Tag: MENA

BEIJING, May 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Since the dawn of industrialization, mankind has created unprecedented material wealth. However, this prosperity has come at a heavy cost to nature.

Humans today use as much ecological resources as if they lived on 1.6 Earths, according to Global Footprint Network. This means it now takes the Earth one year and eight months to regenerate what humans use in a year.

Putting forward the idea that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” Chinese President Xi Jinping has often reiterated that “protecting ecological environment and pushing sustainable development are our joint obligations.” After all, as he puts it, “We only have one Earth.”

‘Well-measured use of natural resources’

Well-measured use of natural resources is the key to ecological conservation. We need to promote a simpler, greener and low-carbon lifestyle, oppose excessiveness and wastefulness, and foster a culture of living green and healthy.

 –  Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 28, 2019

During the opening ceremony of the International Horticultural Exhibition in 2019, President Xi clarified the path to ecological conservation by quoting the aforementioned excerpt from “Zizhi Tongjian,” or “Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance,” a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography by Sima Guang (1019-1086) of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).

The idea of restrained use of resources has taken on new meanings in today’s China. As Xi noted in his speech, “The development model of ‘killing the hens for eggs’ and ‘draining the lake for fish’ is at a dead end. The future will be illuminated by eco-friendly development that is in accordance with the rules of nature.”

Pursuing green, low-carbon and innovation-driven development is the backbone of efforts driving China toward its goal of becoming a modern socialist country.

In 2018, China incorporated the idea of ecological civilization into its Constitution for the first time. The country’s latest five-year plan also paves the way for its promise of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) vows to lower energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 13.5 percent and 18 percent, respectively, during the 2021-2025 period.

China has also pledged to increase the forest stock volume by six billion cubic meters by 2030 from the 2005 level and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.

Delivering on promise

President Xi has on many occasions stated China’s commitment to ensuring harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, a goal that China pursues with deeds.

In the past 10 years, China has ranked first globally in terms of the increase in forest resources, with its afforestation area exceeding 70 million hectares. Meanwhile, 90 percent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 85 percent of key wild animal populations are under effective state protection.

A country whose economic progress over the past decades was largely powered by coal is now among the world’s biggest investors in renewable energy, owning 30 percent of the global installed capacity of renewable energy.

Furthermore, the share of coal energy consumption in the country dropped from 60.4 percent in 2017 to 56.8 percent in 2020, and clean energy consumption went up from 19.1 percent in 2016 to 24.3 percent in 2020, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

By 2019, the country’s carbon emissions had decreased by 48.1 percent compared with the figure in 2005, reversing the trend of rapid carbon dioxide emission surge, according to a white paper on energy development released on December 21, 2020, by the State Council Information Office.

“The task is extremely challenging,” President Xi said, referring to China’s promises on tackling climate change, at the recent China-France-Germany video summit. “But China will deliver on its promises.”

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-06/Rooted-in-tradition-China-s-green-roads-to-the-low-carbon-future-ZW6K44VpxC/index.html

Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efln3MPyVhk

New analysis from IHME highlights the true toll of the pandemic

SEATTLE, May 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Globally, COVID-19 has caused approximately 6.9 million deaths, more than double what official numbers show, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. IHME found that COVID-19 deaths are significantly underreported in almost every country. The updated analysis shows that the United States has had more COVID-19 deaths to-date than any other country, a total of more than 905,000. By region, Latin America and the Caribbean and Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia were hardest hit in terms of total deaths. This figure only includes deaths caused directly by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, not deaths caused by the pandemic’s disruption to health care systems and communities.

“As terrible as the COVID-19 pandemic appears, this analysis shows that the actual toll is significantly worse,” said Dr. Chris Murray, IHME’s director. “Understanding the true number of COVID-19 deaths not only helps us appreciate the magnitude of this global crisis, but also provides valuable information to policymakers developing response and recovery plans.”

The 20 countries with the highest number of total COVID-19 deaths, March 2020­–May 2021 

Many deaths from COVID-19 go unreported because countries only report deaths that occur in hospitals or in patients with a confirmed infection. In many places, weak health reporting systems and low access to health care magnify this challenge.

IHME’s analysis found that the largest number of unreported deaths occurred in countries that have had the largest epidemics to-date. However, some countries with relatively smaller epidemics saw a large increase in the death rate when accounting for unreported deaths. This analysis shows that they may be at greater risk for a wider epidemic than previously thought.

“Many countries have devoted exceptional effort to measuring the pandemic’s toll, but our analysis shows how difficult it is to accurately track a new and rapidly spreading infectious disease,” Murray said. “We hope that today’s report will encourage governments to identify and address gaps in their COVID-19 mortality reporting, so that they can more accurately direct pandemic resources.” Moving forward, IHME’s COVID-19 modeling, which forecasts the potential course of the pandemic over the next several months, will be based on these estimates of total COVID-19 deaths. IHME’s modeling is updated weekly and can be accessed at covid19.healthdata.org.

Methodology

These estimates are based on IHME’s long-standing methodology for measuring the burden of diseases on a global scale. Since 1990, the Global Burden of Disease study has measured the total human cost of diseases.

IHME estimated total COVID-19 deaths by comparing anticipated deaths from all causes based on pre-pandemic trends with the actual number of all-cause deaths during the pandemic. This “excess mortality” figure was then adjusted to remove deaths indirectly attributable to the pandemic (for example, due to people with non-COVID conditions avoiding health care facilities) as well as deaths averted by the pandemic (for example, declines in traffic deaths due to lower mobility). The resulting adjusted estimates include only deaths directly due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. A detailed write-up on methodology is available on IHME’s website.

About the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research organization at the University of Washington School of Medicine that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world’s most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them. IHME is committed to transparency and makes this information widely available so that policymakers have the evidence they need to make informed decisions on allocating resources to improve population health.

CONTACT: [email protected]

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