Archives for October 2021

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — All nations have a responsibility to ensure that no one gets left behind and that changes are as fair as possible in the transition to a greener economy that’s needed to address the climate crisis, European Commission for Climate Action Frans Timmermans said Monday.

“I think that the greatest boundaries are the same in the developing world as in the developed world: we should leave no one behind. And of course, if you’re in the developing world, the risk of leaving people behind is bigger than in the developed world,” Timmermans said. “And that’s going to be our biggest challenge.”

Timmermans spoke to The Associated Press in Jakarta, Indonesia, ahead of a key U.N. climate summit known as COP26 that starts in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct. 31.

“Indonesia is a very important country for COP26: it’s the incoming president of the G-20, but also a country that has made huge strides in terms of the climate issue,” he said. “It’s now a country that wants to lead in this issue, wants to show that they can also transform their economy into a sustainable economy. And I’m really excited about that. That’s why I want to be here.”

Many environmentalists say the Glasgow summit represents the world’s final chance to avert a climate catastrophe.

Timmermans said current global economic models — such as the historic reliance on fossil fuels — will need to change to ensure a more equitable shift toward greener economies. But he said those changes shouldn’t come at the cost of poorer nations’ development.

“You can’t go and say — as developed countries — to the developing world, ‘Too bad for you. Time is over. We can’t continue like this and you should keep living in misery so that I can be happy,’” he said. “That’s not a proposition anybody could do who has any sense of morality. We need to make sure that the whole world can profit from this.”

Timmermans said businesses should be interested in sharing green technology advances and know-how with developing nations.

“There is a huge responsibility of the developed world to share technologies with the developing world, not just out of altruism. Also because it’s a good business opportunity,” he said. “It’s in their interest.”

Countries also need to create hospitable environments for businesses seeking to share greener technologies, he said.

“You need to create a stable investment environment. You need to fight corruption. You need to make sure that it’s interesting for foreign investors to come and share technology,” he said.

Timmermans, a Dutch politician and diplomat, is also executive vice president of the European Union’s Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives created by the European Commission to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and making the EU carbon neutral by 2050.

Part of that, Timmermans said, is an effort to move away from coal using methods applicable to countries such as coal-producing Indonesia.

“Thirty coal mining regions in the EU still need to wean themselves of coal. That’s a huge, huge operation. We will make sure this is done in a just way so that they have an economic future in that region, that we skill and reskill the workforce for them to take new jobs, that we bring new economic activities to those regions,” he said. “And I would love to share that experience with Indonesia.”

Timmermans said governments are racing against the clock to make progress in the transitions needed to come to terms with the climate crisis.

“We need to reduce our emissions substantially between now and 2030 … and to do that, you need to make this energy transition happen almost at lightning speed, and that is a real difficulty,” he said. “The one thing we have too little of is time.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A net zero carbon emissions target by 2050 would be a “great positive” for Australia if it can be achieved through technology and not a carbon price, the prime minister said on Tuesday as he pressures government colleagues to commit to more ambitious action ahead of a climate summit.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week agreed to attend next month’s climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, but his government colleagues have yet to approve the commitment he wants to net zero.

“If you have a credible plan … with the proper transparencies Australia’s well known for, then it can be a great positive for Australia,” Morrison told Parliament, referring to the net zero target.

“If you have the right plan, … if you have technology, not taxes,” Morrison added.

Morrison was a minister in the conservative coalition government that in 2014 repealed a carbon tax introduced by a center-left Labor Party government. The coalition continues to oppose any measures that would penalize polluters through a carbon price or tax.

The rural-based junior coalition partner, the Nationals party, are the major obstacle to Australia adopting net zero.

Nationals lawmakers have debated Cabinet’s draft climate policy for the past three days but remained bitterly divided by Tuesday.

They were shown government modeling on Tuesday that predicted the economic impacts of more ambitious climate targets.

Nationals Sen. Matt Canavan was among the lawmakers who did not believe the modeling.

“The party room here is being gaslighted and that’s kind of ironic given it’s being gaslighted by people who want to end the use of fossil fuels,” Canavan said.

The government rejected opposition calls to make the modeling public.

Morrison said the world’s responses would have “significant impacts on rural and regional Australia, but they also present significant opportunities.”

“The plans that the government are considering will ensure that we can deal with both the costs and the benefits, because we understand there are impacts, that this is not a road that is only … where you’ll find opportunities,” Morrison said.

Morrison said he would make his government’s plans public before the next election, which is due by May.

Australia has not budged from its 2015 pledge at the Paris climate conference to reduce emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030, despite many countries adopting far more ambitious targets.

Morrison is unlikely to persuade his colleagues to agree to a new 2030 target before he goes to Glasgow.

Reducing emissions is a politically fraught issue in Australia, which is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and liquified natural gas. The nation is also one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita because of its heavy reliance on coal-fired power.

The conservative government’s lack of ambition on climate change is regarded as a reason behind the government’s surprise reelection in 2019 and strong voter support in coal-rich Queensland state.

Morrison had argued that the Labor opposition’s pledge to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and achieve zero emissions by 2050 would wreck the economy.

