Global sea level to rise less with a 1.5C hike

London/Seoul :

Temperatures are likely to rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2030 and 2052 if global warming continues at its current pace and if the world fails to take rapid and unprecedented measures to stem the increase, a UN report said on Monday.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) met last week in Incheon, South Korea to finalise the report, prepared at the request of governments in 2015 when a global pact to tackle climate change was agreed.

The report is seen as the main scientific guide for government policymakers on how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The Paris pact aims to limit global average temperature rise to “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels, while seeking to tighten the goal to 1.5C.

There has already been a rise of 1C since the mid-1800s as industrialisation lifted emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas blamed for climate change.

A rise of 1.5C would still carry climate-related risks for nature and mankind but the risks would be lower than a rise of 2C, the report summary said.

Meeting the 1.5C limit required “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented” change in land and energy use, industry, buildings, transport and cities, it said, adding temperatures would be 1.5C higher between 2030 and 2052 at the current pace.

The targets agreed in Paris on cutting emissions would not be enough even if there were larger and more ambitious cuts after 2030, it said.

To contain warming at 1.5C, manmade global net carbon dioxide emissions would need to fall by about 45 percent by 2030 from 2010 levels and reach “net zero” by mid-century. Any additional emissions would require removing CO2 from the air.

“Limiting warming to 1.5C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics but doing so would require unprecedented changes,” said Jim Skea, co-chair of the IPCC working group which assesses climate change mitigation.

Unprecedented change

The summary said renewable energy would need to supply 70 to 85 percent of electricity by 2050 to stay within a 1.5C limit, compared with about 25 percent now.

Using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, the share of gas-fired power would need to be cut to 8 percent and coal to between 0 and 2 percent. There was no mention of oil in this context in the summary.

If the average global temperature temporarily exceeded 1.5C, additional carbon removal techniques would be required to return warming to below 1.5C by 2100.

But the report said the efficacy of measures, such as planting forests, bioenergy use or capturing and storing CO2, were unproven at a large scale and carried some risks.

Steps like reflecting incoming solar radiation back into space were not assessed because of the uncertainties about using such technology, the report said.

It said keeping the rise in temperature to 1.5C would mean sea levels by 2100 would be 10 cm lower than if the warming was 2C, the likelihood of an Arctic Ocean free of sea ice in summer would be once per century not at least once a decade, and coral reefs would decline by 70-90 percent instead of being virtually wiped out.

“The report shows that we only have the slimmest of opportunities remaining to avoid unthinkable damage to the climate system that supports life as we know it,” said Amjad Abdulla, the IPCC board member and chief negotiator for the alliance of small island states.

Lyon/Beijing :

The international police organisation Interpol announced on Sunday that it has received the resignation of its Chinese chief Meng Hongwei, who has been missing since September 25 and is suspected by Beijing of “violating the law”.

Meng has resigned “with immediate effect” and Senior Vice-President Kim Jong Yang of South Korea has become acting president, Interpol said in a statement.

Meng, the first Chinese president of Interpol, was last heard from on September 25 as he left Lyon, where the police agency is based, for China.

That day, his wife said he sent a social media message telling her to “wait for my call”, before sending a knife emoji signifying danger. She said she feared for his life.

Beijing, which had remained tight-lipped about Meng’s fate since French officials disclosed his disappearance on Friday, said in a one-line statement that Meng “is currently under investigation on suspicion of violating the law”.

Interpol also said in its statement that it will elect a new president for the remaining two years of the current mandate at its general assembly to be held in Dubai on November 18-21.

China says Hongwei accepted bribes   

China's public security ministry said on Monday the former Chinese head of Interpol has been placed under investigation for accepting bribes.

Meng Hongwei "accepted bribes and is suspected of violating the law", the ministry said in a statement, adding that any others who took bribes would be investigated.

New York :

Twenty people were killed when a stretch limousine crashed into another vehicle and pedestrians in the parking lot of a store in rural upstate New York, in what federal authorities called the deadliest US transport crash in nearly a decade.

A 2001 Ford Excursion that had been stretched into a limousine charged through a highway intersection without stopping on Saturday afternoon, New York State Police and the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The limo then hit an unoccupied 2015 Toyota Highlander in the parking lot of a tourist restaurant and slammed into two pedestrians, killing all 18 occupants of the limo and the two people in the parking lot, state police and the NTSB said.

“Twenty fatalities is just horrific. I have been on the board for 12 years and this is one of the biggest loss of lives that we’ve seen in a long time,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt told a news conference.

Emergency vehicles clustered near the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store, the scene of the crash, in Schoharie, about 40 miles (65 km) west of the state capital, Albany.

It was the deadliest transportation accident in the United States since a 2009 plane crash in Buffalo, New York, that killed 49 people, Sumwalt said.

