The number dying of the infection rose for the first time in 10 years. In 2020, 1.5 million were killed by TB and 10 million infected. 

Public health campaigners want funding of  $1bn (£730m) every year into vaccine research. It has never exceeded more than $120m (£87m) in a year.

Earlier this month, the WHO warned that the pandemic had reversed progress against TB and fewer people were being diagnosed and treated as resources went to tackling Covid-19. Global funding for TB fell by £500m from 2019 to 2020.

Mike Frick, co-director of the TB project at Treatment Action Group, said: “Governments cumulatively spent $104bn on research and development of Covid-19 vaccine and therapeutics in the first 11 months of the pandemic. That is 75 times more than the money governments and other funders spent on TB vaccine research over the 11 years from 2005 to 2019. Despite high mortality rates, the only existing vaccine is the 100-year-old BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) vaccine, which is less effective for adults and older teenagers.

“This disparity signals a clear abdication of responsibility on the part of governments to protect the human rights of people with TB to health and scientific progress. It is past time that we as a TB community start expecting – and demanding – more.”

Early diagnosis of TB is crucial because undetected cases increase the risk of the disease spreading. A person can be infected by inhaling a small number of bacteria that can take years to become active. The WHO estimates that around a quarter of the world’s population has latent TB.

Around the world, fewer infections were diagnosed and reported; a drop from 7.1m in 2019 to 5.8m in 2020. India made up 40% of this global drop in notifications, while numbers were down 14% in Indonesia and 12% in the Philippines. The number of people given preventive treatment fell by a fifth. WHO said it believes 4.1 million people newly infected with TB in 2020 have not been diagnosed, compared with 2.9 million the year before.

Call for action on TB as deaths rise for first time in decade | Global development | The Guardian

 The world will need to shut down nearly 3,000 coal-fired power plants before 2030 if it is to have a chance of keeping temperature rises within 1.5 Celsius, according to research by climate think tank TransitionZero.

TransitionZero said there are currently more than 2,000 GW of coal-fired power in operation across the world, and that needs to be slashed by nearly half, requiring the closure of nearly one unit per day from now until the end of the decade.

The need to close nearly 1,000 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity would put the onus on China – the world’s biggest source of climate-warming greenhouse gas and owner of around half of the world’s coal-fuelled plants – to accelerate its shift towards cleaner electricity.

“The logical conclusion is that half of the effort will need to come from China,” said Matt Gray, TransitionZero analyst and author of the report. “I think it is fair to say that keeping the lights on and keeping buildings warm will be the exclusive priority of the Chinese government coming into winter,” he said. “But our hope is for this crisis to be seen as a wake-up call for being reliant on coal-fired power.”

World should shut nearly 3,000 coal plants to keep climate goals (trust.org)

Experts were unanimous that unless we keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the earth will suffer heatwaves, cyclones and storms, entire animal and plant species will die out, and large numbers of people forced to flee their homes. To avoid such a fate there are some scientists calling for plans to cool the planet with geoengineering, looking at it as a potential means of reversing the damage. Geoengineering is a way of using technology to cancel out the environmental effects of human actions. 

“There are two categories of geoengineering,” said Roland Séférian, a climatologist at France’s Meteorological Office. The first – and most controversial – involves ways of “modifying solar radiation”, Séférian noted. One such idea is to “reproduce what happens during volcanic eruptions when clouds of dust emerge in the sky and form a kind of screen between the sun and the earth, cooling the atmosphere in the process”.

Another technique is to “whiten” cloud formations by spraying salt into the atmosphere to reflect more of the sun’s rays – and consequently heat – thereby limiting the warming of the oceans. But research into this technology is still in its infancy. 

As things stand, these are still just ideas scientists are thinking about. Dozens of plans have been suggested – some rather fanciful and of dubious plausibility – including putting mirrors in space and even modifying the earth’s trajectory.

One approach we’re already using a lot in trying to address climate change is projects to take CO2 out of the atmosphere such as planting lots of trees. There may not be enough arable land for planting forests.

Aside from that natural means of capturing carbon, two technologies are mentioned  as potential methods of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere.

The first is called direct air capture (DCA), which involves installing kinds of vacuum cleaners to suck CO2 out of the air. The carbon is then buried underground. Some 20 such projects are already in place across the globe.

