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Why the global fight to tackle food waste has only just begun

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Why the global fight to tackle food waste has only just begun

Our global food systems are having a profound impact on human and planetary health. They are responsible for 70 per cent of the water extracted from nature, account for up to one-third of human-linked greenhouse gas emissions, and agriculture has been identified as the threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 species (over 86 per cent) at risk of extinction.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) Food Waste Index Report 2021, people globally waste 1 billion tonnes of food each year. A staggering one-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted. The evidence is becoming too hard to ignore. Food systems reform is critical to tackling the planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and pollution and waste.

UNEP is playing a crucial role in the transition towards sustainable food systems. It serves as custodian of the food waste element of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3, which aims to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains.

In a historic first this week, the UN held the inaugural Food Systems Summit, uniting global leaders in a drive to find novel ways to produce healthy fare for the world’s growing population without harming the planet.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen led the system-wide UN Taskforce, established to ensure the Summit built on the unique capabilities of the UN to deliver on its agenda. In her remarks, Ms. Andersen underlined UNEP’s commitment to joining up with other UN agencies to support countries as they arrive at and implement ambitious commitments to transform our relationship with food – for people and the planet.

UNEP was also instrumental in developing several solution clusters emerging from the Summit Process, including the coalitions on ‘Food is Never Waste’ and ‘Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems‘.

Ahead of the second International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste on 29 September, we sat down with UNEP’s food systems expert Clementine O’Connor to discuss the issues – and opportunities – brought on by food waste.

UNEP: It seems that food waste as a global problem appears to be a fairly recent phenomenon. Is it now only now getting the attention it deserves?

Clementine O’Connor (CO): I co-authored a study called the Preparatory Study on Food Waste Across EU 27 for the European Union (EU) in 2010, when the topic was not high on political agendas or very salient in many households. Few countries had measured food waste. There were some emerging actions, policies and awareness campaigns, but these were at quite a small scale – with notable exceptions in the UK and the Netherlands. However, the estimate in the study of 89 million tonnes of food waste in the EU each year generated much attention. The EU designated 2014 the European Year Against Food Waste. With a growing body of research and through international and cross supply chain partnerships, momentum has built unrelentingly. Today, we have food waste embedded in the SDGs, with Target 12.3, which seeks to halve food waste globally by 2030 and tracks progress through a global index.

UNEP: How is UNEP helping to tackle the food waste crisis?

CO: UNEP launched the Think Eat Save global public awareness campaign in 2013, with a dinner at UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi for hundreds of ministers and high-level officials made with perfectly good food grown by Kenyan farmers but rejected by UK supermarkets due to cosmetic imperfections. UNEP contributed to the creation of Champions 12.3, a coalition of executives committed to halving food waste by 2030, and developing the  Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard.  UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report published this year provides a common methodology for measuring food waste and tracking progress on SDG 12.3 and provides new estimates of global food waste based on the most comprehensive food waste data collection to date. Countries and companies are adopting a Target – Measure – Act approach, with a few countries already nearing a 25 per cent reduction in household food waste.

The Food Waste Index Report has shown that household food waste is a global challenge and supports action in areas that are just getting started. UNEP is now launching Regional Food Waste Working Groups in Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin American, the Caribbean, and West Asia as part of the GO4SDGs Initiative. These working groups will provide technical support and peer-to-peer learning at the regional level, helping 25 countries measure baselines and develop national food waste prevention strategies.

UNEP also helped develop the ‘Food is Never Waste’ Coalition emerging from the UN Food Systems Summit process and launched last week. With commitments from 12 countries and counting, the C40 Cities Group and a diverse group of stakeholders, UNEP, together with this coalition of leaders, is helping connect the dots between global hunger and the three planetary crises of climate, nature and pollution, and scaling up action in the eight years to come.

UNEP: How important is it to quantify the issue of food waste?

CO: Data creates a case for action. Previously there was an assumption that consumer food waste was a high-income country problem –  the UNEP Food Waste Index Report demonstrates that it is significant in almost every country that has measured it. Data makes the problem visible. It helps countries identify hotspots, measure the impact of interventions, and track progress on SDG 12.3, with all of the benefits this entails, from food security to climate change mitigation.

UNEP: How much of a behavioural change shift is required to reach some of these targets?

CO: Nobody wants to waste food. It is morally objectionable in every culture. Behavioural insights are helping us identify the reasons food goes to waste in our homes and point to the interventions that have the highest impact in turning this around. We are wasting on average 74 kilograms of food at home per person per year. This is greater than the average person’s weight. While halving this is a major challenge, research shows us ways to make this easy – by adopting high impact behaviours that are easy to incorporate into existing routines. For example, research by Australian NGO OzHarvest points to two such measures. Scheduling a “Use It Up” meal once a week, using up leftover ingredients with adaptable recipes (such as samosas, stir-fries or soup), and creating an “Eat Me First” shelf in your fridge, drawing attention to perishables that need to be eaten quickly. Unilever’s research in Canada had strikingly similar findings,  with recommendations for a “Use-Up Day” and “Flexipes”.

UNEP: Many of these recommendations are relatively small steps. But if all these actions were taken – what sort of impact could it have on greenhouse gas emissions or achieving targets?

CO: Food loss and waste are responsible for 8 to10 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, and thus reducing food waste is one of the most important ways any of us can reduce our emission of greenhouse emissions and contribution to climate change. With collaborative action across supply chains, reducing food waste at home, a few key behaviour changes by consumers, and policies that keep food out of the landfill, we can have a huge impact on the triple planetary crisis, with benefits across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

UNEP: Do you see enough signs pointing in the right direction that you are hopeful we can achieve success?

