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“Plastic will overwhelm us:” Scientists say health should be the core of global plastic treaty

News Agency nabakhabar — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 14:54:14 +0000

More than 20 international scientists put forth a plan today to encourage world leaders to put human health at the center of global plastic treaty negotiations taking place this week in Nairobi, Kenya.

The plan, dubbed the Health Scientists’ Global Plastic Treaty by its proponents, comes as negotiators from about 175 countries — along with industry representatives, environmentalists and others — meet through Nov. 19 to advance a treaty to end global plastic pollution. The Nairobi gathering is the third of five such meetings. The plan is to complete negotiations by the end of 2024 and have the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) develop the first international treaty tackling plastic on land and in bodies of water.

The Health Scientists’ Global Plastic Treaty was led by the Plastic Health Council — a group of scientists that research the human health impacts of plastics. Pete Myers, one of the signees and members of the Plastic Health Council, is the chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences, which publishes EHN.org. The alternative treaty outlines both short-term and long-term goals that would ensure a health-protective global treaty.

Short-term goals include:

Stopping any consideration of chemical recycling
Eliminating subsidies to plastic manufacturers
Reducing single-use plastic production by 50% by 2035
Reducing virgin plastic production by 70% by 2024
Banning the sale of all products with unnecessary plastic by 2030.

Long-term goals include stopping use of micro-and nano-plastics except in medical settings, eliminating all chemicals of concern in plastics and funding safe, sustainable plastic replacements.

“We desperately need a global plastics treaty that uses the irrefutable evidence from the litany of peer-reviewed research reports as a catalyst for real action,” Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet and the Plastic Health Council, said in a statement. “What will it take for global policymakers to resist the intense lobbying from big oil and mandate safer materials and chemicals that do not infect our planet and our children?”

Delegates at the plastic treaty negotiations in Nairobi. / Credit: UNEP

Last September, UNEP released a “Zero Draft” of a potential treaty agreement, which does include some proposals to limit or ban some concerning plastic chemicals. The scientist’s treaty released today called the Zero Draft “well-intentioned” but that it “falls far short of what is needed to ensure the health of humans, wildlife and ecosystems.”

Whether — and how much — the treaty should regulate the chemicals in plastic production is a point of contention. Thousands of chemicals found in plastics — such as PCBs, phthalates, BPA and PFAS — are linked to health effects in humans, from the immune system to the brain to the endocrine system. Recent research of 1,500 plastic chemicals found fewer than 30% have been tested for human health impacts.

“Most people assume that materials are thoroughly tested before they are put on the market, but for plastics this is not the case,” the scientists wrote in their draft treaty. “Plastics have largely escaped regulatory scrutiny for over 100 years.”

Countries and other negotiators also remain at odds over whether there should be production caps or more of a focus on recycling and a plastic “circular economy.” A treaty that limits production would impact oil, gas and petrochemical interests.

While only about 9% of plastic is recycled, recycling plastics can release toxic chemical additives.

Promoting chemical recycling “would be the worst outcome the Treaty could endorse for managing plastic waste,” the scientists wrote.

“Plastic recycling has been touted as a solution to the plastics pollution crisis, but toxic chemicals in plastics complicate their reuse and disposal and hinder plastic recycling,” said Bethanie Carney Almroth, a signee to the Health Scientists’ Global Plastics Treaty and a researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Göteborg, Sweden, in a statement.

“Numerous studies show that hazardous chemicals can accumulate even in relatively close-loop plastic recycling systems,” she added. “We need to rapidly phase-out plastic chemicals that can cause harm to human health and the environment.”

The last plastic treaty meeting was in June and was hampered by delays and procedural debates, largely from countries that profit from fossil fuels — which are used to make most plastics — and plastic production such as China, India, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Prior to the Nairobi meeting, Saudi Arabia announced a coalition with Russia, Iran, Cuba, China and Bahrain called the Global Coalition for Plastics Sustainability, that will focus on plastic waste rather than production limits, according to Reuters.

