NEW DELHI: India’s environmental watchdog shut down a coal-fired power plant and banned the use of diesel generators in New Delhi as air quality plummeted in the world’s most polluted capital on Wednesday, the start of the Diwali festival.
New Delhi experiences suffocating smog every year around Diwali, when farmers in north India burn the stubble left behind after the harvest and revelers let off smoke-spewing firecrackers.
The onset of winter aggravates the problem as the cooler air traps the pollutants, a phenomenon known as inversion.
The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Board, a statutory body, made the ruling as levels of PM2.5 pollutants in the air reached around 200 micrograms per cubic meter — eight times the World Health Organization safe limit of 25.
“Difficult situations demand tough responses and solutions and Delhi is faced with a really difficult situation each winter when air pollution levels spiral out of control,” said its chairman Bhure Lal in a statement.
The Board said the city’s Badarpur power plant, which has a capacity of around 700 megawatts, would be closed until March. The plant is due to shut down for good next July as India seeks to move away from heavily-polluting fossil fuels.
It also banned the use of the privately-owned diesel generators that many rich households rely on during India’s frequent power cuts.
The measures follow a temporary ban on the sale of firecrackers in Delhi introduced earlier this month by the Supreme Court to ease the pollution levels.
Last year, levels of PM2.5 — the fine particles linked to higher rates of chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease — soared to 778 in the days that followed Diwali, prompting the Supreme Court to warn of a public health emergency.
Levels of PM2.5 between 301 and 500 are classified as “hazardous,” while anything over 500 is beyond the official index.
The Delhi government then shut schools for three days, banned all construction work for five days to curb dust levels and temporarily closed the Badarpur plant.
A 2014 World Health Organization survey of more than 1,600 cities ranked Delhi as the most polluted.
India’s notoriously poor air quality causes over a million premature deaths every year, according to a joint report by two US-based health research institutes earlier this year.
New Delhi shuts power plant in fight against Diwali smog
New Delhi shuts power plant in fight against Diwali smog
Russia captures two villages in eastern Ukraine, defense ministry says, according to agencies
UN climate chief asks G20 leaders for boost as finance talks lag
- Negotiators at the COP29 conference in Baku struggle in their negotiations for a deal intended to scale up money to address the worsening impacts of global warming
BAKU: The UN’s climate chief called on leaders of the world’s biggest economies on Saturday to send a signal of support for global climate finance efforts when they meet in Rio de Janeiro next week. The plea, made in a letter to G20 leaders from UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, comes as negotiators at the COP29 conference in Baku struggle in their negotiations for a deal intended to scale up money to address the worsening impacts of global warming.
“Next week’s summit must send crystal clear global signals,” Stiell said in the letter.
He said the signal should support an increase in grants and loans, along with debt relief, so vulnerable countries “are not hamstrung by debt servicing costs that make bolder climate actions all but impossible.”
Business leaders echoed Stiell’s plea, saying they were concerned about the “lack of progress and focus in Baku.”
“We call on governments, led by the G20, to meet the moment and deliver the policies for an accelerated shift from fossil fuels to a clean energy future, to unlock the essential private sector investment needed,” said a coalition of business groups, including the We Mean Business Coalition, United Nations Global Compact and the Brazilian Council for Sustainable Development, in a separate letter.
Success at this year’s UN climate summit hinges on whether countries can agree on a new finance target for richer countries, development lenders and the private sector to deliver each year. Developing countries need at least $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade to cope with climate change, economists told the UN talks.
But negotiators have made slow progress midway through the two-week conference. A draft text of the deal, which earlier this week was 33-pages long and comprised of dozens of wide-ranging options, had been pared down to 25 pages as of Saturday.
Sweden’s climate envoy, Mattias Frumerie, said the finance negotiations had not yet cracked the toughest issues: how big the target should be, or which countries should pay.
“The divisions we saw coming into the meeting are still there, which leaves quite a lot of work for ministers next week,” he said.
European negotiators have said large oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia are also blocking discussions on how to take forward last year’s COP28 summit deal to transition the world away from fossil fuels.
Saudi Arabia’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Progress on this issue has been dire so far, one European negotiator said.
Uganda’s energy minister, Ruth Nankabirwa, said her country’s priority was to leave COP29 with a deal on affordable financing for clean energy projects.
“When you look around and you don’t have the money, then we keep wondering whether we will ever walk the journey of a real energy transition,” she said.
Companies employing Chinese nationals being asked to hire ex-military servicemen for security — Sindh Police
- Sindh Police reviews security measures for Chinese nationals amid increase in attacks targeting them
- Intelligence agencies conducting security audit of guards hired to protect Chinese nationals, say police
KARACHI: Companies, organizers, hosts, sponsors and any other entities in Pakistan that employ Chinese nationals are being asked to hire the services of former military personnel for security purposes, Sindh Police said this week amid increasing attacks on Chinese citizens in the country.
A string of recent attacks on Chinese nationals in Pakistan have caused Beijing to worry about the security of its citizens. Separatist militants in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province have carried out attacks against Chinese interests this year, blaming Islamabad and Beijing for exploiting the gas-and-oil-rich province. Both deny the allegations.