CO: Yes. This has been a momentous year – 148 countries have held food systems dialogues and are now developing national food systems pathways under the auspices of the UN Food Systems Summit. The ‘Food is Never Waste’ Coalition is helping us pull in the same direction globally. UNEP’s Regional Working Groups will be helping 25 countries measure baselines and develop national food waste prevention strategies. We will host a webinar on 7 October with international banks, foundations and climate finance facilities to demonstrate how countries can fund and deliver these strategies. There is certainly a long way to 2030 – but we can do it together.

One Planet Network

UNEP works in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Programme (FAO) under the One Planet Network on Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP) –  a global commitment to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production in both developed and developing countries. Sustainable consumption and production is a stand-alone goal (SDG 12) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Target 12.1 calls for the implementation of the 10YFP.  UNEP’s Executive Director is a member of Champions 12.3, a high-level coalition dedicated to delivering SDG 12.3.

UN Environment

Carbon Offset and environmental service incentives to save the environment, is that working effectively?

Dwi Riyan
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Carbon Offset and environmental service incentives to save the environment, is that working effectively?

Carbon offset is currently starting to be promoted as the effort to offset our “sins” to our environment by doing good deeds. For instance by planting more trees in the terrestrial area and mangrove in the coastal area. Other than that, there is also a concept of environmental services by safeguarding the rainforest and as the compensation of that there will be some funding by converting the potential carbon absorbed by the rainforest into some money to develop the livelihood of the local community to build their lives without harming the forest.

Kalimantan is one of the world’s lungs covering 40.8 millions hectares. it lost 2.7 million hectares of this forest by 2009 and an additional 2.2 million hectares by 2016. According to WWF, Borneo could lose 75 percent of its forest by 2020 due to the alarming level of deforestation on the island. The threats are coming from some unethical activities such as illegal logging and forest land clearing for the monoculture industry. These activities then lead to the growth in illegal wildlife trade, as the cleared area of forest then allows access to more remote points in the forest.

Local community as the frontliner is also struggling in their lives to be the savior of the forest. They have no option to fulfil their lives other than approving the offer to work on such destruction to the forest. On the other hand, some NGOs are doing some public awareness to save the forest and promoting some alternative livelihood. However, there is no community development that has a major impact. Organic farming for instance is not effectively impacting the livelihood of the community as there is no proper market for the product. Therefore, the scheme of environmental service incentive and carbon offset seem very interesting to be promoted to the local community. But, is that work effectively to promote pro-environmental behaviour by the locals?

According to social marketing theory, to promote such an initiative the target audience should think, want, need and/or desire rather than moving directly to persuasive efforts. The fact is, the local community knows this concept by only the potential of money resulting from this program. At the end, it is more on business marketing rather than promoting the value of safeguarding the forest. The marketing technique being used is more money oriented. Therefore, sustainability concepts or pro-environmental perspectives are still far away from being known by the local community. For instance, the carbon offset business is now developing to sell the package of carbon offset and ask them to buy more rather than the message to reduce and limit their offset activities. So, it is more profit oriented. Environmental service incentive itself is so far being seen by the locals as the ordinary program, where they will do only with the money there, and will have no guarantee of continuing the behaviour if the program is over.

Finally, both of this program either from the government or the business sector, should implement the concept of social marketing by building awareness and let the community set the perspective on the idea of environmental preservation first. Moreover, for the business sector that promotes carbon offset specifically, should integrate the value of reducing the negative activities that lead them to offset the carbon rather than dismiss the message and let the company or customer buy more carbon packages. At this stage, it shows how important it is to include the sustainable message in each initiative they market as part of the sustainable marketing effort.

And Afghanistan Survives as the Graveyard of Empires

Ronny P. Sasmita
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And Afghanistan Survives as the Graveyard of Empires

Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan once tried hard to conquer the area now known as Afghanistan. Not just as “The Graveyard of Empires” which was regarded as a reputation for the Afghan people in thwarting the expansionist ambitions of the invaders from Great Britain to the Soviet Union, it as also “a graveyard for colonialist and neocolonialist foreign powers aiming to dominate it,”  Romain Malejacq, political scientist wrote in his book “Warlord Survival.”

In 2010, anthropologist Thomas Barfield then wrote in his book “Afghanistan. A Cultural and Political History” that the way of Afghanistan gets rid of foreign invaders is to make the country ungovernable, unstable, and difficult to control, so that the colonizers eventually go alone. However, Thomas wrote, this strategy ultimately haunts the Afghan people themselves because every conflict that occurs actually makes the state and government institutions there become weaker, so that every ruler who appears tends to choose an authoritarian and brutal way of power.

Historically, the modern history of Afghanistan began in 1747 with the founding of the Durrani Empire by Ahmad Shah Durrani, a Pashtun military commander who previously served in the Persian Empire, led by Nadir Shah. After the assassination of Nadir, Durrani gave birth to the Afghan kingdom (Durani Empire) which was dominated by Pashtun tribes. Its position was geographically between the Persian Empire and the Mughal Empire (the Muslim empire that controlled parts of India). The Durrani Empire lasted until 1823, then succeeded by Dost Muhammad Khan, who emerged in Kabul in 1826. Dost was the emir (or ruler) of Afghanistan who later founded the Barakzai dynasty.

Entering the nineteenth century, Afghanistan was caught in the great game between Great Britain (East India Britain) and the Russian Empire. Fearing that Russia would use Afghanistan as a springboard to attack South Asia, the British decided to move first. The British invaded Afghanistan in 1839 and established local rulers as puppets of British rule. The British action ended badly. Historian William Dalrymple in his book “Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42” called it the “greatest disaster” of Imperial Britain

During the First World War, despite receiving envoys from Germany and Istanbul and receiving gold, the Afghanistan chose neutrality, rejecting the Ottoman Empire’s call for pan-Islamism, Islamic solidarity against Russia and Great Britain. But soon after the war was over, after assassination of his brother,  Amanullah Khan (1919-1929) then suddenly launched an attack on British troops in Afghanistan (known as the Third Anglo-Afghan War), and considerably won, then gained independence from Britain which was agreed upon via the Treaty of Rawalpindi (August 8, 1919).

