SPECIAL REPORTS AND PROJECTS
Air pollution second largest cause of death in Africa
Published
3 years agoon
Air pollution is responsible for more deaths than tobacco, alcohol, road accidents, and drug abuse.
Air pollution was responsible for 1.1 million deaths across Africa in 2019, a new study shows. Most of these deaths — 697,000 — were as a result of household air pollution driven largely by indoor cooking stoves.
But while household air pollution is the predominant form of pollution, it is declining, whereas outdoor or ambient air pollution is increasing, signalling a a looming problem, said Boston College professor of Biology Philip Landrigan, who led the project with United Nations Environment Programme Chief Environmental Economist Pushpam Kumar.
According to the report, air pollution is the second largest cause of deaths in Africa. It is a major threat to health, human capital, and economic development, and was responsible for 16·3 percent of all deaths.
Outdoor air pollution resulting from sources like exhaust smoke and pollutants emitted by industries claimed 394,000 lives on the continent.
Air pollution is responsible for more deaths than tobacco, alcohol, road accidents, and drug abuse. Only HIV/Aids causes more deaths.
But besides the loss to life, air pollution from smog-inducing ozone and fine particles may be siphoning billions of dollars off the continent’s economy each year.
Thanks to sustained interventions by governments, non-governmental organisations, and UN agencies, disease and deaths from household air pollution across Africa are now declining, albeit slowly and unevenly. Polluting fuels such as charcoal and kerosene are still prevalent.
Deaths attributable to air pollution result from lower respiratory infections stand at 336,460 deaths, ischemic heart disease — related to blockage in the arteries — (223,930), neonatal disorders (186,541), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (70,479), and stroke (193,936).
The report also associates air pollution to far-reaching effects of diminishing intellectual development of Africa’s children.
According to the research, economic output lost to air pollution related disease wiped about $3 billion off of Ethiopia’s economy, that is 1.16 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product; $349 million was lost from the Rwandan economy (1.19 percent of GDP) and $1.6 billion in Ghana (0.95 percent of GDP).
In the first continent-wide examination of the far-reaching impacts of this pollution, the assessment aimed to quantify how air pollution is affecting health, human capital, and economies, but with a particular focus on three rapidly developing sub-Saharan countries: Rwanda, Ethiopia and Ghana.
The report — International Day of Clean Air for blue skies — published on October 7 in the latest edition of the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, indicates that patterns of air pollution-related disease and death vary across Africa. The highest rates are seen in countries with the lowest social development indices.
An upward trend in ambient air pollution-related mortality is evident in Ghana, the most economically advanced of the three countries we examined in detail, and is beginning to emerge in Ethiopia and Rwanda.
Differences in air pollution-related disease and death are seen by gender, with 43 percent of ambient (outdoor) air pollution related deaths and 47 percent of household air pollution related deaths occurring in women.
In the three countries that are the focus of this analysis, household air pollution exposures are greatest in Ethiopia and Rwanda, where an estimated 98 percent of households burn solid fuels for cooking and heating.
“The most disturbing finding was the increase in deaths from ambient air pollution,” said Landrigan
“While this increase is still modest, it threatens to increase exponentially as African cities grow in the next two to three decades and the continent develops economically.”
And the problem could get even worse with burgeoning population numbers on the continent.
With Africa’s population on track to more than triple in this century, from 1.3 billion in 2020 to 4.3 billion by 2100, cities are expanding, economies are growing, and life expectancy has almost doubled, note the researchers. Which they say could be problematic.
Already, fossil fuel combustion has driven an increase in outdoor air pollution that in 2019 killed 29.15 people per 100,000 population, an increase from 26.13 deaths per 100,000 in 1990, according to the report.
The report warns air pollution will increase morbidity and mortality, diminish economic productivity, impair human capital formation, and undercut development if no intervention is made.
Original Source: Daily Monitor
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DEFENDING LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS
Statement: The Energy Sector Strategy 2024–2028 Must Mark the End of the EBRD’s Support to Fossil Fuels
Published
1 year agoon
September 27, 2023The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is due to publish a new Energy Sector Strategy before the end of 2023. A total of 130 civil society organizations from over 40 countries have released a statement calling on the EBRD to end finance for all fossil fuels, including gas.
From 2018 to 2021, the EBRD invested EUR 2.9 billion in the fossil energy sector, with the majority of this support going to gas. This makes it the third biggest funder of fossil fuels among all multilateral development banks, behind the World Bank Group and the Islamic Development Bank.
The EBRD has already excluded coal and upstream oil and gas fields from its financing. The draft Energy Sector Strategy further excludes oil transportation and oil-fired electricity generation. However, the draft strategy would continue to allow some investment in new fossil gas pipelines and other transportation infrastructure, as well as gas power generation and heating.
In the statement, the civil society organizations point out that any new support to gas risks locking in outdated energy infrastructure in places that need investments in clean energy the most. At the same time, they highlight, ending support to fossil gas is necessary, not only for climate security, but also for ensuring energy security, since continued investment in gas exposes countries of operation to high and volatile energy prices that can have a severe impact on their ability to reach development targets. Moreover, they underscore that supporting new gas transportation infrastructure is not a solution to the current energy crisis, given that new infrastructure would not come online for several years, well after the crisis has passed.
