2023-12-03 19:09

BRUSSELS, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Police said about 20,000 people protested in the Belgian capital on Sunday to demand more action to fight global warming as delegates from some 200 countries met in Dubai for the United Nation's COP28 climate conference. Marching to the beat of drums, protesters waved banners saying "ACT NOW" - the "O" stylised to resemble the Earth on fire - and "There is no Planet B". "We think it's really important to raise everyone's awareness, especially the children's, about the future of the planet and about leaders who don't always listen to what's going on," said a protester who attended with his son and gave his name as John. In Dubai on Sunday, the COP summit focused on climate change's impact on fuelling sickness and disease. Host, the United Arab Emirates, and charities pledged $777 million to eradicate neglected tropical diseases expected to worsen. Efforts are lagging to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of keeping the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, beyond which scientists warn of a severe impact on weather, health and agriculture, among others. Karol De Decker, a 52-year-old woman who joined the demonstration, said all countries have to take responsibility for speeding the transition to renewable energy. "There is still hope. But it has to be done now," she said. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/there-is-no-planet-b-belgian-climate-protest-tells-cop28-2023-12-03/

2023-12-03 17:07

DAR ES SALAAM, Dec 3 (Reuters) - At least 20 people have been killed by floods after heavy rain in the Manyara region of northern Tanzania, the ministry of health said on Sunday. Severe flooding caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon has killed hundreds of people in Kenya and Somalia in recent weeks. The rains have also left a trail of destruction, ruining infrastructure like roads and submerging towns in East Africa, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. "We are very shocked by this event," President Samia Suluhu Hassan said in a video message posted online by the Tanzanian ministry of health. She directed security agencies, the ministry of health and other relevant bodies to put in all efforts into ongoing search and rescue efforts to prevent more deaths. The more than 20 people were killed in Katesh village in the Hanang district of Manyara, the president said. The heavy rain on Saturday night caused landslides in some areas of Mount Hanang, domestic media outlets reported, adding that the waters also swept away livestock. Climate change is causing more intense and more frequent extreme weather events, scientists say. In response, African leaders are pushing for new global taxes and changes to international financial institutions to help fund climate change action. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/floods-kill-more-than-20-people-northern-tanzania-government-2023-12-03/

2023-12-03 17:03

ROME, Dec 3 (Reuters) - European far-right parties met in Italy on Sunday vowing to reshape the European Union after next year's European Parliament elections, toughening the bloc's approach on immigration and softening its climate policies to protect jobs and industry. Parties from around a dozen countries gathered in Florence, galvanised by last month's general elections in the Netherlands, which handed a surprise win to Geert Wilders' anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV). "Our objective is for (us) to become at least the third-largest (group in the EU parliament), after the centre-right and the socialists, and to be decisive," said Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who hosted the meeting. The far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group is now the sixth-largest in the EU assembly, also behind liberal, green and conservative groups, but current polling data place it in fourth position. Salvini, who has failed to include in his alliance Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her poll-leading Brothers of Italy party, fronted a previous unsuccessful push in 2019 for a far-right breakthrough in EU elections. Addressing the Florence rally via video link, Wilders said he hoped his success, "a political earthquake in the Netherlands and Europe," could be "the start of a wave of national election wins" for like-minded allies. Wilders hailed Salvini, leader of the League party, as an inspiration and his "number one Italian friend." Salvini hit out against the EU decision to ban new CO2-emitting cars from 2035, and was backed by the co-leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD) Tino Chrupalla, who called for an "end to the war against cars." Jordan Bardella, president of Marine Le Pen's National Rally party, won applause speaking in Italian and saying that Europe cannot become a "5-star hostel for Africa", and linking mass immigration to violence and crime. There was less unity on other issues. Wilders condemned excessive public spending while Salvini railed against euro zone budget discipline rules, and German and Austrian far-righters broke ranks on the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts. "Ukraine cannot win this war, they should stop it," Chrupalla said, blaming EU sanctions on Russia for depressing the German economy and calling for a resumption of Russian gas imports via the Nord Stream pipeline. "In our opinion, the support we are giving in the war in Ukraine is wrong, and it is equally wrong to support Israel's war against (the Palestinians)," Harald Vilimsky of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) said. Salvini, once a staunch admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that his party had "clearly supported every intervention in defence of Ukraine, with facts, votes and money." https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/far-right-parties-eye-gains-next-years-eu-parliament-elections-2023-12-03/

