News round-up, Thursday, December 29, 2022
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Russia launches one of the biggest attacks of the war on Ukraine's energy infrastructure
A hail of missiles on New Year's Eve knocks out power to 90% of homes in the city of Lviv and 40% of those in Kiev.
New Russian missile airstrike leaves Ukrainian population without electricity
Written in Spanish
Translation Germán & Co
ByMaría R. Sahuquillo
El País
Kiev (Special Envoy) - 29 DEC 2022
On the eve of celebrations to welcome in the new year, Russia on Thursday launched a hail of missiles over Ukraine. The sound of explosions could be heard reverberating from just after dawn in towns and cities across the country. The attack, involving 69 cruise missiles and kamikaze drones, according to the government in Kiev, is one of the largest of the Kremlin's war in Ukraine, and has been aimed primarily at Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Since the temperatures began to drop, Russia has been heavily targeting power plants. It was the tenth attack on vital infrastructure since September.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to plunge the country into darkness and cold to break the resistance of a population already enduring a war that has entered its eleventh month. Ukraine's anti-aircraft defences have intercepted 54 of the 69 missiles the Kremlin has fired in abundance. However, Thursday's attacks have left more than 90% of the city of Lviv without power, according to the mayor's office, which also warned of severe water shortages. In Kiev, 40% of homes have been left in darkness, according to its mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
One of the Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles fell in Belarus without reported casualties, according to BelTA, the Belarusian state news agency. The Belarusian defence ministry is investigating whether it was shot down by its air defence systems or whether it was a missile that missed its target and fell on its territory bordering Ukraine.
As the first rays of sunlight began to dawn in the Kiev sky, the drone of missiles and a grey trail swept across the sky. The anti-aircraft alarms had warned earlier that the capital, like the whole country, was under missile attack alert. Moscow fired 16 missiles at the Ukrainian capital on Thursday. All were intercepted by anti-aircraft defences, according to the Ukrainian authorities. However, remnants of the shells hit two houses, a children's playground and a factory, injuring three people, including a 14-year-old girl, according to the mayor's office.
The attacks also damaged infrastructure in the port city of Odessa, in Zitomir and in Kharkov in the north-east of the country. Several buildings, a power line and a gas pipeline were damaged in shelling outside the south-central city of Zaporiyia, according to the governor, Oleksandr Starukh. In Kherson, recaptured by Ukraine in November after months of Russian occupation, a missile hit a medical centre, according to local authorities. Two people were injured. "They dream that Ukrainians will celebrate the New Year in the dark and cold. But they cannot defeat the Ukrainian people," the Ukrainian defence ministry said on social media.
Russia has launched the large-scale attack on Ukraine from at least two ships and 13 strategic bombers, from which it fired cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian air force leadership. Shortly before the missile barrage, Moscow dispatched swarms of kamizake drones, mostly Iranian-made aircraft, with which Kremlin troops seek to distract anti-aircraft defences before unloading the missile barrage. On Thursday, the buzzing of a swarm of at least 13 Iranian Shahed-136 drones flooded the skies over the city of Kharkov; 11 of them were shot down, officials said. In Dnipro, in the centre of the country, a strategic city, communications hub and important logistics centre, anti-aircraft defences shot down five drones, followed by a barrage of missiles. Ukraine's southern command has warned that three Russian missile-carrying ships are in combat position in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky had warned a few days ago that Russia was preparing another large-scale bombardment during the festive season. "With the arrival of the Christmas season, Russian terrorists may become active again," he said a few days ago. "They despise Christian values and any values in general," he added.
Thursday's massive bombardment comes just days after a drone struck a strategic Russian air base from which Moscow has begun bombing Ukraine's vital infrastructure, in an attack that killed at least three Kremlin soldiers and exposed new cracks in Russia's anti-aircraft defences and the design of the invasion. The attack was the second drone strike against the same Engels base in the Saratov region. As in previous raids, the Ukrainian government maintains cryptic language about the drone attack: they do not claim direct responsibility for it but have pointed to it as a consequence of the Kremlin's war.
2022, a pivotal year for the environment
The year is closing with a series of agreements on climate and biodiversity, but the commitments remain insufficient and implementing them will prove hard.
By Audrey Garric
Le Monde
Published on December 29, 2022
Did 2022 mark a leap forward in international action for the environment? While real success is still far away, the year is at least ending on some positive notes.
At the last United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15), which ended on December 19 in Montreal, countries managed to adopt a new global framework to "halt and reverse" the collapse of biodiversity on Earth by 2030. A few weeks earlier, at the equivalent climate conference, COP27 in Egypt, an agreement was found to create a fund for the irreversible damage caused by global warming. Negotiations also began to develop a legally binding international treaty aiming at ending plastic pollution.
