LONDON: Britain will toughen its climate targets and commit to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the government said late on Tuesday, becoming the first G7 nation to set such a goal.
The country currently aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. However, campaigners say this does not go far enough to meet pledges made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement to try to limit a rise in global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“Now is the time to go further and faster to safeguard the environment for our children,” Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement.
“Reaching net zero by 2050 is an ambitious target, but it is crucial that we achieve it to ensure we protect our planet for future generations.”
Legislation will be put before parliament on June 12 to amend the existing climate change act to incorporate the new target, the statement said.
Britain’s independent climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, last month said that the country should move to the new target, which would require more renewable electricity generation and could require the phasing out of new petrol and diesel cars by at least 2035.
Households would also need to be weaned off natural gas heating and switch to low-carbon alternatives such as hydrogen or heat pumps.
Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), welcomed the move.
“Some sectors will need clear pathways to enable investment in low-carbon technologies, and it is vital that there is cross-government coordination on the policies and regulation needed to deliver a clean future,” she said.
Britain hopes its decision will encourage other countries to adopt more ambitious climate targets and said that a further assessment will take place within five years to confirm whether other countries are taking similar action.
It also said it would retain its ability to use international carbon credits to help to meet the target.
“Using international credits within an appropriate monitoring, reporting and verification framework is the right thing to do for the planet, allowing the UK to maximize the value of each pound spent on climate change mitigation,” the government statement said.
Britain to become first G7 country with net zero emissions target
Britain to become first G7 country with net zero emissions target
- Households would also need to be weaned off natural gas heating and switch to low-carbon alternatives such as hydrogen or heat pumps
India brings home nearly 300 citizens rescued from Southeast Asian scam centers
- Thousands of people have been freed from cyber scam centers
- Countries are working together to crack down on the criminal networks
Thousands of people have been freed from cyber scam centers along the Thailand-Myanmar border this year as countries work together to crack down on the criminal networks.
China and Indonesia repatriated some of their citizens last month.
“Indian embassies in Myanmar and Thailand have coordinated with local authorities to secure the repatriation of 283 Indian nationals today by an IAF (Indian Air Force) aircraft from Mae Sot in Thailand,” India’s foreign ministry said late on Monday.
Thailand arrested 100 people last week as a part of its crackdown on the scam centers.
Criminal gangs have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people to the centers, which generate billions of dollars a year from illegal online schemes, according to the United Nations.
India also warned its citizens against the scams, advising them to “verify” the credentials of foreign employers and check the “antecedents” of recruiting agents and companies before taking up job offers.
WHO warns difficult decisions ‘unavoidable’ as it slims down recruitment
- The WHO has begun “prioritization” work to make the global health agency sustainable, the document says
GENEVA: The World Health Organization has warned that difficult decisions will be “unavoidable” in an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday announcing a recruitment freeze and a one-year limit on new fixed-term contracts.
The WHO has begun “prioritization” work to make the global health agency sustainable, the document says, adding that staff are working to secure additional funding from countries, private donors and philanthropists.
UN migration agency in turmoil after US aid freeze
- The UN agency, which at the end of last year employed around 22,000 people, has already laid off thousands
- The IOM announced on February 1 that it was scaling up its efforts across Latin America and the Caribbean
GENEVA: Hit hard by US aid funding cuts, the UN migration agency is battling claims from current and former staff of now pandering to Washington and providing cover for mass deportations.
Like many humanitarian agencies, the International Organization for Migration has been reeling since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, pushing an anti-migrant agenda and immediately freezing most US foreign aid funding.
“These funding cuts directly affect IOM’s ability to support some of the world’s most vulnerable people,” an IOM spokesperson said, warning this would “lead to more suffering, increased migration, and greater insecurity.”
The United Nations agency, which at the end of last year employed around 22,000 people, has already laid off thousands.
It has also been accused of allowing its assisted voluntary return (AVR) program to be used to “bluewash” — or give a UN stamp of approval — to Trump’s mass deportation scheme.
IOM announced on February 1 that it was scaling up its efforts across Latin America and the Caribbean “to help migrants return home, reintegrate and rebuild their lives.”
It said it had resumed its AVR programs in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as Panama, which with Costa Rica has reached an agreement to take in migrants from other countries deported by the United States.
Describing its activities as “a lifeline for stranded migrants,” it said it aimed to provide “urgent support” to those “unable or unwilling to remain where they are and need help to return home safely and with dignity.”
“Without this vital support, conditions for the people impacted would be far worse,” the spokesperson insisted.
But one of the thousands of IOM employees who received notice last month warned it looked “like there is an effort to align ourselves with the administration.”
This was “very concerning,” she said, asking not to be named.
