Day: April 12, 2022

PARIS— A string of deadly storms pummelled Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique with more intense rainfall because of climate change, new research found.

Three tropical cyclones and two tropical storms hit Southeast Africa in just six weeks in the first months of this year, causing widespread flooding.

More than a million people were affected and at least 230 people died.

The analysis was carried out by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network of scientists, which has pioneered ways to speedily link extreme weather events to climate change.

They said that it was climate change that had made the heavy rains brought by the back-to-back storms both heavier and more likely.

“Again we are seeing how the people with the least responsibility for climate change are bearing the brunt of the impacts,” said WWA co-founder Friederike Otto, of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.

After Tropical Storm Ana smashed into the region in January, Tropical Cyclone Batsirai hit Madagascar in early February, followed in quick succession by Tropical Storm Dumako and Tropical Cyclones Emnati and Gombe.

WWA scientists used weather observations and computer simulations to compare rainfall patterns under today’s climate to that of the pre-industrial area, before global warming.

They focused on two of the wettest periods – during storm Ana in Malawi and Mozambique and during cyclone Batsirai in Madagascar.

“In both cases, the results show that rainfall associated with the storms was made more intense by climate change and that episodes of extreme rainfall such as these have become more frequent,” WWA said in a report of their findings.

That tallies with overall climate research showing that global warming can increase the frequency and intensity of rainfall.

But the scientists were not able to determine exactly how much climate change influenced the extreme events because of a shortage of high quality historical rainfall records for the region.

This is a particular concern in poorer nations, which are also especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

“Strengthening scientific resources in Africa and other parts of the global South is key to help us better understand extreme weather events fuelled by climate change, to prepare vulnerable people and infrastructure to better cope with them,” said Izidine Pinto, of the University of Cape Town and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.

WWA said that of 23 weather stations in the affected area in Mozambique, only four had relatively complete records going back to 1981.

In Madagascar and Malawi there were no weather stations with suitable data.

Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world, has also been ravaged by drought in its southern region, leading to malnutrition and pockets of famine.

In December, the WWA said global warming had played only a minimal role in that crisis, contradicting a UN description of the situation as a “climate change famine”.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

LONDON— Oil futures rose early on Tuesday, reversing sharp losses from the prior day, as the market weighed the potential for more sanctions on Russia’s energy sector and OPEC warned it would be impossible to increase output enough to offset lost supply.

Brent crude futures were up 85 cents, 0.9per cent, to $99.33 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate contracts were up $1.04, or 1.1per cent, to $95.33 a barrel at 0019 GMT.

Both contracts had settled down around 4per cent on Monday amid concerns that coronavirus lockdowns in China would dampen demand for fuel and ahead of a massive oil reserve release by International Energy Agency (IEA) members.

The European Union is drafting proposals for an EU oil embargo on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, some foreign ministers said on Monday. However, there is currently no agreement among members on crude from Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”.

“The oil market is still vulnerable to a major shock if Russian energy is sanctioned, and that risk remains on the table,” wrote Edward Moya, a senior market analyst with OANDA.

“Oil prices will play tug-of-war here as crude inventories remain low, but energy traders will struggle to shake-off these steady announcements of new COVID restrictions in China,” he added.

Tuesday’s rise in oil markets also followed a warning from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that some 7 million barrels per day of Russian oil and other liquids exports could be lost due to sanctions or voluntary actions, and that it would be impossible to replace those volumes.

IEA member nations are planning to release some 240 million barrels over the next six months in a bid to calm volatile oil markets, of which 180 million will be released from U.S. stockpiles at a rate of 1 million bpd starting in May.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

BRUSSELS— Russia’s war in Ukraine, and not the sanctions imposed on Moscow, is what is causing an escalating global food crisis, the EU’s top diplomat said.

“They are causing scarcity. They are bombing Ukrainian cities and provoking hunger in the world,” Josep Borrell told a media conference after chairing a Monday meeting of EU foreign ministers.

He said the Russian military was “sowing bombs on Ukraine’s fields, and Russian warships have blockaded tens of ships full of wheat”.

“They are bombing and destroying the stocks of wheat and preventing this wheat to be exported,” he said.

Borrell warned that in addition to the violent battles raging on the ground in Ukraine, “there is another battle: a battle of narrative”.

While Moscow, he said, was attempting to portray Western sanctions as “responsible for the food scarcity and rising prices,” it was Russia that was “provoking hunger in the world by blocking the ports, the wheat, and by destroying the stores of wheat in Ukraine”.

“Stop blaming the sanctions,” he said. “It is the Russian military that is causing food scarcity.”

His comments came after the United Nations warned last week that global food prices hit an all-time high in March following Russia’s invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said the disruption to exports resulting from the February 24 invasion, coupled with the international sanctions on Russia, had spurred fears of a global hunger crisis.

Concerns were especially acute in the Middle East and Africa, where knock-on effects were already playing out.

Russia and Ukraine possess vast grain-growing regions that are among the world’s main breadbaskets. Their harvests represent big shares of the globe’s exports in several major commodities, including wheat, vegetable oil and corn.

Russia and Ukraine together accounted for around 30 percent and 20 percent of global wheat and maize exports, respectively, over the past three years, the FAO said.

The FAO estimates famine in West Africa and the Sahel regions — both highly dependent on Russian and Ukrainian grains — could worsen and affect over 38 million people by June if no measures are taken.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK