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Youth activist Mitzi Jonelle Tan witnesses the repression of those struggling to push environmental causes in the Philippines

A fierce defender of climate voices from the world’s developing countries, Mitzi Jonelle Tan has brought her call for climate justice to the COP27 summit in Egypt.

It is the same fight she takes up daily in her native Philippines, where such activism can be dangerous work.

The 25-year-old sees first-hand the impacts of climate change on her homeland.

Tan’s home city, Marikina, is regularly buffeted by typhoons and Manila, the capital, is threatened by rising sea levels. The acidification of the world’s oceans could ruin the livelihood of millions of fishermen across the archipelagic nation.

But she also witnesses the repression of those struggling to push environmental causes, saying she was “illegally detained” when protesting against Filipino mining interests in 2018.

“The Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental defenders and activists,” Tan told AFP, peering through her signature round glasses.

“In the past 10 years, at least 270 defenders were killed,” she added.

The British human rights group Global Witness estimates that of 200 environmental defenders killed worldwide in 2021, 19 lived in the Philippines.

“This is what happens when you threaten business as usual,” Tan said, listing off on her ringed fingers the interests of “multinational companies, mining companies, and the military” that accuse activists like her of “terrorism.”

– ‘Fight back’ –

Tan began her activism in 2017 after meeting an indigenous leader who related to her community’s experiences of harassment, displacement and violence.

“That’s why we have to fight back,” she said.

Since then, she has been at the forefront of the fight for climate justice in her home country and beyond.

During her time at COP27, in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, along with moderating discussions and giving press interviews, Tan has led protests demanding the negotiators and world leaders sitting in the conference halls act more urgently for climate justice.

According to UNICEF’s Thomas Sayers, “it is young people like Mitzi that give us hope for the future of this planet”.

After founding Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines in 2019, Tan joined Greta Thunberg’s international Fridays for Future (FFF) movement in 2020.

At that point the Swedish activist had led student climate strikes for two years, since the age of 15.

The marches grew to bring hundreds of thousands of young people together, predominantly in wealthy nations — Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany and the United States — rather than in developing countries.

Thunberg, a notable absentee from COP27 over concerns of greenwashing and restrictions on civil liberties in Egypt, said she was “handing over the megaphone” to those “most affected by the climate crisis”.

– ‘Priority to the planet’ –

Within FFF, Tan helped create the “Most Affected People and Areas” sub-group.

According to an open letter to world leaders, the members campaign to link the climate crisis with global “systemic injustices”.

“We must change the paradigm, move from a system that favours profit to one that gives priority to the planet and its inhabitants,” she said, rejecting the current loans system for financing climate action.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 71 percent of all public climate finance in 2020 was sourced from loans.

“There is an analogy where you hit my car and I have to borrow money from you to fix it — it doesn’t make sense,” she said, arguing that wealthy Global North countries “have a debt to pay” for climate change.

A natural with a megaphone, using succinct arguments punctuated by passionate gesturing with her tattooed arms, Tan has won over both her own and older generations.

“Mitzi brings with her the uniqueness of her generation,” said compatriot and veteran environmental activist Ana Gabriela Celestial.

“She is a digital native, she is more creative, she is an influencer and an effective youth climate activist,” she added.

“More and more young people are seeing their power,” Tan said, insisting they “do not accept a world that is burning, sinking and drowning.”

Indonesia is the world's top nickel producer

Indonesia has proposed the establishment of a bloc of the world’s top nickel producers similar to the oil cartel OPEC in talks with Canada, its investment minister said.

The Southeast Asian nation is the world’s top nickel producer, while Canada is also a major producer of the mineral, according to United States Geological Survey data.

“Through such collaboration, we hope all nickel-producing countries will be able to profit through a fair added value creation,” Bahlil Lahadalia said, according to a ministry statement. 

The proposal was raised when Lahadalia met Canada’s trade minister Mary Ng on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.  