At the same time, the European Union reached a series of agreements to accelerate its cuts in greenhouse gas emissions: reforming its carbon market, introducing a carbon border tax, and stopping the sale of new combustion engine vehicles in 2035. It also agreed to imports of products linked to deforestation, such as soy, beef and cocoa.
Across the Atlantic, the United States succeeded in passing its Inflation Reduction Act, a colossal investment plan of around €350 billion for a low-carbon transition.
While he refutes the idea of a turning point, Sébastien Treyer, executive director of the independent policy research institute IDDRI, conceded much had been achieved "with opportunities to accelerate."
With the Paris Agreement on climate change adopted in 2015, the agreement on biodiversity and the Sustainable Development Goals, "we now have all the necessary framework for action. States no longer have any excuses," Pierre Cannet, director of advocacy and campaigns at World Wildlife Fund France.
'Shared leadership'
Progress was far from certain, in the context of multiple crises (energy, food, inflation and debt). Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has shaken multilateralism. "Before COP27 and COP15, we saw the return of postures opposing the West to the South, with compensation demands for the environmental crisis, and also for colonialism," Mr. Treyer said. "There was a very strong risk that development inequalities would scupper everything."
If countries have finally managed to cooperate, it is primarily because the Global North has recognized the Global South's financial needs and has guaranteed that there will be solidarity. "The countries of the South have agreed to extend their ambition [in protecting biodiversity and fighting global warming], even if all the money they need is not on the table," Mr. Treyer said.
Under "shared leadership" of the EU and US, developing countries "are now trying to do their part," Mr. Treyer said. China, which was initially playing a minor role, finally worked hard to reach compromise positions between developed and developing countries on the new global framework for biodiversity as it chaired COP15.
India, which is chairing the G20 for a year since December 1, intends to present itself as a climate champion. South Africa, Brazil and Colombia are also showing a new proactive approach.
At a European level, the Green Deal, which has been moving "from the high-level strategy stage to the legislation stage," according to Diana-Paula Gherasim, an energy and climate researcher at the French Institute of International Relations, is materializing.
In a context of soaring energy prices and war in Ukraine, "it was important for the EU to show that it could fight several battles in parallel and that the fight against climate change is structurally part of its action," she said.
The context of multiple crises could also help to advance environmental action because it favors a "return of state interventionism," said Mr. Treyer. It also provides substance to measures that seemed impossible to implement until now, such as a tax on fossil fuels or on air and sea transport.
The proliferation of climate disasters this year – floods in Pakistan, heat waves, droughts and fires in Europe, the devastating hurricane Ian in Cuba and Florida, etc. – has also increased awareness.
"Some taboos are finally beginning to be lifted," said Mr. Cannet, as countries spoke at the COP about fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) – the main causes of global warming – subsidies that are harmful to the climate and biodiversity, and the problem of pesticides and plastics.
More than illustrating a new impetus, the WWF expert considers that the recent agreements reached on the environment are rather a "catch-up in terms of ambition." "We are still far from being on the right trajectory, and the step to take is immense," he said.
Seven years after the Paris Agreement, countries' commitments are still likely to result in a climate warming of 2.5°C at the end of the century, far from the goal of limiting it to 1.5°C.
Loose commitments
Not only are the promises insufficient, but their implementation has also been poor so far too, as both agreements are non-binding and do not come with sanction mechanisms in case of non-compliance.
"The commitments [made during the Paris agreement] have not yet been sufficiently transformed into national actions and especially impacts," Janet Ranganathan, executive director of the World Resources Institute (WRI), said. "They have not decreased the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere."
With regard to the unprecedented decline of species and ecosystems, achieving the ambitious targets adopted in Montreal will be a real challenge, as each state must now align its national strategies and plans with the global framework.
In order to avoid a total failure in eight years – as was the case for the targets adopted during the previous decade – countries have agreed this time on a more robust mechanism for monitoring and regular evaluation of progress.
The rapid implementation of new financial commitments will also be crucial to ensure that the Kunming-Montreal agreement is truly followed by action.
Within the EU, the implementation of the new legislation will require a "massive and sustained effort on the part of governments to deploy renewable energies and infrastructure, for example for recharging electric vehicles, or to renovate buildings," Ms. Gherasim said.
Recent progress should not obscure setbacks. The year 2022 has also seen an increased reliance on fossil fuels in the context of the energy crisis, a postponement of the European regulation to halve the use of pesticides, u-turns on European agro-ecological transition and the suspension of international negotiations on the protection of the high sea. COP27 failed to tackle fossil fuels, and the majority of countries have not raised their climate targets.
Turning the end of this year's little music into next year's allegro can only be done under certain conditions. "We will have to tackle the three systems together – food, energy and urban – which are the causes of both biodiversity erosion and climate change," said Ms. Ranganathan.
