AFP UK

During his trip to the Detroit Auto Show in September 2022, US President Joe Biden touted the very 'made in America' provisions of the Inflation Reducation Act that the EU has called 'discriminatory'

Certain provisions in US President Joe Biden’s landmark climate action plan, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), have provoked strong responses from the European Union, which fears it could hurt its industry.

With the IRA set to be one of the main topics discussed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Washington this week, AFP answers some key questions about the spat.

– What are the measures in the IRA? –

The IRA, a behemoth piece of legislation that largely focuses on climate and social spending, provides more than $430 billion in US investments.

Of that sum, $370 billion will go toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030, making it the largest-ever US program to combat climate change.

Some of the investments are in the form of tax cuts for companies that invest in clean energy, but there are also significant subsidies for electric vehicles, batteries and renewable energy projects — if they are manufactured in the United States. 

One is a $7,500 subsidy for households buying US-made electric vehicles, while another gives benefits to manufacturers of wind turbines and solar panels who use US steel.

– Why is the IRA ruffling European feathers? –

The IRA has caused a stir at EU headquarters in Brussels as well as in other European capitals, which see the various subsidies as “discriminatory,” in particular against the bloc’s auto manufacturers.

“This is unacceptable for the EU. As it stands, this text is extremely protectionist, to the detriment of European exports” said Czech industry minister Jozef Sikela, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

He did, however, stress the “goodwill on both sides” after a meeting of EU ministers with US Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai.

In early November, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton threatened to “go before the WTO” and consider “retaliatory measures” if the United States did not reverse its subsidies. 

“In some cases, the subsidies that the Biden administration offers are four to 10 times the maximum amount authorized by the European Commission,” said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who called on the Commission to create “European preferential measures or to accelerate the use of reciprocity instruments.” 

According to a French official briefing reporters ahead of Macron’s state visit, the hot button issue will be on the table. 

“We fully understand the US desire to be more independent,” said the official Monday, “but the problems come from the fact that in Europe we do not have this type of discriminatory instrument, we respect the rules of the WTO in this area.”

The official said that France wanted “Europe too, not just the United States, to emerge stronger” from the period of multiple crises that the continent is going through.

– Is there leeway to amend the IRA? –

Even if Biden wanted to walk back certain measures, or to broaden the number of beneficiaries, his legislative options are quite limited.

Any action will be more complicated when his Democratic Party loses their House of Representatives majority in January, after their loss in the November midterms.

It’s also not clear that Biden is even thinking about touching a key plank of his presidential legacy, which he salvaged only after protracted negotiations in the Senate. 

Biden’s initial proposal, the Build Back Better Act, was even more ambitious, providing $1.7 trillion dollars of investment. That plan cleared the House at the end of 2021 but was blocked in the Senate. 

The subsidies in question are also very popular, especially in states such as Ohio and Michigan, where the automotive industry remains powerful and their “swing state” status gives them considerable political clout. 

However, the United States is hoping to smooth things over with its European partners.

After a virtual exchange with France’s Le Maire, US Trade Representative Tai on Monday said that the countries are “working together to strengthen common understanding of legislation.”

For his part, Macron hopes to go further and obtain from his US counterpart “exemptions for a certain number of European industries, perhaps on the model of what it already agrees for Mexico and Canada,” according to an adviser.

The two US neighbors, who share a free trade pact with the United States, received carve-outs in the IRA for electric vehicle subsidies.

Rivers of molten rock are visible high up on Mauna Loa, the world's biggest volcano

The world’s largest active volcano burst into life for the first time in 40 years, spewing lava and hot ash Monday in a spectacular display of nature’s fury by Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

Rivers of molten rock could be seen high up on the volcano, venting huge clouds of steam and smoke at the summit on Big Island, and sparking warnings the situation could change rapidly.

Pressure has been building at Mauna Loa for years, according to the United States Geological Survey, which reported the eruption could be seen from 45 miles (72 kilometers) away, in the town of Kona the west coast of Hawaii’s main island.

The eruption, which began shortly before midnight Sunday, was initially contained within the caldera — the concave area at the top of the volcano — but vulcanologists said Monday lava was now escaping from cracks in its side.

“The eruption of Mauna Loa has migrated from the summit to the Northeast Rift Zone where fissures are feeding several lava flows,” the USGS said on its website.

The agency said there was currently no threat to people living below the eruption zone, but warned that the volcano was volatile.

“Based on past events, the early stages of a Mauna Loa rift zone eruption can be very dynamic, and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly.”