He said an organisation similar to OPEC, a group of 13 oil-producing countries, could help organise and streamline policies on nickel, a key mineral used to make batteries — including for electric vehicles, stainless steel and mobile phones.

Lahadalia previously floated the idea of such a grouping in an interview with the Financial Times in October, saying at the time that Indonesia was still formulating the group’s structure.

Ng said in the statement that the two countries could explore the collaboration proposal, adding that Indonesia and Canada shared a similar vision for optimising their resources in a sustainable way. 

Indonesia has banned exports of raw nickel ore since 2020 in a move to encourage investments in downstream industries in the country, which also sparked a trade dispute with the European Union. 

The Indonesian government has touted plans to turn the country into an electric-vehicle hub. Nickel is used in lithium batteries that power petrol-free cars.

It has attracted investment from some foreign firms in nickel-battery processing plants, including China’s Tsingshan Holding Group.

A pledge by G20 leaders meeting in Indonesia to stick with the goal of curbing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels has given a boost to UN climate talks in Egypt

A pledge by G20 leaders, whose countries account for most global CO2 emissions, to pursue the most ambitious target against global warming breathed new life into fraught UN climate talks in Egypt on Wednesday.

Analysts and campaigners welcomed the final communique from the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, which comes as negotiators in Egypt are struggling to agree on key issues before COP27 is supposed to end on Friday.

“The positive signals from the G20 summit should put wind in the sails of the climate talks in Egypt, which are entering their final days,” said Ani Dasgupta, CEO of the World Resources Institute.

The Group of 20 text promises to “pursue efforts” to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a safer limit according to scientists.

“The outcome from Bali has been surprisingly positive,” said Fionna Smyth, head of global policy and advocacy at Christian Aid.

Give their share of global emissions, “what they do will play significant role in how we tackle the climate crisis,” she said.

– ‘Loss and damage’ –

The G20 document also addresses the main source of tensions at COP27 talks: a debate on funding to help developing countries least responsible for global emissions cope with here-and-now impacts of climate change, or “loss and damage”. 

The communique urges all parties to “make progress on loss and damage at COP27, which is being held in Africa”, without laying out a specific way forward for the contentious issue.

After dragging their feet for years over concerns it would create a reparations mechanism, the United States and the European Union agreed to have loss and damage on the formal agenda at COP27.

But Western powers and a major group of developing nations allied with China presented widely different views of how to achieve this at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The G77+China bloc of more than 130 developing nations presented a document saying the need for a special “loss and damage” fund was “urgent and immediate”.

The United States and the European Union have suggested that expanding current channels for climate finance might be a more efficient approach than creating a new one.

The G20 statement also reiterated a commitment to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies over the medium term, while also saying the leaders recognise the importance of the transition to renewable energy and pledge “efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power”.

“Unabated” refers to emissions from coal-fired power plants that are not syphoned off to prevent them from entering the atmosphere.

The document gives countries “a clear mandate to make progress at COP27 on all issues, including loss and damage, and commit to accelerate the deployment of clean energy,” said Luca Bergamaschi, co-founder of Italian climate think tank ECCO.

Others, however, said the G20’s statement did not amount to much progress.

Avinash Persaud, special envoy on climate finance to Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, said G20 nations could unlock more financing from multilateral development banks and “prime the pump” for investments in energy transitions.

“They have missed the opportunity to deliver on that today, and we are running out of time,” Persaud said.

NASA's Artemis 1 uncrewed lunar rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center at the start of its 25-day lunar mission

NASA launched the most powerful rocket ever built on a journey to the Moon on Wednesday, in a spectacular blaze of light and sound that marked the start of the space agency’s new flagship program, Artemis.

The 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) blasted off from the storied Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:47 am (0647 GMT), producing a record 8.8 million pounds (39 meganewtons) of thrust.

“What you have done today will inspire generations to come, thank you!” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female launch director, told cheering teammates. 

