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Tropical cyclone Winston, Fiji, february 2016

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Tropical cyclone Winston, Fiji, february 2016

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Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia

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Opportunities for people provided by the coasts of the Cayman Islands

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Opportunities for people provided by the coasts of the Cayman Islands

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Sand dune and beach destruction on the Moroccan coast 

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Sand dune and beach destruction on the Moroccan coast 

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Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, Gibraltar Rd, Skegness, Regno Unito

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Mangroves vs development on Grand Cayman

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Mangroves vs development on Grand Cayman

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The site of Kingston's international airport

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The site of Kingston's international airport

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Can anything be done about beach erosion?

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Can anything be done about beach erosion?

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Cape Coastal Hydraulics, Bridgewater Street, Paarden Eiland, Città del Capo, Sudafrica

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The Bay Of Islands Resort Tohitapu Road, Paihia, Nuova Zelanda

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Ch 5
The bay of Islands, New Zealand

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Ch. 11
The Highlands Water Project in Lesotho - water supply and hydroelectricity.

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Ch. 1
Population density and distribution in Canada.

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Ch. 1
Population density and distribution in Botswana.

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Ch. 1
Population distribution and density in Bangladesh.

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Ch. 1
Niger, a country with a high young dependent population.

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Ch. 1
Japan, a country with high elderly population.

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Ch. 1
Sweden’s policies for coping with slow growth

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CM1-xe-KE4V/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CM1LRcPqb3v/?igshid=k0ck5jo8mb8p

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Ch. 1
Notes - Population density and distribution factors.

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Ch. 1
The impact of HIV/AIDS on population.

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Ch. 1
Notes - The impact of HIV/AIDS on population.

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Ch. 1
China’s one-child population policy.

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Boris Johnson's government must take the lead in giving poor countries access to the finance they need to tackle the climate crisis, to make vital climate talks a success, the UN's development chief has said.

Ministers from around the world will meet virtually this week at a conference hosted by the UK to discuss the needs of developing nations struggling to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, as their economies have been left reeling by the Covid pandemic.

The UK will need the support of more than 130 developing countries to make a success of the Cop26 UN climate summit, to be hosted in Glasgow this November. But relationships with poor nations have been hit by the government's decision to slash overseas aid by billions of pounds.

Achim Steiner, the administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), urged governments to show the same will to tackle climate breakdown as they were showing with the recovery from the pandemic. He said: "We need to arrive at a mindset like the Marshall plan, a bigger vision that we need to recover [from Covid-19] together, a new investment paradigm for a global economy, not an aid or charity paradigm."

Helping developing countries invest would reduce global emissions and benefit all countries, said Steiner. "What will be critical [at Cop26] is to find a way to finance the acceleration of climate action and higher ambition on emissions. This must be a collective effort, a joint undertaking," he told the Guardian in an interview.

Cop26 comes at a crucial time, as developing countries face key decisions on how to help their economies recover from the Covid crisis. Many are under pressure to continue with fossil fuels, but investments now in coal, oil or other high-carbon infrastructure will lock in high emissions for decades to come.

"It is not in the interests of industrialised countries to wait another year [to assist investment]," Steiner said. "Global climate action is dependent on being able to solve the financial challenges and fiscal dilemma [over investing in fossil fuels or clean energy] that countries will be confronted with at Glasgow."

The UK's decision to cut overseas aid from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5% a year will not directly affect its spending on climate finance, which has been ringfenced at £11.6bn from 2021 to 2025. However, many in the climate talks are concerned that it will provide cover for other rich nations to cut spending ahead of Cop26.

Steiner said: "It sends a very mixed signal, and makes developing countries very concerned. It certainly does not enhance the confidence with which developing countries come to the table."

Poor countries are already concerned that a longstanding promise, made in 2009, that rich countries would ensure flows of $100bn (£72bn) a year to the developing world by 2020, to help countries cut emissions and cope with the impacts of climate breakdown, have not been met. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, told the Guardian in December that having a credible plan to meet this target would be essential to agreement at Cop26.

Steiner also wants to see the UK spearhead innovative ways for poor countries to cope with their debt mountain, and raise capital for investment, for instance through "green" bonds.

Help from rich countries is needed because the cost of capital to poor countries is so high: a 10-year Kenyan government bond trades at a yield of 12.6% compared with 1.6% for the US, with other countries showing similar or higher rates. "The harsh reality is that the cost of borrowing is so prohibitively higher for a developing country," said Steiner.

Debt repayment costs are also crippling developing economies. The World Bank recently estimated that 2.5% of this year's debt service payments for poor countries, amounting to about $28bn, would be enough to vaccinate 2 billion people in the poor world.

The UN is pushing for debt suspension or forgiveness for some of the worst-hit economies. Forthcoming research by the UNDP has found that 72 vulnerable countries are facing $600bn in debt service payments from 2021 to 2025. Of these, 23 countries with $387bn in debt payments owed are not covered by existing debt relief programmes.

"The debt issue is constraining them," said Steiner. "We are asking a lot from developing countries [at Cop26] that are under great debt distress, when their cost of borrowing is so much higher than industrialised countries."

Separately, green campaigners have written to the UK government ahead of this week's ministerial meeting to call for the overseas aid budget to be restored, warning that failure to do so would undermine the UK's credibility as hosts of Cop26.

Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, the chief executive of Christian Aid, said: "In the year of Cop26, as host and significant emitter, all eyes are on the UK to lead the world in stepping up ambition on climate action. Vulnerable countries on the frontline of a climate emergency they did not cause need financial support. If the UK is to deliver a successful climate summit, then this week's meeting must restore the much-needed aid, ensure that debts are cancelled, and commit the finance needed to help poorer nations adapt to a changing climate."

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UK urged to take lead in helping poor countries fund climate action

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Boris Johnson's government must take the lead in giving poor countries access to the finance they need to tackle the climate crisis, to make vital climate talks a success, the UN's development chief has said.

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Ch. 1
An under-populated country.

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Ch. 1
An over-populated country.

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Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia

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Opportunities for people provided by the coast of the Cayman Islands

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Opportunities for people provided by the coast of the Cayman Islands

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Opportunities for people provided by the coast of the Cayman Islands

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Tōmei, Iwata, Prefettura di Shizuoka, Giappone

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Tōmei, Iwata, Prefettura di Shizuoka, Giappone

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Tōmei, Iwata, Prefettura di Shizuoka, Giappone

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year ago I lived through the Black Summer. I had arrived in Sydney in mid-December 2019 to collaborate with Australian researchers studying the impacts of climate change on extreme weather events. Instead of studying those events, however, I ended up experiencing them.

Even in the confines of my apartment in Coogee, looking out over the Pacific, I could smell the smoke from the massive bushfires blazing across New South Wales. As I flew to Canberra to participate in a special "bushfires" episode of the ABC show Q+A, I witnessed mountains ablaze with fire. One man I met during my stay lost most of his 180-year-old family farm in the fires that ravaged south-east New South Wales near Milton.

My experiences indelibly coloured the book I was writing on the climate crisis at the time called The New Climate War.

I returned home to the US last March, my sabbatical stay cut short by coronavirus. But just a year later, with memories of the hellish inferno that was the Black Summer still fresh in my mind, I must painfully watch from afar now as my Aussie mates endure further climate-wrought devastation. This time it's not fires. It's floods.

I lectured earlier this week at the Pennsylvania State University, where I'm teaching a course on climate change communication. I started class, as I always do, with a glance at the latest climate-themed stories appearing in my news feed. We watched a video - in stunned disbelief - of a house floating down a river. Let me repeat that. There was a house floating down a river.

Australians are of course familiar with the scene of which I speak. It's the dwelling that was observed floating down the Manning River in NSW, a few hundred kilometres north of Sydney, as the state suffered massive floods. Emergency responders rescued hundreds of stranded people after record rainfall caused the rivers to swell.

In fact, more than 18,000 people had to be evacuated in Sydney and the mid-north coast, thanks to what amounted to a "100-year flood". For the unwashed, that's a deluge so Noachian in character that it shouldn't, on average, happen more often than once in a hundred years.

But those sorts of statistics are misleading. The statistician in me notes that they make the very tenuous assumption of a "stationary" climate, that is to say, a climate that isn't changing. But the climate is changing, thanks to human carbon pollution, making episodes that might have once been "100-year events" now more like "10-year events".

Tragically, many of the same towns that were devastated by the massive bushfires a little more than a year ago found themselves under siege from these historic floods. A climate contrarian would cry foul: "You climate scientists can't make up your mind. Is climate change making it wetter or drier?" But in fact, that's a false choice: It's both.

We know that a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, so during the wet season when you get rainfall, you get more of it, in larger downpours and bursts. But hotter temperatures also mean drier soils and worsened droughts in the dry season, conditions conducive to bigger, hotter-burning, faster-spreading bushfires.

In a scientific study I co-authored a year ago, we demonstrated that climate change is causing the wet season to get wetter and the dry season to get drier in many parts of the world. NSW is one of those regions, and we've seen the consequence in the whiplash of fires and floods that have plagued the region over the past 14 months.

Australians can't seem to catch a break. But it's not too late to forestall a dystopian future that alternates between Mad Max and Waterworld.

Adapting to the harsh new reality Australia now faces will be hard, but it will be possible with sufficient government funding and infrastructure to support climate resilience. If, however, we allow the planet to continue to heat up, many heavily occupied parts of Australia will simply become uninhabitable.

There is still a narrow window of opportunity left. If we can lower carbon emissions by a factor of two over the next decade, we can still prevent a catastrophic 1.5C warming of the planet. If that is to happen, Australia, one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels on the planet, will need to do its part.

Thus far conservative prime minister Scott Morrison and the Coalition government have shown little appetite for making good on these obligations, however. They have instead engaged in the sort of soft denial I describe in The New Climate War that has come to replace the no-longer credible outright denial of the reality of the climate crisis.

Morrison and his allies use soothing but hollow words like "resilience", "adaptation" and "innovation" to make it sound like they're actually doing something when they're not. And they suggest they're moving towards net zero carbon emissions by mid-century, while meanwhile promoting a "gas-led" economic recovery and shunning policies, such as carbon pricing and subsidies for clean energy, that could actually help decarbonise the economy.

Morrison's record on climate is so atrocious, in fact, that the UK's own conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, disinvited him from last year's global climate summit.

If Morrison and the Coalition government refuse to act now, then perhaps the Australian people need to disinvite him from serving another term.

The future is still in your hands, mates!

Michael E Mann is distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University. He is author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet

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It's not too late for Australia to forestall a dystopian future that alternates between Mad Max and Waterworld | Michael Mann

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year ago I lived through the Black Summer. I had arrived in Sydney in mid-December 2019 to collaborate with Australian researchers studying the impacts of climate change on extreme weather events. Instead of studying those events, however, I ended up experiencing them.

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Sandcastle built to bring sand martins home

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A giant "sandcastle" has been constructed to encourage sand martins to nest at a nature reserve for the first time in 25 years, Surrey Wildlife Trust has said.

The 400-tonne sand installation at Spynes Mere, near Merstham, Surrey, was built by professional sand sculptors who used a "giant bucket mould" made from wooden boards, as well as the help of diggers and dumper trucks.

Sand martins visit the nature reserve when they migrate from sub-Saharan Africa each year, arriving from mid-March to feed until September, but they have not nested there for 25 years.

The 20-metre--long construction will allow hundreds of the tiny 12cm birds to nest and raise their young at the reserve.

Build it and they will come: a digger moves sand into the wooden mould. Photograph: Surrey Wildlife Trust/PA

Conservationists warn there has been a decrease in natural inland nest sites for sand martins, which dig burrows 50-90cm into the sand with their claws and make a small chamber at the end to lay their eggs in.

It is hoped the scale of the scheme at the nature reserve will enable the sociable birds to roost together, and that the curved vertical face of the sandbank will allow them to peep out of the nest holes to find mates.

James Herd, project manager at Surrey Wildlife Trust, said: "Sand martin numbers have plummeted twice in the last 50 years as a result of droughts in their wintering grounds in Africa.

"In the UK, the natural nesting inland habitat along riverbanks has decreased as rivers pass through more urbanised areas and under roads, and quarrying has ceased," he added. "So creating this nest bank is important to protect them against the boom and bust nature of their nesting sites and give more security for the population to expand."

The structure, said Herd, would give the sand martins the chance to return to nest safely year after year at Spynes Mere, a part of the Nutfield Marshes that was originally created from a restored sand extraction site.

Spynes Mere nature reserve in Surrey. Photograph: Surrey Wildlife Trust/PA

To create the nest bank, in a method similar to using a bucket and spade on a beach, Surrey Wildlife Trust worked with sand sculptors from Sand in Your Eye to build several test sandcastles in mid-January before beginning the main construction in February.

Jamie Wardley, a sand sculptor and the director of Sand in Your Eye, said: "We have only used sand from the site to create the structure from a giant bucket mould made from wooden boards. We added water to create the right mix, compacted the sand, and three to four weeks later the boards were removed.

"The new 'des res' is ready for sand martins to move in, leaving nature and the sand martins to do the work of sculpting hundreds of nesting burrows."

The finished sandbank, ready for nesting sand martins. Photograph: Surrey Wildlife Trust/PA

The landowner, Sibelco, supported the conservation project by clearing the site of scrub and offered to supply extra personnel, diggers and dumper trucks for the build.

Nick Allman, the site manager, said sand martins liked to nest in active extraction sites because of their fresh vertical sand faces, but if nesting birds were found it forced work to stop.

"The sand martin bank is a way of naturally drawing them away from the active sites to where it is safer for them to nest," he said.

New vertical faces carved out at the site will provide 100 sq metres for sand martin homes, as well as a habitat for insects such as solitary wasps and bees, Surrey Wildlife Trust said.

Up to a metre of the sandbanks will be shaved off the face annually to cut down on nest parasites; after five or six years, sand will be recycled to rebuild the bank so that it can provide a lasting home for the birds.

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Giant sandcastle built to bring sand martins home to roost in Surrey

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A giant "sandcastle" has been constructed to encourage sand martins to nest at a nature reserve for the first time in 25 years, Surrey Wildlife Trust has said. The 400-tonne sand installation at Spynes Mere, near Merstham, Surrey, was built by professional sand sculptors who used a "giant bucket mould" made from wooden boards, as well as the help of diggers and dumper trucks.

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PT. Pertamina (Persero) RU-VI Balongan, Sukareja, Reggenza di Indramayu, Giava Occidentale, Indonesia

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Explosion at Balongan oil refinery

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A massive blaze has broken out at one of Indonesia's biggest oil refineries after a huge explosion turned the sprawling complex into a raging inferno.

Firefighters battled to contain the fire at the Balongan refinery in West Java, operated by state oil company Pertamina, as towering plumes of black smoke rose into the sky.

At least five people were seriously injured and about 1,000 local residents were evacuated from the scene after the fire broke out early Monday morning.

Smoke rises during fire at Pertamina's oil refinery in Balongan Photograph: Antara Foto/Reuters

The local disaster agency said one person had died from a heart attack after the explosion.

About 15 people were slightly injured and authorities said they were checking on the whereabouts of three others.

"To prevent the fire from spreading we've shut down operations ... and are putting our efforts into handling the blaze," Pertamina's president director Nicke Widyawati said in a statement.

Night sky glows from the fire Photograph: AP

The cause of the fire was not clear, but the company said the blaze broke out during a lightning storm.

Pertamina said it did not expect the fire to cause fuel supply disruptions due to the high volume of stock it has on hand.

The sprawling refinery is about 200 kilometres (120 miles) east of the capital Jakarta.

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Massive fire engulfs Indonesian oil refinery after explosion

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A massive blaze has broken out at one of Indonesia's biggest oil refineries after a huge explosion turned the sprawling complex into a raging inferno. Firefighters battled to contain the fire at the Balongan refinery in West Java, operated by state oil company Pertamina, as towering plumes of black smoke rose into the sky.

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CM47j1JjPna/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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Mpala Research Centre, Nanyuki, Laikipia Province, Kenya

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Mpala Research Centre, Nanyuki, Laikipia Province, Kenya

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Mpala Research Centre, Nanyuki, Laikipia Province, Kenya

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CMw86WrDfUl/?igshid=qmh3vn6frq50

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Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Boardwalk, Naples, FL, USA

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Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Boardwalk, Naples, FL, USA

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Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Boardwalk, Naples, FL, USA

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CMxYci6jDxh/?igshid=12w04vih1dwiy

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UC San Diego, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, USA

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UC San Diego, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, USA

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UC San Diego, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, USA

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CMmsxOmFucC/?igshid=1k3m0ulq7s3j2

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Dalla fusione dei ghiacci in Groenlandia all’acqua alta a Venezia: i pericoli di un “mondo interconnesso”.

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Quali sono le principali attività antropiche che incidono sul riscaldamento globale e che cosa possiamo fare, in quanto individui, per cambiare le cose?
L'innalzamento delle temperature globali negli ultimi venti-trenta anni è dovuto all'emissione di CO2 nell'atmosfera che non ha mai raggiunto livelli così elevati in migliaia di anni.
La fusione dei ghiacciai è sempre avvenuta in passato ma la nostra impronta sul sistema è incisiva. Purtroppo non possiamo rallentare il riscaldamento globale in modo drastico perché è un processo che ha un'inerzia enorme. Ma dobbiamo pensare al futuro per diminuire il nostro impatto sui parametri atmosferici e prepararci a vivere in un mondo che cambierà. Luoghi della Terra abitabili diventeranno sempre meno abitabili. Dobbiamo anticipare questi problemi pensando all'ambiente come a un sistema il cui equilibrio dipende da noi.
Se la calotta della Groenlandia dovesse sciogliersi, avremmo un aumento del livello dei mari di 7 metri. Che cosa implicherebbe per la città di Venezia?
È uno scenario estremo che aumenterebbe a dismisura la fusione e l'innalzamento del mare. Ma anche se si fondesse il 10 o il 20 per cento della calotta della Groenlandia andremmo verso una situazione ingestibile per una città come Venezia. Se l'andamento resterà questo, dovremo trovare nuove misure per salvare le città costiere. Dobbiamo pensare già da adesso a come affrontare un evento di questo tipo. Fortunatamente abbiamo tempo!
Si tratta di un fenomeno locale o Venezia sta affrontando per prima gli effetti di una crisi ambientale che sta colpendo tutto il pianeta?
Venezia è il caso più eclatante perché è un Patrimonio dell'Umanità e rappresenta probabilmente la sfida più impegnativa. Ma ci sono interi arcipelaghi, nazioni e città che andranno sott'acqua.
Il MOSE è uno dei più imponenti progetti di ingegneria idraulica mai realizzati. Venezia è al sicuro?
Possiamo considerare Venezia al sicuro per i prossimi venti-trenta anni. Ma dobbiamo già pensare alle soluzioni successive. Se le cose continuano così, la città è in pericolo. Non possiamo fermare questo processo neanche abbassando le emissioni quindi dobbiamo capire come agire.

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Dalla fusione dei ghiacci in Groenlandia all'acqua alta a Venezia: i pericoli di un "mondo interconnesso"

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Quali sono le principali attività antropiche che incidono sul riscaldamento globale e che cosa possiamo fare, in quanto individui, per cambiare le cose? L'innalzamento delle temperature globali negli ultimi venti-trenta anni è dovuto all'emissione di CO2 nell'atmosfera che non ha mai raggiunto livelli così elevati in migliaia di anni.

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L’Artico si riscalda e l’inquinamento luminoso minaccia la vita marina.

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Fotografia di Michael O. Snyder

Il circolo polare artico nel mezzo dell'inverno è così buio che è difficile da identificare. A causa dell'inclinazione della Terra rispetto al sole, quest'ultimo sembra non sorgere mai sopra l'orizzonte e cieli scuri pervadono l'Artico in quella che è conosciuta come la notte polare.

"Un po' come fare sempre il turno di notte" dice Finlo Cottier, oceanografo presso l'Associazione Scozzese per le Scienze Marine.

Steven Haddock del Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, che non ha partecipato allo studio, commenta che la ricerca è interessante, ma vorrebbe vederla riprodotta in altre condizioni e con altri metodi.

