By Baher Kamal
MADRID, Dec 6 2022 – In these times when all sorts of human rights violations have been ‘normalised,’ a crime which continues to be perpetrated everywhere but punished nowhere: corruption is also seen as a business as usual. A business, by the way, that relies on the wide complicity of official authorities.

“Corruption attacks the foundation of democratic institutions by distorting electoral processes, perverting the rule of law and creating bureaucratic quagmires whose only reason for existing is the solicitation of bribes.”

“Much of the world’s costliest forms of corruption could not happen without institutions in wealthy nations: the private sector firms that give large bribes, the financial institutions that accept corrupt proceeds, and the lawyers, bankers, and accountants who facilitate corrupt transactions,” warns the World Bank

Such a widespread ‘plague’ continues to be more and more exported by the business of the top trading countries as reported by the UN on the occasion of the 2022 International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December.

Corruption weakens and shrinks democracy, a phenomenon that is now more and more extended (See IPS Thalif Deen’s: The Decline and Fall of Democracy Worldwide).

Such a shockingly perpetrated practice –which is rightly defined as a “crime”, — not only follows conflict but is also frequently one of its root causes.

“It fuels conflict and inhibits peace processes by undermining the rule of law, worsening poverty, facilitating the illicit use of resources, and providing financing for armed conflict,” as highlighted on the occasion of this year’s World Day.

Corruption fuels wars

Corruption has negative impacts on every aspect of society and is profoundly intertwined with conflict and instability jeopardising social and economic development and undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law, the UN warns.

Indeed, “economic development is stunted because foreign direct investment is discouraged and small businesses within the country often find it impossible to overcome the “start-up costs” required because of corruption.”

Imposed by private business

It is perhaps useless to say that corruption is a practice widely committed by all sectors of private businesses.

In fact, in several industrialised countries, every now and then, some news shows the facades of zero-equipped hospitals and schools being inaugurated by politicians ahead of their electoral campaigns.

Shockingly, too many involved politicians get proportionally punished, if anytime, after extremely lengthy and mostly unfruitful legal processing.

Disproportionate impact

For its part, the World Bank considers corruption a major challenge to the twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity for the poorest 40 percent of people in developing countries.

“Corruption has a disproportionate impact on the poor and most vulnerable, increasing costs and reducing access to services, including health, education and justice.”

The World Bank explains that corruption in the procurement of drugs and medical equipment drives up costs and can lead to sub-standard or harmful products.

“The human costs of counterfeit drugs and vaccinations on health outcomes and the life-long impacts on children far exceed the financial costs. Unofficial payments for services can have a particularly pernicious effect on poor people.”

Bribery exported

A global movement working in over 100 countries to end the injustice of corruption: Transparency International, which focuses on issues with the greatest impact on people’s lives and holds the powerful to account for the common good, reveals additional findings.

Its report: Exporting Corruption 2022: Top Trading Countries Doing Even Less than Before to Stop Foreign Bribery, warns that despite a few breakthroughs, “multinational companies bribing their way into foreign markets go largely unpunished, and victims’ compensation is rare.”
“Our globalised world means companies can do business across borders – often to societies’ benefit. But what if the expensive new bridge in your city has been built by an unqualified foreign company that cuts corners?

“Or if your electricity bill is criminally inflated thanks to a backroom business deal? The chances of this are higher if you live in a country with high levels of government corruption.”

Public officials who demand or accept bribes from foreign companies are not the only culprits of the corruption equation. Multinational companies – often headquartered in countries with low levels of public sector corruption – are equally responsible.”

Twenty-five years ago, the international community agreed that trading countries have an obligation to punish companies that bribe foreign public officials to win government contracts, mining licences and other deals – in other words, engage in foreign bribery. Yet few countries have kept up with their commitments, it adds.

Everybody is complicit

“Much of the world’s costliest forms of corruption could not happen without institutions in wealthy nations: the private sector firms that give large bribes, the financial institutions that accept corrupt proceeds, and the lawyers, bankers, and accountants who facilitate corrupt transactions,” warns the World Bank.

Data on international financial flows shows that money is moving from poor to wealthy countries in ways that fundamentally undermine development, the world’s financial institution reports.

