Cutting waste would help us cut carbon emissions

Cutting waste would help us cut carbon emissions

Cutting waste would help us cut carbon emissions
Pedestrians walk near the presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on November 1, 2024 amid smoggy conditions. (AFP)
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We are living in a moment of profound global disorder, more and more painfully visible every day. Humans have become a danger to each other, to the planet, and to themselves.

Our attention is ruled so intensely by the conflicts raging in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Ukraine, between Israel and Iran, between China and Taiwan, that the subject of the ongoing destruction of our environment has almost disappeared.

Instead, we hear talk of investing further in weaponry and more sophisticated destruction. The crucial objective of deeply cutting carbon emissions hardly registers anymore on our radar.

But all around the world we are witnessing heavy climate disturbance and extreme weather phenomena. We have recently seen yet more hurricanes rip through the US.

Climatologist Michael Mann says hurricanes have become 40 percent more deadly in recent years due to climate change, while a recent report shows that rain events have become 20-30 percent stronger and winds 10 percent stronger.

We do not need to be told this, as we have all experienced disturbed weather and climate wherever we live. After a historic drought in North Africa, the largest hot desert in the world, the Sahara Desert, experienced record rainfall, forming large lakes in the middle of the desert.

This unpredictability is a very ominous sign of what is to come.

Noble intentions to reduce carbon emissions, enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, lie almost null and void, considering that our burning of fossil fuels has increased in recent years.

We would have to cut our carbon emissions by around 50 percent if we were to have a chance of reaching our objectives of limiting average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but right now we are on track for a devastating 3 C increase.

If you can imagine living with a 40 C fever every day, that is essentially what our planet would experience, regularly unleashing deadly and devastating climate phenomena.

The concept of cutting emissions may be too abstract for our simple brains to understand, so let us focus on cutting waste instead.

Waste has become a major part of our way of life and global economy. We waste so much plastic (only 10 percent is recycled) that our oceans will soon contain more plastic by weight than fish.

One-third of all food we produce goes to waste, representing almost 10 percent of global carbon emissions.

It is estimated that 10 percent of global energy production and 30 percent of water is wasted through inefficiencies in transmission.

Almost 30 percent of energy used in homes in the developed world is wasted, and, on average, 60 percent of water used for agriculture is wasted.

While humans only require 15-20 liters of water a day to meet their basic needs, the average American uses 8,300 liters (or 2,200 gallons) per day through various forms of consumption.

Clearly, just cutting waste — a simple enough concept for all to understand — would allow us to cut a sizable proportion of global carbon emissions.

Hassan bin Youssef Yassin

Just nine percent of the almost 100 billion tons of minerals, fossil fuels, metals, and biomass that enter the economy every year are recycled, while 62 percent of global carbon emissions are created during the extraction, processing, and manufacturing of goods.

Clearly, just reducing waste — a simple enough concept for all to understand — would allow us to cut a sizable proportion of global carbon emissions.

We must rethink not only our daily way of life but also the very underpinnings of our global economy, which encourages overproduction, overconsumption and tremendous amounts of waste at every turn.

For us to make any difference, we need the participation of everyone, from kindergartens to old people’s homes. It is essential that we educate a new generation to be fully aware of our actions and their direct consequences on our environment.

This is a multi-generational battle, but one in which we can make a difference quite quickly.

Our capitalist system has hit a wall, not only in terms of waste and carbon emissions, but also in the rising inequalities around the world and our need for constant growth, new gadgets and never-ending consumption.

By reducing both waste and consumption, essentially moving towards a circular economy that is able to reuse and recycle the materials we use, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates we could reduce carbon emissions by almost 40 percent by 2050, while generating major economic benefits through greater efficiency and lower material costs.

According to the UN Development Program, we could lift almost one billion people out of hunger by tackling food waste and loss. Meanwhile, the International Resource Panel says improved waste management could save up to 40 percent in global energy demand by 2050.

These are all changes well within our reach, and easily understood by all.

We are all participants in the journey that humanity and our planet are on. We can either choose to close our eyes to the waste and pollution which are threatening the lives of future generations, or we can do our part.