Amanullah is a secular modernist who tries to represent all ethnic minorities in Afghanistan. And Amanullah was brushed off by ethnic Tajiks, led by King Habibullah Kalakani, continued to King Mohammad Nadir Shah who reappointed the Barakzai Regime, then was succeeded by his son Mohammad Zahir Shah in 1933. He was the last King of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah (1933-1973) who is still well remembered by some groups in Afghanistan for his success in bringing about the Afghan constitution in 1964, establishing a legislature and promoting freedom for women.

Zahir Shah struggled to get US support to match the Soviet Union and also struggled to get Soviet support to keep up with US. As fate would have it, and yes Afghanistan was again trapped in the great game between US and the Soviets during the cold war. At first, Afghanistan was fairly successful in playing its role in the Cold War. Afghanistan got fund from both sides. The Soviets built infrastructure projects in Afghanistan under Zahir Shah, such as the north-south Salang Tunnel and Bagram airfield. The United States also provided agricultural and other development assistance, such as a USAID-led irrigation project and a hydroelectric power plant in Helmand Province, the Kajaki Dam.

Afghanistan began to become less stable in the 1970s, during the Nixon Administration, who was strongly anti-communist and somewhat allergic to the Islamic movement. And during medical treatment to Italy in 1973, Zahir Shah was overthrown by his cousin, Mohammad Daoud. Daoud abolished Afghanistan’s monarchy and declared himself Afghanistan’s first president in a dictatorial fashion. His reign was only 5 years, Daoud was then overthrown and killed in April 1978 by military officers under the direction of two top officials of the People’s Democrat Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), Hafizullah Amin and Nur Mohammad Taraki, via Revolution Saur (in April 1978).

Taraki became president, but a year later, in September 1979, he was overthrown by his own friend, Amin. Even though both are from the same faction, the Khalq PDPA faction that was of rural Pashtun ethnicity. Amin tried to impose a radical socialist style to change the traditional system of society by redistributing land and bringing more women into government. But resistance emerged (anticommunist) which sparked an uprising from Islamic parties.

The insurgency grew more massive, jeopardizing the position of Amin’s government, compounded by Soviet suspicions that Amin had begun flirting with US after his visit to Washington, which sparked the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late December 1979. The Soviets then replaced Amin with Kamal Barbrak to run Afghan government in the Moscow (Communist) style, which led to the birth of the Mujahideen.

Furthermore, as is well known, the struggle of the Mujahideen which was backed up by funds and weapons from US and Saudi via Pakistan made the Soviets drenched in blood for 10 years in Afghanistan, by repatriating around 13,000 coffins to Moscow, which sparked an increasing antipathy of the Soviet people to the soviet communist party. The Soviets signed the Geneva agreement in 1988 to leave Afghanistan the following year, 1989. Two years later, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed.

US and the Saudis had a big role in helping the Mujahideen, some of whose members later became the Taliban and Al Qaeda. After the Soviets left Afghanistan and Najibullah step down, an unstable Mujahideen government was formed. Five years after its birth, the Taliban, thanks to the support of Pakistani intelligence (ISI), succeeded in removing the Mujahideen government and installing Mullah Omar as leader of the Afghan emirate in 1996.

Then the events of 9/11 2001 forced US to follow in the footsteps of the Soviet Union by invading Afghanistan, removing the Taliban government for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden. US was stuck there far longer than the Soviets, from the Bush Junior administration, Obama, Trump, and ended up in Biden’s hands. Just like the fate of the Soviet Union, US went home as  loser aka defeated. If the target is “just kill Osama bin Laden,” then indeed that target has been met.

But if the target is “nation building,” then US has failed at the time  Ashraf Ghani’s government just ran away before Kabul was taken over by the Taliban. In fact, US has never really left Afghanistan after the new government was formed in 2004, even though it has experienced “lost focus” since the US invaded Iraq in 2003 and the assassination of Osama in 2011. Until finally in 2021, Joe Biden firmly and consistently decided to completely exit Afghanistan with a “non-victor” status similar to when US left Vietnam in 1975. Joe Biden’s consistency, however, has helped cement the status of “The Graveyard of Empires” for Afghanistan.

Joe Biden might comment “not my business” over the uncertainty over the sustainability of Ghani’s government in Kabul. Or Antony Blinken may be confident in saying Kabul is not Saigon’s Moment. But the rapid occupation of Kabul and Ashraf Ghani’s flight to Tajikistan to Usbekistan to UEA, would be a direct slap in the face for US as China, Russia and Pakistan are standing behind the Taliban now. Evidence of US’s 20-year presence at a cost of more than $2 trillion in Afghanistan has turned out to be nothing more than a cowardice of President Ashraf Ghani. And the end of the retalibanization is uncertain, because the regional great game is still ongoing and there is absolutely no certainty that the Taliban will be free from Al Qaeda. In other words, the storyline of the fight in Afghanistan is still long, with the shadows of another version of 9/11 still hanging in US’s skies. And as usual in the history of Afghanistan, if the invaders have left, then they will fight with each other which will make the Taliban regime II remain an unstable regime. Yes, that’s a sign that Afghanistan survives as The Graveyard of Empires.

New approach needed to make digital data flow beneficial for all

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New approach needed to make digital data flow beneficial for all

The world needs a new approach to allow as many people as possible to access digital data across borders, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Wednesday. 