Experts also cautioned that winds could carry volcanic gas and fine ash downslope, as well as Pele’s Hair — the name given to fine strands of volcanic glass formed when lava skeins cool quickly in the air.

Named after Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, the strands can be very sharp and pose potential danger to skin and eyes.

– ‘Long Mountain’ –

Authorities in Hawaii have not issued any evacuation orders, although the summit area and several roads in the region were closed, and two shelters have been opened as a precaution.

An ashfall advisory has been issued downwind of the volcano, with a light accumulation of ash expected on ships in ocean waters along the Big Island’s southeast.

Vulcanologist Robin George Andrews said the eruption had originally been contained, but was now spreading.

“Oof. Lava is now erupting from fresh vents on the slopes along Mauna Loa’s Northeast Rift Zone, or NERZ. That brings a new hazardous dimension to the eruption,” he wrote on Twitter.

“The fact that it is a hazardous mountain that hasn’t erupted since 1984 — the longest eruptive pause in its recorded history — is why we should all keep an eye on it.” 

But Andrews predicted that unless the lava flow rate picks up dramatically, the city of Hilo to the northeast, home to about 44,000 people, “will be okay.”

The largest volcano on Earth by volume, Mauna Loa, whose name means “Long Mountain,” covers half of the Big Island and is larger than the rest of the Hawaiian islands combined.

The volcano’s submarine flanks stretch for miles to an ocean floor that is in turn depressed by Mauna Loa’s great mass — making its summit some 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) above its base, according to the USGS. 

One of six active volcanoes on the Hawaiian islands, Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since 1843.

Its most recent eruption, in 1984, lasted 22 days and produced lava flows which reached to within about seven kilometers (four miles) of Hilo.

Kilauea, a volcano on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa, erupted almost continuously between 1983 and 2019, and a minor eruption there has been ongoing for months.

Experts said the disaster was caused by a fatal mix of deforestation, overdevelopment, and a lack of mitigation strategies

Search parties on Monday recovered the body of an eighth victim of a landslide on the small Italian island of Ischia, as a former mayor said his calls for an evacuation had been ignored.

A wave of earth and debris crashed through the small town of Casamicciola Terme amid heavy rains on Saturday, destroying houses and sweeping cars down to the sea.

The latest body to be recovered was a 15-year-old boy, killed along with his younger brother and sister. Four people are still missing, authorities said.

As the island mourned its dead, including a 21-day-old baby, it emerged Monday that former mayor Giuseppe Conte had called four days earlier for at-risk areas to be evacuated.

He sent 23 emails to authorities, but “nobody answered me,” he told the Corriere della Sera.

Geologist Aniello Di Iorio told the Corriere della Sera daily there were “high risks” of further landslides on parts of Ischia, a lush island near Capri that is thronged with tourists in summer.

Experts said the disaster was caused by a fatal mix of deforestation, overdevelopment, and a lack of mitigation strategies.

National Council of Architects head Francesco Miceli said it was “a tragedy foretold”.

“This is not an isolated case, the risk areas are numerous and affect many regions of our country,” he said.

Italy needs to “quickly define more incisive territorial control strategies (and) concrete intervention programmes, and disburse adequate resources”, he said.

The devastation in Ischia comes just weeks after 11 people died in heavy rain and flooding in the central Italian region of Marche.

The Las Vacas River in Guatemala is choked by plastic pollution

Despite decades of effort, plastic pollution is only getting worse — a gloomy fact that representatives of almost 200 nations meeting in Uruguay Monday are determined to change.

Delegates in the seaside city of Punta Del Este began charting a path to the first global treaty to combat plastic pollution.

“We know that the world has a significant addiction to plastic,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme, at the start of the talks.

“A plastic crisis is also a climate crisis. Plastic has a heavy carbon footprint and a heavy chemical footprint,” she said.

The Uruguay meeting comes after the parties at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi in March agreed to create an intergovernmental committee to negotiate and finalize a legally binding plastics treaty by 2024.

The decision was seen as the biggest environmental advance since the Paris Agreement to curb global warming was signed in 2015.

By some estimates, a garbage truck’s worth of plastic is dumped into the sea every minute. The amount of plastic entering the oceans is forecast to triple by 2040.

At the same time, microplastics have been found in human blood, lung, spleen, and kidney tissue, and even in fetal tissue.

Experts believe it is only an international, legally binding agreement that could truly begin to halt one of the worst environmental scourges on the planet — if there is enough political will.