La distinzione tra le specie che vanno incontro e quelle che fuggono dalla luce fa parte del comportamento che ha studiato nella sua ricerca. "Lo abbiamo visto anche nelle immersioni notturne, quando devi spegnere la luce per un po' per far allontanare la moltitudine di animali che ne sono attratti e si avvicinano" afferma. "Sono convinto che il risultato sarà che la luce ha un'influenza notevole, specialmente in un posto dove per molti giorni non splende il sole."

L'inquinamento luminoso sta avendo un impatto sugli organismi marini più vicini all'equatore: Puerto Rico, ad esempio, ha creato tutto un settore di turismo ecologico incentrato sul plancton bioluminescente che vive in diverse delle baie dell'isola, ma l'inquinamento luminoso disturba questi organismi. È stato riscontrato che l'inquinamento luminoso ha effetti negativi anche su come i piccoli delle tartarughe marine trovano la via del mare, sulla migrazione degli uccelli e sull'accoppiamento delle lucciole.

Emlyn Davies controlla i dati che arrivano in una postazione di computer a bordo della Helmer Hanssen. I computer sono connessi ad una serie di sensori che misurano la luce e il fitoplancton nelle acque intorno alla nave. Emlyn deve lavorare con la sola luce della sua torcia frontale perché perfino la luce più flebile potrebbe interferire con gli esperimenti.

Fotografia di Michael O. Snyder

Due anni fa Cottier e un team di scienziati viaggiarono verso l'Artico durante l'inverno per studiare il modo in cui la luce influenza le creature marine che vivono nelle lontane acque del nord. Come per noi umani, anche per gli organismi marini la luce regola le funzioni vitali, determinando comportamenti come lo spostarsi attraverso la colonna d'acqua per cercare cibo, quando accoppiarsi e quando cacciare.

"A giugno e luglio c'è un'esplosione di crescita e attività" afferma Cottier. "Come si arriva a quel punto? Che cosa succede durante la notte polare che predispone le cose per questa fioritura primaverile? Stiamo cercando di capire il ciclo completo."

Capire come funziona il ciclo completo sarà di importanza fondamentale, mentre l'Artico è alle prese con il cambiamento climatico. L'assottigliamento dei ghiacci comporta il fatto che più luce sarà in grado di penetrare le buie acque dell'oceano. Questo significa anche che passeranno più navi, portando altra luce. E il riscaldamento delle acque di tutto il mondo sta spingendo alcune specie di pesci a latitudini più alte, sconvolgendo la catena alimentare.

Morgan Bender usa una siringa per prelevare sangue da due merluzzi polari. Deve lavorare solo con una tenue luce rossa per non falsare gli esperimenti di inquinamento luminoso in corso.

Fotografia di Michael O. Snyder

Cosa significhi tutto questo per la vita marina non è ancora chiaro, ma una nuova ricerca pubblicata oggi sulla rivista Nature Communications Biology indica che l'inquinamento luminoso potrebbe arrivare ad alterare significativamente la vita delle creature marine mentre gli scienziati stanno ancora cercando di capire come funziona il loro completo ciclo vitale.

Esperimenti di luce nella notte polare

"Spostandosi verso nord, le ore di luce diminuiscono molto velocemente" afferma Geir Johnsen, autore di studi e biologo all'Università norvegese di Scienza e Tecnologia. "Ad ogni latitudine più a nord è sempre più buio. Poi, a circa 80 gradi [a nord], non c'è differenza tra mezzogiorno e mezzanotte".

Per capire come il crescente traffico navale influisca sugli organismi marini, i ricercatori hanno condotto esperimenti in tre diverse stazioni a nord della Norvegia, che si trovano in un'area che va dai 70 gradi fino a poco sotto e poco sopra i 77 gradi nord.

Nelle tre stazioni - contrassegnate con le lettere A, B e C - sono stati condotti esperimenti in completa oscurità, in quanto in questo periodo gli organismi marini non hanno esposizione alla luce. Accendendo e spegnendo le luci della nave, il team ha usato ecoscandagli per rilevare la presenza di organismi nell'acqua.

Mentre la stazione C ha mostrato solo una leggera diminuzione nel numero di organismi presenti, le altre due hanno mostrato cambiamenti notevoli nella presenza di creature marine: alla stazione A, quella più a nord, il numero degli organismi rilevati si è dimezzato quando si sono accese le luci della nave, mentre alla stazione B si è verificata la situazione opposta: quando le luci della nave si sono accese, il numero degli organismi è raddoppiato.

Non solo la luce ha notevolmente alterato il comportamento della fauna marina, ma la risonanza acustica ha mostrato che tale comportamento diverso arrivava fino a 200 metri di profondità. "L'implicazione è che è impossibile dire quale sia l'implicazione," afferma Jørgen Berge, biologo alla Arctic University della Norvegia.

Descrivendo lo zooplancton - vedi immagine - lo scienziato Geir Johnsen afferma: "rappresenta il cibo per tutti gli altri organismi come pesci, uccelli marini, foche, balene e orsi polari. Circa il 50% dell'ossigeno che respiriamo proviene da questa microscopica alga degli oceani del mondo. Ecco perché siamo qui. Vogliamo esaminare da vicino questi piccoli organismi estremamente importanti, perché rappresentano un gruppo chiave nell'ecosistema. In poche parole, senza questo gruppo chiave non ci sarebbe la vita."

Fotografia di Michael O. Snyder

Per qualcuno, afferma, le valutazioni scientifiche potrebbero non essere accurate se non tengono conto delle condizioni di luce in cui vengono studiati gli organismi. Sapere esattamente quanti pesci ci sono nel mare ha anche implicazioni commerciali.

"Sappiamo che mentre l'Artico si riscalda, le varie specie si spostano verso nord. Per essere in grado di gestire la pesca in modo sostenibile, abbiamo bisogno di sapere quanti pesci di ciascuna specie ci sono," afferma. Secondo gli studi l'aumento delle temperature permetterà la traversata transartica entro il 2050.

I ricercatori hanno appena iniziato a monitorare il traffico navale nella regione, per capire come aumenta nel tempo. In uno studio pubblicato lo scorso Settembre, i ricercatori hanno registrato ogni singolo passaggio, dalle navi cargo a quelle da crociera, e hanno rilevato che 5.000 imbarcazioni hanno effettuato un totale di 132.828 viaggi nel corso di due anni.

Un mondo più luminoso (solo per alcuni)

"Comportamenti come in che punto della colonna d'acqua stare, quando accoppiarsi, quando svilupparsi: tutto questo è regolato dalla luce," afferma Johnsen. "La luce è uno dei più antichi stimoli per la vita, ma negli ultimi 100 anni l'uomo ha usato la luce artificiale e questo ha avuto conseguenze [sul regno animale] di cui non ci rendiamo conto".

Si stima che circa l'80% del mondo viva sotto un cielo inquinato da forme di luce artificiale, che sta aumentando di circa il 6% ogni anno.

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L'Artico si riscalda e l'inquinamento luminoso minaccia la vita marina

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Fotografia di Michael O. Snyder Il circolo polare artico nel mezzo dell'inverno è così buio che è difficile da identificare. A causa dell'inclinazione della Terra rispetto al sole, quest'ultimo sembra non sorgere mai sopra l'orizzonte e cieli scuri pervadono l'Artico in quella che è conosciuta come la notte polare.

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Biosfera 2: come reagiranno le piante al riscaldamento globale?

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La foresta pluviale più calda del pianeta non si trova in Amazzonia o in qualche altra area verde, ma dentro la Biosfera 2, la struttura sperimentale per la ricerca scientifica che si trova nel deserto fuori Tucson, in Arizona. Un recente studio sugli alberi tropicali che sono stati piantati lì all'inizio degli anni '90 ha riportato un risultato sorprendente: le piante hanno resistito a temperature più alte di quelle che le foreste tropicali della Terra potrebbero dover affrontare in questo secolo.
UNA PIANTA MUTANTE CHE SI ILLUMINA QUANDO VIENE ATTACCATA

Questa pianta mutante si illumina quando viene attaccata

13 settembre 2018 - Quando le piante vengono danneggiate, inviano segnali di allarme che vengono trasmessi alle altre foglie, attivando meccanismi di difesa nelle aree non danneggiate. Ora, i ricercatori hanno registrato questo tipo di attività in una serie di sorprendenti video che aiutano a comprendere il complesso tema dell'"intelligenza" delle piante. Clicca qui per vedere il video "Questa pianta mutante si illumina quando viene attaccata".

Lo studio si aggiunge a un crescente numero di rilevazioni che stanno dando agli scienziati delle foreste qualcosa di cui ultimamente c'è grande carenza: speranza. Le piante possono avere risorse inaspettate che le aiutano a sopravvivere - e forse addirittura prosperare - in un futuro più caldo e ricco di carbonio. E anche se le foreste tropicali si trovano ad affrontare minacce sia umane che naturali, alcuni ricercatori ritengono che le disastrose relazioni sul loro imminente declino a causa del cambiamento climatico potrebbero essere state esagerate.

"La biologia è ingegnosa", afferma Scott Saleska, ecologo presso l'Università dell'Arizona a Tucson e uno dei responsabili dello studio sulla Biosfera 2, "è molto più ingegnosa di quanto i nostri modelli riescano a rappresentare".

Negli ultimi anni siamo stati inondati da report allarmanti sulle foreste e gli effetti del cambiamento climatico sul loro equilibrio. Gli scienziati hanno annunciato che la foresta amazzonica non riesce più ad assorbire sufficiente anidride carbonica; la foresta pluviale amazzonica potrebbe essere prossima a un punto di non ritorno; le foreste tropicali a livello globale sono già vicine alle temperature massime che possono tollerare e il cambiamento climatico sta uccidendo gli alberi più vecchi.

Una cosa è certa: le emissioni dei nostri combustibili fossili stanno creando un clima che gli esseri umani non hanno mai visto e che gli alberi non vivono da molto molto tempo. "Stiamo creando temperature che le foreste tropicali non vivono dal Cretaceo, ovvero quando c'erano i dinosauri", afferma Abigail Swann, ecologa e scienziata del clima presso l'Università di Washington a Seattle.

Ma prevedere la risposta degli alberi non è compito semplice. Sottoporre intere foreste a una simulazione sperimentale di un futuro più caldo è un'operazione costosa e logisticamente molto ardua. Gli scienziati hanno quindi dovuto estrapolare dati da esperimenti su piccola scala e osservazioni sul campo, spesso usando modelli computerizzati per creare proiezioni per i prossimi decenni.

Una struttura unica nel suo genere

Biosfera 2 ha fornito una rara opportunità per mettere alla prova un'intera f oresta in termini di condizioni climatiche. Sebbene sia nota più che altro per il gruppo di persone che vi fu rinchiuso tra il 1991 e il 1994, la struttura ospita anche ecosistemi artificiali. Tra questi c'è una foresta pluviale tropicale di quasi mezzo acro all'interno di una piramide di vetro il cui vertice arriva a un'altezza di 30 metri dal suolo desertico. Le cime degli alberi che vi furono piantati negli anni '90 ora sono arrivate al soffitto.

Le temperature all'interno della struttura superano anche quelle che sono le previsioni per l'Amazzonia - la foresta pluviale tropicale più calda al mondo - per questo secolo. In condizioni così soffocanti, le piante in precedenti studi condotti all'aperto hanno quasi disattivato la fotosintesi, il processo biochimico che usano per trasformare l'anidride carbonica in zuccheri semplici che assimilano come fonte di energia.

Biosfera 2 a Oracle, in Arizona, contiene una foresta tropicale in miniatura nella quale gli alberi stanno prosperando a 38 °C, una temperatura molto più alta di quelle alle quali sono abituati.

Fotografia di Jessica Lehrman, The New York Times/Redux

I dati sulla crescita degli alberi in diverse condizioni ambientali sono stati registrati nei primi anni 2000 e memorizzati su server e dischi fissi. L'ecologa Marielle Smith, ricercatrice post-doc presso l'Università statale del Michigan, ha visto in quelle registrazioni la preziosa opportunità di studiare una foresta in condizioni climatiche del futuro.

Smith ha voluto analizzare gli effetti di due variabili correlate: temperatura e deficit della pressione di vapore, o VPD (vapor pressure deficit), ovvero la differenza tra la quantità d'acqua che l'aria può contenere e quanta ne contiene effettivamente in un'area e un tempo specifici. Quando il VPD è elevato, le piante perdono acqua più rapidamente.

Normalmente, il VPD aumenta all'aumentare della temperatura, perché l'aria calda può contenere più umidità. Ma nella Biosfera gli umidificatori mantengono l'aria umida, creando una rara combinazione di calore elevato e basso VPD. Il livello di CO ₂ era stabile appena sopra le 400 parti per milione, solo un po' più alto di quello dell'aria esterna, al tempo.

Gli alberi della Biosfera hanno eseguito la fotosintesi alla stessa velocità fino a quando le temperature hanno raggiunto i 38 °C, come hanno riportato Smith e i suoi colleghi il mese scorso su Nature Plants. Nelle foreste naturali in Brasile e in Messico, invece, il tasso di fotosintesi iniziava a precipitare a soli 28 °C.

Questo risultato, affermano Smith e altri esperti, spezza una lancia contro una diffusa ipotesi secondo la quale il calore influirebbe sulla fotosintesi agendo direttamente sul processo e disabilitandolo.

Al contrario, sembra invece che le alte temperature danneggino le piante indirettamente, facendo aumentare il VPD e quindi la secchezza dell'aria. Le foglie delle piante assorbono l'anidride carbonica attraverso cellule fogliari a forma di bocca chiamate stomi, ma quelle stesse cellule consentono anche la fuoriuscita di acqua: vengono espulse fino a 300 molecole d'acqua per ogni molecola di CO ₂ che entra. Quando il VPD aumenta in risposta all'aumento della temperatura, le piante chiudono gli stomi per trattenere l'acqua, essenziale per la sopravvivenza, anche se questo significa rinunciare al cibo.

Nel nostro mondo reale, non sono solo le temperature a essere in aumento: anche l'anidride carbonica sta aumentando, e rapidamente. Questo potrebbe aiutare a proteggere le piante dal calore, afferma Smith: in un futuro più caldo e con alti livelli di CO ₂, gli stomi potrebbero essere in grado di inglobare anidride carbonica, per poi chiudersi per trattenere l'acqua.

"È il risultato in cui speriamo, che non è quello che si verifica sempre" afferma Laura Meredith, ecologa presso l'Università dell'Arizona che conduce la ricerca nella foresta pluviale nella Biosfera 2 ma non è stata coinvolta nello studio. "È incoraggiante e promettente che le foreste abbiano strategie che le aiutano ad adattarsi e rimanere efficienti".

Smith ammette, tuttavia, che c'è ancora un grande "se": l'esperimento della Biosfera non ha contemplato alti livelli di CO ₂,quindi non ha potuto provare che le piante effettivamente la utilizzino per conservare l'acqua. "Non sappiamo ancora se questo meccanismo potrebbe realmente verificarsi", afferma.

Più CO2? Nessun problema

I ricercatori a Panama stanno facendo un ulteriore passo avanti testando se alti livelli di anidride carbonica proteggano effettivamente le piante dal calore. Per ora, la risposta sembrerebbe essere un deciso "sì".

Il botanico Klaus Winter ha costruito una mezza dozzina di cupole geodetiche presso la stazione di ricerca dello Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute vicino al Canale di Panama. Le cupole di Winter sono molto più piccole di quelle della Biosfera 2, e ospitano solo piccoli alberi, ma consentono di controllare sia l'anidride carbonica sia la temperatura. In un lavoro che Winter ha presentato a vari incontri ma che non è ancora stato pubblicato, egli ha rilevato che a temperature superiori a quelle previste per questo secolo, piante ben idratate crescevano bene anche immerse nell'anidride carbonica. Una specie, la balsa, ha addirittura mostrato una crescita molto più veloce.

Presso lo Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute di Gamboa, a Panama, gli alberi vengono fatti crescere in cupole con umidità e temperatura controllate. In queste strutture, gli alberi sono ben idratati ed esposti ad alti livelli di CO ₂ e stanno crescendo rigogliosi nonostante le temperature siano superiori alle massime previste per questo secolo.

Fotografia di Luis Acosta, AFP/Getty Images

Pur non essendo un test diretto del meccanismo di Smith, l'esperimento conferma che alcuni alberi possono resistere ad alte temperature, se hanno a disposizione alti livelli di CO 2 e di acqua, afferma Winter. "Sono meno sensibili a queste variazioni di quanto pensassi".

Il collega di Winter Martijn Slot ha studiato una questione parallela, ovvero se le piante riescono ad adattarsi a condizioni climatiche più calde. Ogni pianta ha un range di temperature preferito, che i ricercatori mappano usando dispositivi di rilevazione dei gas per misurare la fotosintesi a livello fogliare, mentre aumentano gradualmente il calore.

Slot ha rilevato che nelle piantine cresciute a 25 °C la fotosintesi era ottimale. Ma quando ha coltivato le stesse piante a 35 °C, quel punto ottimale di fotosintesi si è spostato a intorno ai 30 °C. La capacità delle piante di cambiare la propria fisiologia interna è un esempio di "plasticità", vista sempre più come un baluardo della botanica contro il mutare delle condizioni.

"Considerare le piante come organismi statici e rigidi nella risposta alle condizioni ambientali porta a previsioni inaccurate e probabilmente sbagliate", afferma Slot. "La plasticità va contemplata" nei modelli a computer che cercano di prevedere il clima del futuro.

Ma dalle osservazioni sul campo è arrivato recentemente un altro cenno di resilienza nascosta: Flavia Costa, del National Institute for Amazonian Research di Manaus, in Brasile, ha analizzato 20 anni di dati delle aree di monitoraggio della foresta brasiliana. Tali aree includevano zone di bassa boscaglia con accesso diretto alle acque sotterranee, il che le rendeva ben idratate, come le piante di Winter. Il team di Costa ha rilevato che le foreste che crescono su acque freatiche poco profonde -che è stato stimato rappresentino oltre un terzo dell'intera Amazzonia - sono cresciute indisturbate e hanno continuato ad assorbire il carbonio anche durante le forti siccità del 2005, 2010 e 2015.

Articoli precedenti avevano lanciato l'allarme sul fatto che le siccità indotte dal clima e i tassi accelerati di crescita e morte stavano uccidendo gli alberi e ostacolando la capacità della foresta amazzonica di continuare a svolgere la funzione di "assorbire" carbonio. Se le foreste umide dell'Amazzonia sono resilienti come quelle studiate nelle aree di ricerca, "i dati sulla perdita di produttività e sull'aumento di mortalità sono probabilmente sovrastimati" afferma Costa.

Oliver Phillips, scienziato ambientale presso l'Università di Leeds che è a capo di una delle principali reti di ricerca sull'Amazzonia, concorda sul fatto che le foreste umide, composte da bassa boscaglia sembrano essere più resistenti alle ondate di siccità di altre. Ma i suoi studi comprendono tali tipi di foreste, ed egli non è certo che aumentarne il numero cambierebbe le conclusioni. Lui e Costa attualmente stanno analizzando i dati delle aree di ricerca per creare una più completa rappresentazione delle foreste amazzoniche.

Ma c'è un inghippo

Tutti questi studi presentano avvertenze e cavilli.

Le foreste potrebbero trovarsi ad affrontare siccità più gravi di quelle fino ad oggi osservate, che potrebbero colpire anche le foreste umide di boscaglia bassa che finora hanno resistito, afferma Costa. Gli studi che simulano le foreste, d'altro canto, faticano a replicare la sorprendente diversità delle foreste tropicali, che possono ospitare sia alberi particolarmente vulnerabili sia presentare meccanismi di resilienza ancora ignoti, aggiunge. È stato stimato che la sola Amazzonia contiene circa 16.000 specie di alberi, molte più di quelle rappresentate nella Biosfera 2, nelle cupole di Winter o in qualsiasi modello computerizzato.

Le piante di Winter, inoltre, sono ancora alberelli, e sono state mantenute ben idratate. Potrebbero non manifestare le stesse reazioni in condizioni di siccità (questo è un aspetto che Winter ha in programma di studiare nelle sue cupole, una volta che non ci saranno più le restrizioni date dal coronavirus).