This should help maximize development gains and ensure that they are equitably distributed, said the agency, launching its Digital Economy Report 2021. 

A new approach should also enable worldwide data sharing, increase the development of global digital “public goods”, increase trust and reduce uncertainty in the digital economy, UNCTAD added. 

The report stressed that the new global system must help avoid further fragmentation of the internet, address policy challenges emerging from the dominant positions of digital platforms, and narrow existing inequalities. 

“It is more important than ever to embark on a new path for digital and data governance,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his preface to the report. 

“The current fragmented data landscape… may create more space for substantial harms related to privacy breaches, cyberattacks and other risks” he added.   

New governance 

Digital data play an increasingly important role as an economic and strategic resource, a trend reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report says. 

For example, sharing health data globally is of “critical importance” as it can help countries fight disease outbreaks, and for research purposes, in the development of effective vaccines: “The issue of digital governance can no longer be postponed,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said.  

“The global data economy calls for moving away from the silo approach towards a more holistic, coordinated global approach,” UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant added.  

New data body  

UNCTAD is proposing the formation of a new United Nations coordinating body, focused on assessing and developing global digital and data governance. 

The body should seek to remedy the underrepresentation of developing countries and provide sufficient policy space to ensure countries with different levels of digital readiness and capacities, can truly benefit. 

Differing approaches 

The report notes that now, there are widely diverging approaches to data governance, with three leading players – the United States, China and the European Union (EU). 

In essence, the US approach focuses on control of data by the private sector, the Chinese model emphasizes control of data by government, while the EU favours control of data by individuals, based on fundamental rights and values. 

“The absence of a global data governance framework hampers countries’ ability to reap benefits from the digital economy,” UNCTAD’s director of technology and logistics, Shamika N. Sirimanne, said. “It also hinders their ability to protect the privacy of people from both private sector and government use of data and to address concerns related to law enforcement and national security”. 

The new approach would allow countries to better harness data for public benefit, agree on rights and principles, develop standards and increase international cooperation. 

The report also highlighted that the governance of cross-border data flows is at an impasse due to diverging views and positions on their regulation. 

The proposed new global data governance approach could contribute towards developing a middle-ground solution, it said pointing out that the current regional and international regulatory frameworks tend to be either too narrow in scope or too limited geographically.  

Data divide 

The report warned that a data-related divide is emerging, resulting in many developing countries becoming mere providers of raw data to global digital platforms while having to pay for the digital intelligence generated from their data. 

Only 20 per cent of people in the least developed countries (LDCs) use the internet, and when they do, it’s typically at relatively low download speeds and with a relatively high price tag attached, the report said. 

It also noted that the average mobile broadband speed, is about three times higher in developed countries than in LDCs. And while up to eight out of 10 internet users shop online in several developed countries, only less than one out of 10 do so in many LDCs, it added. 

US, China dominate 

The US and China are the frontrunners in harnessing data, according to the report. They account for 50 per cent of the world’s hyper-scale data centres, the world’s highest rates of 5G adoption, 70 per cent of the world’s top artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, and 94 per cent of all funding for AI startups. 

The two countries also make up about 90 per cent of the market capitalization of the world’s largest digital platforms, and during the pandemic, their profits and market capitalization values have surged tremendously.   

Corporate growth 

The report warns that it has become increasingly difficult to consider regulations of cross-border data flows without also considering the governance of the digital corporations. 

These platforms continue to expand their own data ecosystems and increasingly control all stages of the global data value chain. 

The largest digital platforms, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Facebook, Tencent and Alibaba, are increasingly investing in all parts of the global data value chain, the report said. 

Amazon for example, has invested some $10 billion in satellite broadband, while Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, were the top acquirers of AI startups between 2016 and 2020. 

Four major platforms (Alibaba, Amazon, Google and Microsoft) accounted for 67 per cent of global cloud infrastructure services revenues in the last quarter of 2020.  

The report’s findings will feed into discussions during UNCTAD’s 15th quadrennial conference to be held online from 3 to 7 October. 

ADB, Partners to Set Up New Platform to Catalyze Investments in Sustainable Infrastructure in Asia

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ADB, Partners to Set Up New Platform to Catalyze Investments in Sustainable Infrastructure in Asia

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a memorandum of understanding with HSBC, Temasek, and Clifford Capital Holdings to set up a debt financing platform to boost commercial development of sustainable infrastructure projects in Asia, with an initial focus on Southeast Asia.

The platform aims to turn marginally bankable projects into bankable ones by providing concessional capital and addressing policy and regulatory constraints hampering private investments in sustainable infrastructure. The partners’ initial focus will be on clean transport, renewable energy and energy storage, and water and waste management. Additional areas such as climate adaptation, agriculture and land use, and technology-led solutions could be included in the future.

“As developing countries in Asia transition toward a greener and sustainable future, ADB is stepping up its engagement with governments and other aligned actors to expand the pool of bankable, sustainable infrastructure projects, increase their risk-return profile, and attract financing from private investors,” said ADB Vice-President Ahmed M. Saeed. “ADB will provide technical assistance in project development and sector reforms and work with our partners to use blended finance and other risk mitigation solutions to mobilize sustainable infrastructure financing across Asia.”

Developing Asia needs to invest $26 trillion, or $1.7 trillion a year, from 2016 to 2030 to maintain its growth momentum, end poverty, and address climate change. Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change.

The public sector has financed most of Asia’s infrastructure projects, but it cannot meet the rising demand in the region. Increasingly, governments are encouraging the private sector to invest in infrastructure. However, up to 65% of Asia’s infrastructure projects are not considered bankable, and it requires significant upfront cost and time on project preparation to get the projects to a bankable stage.