Fixed to the rocket’s top was the uncrewed Orion spaceship that will orbit Earth’s nearest neighbor, in a test run for later flights that should see the first woman and first person of color touch down on lunar soil by the mid-2020s.

About two hours after launch, NASA said the spacecraft had completed a propulsive maneuver to escape the pull of Earth’s gravity and was on its path to the Moon.

“Trans-lunar injection burn complete! NASA Orion is on its way to the Moon!” tweeted Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems.

America last sent astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo era, from 1969-1972. 

This time it hopes to build a sustained presence — including a lunar space station — to help prepare for an eventual mission to Mars in the 2030s.

There were nervous moments as teams worked to overcome technical issues that ate into the two-hour launch window, which opened at 1:04 am.

First, engineers were forced to pause the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage Tuesday night because of a valve leak, but a team sent to the launch pad resolved the issue after about an hour, by tightening loose bolts. 

Later, the space agency reported that a radar site monitoring the rocket’s flight path was experiencing problems due to a faulty ethernet switch, which had to be replaced.

It was third time lucky for NASA after two previous launch attempts were canceled for technical reasons. The launch was also delayed due to weather setbacks including Hurricane Ian, which battered Florida in late September.

– ‘Extremely excited’ –

About 100,000 people were expected to have gathered along the coast to witness the historic event.

Todd Garland drove from Frankfurt, Kentucky to watch from Cocoa Beach. 

Wearing an Artemis T-shirt, the 55-year-old told AFP tearfully: “This has been an experience I’ve looked forward to all my life. 

“My first memory is my mother waking me up at two years old to watch the Moon landing and I’ve always wanted to see a launch ever since, and now I have.”

Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, added the launch was “part of America and what America is all about.”

– Far side of the Moon –

The Orion crew capsule was lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which detached after just a few minutes.

A final push from the upper stage set the capsule on its way to the Moon, though it will take several days to reach its destination. 

The upper stage will meanwhile release 10 CubeSats to carry out science experiments, including one that will unfurl a sail-powered by sunlight and perform asteroid reconnaissance work.

Rather than landing on the Moon, Orion will assume a distant orbit, venturing 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side — further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.

Finally, the spaceship will embark on the return leg of its journey. When passing through the atmosphere, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface.

Though Orion isn’t carrying humans this time, it has three sensor-equipped dummies on board to help gather safety data for future crew members.

The mission will last 25-and-a-half days, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

NASA is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. 

It will have invested more than $90 billion in its new lunar program by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.

Artemis 2 will involve a flyby of the Moon with astronauts in 2024, while Artemis 3 will see boots on lunar soil, no sooner than 2025. 

NASA hopes to settle into a yearly launch schedule, and will include international partners from Japan, Canada and Europe.

Brazil's president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will address a UN climate conference eager to hear how he will protect the rainforest

UN climate talks got a fillip Wednesday as Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched the country back into the battle to curb global warming and global leaders reaffirmed key pledges.

Lula arrived Tuesday in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and went straight into climate diplomacy with meetings with US envoy John Kerry and China’s Xie Zhenhua.

The leftist politician, who served as president from 2003 to 2010, is expected to inject much needed momentum into the COP27 climate talks in his first international trip since defeating far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over years of rampant Amazon deforestation.

“Brazil is back in the world to debate the climate issue,” Lula tweeted late Tuesday. “We will be a source of pride for the world.”

Lula is expected to present his plan for “zero deforestation” in a speech Wednesday afternoon at the COP27 conference.

Kerry told a COP27 biodiversity panel on Wednesday that the United States would work with other nations to help protect the Amazon.

“I was pleased last night to meet with president-elect Lula and was really encouraged by the ways in which he talked about for once and for all getting it right … in order to preserve the Amazon,” Kerry said.

“We will work diligently in order to achieve that goal together with our allies, particularly Norway and Germany and other countries that have been deeply committed to this for a period of time.”

Under Bolsonaro, a staunch ally of agribusiness, average annual deforestation increased 75 percent compared to the previous decade.

