to advocate, engage and deliver on open EO data,” the GEO disclosed in the statement, which adds that the body has been working for more than a decade to open access to Earth observation data and information, and increase awareness around their socioeconomic value.

Similarly, the GEO community has been building a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) that links Earth observation resources worldwide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs), which range from Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability, Disaster Resilience, Energy and Mineral Resources Management, Food Security, Infrastructure and Transportation Management to Public Health Surveillance, Sustainable Urban Development and Water Resources Management.

The SBAs serve as lenses through which the Member governments and Participating Organisations (POs) that constitute GEO may focus their contributions to GEOSS, with a goal to make the open EO data resources available for informed decision-making.

“CI empowers societies across the globe to sustainably care for nature through science and partnerships. We are excited to join the GEO community, which has long recognised the power of collaboration in leveraging earth observation to benefit humanity,” said Daniel Juhn, Senior Director, Integrated Assessment and Planning Programme at Conservation International. “Though we face obstacles to achieve the SDGs, we are at a critical juncture where the science of valuing ecosystems, and understanding the full services nature provides to people expands our knowledge and options. We hope this partnership exemplifies bringing together that science, the right policies, necessary collaboration, and advanced technologies to generate the solutions we need to tackle global sustainability challenges.”

“Earthmind supports positive efforts by private, public and non-profit stakeholders to conserve and responsibly manage nature. As one of our main programmes is to recognise conservation in the areas where people live and work, we are most honoured and indeed excited to join the GEO community. In so doing, we hope to further encourage voluntary efforts to observe how we managing our planet in order to take better care for it,” said Francis Vorhies, Founder and Executive Director of Earthmind.

“GEO, its Members and the broad new set of tools provided by geodata constitute a fantastic step forward in the quest to help farmers from all corners of the world improve their yields and Governments to improve their policies to further stimulate agriculture in their respective countries.  This is why GODAN is very glad to become part of GEO and to count the GEO partnership among the GODAN network. We believe that this collaboration will be most fruitful for all parties involved,” said André Laperrière, Executive Director of the GODAN Secretariat.

“UNICEF has learned through experience that problems that go unmeasured often go unsolved,” said Toby Wicks, Data Strategist at UNICEF. “We will work with the GEO community to link the needs of the world’s most vulnerable populations to a rapidly expanding set of data informed solutions, including GEOSS. This partnership signals an effort to build a world in which a near real-time understanding of risks and global challenges, particularly water resources management and disaster resilience, allows us to work harder and faster, for children.”

The key engagement priorities for GEO in the coming years involve using open Earth observations to respond to a number of global policy issues. The priorities are tied to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  These new partnerships will complement existing ones and also help deliver in line with the GEO engagement priorities.

The GEO is a partnership of governments and organisations creating a future wherein decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations. GEO Member governments include 104 nations and the European Commission, and 110 Participating Organisations comprised of international bodies making use of or with a mandate in Earth observations.

How climate change poses threat to air travel

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How climate change poses threat to air travel

Flight turbulence could increase significantly under climate change, a study warns, potentially upping the risk of injury – or at least flight anxiety – for future airline passengers. Furthermore, fuel and maintenance costs for carriers could rise.

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A commercial jetliner in flight

An increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations could cause changes in the jet stream over the North Atlantic flight corridor, leading to a spike in air turbulence, the research conducted by atmospheric scientist Paul Williams of the University of Reading, suggests.

By the middle of the century, with no effort to reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the volume of airspace experiencing light turbulence would increase by about 59 percent.

Airspace experiencing severe turbulence could increase by anywhere from 36 percent to 188 percent, the study found.

“We’re particularly interested in severe turbulence, because that’s the kind of turbulence that’s strong enough to hospitalise people,” Williams told The Washington Post.

Forecasting algorithms can help pilots anticipate and avoid turbulent patches. But the research does suggest that future fliers could be in for a bumpier ride.