Simply paying attention to the food, water, and energy we use and what we actually need every day can make a tremendous difference on a large scale. Our governments will also be called upon to assist us by putting in place the necessary infrastructure to recycle more, to redistribute food, and to reduce overconsumption.

This may require some initial economic discomfort for our system. But as we learn to live better lives, we will also begin to enjoy its benefits both in our individual lives and in a more efficient and less wasteful global economy. As the saying goes: “Don’t be useless. Use less.”

Hassan bin Youssef Yassin has worked closely with Saudi petroleum ministers, headed the Saudi Information Office in Washington, and served with the Arab League observer delegation to the UN.

 

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

Biden has become notably quiet after the 2024 election and Democrats’ loss

Biden has become notably quiet after the 2024 election and Democrats’ loss
Updated 7 min 26 sec ago
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Biden has become notably quiet after the 2024 election and Democrats’ loss

Biden has become notably quiet after the 2024 election and Democrats’ loss
  • During his six-day visit to Peru and Brazil for meetings with global leaders, Biden declined to hold a news conference — typically a set piece for American presidents during such travel

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has been notably quiet since the Democrats’ gut-wrenching defeat at the polls.
After warning voters for years that a Donald Trump win would be calamitous for American democracy, Biden has gone largely silent on his concerns about what lays ahead for America and he has yet to substantively reflect on why Democrats were decisively defeated up and down the ballot.
His only public discussion of the outcome of the election came in a roughly six-minute speech in the Rose Garden two days after the election, when he urged people to “see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans” and to “bring down the temperature.” Since then, there’s been hardly a public peep — including over the course of Biden’s six-day visit to South America that concluded on Tuesday evening. His only public comments during the trip came during brief remarks before meetings with government officials.
At a delicate moment in the US — and for the world — Biden’s silence may be leaving a vacuum. But his public reticence has also underscored a new reality: America and the rest of the world is already moving on.
“His race is over. His day is done,” said David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser in the Obama-Biden White House. “It’s up to a new generation of leaders to chart the path forward, as I’m sure they will.”
Edward Frantz, a historian at the University of Indianapolis, said Biden’s relative silence in the aftermath of the Republican win is in some ways understandable. Still, he argued, there’s good reason for Biden to be more active in trying to shape the narrative during his final months in office.
“The last time a president left office so irrelevant or rejected by the populace was Jimmy Carter,” said Frantz, referring to the last one-term Democrat in the White House. “History has allowed for the great rehabilitation of Carter, in part, because of all he did in his post-presidency. At 82, I’m not sure Biden has the luxury of time. The longer he waits, the longer he can’t find something to say, he risks ceding shaping his legacy at least in how he’s seen in the near term.”
Biden’s allies say the president — like Democrats writ large — is privately processing the election defeat, stressing that it’s barely been two weeks since Trump’s win. Biden hasn’t been vocally introspective about his role in the loss, and still has a lot to unpack, they said.
Biden, in his speech after the election, said: “Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I’ve said many times you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree.”
Biden’s aides say the president’s insistence on following electoral traditions — ensuring an orderly transition and inviting Trump to the White House — is especially important because Trump flouted them four years ago, when he actively tried to overturn the results of the election he lost and helped incite a mob that rioted at the US Capitol.
But that doesn’t mean Biden isn’t privately stewing over the results even as he doesn’t say much in public.
During his six-day visit to Peru and Brazil for meetings with global leaders, Biden declined to hold a news conference — typically a set piece for American presidents during such travel. Biden already was far less likely to hold news conferences than his contemporaries, but his staff often points to off-the-cuff moments when he answers questions from reporters who travel everywhere with him. In this case, he’s yet to engage even in an impromptu Q&A on the election or other matters.
And notably this week, Biden left it to allies Emmanuel Macron of France and Justin Trudeau of Canada to offer public explanations of his critical decision to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of longer-range American weapons in its war with Russia.
Biden, for whom Ukraine has been a major focal point of his presidency, had long been concerned about escalation should the US relax restrictions, and was cognizant of how Moscow might respond had he seemed to be thumping his chest at President Vladimir Putin. But Ukraine has also been a touchy subject because of Trump, who has claimed he’d end the war immediately and has long espoused admiration for Putin.
The GOP victory — Trump won both the popular vote and Electoral College count, and Republicans won control of Congress — comes as the president and Vice President Kamala Harris have both sounded dire alarms over what a Trump presidency might mean. Harris called Trump a fascist. Biden told Americans the very foundation of the nation was at stake, and he said world leaders, too, were concerned.
“Every international meeting I attend,” Biden said after a trip in September to Germany, “they pull me aside — one leader after the other, quietly — and say, ‘Joe, he can’t win. My democracy is at stake.’”
His voice rising, Biden then asked if “America walks away, who leads the world? Who? Name me a country.”
Perhaps the most important moment of his time in South America was a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru. His public comments at the start of that meeting were notably more backward looking than Xi’s, the leader of America’s most powerful geopolitical competitor.
“I’m very proud of the progress we’ve both made together,” said Biden, fondly recalling a visit near the Tibetan plateau with Xi years ago. He added, “We haven’t always agreed, but our conversations have always been candid and always been frank. We have never kidded one another. We’ve been level with one another. And I think that’s vital.”
Xi, by contrast, looked past Biden in his remarks and sought to send a clear message to Trump.
“China is ready to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation, and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-US relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said, while urging American leadership to make a “wise choice” as it manages the relationship.
The president also seemed in no mood to engage with reporters throughout his time in South America. Since Election Day, he’s only briefly acknowledged media questions twice.
In one of those exchanges, he responded to a question from an Israeli reporter about whether he believed he could get a ceasefire deal in Gaza done before he leaves office with a sarcastic reply: “Do you think you can keep from getting hit in the head by a camera behind you?”
The terse answers and silence haven’t stopped reporters from trying to engage him.
Over the course of his time in South America, he ignored questions about his decisions on providing anti-personnel mines to Ukraine, reflections on the election, and even why he’s not answering questions from the press.
As he got ready to board Air Force One in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday to make his way home, one reporter even tried endearing herself to the president by pointing to Biden’s 82nd birthday on Wednesday.
“Mr. President, happy early birthday! For your birthday, will you talk to us, sir?” the reporter said. “As a gift to the press will you please talk to us? Mr. President! President Biden, please! We haven’t heard from you all trip!”
Biden got on the plane without answering.


