60pc of Pakistan’s energy will be ‘clean’ by 2030: PM Imran
Dec 13. 2020Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during the Climate Ambition Summit 2020. ( Photo courtesy Radio Pakistan)
By Dawn
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that by 2030, 60 per cent of all energy produced in the country will be “clean” and through renewable resources.
“Thirty per cent of all the country’s vehicles will use electricity,” he added.
The premier made the remarks while speaking at the Climate Ambition Summit 2020. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the summit was a high-level virtual event held on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Paris agreement on climate change.
PM Imran started his address by stating that Pakistan contributes less then one per cent to global emissions.
“Sadly, we are the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change. We have decided, firstly, that we will have nature-based solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
This includes planting ten billion trees in the next three years, he said. He added that the number of national parks and protected areas has been increased from 30 to 45.
“At the same time we have decided we will not have power based on coal. We have already scrapped two coal power projects that were supposed to produce 2,600MW of energy, and replaced [them] with hydro-electricity.”
He added that as far as indigenous coal is concerned, the government has decided to produce energy either by “coal to liquid” or by “coal to gas” so that coal doesn’t have to be burned.
He concluded his address by assuring the summit that Pakistan will be doing its best to mitigate the effects of climate change.
President Xi voices confirmation in implementing Paris Agreement, improving global climate governance
Dec 13. 2020
BEIJING – President Xi Jinping on Saturday urged the international community to pursue a new approach to climate governance that highlights green recovery and pledged China’s further commitments for 2030 to tackling the global climate challenge at the virtual Climate Ambition Summit.
Hailing the extensive international support to and participation in the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change since its adoption five years ago, Xi said the international landscape is evolving more rapidly, and COVID-19 is triggering deep reflections on the relationship between man and nature.
Saying the future of global climate governance is drawing greater attention, Xi made the following three proposals.
First, Xi called on all parties to close ranks and make new advances in climate governance that features win-win cooperation.
In meeting the climate challenge, no one can be aloof and unilateralism will lead nowhere, Xi said. “Only by upholding multilateralism, unity and cooperation can we deliver shared benefits and win-win results for all nations.”
“China welcomes all countries’ support for the Paris Agreement and their greater contribution to tackling climate change,” Xi added.
Second, Xi called for raising ambition and fostering a new architecture of climate governance where every party does its part.
Following the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, all countries need to maximize actions in light of their respective national circumstances and capabilities, Xi said.
He also stressed that developed countries need to scale up support for developing countries in financing, technology and capacity building.
Third, Xi urged all parties to boost confidence and pursue a new approach to climate governance that highlights green recovery.
“Mountains and rivers green are mountains of silver and gold,” Xi said, adding it is important to encourage green, low-carbon ways of life and production, and seek development opportunities and impetus from green development.
Noting China’s important contributions to adopting the Paris Agreement and active efforts in its implementation, Xi said he announced in September that China would scale up its nationally determined contributions and adopt more vigorous policies and measures.
Xi went on to announce China’s further commitments for 2030 to tackling the global climate challenge.
Xi said China will lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent, increase the forest stock volume by 6 billion cubic meters from the 2005 level, and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.
Noting China always honors its commitments, Xi said China, guided by the new development philosophy, will promote greener economic and social development in all respects while pursuing high-quality development.
“We will take solid steps to implement the targets just announced, and contribute even more to tackling the global climate challenge,” Xi added.
In addition, he called on all parties to build on past achievements, work together to make steady progress in implementing the Paris Agreement, and launch a new journey for global climate actions.
The summit, which aims to make new commitments to tackling climate change and delivering on the Paris Agreement, was co-convened by the United Nations, the United Kingdom and France, and in partnership with Chile and Italy.
A Dutch adoption scandal triggers a search for roots in Indonesia
Dec 13. 2020Ms Widya Astuti Boerma ended up in an orphanage in Jakarta at the age of three.PHOTOS: COURTESY OF WIDYA ASTUTI BOERMA
By Straits Times
JAKARTA – Until a few months ago, Ms Widya Astuti Boerma knew her biological mother only from glimpses of memory.