The paper builds on a 2013 study in the journal Nature Climate Change by Williams and colleague Manoj Joshi of the University of East Anglia, which found an increase in moderate-to-severe turbulence in the North Atlantic as a result of climate change.

The study did not investigate the effects on lighter or more severe degrees of turbulence. In the new paper, Williams expanded the study to light turbulence, and more severe conditions.

Light turbulence typically comes with only minor discomfort for passengers, perhaps an increase in nausea or anxiety. Severe turbulence has been known to cause injuries and even hospitalisations.

Williams focused on an area in the North Atlantic known for heavy air traffic, particularly between Europe and North America, and limited his simulations to winter, when turbulence is known to be at its highest.

He examined 21 different wind-related characteristics known to be indicators of air turbulence levels, including wind speed and changes in air flow direction.

The study found an increase in turbulence across the spectrum. Light turbulence was projected to increase by an average of 59 percent, light-to-moderate by 75 percent, moderate by 94 percent, moderate-to-severe by 127 percent and severe by 149 percent, although there’s substantial uncertainty associated with the more severe categories.

Williams stressed that severe turbulence would remain rare – even with the increase. But even an increase in light turbulence can cause greater wear and tear on planes or force pilots to use extra fuel redirecting their flight paths to avoid rough patches.

The increase in air turbulence may apply only to the North Atlantic, researchers not involved in the study said.

“Regional variations of this increase may be quite uncertain, particularly in the higher latitudes where other aspects of circulation change that are less well understood and more model-dependent may dominate,” said Isla Simpson, a scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, in an emailed comment to The Post.

Kristopher Karnauskas, an atmospheric and oceanic sciences expert at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the behavior of the jet stream over the Pacific may respond differently to climate change.

The study builds on an area of climate science that increasingly suggests rising global temperatures can cause changes in atmospheric airflow, including shifts in major air currents known as jet streams.

Because the equator is the warmest part of the planet, and warm air takes up more space than cold air, the atmosphere tends to be thicker around the centre of Earth than at the poles. As a result, there’s a kind of downhill atmospheric slope from the equator to the poles over which air flows. While this is happening, Earth is constantly spinning, pushing airflow eastward. In the North Atlantic, the result is a jet stream – a meandering, wavy current flowing around the planet from west to east.

As the planet grows hotter, however, warming air near the surface could bring about changes in the atmospheric slope between equator and poles. Models such as the one used in Williams’s new paper have suggested that the jet stream could become stronger as a result, bringing about an increase in the types of wind patterns that lead to increased air turbulence.

Some research has already begun to detect changes in large-scale atmospheric currents. Other scientists have suggested that rapid warming in the Arctic is actually causing the jet stream to weaken.

There remains considerable uncertainty about how airflow near Earth’s surface might change in the future, Simpson said. But she said scientists are becoming more confident about the changes “that we expect to happen higher up, near the altitude where planes fly.”

Examining these issues can lead to a better understanding of the effects of climate change on aviation, Karnauskas said.

“I think it’s been decades that all of the attention has been on the impact of such industries like aviation on climate, but this is something that’s flipping it around and looking at the impact of climate on aviation,” he said. “If we can really understand the two-way street that we’re dealing with, that’s really going to help us understand ultimately how the climate will change in the future as a coupled system between the people and the atmosphere.”

By Chelsea Harvey, The Washington Post

Australia: Meeting sustainability targets comes with trade-offs – Study

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Australia: Meeting sustainability targets comes with trade-offs – Study

The world’s countries will face tough choices if they want to achieve several different targets for sustainability, such as reducing their fossil fuel footprints and conserving water, at once.

Brett-Bryan
Brett Bryan, Professor at Deakin University in Melbourne

That is the conclusion of a new study that explored the different options that Australia has for meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a set of 17 goals that almost 200 nations have signed on to work toward by 2030. The study examined how Australia could meet these goals through changes to its farmlands and livestock ranges. And, researchers discovered, chasing after multiple targets for sustainability can be a precarious affair: In some cases, making progress on one goal, such as storing large volumes of carbon dioxide in biomass and soils, means working against others, such as reducing water use.