On the other side of negotiations, more than 60 countries previously banded together to form the High Ambition Coalition with the goal of ending plastic pollution by 2040, with slowing production part of the solution.

The U.S. is not part of either coalition and has been criticized for initially favoring national commitments rather than legally binding global agreements. However, there are signals of a slight shift, as recent State Department statements have nodded to national plans being part of “universal obligations.”

The treaty is urgent as plastic production is on track to triple by 2060, an unsafe level for human health and the environment, according to an international panel of scientists.

“We must choose,” Myers said in a statement. “Will we smother the Earth and ourselves with toxic plastics? Or do we have the courage and foresight to stop the onslaught?”

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Cities ‘critical battlegrounds’ for a sustainable future: Guterres

News Agency nabakhabar — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 16:00:27 +0000

When it comes to fighting for a sustainable future, the world’s cities are “critical battlegrounds” and more important than ever to making multilateralism work for all, said the UN chief in a video message on Monday to the United Nations Habitat Assembly.

The Assembly runs through Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya. It is hosted by the government of Kenya in collaboration with UN-Habitat, the UN Human Settlements Programme. More than 80 Ministers and Vice Ministers are due to attend, together with 5,000 delegates from around the world, said the UN urban affairs agency. In his message, António Guterres pointed out that cities are on the front line for realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Urban Agenda, and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Over 2 billion in cities by 2050

“Cities are critical battlegrounds. They generate 70 percent of global emissions. They house half of humanity. And by 2050, over two billion more people will call them home.”

The Secretary-General’s blueprint for action, Our Common Agenda, calls for a reinvigorated and more inclusive multilateralism, recognizing the pivotal role cities and other local authorities play, in addressing the challenges ahead.

“Such multilateralism is vital to help cities to play their part”, he said, “to ensure the finance, information and support is in place for them to become resilient, inclusive and sustainable.”

Although cities have always spawned the ideas and innovations that have led human development, they’re more important than ever, “amidst a world in crisis”, he added.

“Inequalities are increasing. Global temperatures are rising, with catastrophic effects. Debt is straining developing countries’ economies to the limit. And halfway to the deadline for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we are leaving more than half the world behind.”

Mr. Guterres pointed out that an estimated 670 million still live in extreme poverty, and over one billion people, continue to endure slum conditions, due to lack of services available elsewhere.

Trends can be reversed

“There is still time to reverse these trends”, he said, and multilateralism must support cities to act on climate change, affordable housing, and the SDGs.

“I am confident that this UN-Habitat Assembly will advance these aims, including through your ministerial declaration. Together, we can achieve the sustainable urban future we need to build a peaceful, prosperous, and healthy world for all”, he concluded.

In his video remarks to the Assembly, President of the General Assembly Csaba Kőrösi, outlined key ways that cities can become more sustainable.

First, he pointed to the importance of compiling comprehensive data and statistics. Secondly, governments must fully assess urban development in the context of climate change, health, food security and water supply.

“But what we urgently need is a mindset shift. From business-as-usual planning and operation to one aiming at real sustainability transformation”, he said. “This means strengthening the science-policy interface, advancing evidence-based solutions, and approaching our goals holistically.”

Kenya’s President, William Ruto, officially opened the Assembly, alongside UN-Habitat Executive Director, Maimunah Mohd Sharif.

Prioritise cooperation

She told delegates that the Member States needed “to prioritize national and local cooperation as the basis of a just transition. Let us never forget human rights and the UN Charter, as the basis for sustainable urbanization.”

Ms. Sharif described the challenge facing all humankind as “enormous”.

“The only way we can achieve positive and transformative impact on the ground is not to go at it alone, but to embrace multilateral action.”

The First Lady of Kenya, Rachel Ruto, is due to host the inaugural First Ladies Roundtable on women and their role in placemaking in cities on Tuesday.

The five-day program includes a high-level dialogue of the heads of state, thematic debates, and dialogues focusing on universal access to affordable housing, urban climate action, urban crises recovery, localization of the SDGs, and prosperity and local finance.