“We need a new sense of hope to build trust and momentum towards a positive outcome at COP27,” said Brazilian climate campaigner, Mariana Paoli, Christian Aid’s global advocacy lead.  

“President Lula’s election victory in Brazil has the potential to breathe new life into this process with his progressive agenda that seeks to bring Brazil back to the table and end the disastrous climate policies of his predecessor.”

In another boost to the UN climate process, a final communique from world leaders meeting at the Group of 20 talks in Bali, Indonesia included key promises to “pursue efforts” to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a safer limit according to scientists.     

The document, which also reiterated a commitment to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies over the medium term, was welcomed by observers as a way to galvanise the climate talks as they enter their final days. 

The G20 meeting was also the stage of a crucial meeting between US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping, where the two leaders agreed to resume their climate cooperation.

Ani Dasgupta, head of the World Resources Institute, said positive signals from leaders at the G20 “should put wind in the sails” of negotiators in Egypt.

– Climate leadership –

Bolsonaro, who did not attend the G20 summit in Bali, has maintained a low profile since losing the Brazilian election. 

While his government has a pavilion at COP27, former steelworker Lula deployed two of his former environment ministers to lay the groundwork for his visit.

One of them, Marina Silva, who is tipped to return to the job when Lula takes office on January 1, said Brazil wants to set an example with Lula’s deforestation plan.

Latin America’s most populous country grew more isolated under Bolsonaro, analysts say, in part due to his permissive policies towards deforestation and exploitation of the Amazon — the preservation of which is seen as critical to fighting global warming.

Brazil is home to 60 percent of the Amazon, which spans eight countries and acts as a massive sink for carbon emissions.

Silva promoted the idea of creating a new national authority to coordinate climate action among government ministries, and of pursuing a reforestation target of 12 million hectares (over 29 million acres).

– Lula meets Kerry –

The incoming administration wants the United States to contribute to the Amazon Fund, considered one of the main tools to reduce deforestation in the planet’s biggest tropical forest.

Following Lula’s victory, the fund’s main contributors, Norway and Germany, announced they would participate again, after freezing aid in 2019 in the wake of Bolsonaro’s election.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his counterpart Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela presented at COP27 last week an Amazon protection initiative that they hope Brazil will join.

NGOs and Indigenous leaders want Lula to create the first ministry of Indigenous peoples.

Brazilian lawmaker and Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara urged Lula to “think about social policies with the people”.  

NASA's Artemis 1 unmanned lunar rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center at the start of its 25-day lunar mission

NASA launched the most powerful rocket ever built on a journey to the Moon on Wednesday, in a spectacular blaze of light and sound that marked the start of the space agency’s new flagship program, Artemis.

The 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) blasted off from the storied Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:47 am (0647 GMT), producing a record 8.8 million pounds (39 meganewtons) of thrust.

“What you have done today will inspire generations to come, thank you!” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female launch director, told cheering teammates. 

Fixed to the rocket’s top was the uncrewed Orion spaceship that will orbit Earth’s nearest neighbor, in a test run for later flights that should see the first woman and first person of color touch down on lunar soil by the mid-2020s.

America last sent astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo era, from 1969-1972. 

This time it hopes to build a sustained presence — including a lunar space station — to help prepare for an eventual mission to Mars in the 2030s.

There were nervous moments as teams worked to overcome technical issues that ate into the two-hour launch window, which opened at 1:04 am.

First, engineers were forced to pause the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage Tuesday night because of a valve leak, but a team sent to the launch pad resolved the issue after about an hour, by tightening loose bolts. 

Later, the space agency reported that a radar site monitoring the rocket’s flight path was experiencing problems due to a faulty ethernet switch, which had to be replaced.

It was third time lucky for NASA after two previous launch attempts were canceled for technical reasons. Launch was also delayed due to weather setbacks, including Hurricane Ian that battered Florida in late September.

