The Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday became the first nation to ratify last year’s accord to cut the use of powerful factory-made greenhouse gases, saying the survival of the nation was at risk from climate change.
The parliament of the Marshall Islands, with a population of 53,000 vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by melting ice, approved the plan to curb use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are used in refrigerants and air conditioning.
The decision is a sign of continuing action to limit global warming despite uncertainty about future US climate policies under US President Donald Trump. Trump has expressed doubts that man-made greenhouse gases stoke warming.
“My country will not survive without urgent action to cut emissions by every country and every sector of our economies, including HFCs,” Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said.
“This deal is good for our people, the planet, and the profits of those that follow in our footsteps,” she said in a statement, which said the nation was the first to ratify the HFC agreement worked out in Kigali, Rwanda, in October last year.
The Kigali pact, agreed by almost 200 nations including the US, will phase down the use of HFCs, which can be 10,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere.
It will enter into legal force on Jan. 1, 2019, assuming at least 20 nations have formally ratified by that date.
The Marshall Islands was also the first to ratify the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which seeks a radical shift from fossil fuels this century to help avert heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
Andrew Light, distinguished senior fellow in the US-based World Resources Institute’s Global Climate Program, said US companies such as Honeywell and DuPont had already developed new chemicals that are less environmentally harmful than HFCs.
Last year, almost 200 nations, ranging from China and OPEC nations to Pacific island states, reaffirmed after Trump’s election victory that action on climate change was an “urgent duty.”
HFCs were introduced as substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons, which were damaging the ozone layer that protects the planet from ultraviolet rays that cause skin cancer, but scientists later found that HFCs, while better for the ozone layer, were stoking global warming.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is giving US President Donald Trump three months before his fellow Americans force him to rethink his stringent global tariff strategy, accusing the US leader of “living in an old world.” In an interview two months ahead of his 100th birthday, the plain-speaking Mahathir said: “Trump will find that his tariffs are hurting America, and the people in America will end up against him.” The US president’s stop-start tariff rollout would impact Asian nations hard, including Malaysia, which faces a 24 percent levy in July unless the two countries can strike a deal. “It’s going to cause
RSS