Last month, a suicide blast near the airport in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi killed two Chinese engineers while a security guard shot and injured two Chinese nationals in Karachi this month.
Sindh Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon held a meeting at the Central Police Office in Karachi on Thursday to review the security of Chinese nationals in the province.
“DIG Special Protection Unit, while briefing the committee formed to review security measures of Chinese citizens, said the Internal Bureau and Special Branch are conducting a security audit of the private security guards assigned to protect Chinese citizens,” a statement from the police said on Friday evening.
“While project organizers, hosts/sponsors are also being made to hire the services of ex-military servicemen.”
The statement said that the SPU would conduct joint training exercises continuously to meet any emergency security situation.
“A hotline number has been provided for the facilitation of Chinese citizens and for immediate contact with law enforcement agencies,” it said.
“He further said that suggestions have also been given to project owners/sponsors to strictly implement security standard operating procedures, including a security audit of private security companies.”
China is a major ally and investor in Pakistan that has pledged over $65 billion in investment in road, infrastructure and development projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, at the heart of which lies the Gwadar port in Balochistan.
Pakistan says attacks targeting Chinese nationals are aimed at disrupting its relations with China and destabilizing CPEC.
UAE to face Brazil in NEOM Beach Soccer Cup 2024 final
- The UAE team will play the final on Saturday night, against the Brazilian team, while the Spanish team will face the German side for third and fourth place
NEOM: Defending champions Brazil and UAE are through to the final of the NEOM Beach Soccer Cup 2024, after winning their last matches of the group stages against Japan and Saudi Arabia on Friday.
In group A, the UAE team succeeded in overcoming the Saudi side with a 6-5 result, raising their score to 9 points, while the Green Falcons finished with 2 points in last place.
In the same group, the German team achieved their first victory in the tournament, after defeating the English side 6-3, to rise to second place with 3 points, ahead of the Three Lions, who are in third place on goal difference.
Meanwhile, in group B, the South American side beat Spain comfortably 9-1, while Japan beat China 9-0. With these results, the Brazilian team topped the group with 9 points and reached the final for the third year in a row, followed by Spain with 6 points, Japan with 3 points, while the Chinese team came last in the group without any points.
The UAE team will play the final on Saturday night, against the Brazilian team, while the Spanish team will face the German side for third and fourth place.
The match for fifth and sixth place will bring together Japan and England, and the Saudi team will face the Chinese side in the contest for seventh and eighth place.
UAE defender Waleed Abdullah spoke to Arab News after the match against the hosts, Saudi Arabia.
“It is difficult to predict what will happen in the match,” he said. “The Brazilian team is very strong and ranked first in the world, and we have all respect for them. We will enter the match with high focus and do our best. In the end, it is an opportunity to face the world champion, and this is not the first time we compete with them.”
In the women’s group, a late goal from Brazilian striker Dani Barboza led to the team overcoming Ukraine 5-4 to reach the final against Spain, who put in a great performance and finished with a 4-1 victory over England.
Protesters’ biggest day expected at UN climate talks, where progress is slow
- Several experts have said $1 trillion a year or more is needed both to compensate for such damages and to pay for a clean-energy transition that most countries can’t afford on their own
BAKU: The United Nations climate talks neared the end of their first week on Saturday with negotiators still at work on how much wealthier nations will pay for developing countries to adapt to planetary warming. Meanwhile, activists planned actions on what is traditionally their biggest protest day during the two-week talks.
The demonstration in Baku, Azerbaijan is expected to be echoed at sites around the world in a global “day of action” for climate justice that’s become an annual event.
Negotiators at COP29, as the talks are known, will return to a hoped-for deal that might be worth hundreds of billions of dollars to poorer nations. Many are in the Global South and already suffering the costly impacts of weather disasters fueled by climate change. Several experts have said $1 trillion a year or more is needed both to compensate for such damages and to pay for a clean-energy transition that most countries can’t afford on their own.
Panama environment minister Juan Carlos Navarro told The Associated Press he is “not encouraged” by what he’s seeing at COP29 so far.
“What I see is a lot of talk and very little action,” he said, noting that Panama is among the group of countries least responsible for warming emissions but most vulnerable to the damage caused by climate change-fueled disasters. He added that financing was not a point of consensus at the COP16 biodiversity talks this year, which suggests to him that may be a sticking point at these talks as well.
“We must face these challenges with a true sense of urgency and sincerity,” he said. “We are dragging our feet as a planet.”
The talks came in for criticism on several fronts Friday. Two former top UN officials signed a letter that suggested the process needs to shift from negotiation to implementation. And others, including former US Vice President Al Gore, criticized the looming presence of the fossil fuel industry and fossil-fuel-reliant nations in the talks. One analysis found at least 1,770 people with fossil fuel ties on the attendees list for the Baku talks.
Progress may get a boost as many nations’ ministers, whose approval is necessary for whatever negotiators do, arrive in the second week.