– ‘Extremely excited’ –

About 100,000 people were expected to have gathered along the coast to witness the historic event.

Todd Garland, 55, drove from Frankfurt, Kentucky to watch from Cocoa Beach. 

Wearing an Artemis T-shirt, he told AFP tearfully: “This has been an experience I’ve looked forward to all my life. 

“My first memory is my mother waking me up at two-years-old to watch the Moon landing and I’ve always wanted to see a launch ever since, and now I have.”

Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, added the launch was “part of America and what America is all about.”

– Far side of Moon –

The Orion crew capsule was lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which detached after just a few minutes.

A final push from the upper stage will set the capsule on its way to the Moon, though it will take several days to reach its destination. 

The upper stage will meanwhile release 10 cubesats to carry out science experiments, including one that will unfurl a sail powered by sunlight and perform asteroid reconnaissance work.

Rather than landing on the Moon, Orion will assume a distant orbit, venturing 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side — further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.

Finally, the spaceship will embark on the return leg of its journey. When passing through the atmosphere, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface.

Though Orion isn’t carrying humans this time, it has three sensor-equipped dummies on board to help gather safety data for future crew members.

The mission will last 25-and-a-half days, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

NASA is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. 

It will have invested more than $90 billion in its new lunar program by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.

Artemis 2 will involve a flyby of the Moon with astronauts in 2024, while Artemis 3 will see boots on lunar soil, no sooner than 2025. NASA hopes to settle into a yearly launch schedule, and will include international partners from Japan, Canada and Europe.

NASA's Artemis 1 unmanned lunar rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center at the start of its 25-day lunar mission

NASA launched the most powerful rocket ever built on a journey to the Moon on Wednesday, in a spectacular blaze of light and sound that marked the start of the space agency’s new flagship program, Artemis.

The 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) blasted off from the storied Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:47 am (0647 GMT).

“We are going,” tweeted the space agency.

Fixed to its top was the uncrewed Orion spaceship that will later separate and complete an orbit-and-a-half of Earth’s nearest neighbor, in a test run for later flights that should see the first woman and first person of color touch down on lunar soil by the mid-2020s.

America last sent astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo era, from 1969-1972. This time it hopes to build a sustained presence — including a lunar space station — to help prepare for an eventual mission to Mars.

The launch came despite technical issues that ate into the two-hour launch window that opened at 1:04 am. 

Engineers were forced to pause the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage Tuesday night because of a valve leak, though a team sent to the launch pad resolved the problem after an hour.

Later, the space agency reported that a radar site monitoring the rocket’s flight path was experiencing problems due to a faulty ethernet switch that had to be replaced.

It was third time lucky for NASA after two previous launch attempts were canceled for technical reasons. Launch was also delayed due to weather setbacks, including Hurricane Ian that battered Florida in late September.

– ‘Extremely excited’ –

About 100,000 people were expected on the coast to watch the launch, with the rocket promising to light up the night sky.

Andrew Trombley, a space enthusiast from St. Louis, Missouri, was anxiously hoping for a successful liftoff after several futile trips made for the launch.

“I’ve been down here a couple of times already to watch this thing go up and have it canceled, so, this is like, whatever, the third trip down here for this, so I’m excited to see it go,” said the network engineer.

“I was too little for the Apollo missions, so … I wanted to be here in person.”

Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, was fired up for liftoff, which she said was “part of America and what America is all about.”

“Third time’s the charm. We’re hoping for it.”

– Far side of Moon –

The Orion crew capsule was being lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which detached after only a few minutes.

After a final push from the upper stage, the capsule will be well on its way, taking several days to reach its destination.

Rather than landing on the Moon, it will assume a distant orbit, venturing 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side — further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.

Finally, Orion will embark on the return leg of its journey. When passing through the atmosphere, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface.

The mission will last 25 and a half days, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

NASA is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. It will have invested more than $90 billion in its new lunar program by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.

Artemis 2 will involve a flyby of the Moon with astronauts in 2024, while Artemis 3 will see boots on lunar soil, no sooner than 2025.

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts on board, represents the first step in the agency's plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon, taking lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars

NASA was readying to launch its new mega Moon rocket early Wednesday from Florida, but technical issues threatened to play spoilsport a third time.

Engineers were forced to temporarily pause the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage Tuesday night because of a valve leak, though a team sent to the launch pad resolved the problem after an hour. 

Later, the space agency reported that a radar monitoring the rocket’s flight path was experiencing problems due to a faulty ethernet switch. 

A two-hour launch window will open at 1:04 am local time (0604 GMT), with the weather forecast 90 percent favorable.

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts, represents the first step in America’s plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon and take lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars in the 2030s.

Named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, the new program comes 50 years after humans last set foot on lunar soil.

It will be the first launch of the 32-story tall Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever built.

Countdown continues at the storied Kennedy Space Center, where the orange and white behemoth awaits its maiden flight.

The takeoff is scheduled less than a week after the passage of Hurricane Nicole, which the rocket weathered on its launch pad.

Two backup dates are possible, if needed, on November 19 and 25.

– ‘Extremely excited’ –

About 100,000 people were expected on the coast to watch the launch, with the rocket promising to light up the night sky.

Andrew Trombley, a space enthusiast from St. Louis, Missouri, is anxiously hoping for a successful liftoff after several futile trips made for the launch.

“I’ve been down here a couple of times already to watch this thing go up and have it canceled, so, this is like, whatever, the third trip down here for this, so I’m excited to see it go,” said the network engineer.

“I was too little for the Apollo missions, so … I wanted to be here in person.”

Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, is fired up for liftoff, which she said was “part of America and what America is all about.”

“Third time’s the charm. We’re hoping for it.”

– Far side of Moon –

At the end of September, the rocket had to be wheeled back to its assembly building to be sheltered from another hurricane, Ian.

Before these weather setbacks, two launch attempts were canceled for technical reasons.

The first failure was related to a faulty sensor, and the second to a fuel leak when filling the rocket’s tanks. It runs on ultra-cold, ultra-volatile liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

NASA has since replaced a seal and modified its procedures to avoid thermal shock as much as possible.

The Orion capsule will be lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which will detach after only a few minutes.

After a final push from the upper stage, the capsule will be well on its way, taking several days to reach its destination.

Rather than landing on the Moon, it will assume a distant orbit, venturing 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side — further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.

Finally, Orion will embark on the return leg of its journey. When passing through the atmosphere, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface.

If takeoff happens Wednesday, the mission will last 25 and a half days, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

NASA is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. It will have invested more than $90 billion in its new lunar program by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.

Artemis 2 will involve a flyby of the Moon with astronauts in 2024. 

Boots on the ground should happen during Artemis 3, no sooner than 2025, with the crew set to include the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

The Guatemalan fir, known locally as the pinabete, can grow up to 50 meters (164 feet) high and one meter wide

As Christmas approaches, Guatemalan authorities step up controls against poachers targeting an endangered fir tree that is a much sought-after festive decoration.

The Guatemalan fir, known locally as the pinabete, is listed as “endangered” on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), due to its decreasing numbers. 

It is also listed by the CITES endangered species convention, currently meeting in Panama City, as an Appendix I protected species, meaning it cannot be traded internationally.

But the real threat is at home, where the tree’s distinct aroma is inextricably linked with Christmas.

Each year in the lead-up to December 25, illegal loggers invade Guatemala’s forests, many protected, to collect branches of the pinabete (Abies guatemalensis) to sell on the street and at markets.

“We have always had a pinabete at home for its aroma; it is the hallmark of Christmas,” Jaime Reyna, a resident of the capital Guatemala City, told AFP.

The Guatemalan fir, which can grow up to 50 meters (164 feet) high and one meter wide, is found in humid forests in the western highlands some 2,400 to 3,500 meters above sea level, according to the CONAP conservation agency.