Worse than ever before…

Transparency International’s report, Exporting Corruption 2022, rates the performance of 47 leading global exporters, including 43 countries that are signatories to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention, in cracking down on foreign bribery by companies from their countries.

“The results are worse than ever before.”

By Simone Galimberti
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Dec 6 2022 – The International Volunteer Day, a worldwide event commemorated every year on the 5th of December, comes at the end of a long line of special commemorations, each of them relevant and paramount to achieve the UN’s Agenda 2030.

The commemorations included the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, World AIDS Day on December 1, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on December 2 and the International Day of Persons with Disabilities December 3.

After many years of work in the volunteering sector, I feel it is high time for some sort of evaluation of where we are in terms of promoting and fostering what I call the BIG V, a terminology that I feel better express the potential and dynamism of volunteerism.

Focusing on the potential of the BIG V is probably the best place to start such review.

On the one hand, all the achievements carried out by the country in the last two decades could not have been possible without the thousands and thousands of citizens involved and engaged, with passion, drive and zero economic interests, in trying to make the country better and more inclusive.

Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator

Who am I talking about? Who are these persons? Think of those who selflessly and silently and far from social media do something for the place where you live.

These are the persons who are always at hand and ready to help when there is an urgent need within the community. These are the persons who take the lead in liaising with local authorities and try to find small but essential solutions in our daily lives.

I am not fantasizing them, these are real persons though perhaps their number is shrinking especially in the urban areas. I am also talking about activism, a form of volunteerism, where simple citizens and members of tiny NGOs are pushing for a just and noble cause, be it a better public health, a stronger education system, the preservation of the soil or the defense of the rights of those who are the most vulnerable.

So, considering this vast multitude of engaged and active citizens, we would not be surprised if a country like Nepal has a huge potential in terms of leveraging its social capital, the element that provides the foundations above which civic engagement, of which volunteerism is one of the greatest expressions, thrives on.

From this perspective, there is no doubt that whole country should really be proud of their volunteers, even if many of such unsung heroes, do not even bother to define themselves in a such way because what they know is that actions, at the end, are the ones that count.

On the other hand, if there are plenty of volunteers everywhere, we also need to pay attention at the dynamics unfolding within the society especially the ones affecting youths. One hour on social media is one hour taken away from studies, sports but also it is an hour stolen away from a possible volunteering action.

This is a problem because we must be clear that volunteerism is not just good for the society but it’s also good for ourselves. The reason is simple: volunteerism helps becoming better persons, more emphatic and altruistic, qualities that are now proven to be also indispensable for a successful career.

In a way volunteerism is path to personal leadership and mastery because we can learn so much from it. It is a school of humbleness that teaches to value the small things that we often take too much for granted and also helps us appreciate the work of others, especially those who are not in close to us, those are different from us.

In short volunteerism can really bring us together and enhance national cohesion and cohesiveness. That’s why it is so important that the Nepal puts a whole of nation effort to really elevate volunteerism and perhaps we should start with rebranding it, making it easier to talk about it and easier for the youths to connect with.

That’s why the term BIG V could be a better way to spread the message and convince more people to get involved. It is also essential that we work at system level and the new Federal Government should at the earliest discuss and review the draft national volunteering policy that is taking dust since more than two years.

On this regard, it is extremely encouraging that some of the Provincial Governments like Gandaki have already a volunteering policy in place.

Yet approving a document is going to be meaningless if there is no political will to act upon it. The point is that the BIG V should really become a priority, that essential factor that can support and help locally elected officials to perform their duties.

Think about it: federalism is built on the premise that citizens will be more active and engaged and volunteering, in all its diverse ways and forms, can be the indispensable ingredient to help achieve a better form of governing, one centered on the citizenry.

Around the world, mayors have been leveraging the power of volunteerism, harnessing the commitments of their citizens to supplement and strengthen the implementation of local publicly funded interventions.

We need a strong coordination system to promote and implement volunteering efforts, an issue that the draft national policy already partially covers. On this point, it is essential to ensure the creation of adequate “’volunteering supporting structures” at federal, provincial and local levels, that can really help mainstream volunteerism across all the areas of national governance.