Saudi crown prince congratulates newly elected prime minister of Mauritius

Saudi crown prince congratulates newly elected prime minister of Mauritius
Updated 19 min 1 sec ago
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Saudi crown prince congratulates newly elected prime minister of Mauritius

Saudi crown prince congratulates newly elected prime minister of Mauritius
  • Mohammed bin Salman also wished the people of Mauritius further progress and prosperity

RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a message of congratulations on Wednesday to Navin Ramgoolam, who became prime minister of Mauritius this month.

The prince conveyed “his sincere congratulations and best wishes” to the premier and wished “the friendly people of the Republic of Mauritius further progress and prosperity,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Ramgoolam was sworn in as prime minister a week ago, following his coalition’s triumph in the general election. It is the 77-year-old veteran politician’s fourth term in office; he previously served as prime minister between 1995 and 2000, and for two consecutive terms from 2005 to 2014.


US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials

US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials
Updated 21 November 2024
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US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials

US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials
  • Gautam Adani, 62, was charged in an indictment unsealed Wednesday with securities fraud
  • Several other people connected to Adani, his businesses and the project were also charged

NEW YORK: An Indian businessman who is one of the world’s richest people has been indicted in the US on charges he duped investors in a massive solar energy project in his home country by concealing that it was facilitated by alleged bribery.
Gautam Adani, 62, was charged in an indictment unsealed Wednesday with securities fraud and conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud.
He is accused of defrauding investors who poured several billion dollars into the project by failing to tell them about more than $250 million in bribes paid to Indian officials to secure lucrative solar energy supply contracts.
Several other people connected to Adani, his businesses and the project were also charged.
Gautam Adani is a power player in the world’s most populous nation. He built his fortune in the coal business coal in the 1990s. His Adani Group grew to involve many aspects of Indian life, from making defense equipment to building roads to selling cooking oil.
In recent years, Adani has made big moves into renewable energy.
Last year, a US-based financial research firm accused Adani his company of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.” The Adani Group called the claims “a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations.”
The firm in question is known as a short-seller, a Wall Street term for traders that essentially bet on the prices of certain stocks to fall, and it had made such investments in relation to the Adani Group.