The second technology is called bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). This means producing energy by burning biomass – such as wood and agricultural waste – trapping the resultant CO2 and burying it underground.

Neither technology has proven its worth.

Carbon capture can only happen through the transport of CO2 – which requires pipelines and storage space; the kind of infrastructure oil companies have and stand to profit handsomely from.

Geoengineering is something only rich developed countries can afford to do and not the undeveloped and developing nations which lack the fundings yet will endure the worst effects of climate change. 

Further,  since geoengineering technologies still at an embryonic stage, researchers do not know what unintended consequences they might create.

“Even with the best scientific models, it’s hard to see exactly what would happen if people tried to absorb or bounce back solar radiation,” Séférian said. “CO2 capture and storage also raises questions: What would happen if the carbon leaks during transport? How long could it stay buried?” Séférian added, “It’s certainly something that we should be talking about, but it’s not a priority at these stage. The important thing is reducing CO2 emissions. Geoengineering comes later.”

Could a technological fix save the planet from climate change? (france24.com)

Capitalists will seek any answer that does not threaten their profit margin and especially solutions which will make money for them. The simplest remedy to the climate crisis, ending market expansion and profit accumulation but those will not be on any COP26 agenda

 Saudi Arabia and the UAE have summoned Labanon’s ambassadors to protest against Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi’s criticism of the Riyadh-led military coalition fighting rebels in Yemen.

Kordahi said during an interview that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels are “defending themselves … against an external aggression”, adding that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the coalition. He also called the seven-year war in Yemen “futile” and said it was “time for it to end”.

When asked about drone attacks, which the Houthis have launched repeatedly into Saudi Arabia along with missiles, he answered, “Yes, but see also the damage that is being done to them as a nation … they are being bombed by planes.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that it handed the ambassador a memorandum protesting against Kordahi’s “offensive” remarks. It also expressed its regret about the “insulting” statements, saying they were “clearly biased towards the terrorist Houthi militia that threatens the security and stability of the region”.

 United Arab Emirates – also a member of the coalition – also condemned Kordahi’s statements and said it had also called in the Lebanese ambassador. Kordahi’s “disgraceful and biased” comments “offended the member countries of the coalition,” it said.

Kuwait also summoned Lebanon’s charge d’affaires in protest.

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s secretary-general said Kordahi’s comments reflected little understanding and were a superficial reading of events.

Kordahi explained, “I am against Arab-Arab wars … accusing me of hostility to Saudi Arabia is rejected.”

Saudi Arabia has shunned Lebanon for years because of Hezbollah’s strong influence in Lebanese state affairs, which it also says has sent fighters to Yemen.  Saudi Arabia has classified the Lebanon-based Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association as a “terrorist” entity, citing links to activities supporting Lebanon’s Shia group Hezbollah.  All assets belonging to the association has been frozen.  Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association although registered as a charity, operates like a bank with dozens of branches and even ATMs.

Saudi Arabia, UAE summon Lebanon envoys over Yemen war criticism | Human Rights News | Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia designates Hezbollah’s financial arm as ‘terrorists’ | Hezbollah News | Al Jazeera

 “Buried” in a report published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is that mortgage interest payments were set for their biggest rise since at least 2008.  

The OBR figures for predicted year-on-year growth in mortgage interest payments – included in one of the main report’s supplementary tables – suggest homeowners need to be braced for a 5.6% increase in costs next year, rising to 13% in 2023 before falling back to 5.4% in 2024

Householders with the average mortgage of £211,000 could see their payments go up by more than £500 a year. The data indicated that an average borrower on a standard variable rate of 3.26% would find their payments rising by more than £42 a month, or £510 over a year. For a fixed-rate home loan of 2%, the increase would be £25 a month, or £300 a year.

The investment firm AJ Bell said some people with larger mortgages could have to pay more than £1,000 extra a year.

AJ Bell said the data suggested that those who signed up to a record low two-year fixed-rate deal earlier this year could face a big rise when they came to remortgage in the first half of 2023.

“Someone with £250,000 of borrowing who fixed earlier this year and renewed in 2023 would see £600 a year added to their mortgage costs, while someone with £450,000 of borrowing would see their costs hike by £1,068 a year,” said Laura Suter, head of personal finance at the firm. She added that someone on a current average variable rate deal of 2.4% and who had a £250,000 mortgage could find their annual costs increasing by £696 by 2023, while those with £450,000 of borrowing would see their costs rising by £1,260 a year.