Marginally bankable projects typically face a range of barriers to accessing private sector finance. These may include a variety of capability, policy, and economic issues which can impact a project’s ability to attract commercial financing.

The initiative aims to bridge the financing gap by helping countries develop bankable sustainable infrastructure projects based on global standards. Following an initial feasibility assessment, it is envisaged that HSBC and Temasek will be equity partners in the platform and ADB and Clifford Capital Holdings will be strategic partners.

The platform will apply international best practices for environmental, social, and governance, in line with safeguards standards set by international financial institutions. It may also consider emerging initiatives such as the FAST-Infra Sustainable Infrastructure Label.

Afghanistan highlights link between religious soft power and Gulf security

Dr. James M. Dorsey
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Afghanistan highlights link between religious soft power and Gulf security

When Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman Al-Thani this week described the Taliban’s repressive policies towards women and brutal administration of justice as “very disappointing” and taking Afghanistan “a step backwards,” he was doing more than holding Qatar up as a model of Islamic governance and offering the militants cover to moderate their ways.

Sheikh Al-Thani was seeking to shield the Gulf state from criticism should Qatari efforts fail to persuade the Taliban to shave off the sharp edges that marked their rule 25 years ago before they were toppled by US military forces and characterize their governance since they retook control of Afghanistan in mid-August with the US withdrawal.

The minister was implicitly referring to the Taliban’s refusal to allow Afghan female secondary school students to resume their studies two weeks after schools opened for boys and hanging the bloodied corpse of a man accused of kidnapping on a crane in the main square of the western Afghan city of Herat. Elsewhere in the city, three other men were also strung up for public viewing.

Sheikh Al-Thani’s effort to position his country as a model of Islamic governance was not only an effort to offer the Taliban an alternative but also a bid to garner brownie points in a competition with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for religious soft power in the Muslim world and international recognition as an icon of an autocratic, yet ‘moderate’ interpretation of Islam.

Sheikh Al-Thani’s remarks constituted his first sharp rebuke of the Taliban and have gone further than statements issued by the kingdom and the Emirates that so far primarily urged the group to ensure regional security and stability.

“We have…been trying to demonstrate for the Taliban how Muslim countries can conduct their laws, how they can deal with the women’s issues,” Sheikh Al-Thani said. “One of the examples is the State of Qatar, which is a Muslim country; our system is an Islamic system (but) we have women outnumbering men in workforces, in government and in higher education.” The minister warned that the Taliban risked misusing Sharia or Islamic law.

Hoping for Taliban moderation may be wishful thinking. “Policies are pitched at the group’s lowest common denominator to preserve concord. That makes it difficult for the Taliban to change,” The Economist reported.

Against the backdrop of the rivalry, the stakes are higher for Qatar’s religious soft power rivals to be seen as distancing and differentiating themselves from the Taliban. To be sure, the UAE competes with Qatar in having made significant progress on women’s rights while Saudi Arabia has substantially enhanced women’s professional and social opportunities since the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Yet, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were alongside Pakistan the only three countries to recognize the first Taliban government in 1996. Saudi Arabia, moreover, together the United States, created the Taliban’s cradle by funding and arming the mujahedeen who forced the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan in the late 1980s.

“In the name of common decency as well as political expediency, the Gulf states must exert their maximum leverage, whether financial, political, or moral, on the Taliban to dissuade them from reimposing the barbarous regime of twenty years ago. Through their financial support of the mujahideen, the Gulf has been inextricably linked with Afghanistan from the beginning of its troubles in the 1980s and own what happens now,” said former US ambassador to Qatar Patrick Theros.

While the same could be said about the United States, Mr. Theros’ remarks appeared to include a dig at Saudi Arabia and the UAE despite an agreement in January to end a 3.5 year-long diplomatic and economic boycott of Qatar led by the kingdom and the Emirates. To be fair, Mr. Theros buffered his criticism of Gulf states by noting that they needed to bury their differences to confront the threat posed by Iran.

Mr. Theros is a strategic adviser for the Washington-based Gulf International Forum, a Qatar-linked thinktank, launched in 2018 days after the U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue, an annual series of bilateral meetings between high-level U.S. and Qatari officials was inaugurated.

Former Saudi intelligence chief  Prince Turki al-Faisal, in a bid to distance Saudi Arabia from the Taliban, recently distinguished Wahhabism, the kingdom’s ultra-conservative strand of Islam, and Deobandism, another ultra-conservative interpretation of the faith that originated in India and constitutes the theological wellspring of the Taliban.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed’s social reforms have shaved off sharp edges of Wahhabi practices but have not involved attempts to tinker with Islamic jurisprudence that justified them. Likewise, decades of Saudi theological influence and funding shaped the evolution of Deobandism in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan.

Media reports suggested that Prince Turki secretly met Taliban leaders in August. Prince Turki reportedly seemingly unsuccessfully sought to convince the group to moderate its policies and put flesh on the notion of a changed Taliban 2.0.

As head of Saudi intelligence from 1979 to 2001, Prince Turki dealt with the mujahedeen during the war against the Soviets and sought to persuade the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden after Al-Qaeda bombed US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The need to distance Islam as practised in conservative Gulf states from the Taliban’s interpretation of the faith takes on added significance amid doubts about US reliability reinforced by the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the United States rejiggering its commitment to guaranteeing security in the region. It is where religious soft power meets defence and security policy in a court of public opinion that may not delve into the nuanced differences between Wahhabism and Deobandism.

“The unsavoury reputation of Gulf regimes’ human rights practices has lessened the American public’s appetite for committing troops to their defence over the past decade. The Gulf states must come to grips with the possibility that the US willingness to fight Iran in their defence has significantly declined and may well disappear over the coming years… If the intellectual and political elite of the region do not start thinking about how to manage the future, it will turn and bite them,” Mr. Theros said.