Lessons Saudis can learn from the Qatar World Cup to benefit their 2034 tournament bid

Lessons Saudis can learn from the Qatar World Cup to benefit their 2034 tournament bid
Updated 21 November 2024
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Lessons Saudis can learn from the Qatar World Cup to benefit their 2034 tournament bid

Lessons Saudis can learn from the Qatar World Cup to benefit their 2034 tournament bid
  • During discussion at Misk Global Forum in Riyadh, the CEO of World Cup Qatar 2022 tells of the challenges and opportunities his country encountered hosting the tournament
  • He says one of the biggest hurdles was the intense media scrutiny and the constant battle against public perceptions of the country and region

RIYADH: Nasser Al-Khater, the CEO of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, shared his thoughts on some of the challenges and opportunities his country encountered when hosting one of the biggest global sports events, and passed on some words of wisdom during a discussion at the 2024 Misk Global Forum in Riyadh with Hamad Albalawi, the head of the Saudi Arabian Sports Federation’s Bid Unit for the 2034 World Cup.

Describing the 2022 event as “the best-ever World Cup in the history of the tournament,” Albalawi said 3.2 million tickets were sold, a 17 percent increase compared with the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and it was the most sustainable tournament to date.

As such, football authorities worldwide can learn many lessons from Qatar about hosting future World Cups and other major events, he added.

“You saw a World Cup that put the fan at the very center … that created an experience for fans that were able to engage with the tournament beyond the 90 minutes,” Albalawi said on Tuesday, the second and final day of the Misk event.

However, hosting the competition did not come without significant challenges. Some of the biggest that authorities had to overcome included the problems caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the logistics of organizing a World Cup in a country undergoing great infrastructural development, and issues related to the welfare of workers, Al-Khater said.

However, one of the most significant hurdles was the intense media scrutiny and the constant battle against public perceptions.

“From the bid stage, the challenge was people not taking us seriously, not seeing us as a serious contender,” Al-Khater said.

Toward the end of the bidding process, as people started to realize how strong a contender for host Qatar really was, “they tried to discredit us as much as possible,” he added.

Al-Khater spoke in particular about the effects reporting by the mainstream media has on public perceptions. He said the task of trying to counter this by educating people had at times distracted from the crucial job of actually organizing a major, unforgettable event.

However, people eventually began to tire of the constant narrative, he added, started to question it and reflect on social and political issues in their own countries, and in doing so they slowly realized a double standard might be at play.

Al-Khater said 1.4 million people visited Qatar to experience the World Cup firsthand, many of whom raved about the safety and beauty of the country, and the hospitality of the Arab world; an image that jarred with the picture painted by the mainstream media.

“Women said, ‘We have never felt so safe at football matches in our lives,’” he added.

Albalawi said that when the Saudi bid team entered the room with their counterparts from other nations, he realized that the average ages of the members of those other teams were in the 50s and 60s, while the average age of the Saudi team was between 31 and 32.

“It made me think to myself, do we have the experience? Do we have the knowledge? Do we have the know-how?” he admitted.

But after reflecting on Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan for national development and diversification, and how much it has achieved in the past nine years, he reconsidered his initial reaction.

“Although we do not have 20 years of experience, we have projects that we have managed that are more sophisticated than any other set of projects around the world,” Albalawi said.

“The Saudi youth is one of the most capable youths of the world. We have a lot of energy, we have a lot of will, we have very capable minds and we have a demographic that is the envy of every nation in the world.”

Asked how confident he is that the Saudi bid to host the 2034 World Cup will be successful, Albalawi replied: “Very confident. Saudi Arabia is a story of growth … of remarkable transformation. It will be written in the history books for decades and centuries to come; this era and this age will be remembered for the achievements we have created.”