It might be a coincidence that this special commemoration falls after so many other equally important special “days” but perhaps it was all intentional because volunteerism is the platform and the means through which the humanity can solve some of its most obstinate and hard challenges, including climate change.

The latter is an issue that, without the activism of millions of youths across the world, would not have come to commend the public and the leaders’ attention.

In short volunteerism is a force of good and Nepal needs it. But we can’t keep take it for granted. We need to highlight it, we need to truly make an effort to make it easier for persons of all ages and groups, to give their time and skills and help the society become a better, more inclusive and sustainable place to live.

The Author is the co-founder of ENGAGE and of the ‘Good Leadership, Good for You & Good for the Society.’

IPS UN Bureau

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By Joyce Chimbi
Nairobi, Dec 6 2022 – Damaris Anyango* was recently discharged from Kenyatta National Hospital, battling the twin challenge of cervical cancer and HIV. She is 50 years old and was diagnosed with HIV nearly ten years ago.

Despite the heightened risk of developing cervical cancer due to the underlying HIV-positive condition, her first cervical cancer screening was undertaken three years ago.

“It has been a big challenge dealing with HIV and cervical cancer. When I was told that my HIV test was positive, many years ago, I thought my life was over. I started giving away my possessions, but I was counselled and accepted my status. Only to receive a second blow,” she says from her home in Homabay County.

Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) paints a female face of HIV. Women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for two in every three new HIV infections in 2021, entering a cohort of women at significant risk of developing cervical cancer.

“Women living with HIV are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer compared to women without HIV. Cervical cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus and is the most common sexually transmitted infection,” says Oscar Raymond Omondi, a cervical cancer expert and researcher across the East African region.

He says that even though most human papillomavirus (HPV) infection clears up on their own and that most pre-cancerous lesions resolve spontaneously, this is not often the case for women living with HIV.

“Women living with HIV are not always able to clear an HPV infection due to a weakened immune system. In the first place, women with HIV have a higher risk of acquiring HPV. Thereafter, pre-cancerous cells progress very fast in developing cervical cancer,” Omondi observes.

Against this backdrop, an even larger magnitude of cervical cancer looms. According to data from Kenya’s Ministry of Health, HIV prevalence is highest among women at 6.6 percent compared to men at 3.1 percent.

Today, cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in Kenya. Yet, Mary Kamau, a nurse in HIV care and treatment at Kiambu Sub-County Level 5 hospital, says that efforts to prevent, screen and treat have not been urgently scaled up.

“Cervical cancer is a very big problem in Kenya even though it is easily preventable. One of the major barriers to combating cervical cancer is low screening. Despite the magnitude of the disease, cervical cancer screening coverage for all women in the country aged 15 to 49 years is a shocking 14 percent,” Omondi says.

Kamau says HIV and cervical cancer are driven and accelerated by significant gender inequalities, poverty, low education, rural residence and low knowledge levels of cervical cancer, HPV and available options for prevention, treatment and control.

Omondi concurs, saying that HIV and cervical cancer are very closely related and thrive under similar conditions, and yet, “we continue to employ very different strategies in tackling both diseases. We can fast track prevention and control of these diseases by employing a combined approach.”

Against this backdrop, the WHO released a new edition of its guidelines on cervical cancer screening and treatment to prevent cervical cancer, including 16 new and updated recommendations and good practice statements for women living with HIV.

Omondi stresses the importance of collaboration between HIV and cervical cancer programs, saying that such a model would accelerate the prevention, control and elimination of HIV and cervical cancer.

He emphasizes that cervical cancer is preventable and curable if detected early. But due to lack of timely screening and treatment, according to UNAIDS research, cervical cancer is an AIDS-defining illness.

Once they acquire HPV and if left untreated, women with HIV quickly develop cervical cancer. Health experts such as Kamau say that while women are living longer due to antiretroviral treatment, they are left significantly vulnerable to other illnesses and premature death.

“Women living with HIV are in regular, close contact with health care systems. There is a need to assess why health systems are unable to deliver cervical cancer screening services to said women on a regular basis,” she observes.

“There are definitely challenges with staffing. There is a lot more focus on HIV and especially when it comes to funding. There is outreach and sustained sensitization of HIV and very little going on in the cervical cancer camp.”