Most immediately, Saudi Arabia fears that Houthi rebels in Yemen may take a page out of the Taliban playbook and fight the war in Yemen till victory while paying only lip service to a negotiated end to the war.

US President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, met on Monday in the kingdom with Prince Mohammed to discuss the war 6.5-year-old Saudi intervention in Yemen. It was the first encounter between a senior official of the Biden administration and the crown prince, whose image has been severely tarnished by the 2018 killing in Istanbul of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Lorenzo Natali Media prize 2021: Winners announced

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Lorenzo Natali Media prize 2021: Winners announced

The European Commission announced the three winners of the 2021 ‘Lorenzo Natali’ Media prize: Pari Saikia, for her work on the plight of the Rohingya, Maria Altimira, for her work on the labour exploitation of migrants and Srishti Jaswal for bringing to light the hunger situation in India. For nearly three decades, the prize has recognised courageous journalism and focused on compelling, compassionate reporting that brings to light stories that matter on the global challenges impacting society.

Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, presented the prizes to the winners at today’s award ceremony: “This award of this year’s Lorenzo Natali Media prize, recognizes three exceptional journalists, whose work exemplifies the courage, integrity and dedication to global equity. As development journalists you help bring about change – whether it is tackling inequalities, protecting universal human rights, or responding to the existential threat of climate change.”

The 2021 prizewinners, selected by a grand jury from among more than 1,100 applications from across the world, are:

Grand prize

Pari Saikia of Vice Media India, for:

“Rohingya Brides Thought They Were Fleeing Violence. Then They Met Their Grooms”

Pari Saikia’s story on the exploitation of Rohingya refugee women exposes the drivers and the methods used in trafficking women in the region.

Europe prize

Maria Altimira writing in Diario Ara, for:

“Abusos en los campos de fresas”

In this piece, Maria Altimira shines a light on the labour and sexual abuse suffered by farm workers, and attempts to hold oversight agencies accountable for abuses happening on their watch.

Best Emerging Journalist prize

Srishti Jaswal, writing in Stories Asia, for:

“The Global Hunger Index Reveals India’s Ignored Hunger Crisis”

Srishti Jaswal’s investigation reveals India’s hidden hunger crisis and the under-reporting of deaths due to starvation.

The winners were chosen by a Grand Jury of experts in the fields of journalism and development:

  • Diana Moukalled (Daraj.com)
  • Sulemana Braimah (Media Foundation for West Africa)
  • Jana Ciglerová (Denik N)
  • Zuliana Lainez (International Federation of Journalists)
  • Steve Sapienza (Pulitzer Center).

All entries underwent an initial pre-selection phase conducted by four journalism schools: Vesalius College in Brussels, Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona and Université Saint Joseph in Beirut.

Background

Established in 1992, the European Commission’s Lorenzo Natali Media Prize is awarded in memory of Lorenzo Natali, a former Commissioner for Development and Cooperation. He was a staunch defender of freedom of expression, democracy, human rights and development.

The prize recognises high-quality, courageous reporting on compelling issues such as climate change, women´s rights, inequality, healthcare, democracy and human rights.

The prize’s three categories in 2021 were:

  • Grand prize: for reporting published by a media outlet based in one of the European Union’s partner countries.
  • Europe prize: for reporting published by a media outlet based in the European Union.
  • Best Emerging Journalist prize: for reporting by journalists under the age of 30, published in a media outlet based in the European Union or in one of its partner countries.

South China Sea: The Equation of a New Cold War

Tamanna Islam
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South China Sea: The Equation of a New Cold War

China is an emerging power in the current world. China has come a long way from its former position to its current one. The Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 by defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang party, and under Mao Zedong, China’s economic growth continued. China is currently the second largest economy in the world. The Cold War is currently raging between the superpowers America and China. International experts have dubbed it the “New Cold War”. China has disputes with the United States over the Hong Kong-Taiwan issue, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Sino-US trade crisis, and so on. At present, there is tension over the South China Sea in this superpower. The United States has already formed “quads” with India, Japan and Australia to reduce China’s growing influence in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region.

The South China Sea issue is an important issue in international politics. But there are reasons why this tension is growing.

 During World War II, Japan occupied the islands in the South China Sea. After the defeat of Japan, the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations of 1943 and 1945 recognized the rights of the Republic of China to the islands in the South China Sea. In 1947, the then nationalist Chinese government formally annexed 159 islands, islands and shelf states.

Various historical events from the time of World War II to the present day have turned the South China Sea into the center of tension in the world today. The South China Sea is very important in international geopolitics. The South China Sea is an important international shipping lane. But over the years, numerous small islands in the sea, many of which have been claiming ownership of coral islands, coral reefs and islands, have been the focus of controversy in the region for some time. Has become more and more vocal. The country claims the disputed area has been part of China for centuries and China has gradually strengthened its military presence there in support of their claim.

Under UN maritime law, an independent state can claim maritime territory up to 12 nautical miles from its coast. Moreover, the area up to 200 nautical miles is called ‘Exclusive Economic Zone’. In this region they can enjoy freedom of natural resources, aquatic animals or fish, construction of artificial islands, etc.

But according to China’s Nine Dash Line, they are claiming about 2,000 kilometers of maritime territory from the mainland. There are several islands in this region. Such as- Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal Area, Paracel Islands and several coral islands. And that has created controversy and tension, which has also involved countries in Asia and the Pacific on the issue.