Countries of the Global North will also have to "define a new financial pact with the South," at a summit convened by French President Emmanuel Macron in June, Mr. Treyer explained. The summit will have to hold a reform of the international financial system in order to raise substantial sums in the face of environmental crises.
Ahead of COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, which will mark an occasion for a first assessment of countries' climate commitments, the United Nations secretary general has announced a climate ambition summit in September. Antonio Guterres was clear: "The price of admission is non-negotiable: [we want] credible and serious new climate action and nature-based solutions."
Covid in China: US imposes Covid testing for visitors from China
China is starting to reopen borders after three years
By Alys Davies and Frances Mao
BBC News
The US has become the latest country to impose Covid testing on visitors from China, after Beijing announced it would reopen borders next week.
Italy, Japan, Taiwan and India also announced mandatory tests, but Australia and UK said there were no new rules for travellers from China.
After three years of being closed to the world, China will let people travel more freely from 8 January.
But the country's ongoing Covid surge has sparked wariness.
China is reporting about 5,000 cases a day, but analysts say such numbers are vastly undercounted - and the daily case load may be closer to a million. Hospitals are overwhelmed and residents are struggling to find basic medicines, according to reports.
On Wednesday, the US said a lack of "adequate and transparent" Covid data in China had contributed to the decision to require Covid tests from 5 January for travellers entering the country from China, Hong Kong and Macau.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this was needed "to help slow the spread of the virus as we work to identify... any potential new variants that may emerge".
But Beijing's foreign ministry on Wednesday had said coronavirus rules should only be instated on a "scientific" basis and accused Western countries and media of "hyping up" the situation.
Some people reacted angrily on China's censored social media.
"I thought all of the foreign countries had opened up. Isn't this racism?" read one comment that was liked 3,000 times on Weibo. The US has said testing is required of anyone coming from China, or via a third country, regardless of nationality.
But others said they understood the reason for the conditions: "This is nothing compared to all the restrictions we had for people coming into China," one user wrote.
Beijing only announced on Monday its decision to end quarantine for arrivals - effectively reopening travel in and out of the country for the first time since March 2020. Until this week, anyone entering China had to undergo quarantine in state facilities.
Before the pandemic, China had been the world's largest outbound tourism market. But it's unclear how many Chinese people will travel abroad after 8 January given that the number of flights are limited, and many citizens need to renew their passports.
The international community's reaction has varied with the UK and Australia saying they were monitoring China's Covid situation but were not planning on announcing new testing requirements.
Others have moved swiftly to announce restrictions:
In Japan, from Friday, travellers from China will be tested for Covid upon arrival. Those who test positive will have to quarantine for up to seven days. The number of flights to and from China will also be restricted
In India, people travelling from China and four other Asian countries must produce a negative Covid test before arriving. Positive passengers will also be put in quarantine
Taiwan says people arriving on flights from China, as well as by boat at two islands, will have to take Covid tests on arrival from 1 January to 31 January. Those who test positive will be able to isolate at home
Meanwhile Malaysia has put additional tracking and surveillance measures in place
Italy has also imposed mandatory Covid testing on travellers from China
The European Commission said its health security committee would convene on Thursday to discuss "possible measures for a coordinated EU approach" to China's Covid surge.
But Italy, an EU member state and an epicentre of the virus in late 2019 and 2020, said it was moving first to "ensure the surveillance and identification" of any new variants of the virus.
Flights arriving in Milan this week were already testing passengers from China. Authorities found 52% of passengers were infected with Covid on one flight that landed on 26 December.
Initial tests of Covid-positive travellers arriving from China showed that 15 of them had Omicron variants that were already present in Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said. She described the news as quite reassuring.
Italy is one of 26 European countries in the border-free Schengen zone and Ms Meloni is calling for EU-wide testing of Chinese passengers, arguing that Italy's own measures might otherwise be ineffective.
China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that "currently the development of China's epidemic situation is overall predictable and under control".
However, the true toll of daily cases and deaths in China is unknown as officials have stopped requiring cases to be reported, and changed classifications for Covid deaths. On Sunday, officials said they would also stop releasing daily case counts.
"The infection surge in China is on expected lines," Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, an Indian epidemiologist and health systems specialist told the BBC in a recent interview.
"If you have a susceptible population that is not exposed to the virus, cases will rise. Nothing has changed for the rest of the world."
China's decision to reopen its borders marks the end of the country's controversial zero-Covid policy, which President Xi Jinping had personally endorsed.
Even as the rest of the world transitioned to living with the virus, Beijing insisted on an eradication policy involving mass testing and stringent lockdowns.
The economy took a hit and people grew both exhausted and angry - in November, the frustration spilled onto the streets in rare protests against Mr Xi and his government. Week later, Beijing began to roll back the restrictions.