China – Page 7 – Desdemona Despair

Three-wheelers queue to buy petrol due to fuel shortage, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 5 July 2022. Dinuka Liyanawatte / REUTERS

July 8, 2022

World Bank calls for sovereign debt changes ahead of looming crises – “There are more Sri Lankas on the way”

By Marc Jones 28 June 2022 LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) – A senior official at the World Bank has ramped up its calls for changes in sovereign debt laws so governments have more control when crises strike and they have to restructure their debt. World Bank economists estimate that low- and middle-income economies owe a […]

Change in primary energy by fuel, 2007-2021. Primary energy in 2021 grew by its largest amount in history, with emerging economies accounting for most of the increase. Primary energy grew by 31 exajoules (EJ) in 2021, the largest increase in history and more than reversing the sharp decline seen in 2020. Primary energy in 2021 was 8 EJ above 2019 levels. The increase in primary energy in 2021 was driven by emerging economies, which increased by 13 EJ, with China expanding by 10 EJ. Taking 2020 and 2021 together, primary energy consumption in emerging economies increased by 15 EJ, largely reflecting growth in China (13 EJ). In contrast, energy demand in developed economies in 2021 was 7 EJ below 2019 levels. The increase in primary energy between 2019 and 2021 was entirely driven by renewable energy sources. The level of fossil fuel energy consumption was unchanged between 2019 and 2021, with lower oil demand (-8 EJ) offset by higher natural gas (5 EJ) and coal (3 EJ) consumption. Graphic: BP

June 28, 2022

BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2022: Carbon emissions rebound after pandemic dip – Coal prices surge – “The world remains on an unsustainable path”

By Spencer Dale 28 June 2022 (BP) – The challenges and uncertainties facing the global energy system are at their greatest for almost 50 years, at the time of the last great energy shocks of the 1970s. Most immediate is the impact of the terrible events taking place in Ukraine, with its tragic toll on […]

Aerial view of workers gathering along a section of flooded railway in Shangrao in central China's Jiangxi province, Tuesday, 21 June 2022. Photo: Chinatopix / AP

June 26, 2022

Mass evacuations as record rain, floods strike southern China – Pearl River water level hits 100-year high – Heatwave causes record power demand surge in northern cities

By Jack Lau 20 June 2022 (SCMP) – Floodwaters engulfed homes, fields and roads in southern China as authorities evacuated nearly 150,000 residents after weeks of record rain. A task force from Beijing was sent to Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Guangdong province to lead rescue and evacuation efforts on Monday, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The China Meteorological Administration said […]

Total annual global cement emissions, 1990-2021. Making cement emits carbon dioxide two ways, one from the chemical process and the other from heating the chemicals. Global carbon dioxide emissions from cement making have tripled in the last 30 years and doubled in the last 20 years. Data: Robbie Andrew / CICERO Center for International Climate Research. Graphic: Camille Fassett / AP

June 26, 2022

Carbon dioxide emissions from cement production double in 20 years – “Each person on the planet is consuming on average more than a kilogram of cement per day”

By Seth Borenstein 22 June 2022 (AP) – Heat trapping carbon dioxide emissions from making cement, a less talked about but major source of carbon pollution, have doubled in the last 20 years, new global data shows. In 2021, worldwide emissions from making cement for buildings, roads and other infrastructure hit nearly 2.9 billion tons […]

Map showing the Global Peace Index in 2022. The average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.3 percent in the 2022 GPI. Graphic: IEP

June 21, 2022

Global Peace Index 2022: Peacefulness declines to lowest level in 15 years – “The economic value of lost peace reached record levels in 2021”

15 June 2022 (IEP) – The 16th edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) report, the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness, reveals that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.3% in 2021. This is the eleventh deterioration in peacefulness in the last fourteen years, with 90 countries improving, and 71 deteriorating, […]

