Day: October 20, 2022

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Thursday that Spain, Portugal, and France have reached an agreement to increase energy connections.

The three countries’ leaders met in Brussels ahead of an EU meeting on energy prices.

For months, Spain, and Portugal have been trying to pressure France to agree to help build the MidCat pipeline, which would connect Spain and France over the Pyrenees mountains.

However, Sanchez announced Thursday that the three nations agreed to substitute the MidCat with a submarine pipeline connecting Barcelona and Marseille.

The pipeline would be able to transport natural gas and hydrogen. According to Sanchez, the plan’s details will be ironed out before the leaders meet again in Spain this December.

Sanchez said the trilateral agreement to boost energy connections will be compatible with the energy transition and allow Spain to use its substantial liquified natural gas infrastructure to help satisfy Europe’s energy needs.

“I want to thank the opening of Emmanuel Macron and Costa’s solidarity. This is very good news,” Sanchez told reporters.

The Spanish leader also announced that Spain and Portugal will now spearhead a new project to shift regulations to enhance energy storage across the Iberian Peninsula.

After Thursday’s meeting, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa told media that he was “very satisfied.”

Ahead of the EU-wide meeting on energy, which Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said could last well into the night, Sanchez said he would be “delighted to eat breakfast” with Rutte “if we can reach an agreement that will benefit Europe.”

At an earlier EU meeting on energy this year, Sanchez was said to have refused to budge on his position regarding a natural gas price cap for the Iberian Peninsula, dragging the meeting on for hours.

During that meeting, Spain and Portugal eventually convinced other member states to allow them to put a cap on the price of natural gas.

On Thursday, Sanchez bragged that European leaders were now considering extending the Iberian price cap solution to the entirety of the EU.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Bangladesh on Thursday said Myanmar has agreed to take back the Rohingya refugees under a bilateral agreement signed in November 2017.

“The good news is that the current Myanmar government has agreed to take back Rohingya citizens, and is developing facilities in the Rakhine State,” Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said at a press briefing in the capital Dhaka.

He added that China being an important ally of Myanmar will facilitate the repatriation process.

The top Bangladeshi diplomat briefed the media following a meeting with the Chinese envoy to Dhaka, Li Jiming.

He, however, criticized Myanmar’s authorities for complicating the process by demanding identity documents from the Rohingya.

“When the Rohingya fled Rakhine State, the situation was very dangerous and they came to Bangladesh with nothing except clothes on their bodies. How can they provide documents now to prove their identity as Myanmar’s nationals?” Momen questioned.

He noted two previous moves for repatriation have failed due to Rohingya’s lack of confidence in Myanmar’s authorities.

“So, this time we want to do something that will be sustainable,” he viewed.

Underlining Japan, Russia, and the UK as other strategic partners of Myanmar, he added that Bangladesh has been in constant contact with all of these nations, as well as India, in order to ensure the peaceful and sustainable return of Rohingya to their home country of Myanmar.

Bangladesh is currently hosting more than 1.2 million Rohingya in the country’s congested makeshift tents in the southern border district of Cox’s Bazar. Most of these stateless people fled a brutal military crackdown in the Rakhine State in August 2017.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The British pound gained ground against the greenback following the resignation of Liz Truss as prime minister on Thursday.

Sterling traded over 1.125 per US dollar in the afternoon after touching $1.13 earlier in the session.

Truss’ resignation follows a mini-budget produced by her government and based on her ideas that crashed the economy and sparked chaos in financial markets, resignations and sackings in her government, and caused the evaporation of discipline and unity within the ruling Conservative Party.

Truss is the shortest-serving premier in British history with just 44 days in office.

The British pound has lost nearly 17% against the US dollar since the beginning of this year, as the country is dealing with surging inflation and high energy bills.

According to the latest data, Britain’s annual consumer inflation rate rose to 10.1% in September, returning to July’s 40-year high.

In its latest meeting, the Bank of England raised its base rate by 50 basis points to 2.25% from 1.75% – the seventh consecutive hike by the central bank. It is expected to deliver an aggressive rate hike to tame inflation.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Ukraine on Thursday announced sanctions on a large group of individuals and legal entities, mostly Russian, amid missile and drone strikes in the country.

The decrees were initially published on Wednesday under the title of “The application and amendments to personal special economic and other restrictive measures.”

The sanctions targeted 2,507 individuals and 1,374 legal entities, most of which are Russian citizens and legal entities.

Yekaterina Tikhonova, daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is among those facing sanctions, who include politicians, public figures, military personnel, and Russian legal entities.

The sanctions also target several oligarchs, including former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.

The Ukrainian move comes amid continuing reports by local authorities of airstrikes in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and other regions in the country.

Besides Kyiv, missile and drone strikes are reported most notably in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Zhytomyr, and Sumy regions.