Secondo Nate McDowell, scienziato della terra presso il Pacific Northwest National Laboratory di Richland, a Washington, che all'inizio di quest'anno su Science avvertiva che il cambiamento climatico sta già riducendo la crescita degli alberi e l'assorbimento dell'anidride carbonica, i risultati di Smith sono "incoraggianti" ma una domanda chiave rimane senza risposta: un elevato livello di anidride carbonica potrà effettivamente aiutare le piante a gestire le condizioni di aria più secca che dovranno affrontare in futuro? "Questa è una domanda fondamentale per la scienza" afferma McDowell, "una domanda scottante, in tutti sensi".

E anche se alti livelli di CO ₂ aiutano a mantenere le piante in vita, la risposta al calore da parte delle piante potrebbe essere una crescita più lenta ma più robusta, aggiunge Smith, rendendo il suo studio e quello di McDowell potenzialmente complementari piuttosto che in contrasto. La foresta nella Biosfera è infatti cambiata nell'arco dei suoi tre decenni di età, forse per via delle condizioni estreme cui è stata sottoposta. Gli alberi all'interno della struttura che producono una sostanza chimica chiamata isoprene, che sembra aiutare le piante a eseguire i processi di fotosintesi ad alte temperature, sono sopravvissuti meglio di quelli che non la producono: un dato le cui implicazioni sono ancora in fase di studio.

"È possibile che stiamo involontariamente costruendo un'Amazzonia più resiliente" afferma Smith, "che forse però non sarà in grado di immagazzinare la stessa quantità di carbonio di quella attuale".

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Biosfera 2: come reagiranno le piante al riscaldamento globale?

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La foresta pluviale più calda del pianeta non si trova in Amazzonia o in qualche altra area verde, ma dentro la Biosfera 2, la struttura sperimentale per la ricerca scientifica che si trova nel deserto fuori Tucson, in Arizona.

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Amazon Rainforest, Codajás - Amazonas, Brasile

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Amazon Rainforest, Codajás - Amazonas, Brasile

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Amazon Rainforest, Codajás - Amazonas, Brasile

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L’Amazzonia contribuisce al riscaldamento globale: ma la colpa è dell’uomo.

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@2023 GEDI Periodici e Servizi S.p.A. - Via Ernesto Lugaro, 15 - 10126 TORINO P.IVA 12546800017 Su licenza di NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS, LLC. TUTTI I DIRITTI RISERVATI.

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The flood, a National Geographic’s documentary about the rain’s season in the Okavango Delta.

As the great flood rides in on the sand, there's an explosion of new life as the Okavango Delta is transformed into a water wonderland.

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In the heart of southern Africa's largest desert lies a miracle - the Okavango Delta in Botswana. One of the most diverse habitats on Earth, each year it undergoes an epic transformation as desert becomes water wonderland. For many, the floodwaters are a lifeline. For others, they bring harsh challenges. But for all, life is ruled by the pulsing of Africa's great flood.

In the heart of southern Africa's largest desert lies a miracle - the Okavango Delta in Botswana. One of the most diverse habitats on Earth, each year it undergoes an epic transformation as desert becomes water wonderland. For many, the floodwaters are a lifeline. For others, they bring harsh challenges. But for all, life is ruled by the pulsing of Africa's great flood.

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In the heart of southern Africa's largest desert lies a miracle - the Okavango Delta in Botswana. One of the most diverse habitats on Earth, each year it undergoes an epic transformation as desert becomes water wonderland. For many, the floodwaters are a lifeline. For others, they bring harsh challenges.

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Human activities causing drought - Drought - GCSE Geography Revision - BBC Bitesize

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Learn about how drought is often caused by human activity with Bitesize GCSE Geography.

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Landscape types - Coastlines of erosion and deposition - National 5 Geography Revision - BBC Bitesize

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For National 5 Geography revise how coastal features are formed and why land uses at the coast can lead to conflict.

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Ch. 1

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Indicators, data and detailed analysis related to Canadian demographics, from a wide set of data sources including population estimates and projections, and the census.

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Ch. 2
Cape Town - An urban settlement.

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The demographics of Toronto, Ontario, Canada make Toronto one of the most multicultural and multiracial cities in the world. In 2016, 51.5% of the residents of the city proper belonged to a visible minority group, compared with 49.1% in 2011, and 13.6% in 1981. Toronto also has established ethnic neighbourhoods such as the multiple Chinatowns, Corso Italia, Little Italy, Little India, Greektown, Koreatown, Little Jamaica, Little Portugal and Roncesvalles, which celebrate the city's multiculturalism.

The last complete census by Statistics Canada estimated there were 2,731,571 living in Toronto, making it the largest city in Canada and the fourth most populous municipality in North America.

Toronto's population grew by 4.3% from 2011 to 2016, with an annual growth rate of 0.86%.

2011 Census population data for the City of Toronto are found readily aggregated at a finer level than the city as a whole at i. the electoral district (riding) level (2003 redistribution) and ii. the neighbourhood level. The three ridings with the largest increase in population between 2006 and 2011 in the City of Toronto have been

Trinity-Spadina (25.5%),

Etobicoke-Lakeshore (7.3%), and

Toronto Centre (7.3%).

The 2016 Census indicates that 51.5% of Toronto's population is composed of visible minorities, compared to 49.1% in 2011, and 13.6% in 1981.

According to the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), 1,264,395 non- Whites, or 20.2% of Canada's visible minority population, live in the city of Toronto; of this, approximately 70 percent are of Asian ancestry. Annually, almost half of all immigrants to Canada settle in the Greater Toronto Area. A study released by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in December 2012 found that 66 percent of students ages 4 through 18 came from visible minorities. East Asians made the largest ethnic group (33 percent) along with South Asians (28 percent) coming in second of the city of Toronto's overall population.

In particular, the progression of the percentage of visible minorities in the city of Toronto from 2006 to 2016 has been as follows:

Change between 2011 and 2016:

Increase:

Filipino: +20,270 (+0.6%)

Black: +21,690 (+0.4%)

Chinese: +21,070 (+0.3%)

South Asian: +21,865 (+0.3%)

Multiple visible minorities: +9,755 (+0.3%)

Arab: +7,110 (+0.2%)

Latin American: +5,955 (+0.1%)

Korean: +4,415 (+0.1%)

Aboriginal: +3,800 (+0.2%)

Visible minority, n.i.e.: 3,305 (+0.1%)

Japanese: +1,095 (-)

Decrease:

White: -9,615 (-2.5%)

Southeast Asian: -5,180 (-0.3%)

The most prevalent ethnic origins in the City of Toronto are as follows:

The top visible-minority groups per Community Council (2016 Census) are as follows:

Toronto & East York (847,045): White: 65.3%, Chinese: 8.9%, South Asian: 6.7%, Black: 5.6%

North York (638,100): White: 47.4%, Chinese: 14.0%, South Asian: 8.5%, Filipino: 8.0%, West Asian: 5.3%, Black: 5.2%

Scarborough (623,135): White: 26.5%, South Asian: 25.4%, Chinese: 19.0%, Black: 10.8%, Filipino: 8.4%

Etobicoke York (583,395): White: 48.9%, Black: 15.7%, South Asian: 11.9%, Latin American: 5.6%

The progression of the percentage of visible minorities in the aforementioned Community Councils (pre-amalgamation municipalities or pairs thereof) has been far from uniform:

The finest granularity of visible minority data in Toronto readily available by the 2016 Census is that of the federal electoral district (riding; 2013 redistribution). The per-riding data based on the 2003 redistribution was available for the 2001 and 2006 censuses and the 2011 NHS, thus enabling useful comparisons. For instance, visible minorities as a percentage of the population only marginally increased, or even decreased (Toronto-Danforth, Parkdale-High Park, Toronto Centre, and, in the 2006-2011 period, Davenport) in the "Old" Toronto, East York and South Etobicoke ridings, while on the other hand increased significantly in Scarborough and North York. Since the 2016 Census used the new 2013 redistribution, such a direct comparison is no longer possible.

Concentrations of ethnic groups per City of Toronto ridings (2016 Census) are as follows, with the largest proportion of each group in bold. For each of the federal electoral districts in the City of Toronto, the ethnic groups with 5% of more of population are shown, in a rough correspondence with community councils and pre-amalgamation municipalities (highest % for each ethnic group as well the most populous ethnic group in a riding, if a visible minority - are shown in bold):

TORONTO & EAST YORK

NORTH YORK

SCARBOROUGH

ETOBICOKE & YORK

For each of the federal electoral districts in the City of Toronto, the ethnic origin groups with 7% of more of population are shown, in a rough correspondence with community councils and pre-amalgamation municipalities (highest % for each ethnic group as well the most populous ethnic group in a riding - if not Canadian or English, which are the most frequent ones - are shown in bold):

TORONTO & EAST YORK

NORTH YORK

SCARBOROUGH

ETOBICOKE & YORK

Top ethnic origin per Toronto ward (as designated by the City of Toronto; 2011 Census data - total responses)

English (18): Ward 32 - Beaches-East York (15.2%), Ward 13 - Parkdale-High Park (12.9%), Ward 22 - St. Paul's (12.9%), Ward 36 - Scarborough Southwest (12.8%), [...]

Chinese (7): Ward 41 - Scarborough-Rouge Park (52.0%), Ward 39 - Scarborough-Agincourt (49.0%), Ward 24 - Willowdale (27.0%), Ward 40 - Scarborough-Agincourt (22.6%), [...]

East Indian (7): Ward 1 - Etobicoke North (23.4%), Ward 42 - Scarborough-Rouge Park (15.9%), Ward 38 - Scarborough Centre (13.1%), Ward 2 - Etobicoke North (11.8%), [...]

Italian (4): Ward 9 - York Centre (21.9%), Ward 12 - York South-Weston (15.1%), Ward 7 - York West (14.3%), Ward 4 - Etobicoke Centre (11.8%)

Portuguese (2): Ward 17 - Davenport (19.7%), Ward 18 - Davenport (16.4%)

Jewish (2): Ward 10 - York Centre (15.0%), Ward 21 - St. Paul's (10.6%)

Filipino (2): Ward 15 - Eglinton-Lawrence (10.0%), Ward 35 - Scarborough Southwest (8.7%)

Canadian (2): Ward 37 - Scarborough Centre (8.6%), Ward 11 - York South-Weston (7.4%)

Top ethnic origin per Toronto neighbourhood (as designated by the City of Toronto; 2006 Census data - total responses)

English (59): Leaside-Bennington (40%), The Beaches (39%), Rosedale-Moore Park (36%), Kingsway South (35%), [...]

Chinese (23): Steeles (70%), Milliken (65%), Agincourt North (56%), Agincourt South-Malvern West (47.1%), [...]

Italian (15): Maple Leaf (45%), Humber Summit (34.5%), Pelmo Park-Humberlea (34.2%), Yorkdale-Glen Park (33.6%), [...]

Indian (15): West Humber-Clairville (33%), Mount Olive-Silverstone-Jamestown (30%), Thorncliffe Park (24%), Woburn (22%), [...]

Jewish (10): Forest Hill North (32%), Westminster-Branson (31%), Forest Hill South (29%), Bedford Park-Nortown (28%), [...]

Portuguese (9): Little Portugal (38%), Caledonia-Fairbank (37%), Weston-Pellam Park (34%), Keelesdale-Eglinton West (32%), [...]

Filipino (3): North St. James Town (17%), Ionview (16%), Kennedy Park (13%)

Jamaican (3): Beechborough-Greenbrook (15%), Black Creek (10.0%), Mount Dennis (9.7%)

Canadian (2): New Toronto (21%), Alderwood (19%)

Greek (1): Broadview North (15%)

The neighbourhoods with the highest percentage of visible minorities (2016 data) are as follows:

Milliken: 97% (top ethnic origin: Chinese)

Steeles: 91% (top ethnic origin: Chinese)

Agincourt North: 91% (top ethnic origin: Chinese)

Malvern: 90% (top ethnic origin: East Indian)

West Humber-Clairville: 87% (top ethnic origin: East Indian)

Mount Olive-Silverstone-Jamestown: 87% (top ethnic origin: East Indian)

Agincourt South-Malvern West: 86% (top ethnic origin: Chinese)

Black Creek: 81% (top ethnic origin: Vietnamese)

Rouge: 81% (top ethnic origin: East Indian)

Flemingdon Park: 79% (top ethnic origin: East Indian)

Thorncliffe Park: 79% (top ethnic origin: Pakistani)

Those with the lowest percentage of visible minorities (2016 data) are:

Kingsway South: 12% (top ethnic origin: English)

Markland Wood: 13% (top ethnic origin: English)

The Beaches: 14% (top ethnic origin: English)

Runnymede-Bloor West Village: 16% (top ethnic origin: English)

Casa Loma: 17% (top ethnic origin: English)

Forest Hill South: 17% (top ethnic origin: Polish)

Lawrence Park South: 17% (top ethnic origin: English)

Stonegate-Queensway: 18% (top ethnic origin: English)

Leaside-Bennington: 18% (top ethnic origin: English)

Rosedale-Moore Park: 18% (top ethnic origin: English)

Concentrations of ethnic groups per Toronto CMA municipality are as follows, with the largest proportion of each group in bold (only percentages higher than 5% are included):

Most common ethnic origins (only percentages higher than 7% are included) per Toronto CMA municipality are as follows, with the largest proportion of each ethnic origin in bold (as well the most populous ethnic group in a riding, if not English or Canadian) :

Visible minorities as percentage of population and top ethnic origins per riding, in the GTA outside the City of Toronto are as follows:

The following are the twenty (20) more common ethnic origins in the Toronto CMA:

The top 20 ethnic origins in the Toronto CMA, from 1996 to 2016 are as follows:

Change between 2011 and 2016:

Largest increases:

1. Chinese: +105,970 (+1.2%)

2. East Indian: +71,120 (+0.6%)

3. Pakistani: +32,340 (+0.5%)

4. Filipino: +28,330 (+0.2%)

5. Jamaican: +23,030 (+0.2%)

6. Polish: +22,785 (+0.1%)

7. Russian: +21,820 (+0.3%)

8. Iranian: +20,845 (+0.3%)

9. Canadian: +18,215 (−0.5%)

10. Ukrainian: +13,985 (-)

Largest decreases:

1. Jewish: −77,970 (−1.5%)

2. English: −44,555 (−1.6%)

3. Yugoslavian, n.o.s.: −1,900 (−0.4%)

4. Scottish: −1,605 (−0.6%)

5. French: −1,585 (−0.3%)

Roman Catholics accounted for 33.4% of the population of the city of Toronto in 2001, followed by Protestants with 21.2%. Members of Christian Orthodox churches accounted for 4.9%, and other Christians (those not specifically identifying as Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox) formed 3.9%. The city's religious makeup also includes Islam with 5.5% (including large number of Sunni and Ahmadiyya members), Hinduism (4.1%), Judaism (3.5%), Buddhism (2.1%), Sikhism (1%), and other communities; 16.6% reported no religious affiliation.

In particular, the 2001 Census data showed the following data per pre-amalgamation municipality:

The 2011 National Household Survey found that Roman Catholics accounted for 28.2% of the population in the city of Toronto in 2011, followed by those of no religious affiliation at 24.1%, "Other Christian" at 9.7%, and Muslims at 8.2%. Besides those registered in the "other Christian" category there were other Christian denominations who were also registered in the census, including Anglicans (3.8%), Baptists (1.4%), Christian Orthodox (4.3%), Lutheran (0.6%), Pentecostal (1.6%), Presbyterian (1.5%), and United Church (3%). Buddhists (2.7%), Hindu (5.6%), Judaism(3.8%), Sikh (0.8%), Aboriginal spirituality (0.03%) and "Other religions" (0.5%) were also included.

The finest granularity of mother tongue and language spoken in Toronto yet provided by the 2011 Census is that of the federal electoral district (riding; 2003 redistribution). Census tracts (and hence ward and neighbourhood) data is not yet available. For each of the federal electoral districts in the City of Toronto, the top three (3) (or more if having more than 3% of native speakers; single responses are used - it is indicated by way of using bold whether English is the mother tongue of more than 60% of the population or if another language exceeds 10% of native speakers) are as follows:

TORONTO & EAST YORK

NORTH YORK

Willowdale (135,455): 1. English (35.1%), 2. Chinese, not otherwise specified (9.4%), 3. Persian (9.3%), 4. Korean (7.9%), 5. Mandarin (7.7%)

Don Valley West (118,545): 1. English (54.4%), 2. Urdu (5.9%), 3. Persian (4.0%)

Don Valley East (106,115): 1. English (42.1%), 2. Mandarin (6.5%), 3. Chinese, not otherwise specified (6.1%) 4. Persian (4.6%), 5. Arabic (3.5%), 6. Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (3.2%), 7. Cantonese (3.2%)

York West (103,395): 1. English (44.0%), 2. Italian (9.6%), 3. Spanish (8.5%), 4. Vietnamese (5.3%), 5. Urdu (3.0%)

SCARBOROUGH

Scarborough-Rouge River (128,905): 1. English (37.4%), 2. Tamil (13.8%), 3. Cantonese (13.1%), 4. Mandarin (4.6%), 5. Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (4.3%), 6. Urdu (3.2%)

Scarborough-Guildwood (105,900): 1. English (57.6%), 2. Tamil (8.0%), 3. Gujarati (6.0%), 4 Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (3.9%), 5. Urdu (3.2%)

Scarborough Centre (105,880): 1. English (47.7%), 2. Tamil (8.5%), 3. Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (6.1%) 4. Chinese, not otherwise specified (3.8%), 5. Cantonese (3.5%)

Scarborough Southwest (103,270): 1. English (59.3%), 2. Bengali (6.1%), 3. Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (5.0%), 4. Tamil (3.4%)

ETOBICOKE YORK

Etobicoke-Lakeshore (119,120): 1. English (59.7%), 2. Polish (5.6%), 3. Ukrainian (3.5%)

York South-Weston (111,710): 1. English (49.9%), 2. Portuguese (9.0%), 3. Spanish (8.2%), 4. Italian (7.6%), 5. Vietnamese (3.6%)

Etobicoke Centre (109,250): 1. English (54.1%), 2. Italian (5.5%), 3. Ukrainian (4.1%), 4. Spanish (3.2%)

Following are the corresponding data for the GTA ridings neighbouring the City of Toronto:

IN YORK REGION

Markham-Unionville (131,250): 1. English (34.2%), 2. Cantonese (18.1%), 3. Chinese, not otherwise specified (12.7%), 4. Tamil (7.5%), 5. Mandarin (6.0%), 6. Urdu (3.2%)

IN PEEL REGION

Mississauga-Brampton South (138,495): 1. English (41.6%), 2. Panjabi (Punjabi) (8.0%), 3. Urdu (5.2%), 4. Polish (3.8%), 5. Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (3.5%)

Mississauga East-Cooksville (131,915): 1. English (40.0%), 2. Polish (6.7%), 3. Urdu (5.0%), 4. Arabic (4.8%), 5. Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (4.1%), 6. Spanish (3.2%)

IN DURHAM REGION

According to the Canadian government, Toronto has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world. Within Canada itself, 43% of all new immigrants to Canada settle in the Greater Toronto Area adding significantly to Toronto's population. According to the 2006 Census, 45.7% of the residents of Toronto were immigrants. For the City of Toronto, the corresponding figure stood at 50.0%

The 2006 Census data show the following temporal patterns in the sources of immigration to Toronto (and retention of immigrants per source country):

Period of immigration: 1996-2000 (362,320): India 13.5%, China 13.1%, Pakistan 7.8%, Philippines 5.9%, Sri Lanka 5.2%, Hong Kong 4.3%, Iran 3.4%, Russia 3.2%

Period of immigration: 1991-1995 (357,865): Hong Kong 9.1%, India 8.7%, Philippines 8.7%, Sri Lanka 8.3%, China 8.1%, Poland 4.5%, Jamaica 4.1%, Guyana 3.5%, Vietnam 3.3%

Period of immigration: Before 1991 (1,152,050): Italy 11.1%, United Kingdom 9.7%, Portugal 5.9%, India 5.6%, Jamaica 5.5%, Hong Kong 4.5%, China 4.4%, Philippines 3.9%, Poland 3.8%, Guyana 3.8%, Vietnam 3.4%

The percentage and breakdown of immigrants per place of birth for each City of Toronto Community Council is as follows:

Toronto & East York (642,940): 39.0% (Eastern Asia 6.7%; Southern Europe 6.5%; Southeast Asia 4.1%; Southern Asia 3.7%; Eastern Europe 3.3%; Northern Europe 3.2%)

Scarborough (602,610): 57.4% (Eastern Asia 14.3%; Southern Asia 13.9%; Southeast Asia 6.6%; Caribbean & Bermuda 5.1%; South America 3.4%; Southern Europe 3.2%)

The City of Toronto ward with the highest percentage of total immigrants is Ward 41 Scarborough-Rouge River where 71.4% of the total population are immigrants (Eastern Asia 41.4%, Southern Asia 10.7%, Southeast Asia 6.0%, Caribbean & Bermuda 3.8%). At the other end of the spectrum is Ward 16 Eglinton-Lawrence having the lowest percentage of immigrants, 24.7% in particular (Eastern Europe 4.1%, Northern Europe 3.4%, Southern Europe 3.3%).