Interest rates are at a historic low of 0.1%, but the financial markets have priced in a rate rise when the Bank of England meets next week, which could lift the base rate to 0.25%, and then a 0.25-point increase in December. With two more 0.25% hikes forecast for next year, that could take the base rate to 1% by the end of 2022.

Banks and building societies have already started pulling their cheapest mortgage deals from the market, with some brokers saying that price changes had been coming “thick and fast” during the past few days.

Homeowners face biggest hike in mortgage costs since 2008 | Mortgages | The Guardian

The biggest wage squeeze in British economic history will leave the average worker almost £13,000 a year worse off by the middle of the 2020s The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the UK’s leading tax and spending thinktank, said.

 The IFS said wage stagnation was expected to continue. By 2026, it said average household earnings would be £30,800, compared with £43,700 if wages had risen at the same pace as in the two decades before the banking crisis.

The 2010s were the weakest decade for real wage growth since the Napoleonic wars.

Paul Johnson, the IFS director, said the real-terms damage to household incomes was unprecedented in modern history, with weaker economic growth and higher inflation to blame. “The gap between what we might have expected on the basis of pre-financial crisis trends and what is actually happening is staggering,” he said.

Wage squeeze will leave average worker almost £13k worse off, Sunak warned | Autumn budget 2021 | The Guardian

UK’s annual tax bill ‘to rise by £3,000 a household by 2027’ | Autumn budget 2021 | The Guardian

 China’s long-awaited national plan on greenhouse gas emissions has now been published. 

 However, it represents little progress on the previously announced ambitions of the world’s biggest carbon emitter.

The reaction among analysts was that the new climate plan is disappointingly short of fresh details. The main targets of the updated nationally determined contribution (NDC) are insufficient to keep the world on course to hold global heating to no more than 1.5C.  Climate campaigners say it is now time for the country to take more actions domestically to rein in greenhouse gas emissions this decade.

The new NDC is also far less than many analysts say China could easily manage. With its huge investments in renewable energy in recent years, the country has already made substantial changes to its high-carbon economy, and the plunging price of low-carbon technology should make the transition even easier, leading many analysts to conclude that China could, with not much extra effort, cause its emissions to peak in about 2025.

Belinda Schäpe, from the E3G thinktank, said the recent warning by the world’s leading climate scientists required nations to step up further than they were willing to do last year.

Li Shuo of Greenpeace said: “China’s decision on its NDC casts a shadow on the global climate effort. In light of the domestic economic uncertainties, the country appears hesitant to embrace stronger near-term targets, and missed an opportunity to demonstrate ambition. The planet cannot afford this being the last word. Beijing needs to come up with stronger implementation plans to ensure an emission peak before 2025.”

Helen Mountford, the vice-president for climate and economics at the World Resources Institute, said China needed to strengthen its new near-term targets and measures to get on a pathway to reach its 2060 carbon neutrality goal, and that this was within its reach.

“Our analysis shows that China can step up its efforts to reducing emissions while also enjoying economic growth and a more sustainable environment,” she said.

Bernice Lee, the research director for futures at the Chatham House thinktank, said: “We cannot sugarcoat it. It is disappointing and off the mark and not befitting of the world’s largest emitter. It is symptomatic of a broader trend/shortfall where major economies are not making the kind of cuts needed to get 1.5C within reach just yet. China has lowballed its target and missed a chance to be recognised as a global leader. The plan says emissions will peak before 2030 – for all our sakes we need that date to be far sooner.”

China’s new climate plan falls short of Cop26 global heating goal, experts say | China | The Guardian

Across 40 different areas spanning the power sector, heavy industry, agriculture, transportation, finance and technology, not one is changing quickly enough to avoid 1.5C in global heating with all failing to make the “transformational change” needed to avert the most disastrous consequences of the climate crisis, with trends either too slow or in some cases even regressing, according to a new Systems Change Lab report.

The sluggish pace of decarbonization further highlights how the world is badly off track in its attempts to curb climate breakdown. From renewable electricity generation to meat consumption to public financing for fossil fuels, the report found that no indicator was showing the required progress to cut emissions in half this decade before eliminating greenhouse gases completely by 2050, which would give the world a chance to keep below 1.5C.