Once spread over more than a million hectares, pinabete forests today cover no more than 27,500 hectares in nine of Guatemala’s 22 departments.

– Custom and culture –

“The custom and the culture is to have a pinabete at home” for Christmas, Elmer Alvarez, regional director of the INAB forestry institute, told AFP.

“When people cut them down illegally, the seeds are lost, which increases the risk of extinction,” he explained.

Because most pinabete trade is illegal, there are no reliable figures on logging. 

While the CITES meeting in Panama will seek to raise the protection level afforded to a variety of trees, the Guatemalan fir is not among them.

So, authorities are seeking to stamp out the trade domestically.

In the pre-Christmas period, agents of CONAP and the police’s nature protection division DIPRONA set up roadblocks to catch fir poachers, checking trucks, vans, and even buses.

Offenders risk sentences of up to eight years in prison, in addition to fines, said DIPRONA representative Gymi Marroquin. 

The tree does not come cheap. It costs between $20 and $55 on average, and sometimes as much as $200 in a country where the minimum wage is about $400 per month, and 60 percent of the population lives in poverty.

Yet, not even the high price serves as a deterrent.

“We cannot change it for a plastic tree, which in the end works out costing just as much,” said fir enthusiast Reyna.

Guatemala first sounded the alarm in 1979 about the future of the tree, which also grows in parts of Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador.

The country has since authorized private nurseries to cultivate pinabetes for legal sale, certified by the INAB, to try and save the remaining trees.

Brazil's president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will address a UN climate conference eager to hear how he will protect the rainforest

After years of Amazon deforestation under Brazil’s outgoing leader Jair Bolsonaro, president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will address Wednesday a UN climate conference eager to hear how he will protect the rainforest.

Lula arrived Tuesday in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in his first international trip since defeating his far-right rival in the October 30 run-off election.

The leftist politician, who served as president from 2003 to 2010, is expected to present his plan for “zero deforestation” in a speech Wednesday afternoon at the COP27 conference.

“Brazil will again be a reference in the global climate issue,” Lula tweeted on Tuesday.

Under Bolsonaro, a staunch ally of agribusiness, average annual deforestation increased 75 percent compared to the previous decade.

Members of Brazil’s Indigenous communities have canvassed COP27 participants since last week, urging action and donning traditional clothes to draw attention to their plight.

While the current government has a pavilion at COP27, former steelworker Lula deployed two of his former environment ministers to lay the groundwork for his visit.

One of them, Marina Silva, who is tipped to return to the job when Lula takes office on January 1, said the incoming president’s presence at COP27 sends a “big message” that Brazil is “reclaiming climate leadership” on the world stage.

Brazil wants to set an example with Lula’s deforestation plan, she said.

Latin America’s most populous country grew more isolated under Bolsonaro, analysts say, in part due to his permissive policies towards deforestation and exploitation of the Amazon — the preservation of which is seen as critical to fighting global warming.

Brazil is home to 60 percent of the Amazon, which spans eight countries and acts as a massive sink for carbon emissions.

Silva promoted the idea of creating a new national authority to coordinate climate action among government ministries, and of pursuing a reforestation target of 12 million hectares (over 29 million acres).

– Lula meets Kerry –

The incoming administration wants the United States to contribute to the Amazon Fund, considered one of the main tools to reduce deforestation in the planet’s biggest tropical forest.

Lula and Silva met Tuesday with US climate envoy John Kerry.

Following Lula’s victory, the fund’s main contributors, Norway and Germany, announced they would participate again, after freezing aid in 2019 in the wake of Bolsonaro’s election.

Leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his socialist counterpart Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela presented at COP27 last week an Amazon protection initiative that they hope Brazil will join.

NGOs and Indigenous leaders want Lula to create the first ministry of Indigenous peoples.

Brazilian lawmaker and Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara urged Lula to “think about social policies with the people”.