Largest area (hectares): Ward 42 - Scarborough-Rouge River: 3,928

Smallest area (hectares): Ward 18 - Davenport: 474

Most populous: Ward 23 - Willowdale: 79,435

Least populous: Ward 19 - Toronto-Danforth: 44,420

Highest % recent immigrants: Ward 33 - Don Valley East: 24.1%

Lowest % recent immigrants: Ward 16 - Eglinton Lawrence: 3.7%

Highest % visible minorities: Ward 42 - Scarborough-Rouge River: 88.7%

Lowest % visible minorities: Ward 16 - Eglinton Lawrence: 12.6%

Highest median household income: Ward 25 - Don Valley West: $86,901

Lowest median household income: Ward 14 - Parkdale-High Park: $38,352

(highest %)

English: Ward 32 - Beaches-East York: 77.7% (Lowest %: Ward 39 - Scarborough-Agincourt: 24.9%)

Portuguese: Ward 18 - Davenport: 25.3%

Cantonese: Ward 41 - Scarborough-Rouge River: 23.5%

Chinese, not otherwise specified: Ward 39 - Scarborough-Agincourt: 22.2%

Italian: Ward 9 - York Centre: 20.4%

Russian: Ward 10 - York Centre: 19.5%

Tamil: Ward 42 - Scarborough-Rouge River: 15.1%

Panjabi (Punjabi): Ward 1 - Etobicoke North: 13.3%

Urdu: Ward 26 - Don Valley West: 11.2%

Greek: Ward 29 - Toronto-Danforth: 10.7%

(highest %)

English: Ward 16 - Eglinton-Lawrence: 89.9% (Lowest %: Ward 39 - Scarborough-Agincourt: 36.1%)

Cantonese: Ward 41 - Scarborough-Rouge River: 22.5%

Chinese, not otherwise specified: Ward 39 - Scarborough-Agincourt: 18.3%

Portuguese: Ward 18 - Davenport: 17.8%

Russian: Ward 10 - York Centre: 17.6%

Italian: Ward 9 - York Centre: 12.7%

Tamil: Ward 42 - Scarborough-Rouge River: 12.7%

Panjabi (Punjabi): Ward 1 - Etobicoke North: 11.0%

(highest %; single responses)

Chinese: Ward 41 - Scarborough-Rouge River: 56.1%

Portuguese: Ward 17 - Davenport: 28.0%

Italian: Ward 9 - York Centre: 27.2%

East Indian: Ward 1 - Etobicoke North: 26.0%

Jewish: Ward 10 - York Centre: 17.3%

Greek: Ward 29 - Toronto-Danforth: 13.0%

(highest %)

Not a visible minority: Ward 16 - Eglinton-Lawrence: 87.4%

Chinese: Ward 41 - Scarborough-Rouge River: 57.3%

South Asian: Ward 1 - Etobicoke North: 37.9%

Black: Ward 8 - York West: 21.8%

Filipino: Ward 25 - Scarborough Southwest: 10.4%

Latin American: Ward 7 - York West: 9.6%

Korean: Ward 23 - Willowdale: 9.4%

Southeast Asian: Ward 8 - York West: 7.2%

West Asian: Ward 23 - Willowdale: 6.9%

Arab: Ward 34 - Don Valley East: 3.0%

Japanese: Ward 27 - Toronto Centre-Rosedale: 1.2%

(highest %)

Earned doctorate: Ward 20 - Trinity-Spadina: 3.3%

Master's degree: Ward 27 - Toronto Centre-Rosedale: 13.0%

Degree in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine: Ward 25 - Don Valley West: 3.5%

University certificate above bachelor level: Ward 22 - St. Paul's: 5.5%

Bachelor's degree: Ward 22 - St. Paul's: 31.5%

University certificate or degree: Ward 22 - St. Paul's: 54.1%

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The demographics of Toronto, Ontario, Canada make Toronto one of the most multicultural and multiracial cities in the world. In 2016, 51.5% of the residents of the city proper belonged to a visible minority group, compared with 49.1% in 2011, and 13.6% in 1981.

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Settlement patterns - Settlement in urban areas - KS3 Geography Revision - BBC Bitesize

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Krakatoa, Anak Krakatau Island, Reggenza di Lampung Selatan, Lampung, Indonesia

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Volcano formation

Krakatoa volcano in the Sunda Strait, Indonesia

Magma rises through cracks or weaknesses in the Earth's crust .

Pressure builds up inside the Earth.

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Characteristics of volcanoes - Volcanoes - CCEA - GCSE Geography Revision - CCEA - BBC Bitesize

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Renewable Energy in Italy

Renewable Energy (RE)

RE as % of Gross Final energy consumption

17.1% (2014)

Target for above

17.0% (2020)

Renewable Electricity

Percentage of electricity generated by RE

(est) 43.1% (2014)

RE generated / Total electricity generation

120,677 / 279,829 GWh (2014)

Record % RE covered electricity consumption

100% (June16th 2013)

Installed capacity (2015)[1]

Wind Power

9.1 GW

Bio Energy

4.1 GW

Solar Power

18.9 GW

Hydro Power

18.5 GW

Geothermal

0.8 GW

Total

51.5 GW

Country Notes

In 2014 Italy had the world's highest solar power penetration

Diverse spread of RE sources

Achieved its 2020 RE targets 6 years early

Renewable energy has developed rapidly in Italy over the past decade and provided the country a means of diversifying from its historical dependency on imported fuels. Solar energy production alone accounted for around 8% of the total electric production in the country in 2014, making Italy the country with the highest contribution from solar energy in the world. Rapid growth in the deployment of solar, wind and bio energy in recent years lead to Italy producing over 40% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2014.

The share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption (all energy uses) had risen to 17.1% in 2014. This number has been growing steadily and today accounts for one of the principal components of national energy consumption. In 2014, 38.2% of the national electric energy consumption came from renewable sources (in 2005 this value was 15.4%), covering 16% of the total energy consumption of the country (5.3% in 2005). The corresponding figure for electricity generation was even higher as consumption figures are reduced by electricity imports (13.6% of the total in 2014). Imported electricity may also contain a high proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources but these are not accounted for in consumption figures.

All 8,047 Italian municipalities ( comune) have deployed some source of renewable energy, with hydroelectric power being the leading renewable energy source in terms of production. Bio energy, wind power and geothermal power also make an important contribution to national energy demands. By 2013, renewable energy primary consumption in Italy had grown to 14.6 Mtoe (Million tonnes of oil equivalent).

Italy has implemented generous incentive schemes to encourage the development of renewable energy production. Its largest scheme incentivised solar PV production and lead Italy from a low base of installed PV in 2010 to become the world's fourth largest country by installations by the end of 2014, ahead of the US at that time. All sources of renewable energy have grown in Italy during recent years and many continue to receive incentives.

The urge to produce exclusively green energy in Italy came from the need to reduce the country's historical heavy dependence on fossil fuels and supply flows of hydrocarbons coming from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and to comply with the binding international agreements of the Kyoto Protocol (signed in 1997 and implemented in 2005).

During the twentieth century, Italy was at the forefront of technological development and the production of energy from renewable sources. In the field of geothermal energy, the first plant dates back to 1904, at Larderello in Tuscany, where in 1913 the first geothermal power plant was also built, and remained the only one in the world until 1958. With regards to hydropower, the first plant in Europe was built in Paderno d'Adda in Lombardy between 1895 and 1898. In the solar energy industry, the first power plant (that could produce steam at 450 °C) was built in Genoa in 1963, and in 1980 the first solar power tower that uses mirrors was built at Adrano in Sicily. As for the production of wind power, the first experimental projects (sponsored by the National Research Council and in collaboration with Enel) were started in the second half of the seventies as part of the restructuring of the entire system of production and supply of energy that followed the 1973 and 1979 energy crisis.

During the eighties and the nineties renewable energy projects drew new life from three co-occurring factors: the rapid price increase of crude oil (caused by the tension and armed conflicts in the Middle East and Persian Gulf); a new public awareness of environmentalism (fuelled by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986); and the interruption of all construction of nuclear power plants in Italy and the ban on Enel on the participating in the construction or management of nuclear power plants beyond national borders (following the referendum of 1987).

All EU countries as well as Iceland and Norway submitted National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) to outline the steps taken, and projected progress by each country between 2010 and 2020 to meet the Renewable Energy Directive. Each plan contains a detailed breakdown of each country's current renewable energy usage and plans for future developments. According to projections by the Italian submission by 2020 the gross final energy consumption in Italy by sector breaks down as follows.

Excluding losses and adjustments almost half of energy consumption (48%) is used in the heating and cooling sector. The heating and cooling sector (also known as the thermal sector) includes domestic heating and air conditioning, industrial processes such as furnaces and any use of heat generally. The next largest share is the transport sector at 26.7%, followed closely by the electricity sector at 25.3%. The proportion of energy use in each sector is similar to that of 2016. In order to meet Italy's overall target for 17% use of renewable energy in Gross final energy consumption (22,617 ktoes) by 2020 targets have been set for each sector as follows: 17% renewable energy use in the heating and cooling sector, 26% in the electricity sector and 10% in the transport sector (see targets below for further details). Total annual energy consumption is projected to be 133,042 ktoe (133 million tonnes of oil equivalent) by 2020.

The energy measures above are gross final energy consumption. Another broader measure, primary energy consumption also includes energy used in the extraction of fuels (the energy sector) and energy lost in transformation (the transformation sector, i.e. converting heat to electricity in power plants or fuel energy to heat in heating plants) as well as gross final energy consumption for end users. Under the European Union Energy Efficiency Directive, EU countries submit their Energy Efficiency Plans every three years. According to Italy's submission in 2014 the country's total final energy consumption in 2012 was 119.01 Mtoes whilst its primary energy consumption was 163.05 Mtoes. Most of the approximately 37% difference is accounted for in losses in the transformation sector. These losses are likely to be most prevalent in thermal electricity sectors, thus the use of renewable electricity will reduce CO2 emissions and fuels lost in the energy and transformation sectors as well as those in final consumption. By using more efficient thermal generation the potential remains to reduce energy waste by around a third and to cut CO2 emissions accordingly.[citation needed ]

Renewable electricity by source

In 2015 renewable electricity provided around 37.9% of Italy's total gross electricity production, a fall from around 43.1% in the previous year due to large yearly variations in hydroelectric production. Hydroelectric power continued to provide the largest single source of renewable energy generated electricity in 2015 at around 15.6% of national production. Solar generation provided the next largest share at around 8.1%, a figure which is remarkable given that most solar installations have occurred since 2010. Bio energy provided around 6.7% followed closely by wind power at 5.3%. Geothermal power provided the smallest share at an estimated 2.2%.

Growth of renewable electricity

Between 2005 and 2011 a surge in renewable energy investments and production took place in Italy, particularly in wind and solar energy during the latter years. Total electricity produced from solar PV quintupled in 2011 compared to the previous year. This was mainly due to a drop in costs and to high incentives introduced since 2005. The Italian fossil fuel electricity generation sector underwent a profound crisis. Many Italian power plants burning fossil fuels were running at half capacity and others were in the process of being shut down.

Total Gross Generation**

Hydro

Solar

Wind

Geothermal

Bio energy

Total Renewable

% of Total Gross Generation (est)

* Figures in italics represent near estimates. Data for Hydro, Solar, Wind, Geothermal and Bio Energy 2010-2015 from GSE.it, figures for 2015 preliminary estimates.
** Data for Gross generation for years 2010-2014, from Terna.it, General Data 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014
*** Gross generation for 2015 estimated from Net generation figures (and using same ratio between gross and net generation as 2013 figures).

Generation by renewables grew from 76,965 GWh in 2010 to 106,686 GWh by 2015. Non hydroelectric renewable electricity more than doubled during the period growing from 25,848 GWh in 2010 to 62,748 GWh in 2015, a rise from around 9.3% to 22.3% of total gross generation. The largest increase in production took place in solar generated electricity followed by bio energy production. Wind power rose by a little over 60% during the period whilst geothermal production rose by a little under 15%. Normalised (averaged) hydroelectric statistics suggest a slight upward trend in generation despite wet and dry years influencing the overall production in any given year. Bio energy includes production from biomass, biogas, bioliquids and the renewable share of municipal waste used as fuel in waste to energy generation. Further information on bioenergy production is available under the heading "Sources" below.

Electricity production potential from renewables has been rising, however hydroelectric production figures vary considerably from one year to the next and accounts for the fall in 2015. Production of electricity from renewable sources reached a record in 2014 of around 43% of total gross electricity generation. In 2015 production from Wind, Photovoltaic and Geothermal sources almost matched Hydroelectric production for the first time.

Installed Capacity

The total installed capacity of renewable electricity sources grew from 30,284 MW in 2010 to 53,259 MW by 2017. The greatest increase was in solar power which has been strongly supported by government incentives. Wind power grew fairly strongly over the period but was over taken by solar in 2011. Bio energy has also grown significantly from a low base in 2010 almost doubling in capacity by 2015. Hydroelectricity is a mature technology in Italy and already highly developed yet its capacity still grew by 3.6% during the period.

Every two years all EU countries as well as Iceland and Norway submit Progress Reports outlining their renewable energy development and movement towards meeting their 2020 renewable energy targets. Between 2009 and 2014 renewable energy share in the heating and cooling sector grew from 16.43% to 18.89%. In 2014 Biomass provided the largest share of RE in the heating and cooling sector at 13.4% of the total, equating to just over 7 million tonnes of oil equivalent. RE from heat pumps provided almost 5% of the total sector, an area in which Italy is more developed than most countries. Solar and geothermal power provided a contribution of 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.

The Italian government has identified measures to increase the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the heating and cooling sector as outlined in the 2009 Italian National Renewable Energy Action Plan. These include an energy efficiency credits scheme which was expected to save 6 Mtoe by 2012. A 55% tax relief for building and refurbishment projects due to be reviewed by 2010. The report outlined a plan for regulating a minimum quota of 50% (20% for buildings in historic centres) of domestic hot water being produced by renewable energy targeting newly constructed buildings or buildings to be refurbished. From 1999 tax credits were made available for district heating using either geothermal or biomass energy. Tax relief for specific measures is included to encourage the replacement of old boilers and chimneys with high energy efficiency and low-emission biomass boilers. Legislation in Italy allows biogas to be injected into the natural gas system where there are no technical issues.

The report identified the possibility of boosting the development of district heating and cooling by making use of biomass from agriculture and forestry, through heat extracted from cogeneration, and utilizing sorted waste. It also seeks to promote the use of biomass in agricultural and industrial areas and the provision for geothermal heat transport networks serving manufacturing and residential areas.

Renewable energy use in the heating and cooling sector 2010-2015 (Mtoe)

Total renewable energy use grew in the thermal sector by just a little over 5% between 2010 and 2015 from 10.02 Mtoe to 10.59 Mtoe. The main areas of growth were in solar thermal and renewable energy from heat pumps.

According to the Italian Progress Report submitted to the European Commission between 2009 and 2014 renewable energy share in the transport sector grew slightly from 3.68% in 2009 to 4.48% in 2014. As of 2016 the use of renewable energy in the transport sector remains well behind the other energy sectors in most countries. Biodiesels provided the largest share of RE in the transport sector at 4% of the total. Renewable electricity provided 0.45% of the sector's requirements, most of it in public transport uses. Bioethanol also provided a small contribution at 0.03% of the total.

The 2009 Italian National Renewable Energy Action Plan outlined existing and planned developments for encouraging renewable energy use in the transport sector. From 2007 Italy introduced a minimum quota of 4.5% of biofuels to be fed into the network by 2012. A reduction in the tax on biofuels was also introduced prior to 2010. Plans were also outlined to increase the minimum quota and to promote second and third generation biofuels and to make use of biofuels obtained from waste and raw material of non-food origin. Promoting biomethane and electricity to power transport is also included in the report. Biodiesel in Italy is produced from rape seed, soy beans and sunflower seeds.

The country has planned to subsidize electric cars. Transport accounts for a large amount of fossil fuel use so a quick transition to electric cars and public transport will be a key element of transition to renewable energy use.

Sales of electric and hybrid cars in Italy totalled 1,110 units in 2014 and 1,460 units in 2015 corresponding to just 0.1% of total car sales in each year. Incentives for electric vehicles have been criticised for being ineffective and many Italian households still have electricity contracts that stipulate peak consumption limits.

Italy's biodiesel production totalled approximately 2.5 Million Metric Tons in 2015. Biodiesel is produced mainly from imported rape seed (40%), soybean (30%) and palm oil (25%). The small amount remaining is made from recycled vegetable oils, sunflower oil and vegetable fat. Rapeseed oil is mostly imported from EU countries, and soybean oil is imported from the EU or made from imported beans. Palm oil is mainly imported from Malaysia and Indonesia. Biodiesel is blended with standard diesel for transport use or used for heating.

Italy also produces bioethanol and production in 2014 was approximately 215,000 Metric Tons per year. Bioethanol is made from corn and wheat, wine and wine by-products. Most of the bioethanol is used for industrial chemicals but a small portion is used for transport use.

Production of Electricity (GWh) from Hydroelectrictiy 2010-2015

Installed capacity of Hydroelectricity in 2015 was 18,531 MW. Hydroelectric production varies considerably from year to year. 2014 saw a record year in production at 58,545 GWh. From the turn of the century to the beginning of the 1960s hydroelectricity dominated the share of electricity production in Italy and this source has a long history in the peninsula and reflects Italy's mountainous geography and high water runoff. Some of Italy's largest hydroelectric plants operate pumped storage providing the country with a means of balancing and storing the variable output from the countries growing solar and wind power facilities.

Production of Electricity (GWh) from Solar Power 2010-2015

The installed capacity of solar PV power was 18,910 MW in 2015 having risen from just 1,906 MW in 2010. In 2014 Italy was the world's leading country in terms of solar power coverage of domestic electricity supply, with around 8% of total electricity generation being sourced from solar. With an installed capacity of 18,609 MW the country was second only to Germany (38,301 MW) in the EU in terms of total capacity and fourth in the world behind the other leading countries China and Japan. Its capacity was greater than the USA in 2014 (18,280 MW) ranked fifth in the world at that time. The speed of development of solar power in Italy has been influenced by a government incentive scheme, the "Conto Energia", designed as a feed in tariff for solar PV generated electricity. Since the ending of the Conto Energia incentive scheme in 2013 installations of solar PV have continued but at a slower rate. The government has indicated that it intends to focus funding incentives more on other sources of renewable energy in the future. Several sources believe that solar power has reached grid parity in Italy.

Production of Electricity (GWh) from Wind Power 2010-2015

The installed capacity of wind power was 9,126 MW in 2015. Growth in windpower has not been at the breakneck speed of solar power and the developed potential in Italy remains somewhat moderate. It is far behind its western Mediterranean neighbour Spain ( 23,003 MW) and behind other wind pioneering countries such as Germany and record breaking Denmark in terms of realised potential. Installed capacity grew in 2015 whilst production fell slightly in that year, demonstrating that wind power can vary somewhat from year to year but not as dramatically as hydroelectric power.