Some were pleasant: a moment of them both at the sultan’s palace in Yogyakarta for example. But others were jarring, including one indelibly etched of the family’s house ablaze. And then the final one: her mother’s instructions at a Jakarta train station to “be a good girl” and go with a woman she barely knew.
Ms Widya ended up in an orphanage. She was three.
Now, 45, Ms Widya is one of a growing number of Dutch adoptees scrambling to find their biological parents in the wake of explosive local media reports, court cases and a government inquiry into illegal adoptions.
The findings of a two-year inquiry into the role of Dutch government officials, including some of its embassy staff, in facilitating suspected illegal adoptions are expected in February.
“It made me think I wasn’t alone,” Ms Widya, who speaks Dutch, English, German and Spanish, told The Straits Times over the phone from her home in The Hague in the Netherlands, referring to the controversy.
“It made me wonder if I had been a victim of child trafficking.”
Three weeks after separating from her mother, and enduring beatings at the orphanage in Indonesia for crying, Ms Widya was adopted by a Dutch couple who had flown in.
She recalls the orphanage telling her that her mother could not care for her and that if she protested, her new parents would send her back to the orphanage.
In June, an Indonesian-speaking colleague posted details of her case on Twitter. The post got 3,500 retweets and attracted a sudden flurry of attention from Indonesian media.
And on June 17, the day after an interview with an Indonesian television network in which Ms Widya recounted details of the house fire, her colleague received a direct message from the daughter of a woman named Suyatni.
The 58-year-old woman, who was married at 12 to a man in his early 30s, was born in Yogyakarta and had worked as a housekeeper in the sultan’s palace.
With the help of translators, Ms Widya, whose knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia is limited to a few nursery rhymes her mother sang to her, learnt that the woman’s family had joined a government transmigration scheme that took them to Lampung, 900km away on the southern tip of Sumatra.
Madam Suyatni said her husband, who has since died, was a violent man and ran into trouble with neighbours and police. A mob later set fire to their house.
That was when Madam Suyatni fled with her young daughter to Jakarta to find work.
Madam Suyatni and her daughters at her home outside Jakarta. ST PHOTO: JEFF HUTTON
“It was kinda scary (to find) someone who can actually continue the story which you have had in you for all those years,” said Ms Widya.
More than 3,000 Indonesian children were adopted by Dutch nationals during the decade until 1984 when Indonesia, which declared independence from the Netherlands in 1945, all but banned the practice.
Ms Ana Maria van Valen, who herself is an adoptee from Indonesia, said a big chunk of overseas adoptions during that period were likely involuntary.
Ms van Valen, who remains close to her adoptive parents, speaks from experience. Her biological mother was poor and had sought help from an orphanage to care for her temporarily.
But the orphanage turned around and gave her up for adoption by Dutch parents.
The couple, whose conditions could not be more different from Ms van Valen’s biological parents, were keen to round out their family. They flew to Indonesia, booking excursions to tourist hot spots including Borobudur, to await completion of the adoption process.
“My Dutch parents already had three boys and they wanted a girl but not a baby,” Ms van Valen, 44, recalls. “I was a girl and already 2½.”
Ms van Valen co-founded Mijn Roots – pronounced “mine roots” – in 2015 to help reunite Dutch adoptees with their Indonesian parents. Progress has been slow.
Adoption documents here were riddled with errors and falsehoods. Of the hundreds of inquiries her organisation has received, 40 have yielded reunifications. In roughly half of the cases, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) would go on to learn from the biological parents that the adoptions had been involuntary.
To be sure, Indonesia was not the only source of overseas adoptions by Dutch couples. Local media reckon 40,000 overseas adoptions by Dutch nationals from developing countries including Brazil and Sri Lanka over three decades to the late 1990s may be illegal.
At the end of a year that has brought suffering and separation, for Ms Widya there is reunion and renewal. Results of a DNA test confirming whether she is Madam Suyatni’s daughter are expected by the end of the month. She has already booked a flight to Jakarta to meet Madam Suyatni early next month.
On a recent afternoon, Madam Suyatni, who uses one name like many Indonesians, dabs her eyes with her burgundy hijab.
Living 90 minutes from Jakarta on a neat row of low-income housing, she runs a small kiosk from the front of her house. She is remarried and has had five more children, including one from Ms Widya’s biological father.