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Kenya’s community-first climate approach lets locals pick projects

News Agency nabakhabar — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 11:00:26 +0000

When a water pan was built in a grazing reserve in northern Kenya in the 1980s, the central government hailed the project – which it had funded – as a vital solution to tackle water scarcity and ultimately improve the lives of local pastoralists.

But there was a problem. The pan – a small reservoir to collect and store rainwater – had been commissioned by officials in Nairobi without any input from local representatives or dialogue with affected communities in Isiolo County.

So rather than ease water woes and the impact of droughts, the new pan disrupted the traditional land use management system of the Borana tribe in the Yamicha area and led to conflict with herders from other ethnic groups, residents and activists said.

“The water pan caused encroachment by other communities, destroying the reserve,” which was part of an old grazing rotation system designed to ensure grass availability for local herders even in drought periods, said Abdi Adi, chairman of the Cherad Ward Plan Committee in Isiolo.

He emphasized that the Borana community was not consulted about the pan before it was built – which ended up increasing their drought risk rather than reducing it, as a result of a loss of grazing.

About a decade ago, the Borana shut down the water pan and replaced it with a borehole well that could be disabled, a move facilitated by the Adaptation Consortium, a government entity set up in 2010 to work with county governments to access climate finance.

As communities around the world race to try to cope with worsening climate change impacts – from droughts to floods – some adaptations put in place are creating as many problems as they solve, a challenge known as “maladaptation”.

In many cases, problematic adaptations are the result of too little community input, or ideas being imposed by outside consultants, analysts say.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year said that maladaptive projects can also waste a lot of cash, amid growing concerns over a shortfall in such funding.

In Kenya, problems like that with the water pan arose because community involvement in the allocation of climate adaptation resources used to be nearly non-existent, with everything run by the central government, several experts said.

“The major flaw with this kind of thinking was that all regions of the country were treated uniformly,” said Victor Orindi, national coordinator of the Adaptation Consortium.

But things changed in 2010 when a pilot project in Isiolo saw local governments and communities involved in the planning process and distribution of resources, with county-specific policies created.

The water pan in Yamicha was shut down by the Borana as a direct result of the pilot.

Other counties followed suit and Nairobi is expanding the approach nationwide through a devolved climate finance mechanism known as the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action Program (FLLoCA), developed with support from the World Bank.

The effort aims to reach all 47 counties in Kenya, identifying which climate issues and projects to prioritize and providing supplementary funding to help local governments and communities boost their resilience to climate change impacts, Orindi said.

“There is recognition for communities to organize themselves … (to) participate in the climate process in terms of identifying and prioritizing where to invest the climate funds,” he added.

County government officials consort with the community on climate financing in Wajir, northern Kenya, 2018. Jane Kiir/Handout via Thomson Reuters Foundation

Locals lead the way

In Yamicha, the Borana have for hundreds of years practiced a customary grazing system known as “dedha”, which has clear rules about how water resources and pasture can be used.

It has been hailed as an effective example of a traditional climate resilience approach, especially against droughts.

For example, grazing is permitted near settlements in the wet season, but livestock must be kept in designated reserves – away from communities – during droughts. This is to avoid overgrazing and ensure there is enough water to go around.

However, after the water pan was built, herders from other communities took advantage of the constantly available water source and moved their livestock into the reserves the Borana were keeping for use in the dry season, Adi said.

Since the pan was shut down and the borehole installed – it was preferred by the Borana because it could be shut down when not in use – the land has been in much better health, said Jacob Waqo, a program officer for the Merti Integrated Development Programme (MIDP), a development NGO in northern Kenya.

Another county to have benefitted from the shift in climate financing strategy is eastern Makueni, where an overflowing rock water catchment system caused deep gullies to form, creating concerns for people, crops and livestock when it rained.

Assisted by the Adaptation Consortium, the community in the Mbitini area decided to build two water tanks in 2017 that would collect rainwater from the rock catchment, boosting water supplies and reducing the risk of crops being washed away.