To get to the bottom of those trade-offs, the researchers considered a series of possible futures for Australia’s land sector, which includes large swathes of wheat fields and cattle pastures. Based on their calculations, the country met two sustainability goals simultaneously in about one quarter of those pathways and met three goals in only 10% of the options.

The team published its findings on Thursday, April 13, 2017 in Nature. The results suggest that individual sectors of society, like agriculture, can’t achieve sustainability on their own – this complex pursuit requires buy-in from all parts of a nation, from cities to the energy industry.

“We really have to be smart about this,” says Brett Bryan, formerly of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia and now a Professor at Deakin University in Melbourne. “If we want to achieve multiple aspects of sustainability, then we need a new kind of science where we take an integrated and detailed look across the whole of the environment and economy. We need to work out across that spectrum how we can actually achieve multiple sustainability targets.”

This research contributes to the work of the Global Land Programme, a global research project of Future Earth.

The Sustainable Development Goals don’t lack in ambition, according to the study. These goals, part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, cover many aspects of sustainability. They include “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” (Goal 2) and “Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss” (Goal 15).

But the goals are vague and don’t spell out how the world can realistically meet them, says Bryan, the joint-lead author of the new study. That means that the hard work, coming up with concrete paths for achieving all 17 goals at once, is left to individual nations. In the new study, he and his colleague Lei Gao of CSIRO in Adelaide, Australia, decided to probe what sort of options might be open to Australia.

To do that, the pair turned to a massive computer simulation, or model, called Land-Use and Trade-Offs (LUTO). LUTO considers a number of factors that could shape Australia’s landscape in the coming decades. “These might be changing climate policies or crop prices,” Bryan says. “We then characterised how patterns of land use might change based on human behaviour – what people do and where on the land.”

In other words, under a certain scenario, would wheat fields fueled by irrigation expand in southern Australia, or would people convert croplands into forests? Today, the country’s agricultural lands spread over about 85 million hectares. Farmers, in turn, produced around $34 billion in crops, meat and other exports in 2015. In all, the researchers tallied 648 possible futures for this part of Australia and looked at how they stacked up against the aspirations of the Sustainable Development Goals.

They found that, by 2030, achieving many different goals in Australia’s land sector would be a difficult task. Achieving five goals at once only happened in six, or less than 1%, of the possible futures. In part, that’s because sustainable development comes with a lot of surprises. “If you improve one thing in the land system by changing land use or land management, you could worsen others,” Bryan says. “There are all these trade-offs.”

He gives the example of storing carbon dioxide: If farmers shifted to growing trees instead of crops, that would up the amount of carbon dioxide that plants pull out of the air and put into the ground, a phenomenon called carbon sequestration. But it would also stress the country’s water reserves. Forests, Bryan explains, need more water to flourish than wheat fields.

Other goals, however, seemed to go together well. They included simultaneously achieving targets around growing adequate amounts of food, conserving water and producing biofuels. Australia met this trifecta in 6.5% of possible futures – a relatively high success rate.

The results show why nations shouldn’t rush into sustainable development without a plan – one that considers the various clashes that could exist in the future. Bryan adds that it’s critical for parts of society, such as agricultural lands, to focus on achieving a few priorities in sustainability, rather than try to tackle all goals at once. In the case of the land sector, that may include slowing the loss of the country’s natural habitats, a goal that few other areas of Australian society can make progress on.

“In the land sector, we need to address those things that are critical for the land sector to do: producing food and reversing land degradation” Bryan says. “While land can help with the other goals, we really need to leave things like carbon sequestration and energy production other sectors of the economy. Other parts of Australia need to do some heavy lifting, too.”

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