Al-Khater noted that the experience of hosting the World Cup had a big effect in his country on young people in particular.

“The youth in Qatar were quite lucky that they have been able to witness a country that was growing together and living a sense of nationwide pride,” he said.

This feeling of pride and national unity instilled a sense of teamwork at the macro and micro levels that was reflected throughout society, from large national projects to small teams working in schools and universities, he added.

Great efforts were made to ensure the youth of the country were included in the planning process for the World Cup by creating programs in schools and online tools, for example, to help them understand the significance of the event to Qatar, and by recruiting students to work as volunteers at the event itself, Al-Khater said.

The World Cup can be used as a “developmental tool” and the youth of a nation are “your biggest ambassadors,” he added.

“Everywhere else, it is just the World Cup; for our part of the world, this is a strategic project and it is an ambition that goes far beyond sports.”

Albalawi’s message to Saudi youth was to embrace the prospect of the Kingdom hosting 2034 World Cup as an opportunity to “become your best in anything you do, whether that is the best engineer, football administrator, health professional, architect,” and “to see that growth in yourself and the connections around you all the way through.” He added: “The World Cup is an enabler to all of the different projects.”

Another piece of advice he offered to young people was to be diligent in everything they do, always triple-check that they have considered everything they need to, and to ask questions of everyone who can help them ensure they always stay ahead of the game.

Al-Khater’s advice to the people of Saudi Arabia was: “Always keep the big picture in mind because we can sometimes, through our own panic, veer off and start looking at micro issues.

“You need to hold yourself and start to zoom out. Learn how to manage up. Expectations are quite high in this part of the world, rightfully so. One big task that I have to go through is learning how to manage up and not just delivering on the ground.”


A Costa Rican team threatens FIFA with legal action in bid for spot at Club World Cup

A Costa Rican team threatens FIFA with legal action in bid for spot at Club World Cup
Updated 20 November 2024
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A Costa Rican team threatens FIFA with legal action in bid for spot at Club World Cup

A Costa Rican team threatens FIFA with legal action in bid for spot at Club World Cup
  • Team spokesman Marco Vazquez noted that Mexican clubs Leon and Pachuca belong to the same owner, Jesus Martinez, of Grupo Pachuca
  • “We hired a law firm in Spain, and they have all the details,” Vazquez said of potential legal action

COSTA RICA: The winningest team in Costa Rica are asking FIFA for a spot in next summer’s Club World Cup and are willing to take legal action if denied.
Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, which have won 30 league titles, want FIFA to enforce the rule that forbids clubs from the same ownership to participate in the tournament.
“The claim is based on the principles of eligibility set in the rules of the tournament,” the club said in a press release.
Team spokesman Marco Vazquez noted that Mexican clubs Leon and Pachuca belong to the same owner, Jesus Martinez, of Grupo Pachuca.
“Those are the rules that FIFA established — there cannot be multi-ownership,” Vazquez said Wednesday. “There are two Mexican clubs from the same owner and the rulebook is clear. What we are asking is to review what FIFA itself established.”
The FIFA-run competition has been expanded from seven teams to 32 and will be staged in the United States from June to July next year.
“We hired a law firm in Spain, and they have all the details,” Vazquez said of potential legal action.
FIFA has not publicly reacted to the team’s announcement and didn’t immediately answer a request for comment.
Alajuelense are the best-ranked team in Central America for the CONCACAF but 40th overall in the region.
CONCACAF has four spots in the Club World Cup. The teams that qualified are: the Seattle Sounders, Monterrey, Leon and Pachuca. Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami will participate as guests of the host.
All five clubs were announced for the Dec. 5 draw in Miami.
In Mexico, besides Leon and Pachuca, there are another two companies that own two or more clubs in the first division. Grupo Caliente owns Tijuana and Queretaro, while Grupo Orlegi controls Atlas and Santos. TV Azteca owns Mazatlan and has partial ownership of Puebla.
On May 2023, the Liga MX announced that multi-ownership will be forbidden but gave owners four years to sell.
Jesus Martinez Murguia, who runs the Leon club, said they will sell part of the team to comply with the rules but will still have a partial ownership.