2023-12-03 16:22

Dec 3 (Reuters) - Aspen Insurance (AHL_pc.N) is targeting its $4 billion initial public offering next year in New York instead of London partly due to management concerns about valuations and more stringent listing requirements in Britain, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Bermuda-based Aspen, owned by private equity group Apollo, is being advised by Goldman Sachs, Citi and Jefferies on an IPO planned for the first half of next year, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Factors pushing the company against London included a diminishing valuation premium over similar New York-listed insurers in recent years and other technical requirements in London, such as that the company would have needed one year's worth of figures reaudited because of a change in auditor, the report said. Greater liquidity in the United States was also an important factor, it added. An Aspen spokesperson declined to comment on the report. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/insurer-aspen-chooses-new-york-over-london-4-bln-ipo-ft-2023-12-03/

2023-12-03 16:19

Dec 3 (Reuters) - Brazil will never join the OPEC+ group of oil-producing nations as a full member and instead only seeks to participate as an observer, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday. Lula's remarks to reporters at the U.N. COP28 climate summit in Dubai clarified his statements a day earlier that Brazil would "participate" in OPEC+. "Brazil should join OPEC+, it could be an observer," Lula said on Sunday. "Brazil will never be a full member of OPEC, because we don't want to be. What we want is to influence." Environmentalists in Brazil and abroad have criticized Lula's administration for pitching itself as a climate leader thanks to its success in reining in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, while still moving ahead with plans to drill massive offshore oil finds. Emissions from burning fossil fuels like oil and coal are considered the principle cause of climate change. Lula said that it is important for Brazil to participate in OPEC+ in order to advocate that countries rich from oil proceeds invest some of that money in helping poor developing countries in Africa and Latin America to invest in renewable energy such as solar and wind. "I think that in participating this way, we will convince people that a part of the money made from oil should be invested for us to nullify oil, creating alternatives," Lula said. "There is no contradiction." Brazil's state-run petroleum company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) will not give up exploring for oil because fossil fuels will continue to be a part of the global economy for some time to come, Lula said. Petrobras will continue to do what it needs to do to help Brazil grow, but will expand beyond just oil to all energy, Lula added. On Saturday, the president said Brazil would use its influence in OPEC+ Lula left the COP28 summit on Sunday, traveling to Berlin for the first Brazil-German government talks in eight years. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/lula-says-brazil-never-be-full-member-opec-only-observer-2023-12-03/

2023-12-03 16:11

DUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Climate advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Sunday slammed the UAE - host of the COP28 climate summit - saying its position as overseer of international negotiations on global warming this year was an abuse of public trust. The comments, made to Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the conference in Dubai, reflected skepticism among some delegates that COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, head of the UAE's national oil company ADNOC, can be an honest broker of a climate deal. "They are abusing the public's trust by naming the CEO of one of the largest and least responsible oil companies in the world as head of the COP," Gore said. At a presentation at the COP's main plenary hall before the interview, Gore unveiled data showing that the UAE's greenhouse gas emissions rose by 7.5% in 2022 from the previous year, compared to a 1.5% percent rise in the entire world. That data came from a coalition he co-founded called Climate TRACE, which uses artificial intelligence and satellite data to track carbon emissions of specific companies, Gore said. The UAE did not immediately provide comment on Gore's remarks or the TRACE data. Gore, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. presidency in 2000 as the Democratic Party's nominee, also railed against the presence of oil and gas companies at the annual climate summit and their promotion of technologies like carbon capture as a way to cleanse the emissions of fossil fuels. Asked about the first-ever appearance of Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods at a COP conference, Gore said the oil giant's engagement does not brush away its history of resistance to climate policies. "He should not be taken seriously. He's protecting his profits and placing them in a higher priority than the survival of the human civilization," Gore said. Exxon Mobil declined to comment. Gore urged delegates to agree to language in the final text issued at the summit to phase out fossil fuels, without caveats or mentions of carbon capture technology. "The current state of the technology for carbon capture and direct air capture is a research project," Gore said. "There's been no cost reduction for 50 years and there is a pretense on the part of the fossil fuel companies that it is a readily available, economically viable technology." https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/al-gore-slams-cop28-climate-summit-host-uae-says-its-emissions-soared-2023-12-03/