Science
A $500 Million Deal To Restore Gabon Coastlines Reignites Climate Finance Debate
DAKAR, Senegal — On Tuesday, an influential conservation organization said that Gabon would employ a contentious financial strategy to reduce its debt load and restore its oceans simultaneously.
According to a press statement from The Nature Conservancy, the international environmental group that assisted in the transaction’s brokering, it is the second-largest sale of its sort to date and the first on the continent of Africa.
The world’s largest population of leatherback turtles and numerous other endangered species are found in Gabon, a country in Central Africa that is wealthy in oil and is noted for its biodiversity. According to TNC, by refinancing $500 million of its foreign debt, Gabon will have $163 million extra to spend on expanding its protected coastal regions and battling illegal overfishing.
Lee White, the minister of water, forests, seas, and the environment of Gabon, called it “a really interesting way of slightly reducing our debt repayments and also generating money for conservation.” To raise money for conservation, he worked with TNC, Bank of America, and other financial institutions to negotiate lower interest rates on Gabon’s foreign debt.
TNC has successfully executed comparable “blue bond” arrangements in the Seychelles, Belize, and Barbados since 2016. However, despite donors and host governments promoting climate refinancing as a solution that benefits debtor countries, residents, and the environment, detractors claim that such agreements just scratch the surface of what is required to combat climate change.
A conservation organization said that Gabon would employ a contentious financial strategy to reduce its debt load and restore its oceans simultaneously.
According to sustainable finance researcher Frederic Hache, “This seems like a great deal at first glance, but when you look at the details… the money that is being freed up for conservation is typically a tiny fraction of the deal.”
According to White, only $4.5 million of the $163 million TNC claims to go towards Gabon’s ocean conservation activities will be immediately available each year through 2038.
Hache remarked, “That’s a joke, to be honest, especially for an oil-rich nation like Gabon.” According to the World Bank, Gabon has the third-highest GDP per capita in sub-Saharan Africa, with an average annual income of around $9,000.
The remaining $500,000,000 from the TNC transaction will be used to pay down Gabon’s newly reorganized debt and transaction expenses to Bank of America and other parties engaged in the transaction.
According to Slav Gatchev, director of TNC’s sustainable debt section, the costs will be “competitive and reasonable.”
Even if the agreement worked, there would still be questions regarding Gabon’s independence, according to Hache. In the past, detractors have claimed that “debt-for-nature swaps” violate the national sovereignty of indebted nations by giving foreign organizations control over financial and environmental decisions.
A conservation organization said that Gabon would employ a contentious financial strategy to reduce its debt load and restore its oceans simultaneously.
White claims that a U.S.-based nonprofit will oversee the new cash for Gabon. “Getting them offshore and limiting the number of government representatives on them is kind of standard practise on these conservation trust funds,” he said.
Blue bonds, according to Gatchev, are the independent product of nations that value the environment, and they represent no threat to national sovereignty. “We don’t instruct governments on what to do… Parliament in Gabon convened and decided on these transactions,” he stated.
Both supporters and opponents of the Gabon agreement concur that countries must go beyond blue bonds and other conservation funding to combat climate change.
“We don’t claim, not even for a second, that these transactions are a panacea,” Gatchev added.
For the Global North, he said, “this is one small way to at least partially fulfil its funding commitments for climate and conservation.” According to a 2020 Oxfam research, wealthy nations still need to commit to providing the $100 billion per year they promised to fight climate change in developing countries during a summit in 2009.
However, the Gabon agreement and other debt-for-nature swaps are criticized as doing more harm than good. Hache believes that the richest and most polluting countries, whose governments and businesses enable the agreements in lower-income countries, shouldn’t be exempt from responsibility for reducing their own emissions.
The subject of debt forgiveness is being further sidestepped, he claimed.
SOURCE – (AP)
Science
NASA Cuts 2 From Next SpaceX Flight To Make Room For Astronauts Stuck At Space Station
NASA withdrew two astronauts from the next crew on Friday to create room on the return voyage for the two stuck at the International Space Station.
NASA Cuts 2 From Next SpaceX Flight To Make Room For Astronauts Stuck At Space Station
NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch the orbiting laboratory in September using a SpaceX rocket. In February, the duo will reunite with Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. NASA felt it was too unsafe for Williams and Wilmore to return home in their Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which had propulsion issues and helium leaks.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were bumped from their SpaceX flight. NASA stated that they could fly on future missions.