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HONG KONG (AP) — For nearly seven years, LinkedIn has been the only major Western social networking platform still operating in China. People like 32-year-old Jason Liu view it as an important career enhancing tool.

Come the end of the year, Liu will no longer have access to the localized version of LinkedIn, after Microsoft, which acquired the platform in 2016, said last week that it would pull out, citing a “significantly more challenging operating environment.”

“It’s a shame,” said Liu, who works in the technology industry in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and uses the site to network with other professionals online. “LinkedIn gave me a platform to post about my results at work, such as my achievements and promotions, which aren’t always appropriate to post on other platforms like WeChat.”

LinkedIn will be replaced in China by a jobs posting site called InJobs, without a social media feed and capability for sharing content, Microsoft said.

LinkedIn has over 54 million users in China, its second largest market after the U.S. Its departure will leave them without access to a platform for networking with professionals in other countries. There are none in China with a similar global reach.

LinkedIn is “irreplaceable,” said Liu. “Many career-related platforms like Liepin or BOSS Zhipin are purely job sites,” he said.

To access LinkedIn’s international site in the future, Liu said he would have to use a VPN (virtual private network) service to circumvent any blocks, even if it makes the process more of a hassle.

Stefan Ouyang, who works in Shanghai for a foreign internet company, said that he found two jobs via LinkedIn and often uses it to keep in contact with colleagues abroad.

“I worry if I’d still be able to reach my contacts who are using the international version of LinkedIn, and whether it’d be difficult to contact HR managers (on the new version,)” he said.

It is not clear if InJobs will retain these features, and LinkedIn did not immediately comment.

Foreign social networking platforms in China have long faced challenges in balancing users’ ability to post what they want with government rules requiring censorship of content deemed to be unacceptable for political or other reasons.

Some foreign companies, such as Google, withdrew from China as they were unwilling to abide by those rules.

“The biggest challenge that Western tech firms face in China is the same that Chinese tech firms face — an ever changing and arbitrary regulatory environment with new crackdowns, rules, and pressure to enforce the CCP’s politicized censorship and surveillance,” said Sarah Cook, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at the non-governmental organization Freedom House.

The sands have shifted, with Chinese President Xi Jinping growing “more intolerant of dissent and open conversation now than just five years ago,” she said.

It’s Chinese people who lose out as their access to the global community grows increasingly constrained, Cook said.

There are Chinese platforms that offer social networking and content features, such as Maimai, but they are not global and are typically favored by white-collar workers in China’s technology industry.

“Maimai is already twice as large as LinkedIn in China, which suggests LinkedIn isn’t without local substitutes,” said Michael Norris, research strategy manager at Shanghai-based consultancy AgencyChina.

“However, the question remains whether any platform wishes to take up the moderation burden that comes with the exchange and discussion of industry news and views,” he said.

LinkedIn suspended new user registrations in March as it reviewed its compliance with local laws after coming under fire both from the authorities and from users unhappy with its regulation of content.

Last month, the company drew unfavorable attention when a U.S. journalist, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, complained it had censored her user profile in China over its contents. That followed several other profile censorships of several other academics and journalists on its Chinese platform.

Not everyone is sad to see LinkedIn go.

Zhang Fang, who works at a government-backed institution in Beijing, said LinkedIn doesn’t list job opportunities for civil servants or government organizations in China.

“I registered a LinkedIn account in university, but after I graduated and started working I have never used it once,” he said. “It doesn’t help my career development, unless one day I decide to join the private sector or a foreign company.”

Emchel Wu who works in advertising in Shanghai, said she rarely uses LinkedIn to network anyway.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to have all of your contacts displayed,” she said. “From when I joined LinkedIn, I have added all of four people. It hasn’t been that useful for me.”

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AP researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.

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BEIJING (AP) — Moon rocks brought back to Earth by a Chinese robotic spacecraft last year have provided new insights into ancient lunar volcanic activity, a researcher said Tuesday.

Li Xianhua said an analysis of the samples revealed new information about the moon’s chemical composition and the way heat affected its development.

Li said the samples indicate volcanic activity was still occurring on the moon as recently as 2 billion years ago, compared to previous estimates that such activity halted between 2.8 billion and 3 billion years ago.

“Volcanic activities are a very important thing on the moon. They show the vitality inside the moon, and represent the recycling of energy and matter inside the moon,” Li told reporters.

China in December brought back the first rocks from the moon since missions by the U.S. and former Soviet Union in the 1970s.

On Saturday, China launched a new three-person crew to its space station, a new milestone in a space program that has advanced rapidly in recent years.

China became only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a person in space on its own in 2003 and now ranks among the leading space powers.

Alongside its crewed program, it has expanded its work on robotic exploration, retrieving the lunar samples and landing a rover on the little-explored far side of the moon. It has also placed the Tianwen-1 space probe on Mars, whose accompanying Zhurong rover has been exploring for evidence of life on the red planet.

China also plans to collect soil from an asteroid and bring back additional lunar samples. The country also hopes to land people on the moon and possibly build a scientific base there. A highly secretive space plane is also reportedly under development.

The military-run Chinese space program has also drawn controversy. China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday brushed-off a report that China had tested a hypersonic missile two months ago. A ministry spokesperson said it had merely tested whether a new spacecraft could be reused.

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