Production of Electricity (GWh) from Geothermal Power 2010-2015

As with hydroelectricity geothermal power has been used in Italy for many decades. Production is based in Central Italy particularly around the iconic city of Pisa. Installed capacity grew from 772 MW in 2010 to 824 MW by 2015. Geothermal power production has been on a slow upward trend since 2010 and produced an estimated 6,160 GWh of electricity in 2015. According to industry sources Italy was the world's sixth largest producer of geothermal electricity (see Geothermal power in Italy).

Production of Electricity (GWh) from Bio Energy 2010-2015

The production of electricity from bio energy more than doubled between 2010 and 2015 rising from 9,440 GWh to 18,894 GWh. Production from Bio Energy rose most rapidly in the years to 2014. Electricity from bio energy makes a considerable contribution in Italy, producing more electricity than wind power in each year shown above. A small increase in production was estimated for 2015.

Italy has administered a comprehensive range of feed-in tariffs and incentives for renewable energy producers. The rationale for a feed-in tariff (FIT) in the power sector is that incentives spur the development of production capacity, technology and economies of scale in emerging renewable energy sources. As a technology develops its costs should fall as it becomes more competitive with other energy sources. Thus it should be possible to reduce the incentive support as the costs of installation fall. If support is withdrawn too quickly the new technology may not have a chance to establish itself as a viable option or if support is withdrawn too slowly costs may rise. Eventually the new energy sources may reach grid parity in which case they should be competitive options without any further support, or in the best case scenario a highly cost effective, secure and environmentally friendly option. The outcome of the final renewable energy mix in Italy has been influenced by the administration and design of the incentive schemes. In designing feed-in tariff and incentive schemes a wide range of factors and objectives are taken into account. Schemes can be designed to be limited by total cost or capacity installation quotas for each type of energy source. The level of incentive is specified and incentives may be changed at intervals in response to changes in market conditions and changing technology costs. A higher incentive will yield a quicker pace of installation but be more costly. The real value of the incentive may change as the costs of installing new capacity rises or falls. Different types of renewable energy sources may receive greater or fewer incentives depending on the desired energy mix outcome. Incentives may be different for smaller or larger producers and for urban and countryside locations, for newer or more developed types of renewable energy. In Italy the main incentive schemes are as follows:

Solar PV and the Conto Energia

In 2005 the Italian government introduced the first Conto Energia scheme, a feed-in tariff (FIT) system granting incentives specifically for electricity generated by photovoltaic (PV) solar systems and plants connected to the grid. The payments for these were designed to be made over a 20-year period and to incentivise both smaller and larger producers to invest in the installation of photovoltaic plants and systems. Between 2005 and 2013 five different Conto Energia schemes were introduced by ministerial decree. Each scheme had differing terms and conditions and tariffs provided to producers.

The first Conto Energia resulted in the relatively small amount of 163 MW of new PV power installations, perhaps because solar power was still in its infancy in 2005.

The second Conto Energia introduced in 2007 resulted in a massive increase of 6,791 MW of new PV power at an annual cost of €3.27 billion and was the most costly scheme. Almost half of the total cost of the scheme is accounted for by Conto Energia 2.

Conto Energia 3 ran briefly resulting in 1,567 MW of installed power at an annual cost of €0.65 billion. This was succeeded by Conto Energia 4 which resulted in the largest increase in solar capacity so far at 7,600 MW of installed power at the annual cost of €2.47 billion. More solar capacity was added under Conto Energia 4 then took place even under Conto Energia 2 and at a lower cost.

The final Conto 5 was introduced by ministerial decree in 2012 and it was announced that the feed in tariff would end once the total annual costs of cumulative Conto Energia reached €6.7 billion. This figure was reached in 2013 and the final Conto Energia scheme was ended on 6/7/2013. The final scheme resulted in a further 2,095 MW of installed capacity at a cost of €0.22 billion. Under the Conto Energia incentive scheme a total of 18,217 MW of installed solar PV power was added at annual cost of €6.7 billion.

In addition to the Conto Energia scheme, which provides incentives solely for solar photovoltaic generated electricity, there are a range of different incentive schemes for other sources of renewable energy generated electricity as well. Incentives typically last between 15 and 30 years. These are listed as follows:

1. CIP 6

2. Green Certificates

3. All inclusive feed in tariffs

4. Solar thermodynamic feed-in scheme

5. Incentives introduced by the ministerial decree dated 6/7/2012

The total cost of these schemes is updated on the GSE.it website under the RES-E counter. The maximum total cost of the schemes has an upper limit of €5.8 billion annually (established in the ministerial decree dated 6/7/92) and the RSE E counter updated to 31/1/16 stood at €5.634 billion. As of the end of January 2016 this effectively means that the funding applying to the schemes above is nearing its end with around €166 million of funding remaining. The following table shows the distribution of funding across different categories of renewable energy and by scheme:

Gathering together the total annual costs of incentives applied to each renewable energy source the following table and chart show these in order of size:

By 31 January 2016 incentives for renewable electricity energy production under the above schemes were running at around total of €12.334 billion per year. These were distributed as follows:

Solar PV production accounted for over half of the total figure at an annual cost of €6.7 billion. Next came Wind at €1.554 billion, Biogas at €1.536 billion and Hydroelectricity at €1.210 billion. Biomass received €760 million, Bioliquids €430 million and Geothermal power €141 million. Solar Thermal received an annual incentive of €1.3 million whilst wave power registered no incentive.

With the incentives for Conto Energia now closed and the incentives for other forms of renewable energy nearing their limit of €5.8 billion per year at €5.634 billion as of 31 January 2016, a further €166 million per year remained to be distributed amongst non solar PV renewable energy sources.

The conto termico was introduced by ministerial decree on 28/12/12. It provides incentives for renewable energy production as well as efficiency savings in the heating and cooling sector. The total value of the incentives available are €900 million per year with payments lasting 2-5 years. The fund is divided into €200 million available to the public sector and €700 million available to the private sector. The size of the fund allocated is updated on the GES website Conto Termico Counter.

The Italian National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) has a target to bring the total share of renewable energy in the final total energy consumption to 17%. In order to achieve this RE is targeted to account for 26% in the electricity sector, 17% in the heating/cooling sector and 10% in the transport sector by 2020. The precise targets for each sector agreed in the energy plan are shown in the table below.

The following table shows the actual progress achieved in terms of renewable energy use in the years 2010-2015.Information is provided on the electricity sector, the heating and cooling sector, the transport sector and the overall share of renewable energy use as a percentage of total energy use in Italy.

Italy had a 17% renewable energy target in its total energy use set by the European Union for 2020 and had already exceeded this target by 2014, reaching 17.1%. Gross final energy consumption from renewables rose from 17.36 Mtoe in 2010 to 21.14 Mtoe by the end of 2015. Most of the growth occurred in the electricity sector which increased by 58.3%. The thermal sector registered a much smaller rise of 5.7% whilst the transport sector showed a fall of 16.9%. Italy's overall renewable energy target for 2020 was effectively met by 2014. However this is partially due to a reduction in total gross energy consumption from all sources and if it were to rise again the overall percentage target of renewable energy could fall short without some further expansion in sources. There is still a shortfall in the target for the transport sector which has performed poorly compared to the other sectors.

On June 16, 2013, renewables covered 100% of the entire Italian electricity demand for 2 hours.

1. ^ GSE.it, Energia da fonti rinnovabili in Italia Dati preliminari 2015

2. "Il rapporto Comuni Rinnovabili 2015". Comuni Rinnovabili (in Italian). Legambiente.

3. ^ Petri, Rolf (1997). "Dalla ricostruzione al miracolo economico". Storia d'Italia. La Repubblica 1943-1963, Vol. V (A Cura di Giovanni Sabbatucci e Vittorio Vidotto). Rome-Bari: Laterza: 313 and 352.

4. ^ Lungonelli, Michele (1993). "Sviluppi tecnologici e applicazioni produttive". Storia dell'industria Elettrica in Italia. Il Potenziamento Tecnico e Finanziario 1914-1925, Vol. II (A Cura di Luigi de Rosa). Roma-Bari: Laterza: 517-25.

5. ^ Giannetti, Renato (1985). "La conquista della forza. Risorse, tecnologia ed economia nell'industria elettrica italiana (1883-1940)". Milan: Franco Angeli: 71-76.

6. ^ Paoloni, Giovanni; Martelli, Margherita (2010). "Storia dell'Energia Verde". Naples: Archivio storico Enel: 8.

7. ^ Lanzavecchia, Giuseppe (1994). "Progresso tecnico e innovazione". Storia dell'energia Elettrica in Italia. Gli Sviluppi dell'Enel 1963-1990, Vol. 5 (A Cura di Giovanni Zanetti). Rome-Bari: Laterza: 548-49.

8. ^ Diani, Mario (1988). "Isole nell'arcipelago. Il movimento ecologista in Italia". Bologna: il Mulino.

9. ^ "Rapporto Statistico 2011" (PDF). Statistiche sulle fonti rinnovabili (in Italian). Gestore Servizi Energetici (GSE).

10. "USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, GAIN report, Italy" (PDF).

11. "GSE, Il contatore degli oneri delle fonti rinnovabili PDF document" (PDF).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Renewable Energy in Italy Renewable Energy (RE) RE as % of Gross Final energy consumption 17.1% (2014) Target for above 17.0% (2020) Renewable Electricity Percentage of electricity generated by RE (est) 43.1% (2014) RE generated / Total electricity generation 120,677 / 279,829 GWh (2014) Record % RE covered electricity consumption

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During the first decade of the new Millennium Italy was the third country after Germany and Spain to experience an unprecedented boom in solar installations after actively promoting solar power through government incentives. In July 2005 the country launched its first "Conto Energia" programme supporting the development of renewable power. Growth in solar installations picked up immediately but it was the years 2009-2013 that saw a boom in installed photovoltaic (PV) nameplate capacity, increasing nearly 15-fold, and 2012's year-end capacity of over 16 GW ranked second in the world after Germany, ahead of the other leading contenders, China, Japan and the United States at that time.

The year of 2011 saw the greatest growth with a massive 9 GW of power added, leapfrogging the country to its leading position at this time. The boom had many parallels with the earlier Spanish experience, although its peak year occurred three years later than the 2008 one in Spain. The later and more developed solar industry at that time contributed to Italy achieving a much larger solar capacity after its programme, with around four times the capacity found in Spain at the end of 2013. Solar capacity growth slowed after 2013, due to cessation of governmental subsidy programmes. Since then, annual installed PV capacity has been growing steadily at around 300-400 MW per year.

Solar power accounted for 7% of the electricity generated in Italy during 2013, ranking first in the world. By 2017, that number was close to 8%, which was beaten only by Germany in Europe, with more than 730 000 solar power plants installed in Italy and a total capacity of 19.7 GW. In 2018 capacity exceeded the 20 GW milestone and The "National Energy Strategy", SEN, published in 2017 outlined the ambition to reach 50 GW by 2030. Sun energy currently produces around 26% of all renewable energy in the country. As of 2013, the sector provided employment to about 100,000 people, especially in design and installation.

The Montalto di Castro Photovoltaic Power Station, completed in 2010, is the largest photovoltaic power station in Italy with 85 MW. Other examples of large PV plants in Italy are San Bellino (70.6 MW), Cellino san Marco (42.7 MW) and Sant' Alberto (34.6 MW).

Apart from the more conventional solar PV technology, Italy may in the future challenge Spain as the role of Europe's leading country in the developing technology concentrated solar power (CSP). CSP requires higher direct solar irradiation to function efficiently, which leaves only part of the country suitable for this technique. However, the southern regions as well as the islands of Sicily and Sardinia offer good conditions for CSP, and the Italian government has made large investments to promote this development. Today, there are three plants up and running in the country. The first one, Archimede solar plant, was installed on the island of Sicily in 2010, with a capacity of 5 MW. However, planning and promotion is underway for several additional projects, which would add another yearly capacity of 360 MW.

Installed capacity in Italy was less than 100 MW before 2008. Growth accelerated during 2008 and 2009 to reach over 1,000 MW installed capacity and tripled during 2010 to exceed 3,000 MW. The standout boom year in Italy was during 2011 when over 9,000 MW of solar power was added. This huge and rapid rise in installations was mostly due to the very generous "Conto Energia" support schemes operating during these years. A more reponsive support scheme might have reduced support more quickly and lead to less rapid growth during 2011 but stronger medium term growth.

By the end of the solar boom during 2011 Italy was second in the world in terms of installed capacity after Germany. Solar power accounted for 2.6% of electricity generated in the EU and 6.7% of electricity generated in Italy- the most in Europe. In 2011 Italy ranked first in installed solar power from new PV plants- with roughly four times the amount of power that was supplied in 2010. As of the end of 2010, there were 155,977 solar PV plants, with a total capacity of 3,469.9 MW. By the end of 2011 there were 330,196 installations, totalling 12,773 MW. Plants were increasing both in number and size as can be seen from the faster pace of growth of installed capacity compared with raw installation numbers.

Growth after 2011 slowed as the schemes were revised at sporadic intervals rather than timely interventions based on cost and deployment. In 2012 Italy added an estimated 3.4 GW of new capacity, a figure much reduced on 2011 but still a large rise in the context of solar development by that year. A 2013 report by Deutsche Bank concluded that solar power has already reached grid parity in Italy. With the ending of the Conto Energia schemes in July 2013 growth reduced considerably. Nevertheless, since 2014, annual capacity growth has remained consistent at around 2% per year or 300-400 MW per year to 2018. Much of this growth has been driven by residential Solar PV, subject to tax allowances, representing 40-50 percent of new capacity in the years 2017-2018 alone. In 2017 the first incentive free Solar power plant was installed, with a 63 MW capacity followed by others up to 30 MW in size in 2018. By the end of 2018 installed capacity in Italy exceeded the 20 GW milestone for the first time. As of 2018, solar PV accounts for 7.9% of electricity demand, making Italy a major leader in solar power generation and development.

The "National Energy Strategy", SEN, published in 2017 and in the "Proposal of an Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate" (PNIEC), published in December 2018 outline a target of reaching 50 GW of Solar PV installed power by 2030. This is part of a strategy to obtain 30% of Gross Final Energy Consumption from renewable sources by 2030, a measure including not only electrical energy but all energy consumed in Italy. A new Decree for Renewable sources is being awaited by the Solar industry which if adopted will support maintenance, re-powering and revamping of existing plants and new measures to benefit residential Solar PV.

More than a fifth of the total production in 2010 came from the southern region of Apulia. In 2011, 20% came from Apulia, followed by 10% from Emilia-Romagna. The annual energy production from solar PV in Italy ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 kWh per installed kWp.

Systems of less than 10 kW accounted for 19.6% of totalled installed capacity. These are single direct use systems, mostly residential solar pv systems. Systems rated 10-100 kW represented 20.9% of capacity and represents systems used collectively within one place such as a large residential block or large commercial premise or intensive agricultural units. The next class size of systems 100-500 kW may represent larger commercial centers, hospitals, schools or industrial / agricultural premises or smaller ground mounted systems. The final category of systems rated over 500 kW mostly represent district power systems, ground mounted panels providing power to perhaps a mix of industrial and commercial sites. It is interesting to note that whilst large power plants receive a lot of attention in solar power articles, installations under 0.5 MW in size actually represent nearly 80% of the installed capacity in Italy in 2017.Nearly all Solar PV in Italy is grid connected with just 14 MW being off-grid as of 2017.

Building Integrated Photovoltaic systems (BIPV) accounted for 2,650 MW of capacity in 2014, these are solar cells integrated into the building itself such as construction materials, roof tiles and ceramic or glass facades. Building Applied Photovoltaic systems (BAPV) measure 7,125 MW and are regular solar cell systems that are generally installed on top of roofs. Ground mounted PV totalled 8,650 MW whilst Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV) amounted to 30 MW which use lenses or curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto small, highly efficient, multi-junction (MJ) solar cells.

Residential Solar PV Capacity

According to a report on behalf of the European Commission Italy had 2,640 MW of residential solar PV capacity with 709,000 residential solar PV prosumers in the country representing 2.7% of households as of 2015. The average size of residential solar PV systems is estimated to be 3.73 kW moving to 2030. The technical potential for residential solar PV in Italy is estimated at 24,867 MW. The payback time for residential Solar PV in Italy is 6 years as of 2015. Some of the advantages of small scale residential Solar include eliminating the need for extra land, keeping cost saving advantages in local communities and empowering households to become prosumers of renewable electricity and thus raising awareness of wasteful consumption habits and environmental issues through direct experience.

Largest PV power plants

103

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2019 - 2020

Located in Apulia (near Foggia) built by European Energy. Section A: 63 MW operating since November 2019. Entitled to receive feed-in-tariffs for 20 years under the 5th Conto Energia.

- Section B: 40 MW in grid parity completed in June 2020 - Section C: A total of 18,5 MW in grid parity to be finished by October 2020.

Around 1850 wood, charcoal and straw were the main energy sources for many European countries. In Italy, due to a lack of coal, renewable hydro energy from the Alps made industrialization possible at the end of the 19th century. Using the local hydro resources made it also possible to be independent of coal imports. In 1914, 74% of the Italian electric power came from hydroelectricity. By the early 1990s there were already pioneers of solar energy in Italy. One was the chemist Giacomo Ciamician. In his journal article, 'The Photochemistry of the Future' he predicted the use of solar energy.

During World War I, Italy was not able to prevent an energy crisis revealing the dependence on imported fuels, mainly coal. After the crisis, hydro-power installations increased to ensure energy independence. This interest in locally available energy sources was in line with the economic self-sufficiency policies of the fascist regime. With the promotion of these policies, research into renewable energy use increased. As a result, more than 90% of total electricity production was renewable energy by the start of World War II.

After World War II there was a change in policies. Energy demand was rapidly growing, and new policies aimed at supplying energy through imported fossil fuels and the development of nuclear energy. Due to these changes, dependence on imported fuels grew to more than 80% in 2005.

With the oil shock in 1973, it was not any longer just pioneers, like Giorgio Nebbia and Giovanni Francia, showing interest in solar energy. Oil shortages led to an increase in events and programs addressing solar energy. The Energy Finalized Project Number 1 (PFE1) in 1972 and PFE2 in 1982 were started with the aim of promoting an energy saving culture in Italy, including energy efficiency and solar energy. Furthermore, some promising developments and Congresses in solar energy took place, but with falling oil prices in the 1980s these programs were soon forgotten. These developments included the Italian Section of ISES national Congress in Naples in 1977 and "The first Congress and Exhibition on Solar Energy" in Genoa in 1978. In Genoa an Italian first in solar energy was underlined, as in 1963, Giovanni Francia built the first solar plant able to produce steam at temperatures above 550 °C. This solar plant was based on the central receiver and mirror field concept.

After the falling oil prices in the 1980s and the declining interest in solar power, in the late 1990s the interest in solar energy increased again, mainly because of the concerns on climate change.

Conflicts with the placement of solar plants require researching the population density of nearby towns and/or urban areas, as the solar plants and solar fields will cause visual disruptions and potential emission of pollutants. Areas that allow for easy access to the solar panels for repair, the clearing of overgrown vegetation, and routine panel washing are ideal, as well as being located close to roads to decrease further building costs of additional roads and service pathways and to avoid inaccessibility to service vehicles. Being located close the power grid will also lower the cost of transmission and the loss of power, decreasing the economical strain put on the area for building costs and shortening the amount of time until the original cost is overshadowed by the solar plant or field's production. Original or continued land use or cover must also be taken into consideration as areas with large topographic feature will have a tendency to be shadowed more heavily. Areas with large quantities of trees could be overshadowed or have an increased risk of destruction in inclement weather. Locales with poor soil, heavy metal contamination, erosion, or are unfit for rural or urbanization could be used for solar energy production-reducing the need to buy out farmers, disrupt pristine areas, and lessen the effect on surrounding habitats.

Government targets for renewable energy sources (RES) and different support schemes, especially for solar photovoltaics, resulted in an increase from 7.9% (2005) to 18.2% (2015) in total share of renewable energy in the total primary energy supply (TPES). 1.6% of the 18.2% renewables share is made up of solar energy. From 2005 to 2015 solar power has increased on average by 63.7% per year. The share of renewables in electricity generation has increased from 17.2% in 2005 to 40.2% in 2015, including 9.3% of solar power. This is the highest share of solar in electricity among International Energy Agency (IEA) countries. And the third-highest share of solar power in TPES.