Four sisters died

The dead included at least two pairs of newlyweds, the New York Times reported. No injuries were reported.

Barbara Douglas, the aunt of four sisters who died in the crash, said the victims were smart, beautiful and lived life to the fullest.

“I don’t know how you say it. You can’t wrap you head around such a tragedy where you have four of your daughters die,” she told reporters at the scene.

“I don’t know what to tell you, they were the best nieces that anybody could have,” she said.

Names of the victims have not been released pending notification of the next of kin. The NTSB and the New York State Police were probing the cause of the crash and looking into safety regulations in the limousine industry.

The victims were taken to Albany Medical Center where autopsies were conducted. All those killed were adults, state police said.

Beijing :

Interpol President Meng Hongwei has been detained in China for questioning as part of an investigation against him, a media report said Saturday, a day after he was reported missing in his native country.

Meng, 64, the first Chinese head of the international law enforcement agency headquartered in France, was “taken away” for questioning by discipline authorities “as soon as he landed in China” last week, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted a source as saying.

It was not immediately clear why he is being investigated or exactly where he is being held.

Meng, who is also a vice-minister at China’s Ministry of Public Security, is under investigation in China, the Post reported amid mystery surrounding his disappearance after his wife reported to the French police that he had gone missing.

The French police said on Friday that they have launched a probe for Meng after being contacted by his wife.

Interpol, which is based in Lyon, said that it was aware of reports of Meng’s “alleged disappearance” and that the issue was a matter for the relevant authorities in France and China.

Meng was last seen in France on September 29, according to reports from France.

So far neither the public security ministry nor the foreign ministry in China has commented.

Under China’s supervision law, a suspect’s family and employer must be notified within 24 hours of detention, except in cases where doing so would hinder an investigation. It appears Meng’s wife was not informed.

Reports quoted an unnamed French judicial official as saying that Meng arrived in China at the end of September but there had been no news of him since.

While Meng is listed on the website of China’s Ministry of Public Security as a vice-minister, he lost his seat on its Communist Party Committee—its real decision-making body—in April, the Post reported.

According to his own page on the site, Meng’s last official engagement was on August 23, when he met Lai Chung Han, a second permanent secretary of Singapore, it said.

Meng was appointed the head of Interpol in 2016. His appointment also sparked concern about China extending its crackdown on dissidents abroad. He is due to serve until 2020.

Interpol is the world’s largest agency facilitating police cooperation with 192 member countries.

Washington :

A bipartisan group of 18 powerful American lawmakers has condemned China’s alleged persecution of religious minorities and actions to limit free expression and practice of faith.

“The persecution of religious minorities at the hands of some Chinese government officials is wrong and must stop,” Senator Chuck Grassley said.

“People, no matter where they live, should be able to freely express their religious beliefs. As we work with China on issues of trade and intellectual property, we need to also make fighting for religious liberty a central part of the United States’ relationship with China,” he said.

Senator David Perdue alleged that the Chinese Communist Party continues to engage in a violent crackdown on religion, employing tactics reminiscent of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

“From burning Bibles and demolishing Christian churches to the mass internment of hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims, the Chinese government is inflicting terror on its own people. The United States must condemn these egregious human rights abuses,” he said.

A resolution moved in this regard in the Senate condemns violence against religious minorities in China and actions that limit free expression and practice of faith.

Reaffirming America’s commitment to promote religious freedom and tolerance around the world; the resolution calls on China to uphold its Constitution in addition to internationally recognised human right of freedom from religious persecution and to end violence and discrimination against religious minorities.

The resolution urges President Trump to take appropriate actions to promote religious freedom of religious minorities in China, using the powers provided to the President under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, and the Global Magnitsky Act.

Senator Ted Cruz alleged that the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting millions of its own people because it fears religion.

“It cannot abide an authority higher than the Party. Christians, Uighurs, Falun Gong practitioners, and many others live under threat of imprisonment, torture, and death. America must always stand for the free exercise of religion and I am proud to join Sen. Perdue and my colleagues in this effort,” he said.

Meanwhile, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Commissioner Gary Bauer, in a statement, echoed Trump administration’s condemnation of widespread religious freedom abuses in China as he announced his “adoption” of imprisoned Christian church leader Hu Shigen.

Hu, a religious freedom advocate who had suffered torture during a previous 16-year prison sentence for human rights advocacy, was detained again in 2015 and sentenced in 2016 to a 7.5-year sentence for “subversion of government power”.

The USCIRF said it also remains concerned by the many unresolved issues, including the reported forced disappearances of Catholic clergy, that remain following the agreement in late September between Beijing and the Vatican.

“Religious persecution is unacceptable — and should be condemned — in of its all forms. China must address their dismal human rights record and its brutal treatment of religious minorities, including Uighur Muslims and Christians,” said Senator Van Hollen.