Exclusive: Details of secretive meeting between the PM and the oil giant among crucial climate documents the Cabinet Office refuses to release.
The Cabinet Office has refused to disclose details of a meeting between Boris Johnson and BP | Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Alamy
11 November 2021 (openDemocracy)* — Details of a meeting between Boris Johnson and oil company BP are to be kept secret, the UK government has said, claiming it would “not be in the public interest” to reveal what was discussed.
The news comes as world leaders meet in Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference, where Johnson is calling for “ambitious commitments”.
GLASGOW, Nov 14 2021 (IPS)* – Developing countries will surely remember the Glasgow climate summit, the most important since 2015, as a fiasco that left them as an afterthought. | En español
Demonstrations demanding ambitious, substantive and equitable measures to address the climate crisis continued throughout the 14-day climate summit in Glasgow, which ended on the night of Saturday Nov. 13 with disappointing results for the global South. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS
That was the prevailing sentiment among delegates from the developing South during the closing ceremony on the night of Saturday Nov. 13, one day after the scheduled end of the conference.
— We need urgent action to phase-out fossil fuels and cut emissions fast.
Yet as nations began wrapping up the difficult talks at the UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26 in Glasgow, false solutions, such as net-zero offsets and carbon markets ended up on the agenda. Now climate negotiators and youth activists are debating net-zero and what it will mean for years to come.
(UNHCR)* — The trend in rising forced displacement continued into 2021 – with global numbers now exceeding 84 million – as more people fled violence, insecurity and the effects of climate change, according to the Mid-Year Trends report on 12 November 2021 released by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. | Español | Français | عربي
The report, for January-June 2021, showed an increase from 82.4 million at end 2020. This resulted largely from internal displacement, with more people fleeing multiple active conflicts around the world, especially in Africa. The report also noted that COVID-19 border restrictions continued to limit access to asylum in many locations.
12 November 2021 (UN News)*— Almost two million cases of COVID-19 were reported in Europe last week, the most in a single week in that region since the pandemic started, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Almost 27 thousand deaths were reported in the continent last week, more than half of all COVID-19 deaths globally.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus explained that the virus is not only surging in countries with lower vaccination rates in Eastern Europe, but also in nations with some of the world’s highest vaccination rates in Western Europe.
NAIROBI, Nov 12 2021 (IPS)* – Although for different reasons, diabetes appears to be one of the few cases that put rich and poor societies at equal footing. In either case, diabetes is caused by wrong, dangerous to health nutritional habits.
In fact, people in industrialised countries tend to consume the so-called “junk food”, while in poor nations diabetes is caused by malnutrition and undernourishment.
12 November 2021 (UNEP)*— Beneath the ocean surface, an expansive network of dynamic skeletal-like invertebrates harbours at least 25 per cent of all known marine species. Both hard and soft corals provide the basis for functioning coral reefs, which are some of the planet’s most biologically diverse and valuable ecosystems.
Unsplash/Francesco Ungaro / 12 Nov 2021
They provide important cultural, economic, recreational and social benefits to hundreds of millions of people. They buffer shorelines against damage from storms and provide a source of medicine. And they are dying.
Rome (FAO)* – Global food trade has accelerated and is poised to hit an all-time record in both volume and value terms, according to a new report released on 11 November 2021 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
MADRID, Nov 11 2021 (IPS)* – Antibiotics, like other antimicrobials, have become a threat to health rather than healing it. Why? Because their misuse and overuse have created such a strong resistance that they no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
The main drivers of antimicrobial resistance include the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials; lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene for both humans and animals; poor infection and disease prevention and control in health-care facilities and farms; poor access to quality, affordable medicines, vaccines and diagnostics; lack of awareness and knowledge; and lack of enforcement of legislation. Credit: Bigstock.
(UN News)* — Global casualties from anti-personnel landmines were “exceptionally high” last year, with Syrians and Afghans worst-hit, a UN-backed civil society report said on Wednesday 10 November 2021.
ICBL/Gwenn Dubourthoumieu | A 33-year old landmine survivor tries on a new prosthesis at the fitting and rehabilitation centre in Kabalaye, Chad.
According to Landmine Monitor 2021, the number of victims rose by 20 per cent in 2020 compared with the previous 12 months, the result of “increased armed conflict and contamination” of land with improvised mines.
Victims in 50+ countries
In total, more than 7,000 people were killed or injured in 54 countries and areas, while Myanmar was the only State where it was confirmed that the weapons have been used in the last 16 months – as they have been since reporting began in 1999 – the Landmine Monitor said.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 