Day: November 4, 2024

Public funding for nature conservation stalls at COP16, eyes on private investment

CALI, Colombia — Wealthy nations appeared to hit a limit with how much they are willing to pay to conserve nature around the world, instead shifting their focus at the two-week U.N. biodiversity summit toward discussions of private money filling the funding gap.

At the COP16 negotiations in Cali, Colombia, countries failed to figure out how they would mobilize $200 billion annually in conservation funding by 2030, including $30 billion that would come directly from rich nations.

That money, pledged two years ago as part of the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreement, is meant to finance activities that boost nature, such as sustainable farming or patrolling wildlife reserves.

But there was no consensus as talks dragged on beyond the summit’s scheduled end on Friday, during which dozens of delegations departed. By Saturday morning’s roll call, there was no longer a quorum among the nearly 200 nations for an agreement to pass, forcing organizers to abruptly suspend the meeting.

“I am both saddened and enraged by the non-outcome of COP16,” said Shilps Gautam, chief executive of project finance firm Opna.

“The wild thing about the nature financing discussions is that the numbers discussed are already a pittance.”

Human activities such as farming, mining, and urban development are increasingly pushing nature into crisis, with 1 million or so plant and animal species thought to be at risk of extinction.

Climate change, a result of fossil fuel burning, is also adding to nature’s woes by raising temperatures and disrupting weather cycles.

Countries will meet again in Azerbaijan next week for the U.N.’s COP29 climate summit, which again will be focused on the steep need for funding from wealthy nations to their poorer counterparts to help shoulder climate costs.

Little money from rich nations

Even before the talks broke down, developed nations had signaled an unwillingness to offer large amounts of cash.

European governments including Germany and the Netherlands have slashed their foreign aid budgets over the last year, while France and the U.K. are also cutting back.

Government development money specifically targeted at nature conservation abroad fell to $3.8 billion in 2022 compared with $4.6 billion in 2015, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

At COP16, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres demanded that countries make significant new contributions to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.

The response was muted. Nations at COP16 pledged $163 million in contributions to the fund, bringing total contributions to roughly $400 million – far from a major contribution to the $30 billion target from nations by 2030.

The United States, which is not a party to U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, has not contributed.

“The public money is already leveraged as much as we can,” Florika Fink-Hooijer, the European Union’s director general of environment, told reporters at the summit.

“We now have to look at other sources of funding.”

Private cash

When it came to going after private capital, delegates at the COP16 summit agreed to a plan to charge pharmaceutical and other companies for their use of genetic information in the research and development of new commercial products.

Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca and Land Sanofi did not respond to request for comment on the deal.

Experts estimate the plan could generate about $1 billion annually.

That still doesn’t cover the billions needed to halt the collapse of ecosystems, like the Amazon rainforest or coral reefs. The world will need to devise ways for enticing private investment in nature-friendly projects, said Marcos Neto, director of global policy at the U.N. Development Program.

Some tools include green bonds or debt-for-nature swaps, whereby countries refinance their debt at lower interest rates in order to spend the savings on conservation. The World Economic Forum estimates that debt-for-nature swaps could generate $100 billion in nature funding.

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French families sue TikTok over alleged failure to remove harmful content

PARIS — Seven French families have filed a lawsuit against social media giant TikTok, accusing the platform of exposing their adolescent children to harmful content that led to two of them taking their own lives at 15, their lawyer said on Monday.

The lawsuit alleges TikTok’s algorithm exposed the seven teenagers to videos promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion told broadcaster franceinfo.

The families are taking joint legal action in the Créteil judicial court. Boutron-Marmion said it was the first such grouped case in Europe.

“The parents want TikTok’s legal liability to be recognized in court,” she said, adding: “This is a commercial company offering a product to consumers who are, in addition, minors. They must, therefore, answer for the product’s shortcomings.”

TikTok, like other social media platforms, has long faced scrutiny over the policing of content on its app.

As with Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, it faces hundreds of lawsuits in the U.S. accusing them of enticing and addicting millions of children to their platforms, damaging their mental health.

TikTok could not immediately be reached for comment on the allegations.