“It really looks very bad for IOM’s reputation,” agreed a former agency staff member, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
The criticisms come as the IOM seeks its footing after the threat that all US funding — accounting for around 40 percent of its total financing — could evaporate indefinitely.
“We have to make some really hard decisions about staff because we simply can’t afford to pay staff when we’re not actually being paid for our work,” IOM chief Amy Pope said recently.
The biggest impact so far has been seen in connection with the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), since the Trump administration has suspended all refugee entries into the country.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden embraced the program designed to facilitate legal resettlement of vetted refugees, resettling over 100,000 refugees in the United States last year.
Trump’s sudden about-face prompted the IOM last month to send pink slips to 3,000 staff, warning more “adjustments” were likely.
“It was quite a shock,” the dismissed staff member said.
Another former employee said staff were “appalled” by the swift pace of the layoffs.
Those at IOM headquarters in Geneva were especially bracing for more mass job cuts.
According to an internal memo from the IOM’s Global Staff Association Committee, seen by AFP, management last month ordered directors to slash a certain percentage of their department costs.
Word inside headquarters is that around one third of around 550 staff there will soon get the axe, the former employee said, with “managers under huge pressure to meet quotas.”
“People are terrified... They’ve got laser beams pointed at their heads.”
IOM staff and union representatives have sent complaints to management about the abrupt layoffs, warning of detrimental impacts on employees and on many of the tens of millions of migrants the organization serves.
Also sparking outrage was a report by the Devex news organization last month suggesting IOM had scrubbed its website of content that could be construed as promoting Trump’s bete noir — DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion).
IOM did not respond directly to that allegation but said it had “recently relaunched its global website following a year-long review, refining content to align with evolving contexts and in accordance with United Nations humanitarian principles.”
The laid-off employee said the Devex report “really hurt.”
“We can align ourselves with certain priorities of this (US) administration,” she said.
“But we shouldn’t lose our identity in the process.”
UN migration agency says aid to Rohingya in Indonesia reinstated
- Chief of mission, Jeff Labovitz, said there is no current planned reduction in services
JAKARTA: The United Nations’ migration agency has reinstated its humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees in Indonesia, its chief of mission in Jakarta told Reuters on Tuesday.
Chief of mission, Jeff Labovitz, said there is no current planned reduction in services.
A Reuters report last week cited the agency as saying it would slash aid to hundreds of Rohingya sheltering in the city of Pekanbaru on the island of Sumatra.
Dalai Lama says his successor to be born outside China
- Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death
- Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death
NEW DELHI: The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.
Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in “Voice for the Voiceless,” which was reviewed by Reuters and is being released on Tuesday.
He had previously said the line of spiritual leaders might end with him. His book marks the first time the Dalai Lama has specified that his successor would be born in the “free world,” which he describes as outside China. He has previously said only that he could reincarnate outside Tibet, possibly in India where he lives in exile.
“Since the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama – that is, to be the voice for universal compassion, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and the symbol of Tibet embodying the aspirations of the Tibetan people – will continue,” the Dalai Lama writes.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled at the age of 23 to India with thousands of other Tibetans in 1959 after a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Beijing insists it will choose his successor, but the Dalai Lama has said any successor named by China would not be respected.
China brands the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause, as a “separatist.”
When asked about the book at a press briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said the Dalai Lama “is a political exile who is engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion.
“On the Tibet issue, China’s position is consistent and clear. What the Dalai Lama says and does cannot change the objective fact of Tibet’s prosperity and development.”
Supporters of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause include Richard Gere, a follower of Tibetan Buddhism, and Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the US House of Representatives. His followers have been worried about his health, especially after knee surgery last year. He said in December that he might live to be 110.
In his book, the Dalai Lama says he has received numerous petitions for more than a decade from a wide spectrum of Tibetan people, including senior monks and Tibetans living in Tibet and outside, “uniformly asking me to ensure that the Dalai Lama lineage be continued.”
Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death. The current Dalai Lama was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two.
The book, which the Dalai Lama calls an account of his dealings with Chinese leaders over seven decades, is being published on Tuesday in the US by William Morrow and in Britain by HarperNonFiction, with HarperCollins publications to follow in India and other countries.
He expressed faith in the Tibetan government and parliament-in-exile, based with him in India’s Himalayan city of Dharamshala, to carry on the political work for the Tibetan cause.
“The right of the Tibetan people to be the custodians of their own homeland cannot be indefinitely denied, nor can their aspiration for freedom be crushed forever through oppression,” he writes. “One clear lesson we know from history is this: if you keep people permanently unhappy, you cannot have a stable society.”
Given his advanced age, he writes, his hopes of going back to Tibet look “increasingly unlikely.”