Three areas in particular – cement production, steel making and efforts to place a fee on carbon emissions – are stagnating, the report found. A further three – emissions from agriculture, the share of trips made by cars and the deforestation rate – are moving in the wrong direction.

“We need complete u-turns from these areas,” said Kelly Levin, chief of science at the Bezos Earth Fund, one of the report’s co-authors.  “With climate change you can’t just head in the right direction, you need to do it at pace. Without that, we will reach disastrous tipping points.”

Coal needs to be phased out five times faster than it is now, according to the analysis, while the pace of reforestation needs to be three times faster. Coastal wetlands need to be restored nearly three times faster, climate finance needs to grow 13 times faster and the energy intensity of buildings needs to drop at a rate almost three times faster than now. In wealthy countries across Europe and North America, the consumption of beef needs to reduce 1.5 times faster than it is now. 

“We need to pull out the stops in every sector, to transform our power generation, the diets we have, how we manage land and more, all simultaneously,” said Kelly Levin. “We need transformational change and it’s very clear the trends aren’t moving fast enough.”

“…we are moving too slowly to avoid 1.5C,” said Sophie Boehm, a climate researcher at World Resources Institute and report co-author. “If that continues, we will fall woefully short of the goals to avoid disastrous climate change. It’s very worrying we are not on track for any of these target areas.”

World is failing to make changes needed to avoid climate breakdown, report finds | Climate crisis | The Guardian

The Arctic has already heated to more than 2C (3.8F) above its pre-industrial average, with temperatures tipped to rise further. These northern latitudes are heating at more than twice the rate of the global average due to the rapid loss of sea ice, replacing a highly reflective white surface with the sea’s highly heat-absorbing blue-black.

For thousands of years, permafrost – ground that is frozen for two or more years in a row – has kept dead plant and animal matter locked in the deep-freeze beneath the tundra. These ancient remnants total up to an estimated 1,600 billion tonnes of organic carbon, almost twice as much as currently found in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Among those gases is methane, a gas up to 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) at trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere during a 100-year period. Across 20 years, it can be 86 times more potent. Then there’s nitrous oxide – its warming potential roughly 300 times more than CO2 across a 100-year timescale.

Covering a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, this frozen vault is being thawed by rising temperatures, extensive wildfires and unprecedented heatwaves in Siberia and other far-northern regions. In turn, that is transforming the carbon sink of the Arctic into a source of greenhouse gases.

Scientists are increasingly warning that the melting Arctic could push the planet into a vicious cycle of uncontrolled heating as vast stores of carbon in thawing ground release powerful greenhouse gases by creating a dangerous feedback loop – one in which human activities such as burning fossil fuels and farming livestock heat up the atmosphere, prompting permafrost to thaw and release additional greenhouse gases. That causes further heating, further thawing and further emissions, threatening to bring about the worst impacts of climate changes far faster than expected.

“This is likely to accelerate because of the scale of the warming we’re seeing in the Arctic,” Rachael Treharne, an Arctic ecologist at Woodwell Climate Research Center, who studies the impact of thawing permafrost and wildfires on climate change, explained. “Already, we’re looking at irreversible changes.”

Scientists have been shocked that higher temperatures conducive to permafrost thawing are occurring roughly 70 years ahead of projections. Permafrost’s polluting potential begins when the damper, warmer conditions of thawing ground jumpstart microbes to produce carbon dioxide or methane as they feast on decomposing organic matter in boggy, once-hard soil. Thawing bedrock compounds this problem. As temperatures rise and pressures change, frozen deposits of naturally occurring methane and other hydrocarbons inside the permafrost turn into gas, which may be released through cracks into the atmosphere.

“We can more or less control the burning of fossil fuels through political decisions and economic regulations,” said Dmitry Zastrozhnov, a lecturer and geologist at the Institute of Earth Sciences at St Petersburg State University who is studying the release of methane from Siberian limestone areas. “But we cannot ask permafrost to stop releasing methane. We cannot control nature.”

Arctic ground ‘literally collapsing’ amid abrupt thaw | Climate Crisis News | Al Jazeera

 “[climate] Goals are aspirational. If they are not backed up with policies and financing, they remain empty promises.” – Tania Miranda, director of Policy and Stakeholder Engagement in the Environment and Climate Change Programme at the Institute of the Americas.