The meeting in Uruguay will last for five days, and is only a first step in the negotiations process. Another four global meetings are planned to carry the process forward.

Technical matters, such as how to structure the two years of talks, or even what should be included in the treaty, are up for discussion.

“It is ambitious to end plastic pollution, but it is entirely doable,” said Andersen.

She said the delegates would work together to “transform the entire life cycle of plastic,” from the production of polymers, to the way brands and retailers use plastic, to the waste that emerges.

“That means working with the private sector, that means working with environmentalists, that means working with communities, that means strong political leadership,” said Andersen.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) the total plastic in the ocean has increased 50 percent in the past five years. This is despite a 60 percent increase in policies to fight plastic pollution on the country level.

“The unique potential of a global treaty is to hold all signatories to a high common standard of action,” the WWF said in a report on the treaty published this month.

Experts said the disaster was caused by a fatal mix of deforestation, overdevelopment, and a lack of mitigation strategies

Search parties on Monday recovered the body of an eighth victim of a landslide on the small Italian island of Ischia, as a former mayor said his calls for an evacuation had been ignored.

A wave of earth and debris crashed through the small town of Casamicciola Terme amid heavy rains on Saturday, destroying houses and sweeping cars down to the sea.

The latest body to be recovered was a 15-year-old boy, killed along with his younger brother and sister. Four people are still missing, authorities said.

As the island mourned its dead, including a 21-day-old baby, it emerged Monday that former mayor Giuseppe Conte had called four days earlier for at-risk areas to be evacuated.

He sent 23 emails to authorities, but “nobody answered me,” he told the Corriere della Sera.

Geologist Aniello Di Iorio told the Corriere della Sera daily there were “high risks” of further landslides on parts of Ischia, a lush island near Capri that is thronged with tourists in summer.

Experts said the disaster was caused by a fatal mix of deforestation, overdevelopment, and a lack of mitigation strategies.

National Council of Architects head Francesco Miceli said it was “a tragedy foretold”.

“This is not an isolated case, the risk areas are numerous and affect many regions of our country,” he said.

Italy needs to “quickly define more incisive territorial control strategies (and) concrete intervention programmes, and disburse adequate resources”, he said.

The devastation in Ischia comes just weeks after 11 people died in heavy rain and flooding in the central Italian region of Marche.

This webcam image released by the US Geological Survey (USGS) on November 28, 2022 courtesy of the National Weather Service, shows the lava in the summit caldera of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, which is erupting for the first time in nearly 40 years

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, has erupted for the first time in nearly 40 years, US authorities said, spewing lava and ash Monday as emergency crews went on alert.

Flows of lava remained mostly contained within the summit’s massive caldera, but the eruption could pose a threat to nearby residents should conditions change, the United States Geological Survey reported at 11:45 pm local time Sunday (9:45 GMT Monday) some 15 minutes after the eruption inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Mauna Loa has been showing signs of building to an eruption for years, according to the USGS, which said the ongoing eruption was visible from Kona, a town on the west coast of Hawaii’s main island some 45 miles (72 kilometers) from the volcano.

“Lava is still erupting from the summit & is overflowing from the caldera,” the USGS said on its website, referring to the basin at the top of a volcano. While it added there were “no threats to populated areas currently,” it urged area residents to review preparedness procedures.

“If the eruptive vents migrate outside its walls, lava flows may move rapidly downslope,” according to the USGS.

The agency said the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory was in consultation with emergency management personnel and its staff would conduct an aerial reconnaissance over the 13,674-foot (4,168-meter) volcano as soon as possible.

Hawaii authorities said no evacuation orders have been given, although the summit area and several roads in the region were closed, and two shelters have been opened as a precaution.

An ashfall advisory has been issued for downwind of the volcano, with a light accumulation of ash expected on ships in ocean waters along the Big Island’s southeast.

A USGS webcam on Mauna Loa summit’s north rim showed long bright eruptive fissures within the volcanic crater, contrasted against the dark of night.

Robin George Andrews, a scientist and volcanologist, said a larger threat exists if magma begins to pour out of so-called rift zones along the volcano’s flanks.

While there is no evidence yet of this occurring now on Mauna Loa, “the fact that it is a hazardous mountain that hasn’t erupted since 1984 — the longest eruptive pause in its recorded history — is why we should all keep an eye on it,” Andrews posted on Twitter.