Important institutions that are responsible for energy policies, the promotion and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, co-ordination and payment of incentives are the Ministry of Economic Development (MSE), the Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (MATTM), the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF), the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (ARERA, formerly AEEGSI, Autorità per l'Energia elettrica e il Gas), the Gestore Servizi Energetici (GSE), the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) and Terna.

The Directive 2009/28/EC establishes a framework for promoting the use of renewable energy sources. According to this Directive, 17% of Italy's final energy consumption must be supplied by renewable sources in 2020. Italy's 2010 National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) identifies sectoral targets and how to achieve them. In the 2013 National Energy Strategy (NES), Italy established energy aims to achieve by 2020 that rises the 17% EU target for renewable energy in final energy consumption to 19% or 20%. Energy efficiency, but also renewable energies, plays an important role for this strategy.

Conto Energia (Feed-in tariffs)

In 2005 the Italian government introduced the first feed in tariffs (FIT) specifically for photovoltaics connected to the grid, the Conto Energia schemes. The payments for the schemes were designed to be made over a 20 year period and to incentivize both smaller and larger producers to invest in the installation of photovoltaic plants and systems. Between 2005 and 2013, five different Conto Energia schemes were introduced by ministerial decree. Each scheme had differing terms and conditions and tariffs provided to producers.

The following table provides a summary of the costs and the solar capacities installed under Conto Energia schemes 1-5:

The first Conto Energia resulted in the relatively small amount of 163 MW of new PV installations, perhaps because solar power was still in its infancy in 2005.

In 2007, The second Conto Energia resulted in a massive increase of 6,791 MW of new PVs at an annual cost of €3.27 billion, and was the most costly scheme. Almost half of the total cost of the schemes is accounted for by Conto Energia 2.

Conto Energia 3 ran briefly, resulting in 1,567 MW of installed power at an annual cost of €0.65 billion. This was succeeded by Conto Energia 4 which resulted in the largest increase in solar capacity so far at 7,600 MW of installed power at the annual cost of €2.47 billion.

The final Conto Energia 5 was introduced by ministerial decree in 2012. It was announced that the feed in tariff would end once the total annual costs of the cumulative Conto Energia scheme reached €6.7 billion. This figure was reached in 2013 and the final Conto Energia scheme was ended on 6 July 2013. The final scheme resulted in a further 2,095 MW of installed capacity at a cost of €0.22 billion. Under the Conto Energia incentive scheme, a total of 18,217 MW of installed solar PV power was added at annual cost of €6.7 billion.

In 2013, the support schemes changed and a new scheme, the conto termico, was introduced in the heat sector. This support scheme provides incentives for the installation of renewable heating and cooling systems, and for efficiencient refurbishments, including solar thermal systems. Receiving support from the scheme depends on type of intervention and is granted for two to five years, with the amount depending on expected energy production. Additional factors like greenhouse gases impact of different bioenergy technologies, also influence the support granted. The total annual support payments are capped at €200 million for public administrations and €700 million for privately owned entities.

There are also several other incentives like tax credits for photovoltaic systems and solar thermal energy plants. A net metering scheme supports RES-E producers with plant capacities between 20 kW and 500 kW.

In 2013, the government funded energy technology research, development and demonstration (RD&D) with €529 million. In recent years, other areas of the government budget were restructured. Between 2000 and 2013, nuclear research and development funding decreased from 40.7% to 18.2% in favor of energy efficiency and renewable energy, which grew from 13.8% to 21.5% in the same time period.

Concentrated solar energy technologies and photovoltaics are fields of active projects and research areas. ENEA has been researching on concentrated solar energy technologies since 2001 and introduced several innovations. The Archimede Project is one such developed project.

The entire nation of Italy retains high potential for solar energy production, ranging from 3.6 kWh per square meter per day in the Po river plain to 5.4kWh per square meter per day in Sicily. As of 2018, solar PVs account for 7.9% of electricity demand. As such, Italy is a major leader in solar power generation and development. While solar power has a great capacity for energy generation, solar technologies are best paired with technologies that consume technologies efficiently. Solar energy is expected to reach levels of energy production comparable to conventional methods in the near future.

Italy's solar power production continues to increase over the years. During 2017 five grid-parity PV plants, which collectively hold a capacity of 63 MW, had already been installed by July. These panels are located in the Montalto di Castro region of Italy and were supplied by Canadian Solar Inc.<Bocca/>

Italy currently maintains various concentrated solar power (CSP) projects. Concentrated solar power plants concentrate solar energy into single points of collection with, for instance, mirrors, to maximize energy capture. Four types of CSP technologies are currently available on the market. These include parabolic troughs, fresnel mirrors, power towers, and solar dish collectors. The 15 MWt Archimede solar field is a thermal field at Priolo Gargallo near Syracuse. The plant was inaugurated on 14 July 2010, and continues to be operational in a solar field of 31,860 square meters. It is the first concentrated solar power plant to use molten salt for heat transfer and storage which is integrated with a combined-cycle gas facility. Upon generating thermal energy, two tanks are available to store thermal energy for up to 8 hours. The two other CSP systems are the ASE demo plant, which uses parabolic trough technology to focus solar energy, and the Rende-CSP plant, which uses Linear Fresnel reflector technology to focus solar energy to one point of fluidized storage consisting of oil.

Salerno based Magaldi Industries, partnered with University of Naples and National Research Council of Italy, pioneered a new form of CSP called Solar Thermoelectric Magaldi (STEM). The first plant of this type was pioneered in Sicily in 2016. This technology utilizes off-grid applications to produce 24-hour industrial scale power for mining sites and remote communities in Italy, other parts of Europe, Australia, Asia, North Africa and Latin America. STEM uses fluidized silica sand as a thermal storage and heat transfer medium for CSP systems. This fluidized bed benefits from a high thermal diffusivity and heat transfer coefficients, as well as high thermal capacity as a solid. The use of silica sand also lowers the cost of the CSP, and the facility aims to minimize pollution released during the production and operation of the system while producing 50-100 MWe with a storage capacity of 5-6 hours. STEM is the first CSP technology to use sand for thermal energy storage, and also allows for immediate use or storage of solar energy through a solar field made of heliostats. Such technology is especially effective in remote areas and can be easily coupled with fossil fuel plants to increase reliability of electricity supply. STEM was first applied commercially in Sicily in 2016.

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During the first decade of the new Millennium Italy was the third country after Germany and Spain to experience an unprecedented boom in solar installations after actively promoting solar power through government incentives. In July 2005 the country launched its first "Conto Energia" programme supporting the development of renewable power.

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Dnieper River, Ukrainian Dnipro, Russian Dnepr, Belarusian Dnyapro, ancient (Greek) Borysthenes, river of Europe, the fourth longest after the Volga, Danube, and Ural. It is 1,367 miles (2,200 km) in length and drains an area of about 195,000 square miles (505,000 square km).

The Dnieper rises at an elevation of about 720 feet (220 metres) in a small peat bog on the southern slope of the Valdai Hills of Russia, about 150 miles (240 km) west of Moscow, and flows in a generally southerly direction through western Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine to the Black Sea. For the first 300 miles (480 km) it passes through the Smolensk oblast (region) of Russia, first to the south and then to the west; near Orsha it turns south once more and for the next 370 miles (600 km) flows through Belarus. Finally, it flows through Ukrainian territory: south to Kiev, southeast from Kiev to Dnipropetrovsk, and then south-southwest to the Black Sea.

The Dnieper watershed includes the Volyn-Podilsk Upland, the Belarusian Ridge, the Valdai Hills, the Central Russian Upland, and the Smolensk-Moscow Upland. The centre of the basin consists of broad lowlands. Within the forest area and to some extent within the forest steppe area, the basin is covered with morainic and fluvioglacial deposits; on the steppe it is covered with loess. In some places, where the basin borders upon the basins of the Bug and the Western Dvina rivers, there is a flat swampy area. This facilitated the cutting of connecting water routes from the Dnieper to neighbouring rivers even in ancient times. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, the Dnieper was connected to the Baltic Sea by several canals: the Dnieper-Bug Canal, running by way of the Pripet, Bug, and Vistula rivers; the Ahinski Canal by way of the Pripet and the Neman; and the Byarezina water system by way of the Byarezina and the Western Dvina. These canals later became obsolete.

Physical features

Physiography

The Dnieper is customarily divided into three parts: the upper Dnieper as far as Kiev, the middle Dnieper from Kiev to Zaporizhzhya (Ukraine), and the lower Dnieper from Zaporizhzhya to the mouth. The basin of the upper Dnieper is mainly within a forest area where peat-podzolic soils predominate (replaced in the southern portion of the upper course by podzolized gray forest soils). The upper Dnieper is characterized by excessive moisture and great swampiness. The river network is well developed in this area, where about four-fifths of the basin's annual runoff forms and the longest tributaries with the greatest runoff (the Byarezina, Sozh, Pripet, Teteriv, and Desna) flow. The basin of the middle Dnieper is in a forest steppe area with black earth. Forests stand in the watersheds and along the river valleys. The river network is less dense there, and the rivers carry comparatively less water. The principal tributaries of the middle Dnieper are the Ros, Sula, Psel, Vorskla, and Samara. The lower Dnieper basin lies within the Black Sea Lowland, in the black-soil steppe area, which has now been completely plowed up. The grassy steppe vegetation has been preserved only in the nature reserves and preserves and in old ravines and gullies. Near the Black Sea there is wormwood-fescue vegetation of the semiarid type in chestnut brown soil mixed with saline solonetz and solonchak soils. The lower Dnieper passes through a region of insufficient moisture, where irrigation is employed. The river network there consists for the most part of intermittent streams, the beds of which are ravines that fill with water in the spring and after torrential rains. The largest tributary of this section is the Inhulets.

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From its source to Dorogobuzh, Russia, the Dnieper is a small river flowing past low wooded and, in some places, swampy banks. Downstream the banks rise, and the width of the valley to Orsha varies for the most part from two to six miles, narrowing to less than half a mile in places. Its bed, from 130 to 400 feet (40 to 120 metres) wide, is sinuous, with numerous sandbanks. Above Orsha the Dnieper crosses a layer of Devonian limestone, forming a series of rapids that hamper navigation. From Orsha to Shklow, Belarus, the Dnieper flows between raised, sometimes steep banks overgrown with woods; the left bank becomes lower, whereas the right remains high as far as the confluence with the Sozh River (where the Dnieper enters Ukraine). The valley is wide on this stretch, reaching six to nine miles in places. The riverbed from Orsha to Mahilyow (Belarus) is relatively straight; below Mahilyow the Dnieper splits into several channels, producing many islands and sandbanks. The width of the river from Orsha to the confluence with the Sozh ranges from 260 to 1,300 feet (80 to 400 metres), and from the mouth of the Sozh to the mouth of the Pripet River it is from 1,600 to 2,000 feet (490 to 610 metres). The vegetation along the banks of the upper Dnieper consists mainly of wide floodplain meadows, thickets of willows and alders, and old lowland marshes.

Marked asymmetry of the river valley is characteristic of the middle Dnieper. The steep, high right bank (up to 260 feet [79 metres] above the river) forms the escarpment of the Volyn-Podilsk Upland, which stretches along the entire middle course of the river. The low and sloping left bank is formed by broad, ancient terraces. Isolated hills, rising over 300 feet (90 metres), appear on the low-lying left bank. On the southern portion of the middle Dnieper, the river cuts through the Ukrainian crystalline massif and flows for 56 miles (90 km) in a narrow, almost unterraced valley bounded by high, rocky banks. The Dnieper Rapids, which for centuries prevented continuous navigation, were once located there. The rapids were flooded by the backwaters of the Dnieper hydroelectric power station dam, above Zaporizhzhya, which raised the level of the river by 130 feet, backed its waters up to Dnipropetrovsk, and formed the Dnieper Reservoir.

Below Zaporizhzhya the Dnieper again passes into a wide valley with a high right bank (130 feet [40 metres] near Nikopol, 260 feet [80 metres] near Kherson). The slopes of the river there are very slight. Before the development of the Kakhovka Reservoir, the waters of which inundated a vast territory, the Dnieper split into numerous streams; flat swampy islands, overgrown with floodplain vegetation and reeds, lay among the channels. Today much of this is hidden under the waters of the reservoir. Below Kherson the Dnieper forms a delta, the many streams of which flow into the Dnieper estuary. Some have been deepened for navigational purposes.

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Dnieper River, river of Europe, the fourth longest after the Volga, Danube, and Ural. It is 1,367 miles (2,200 km) in length and drains an area of about 195,000 square miles (505,000 square km).

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A waterfall is a river or other body of water's steep fall over a rocky ledge into a plunge pool below. Waterfalls are also called cascade s.

The process of erosion, the wearing away of earth, plays an important part in the formation of waterfalls. Waterfalls themselves also contribute to erosion.

Often, waterfalls form as streams flow from soft rock to hard rock. This happens both laterally (as a stream flows across the earth) and vertically (as the stream drops in a waterfall). In both cases, the soft rock erodes, leaving a hard ledge over which the stream falls.

A fall line is the imaginary line along which parallel rivers plunge as they flow from uplands to lowlands. Many waterfalls in an area help geologists and hydrologist s determine a region's fall line and underlying rock structure.

As a stream flows, it carries sediment. The sediment can be microscopic silt, pebbles, or even boulders. Sediment can erode stream beds made of soft rock, such as sandstone or limestone. Eventually, the stream's channel cuts so deep into the stream bed that only a harder rock, such as granite, remains. Waterfalls develop as these granite formations form cliffs and ledges.

A stream's velocity increases as it nears a waterfall, increasing the amount of erosion taking place. The movement of water at the top of a waterfall can erode rocks to be very flat and smooth. Rushing water and sediment topple over the waterfall, eroding the plunge pool at the base. The crashing flow of the water may also create powerful whirlpool s that erode the rock of the plunge pool beneath them.

The resulting erosion at the base of a waterfall can be very dramatic, and cause the waterfall to "recede." The area behind the waterfall is worn away, creating a hollow, cave-like structure called a "rock shelter." Eventually, the rocky ledge (called the outcropping) may tumble down, sending boulders into the stream bed and plunge pool below. This causes the waterfall to "recede" many meters upstream. The waterfall erosion process starts again, breaking down the boulders of the former outcropping.

Erosion is just one process that can form waterfalls. A waterfall may form across a fault, or crack in the Earth's surface. An earthquake, landslide, glacier, or volcano may also disrupt stream beds and help create waterfalls.

There is not a standard way to classify waterfalls. Some scientists classify waterfalls based on the average volume of water in the waterfall. A Class 10 waterfall using this scale is Inga Falls, Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Congo River twists in a series of rapids. The estimated volume of water discharged from Inga Falls is 25,768 cubic meters per second (910,000 cubic feet per second).

Another popular way of classifying waterfalls is by width. One of the widest waterfalls is Khone Phapheng Falls, Laos. At the Khone Phapheng Falls, the Mekong River flows through a succession of relatively shallow rapids. The width of the Khone Phapheng Falls is about 10,783 meters (35,376 feet).

Waterfalls are also classified by height. Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall, plummets 979 meters (3,212 feet) into a remote canyon in a rain forest in Venezuela. The water, from the Gauja River, often does not reach the bottom. The fall is so long, and so steep, that air pressure is stronger often than the water pressure of the falls. The water is turned to mist before it reaches the small tributary below.

One of the most popular, if least scientific, ways to classify waterfalls is by type. A waterfall's type is simply the way the descends. Most waterfalls fit more than one category.

A block waterfall descends from a wide stream. Niagara Falls, in the U.S. and Canada, is a block waterfall on the Niagara River.

A cascade is a waterfall that descends over a series of rock steps. Monkey Falls, in the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in Tamil Nadu, India, is a gently sloping cascade. The waterfall is safe enough for children to play in the water.

A cataract is a powerful, even dangerous, waterfall. Among the widest and wildest of cataracts are the thundering waters of the Iguazu River on the border between Brazil and Argentina.

A chute is a waterfall in which the stream passage is very narrow, forcing water through at unusually high pressure. Three Chute Falls is named for the three "chutes" through which the Tenaya Creek falls in Yosemite National Park, California.

Fan waterfalls are named for their shape. Water spreads out horizontally as it descends. Virgin Falls is a striking fan waterfall on Tofino Creek, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Frozen waterfalls are just what they sound like. For at least part of the year, the waterfall freezes. Mountaineer s often climb frozen waterfalls as a challenging test of their skill. The Fang is a single pillar of ice in Vail, Colorado that vertically plunges more than 30 meters (100 feet).

Horsetail waterfalls maintain contact with the hard rock that underlies them. Reichenbach Falls, a fall on the Reichenbach Stream in Switzerland, is a horsetail waterfall where legendary detective Sherlock Holmes allegedly fell to his doom.

Multi-step waterfalls are a series of connected waterfalls, each with their own plunge pool. The breathtaking "falling lakes" of Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, are a series of multi-step waterfalls.

Plunge waterfalls, unlike horsetail falls, lose contact with the hard rock. The tallest waterfall in Japan, Hannoki Falls, is a plunge waterfall that stands 497 meters (1,640 feet). Hannoki Falls is seasonally fed by snowmelt from the Tateyama Mountains.

Punchbowl waterfalls are characterized by wide pools at their base. Wailua Falls is a punchbowl waterfall on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Although the plunge pool is tranquil and popular for swimming, the area around Wailua Falls itself is dangerous.

The water flowing over segmented waterfalls separate as distinct streams. Huge outcroppings of hard rock separate the streams of Nigretta Falls, a segmented waterfall in Victoria, Australia, before they meet in a large plunge pool.

Case Study: Niagara Falls

The Niagara River has two falls, one in the U.S. state of New York and one in the province of Ontario, Canada. Each waterfall is less than 60 meters (200 feet) tall, but together they are more than a kilometer (.62 miles) wide.

Niagara and many other falls with large volumes of water are used to generate hydroelectric power. A tremendous volume of water flows over Niagara Falls, as much as 5,525 cubic meters (195,000 cubic feet) per second. Power stations upstream from the falls convert hydroelectric energy into electricity for residential and commercial use.

The U.S. and Canadian governments manage the Niagara River so carefully that it is possible for either country to "turn off" the falls. This is done at night, so as not to disturb the tourism industry, and the falls are never actually turned off, just slowed down. Water is diverted to canals and reservoirs, and the decreased flow allows engineer s to check for erosion and other damage on the falls. U.S. and Canadian authorities also work together to ensure Niagara Falls doesn't freeze in the winter, which would threaten power production.

Because waterfalls are barriers to navigation, canals are sometimes built to get around them. Niagara Falls prevents passage between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario on the Niagara River. In the 19th century, the Welland Canal was built to make passage between the two Great Lakes possible.

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A waterfall is a river or other body of water's steep fall over a rocky ledge into a plunge pool below. Waterfalls are also called cascade s. The process of erosion, the wearing away of earth, plays an important part in the formation of waterfalls. Waterfalls themselves also contribute to erosion.

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Question Eight: How can national-level governments learn from the private sector and encourage investment and decision making to promote the public good in a changing climate? Egypt is a typical example of a developing country that is highly vulnerable to climate change and faces numerous threats to its economic, social and environmental sustainability - including energy, water, and food security. This causes enormous fundamental pressures on Egypt's competitiveness, and presents a growing threat to national security. These threats are fueled by a growing population and rising associated demand, coupled with the constraints of a finite resource base. The authors go on to describe SEKEM's approach to addressing climate change by applying biodynamic agricultural methods, the company's comprehensive management approach to sustainable development, and the need for Egypt to adopt a national Green Transformation strategy.
Today the world is facing multiple crises - economically, socially and environmentally.

Every year, the United Nations and representatives from the private and civil sector convene to find solutions to climate change and its threats to economies and livelihoods. Very recently, the annual conference was held in Cancún, Mexico. Expectations to reach a consensus breaking the political and financial deadlock were low. The outcome shows however that the international process to stem climate change is still alive and ongoing.

