'Unseen' News and Views
WMO Video screen shot | An unusually early and exceptionally intense heatwave has set new temperature records in Europe, posing a major threat to people’s health, agriculture and the environment.
9 March 2020 (UNCTAD)* — The spread of the coronavirus is first and foremost a public health emergency, but it’s also a significant economic threat. The COVID-19 shock will cause a recession in some countries and depress global annual growth this year to below 2.5%, the recessionary threshold for the world economy.
Young people face an uncertain future in the labour market because of automation, the narrow focus of much vocational training and the lack of jobs to match their qualifications, says a new ILO report.
GENEVA, 9 March 2020 (ILO)* – The number of young people currently not in employment, education or training (NEET) is rising, and young women are more than twice as likely as their male counterparts to be affected, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report.
5 March 2020 (WMO)* — The past winter was by far the warmest on record for Europe, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF. It was the second warmest February, both globally and for Europe.
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From December 2019 to February 2020, there was persistent mild weather over Europe, particularly in the north and east. The average temperature was almost 1.4°C higher than that of the previous warmest winter, 2015/16 (when there was a strong El Niño) and 3.4ºC above the 1981-2010 norm.
FAO calls for $900 million to support the livelihoods of 43 million people facing acute hunger
Vaccinating a beneficiary’s cow in an area supported by FAO in Alzaydiah, Yemen.ROME, 9 March 2020 (FAO)* — While global attention has focused on the swarms of Desert Locusts attacking crops in East Africa, a number of other countries and regions are also confronting serious food security threats and require support, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
(UN News)* — Despite decades of progress in closing the gender equality gap, close to nine out of 10 men and women around the world, hold some sort of bias against women, according to new findings published on Thursday [5 March 2020] from the UN Development Programmme (UNDP).
Photo by REUTERS/Sergio Moraes (Photo posted here from UN Environment’s stoy).
– As the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 threatens a global pandemic, major stock markets around the world have suffered their worst performance since the 2008 financial crush.
Growth disruption
The OECD has warned that the coronavirus outbreak could halve global economic growth this year to 1.5%, the slowest rate since 2009. It has cut its 2020 growth forecast for China to a 30-year low of 4.9%, down from 5.7% in November.
The IMF downgraded its growth forecast for China to 5.6% in 2020, its lowest since 1990. Economists, polled by Reuters during 7-13 February, expected China’s economic growth to slump to 4.5% in the first quarter of 2020, down from 6% in the previous quarter, the slowest since the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, China’s manufacturing sector tumbled in February, as many factories remained closed after the annual lunar new year break. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), a widely used measure of factory activity, plunged to a record low in February, reflecting the sharp contraction.
FAO report highlights risks posed by locusts in Africa amid stronger output trends in the Near East and Asia.
Farmers in Tanzania.
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ROME, 5 March 2020 (FAO)* – The effects of inadequate rainfall on agricultural production added two countries – Namibia and Tanzania – to FAO’s list of countries in need of external assistance for food, adding to strains triggered by desert locusts even as global cereal production appears strong, according to FAO’s quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, released today [5 March 2020].
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 