The company has previously said it took issues that were linked to children’s mental health seriously. CEO Shou Zi Chew this year told U.S. lawmakers the company has invested in measures to protect young people who use the app.

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Music titan Quincy Jones dies at 91

Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91.

Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Jones rose from running with gangs on the South Side of Chicago to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives to thrive in Hollywood and amassing an extraordinary musical catalog that includes some of the richest moments of American rhythm and song. For years, it was unlikely to find a music lover who did not own at least one record with his name on it, or a leader in the entertainment industry and beyond who did not have some connection to him.

Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for “Roots” and “In the Heat of the Night,” organized President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of “We Are the World,” the 1985 charity record for famine relief in Africa.

Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are the World” and was among the featured singers, would call Jones “the master orchestrator.”

In a career that began when records were still played on vinyl at 78 rpm, top honors likely go to his productions with Jackson: “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad” were albums near-universal in their style and appeal.

Jones’ versatility and imagination helped set off the explosive talents of Jackson as he transformed from child star to the “King of Pop.”

On such classic tracks as “Billie Jean” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” Jones and Jackson fashioned a global soundscape out of disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz and African chants. For “Thriller,” some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-fusing “Beat It” and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.

“Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone and has contended with the Eagles’ “Greatest Hits 1971-1975” among others as the best-selling album of all time.

“If an album doesn’t do well, everyone says ‘it was the producers fault’; so if it does well, it should be your ‘fault,’ too,” Jones said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2016. “The tracks don’t just all of a sudden appear. The producer has to have the skill, experience and ability to guide the vision to completion.”

The list of his honors and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography “Q”, including 27 Grammys at the time (now 28), an honorary Academy Award (now two) and an Emmy for “Roots.” He also received France’s Legion d’Honneur, the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy and a Kennedy Center tribute for his contributions to American culture.

He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, “Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones” and a 2018 film by daughter Rashida Jones. His memoir made him a best-selling author.

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US tech firms warn Vietnam’s planned law to hamper data centers, social media

HANOI, Vietnam — U.S. tech companies have warned Vietnam’s government that a draft law to tighten rules on data protection and limit data transfers abroad would hamper social media platforms and data center operators from growing their businesses in the country.

The Southeast Asian nation with a population of 100 million is one of the world’s largest markets for Facebook and other online platforms, and is aiming to exponentially increase its data center industry with foreign investment in coming years.

The draft law “will make it challenging for tech companies, social media platforms and data center operators to reach the customers that rely on them daily,” said Jason Oxman, who chairs the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a trade association representing big tech companies including Meta, Google and data centers operator Equinix.

The draft law, being discussed in parliament, is also designed to ease authorities’ access to information and was urged by the ministry of public security, Vietnamese and foreign officials said.

The ministry of public security and the information ministry did not respond to attempts to contact them via email and phone.

Vietnam’s parliament is discussing the law in its current month-long session and is scheduled to pass it on Nov. 30 “if eligible,” according to its program, which is subject to changes.

Existing Vietnamese regulations already limit cross-border transfers of data under some circumstances, but they are rarely enforced.

It is unclear how the new law, if adopted, would impact foreign investment in the country. Reuters reported in August that Google was considering setting up a large data center in southern Vietnam before the draft law was presented in parliament.

Research firm BMI had said Vietnam could become a major regional player in the data center industry as limits on foreign ownership are set to end next year.

Among the provisions of the draft law is prior authorization for the transfer overseas of “core data” and “important data,” which are currently vaguely defined.

“That will hinder foreign business operations,” Oxman told Reuters.

Tech companies and other firms favor cross-border data flows to cut costs and improve services, but multiple jurisdictions, including the European Union and China, have limited those transfers, saying that allows them to better protect privacy and sensitive information.

Under the draft law, companies will have to share data with Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party and state organizations in multiple, vaguely defined cases including for “fulfilling a specific task in the public interest.”

The U.S. tech industry has raised concerns with Vietnamese authorities over “the undue expansion of government access to data,” Oxman said.

The new law “would cause significant compliance challenges for most private sector companies,” said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi, noting talks were underway to persuade authorities to “reconsider the rushed legislative process” for the law.

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