Geographically, the South China Sea is an important strategic region of the world. In the heart of this sea is a huge amount of natural resources. The region is rich in mineral oil and natural gas. Many people depend on fish and seafood for their livelihood. More than a third of the world’s ships pass through this region. More than  40 trillion is traded this year. The South China Sea is one of the most important regions for world trade. One-third of the world’s cargo ships ply this route. As a result, it is natural for China to try to maintain its dominance in the region. The South China Sea is one of the most important and busy maritime regions in the world. The region is connecting Africa and Europe with Asia. In addition, the South China Sea is rich in resources. The region is rich in marine fish as well as a huge amount of natural resources. There are huge reserves of natural gas and mineral resources. According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the South China Sea dispute is caused by 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas below 8. Countries in the region that claim huge natural resources include Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, which have sparked conflicts with China. More than  40 trillion is traded this year. Which

 One-third of global maritime trade.

The question now is how much China will benefit if it can take full control of the South China Sea.

 This waterway is essential for China to have a global and regional impact. Because, eighty percent of China’s transportation is this way. Even 55 to 60 percent of India’s trade depends on this sea route. The other country has to get permission from China for shipping and pay the revenue. This will increase China’s economic growth, increase the importance of geopolitics. By exploiting huge amounts of natural resources, China will be able to make its economy more dynamic and increase military spending. The dominance of the United States and India will diminish. In South Asia and global politics, China will be able to increase its dominance in the economy. The implementation of China’s mega project Belt and Road Initiative will be accelerated, the world’s communication with China will be easier, trade will expand.

But the rise of China cannot be accepted by the United States and its allies. They have increased military influence at sea and are constantly increasing tensions. By maintaining good relations with India and exploiting allies the Philippines and Taiwan, the United States is seeking to dominate the South China Sea. It is true that maintaining dominance over the South China Sea is important for the United States to deal with China. Free Taiwan, Japan and South Korea from Chinese aggression

 To do so, the United States needs to control the South China Sea. Also attacking mainland China as a pre-zero system, suppressing China’s mega project Belt and Road Initiative.

International and regional powers are also working in the South China Sea to bring about a shift in the balance of power and polarization in international politics in the wake of the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan and China’s gains. As a result, tensions have often risen in the South China Sea. Moreover, the South China Sea waterway is very important for the United States.

Because Now We Can

Prof. John H. Stanfield II
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Because Now We Can

ASARPI, registered in  South Africa as The Institute for Advanced Study of African Renaissance Policies Ideas and in Mauritius as Advanced Study of African Renaissance Policies Ideas, is not only a primarily virtual  Pan African bridging Asia think tank but  is also a  global multicultural restorative justice and peacemaking making movement.We of ASARPI believe and strive daily to  live lives embracing ,living , and advocating restorative justice embedded policy ideas and practices which eradicate serious quality of life problems such as colonialism, racism sexism, ageism,poverty, environmental injustices,  anti-religious bigotry,poor government and civil society leadership; and  lack of access to decent  water,healthcare, law, and education.Core in this ASARPI mission is our rock solid belief that we are all made in the image of God and thus are all brothers and sisters in need of recovering our humanity in the authentic embracing of others especially those we have been  wrongly taught we are inferior or superior to  since as human beings we are all endowed with gifts and talents deserving to be recognized, cultivated, mentored, and used positively for our self  benefit and that of our loved but  most importantly ,for the  benefit of the rest of humanity.

Giving honor to The Right Honorable Lady Sarojini Jugnauth , welcome  Giving honor to  my great friend and more than that great brother Mr.Maxime N.C  King , to my present and absent brothers and sisters of the  Diplomatic Corps  lead by my gracious sister Her Excellency Rezina Ahmed,   High Commissioner for Bangladesh as well as  my brothers and sisters of The Chinese Chamber Silk Route Business community, including FALCON ; educational political,  religious , and other civil society leaders  and  my other brothers and sisters here today including the  marvelous leadership of  Jienfie Smart City on this  October 1 National Day of the People’s Republic of China, and UN International  Day Greetings and Welcome. Thanks for coming. All other protocols are respected  , appreciated,and observed.

I wish to thank my brother Maxime King for inviting me as Director of ASARPI, to be the Honorary Chair of this historical The SILK ROAD FOUNDATION & The CHINESE BUSINESS CHAMBER__Africa event in germinating right here in Jinfei Smart City the seeds of something well bigger than life in a new needed perspective in linking the economic and business relations among Chinese and other Asians with their continental African brothers and sisters with full effort as well in involving Africans and Asians not only on the two massive continents of the world but also Africans and Asians in their global Diasporas with points of conversions and synergies. As we move forward we need to be forward thinking about mutual respect and collaboration rather than imitating our western brothers and sisters who for centuries indulged in creating and sustaining  oppressive and exploitative  hierarchies of colonialism, slavery, racism, seismic,ageism,indentured labor, genocide, massive poverty , and the devastation of environments including the disability of biodiversity creating such horrible ecological imbalances generating the terrible pandemics which are characterizing our lives in this 21st century world in which we are trying to survive let alone prosper.

 We can do much better than this since  as human beings we all are made in the image of God in need of embracing each other and thus finding our own sustaining humanity. We must do better than this what the West has done to us and what we have and do to each other in grotesquely bigoted  attitudes and ill exploitative treatments as Africans and Asians take the center field of global affairs with a West not declining but in serious need of reorientation in understanding that White Supremacy and its demands for hegemony and imperialism does not work any more.

 We need new ways of coming to justice and peace tables in how we do economics and business together in a world with declining resources  though  with incredible digital age technologies thus in need to learn how to collaborate rather than taking and keeping rather than going to war to take the oil, the other precious minerals and to take the land of the helpless and hopeless if not by war through deceptive humanitarian overtures with evil undercurrent agendas. We need to do much better. We must and can in bold design and implementation with effective monitoring and evaluation authentic,  build a   sustainable new world glowing from an African and Asian center which produces quality technologies and commodities from fashions to food to automobiles made to last rather than made cheaply to roll over profits.   Where human  responsibilities and rights  are lived each day not merely talked about. We need to use surplus capital from means of digital  knowledge and traditional industrial production to be philanthropically socially responsible and responsive rather than copying the Western way of being greedy and stingy or promoting philanthropic initiatives which are superficial and short term rather than sustainable, Liberating, and empowering. We can do all of this because now we can . 

