Harare — UNICEF Announces New Child-Centered Climate Initiative to Prevent Disasters
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has established a new climate financing project to assist nations in addressing the existing and growing effects of the climate catastrophe and better coping with disasters.
For the first time, the Today and Tomorrow initiative combines funding for immediate climate resilience and risk prevention programmes for children today with an innovative use of risk transfer finance offered by the insurance market for cyclone disasters.
Impose Climate Tax On Fossil Fuel Giants, Media Groups Urge
A joint editorial from dozens of media outlets from around the globe has been published advocating for a windfall tax on the largest fossil fuel businesses. According to the editorial, the monies should be reallocated to poorer, more vulnerable nations because they are bearing the brunt of the climate catastrophe's effects despite having contributed the least to its development.
A windfall tax on fossil fuel companies was recently proposed by the UN secretary general, whose profits have increased as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine driving up energy costs. In just the first three months of 2022, the oil and gas industries made U.S.$100 billion.
It is widely believed that the UN's COP27 meeting, which is taking place in Egypt, will only be successful if climate financing is substantially increased to developing nations.
"Humanity has to end its addiction to fossil fuels," the joint editorial, which was coordinated by the Guardian, says.
Scientists Predict That Global CO2 Emissions Will Rise Again
According to scientists, the world's carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are on pace to increase by about 1% this year, which will make it more difficult to prevent catastrophic levels of climate change.
The Global Carbon Budget report, which was made public during the United Nations COP27 climate summit, exposes the discrepancy between the commitments made by governments, businesses, and investors to reduce global warming emissions in the future and their actual actions, which are driving emissions upward.
According to the analysis by over 100 scientists, countries are expected to emit 41 billion tonnes of CO2 in total in 2022, with 37 billion tonnes coming from burning fossil fuels and 4 billion tonnes coming from land uses like deforestation.
As economies began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns, the increase this year was mostly driven by increasing oil demand in transportation, particularly aircraft.
After Russia blocked natural gas supplies to Europe as a result of its invasion of Ukraine in February, which caused natural gas prices to jump globally, countries shifted to coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, which boosted emissions.
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Climate Activists Urge Nations to Cease Funding New Gas Projects in Africa
On November 15, protesters at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt demanded that nations cease funding new gas projects in Africa. Due to Russia's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, western countries are experiencing an energy crisis and are seeking alternatives to supplement their supply.
In the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, nations committed to attempting to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. The Russia-Ukraine crisis has caused increased demand for gas in Africa. There is a new project now, the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project, taking gas from Nigeria through Morocco to Europe.