Map showing spatial extent of heavy labor losses due to humid heat. Per capita heavy labor lost (a)–(c) and population-weighted heavy labor lost (d)–(f) for the Lancet Countdown method ('LCHCC', (a), (d)) and the laboratory exposure response to heat ('Laboratory', (b), (e)). Panels on right show the zonal median (c) and zonal sums (f) of heavy labor losses. Maps in the top row show mean h person−1 yr−1 lost due to background heat and humidity combined with internal heat generation in individuals conducting heavy labor. Maps in the bottom row display 'population-weighted' labor loss, which is defined as the product of the mean per-capita hours lost overlaid and the ILO heavy labor sector proportion of the working-age population (ages 15+) for 163 countries for which the data are available. Shading around zonal median (top right) and zonal sum (bottom right) lines outlines the range of zonal values for individual years. Graphic: Parsons, et al., 2022 / Environmental Research Letters

May 30, 2022

India’s savage heat exacts heaviest toll on outdoor workers – Humid heat causes 650 billion hours of annual lost labor globally, up at least 9 percent over four decades – “This is not just exhaustion or discomfort. It is actually killing people.”

By Anjana Pasricha 23 May 2022 NEW DELHI (VOA News) – Pradeep Kumar can earn nearly eight dollars a day selling the traditional Indian drink with cumin and lemon that he makes at his cart in a popular market in New Delhi — supposed to cool the body, the beverage has been much in demand […]

Global distribution of estimated excess mortality rate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for the cumulative period 2020–21. Although reported COVID-19 deaths between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 totaled 5.94 million worldwide, IHME estimates that 18.2 million (95 percent uncertainty interval 17.1–19.6) people died worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic over that period, as measured by excess mortality. Graphic: Wang, et al., 2022 / The Lancet

May 7, 2022

WHO estimates nearly 15 million deaths associated with COVID-19, more than double the official toll – “When you have a massive outbreak where people are dying in the streets because of a lack of oxygen, we end up never knowing just how many people died”

By Maria Cheng 5 May 2022 LONDON (AP) – The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 15 million people were killed either by coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems during the first two years of the pandemic, more than double the current official death toll of over 6 million. Most of the […]

Racking systems to hold solar panels sit empty on top of an old strip mine in Portage, Pennsylvania, on Monday, 25 April 2022. The fallout from a trade probe is rippling through the US solar industry, delaying projects and threatening to slow the renewable energy transition. Photo: Justin Merriman / Bloomberg / Getty Images

May 7, 2022

Solar energy projects are grinding to a halt in the U.S. amid investigation into parts from China – “We’re getting crushed because we literally can’t buy a module today”

By Ella Nilsen 6 May 2022 (CNN) – The solar energy industry has been thrown into a panic and projects are grinding to a halt after the Biden administration launched an investigation that some solar CEOs worry could tank the industry. The Commerce Department launched the probe in March into whether four countries in Southeast Asia that supply […]

Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Africa in 2019 (left), and top eight wheat importers in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 (right). Challenges for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase as Russia’s war on Ukraine persists. Graphic: IMF

May 7, 2022

Russia’s war on Ukraine dims global economic outlook as inflation accelerates – Africa faces new shock as war raises food and fuel costs – “This crisis unfolds even as the global economy has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic”

By Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas 19 April 2022 (IMF) – Global economic prospects have been severely set back, largely because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This crisis unfolds even as the global economy has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic. Even before the war, inflation in many countries had been rising due to supply-demand imbalances and […]

Press freedom situation in 180 countries and territories, 2013-2022. Graphic: Reporters Sans Frontières

May 3, 2022

RSF’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index: a new era of polarisation – Journalism situation classified “very bad” in record number of 28 countries

2 May 2022 (RSF) – The 20th World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reveals a two-fold increase in polarisation amplified by information chaos – that is, media polarisation fuelling divisions within countries, as well as polarisation between countries at the international level. Читать на русском / Read in Russian The 2022 […]