Lydia Muithya, deputy director of the Anglican Development Services Eastern (ADSE), a faith-based development agency, said the consortium’s financing meant the project went ahead despite a lack of support from Mbitini’s political representative.

“This was a priority for us, and we went ahead with the project, regardless,” she said.

Rehabilitated water troughs, where communities water their animals in Isiolo County, funded by climate financing, Kenya, 2018. Jane Kiir/Handout via Thomson Reuters Foundation

Economic concerns

The U.N. Development Programme criticized wealthier nations last month for failing to fulfill a pledge to deliver $100 billion a year in climate financing to the developing world.

Ahead of last year’s U.N. COP27 climate talks, a U.N. Environment Programme report said that in 2020, money from donor nations set aside to help poorer countries adapt to climate change was $29 billion — far below the $340 billion per year that could be needed by 2030.

A 2021 report led by Kenya’s Treasury said that $2.4 billion in public and private capital was invested in emissions reduction and climate adaptation activities in 2018, about half the amount needed to meet the country’s climate change targets.

About 79% of the funds were for emissions reduction measures, despite the fact the nation’s climate planning focuses on adaptation, the report noted, warning that this poses “an economic risk due to the cost of climate events such as drought and flooding”.

Counties in Kenya are encouraged by the central government to set aside 1% of their development budgets for climate change initiatives, and this amounted to $75 million nationwide in the 2018-19 financial year, according to the FLLoCA’s latest data.

As Kenya wrestles with climate change impacts – including its worst drought in 40 years – the expanding FLLoCA plans to eventually cover all 1,450 wards in the country and support projected identified by communities with expertise and funding, said the program’s finance and strategy manager Maurice Pedo.

“(The FLLoCA) plans to get the communities to identify climate change risks, map them, then prioritize projects that will address those risks,” Pedo said.

(Reporting by Geoffrey Kamadi; Editing by Kieran Guilbert and Laurie Goering)

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Motorbike ambulance saves mothers and babies in Kenya: UNFPA

News Agency nabakhabar — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 15:10:37 +0000

The hardship being felt across the Horn of Africa by the worst drought in 40 years has left many women weak and malnourished. The UN agency dedicated to women’s sexual and reproductive health, UNPA, is helping save mothers’ lives in Kenya, through the donation of a simple but effective way of accessing hard-to-reach areas – a motorbike, to enable safe emergency deliveries in the hospital.

“I cannot imagine them giving birth without the support of a skilled health professional”, said Mark Epeyon, a community health volunteer at the Katilu hospital in Kenya’s Turkana County.

Since November, the motorbike ambulance has protected lives that would have been lost without prompt transportation to their nearest health facility.

Help on wheels

Even before the current climate crisis, skilled birth attendance rates were low in Kenya. Today the maternal death rate remains high, despite some progress, at 342 mothers per 100,000 live births – nearly 90 percent of which are attributed to inadequate quality of care.

Mathew Bundotich, a medical superintendent at the Katilu hospital, explained that families are now forced to migrate ever further from health facilities in search of water, food and pasture for their animals.

While midwives used to assist at least 60 births every month, he said that the drought has caused ante-natal visits to dwindle.

“We pride ourselves on having recorded zero maternal deaths in our facility over the last year”, said Mr. Bundotich. “But now we have to follow women into their communities in order to reach them”.

Driver on the case

Having worked in the community for more than 11 years, Mr. Epeyon has mastered the art of navigating both on and off-road terrain – quickly locating a mother in urgent need of assistance, even in the most inaccessible areas.

“I became a community health volunteer because I saw the impact that a lack of proper health information and access to services was having on my people”, he told UNFPA.

“When my wife got pregnant the first time, she gave birth at home. Our child developed health complications that have affected him into adulthood”.

Spreading the word

To reach more women and girls in drought-affected communities, Mr. Epeyon has been going door-to-door, telling others about the motorcycle ambulance, and encouraging pregnant women to call him when in need, day or night.