The strikes are said to mainly targeting critical infrastructure, especially energy facilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy announced on Tuesday that 30% of the country’s power stations have been destroyed since Oct. 10, causing massive blackouts across Ukraine.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The power of media must be put to use to shape the public discourse on climate change, Deputy Director General and Editor-in-Chief of Anadolu Agency Yusuf Ozhan told the Environment Forum in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul on Thursday.

The first session of the forum, Media Responsibility on Climate Change, moderated by Ozhan, focused on the responsibility of media concerning the climate crisis, aiming to discuss the critical points in the way media organs convey stories especially in the fields of economy, technology, and trade as the developments might have links to issues such as mitigation of greenhouse gases, carbon leak, or other environmental impacts.

Noting that disasters related to climate change are wreaking havoc in many parts of the world, Ozhan asked: “So are we just reporting these stories as an inactive agent or are we a part of the story?”

“Obviously we are a part of the story. We, as journalists, are highly motivated to take a deeper understanding of the role that media plays and the responsibilities with the goal in mind of reshaping the narrative to how we can do our job better and how we can actually make use of the power that the media has to shape the public discourse,” he added.

“As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. So that’s the reason why we are here today,” Ozhan concluded.

The panel was also attended by General Director of Italy-based ANSA Stefano De Alessandri, Director of Climate News of Philippines News Agency Lilybet G. Ison, Director-General of Somali National News Agency Ismail Mukhtar Omar, and CEO of Zimbabwe-based agency New Ziana Rangarirai Shoko.

‘Logic of sustainability the essence of future’

In his speech, De Alessandri touched on issues such as sustainability and green finance, saying the main responsibilities of media as part of the combat against climate and environmental crises include promoting a culture of sustainability, raising awareness, promoting cultural change, reliable, clear, distinctive, relevant, pertinent, and pervasive info about climate change, and sustainability as a transversal theme rather than a “niche” topic.

He said: “The logic of sustainability is the essence of the future. A sustainable society is fully aware of the resources available and makes the best possible use of that to respond to future generations.”

“We all know that this is not the case currently. On a global level, almost double the resources that can be regenerated are exploited.

“In other words, it means that each year, we consume more than the planet produces in two years,” he added.

“Being aware of this means, having understood how to move, to put our development back on the right track, and all the major international governments have adopted the principle of sustainability and it’s not only at the same political level, but it’s a necessity for companies and media to keep competing on the market and investors.”

Collective and determined action necessary to combat climate change

Director of Climate News of Philippines News Agency Ison started her speech by noting that climate change is having serious impacts such as increased frequency and severity of natural disasters, sea level rise, extreme rainfall, and environmental degradation in the Philippines.

“The Philippines is being visited by about 20 typhoons per year and as such is considered the third most disaster-prone country in the world,” she said.

Ison added: “To mitigate the impact of climate change, the Philippines government has implemented some policies such as gradual phasing out of coal-fired power plants” and, instead, is investing more in renewable energy, reducing the use of plastics and implementing a natural tree planting program to rehabilitate the country’s forests.

She said climate resiliency is now “the core of all programs and activities attributing roughly 24 billion pesos (over $407 million) for climate change in this year’s national budget.

“The Philippines know that or the president knows that the fight against climate change would only be successful if everyone is committed and determined to steering our practices and systems towards a greener direction,” she concluded.

Meanwhile, head of the Somali National News Agency Omar voiced his belief during his speech that the discussions on the forum would have a positive impact in reshaping the narrative of climate change in the media as well as moving toward a global solution.

Referring to challenges Somalia is encountering due to climate change, Omar said many lives have been lost so far and climate-driven displacement has been a growing problem.

Beginning his speech by saying climate change has an added impact on Zimbabwe due to its geographical position, Shoko, the head of Zimbabwe-based agency New Ziana Rangarirai noted that land issues deriving from its history as well as political sanctions on the country have posed further challenges.

Shoko said Zimbabwe had its share of devastating droughts and destructive floods like many other parts of the world. This further exacerbated the economic problems in the country where over 70% of the livelihood depended on agriculture, he added.

In their speeches, the speakers evaluated the means to promote environment- and climate-related stories and how to use the sources of media organs for this purpose. They also touched on the challenges faced in conveying climate stories.

As the forum advanced, the speakers went on to explore the critical points that should be considered while presenting climate-related stories to avoid misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information.

The one-day forum aims to tackle issues such as the need to create a new media language on environmental and climate issues, international news agencies raising global awareness, the duties of traditional and new media outlets, and the pursuit of environmental awareness in new news areas.

Among the forum’s international participants are Portugal’s former Minister of Europe Bruno Macaes, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Ovais Sarmad, global climate and environment news editor at Associated Press (AP) Peter Prengaman, climate director of Spain’s EFE Agency Arturo Larena.

The Environment Forum can be followed live by registering at its website at environment.aa.com.tr.

Source: Anadolu Agency