On this day, she’s joined by her two young daughters, aged 11 and 16.
“It was only meant to be temporary,” she said, recalling her separation from Ms Widya that day at the train platform in 1979.
Daily coronavirus cases break 1,000 mark for 1st time, toughest distancing under review
Dec 13. 2020A medical worker collects a specimen from a student at a screening station in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul, for COVID-19 testing on Saturday. (Yonhap)
By Korea Herald
South Korea’s single-day coronavirus cases broke the 1,000-mark for the first time on Sunday, raising pressure on authorities to enforce the highest level of social distancing to slow down the virus spread.
The country added 1,030 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,002 local infections, raising the total caseload to 42,766, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Sunday’s daily caseload jumped from the previous day’s record high of 950, marking the highest since the country reported its first COVID-19 case in January.
The number of daily new cases remained around 400 to 600 earlier this month, but it shot up to over 900 on Saturday and broke through 1,000 on Sunday, raising alarm among authorities.
Cluster infections from private gatherings coupled with massive infections at a church and a hospital in the metropolitan area pushed up the tally from the previous day.
Health authorities raised social distancing measures to Level 2.5, the second highest under the five-tier virus restrictions, earlier this week, but it has failed to slowed the virus so far.
In response to a sharp uptick in new cases, President Moon Jae-in on Saturday referred to the COVID-19 situation as an “emergency” and ordered authorities to mobilize all resources to contain the virus.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun also said the government will have no choice but to raise the antivirus rules to the highest level unless the spread of the coronavirus is curbed.
Authorities can adopt Level 3 when locally transmitted cases surge to 800 to 1,000 or the daily tally doubles from the previous day.
The average daily cases over the past week stood at 662, falling below the requirement.
Level 3 social distancing is less stringent than the lockdown measures adopted in the United States and Europe, but it is aimed at effectively minimizing social and business activities in a wide range of areas.
The toughest virus restrictions ban gatherings of 10 people or more, including all sporting events, while schools can only offer online classes.
People are advised to stay at home as much as possible, and companies are required to have nonessential employees work from home.
The greater Seoul area — home to half of the country’s 51 million population — accounted for the most of the cases.
The capital city of Seoul registered 399 new cases, while surrounding Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, west of Seoul, had 331 and 62, respectively.
The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients came to 179.
KDCA reported two additional deaths, raising the total to 580.
The number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries came to 321, raising the total to 31,814. (Yonhap)
Protesters pay tribute to political exiles suspected victims of forced disappearance
NationalDec 13. 2020Pro-democracy protesters commemorate the memory of Surachai Danwattananusorn, a prominent political activist, on Saturday in Bangkok on the second anniversary of his alleged forced disappearance.
By The Nation
Pro-democracy protesters organised an event to remember three prominent political dissidents who became victims of alleged forced disappearance two years ago.
The event was held at the October 14 Memorial in Bangkok on Saturday, amid political unrest in Thailand resulting from intensified protests and the police policy of slapping lese majeste charges against over 20 protest leaders.
Two years ago on this day, Surachai Danwattananusorn, and his two aides — Chatchan “Phoochana” Buphawan, and Kraidej “Kasalong” Luelert — disappeared from their residences in Laos where they lived in exile. The bodies of Surachai’s two aides were discovered floating in Mekong River in Janurary 2019 while Thai authorities denied any involvement in the suspected murder cases.
Surachai had critical views of the Thai military-backed government and the monarchy. Surachai also proposed that Thailand alter its political system and become a republic.
Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, leader of the June 24 group, praised Surachai who had joined the communist insurgency during the cold war, as a fighter for justice. Now Surachai’s idea of Thailand as a republic is being discussed especially among the youth movement, he said.
Somyot blamed the lese majeste law for violating human rights and said the law was an obstacle for people to see the truth.
Surachai’s wife, Pranee called for the Prayut Chan-o-cha government to sincerely investigate the forced disappearance of Surachai and his two aides.
Since the 2014 coup, rights groups have said that at least nine political dissents were victims of forced disappearance and they suspected that their political activities were the cause of their disappearance, while Thai authorities have said they did not have role in their disappearance.