The largest volcano on Earth by volume, Mauna Loa, whose name means “Long Mountain,” covers half of the Big Island and is larger than the rest of the Hawaiian islands combined.

The volcano’s submarine flanks stretch for miles below sea level to the ocean floor, which in turn is depressed by Mauna Loa’s great mass — making its summit some 17 kilometers (55,700 feet) above its base according to the USGS.

One of six active volcanoes on the Hawaiian islands, Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since 1843, according to USGS.

The most recent eruption, in 1984, lasted 22 days and produced lava flows which reached to within about seven kilometers (four miles) of Hilo, a city to the northeast which is home to about 44,000 people today.

Kilauea, a volcano on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa, erupted almost continuously between 1983 and 2019, and a current minor eruption there has been ongoing for months.

This handout image from NASA from March 2002 shows the island of Hawaii, with the Mauna Kea volcano (above) and Mauna Loa volcano (below), which is the world's biggest

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, has erupted for the first time in nearly 40 years, US authorities said, as emergency crews went on alert early Monday.

Flows of lava remained “contained” within the summit caldera of Mauna Loa, but the eruption could pose a threat to nearby residents should conditions change, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported at 11:45 pm local time Sunday (9:45 GMT Monday) some 15 minutes after the eruption inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

“At this time, lava flows are contained within the summit area and are not threatening downslope communities,” the USGS said on its website, noting that residents of the area should review preparedness procedures.

While the eruption on the main island of the remote US state in the Pacific remains confined within the basin at the top of the volcano, called the caldera, “if the eruptive vents migrate outside its walls, lava flows may move rapidly downslope,” according to the USGS.

Hours later on Monday morning the USGS volcano monitoring office tweeted: “Lava does seem to have flowed outside the caldera, but for now the eruptive vents remain confined to the caldera.”

The agency said the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory was in consultation with emergency management personnel and its staff would conduct an aerial reconnaissance over the 13,674-foot (4,168-meter) volcano as soon as possible.

Hawaii authorities said no evacuation orders have been given, although the summit area and several roads in the region were closed.

A USGS webcam on Mauna Loa summit’s north rim showed long bright eruptive fissures within the volcanic crater, contrasted against the dark of night.

The Hawaiian islands are home to six active volcanoes. Mauna Loa, the largest on Earth, has erupted 33 times since 1843, according to USGS. 

The most recent eruption, in 1984, lasted 22 days and produced lava flows which reached to within about seven kilometers (four miles) of Hilo, a city which is home to about 44,000 people today.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is significantly impacted by climate change factors, according to experts.

Despite warnings, Australia’s efforts to save the Great Barrier Reef still fall short of protecting the world’s largest coral reef system from pollution and climate change, experts said Monday.

Australia had taken unprecedented steps towards the protection of the Great Barrier Reef, which the United Nations has designated a world heritage site, but more was needed to avoid the site being declared “in danger” by UNESCO, the UN agency which compiles and manages a list of heritage sites.

Such a designation puts a government on notice that a site could be removed from the World Heritage list altogether, a very rare event.

“Despite the unparalleled science and management efforts” made by Australia over recent years, the Great Barrier Reef is  “significantly impacted by climate change factors”, Eleanor Carter at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and UNESCO representative Hans Thulstrup said in a report based on a mission to the Reef.

“The resilience of the property to recover from climate change impacts is substantially compromised,” they said.

Carter and Thulstrup recommended that the reef should be added to the “World Heritage in Danger” list.

The Australian government in January announced a billion-dollar package to protect the reef, seven years after its “Reef 2050” plan, already a response to a UN downgrade threat.

The Climate Council pressure group said this latest package of funding was like putting “a Band-Aid on a broken leg”.

Monday’s report echoed that assessment, saying the reef’s ability to recover from climate change impacts was “substantially compromised”.

In particular, Australian strategies were “lacking clear climate change targets”, while some measures were not fully implemented, especially concerning “water quality and fisheries activities”, it said.

Australia reported in May that 91 percent of the reef’s coral had been damaged by bleaching after a prolonged summer heatwave, a process that increases the mortality rates of the affected corals.

After intense lobbying, Australia narrowly avoided the Reef being placed on UNESCO’s “in danger” list in the summer of 2021.

The then-government of conservative prime minister Scott Morrison was voted out this year in favour of a centre-left government under Anthony Albanese who has promised greener policies.

A UNESCO spokesperson told AFP that “a constructive dialogue is ongoing with the current government”.