Anyango agrees, saying that she has received full support, including home visits concerning HIV, but the same cannot be said of cervical cancer.

“I was screened for cervical cancer because my daughter, who is studying nursing, insisted on it. I did not know what it was all about. In fact, I always thought cervical cancer was caused by chemicals, and since I live in the village, I thought we were safe from it,” she says.

Even though research by WHO suggests that cervical cancer could be the first cancer to be eliminated, for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, it will be a long and gruelling journey unless there is sustained sensitization of the importance of cervical cancer vaccination and screening.

“Health facilities have been providing vaccination against HPV for girls aged ten years since 2021. We need to scale up efforts to improve vaccination, screening and treatment. I believe reaching young girls in schools with this information would be a great step in the right direction,” says Kamau.

Meanwhile, Anyango urges all women to undergo regular cervical cancer screening and suggests that the government partner with churches to boost awareness levels.

“If you visit any church, you will see that a majority of the worshippers are women. This is a good place to spread the message on cervical cancer,” she suggests.

Anyango says her body has responded well to treatment, and she has returned to her fish-selling business on the shores of Lake Victoria in Homabay County.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Joyce Chimbi
Nairobi, Dec 6 2022 – The Atlantic bluefin tuna is among the largest, fastest, and most beautifully colored of all the world’s fish species. They can measure more than 10 feet in length, weigh over 700 kilograms, and can live longer than 30 years. With their metallic blue coloring on top and shimmering silver-white on the bottom, the giant bony fish is a sight to behold.

But humanity’s interactions with the Atlantic Bluefin tuna have not always been sustainable. Highly migratory and warm-blooded, every year, they swim to the tropical waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea to reproduce, making them more accessible to fishermen.

The IPBES Assessment Report on the Sustainable Use of Wild Species, released in July 2022, offers important perspectives on the global biodiversity crisis and approaches to the use of wild species that can support the protection and restoration of such species.

IPBES research shows that while 50,000 wild species currently help to meet the needs of billions of people worldwide, providing food, cosmetics, shelter, clothing, medicine and inspiration, a million species of plants and animals face extinction, with far-reaching consequences.

Approved by representatives of the 139 member States of IPBES in Bonn, Germany, the report makes reference to a number of endangered wild species, highlighting challenges that undermine their sustainable use, providing best practices and a feasible path forward based on the most updated scientific knowledge.

With regards to the Atlantic bluefin tuna, the IPBES report stresses that the species has been sustainably exploited for two millennia by various traditional fisheries. As with many other fish stocks worldwide, the development of modern and more industrial fisheries occurred after the Second World War in both the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea and rapidly overtook the traditional fisheries.

The report further shows how the rise of the sashimi market in the 1980s brought attention to a strong demand for fresh Atlantic bluefin tuna from Japan. During this time, there was already overfishing of the southern bluefin tuna stock, which was, until then, the main source of fish tuna for the Japanese market.

When the species became a highly sought-after delicacy for sushi and sashimi in Asia, the value of Atlantic bluefin tuna increased, and the species was characterized in the media as being worth its own weight in gold, as shown by the annual New Year’s auction at the Tsukiji Fish Market, where a single bluefin tuna could be sold for up to $3 million.”

Driven by these high prices, fishermen deployed even more refined techniques to catch the delicious giant and to do so in even larger numbers due to the use of advanced longline vessels.

Conservationists were alarmed, not least because the large bony fish has a voracious appetite and is a top predator in the marine food chain, which is critical in maintaining a balance in the ocean environment.

The overcapacity of fishing vessels, combined with illegal fishing practices, brought the population of the Atlantic giant to dangerously low levels.

Factors such as the high value of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, coupled with insufficient enforcement of existing rules and regulations, and pursuit of short-term profits and economic growth, took precedence over conservation, creating troubled waters for this iconic species.

The IPBES report found that the severe and uncontrolled “overcapacity also due to deficient governance at both international and national levels generated a critical overexploitation of the resource and a severe problem of illegal catch. ”

The growing value of Atlantic bluefin tuna has led to a sharp increase in the fishing efficiency and capacity of various fleets, as well as the entrance of new storage technologies and farming practices.