Pranee appealed that people who held different political views should not be killed, adding that Surachai’s spirit may now be aware that the young generation have followed his cause by standing up to injustice and demanding reforms.
The Big Mountain Music Festival in Nakhon Ratchasima province has been cancelled following complaints of laxity in Covid-19 control measures.
The decision was made by the provincial governor and the provincial Communicable Diseases Committee.
There were also rumours that a 43-year-old woman with fever had come from Chiang Mai to attend the music festival. The woman and her close contacts have tested negative.
Nakhon Ratchasima Governor Wichian Chantaranothai on Sunday called the agencies involved in organising the Big Mountain Music Festival in Pak Chong district for an urgent meeting after finding many complaints about lax Covid-19 control measures, including lack of a limit on the number of people who could attend, not enforcing the wearing of masks and social distancing.
Tens of thousands of people had flocked to the Ocean Khao Yai area, the stage for the music festival, originally scheduled for Saturday-Sunday evening. Crowds gathered outside the entrance to the venue for 2-3 hours on Saturday night.
Only 50,000 people were eventually allowed inside, from the original capacity of more than 150,000 people on 500 rai (80 hectares), in order to comply with orders from the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.
Six Laotians were detained in Ubon Ratchathani province on Saturday when they were waiting for a Thai man to take them to Bangkok.
At 5pm, police managed to detain three male and three female Laotions in Na Tan district. They said that they were a family looking for jobs in Thailand.
A Thai man who was responsible for taking them to the capital charged each of them Bt2,500 and told them to wait in a house.
They were taken to be screened for Covid-19 while the person who made the deal for their travel was summoned to the police station for investigation.
The Phu Kradueng National Park is inviting tourists to join locals in its garbage recovery programme.
The park staff will sort the waste out for tourists to take back. Many tourists are interested in participating in the project, park authorities said.
Phu Kradueng National Park chief Samret Phusansri said on Sunday that tourists continue to pay a lot of attention and visit the Phu Kradueng National Park in good numbers.
On December 11, 3,332 tourists stayed overnight in 59 houses and 270 tents on the mountain, he said.
The park has also invited tourists to join the local garbage recovery programme.
The aim of the programme is to promote tourism that understands nature and create an awareness about conservation, he said.
“We would like to thank tourists for taking this opportunity, resulting in zero plastic waste on Phu Kradueng Park,” Samrat said.
Parents in Phetchaburi province have demanded clarity about the accident that killed their 22-year-old son as the police had not provided them plausible evidence.
Rungkit Noi-nim and his wife Rerai Noinim told reporters on Saturday that Sumet Noi-nim died in the accident on December 2.
Police told them that the motorcycle he was riding fell, but they said witnesses and rescuers provided them some information that indicated he was hit by another vehicle.
Sai-ngam Noinim, the victim’s aunt, then started an investigation by asking for some footage from security cameras of nearby locations which, she claimed, supported their belief.
The family then demanded an official investigation that would clarify the cause of death while the police did not rule out the possibility that Sumet might have been hit by another car.
In another case of a random brutal attack by an armed person, a woman in Udon Thani province was slashed with a knife on Saturday night.
Police were notified about the attack at around 9pm and went to rescue a Grab Food delivery employee. The woman suffered an injury on the right shoulder.
The victim said that when she was riding a motorcycle, a man charged at her and tried to stab her with a knife. She then speeded up to get away but the assailant was able to slash her.
A knife was recovered from the area, which is in police custody for investigation. The alleged assailant is absconding.
The incident follows another horrific incident in Udon Thani on December 5 when a man, suspected to be under the influence of drugs, allegedly killed two people and injured six, including high-school girls.
Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during the Climate Ambition Summit 2020. ( Photo courtesy Radio Pakistan) 
Ms Widya Astuti Boerma ended up in an orphanage in Jakarta at the age of three.PHOTOS: COURTESY OF WIDYA ASTUTI BOERMA 
A medical worker collects a specimen from a student at a screening station in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul, for COVID-19 testing on Saturday. (Yonhap) 
Pro-democracy protesters commemorate the memory of Surachai Danwattananusorn, a prominent political activist, on Saturday in Bangkok on the second anniversary of his alleged forced disappearance. 
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