Developing countries are particularly affected by climate change as they are mostly located in regions that are more susceptible to its impact. In addition they typically lack the financial resources and technological expertise for adaptation to climate change or its mitigation.
Egypt and Climate Change
Egypt is a typical example of a developing country which is highly vulnerable to climate change and which faces numerous threats to its economic, social and environmental sustainability. This causes enormous fundamental pressures on Egypt's competitiveness. These pressures can also be described as growing threats to national security. They are fueled by a growing population and growing demand coupled with the constraints of a finite resource base and could develop into genuine crisis situations if not quickly and decisively addressed. These pressures include:

Energy Security - Unsustainable use of energy resources is one of the major reasons for environmental degradation and climate change. The consequence is energy scarcity and rising energy prices which increase poverty, strain national budgets and jeopardize Egypt's competitiveness for the future.
Water Security - Global warming results in sea-level rise due to the melting of glaciers and arctic ice. Consequently, the world's fresh water resources decline while salt water intrudes into underground reservoirs. Egypt is particularly susceptible due to its low-altitude Nile Delta.
Food Security - Limited water and agricultural land coupled with population growth and other factors are creating mounting pressure on Egypt's ability to provide food for its people in the future.
Climate Change - Declining precipitation levels, changing weather patterns, and rising seas in the Nile Delta are slowly but steadily making a difficult situation worse, especially in the area of food and water.
The Need for Jobs - Egypt's young population is hungry for work, and Egypt needs to generate over one million new jobs every year for its growing workforce.
The Poverty Gap - With millions still living under the poverty line defined by the United Nations, Egypt must lift the standard of living for those most in need.
The Financial Crisis - The continuing impact is being felt around the world hitting national budgets hard also impacting the availability of investment capital and development aid.

Companies are very much affected by the scarcity of available resources and they cannot survive in the future if they cannot predict and adapt to major trends like climate change.
SEKEM and Climate Change
SEKEM's approach to climate change encompasses both adaptation and mitigation. Our group of companies applies biodynamic agricultural methods, a premium quality method of organic agriculture. Biodynamic Agriculture has lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional agriculture and a higher potential of carbon soil sequestration. A 100% conversion of global agricultural land to organic agriculture would transform the agricultural sector from a significant contributor to climate change into a net carbon sink. The mitigation potential of agriculture - meaning its future risk reduction potential - is therefore high.

With regard to adaptation, SEKEM is already taking action to reduce risks and limit the damage caused by climate change. Biodynamic Agriculture is superbly placed to improve the odds for climate change adaptation - notably through diversification, water efficiency, resilient crops and increased drought and flood resistance. Like this, SEKEM reduces its own risk of operating in an environment that is highly vulnerable to climate change and at the same time can be a business role model that provides solutions for one of the world's most prevalent challenges.

In its Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) system - the Sustainability Flower (SF) - SEKEM keeps track of indicators relevant to the above mentioned challenges but also to sustainable development in general. The SF is a communication and information management tool symbolizing the concept of sustainable development in its four dimensions (ecology with its six sub-dimensions, societal life, cultural life, and economic life). Each dimension has several performance aspects, and different performance indicators (based on the Global Reporting Initiative standard) with specific targets. Adaptation is addressed with indicators such as "assessment of water usage" and "energy savings".

SEKEM uses the SF as a communication instrument for all its stakeholders (clients, employees, customers, investors, business partners, media etc.) in order to build an ethical / responsible image of the company, and to serve as a role model for other organizations which aim to implement a sustainable development approach. As a strategic management tool for collecting data on SEKEM's economic, social, cultural, and environmental performance the SF helps to align the organization with its vision, mission, and policies. Most importantly it supports management in setting targets, measuring progress, and identifying room for improvement. The contribution of individual SEKEM companies to the overall sustainable development of the SEKEM Holding becomes clearer and more transparent after applying the Sustainable Development Scorecard (SDS) - also on an individual company level.

SEKEM constantly strives to increase its adaptation and mitigation potential through its own research and development efforts carried out by its scientists. Furthermore, SEKEM will soon complete the construction of the Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development, an institution solely dedicated to developing the awareness and capacities of its students to effectively tackle our major developmental challenges such as climate change.

To increase leverage, SEKEM also engages on a political level to lift sustainable solutions such as organic agriculture onto the national agenda. SEKEM is engaging with both national and international stakeholders such as the UNFCCC climate negotiations, the World Future Council (on future finance, sustainable cities etc.), the UN Global Compact (water, climate change, etc.), and the World Economic Forum (social entrepreneurship, food security, social innovation, etc.). On a national level SEKEM's networks are also closely linked to national movements and initiatives towards a more sustainable future and the transition of Egypt into a low-carbon economy.

In summary, SEKEM has recognized climate change not only as a challenge but as a business opportunity to increase its competitiveness. Sustainability is a factor not only desirable in human terms but necessary in order to successfully cope with risks that urgently question "business-as-usual behavior". It encapsulates the essence of what national-level governments can and should learn from the private sector.

Existing national strategies in Egypt across sectors and ministries reveal a remarkable awareness of the value of a "Green Transformation" to Egypt's competitiveness and future development prospects. The Egyptian National Competitiveness Council (ENCC), a non-governmental organization, is a leading organization in pushing the Green Transformation of Egypt forward. SEKEM supports and shares expertise with the ENCC. The Green Transformation consists of an integrated package of technologies, policies, and behavior changes designed to promote greater innovation, efficiency, cost reduction, shock resilience, and job creation by focusing strategic attention and investment on the following areas: Water Conservation; Energy Efficiency; Renewable Energy; Sustainable Agriculture; Eco-Cities; Eco-Villages; Eco-Tourism; Green Industry; Green Transport; Waste to Energy; Poverty Alleviation Programs; Programs to Increase Equity.

Many strategy documents include "green" elements such as water conservation, renewable energy, or eco-tourism. However, these existing strategies do not cover the need for a more integrated approach that puts a Green Transformation at the center of planning for economic competitiveness.

Egypt's strategic priorities in the area of Green Transformation should not be framed in terms of marginal savings or efficiency improvements. They need to be framed in terms of job creation, climate resilience, energy independence, poverty reduction, and other major national goals - for these are the benefits that Green Transformation approaches are now known to deliver.

A Green Transformation approach should be seen as a modern, strategic response to Egypt's needs today in an ever more demanding global economic arena, and in the era of global climate change. Egypt still has the opportunity to be a regional and even global leader in the race to create efficient, competitive, "green" economies. In fact, if it does not choose this path future prospects for the country are difficult to put into optimistic terms.

These are some of the consequences Egypt will face if it continues down a conventional development road without integrating a "Green Transformation" approach into its national strategy for competitiveness:

* Loss of energy independence
* Inevitability of conflict over water
* Vulnerability to climate change
* Lost / locked-in capital investment (into non-green assets)
* Threat to key industries such as tourism

The establishment of a national strategy for Green Transformation must begin with a vision - just like many companies have a vision or organizational culture. Key decision-makers as well as ordinary citizens must be continuously encouraged to imagine a better, greener, more competitive future for the nation. Good vision needs to be specific and Egypt's vision should include clear objectives tied to visible and credible strategic pathways for achieving those objectives. They should also include extra-financial indicators for success. The entire program should be supported by continuous public education and communication. Every possible channel and creative means should be employed to keep the vision of a Green Transformation present in the public eye.

It is apparent that there are many parallels between the private sector and national-level governments with regard to the challenges and opportunities of a changing climate. It is however also fact that national-level decision-makers have to deal with a more complex web of factors. Still, the state has to take a more passive role in order to allow the civic, private, and public sector to interact and collaborate better. This needs the right mix of incentives and forms of private-public-partnership. An integrated approach is key. Governments have to support the private sector in their climate change adaptation measures while synergies and common policies have to be identified. The cooperation between SEKEM and the ENCC, and again that of the ENCC and the government is an example of such an integrated approach. Here lies the greatest potential to overcome global challenges such as climate change.

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By [Helmy Abouleish](/node/40295/#abouleish), [Matthias Keitel](/node/40295/#keitel), and [Philipp Maximillian Boes](/node/40295/#boes) - SEKEM** --------- Question Eight: How can national-level governments learn from the private sector and encourage investment and decision making to promote the public good in a changing climate?

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Yemen has identified three main sectors that are vulnerable to climate change: water resources, agriculture, and coastal zones. Yemen is promoting sustainable use through optimal allocation of water resources and use of improved quality control techniques and working towards the protection of agricultural diversity, maintaining agricultural resources and developing sustainable agricultural programs. Sustainable use of marine and fishery resources through the development and strict implementation of policy, legislative and management tools are working to ensure harvest level of coastal resources are maintained within the biological limits of Yemen's coastal zones.

Yemen is an arid Middle Eastern country, occupying an area of 527,970 square kilometres at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered to the north by Saudi Arabia, to the East by Oman, and to the South and West by a 2,200 km coastline along the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and the Red Sea.

Yemen is highly vulnerable to climate change-related impacts such as drought, extreme flooding, pests, sudden disease outbreaks, changes of rainfall patterns, increased storm frequency/severity and sea level rise. These are serious concerns as Yemen's economy largely depends on its rural natural resources. Moreover, more than 75% of the population is rural-based engaged in farming and pastoralism and hence highly reliant on favorable climatic conditions for their livelihoods.

Project Under Implementation

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Yemen has identified three main sectors that are vulnerable to climate change: water resources, agriculture, and coastal zones.

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Ch. 2
The effects of urbanisation on the environment.

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Ch. 2
Traffic congestion.

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) can be one of the hardest places to live. Widespread hunger, the outbreak of epidemics, and political instability have led the UNDP to rank the central African country's development at the lowest level. Now, further reports show how conditions in the DRC are likely to worsen because of climate change.

Food insecurity, water scarcity, natural disasters, and an inhospitable temperature are among the effects of climate change that place the people of the DRC at risk. As survival becomes harder under these new conditions, the importance of ecological resilience keeps rising.

Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands conducted a thorough analysis of the DRC's climate change vulnerabilities. The findings were alarming. Of 181 countries evaluated, ranked as the 12th most vulnerable country to climate change and the 5th least prepared. This combination makes it extremely sensitive to the negative effects of climate change but poorly prepared to cope.

This comes in spite of the fact that only two countries release fewer carbon emissions than the DRC.

The consequences of global climate change disproportionately affect the lives of the poor.

The Dutch report described how climate change spells out significant negative impacts on the physical ecosystems of the country.

The DRC will be subject to increasing temperatures and inconsistent rain. However, socioeconomic threats are even higher. "Food security will be affected due to crop losses and failures, increased livestock mortality, negative impacts on fisheries, and damage to infrastructure," it summarizes.

The report's other projections for the DRC over the next 100 years included:

Over 100% more dry spells during the rainy season

Temperature that exceeds the 1.5ºC change that poses a significant threat to Earth

An increase in extreme events, particularly flooding that brings soil erosion and crop failure

These are not just pending projections for the DRC, but harmful threats that have already begun. The people of the DRC must find ways to adapt and restore their ecosystems.

Climate resilience will be especially important for the Congolese people.

Climate resilience is the ability for people and land to absorb the new challenges and adapt into a sustainable ecosystem in spite of climate change's impact. This doesn't downplay the importance of working to stop climate change. This is not meant to encourage a fatalistic response to our environmental crisis. It simply recognizes that climate change is not a future event, but an ongoing process that has already affected many lives.

The DRC has one of the highest ratings of food scarcity in the world. In a country where around 70% of people work in agriculture, the inability to grow food contributes to both hunger and poverty. Behind the lack of food are intense floods that erode the soil and irregular rainfall that causes it to go infertile.

Certain populations are more affected by climate change than others. In the DRC, along with most of the world, women are more severely affected by climate change than men. Their common role in agricultural work, family life, and income-generating activities makes them very dependent on the health of their land. At the same time, they have less access to resources to cope. Children are also highly affected. The DRC is a very youthful country with one of the highest rates of population growth.

This burden leads many women to turn to informal labor sectors to try and cope. Children also feel the pressure and look for work in unsafe environments. In the Congo, one of the most common places that people turn to for work opportunities are copper or cobalt mines. These mines, however, elevate many hazards to the health of people and the environment. The desperation for opportunities has also driven millions of people to leave their homes. Most migrate to cities in search of opportunities.

The most vulnerable area to climate change in the DRC is the Great Lakes region, along the country's eastern border.

This is where Plant With Purpose's work in the Congo is based.

What would climate resilience look like for the people of the DRC? It would have to include financial opportunities to keep people from winding up in exploited labor. It would have to significantly incorporate women's empowerment. Sustainable land use, peacebuilding, and regenerative agriculture and farming would also play significant roles.

Food forests, sustainable land use, and reforestation help build resilience.
Plant With Purpose's vision for climate resilience in our DRC communities is twofold: First, it is for the families of the Congo to be able to have access to sufficient resources and opportunities to thrive in spite of these challenging conditions. Second, it is to heal their watersheds and ecosystems in order to mitigate climate change. The hope is for their land and lives to eventually reach a point of abundance.
Current reports paint a picture of the DRC that makes this vision seem a long way off, sometimes. But in the watersheds around Lake Tanganyika where Plant With Purpose has established programs over the past five years, we've seen glimpses of what is possible.

We've seen trees planted by the thousands and soil protected from the effects of erosion. We've seen communities participating in land and forest management with enthusiasm and hope. As some watersheds have experienced environmental restoration, they've also seen improvements in socioeconomic opportunities. Poverty across one participating watershed shrunk to one third of what it used to be after two years of tree planting and restoration.

The presence of a healthy forest offers so many benefits that listing each comprehensively would be a challenge. Trees attract moisture and help protect groundwater. They prevent runoff and the danger of soil erosion that accompanies sudden downpours. They also provide shade and carbon sequestration. This helps bring down the temperature in places where people live, raise livestock, and grow food.

Speaking of growing food, one of the most helpful ways we've helped rural populations adapt amidst the climate struggle has been growing food forests. By intercropping their crops amongst a variety of trees, farmers are able to enjoy the benefits of healthier harvests. The complex root systems of trees stimulate healthy soil, which helps harvests.

One of our targets in the Congo has been to help rural communities gain the skills and knowledge to promote sustainable land use. Because we work in partnership with locals, we see communities take their commitments to sustainable land to heart. Sustainable land use spreads throughout villages very quickly because of this partner-centric approach. The result is healthier land in several dozen Congolese communities.

To help people in the DRC achieve climate resilience, make a simple gift of $22! This contribution will allow them to receive training, knowledge, and opportunities in tree planting, forest management, and community solidarity. Make a donation by following this link.

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Climate Change in the Eastern Congo: A current look at impact

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) can be one of the hardest places to live. Widespread hunger, the outbreak of epidemics, and political instability have already been big threats. Now, further reports show how conditions in DRC are likely to worsen because of climate change.

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he climate emergency is wreaking havoc across the world, and it is the poorest countries that bear the brunt of the crisis. In Somalia, where I am acting country director for the aid agency Islamic Relief, the population is currently experiencing a drought that could threatenthe lives or livelihoods of more than two million people by the end of the summer, according to the UN.

The climate has been wreaking havoc on Somalia's seasons. Ordinarily there are four: the main rainy season between April and June (gu), the second rainy season between October and December (deyr), and the dry seasons that follow each of them. Two-thirds of the country's population live in rural areas and are completely dependent on the rains for their crops and livestock. Last year, these people were set back when the deyr season produced less rain than usual. And again this year the gu rains almost failed, eventually arriving in tiny pockets of the country too little, too late. This has led to widespread crop failure, and a decline in livestock production, rapidly pushing communities in the worst-affected areas into food insecurity.

In recent years, the frequency and duration of these dry spells has increased. As it does so, the capacity of people to resist these shocks decreases. Every drought depletes their assets: their animals will die, their crops will fail, they will have nothing to sell and next season they won't have money to buy seeds to plant again. In desperation, pastoralists sell their animals at a giveaway price, leaving them even more vulnerable. Doing so significantly reduces their number of cattle to below the minimum threshold required to continue raising livestock. At this point they begin to flee and become displaced, often in informal camps near urban settlements.

I recently saw how extreme weather can throw the delicate lives of the most vulnerable off-kilter. Our staff met Geelo Ahmed Osman, a mother of five from Ainabo district, Somaliland, in an informal camp for internally displaced people (IDPs), where she now lives. She has been entrusted with a great deal of responsibility. Four of her five children are disabled with conditions so severe they cannot move without assistance - and her fifth is completely emaciated with malnourishment. Because her husband had a stroke last year, she is now the breadwinner for the entire household.

Two years ago, another drought hit Osman and her family hard. Her household, who were pastoralists, lost all their animals. In the two years since, they have been entirely reliant on handouts from their relatives, and when their relatives could no longer offer to support them, they moved to the outskirts of Ainabo district and joined an informal IDP settlement in the hope that they will get assistance from aid organisations.

The current drought has led to more and more people like Geelo Ahmed Osman, displaced from their homes and reliant on support from the international community. About half of the country's population is in need of emergency assistance. If they don't receive this, we are very likely to see a full-scale famine before the end of the year. Lack of water does not just have nutritional implications: it spreads disease. If people don't have water to wash at critical times, they can't stem the spread of disease, which becomes inevitable in crowded IDP camps. Things such as diarrhoea, if untreated, can be fatal to children.

Aid agencies need more funding, and not just for immediate assistance. With the climate crisis increasing these kinds of events in frequency and intensity, we could be in this exact same situation next year, the year after, and on and on. So while the first phase of intervention should be emergency response, we then need to build resilience so people are better prepared for the future and not reliant on handouts from the international community.

The sad thing is that around the world emergencies are on the increase: from the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen to devastating natural disasters such as Cyclone Idai in south-east Africa. The climate crisis will only bring more disaster. But at the moment, the attention, funding and support from the international community is not there. It is crucial that, in our turbulent and increasingly unstable world, Somalia is not left behind.

Mustapha Tahir is acting country director for Islamic Relief in Somalia

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In Somalia, the climate emergency is already here. The world cannot ignore it | Mustapha Tahir

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he climate emergency is wreaking havoc across the world, and it is the poorest countries that bear the brunt of the crisis. In Somalia, where I am acting country director for the aid agency Islamic Relief, the population is currently experiencing a drought that could threatenthe lives or livelihoods of more than two million people by the end of the summer, according to the UN.

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Ongoing armed conflict, insecurity, lack of state protection, and recurring humanitarian crises exposed Somali civilians to serious abuse. There are an estimated 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs), many living unassisted and vulnerable to abuse.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) recorded a total of 1,154 civilian casualties by mid-November. Sixty-seven percent of this figure is due to indiscriminate and targeted attacks, the majority improvised explosive devices (IEDs) attacks, by the Islamist armed group Al-Shabab. Inter-clan and intra-security force violence, often over control of land and revenge killings, led to civilian deaths, injuries, and displacement, as did sporadic military operations, including airstrikes, against Al-Shabab by Somali government forces, African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops, and other foreign forces.

Federal and regional authorities, particularly in Somaliland, continued to restrict free expression and media freedoms, including by harassing and arbitrarily detaining journalists and perceived critics, and temporarily shutting down media outlets.

Relations between the federal government and the federal member states deteriorated, diverting attention from needed reforms and on occasion resulting in abuses.

In January, when Somalia became a member of the UN Human Rights Council, the federal government expelled the UN head in Somalia, Nicholas Haysom, pointing to a letter in which he had raised human rights concerns around government actions in Baidoa. The government has yet to endorse the list of nominees for the country's first independent National Human Rights Commission. The government appointed individuals implicated in serious human rights abuses to high-level positions. Positively, Somalia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and produced its first report for the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Abuses by Government and Allied Forces

Somali government forces responded to a handful of largely peaceful demonstrations with lethal force. In May, security forces killed at least one child as students peacefully protested in Beletweyn, following a government decision to postpone exams.

In December 2018, during the run-up to regional presidential elections in Baidoa, Ethiopian forces arrested Mukhtar Robow, a former Al-Shabab leader who ran for the regional presidency, sparking protests. Security forces, notably police forces, responded with lethal force, killing at least 15 protesters and injuring many others between December 13 and 15, according to the UN. Amnesty International documented the killing of a member of parliament and a child on December 14. Dozens were arbitrarily arrested, reportedly including children.