In its first month of operation, the scrambler safely transported five women with obstetric emergencies to the hospital, likely saving their lives and those of their newborns.

Delivering life

As the motorbike can safely and comfortably transport one patient, an outreach medical worker and emergency supplies for on-site treatment, it has significantly reduced the time needed to deliver essential help to those in remote areas.

“In the past, women have given birth on the roadside while trekking to the hospital because they live too far from a health facility”, explained Mr. Epeyon.

“With the motorcycle ambulance, even if a woman delivers on the way, she is able to do so in a dignified manner, on a comfortable stretcher and with the help of a healthcare worker and myself”.

Heartfelt appeal

Due to the ongoing drought, more than 4.3 million Kenyans need humanitarian assistance, including 134,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women.

Through its Response Plan for the Horn of Africa Drought Crisis 2022-2023, UNFPA is appealing for $113.7 million to protect the sexual and reproductive health and rights of millions of women and girls across the region.

©UNFPA/Luis Tato / The ongoing drought has made it much harder for women in Turkana County, Kenya, to access essential health services – a dangerous situation that the UNFPA motorcycle ambulance is helping to address.

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Hundreds of elephants, wildebeests and zebras dead in Kenya amid prolonged drought

News Agency nabakhabar — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 16:24:56 +0000

Hundreds of elephants, wildebeests, and zebras have died across Kenya amid the nation’s longest drought in decades. “The Kenya Wildlife Service Rangers, Community Scouts, and Research Teams counted the deaths of 205 elephants, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras, 51 buffalos, 49 Grevy’s zebras, and 12 giraffes in the past nine months,” a report released Friday by the country’s Ministry of Tourism said.

“The drought has negatively impacted on the herbivore populations and particularly wildebeest and zebra.”

Prolonged drought across the Horn of Africa over the past four consecutive rainy seasons has left some 18 million people affected by food shortages in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to reports from the World Food Programme.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said the drought is the region’s longest in four decades.

In Kenya, back-to-back seasons of below average rainfall have caused riverbeds to dry up and destroyed grasslands in game reserves, according to the tourism ministry.

“The worst-affected ecosystems are home to some of Kenya’s most-visited national parks, reserves and conservancies, including the Amboseli, Tsavo and Laikipia-Samburu areas,” its report said.

At the launch of the report, Kenya’s Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage Peninah Malonza said steps were being taken to save the lives of animals – including digging boreholes and transporting water to dried-up water pans and dams.

Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images
An elephant keeper rests next to a month-old calf at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary 
in Samburu, Kenya on October 12, 2022.

Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images
An emaciated cow stands at the bottom of a dried-up water pan in Iresteno, 
a town on the border with Ethiopia, on September 1, 2022.

“The drought has caused mortality of wildlife, mostly herbivore species,” Malonza said.

“The mortalities have arisen because of depletion of food resources as well as water shortages,” she added. According to the ministry, Kenya had just 36,000 elephants left last year.

In an interview with the BBC in July, Kenya’s former cabinet secretary for wildlife and tourism Najib Balala said that climate change now kills 20 times as many elephants as poaching.

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Kenya: UN steps up protection for drought-hit women and girls

News Agency nabakhabar — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 20:23:13 +0000

Women and girls are bearing the brunt of the worst drought experienced in Kenya for 40 years, which is exacerbating the risk of sexual exploitation, violence, and abuse.

“We have to walk for more than seven kilometres to find water, and sometimes what we find isn’t safe to drink,” says 39 Elimlim Ingolan, mother of a seven-month-old baby. She describes digging for water from dry riverbeds, sometimes for hours, often without success.

Ms. Ingolan is speaking at an outreach session in village of Lokapararai, in Turkana county. The session, supported by the UN reproductive rights agency (UNFPA) is one of many aimed at bringing sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence protection services, to women and girls affected by the prolonged drought currently ravaging the region.