The signatories of the statement call on the EBRD to amend the Energy Sector Strategy to
- fully exclude new investments in midstream and downstream gas projects;
- avoid loopholes involving the use of unproven or uneconomic technologies, as well as aspirational but meaningless mitigation measures such as “CCS-readiness”; and
- strengthen the requirements for financial intermediaries where the intended nature of the sub-transactions is not known to exclude fossil fuel finance across the entire value chain.
Source: iisd.org
Download the statement: https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-09/ngo-statement-on-energy-sector-strategy-2024-2028.pdf
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SPECIAL REPORTS AND PROJECTS
Will more sovereign wealth funds mean less food sovereignty?
Published
2 years agoon
April 13, 2023- 45% of Louis Dreyfus Company, with its massive land holdings in Latin America, growing sugarcane, citrus, rice and coffee;
- a majority stake in Unifrutti, with 15,000 ha of fruit farms in Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Philippines, Spain, Italy and South Africa; and
- Al Dahra, a large agribusiness conglomerate controlling and cultivating 118,315 ha of farmland in Romania, Spain, Serbia, Morocco, Egypt, Namibia and the US.
Sovereign wealth funds invested in farmland/food/agriculture (2023)
|
|||
Country
|
Fund
|
Est.
|
AUM (US$bn)
|
China
|
CIC
|
2007
|
1351
|
Norway
|
NBIM
|
1997
|
1145
|
UAE – Abu Dhabi
|
ADIA
|
1967
|
993
|
Kuwait
|
KIA
|
1953
|
769
|
Saudi Arabia
|
PIF
|
1971
|
620
|
China
|
NSSF
|
2000
|
474
|
Qatar
|
QIA
|
2005
|
450
|
UAE – Dubai
|
ICD
|
2006
|
300
|
Singapore
|
Temasek
|
1974
|
298
|
UAE – Abu Dhabi
|
Mubadala
|
2002
|
284
|
UAE – Abu Dhabi
|
ADQ
|
2018
|
157
|
Australia
|
Future Fund
|
2006
|
157
|
Iran
|
NDFI
|
2011
|
139
|
UAE
|
EIA
|
2007
|
91
|
USA – AK
|
Alaska PFC
|
1976
|
73
|
Australia – QLD
|
QIC
|
1991
|
67
|
USA – TX
|
UTIMCO
|
1876
|
64
|
USA – TX
|
Texas PSF
|
1854
|
56
|
Brunei
|
BIA
|
1983
|
55
|
France
|
Bpifrance
|
2008
|
50
|
UAE – Dubai
|
Dubai World
|
2005
|
42
|
Oman
|
OIA
|
2020
|
42
|
USA – NM
|
New Mexico SIC
|
1958
|
37
|
Malaysia
|
Khazanah
|
1993
|
31
|
Russia
|
RDIF
|
2011
|
28
|
Turkey
|
TVF
|
2017
|
22
|
Bahrain
|
Mumtalakat
|
2006
|
19
|
Ireland
|
ISIF
|
2014
|
16
|
Canada – SK
|
SK CIC
|
1947
|
16
|
Italy
|
CDP Equity
|
2011
|
13
|
China
|
CADF
|
2007
|
10
|
Indonesia
|
INA
|
2020
|
6
|
India
|
NIIF
|
2015
|
4
|
Spain
|
COFIDES
|
1988
|
4
|
Nigeria
|
NSIA
|
2011
|
3
|
Angola
|
FSDEA
|
2012
|
3
|
Egypt
|
TSFE
|
2018
|
2
|
Vietnam
|
SCIC
|
2006
|
2
|
Gabon
|
FGIS
|
2012
|
2
|
Morocco
|
Ithmar Capital
|
2011
|
2
|
Palestine
|
PIF
|
2003
|
1
|
Bolivia
|
FINPRO
|
2015
|
0,4
|
AUM (assets under management) figures from Global SWF, January 2023
|
|||
Engagement in food/farmland/agriculture assessed by GRAIN
|
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SPECIAL REPORTS AND PROJECTS
Farmland values hit record highs, pricing out farmers
Published
2 years agoon
November 21, 2022African Women forge bold actions for climate justice at the 2024 Women’s Climate Assembly in Senegal.
Women’s Climate Assembly, 2024: African women vow to protect human and environmental rights amidst an influx of destructive land-based investments on the continent.
UN approves carbon market safeguards to protect environment and human rights
Breaking: West and Central African women meet in Senegal over the climate crisis.
Industrial plantations: stop endangering local farmers, Indigenous knowledge, and food system models – land-grab victims
EACOP: Another community of 80 households has lost its land to the government and Total Energies to construct an oil pipeline.
Breaking: West and Central African women meet in Senegal over the climate crisis.
Carbon offset projects exacerbate land grabbing and undermine small farmers’ independence – GRAIN report
Innovative Finance from Canada projects positive impact on local communities.
Over 5000 Indigenous Communities evicted in Kiryandongo District
Petition To Land Inquiry Commission Over Human Rights In Kiryandongo District
Invisible victims of Uganda Land Grabs
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