A source close to the matter called Monday’s report “a roadmap submitted to the Australian government which should say what it intends to do with it and produce results”.

The source added: “The path to saving the Great Barrier Reef is narrow, but it exists. Strong and rapid action can produce results.”.

To be included on UNESCO’s world heritage list, a site must have “outstanding universal value”.

An spot on the list usually means boosted tourism, and improved access to funds and to scientific expertise. 

Those benefits are threatened when a site is declared “in danger” — which is currently the case of about 50 sites worldwide.

Only three sites have ever been dropped from the heritage list completely.

Forests suck carbon from the atmosphere and store it in vegetation and soil

Environmental organisations in Finland on Monday filed a legal challenge accusing the government of breaking its own commitments to protect the climate, the first challenge of its kind in the country.

In July, Finland passed the Climate Change Act, which aims to make the country carbon-neutral by 2035. 

But the environmental groups say the government had ignored its own laws by failing to protect the Nordic nation’s carbon sinks.

Carbon sinks are natural systems, such as forests, that absorb carbon from the atmosphere and store it in, for example, vegetation and soil.

“The government has violated its own Climate Change Act by not taking a decision on additional measures to meet Finland’s climate targets,” Hanna Aho, Policy Officer for the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC), told AFP.

“As a result, it seems very unlikely that climate targets will be met,” Aho said.

The FANC and Greenpeace, which jointly mounted the legal challenge, say carbon sinks in Finland have “collapsed” due to an increase in logging and to slower tree growth. 

The most recent chance for the government to address the issue was its Annual Climate Report in October but that still lacked the necessary “assessment on measures to protect the sinks”, Aho said.

“Logging has not been restricted, even though it is known to be the most important factor affecting the size of carbon sinks,” she added.

The organisations petitioned the country’s Supreme Administrative Court to overrule the government’s decision to submit the report without “additional measures to enhance carbon sinks”.

The groups said the report should be sent back to the drawing board because it was not in line with the Climate Change Act.

“Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government’s inaction is in stark contrast to the obligations of the Climate Change Act,” Aho said.

It will be up to the court to decide whether or not to hear the case.

In recent years, Finland has struggled to balance its climate ambitions with its forestry industry, which is an important part of its economy.

In 2020, Finnish foresty product exports were worth 10.4 billion euros, amounting to 18 percent of the country’s total exports. 

A growing number of organisations and individuals around the world have turned to the courts to challenge what they see as government inaction on the climate.

More than 600 activists in neighbouring Sweden, including Greta Thunberg, filed a lawsuit on Friday accusing the state of climate inaction, also a first in the country.

The disaster happened in the working-class district of Damas, on the eastern outskirts of the capital

A landslide in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde killed at least 11 people attending a funeral on Sunday, a local official told state media.

The victims had gathered at the top of a hill for a memorial service for five people when the ground collapsed under part of the audience.

“Some were sitting in a tent where there was a landslide early this evening,” Paul Bea, governor of the Centre region that includes Yaounde, told state radio. He added that rescue efforts were ongoing.

The search had been suspended late Sunday evening before a planned resumption on Monday morning, a rescue worker at the scene told AFP.

Marie Claire Mendouga, 50, attended the ceremony but her tent was not affected by the landslide.

“We had just started to dance when the ground collapsed,” she told AFP.

She said she “went to dig with my hands” to try to get people out from under the earth, and was still covered in the brown clay from the site.

– Frantic search –

The disaster took place in Yaounde’s working-class district of Damas, on its eastern outskirts.

Four large white tents were on the hill’s summit, at the edge of what seemed to be a ridge, beyond which the ground had disappeared, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Police pick-up trucks were hauling away bodies covered by white sheets early on Sunday evening.

A police cordon prevented journalists from getting closer to the scene.

Emergency services struggled to make their way to the site, as hundreds of people frantically searched for loved ones. Some in the crowd wept as emergency workers scoured the area.

By 10:00 pm (2100 GMT) the search had been called off.

A member of the emergency services who asked not to be named said the death toll remained at 11, and the search for more victims would resume Monday morning.

In the crowd behind the security cordon, tears were streaming down faces.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be able to sleep,” Mendouga said.

“You are sitting down, you have people behind you and afterwards, they’re dead.”

Landslides occur relatively frequently in Cameroon, but they are rarely as deadly as Sunday’s incident in Yaounde.

Forty-three people were killed in the western city of Bafoussam in 2019, when a landslide triggered by heavy rains swept away a dozen precarious dwellings built on the side of a hill.