Dried up

In some areas, over 90 per cent of water sources have dried up and, as crops fail, and families lose their livestock – which, for many, is their only source of income – more than four million people are grappling with acute hunger. An estimated 134,000 women are currently pregnant or breastfeeding in drought-affected regions of Kenya; many are now malnourished and anaemic, conditions which can be life-threatening.

It is usually women and girls who are sent to fetch water; because of the drought, they have to walk even further, and wait for hours at boreholes.

This puts them at greater risk of violence, at a time when hostilities among communities desperate to secure scarce resources, are mounting.

With hundreds of thousands of Kenyans forced to move in search of survival, vulnerable women and girls have little to no access to critical health facilities or protection and support services – at the very time they need them the most.

There is evidence that gender-based violence, female genital mutilation, and child marriage have risen since the drought, as families marry off their girls to pay for food or cattle.

UNFPA Kenya

Safeguarding health, rights, and lives

To help protect women and girls from the drought’s fallout on their health, safety and well-being, UNFPA is distributing maternal health and dignity kits across Kenya.

These kits contain essential hygiene supplies for women and girls, and items to support new mothers, as well as a solar-powered torch and a whistle to call for help if needed. UNFPA also provides free referrals to hospital and ambulance transfers for women with obstetric and new-born emergencies.

From October 2021 to June 2022, UNFPA reached more than 186,000 women and girls with sexual and reproductive health support.

The agency also supported over 60,000 with gender-based violence response and protection services, including mental health support for more than 45,000 survivors

Joint appeal

But much more support is needed: the UN is calling for $320 million to support more than four million people in dire need of assistance through a joint drought appeal.

It is feared that, if forecasts of failed rains during the October to December season prove accurate, millions more vulnerable women and girls risk being affected by the crisis.

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Somalia cuts diplomatic ties with Kenya after breakaway region’s leader visits Nairobi

News Agency nabakhabar — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 19:39:17 +0000

Somalia cut diplomatic relations with neighboring Kenya on Tuesday, accusing it of meddling in politics as protests and gunfire erupted in the capital Mogadishu over delayed elections.

The dispute could undermine cooperation in the fight against the Islamist group al Shabaab in Somalia, where Kenya provides 3,600 troops to an African Union peacekeeping force.

“Somalia calls back all its diplomats from Kenya and orders Kenyan diplomats to leave Somalia within seven days,” Somali Information Minister Osman Dube told the state news agency.

Dube added in a statement read on Radio Mogadishu that Nairobi was interfering, but did not give more details.

“This is an answer to the constant political violation and Kenya’s open interference in Somalia’s independence,” he said.

The Kenyan government did not immediately respond.

Mogadishu’s move to cut ties followed a two-day visit to Kenya by Muse Bihi Abdi, president of Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland, that ended on Monday.

During the visit, Abdi and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta pledged “unwavering commitment to deepen the cordial bilateral relations” between Kenya and Somaliland, according to a Kenyan presidency statement.

Mogadishu regards Somaliland as an integral part of Somalia.

Last month, Somalia expelled Nairobi’s ambassador and recalled its own envoy after alleging interference in the electoral process in Jubbaland.

Jubbaland, which borders Kenya, is one of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous states.

Also last year, Kenya recalled its ambassador after Mogadishu decided to auction disputed oil and gas exploration blocks at sea. Ties were restored a few months later.

Gunfire in Mogadishu

The diplomatic flare-up came as anti-government protests broke out in Mogadishu. Demonstrators denounced President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed – usually known by his nickname “Farmaajo” (cheese) – over delayed votes for both houses of parliament.

The polls were due early this month but became snagged on disagreements over the composition of the electoral board.

“We do not want a dictator, we do not want Farmaajo,” hundreds of protesters chanted, calling for him to quit. Some carried placards with “Farmaajo is a curse” written on them.

Armed men in plainclothes guarded the protesters but soon started exchanging gunfire with police, prompting the protesters to scamper for safety. One witness, Halima Farah, told Reuters she saw two people injured.

There was no immediate response from the government to the protests.

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