We Africans and Asians wherever we are , no longer have to stoop to those in the North and in the West or in other ways ask for permission and have our sovereignty and other human rights imposed on. Not with nearly half of the global economy being anchored in China and in other Asian countries and with African national leaders increasingly understanding that they too hold extraordinary promise in being serious economic players especially when in coalition with China and other nations as genuine partners in global economic and business futures. 

We have a long way to go. What matters is what we are going to do  in the described partnership we mark and celebrate today. We are going here in Mauritius on this train of a new era of African and Chinese and otherwise Asian economic and business collaborative partnerships not only for the betterment of our national and continental selves but for the entire world in desperate need to make new mojitos in new glass mugs to bring together all of us be it with chopsticks, utensils, or eating with our hands. So it is the reason why ASARPI as a virtual and face to face think tank  is joining brotherly and sisterly arms with the SILK_ROAD Foundation, the African_ China Business Forum, the Chinese Business Chamber , and other Asian business  partners in locked brotherly and sisterly arms with African partners   to be THE venue for freedom of exchange of ideas and strategies to do the necessary to bring what we dream as being a more equitable world driven by justice and peace and human responsibilities and human rights into a stunning reality for the entire world to see but more importantly benefit from in the liberation and empowerment of all humanity no matter who we are demographically, nationalities,our systems of governance, and our religious beliefs .Let’s go.Let’s get going Now Now.

China has a clear pathway to build a more sustainable, secure and inclusive energy future

Newsroom
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China has a clear pathway to build a more sustainable, secure and inclusive energy future

China’s remarkable economic growth over the past four decades has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, turning the country into a leader in many industries but also the world’s largest carbon emitter, accounting for one-third of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. China provides more than half of the world’s steel and cement, but the CO2 emissions from just those two sectors in China are higher than the European Union’s total CO2 emissions.

China is aiming to reach a peak in its CO2 emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. The energy sector is the source of almost 90% of China’s greenhouse gas emissions, putting energy policies at the heart of the country’s transition to carbon neutrality. A new IEA report released today – An Energy Sector Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality in China – explores how China can reach its objectives while ensuring energy security and affordability for its citizens. It shows that the required investments are well within China’s capacities, given the size and dynamism of its economy. The report responds to the Chinese government’s invitation to the IEA to cooperate on long-term strategies.

“China is a clean energy powerhouse and has played a leading role in many of the world’s success stories to date, from solar power to electric vehicles,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director. “China’s efforts to achieve its ambition of carbon neutrality will result in even greater flourishing across a wider array of low-carbon technologies and a significant decline in fossil fuel use in the coming decades.”

“However, the really uplifting news is that our new Roadmap shows China has the means and capabilities to accomplish an even faster clean energy transition that would result in greater social and economic benefits for the Chinese people and also increase the world’s chances of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 °C,” Dr Birol added. “This accelerated transition would put China’s CO2 emissions into marked decline after 2025, opening up the possibility of China reaching carbon neutrality well before 2060. This would be both good for China and good for the world.”

China has made notable progress in its clean energy transition, but it still faces some significant challenges. Coal accounts for over 60% of electricity generation, and China continues to build new coal power plants domestically. At the same time, China has added more solar power capacity than any other country year after year. It is the second largest oil consumer in the world, but it also home to 70% of global manufacturing capacity for electric vehicle batteries.

At the same time, reaching China’s climate targets cannot rely solely on the rollout of renewables and electric vehicles. It will need to involve solutions to tackle emissions from its huge existing fleet of fossil fuel-based power plants, steel mills, cement kilns and other industrial facilities. If the existing emissions-intensive energy infrastructure in China continues to operate in the same way as it does today, its CO2 output between now and 2060 would amount to one-third of the global carbon budget for limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C. This is aside from any new plants that may be built to meet growing demand.

The China Roadmap sets out a pathway consistent with the enhanced ambitions that China announced last year in which CO2 emissions reach a peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality is achieved before 2060. The main drivers of emissions reductions between now and 2030 in this pathway are energy efficiency improvements, expansion of renewables and a reduction in coal use. Electricity generation from renewables, mainly wind and solar PV, increases seven-fold between 2020 and 2060, accounting for almost 80% of China’s power mix by then. Industrial CO2 emissions decline by nearly 95% by 2060, with the role of emerging innovative technologies, such as hydrogen and carbon capture, growing strongly after 2030. These changes will boost China’s labour market, with more new jobs created in growing low-carbon energy technologies than are lost in declining fossil fuel industries.

The Roadmap also explores the opportunities for China to pursue – and benefit from – an even faster clean energy transition, which would result in China’s CO2 emissions declining to almost 20% below their current level by 2030. On top of the major advantages that come from reducing the impact of climate change, the social and economic benefits include greater prosperity for regions that have not yet fully benefited from China’s economic development and a bigger net gain in job creation nationwide. And investment needs are not a barrier for the faster transition, since the cumulative investments are similar to those in the slower one.

“This Roadmap shows what is possible: China has a clear pathway to build a more sustainable, secure and inclusive energy future,” Dr Birol said. “As China makes some important decisions in the coming weeks and months, the IEA is pleased to share our analysis and global expertise with Chinese policy makers so that together we can help build a brighter future. I also welcome President Xi Jinping’s announcement last week that China will stop building coal power plants overseas as a further positive step towards curbing global emissions.”

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