The space agency considered spaceflight experience and other considerations while choosing.
After the shuttles were retired, the United States relied on Russia to transport crews to the space station until SpaceX began carrying humans in 2020. The two countries continue to exchange seats. Next month, NASA’s Don Pettit will launch to the space station, while NASA’s Tracy Dyson will return to Earth via a Russian capsule.
NASA Cuts 2 From Next SpaceX Flight To Make Room For Astronauts Stuck At Space Station
NASA turned to commercial enterprises a decade ago, seeking two competing US companies to transport humans in the post-shuttle era.
In June, Boeing’s first crew, Williams and Wilmore, arrived at the space station for a planned week-long stay. Their capsule will return empty as early as next Friday, aiming to land in the New Mexico desert.
SOURCE | AP
Science
Scientists Discover Doughnut-Shaped Structure Deep in Earth’s Outer Core
In a groundbreaking study recently published in *Science Advances*, scientists have revealed an astonishing new feature within the Earth’s outer core.
Using seismic waves from large earthquakes, researchers have uncovered a doughnut-like, or torus-shaped, structure buried deep beneath the planet’s surface.
This discovery provides fresh insights into the complex dynamics of Earth’s internal composition.
The research team, led by Professor Hrvoje Tkalcic, a geophysicist from the Australian National University, analyzed seismic waves that travel through Earth’s outer core.
These waves, generated by significant seismic events, offer valuable information about the core’s structure and composition.
Professor Tkalcic explained that the team focused on the slowing down of seismic waves as they passed through a specific area of the outer core near its boundary with the mantle.
“By understanding the paths of those waves and their travel times, we reconstructed their journey through the Earth’s outer core,” Tkalcic said.
The slowdown in wave velocity indicated the presence of a torus-shaped region within the outer core, oriented parallel to the equator. This discovery adds a new layer of complexity to our understanding of Earth’s interior.
New Study Reveals Low-Velocity Torus in Earth’s Outer Core
The study’s authors noted, “Thermochemical inhomogeneities in the outer core that enhance our understanding of the geodynamo have been elusive.
Seismic constraints on such inhomogeneities would provide clues on the amount and distribution of light elements in the core apart from iron and nickel.”
The researchers employed global coda correlation wavefield analysis to present evidence of a low-velocity volume within the outer core.
Their findings indicate that seismic waves travel more slowly in this equatorial torus compared to other regions Through waveform modeling, they determined that this torus has a velocity approximately 2% lower than the surrounding liquid outer core.
The study proposes that this low-velocity structure is likely of thermochemical origin, offering crucial insights into the dynamical processes of the Earth’s outer core.
This discovery represents a significant advancement in our understanding of planet’s internal dynamics and could have far-reaching implications for the study of geodynamics and the geodynamo.
Science
FAA Grounds SpaceX After Rocket Falls Over In Flames At Landing
SpaceX’s launches are on hold after a booster rocket caught fire while landing on Wednesday.
Following the early morning mishap off the Florida coast, the Federal Aviation Administration suspended the company’s Falcon 9 rockets and demanded an investigation. There were no reports of injuries or public damage.
FAA Grounds SpaceX After Rocket Falls Over In Flames At Landing
It’s too early to say how much this may affect SpaceX’s planned crew trips, one private and one for NASA. A billionaire’s chartered flight was delayed only a few hours earlier due to a poor weather forecast.
The rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, delivering all 21 Starlink internet satellites to orbit. However, the first-stage booster exploded in a fireball shortly after landing on an ocean platform, marking the first such disaster in years. This was SpaceX’s 23rd launch of this specific rocket, setting a recycling record.
The FAA stated that before SpaceX can resume Falcon 9 launches, it must accept its accident findings and corrective action. Following the accident, a launch from California with more Starlinks was canceled immediately.
SpaceX’s vice president, Jon Edwards, said the business is working “ASAP” to determine what went wrong.
“The loss of a booster is always heartbreaking. Each of them has its own past and personality. “Fortunately, this does not happen very often,” Edwards wrote on X.
Aside from the private spaceflight awaiting liftoff from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre, the compnany is scheduled to send two astronauts for NASA late next month. Two seats will be reserved for the two astronauts who launched in June aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule and were declared dangerous by NASA for their return.
SOURCE | AP
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