“The management failure of Atlantic bluefin tuna at that time was partly due to the multilateral nature of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which is the regional fisheries organization that has in charge to monitor and manage tuna and tuna-like species of the Atlantic Ocean, and to a decision-making process based on consensus.”

Further, conflicts of interest between the numerous countries that fished Atlantic bluefin tuna impeded strong decision-making, especially in limiting catches. Against this backdrop, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas’ scientific body alerted the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas management body about critical Atlantic bluefin tuna stock status in the 1990s.

However, the IPBES report finds that “the scientific advice had, at that time, little weight against fisheries lobbies, which were most influential at maintaining high catch levels. In particular, questioning the Atlantic bluefin tuna scientific advice through the issue of uncertainty has been commonly used by different lobbies that wished to push their own agendas.”

During the 2000s, environmental NGOs managed to call the attention of the public to the poor stock status of Atlantic bluefin tuna. Consequently, managers began to pay more attention to scientific advice and implemented a first rebuilding plan in 2007, which was reinforced in the following years.

The final Atlantic bluefin tuna rebuilding plan was ambitious, as it included the reduction of the fishing season for the main fleets, an increase in the minimum catch size, new tools to monitor and control fishing activities, and a reduction of fishing capacity and of the annual quota.

Strictly enforced, these measures proved to be successful: They rapidly led to the rebuilding of the population. The latest analyses clearly show that today Atlantic bluefin tuna is not overfished anymore; the stock size is, in fact, increasing.

The IPBES report concludes that the Atlantic bluefin tuna case clearly shows that effective management of international fisheries that exploit highly valuable species that have been overexploited for decades is possible when there is strong political will.

It also shows that “uncertainty that is inherent to any scientific advice is also a source of misunderstanding, sometimes manipulation, between scientists and managers for whom uncertainty is often taken to mean poor advice.”

“Furthermore, these uncertainties can be weaponized by powerful political lobbies, whether intentionally or not, to advance a particular cause. Like in all scientific fields, fisheries scientists cannot provide certainties, but only probabilities and sometimes a consensual interpretation.”

Against this backdrop, more science is needed to deliver less uncertainty and better management recommendations, as this is a prerequisite to long-term sustainable use of species of plants and animals.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Hezri A Adnan and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec 6 2022 – Natural flows do not respect national boundaries. The atmosphere and oceans cross international borders with little difficulty, as greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other fluids, including pollutants, easily traverse frontiers.

Yet, in multilateral fora, strategies to address climate change and its effects remain largely national. GHG emissions – typically measured as carbon dioxide equivalents – are the main bases for assessing national climate action commitments.

Hezri A Adnan

Assessing national responsibility
Jayati Ghosh, Shouvik Chakraborty and Debamanyu Das have critically considered how national climate responsibilities are assessed. The standard method – used by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – measures GHG emissions by activities within national boundaries.

This approach attributes GHG emissions to the country where goods are produced. Such carbon accounting focuses blame for global warming on newly industrializing economies. But it ignores who consumes the goods and where, besides diverting attention from those most responsible for historical emissions.

Thus, attention has focused on big national emitters. China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa and other large developing economies – especially the ‘late industrializers’ – have become the new climate villains.

China, the United States and India are now the world’s three largest GHG emitters in absolute terms, accounting for over half the total. With more rapid growth in recent decades, China and India have greatly increased emissions.

Undoubtedly, some developing countries have seen rapid GHG emission increases, especially during high growth episodes. In the first two decades of this century, such emissions rose over 3-fold in China, 2.7 times in India, and 4.7-fold in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, most rich economies have seen smaller increases, even declines in emissions, as they ‘outsource’ labour- and energy-intensive activities to the global South. Thus, over the same period, production emissions fell by 12% in the US and Japan, and by nearly 22% in Germany.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Obscuring inequalities
Only comparing total national emissions is not just one-sided, but also misleading, as countries have very different populations, economic outputs and structures.

But determining responsibility for global warming fairly is necessary to ensure equitable burden sharing for adequate climate action. Most climate change negotiations and discussions typically refer to aggregate national emissions and income measures, rather than per capita levels.

But such framing obscures the underlying inequalities involved. A per capita view comparing average GHG emissions offers a more nuanced, albeit understated perspective on the global disparities involved.

Thus, in spite of recent reductions, rich economies are still the greatest GHG emitters per capita. The US and Australia spew eight times more per head than developing countries like India, Indonesia and Brazil.

Despite its recent emission increases, even China emits less than half US per capita levels. Meanwhile, its annual emissions growth fell from 9.3% in 2002 to 0.6% in 2012. Even The Economist acknowledged China’s per capita emissions in 2019 were comparable to industrializing Western nations in 1885!

Several developments have contributed to recent reductions in rich nations’ emissions. Richer countries can better afford ‘climate-friendly’ improvements, by switching energy sources away from the most harmful fossil fuels to less GHG-emitting options such as natural gas, nuclear and renewables.

Changes in international trade and investment with ‘globalization’ have seen many rich countries shift GHG-intensive production to developing countries.

Thus, rich economies have ‘exported’ production of – and responsibility for – GHG emissions for what they consume. Instead, developed countries make more from ‘high value’ services, many related to finance, requiring far less energy.

Export emissions, shift blame
Thus, rich countries have effectively adopted then World Bank chief economist Larry Summers’ proposal to export toxic waste to the poorest countries where the ‘opportunity cost’ of human life was presumed to be lowest!

His original proposal has since become a development strategy for the age of globalization! Thus, polluting industries – including GHG-emitting production processes – have been relocated – together with labour-intensive industries – to the global South.

Although kept out of the final published version of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, over 40% of developing country GHG emissions were due to export production for developed countries.

Such ‘emission exports’ by rich OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries increased rapidly from 2002, after China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). These peaked at 2,278 million metric tonnes in 2006, i.e., 17% of emissions from production, before falling to 1,577 million metric tonnes.

For the OECD, the ‘carbon balance’ is determined by deducting the carbon dioxide equivalent of GHG emissions for imports from those for production, including exports. Annual growth of GHG discharges from making exports was 4.3% faster than for all production emissions.

Thus, the US had eight times more per capita GHG production emissions than India’s in 2019. US per capita emissions were more than thrice China’s, although the world’s most populous country still emits more than any other nation.

With high GHG-emitting products increasingly made in developing countries, rich countries have effectively ‘exported’ their emissions. Consuming such imports, rich economies are still responsible for related GHG emissions.

Change is in the air
Industries emitting carbon have been ‘exported’ – relocated abroad – for their products to be imported for consumption. But the UNFCCC approach to assigning GHG emissions responsibility focuses only on production, ignoring consumption of such imports.

Thus, if responsibility for GHG emissions is also due to consumption, per capita differences between the global North and South are even greater.

In contrast, the OECD wants to distribute international corporate income tax revenue according to consumption, not production. Thus, contradictory criteria are used, as convenient, to favour rich economies, shaping both tax and climate discourses and rules.

While domestic investments in China have become much ‘greener’, foreign direct investment by companies from there are developing coal mines and coal-fired powerplants abroad, e.g., in Indonesia and Vietnam.

If not checked, such FDI will put other developing countries on the worst fossil fuel energy pathway, historically emulating the rich economies of the global North. A Global Green New Deal would instead enable a ‘big push’ to ‘front-load’ investments in renewable energy.

This should enable adequate financing of much more equitable development while ensuring sustainability. Such an approach would not only address national-level inequalities, but also international disparities.

China now produces over 70% of photovoltaic solar panels annually, but is effectively blocked from exporting them abroad. In a more cooperative world, developing countries’ lower-cost – more affordable – production of the means to generate renewable energy would be encouraged.

Instead, higher energy costs now – due to supply disruptions following the Ukraine war and Western sanctions – are being used by rich countries to retreat further from their inadequate, modest commitments to decelerate global warming.

This retreat is putting the world at greater risk. Already, the international community is being urged to abandon the maximum allowable temperature increase above pre-industrial levels, thus further extending and deepening already unjust North-South relations.

But change is in the air. Investing in and subsidizing renewable energy technologies in developing countries wanting to electrify, can enable them to develop while mitigating global warming.

Hezri A Adnan is adjunct professor at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.

IPS UN Bureau

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