Dozens of government and security officials as well as former electoral delegates and clan elders who had been involved in the 2016 electoral process, were assassinated; Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for some of the killings.

Military courts continue to try defendants in a broad range of cases, including for terrorism-related offenses, in proceedings that violate fair trial standards. According to media reports and the UN, between December 31, 2018, and early November, 2019, the government had carried out at least 16 executions, all for alleged terrorism-related offenses.

Al-Shabab Abuses

Al-Shabab executed after unfair trials individuals it accused of working or spying for the government and foreign forces, with media reporting an uptick in executions mid-year; and extorted "taxes" through threats.

Al-Shabab conducted targeted and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), suicide bombings, and shelling, as well as assassinations, particularly in Mogadishu and Lower Shabelle, which resulted in over 750 civilian deaths and injuries, according to the UN.

Abuses against Children

All Somali parties to the conflict commited serious abuses against children, including killings, maiming, and the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

In 2018, the UN documented more cases of children recruited and used as soldiers in Somalia than in any other country in the world. This trend continued in 2019 as Al-Shabab pursued an aggressive child recruitment campaign with retaliation against communities refusing to hand over children.

Somali federal and regional authorities unlawfully detained children simply for alleged ties to Al-Shabab and at times prosecuted in military courts, children for terrorism-related offenses. The government failed to put in place juvenile justice measures, notably for children accused of Al-Shabab-related crimes.

Sexual Violence

Internally displaced women and girls remain at particular risk of sexual and gender-based violence by armed men and civilians.

The UN documented over 100 incidents of sexual violence against girls. The cases of two girls who were gang raped by civilians and died received significant public attention. Aisha Ilyas Adan, 12, went missing on February 24, and her body was discovered the next day near her home in North Galkayo, Puntland. According to multiple media reports, Aisha was raped, mutilated, and strangled to death. Three men were sentenced to death under Puntland's 2016 Sexual Offences Act, which includes death penalty sentences for "aggravated" cases of rape. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all cases.

The Somali penal code, currently being revised, classifies sexual violence as an "offence against modesty and sexual honor" rather than as a violation of bodily integrity; it also punishes same-sex intercourse. The federal Sexual Offences Bill has been submitted before parliament, but had yet to be debated at time of writing.

Freedom of Expression and Association

The federal government, regional authorities, notably in Puntland and Jubaland, and Al-Shabab continued to intimidate, harass and attack journalists. While Somali authorities seldom investigate cases of killings or attacks on journalists, a Somali media organization reported that the military court in Mogadishu in absentia sentenced to five years a police officer for the July 2018 killing of cameraman Abdirizak Kasim Iman.

Two journalists, Mohamed Sahal Omar and Somali-Canadian Hodan Nalayeh, were killed in a July 12 Al-Shabab attack on a hotel in the southern port city of Kismayo.

In September and October, authorities in Puntland repeatedly harassed journalists at Daljir Radio after the station reported on alleged arbitrary arrests and mistreatment of detainees, including the alleged death in custody of one detainee as a result of mistreatment, by Puntland security forces.

In late May, the police detained for three days Ali Adan Munim, reporter at the private Goobjoog media outlet, citing Facebook posts in which Ali criticized National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) treatment of detainees and had said he had obtained copies of national exams. He was accused of insulting public officials, disrupting government work, and spreading propaganda.

Displacement and Access to Humanitarian Assistance

The humanitarian crisis in the country continued due to the ongoing conflict, violence, and increasingly frequent drought. The UN explicitly linked the humanitarian situation to climate change, among other factors. It declared that 2.1 million Somalis face acute food insecurity, as of late September, many of them children and internally displaced.

The UN and Norwegian Refugee Council also reported that over 300,000 people had been newly displaced as of September. These individuals faced serious abuses, including sexual violence, forced evictions, and limited access to basic needs such as food and water. According to humanitarian agencies, over 173,255 people had been evicted, most forcibly, by August 2019, primarily in Mogadishu.

Humanitarian agencies face serious access challenges due to insecurity, targeted attacks on aid workers, generalized violence, and restrictions imposed by parties to the conflict. Al-Shabab continues to prohibit many nongovernmental organizations and all UN agencies from working in areas under its control, blockading some government-controlled towns.

Somaliland

The Somaliland government severely restricted reporting and free expression on issues deemed controversial or overly critical of the authorities.

There was a significant number of arbitrary arrests of journalists and temporary closure of media outlets. On February 10, the regional court in Hargeisa suspended the Foore newspaper for one year and fined the editor, Abdirashid Abdiwahab Ibrahim, 3 million Somaliland shillings (US$300). The newspaper was accused of spreading misinformation after it reported on the building of a new presidential palace in Hargeisa. The ban on Foore was lifted in August.

The government also arbitrarily arrested perceived government critics. On January 12, poet Abdirahman Ibrahim Adan (known as "Abdirahman Abees") was arbitrarily arrested and charged with "insulting the police" after he highlighted various due process abuses in Somaliland. He was acquitted and released on February 25.

Key International Actors

International support and attention focused on building Somalia's security sector, improving relations between federal and state authorities, and regional electoral processes. Attention to ensuring accountability for abuses remained minimal.

Following the December 2018 police violence in Baidoa, key international partners-the European Union, the United Kingdom and Germany-temporarily suspended support to police in the South West State.

After the Somali government expelled special representative of the secretary-general Haysom, the UN suspended its monthly reporting on human rights issues.

The US military increasingly conducted airstrikes in Somalia and joint military operations against Al-Shabab. Media and NGOs documented several civilian casualties. In April, AFRICOM acknowledged two civilian casualties in an April 2018 strike, citing internal reporting errors.

In August, six UN Security Council member states blocked a bid by Kenya to impose additional counterterrorism sanctions on Al-Shabab that could have jeopardized the delivery of humanitarian aid.

International donors supported the establishment of a new civilian court and prison complex in Mogadishu. At time of writing, the court's mandate remained unclear, and no juvenile facilities set up.

The competition between UAE and Qatar over political and economic dominance in Somalia continued to exacerbate intra-Somalia tensions, both between Mogadishu and federal states, and with Somaliland.

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World Report 2020: Rights Trends in Somalia

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Ongoing armed conflict, insecurity, lack of state protection, and recurring humanitarian crises exposed Somali civilians to serious abuse. There are an estimated 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs), many living unassisted and vulnerable to abuse. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) recorded a total of 1,154 civilian casualties by mid-November.

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Italy's birth rate is expected to diminish further as the economic strife and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic exacerbate its demographic crisis.

Italy registered 420,000 births in 2019 - the lowest rate since the country's unification in 1861 - while deaths totalled 647,000. The birth rate could fall to around 408,000 this year, while coronavirus fatalities will drive total deaths beyond 700,000, according to recent estimates from Istat, the national statistics agency.

Gian Carlo Blangiardo, the president of Istat, has said it is "legitimate to hypothesise that the climate of fear and uncertainty and the growing difficulties of a material nature generated by recent events will have a negative impact on the fertility decisions of Italian couples".

Of the total deaths expected in 2020, Blangiardo said: "This is a worrying level because the last time something like this happened was in 1944 when we were in the second world war."

Italy, the first European country hit by the pandemic, has suffered a brutal first and second wave, with more than 67,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths since late February. Meanwhile, the country's unemployment rate is forecast to rise from 9.4% this year to 11% in 2021.

Women have borne the brunt of the pandemic's economic consequences, with many losing jobs or forced to leave to stay home with children who were no longer at school.

Even before the pandemic, less than half of all working-age Italian women were in jobs. And many of those who become pregnant resign as they are unable to juggle work and family life, with a lack of affordable childcare facilities and inflexible work conditions being among the main reasons.

"In Italy, it is particularly serious," said Giorgia Serughetti, a sociologist at the University of Milan-Bicocca. "Gender inequality, and the lack of jobs and childcare services accentuates the problem, while Covid has added to the severity and uncertainty. So many people are now losing jobs, this is the reality - so they ask themselves: 'If I have a child today, who knows if I will still have a job tomorrow?'".

A mother and baby during the first coronavirus outbreak in Naples in April. Photograph: napolipress/REX/Shutterstock

During a recent meeting at a women's association in Rome, Serughetti said the point was raised about women choosing to not have children as a kind of "silent protest" against the economic and social conditions in which they're forced to live.

Italy's president, Sergio Mattarella, said earlier this year that the country's falling birth rate "is a problem that concerns the very existence of our country".

"As an old person I am well aware of the falling birth rate," he added.

In Italy, there is one child for every five people over the age of 65, according to Istat.

"An ageing population is a problem for the country's system, not only for the economics and paying pensions etc, said Serughetti. "The other problem is that the country gets old, as fewer young people mean less energy and ideas."

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Covid and climate of fear puts Italian birth rate at lowest since unification

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Italy's birth rate is expected to diminish further as the economic strife and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic exacerbate its demographic crisis. Italy registered 420,000 births in 2019 - the lowest rate since the country's unification in 1861 - while deaths totalled 647,000.

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Ch. 2
Improving the CBD’s transport system.

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Ch. 2
Rural settlement in the Rio Poqueira Valley, Granada Province, Spain.

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This is a list of countries by coal production , based mostly on the Statistical Review of World Energy ranking countries with coal production larger than 5 million tonnes.

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Many countries and territories have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:

Worldwide growth of photovoltaics is extremely dynamic and varies strongly by country. By the end of 2019, a cumulative amount of 629 GW of solar power was installed throughout the world. By early 2020, the leading country for solar power was China with 208 GW, accounting for one-third of global installed solar capacity. As of 2020, there are at least 37 countries around the world with a cumulative PV capacity of more than one gigawatt.

The top installers of 2016 through 2019 were China, the United States, and India. The available solar PV capacity in Honduras is now sufficient to supply 12.5% of the nation's electrical power while Italy, Germany and Greece can produce between 7% and 8% of their respective domestic electricity consumption.

After an almost two decade long hiatus, deployment of CSP resumed in 2007. However, the design for several new projects is being changed to cheaper photovoltaics. Most operational CSP stations are located in Spain and the United States, while large solar farms using photovoltaics are being constructed in an expanding list of geographic regions. As of January 2017, the largest solar power plants in the world are the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in China for PV and the 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the United States for CSP.

Solar photovoltaics (PV)

China: 30,100 MW (26.2%)

United States: 13,300 MW (11.6%)

India: 9,900 MW (8.6%)

Japan: 7,000 MW (6.1%)

Vietnam: 4,800 MW (4.2%)

Spain: 4,400 MW (3.8%)

Germany: 3,900 MW (3.4%)

Australia: 3,700 MW (3.2%)

Ukraine: 3,500 MW (3.0%)

South Korea: 3,100 MW (2.7%)

All others: 31,200 MW (27.2%)

China: 204,700 MW (32.6%)

United States: 75,900 MW (12.1%)

Japan: 63,000 MW (10.0%)

Germany: 49,200 MW (7.8%)

India: 42,800 MW (6.8%)

Italy: 20,800 MW (3.3%)

Australia: 14,600 MW (2.3%)

United Kingdom: 13,300 MW (2.1%)

South Korea: 11,200 MW (1.8%)

France: 9,900 MW (1.6%)

All others: 121,600 MW (19.4%)

2015[13]

2016[7]

2017[14]

2018[15][16]

2019[17][18]

Capacity
per capita
2019 (W)

Share of total
consumption¹

Country or territory

Added

Total

Added

Total

Added

Total

Added

Total

Added

Total

900

1,100[20]

2,413

2,138

4,551[21]

22

1.7% (2019)[17]

Finland[25]

5

20

17

37

23

80

53.1

134

215

39

0.2% (2018)[16]

Lithuania[15]

0

69

1

70

4

74

10

84

103

37

Croatia[15]

15

48

8

56

4

60

1

61

69

17

World total

59,000[27]

256,000[27]

76,800

306,500

95,000

401,500

510,000[16]

627,000[17]

83

3.0% (2019)[17]

¹ Share of total electricity consumption for latest available year

Many African countries receive on average a very high number of days per year of bright sunlight, especially the dry areas, which include the arid deserts (such as the Sahara) and the semi-desert steppes (such as the Sahel). This gives solar power the potential to bring energy to virtually any location in Africa without the need for expensive large-scale grid-level infrastructural developments. The distribution of solar resources across Africa is fairly uniform, with more than 85% of the continent's landscape receiving at least 2,000 kWh/(m ² year). A study indicates that a solar generating facility covering just 0.3% of the area comprising North Africa could supply all of the energy required by the European Union.

Algeria has the highest technical and economical potential for solar power exploitation in the MENA region, with about 170 TWh per year. First industrial scale solar thermal power project has been initiated by inauguration of Hassi R'Mel power station in 2011. This new hybrid power plant combines a 25-megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power array in conjunction with a 130 MW combined cycle gas turbine plant. In addition, Algeria has launched in 2011 a national program to develop renewable energy based on photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP) and wind power, and to promote energy efficiency. The program consists of installing up to 12 GW of power generating capacity from renewable sources to meet the domestic electricity demand by 2030.

Solar power in Morocco is enabled by the country having one of the highest rates of solar insolation among other countries- about 3,000 hours per year of sunshine but up to 3,600 hours in the desert. Morocco has launched one of the world's largest solar energy projects costing an estimated $9 billion. The aim of the project is to create 2,000 megawatts of solar generation capacity by the year 2020. Five solar power stations are to be constructed, including both photovoltaic and concentrated solar power technology. The Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN), a public-private venture, has been established to lead the project. The first plant will be commissioned in 2015, and the entire project in 2020. Once completed, the solar project will provide 38% of Morocco's annual electricity generation.

South Africa had 1329 MW of PV installations and 100 MW of concentrating solar thermal at the end of 2016. It is expected to reach an installed capacity 8,400 MW by 2030, along with 8,400 MW of wind power. The country's insolation greatly exceeds the average values in Europe, Russia, and most of North America.

China is leading the world in solar PV generation, with the total installed capacity exceeding 200 GW by the end of 2019. Since overtaking Germany in 2015, China has been #1 in the world in solar power. China is the world's largest market for both photovoltaics and solar thermal energy. and in the last few years, more than half of the total PV additions came from the country. Solar power in the People's Republic of China is one of the biggest industries and the subsidies by the government have helped in bringing down the cost of solar power, not only in China, but the whole world. China also leads the world in solar water heating with 290 GWth in operation at the end of 2014, accounting for about 70% of the total world capacity. China's goal is to reach 1,300 GW of Solar Capacity by 2050.

India has the world's third fastest expanding solar power program (next only to China & USA). In the year 2017 alone India added a record 9,255 MW of solar power with another 9,627 MW of solar projects under development. India launched its National Solar Mission in 2010 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, with plans to generate 20 GW by 2022. This target has been achieved four years ahead of its deadline with India surpassing 20 GW of installed solar capacity in January 2018. In January 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an initiative to increase the solar capacity to 100 GW and total renewable power capacity to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022. This target is ambitious considering the worldwide installed solar capacity at that time was 177 GW, out of which only 2.5 GW was installed in India.

To reach the goal of 100 GW of installed solar capacity by 2022, Modi's government has set a target to auction at least 77 gigawatts of additional solar power capacity by March 2020. A total of 1.2 GW of solar power is tendered in the first week of 2018 and a solar power tender of 20 GW, world's largest so far, is to be auctioned off in one go in 2018. Several large grid-scale solar parks are in operation, several of which are among the world's largest such as Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park with the capacity of 1,000 MW, the Kamuthi Solar Power Project with the capacity of 648 MW, the 345 MW Charanka Solar Park, the 480 MW Bhadla Solar Park with a proposed capacity of 2,255 MW and the Gujarat solar parks with a combined capacity of 605 MW. In July 2017, Indian Railways rolled out trains with rooftop solar to power the lights, fans and displays inside the coaches. Cochin International Airport, seventh busiest in India, is the first one in the world to run entirely on solar power, handling more than 1,000 flights a week. Similarly, the Union Territory of Diu is fully run by solar power.

Solar power features prominently in Modi government's US$2.5 billion SAUBHAGYA scheme launched in July 2015 to electrify every Indian household by 2019 - a huge task considering around 300 million people were without electricity. The use of local mini-grids run on solar power is "a big part of the push, with 60 percent of new connections expected to be to renewable power", according to a report by the International Energy Agency. The government provides subsidy of up to 90% of the upfront capital cost to install solar-powered water pumping systems for irrigation and drinking water.[32] As of 30 November 2017, more than 142,000 solar pumps have been installed to irrigate the agricultural fields.[33] This scheme weans farmers away from diesel-powered pumps and generates extra income for them by allowing to sell surplus power to the grid. It is one of the innovative ways that the government is empowering the rural population with the help of solar energy by addressing specific issues such as water availability. The solar panels are being built over the irrigation canals to preserve water from evaporation in drought-prone sunny areas. The world's first canal-top solar project was set up on Narmada in Gujarat in 2012. For the last mile connectivity in remote and inaccessible areas, the government provides solar power packs of 200 to 300 watt-peak (Wp), along with battery bank, that includes five LED lights, one DC fan and one DC power plug.[34] Other schemes includes Solar Street Light Scheme, providing solar direct current lighting systems, solar lanterns, solar cookers, etc.

In January 2016, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and the former President of France, François Hollande, laid the foundation stone for the headquarters of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in Gwalpahari, India, an alliance of 121 countries, announced at the Paris COP21 climate summit. The ISA focuses on promoting and developing solar energy and reducing production and development costs through wider deployment of solar technologies in the developing world. On 30 June 2016, the alliance entered into a partnership with the World Bank for accelerating mobilization of finance for solar energy - an estimated US$1000 billion in investments that will be needed by 2030, to meet ISA's goals for the massive deployment of affordable solar energy worldwide.

At the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) held in Abu Dhabi in January 2018, the government of India announced the setting up of a $350 million solar development fund to enable financing of solar projects. Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoted solar energy during the plenary speech at World Economic Forum annual meet in Davos in 2018 and invited investments in the sector in India promising ease of doing business. Modi's ambitious plan when announced in the leading up to the Paris COP21 climate summit received much skepticism and the government's strategy to scale-up the renewable energy by relying on competitive bidding to reduce the cost was regarded as infeasible. However, starting around 2016-2017, new renewable energy became cheaper to build than running existing coal-fired plants in India. As of January 2018, 65% of coal power generation in India is being sold at higher rates than new renewable energy bids in competitive power auctions. India has scrapped tenders for coal-fired power stations and around 80% of new coal-fired power plants under planning have been halted or canceled. In the month of May 2017 alone, plans for building coal power for nearly 14 GW - about the same as the total amount in the UK - were canceled on account of declining solar costs. Analyst Tim Buckley said "Measures taken by the Indian Government to improve energy efficiency coupled with ambitious renewable energy targets and the plummeting cost of solar has had an impact on existing as well as proposed coal fired power plants, rendering an increasing number as financially unviable. India's solar tariffs have literally been free falling in recent months." As reported by NYTimes in May 2017, "According to research released last week at a United Nations climate meeting in Germany, China and India should easily exceed the targets they set for themselves in the 2015 Paris Agreement..... India is now expected to obtain 40 percent of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2022, eight years ahead of schedule."

Solar power in Japan has been expanding since the late 1990s. By the end of 2017, cumulative installed PV capacity reached over 50 GW with nearly 8 GW installed in the year 2017. The country is a leading manufacturer of solar panels and is in the top 4 ranking for countries with the most solar PV installed. Overall installed capacity is now estimated to be sufficient to supply 2.5% of the nation's annual electricity demand. The insolation is good at about 4.3 to 4.8 kWh/(m ² ·day).

Japan was the world's second largest market for solar PV growth in 2013 and 2014, adding a record 6.9 GW and 9.6 GW of nominal nameplate capacity, respectively.

Pakistan has set up a solar power park, funded by the Chinese company TBEA, in the Cholistan desert near Yazman, about 30 kilometers from the eastern city of Bahawalpur. The solar project, which is set up on 5,000 acres, is producing 100 MW . Another Chinese company, Zonergy is setting up 900MW of Solar Power Plant in the same region.

The first unit was completed with a cost of 15 billion rupees in a short period of eleven months. The electricity generated by the project will be added to the national grid through grid stations and power supply transmission lines. Second phase of the park will comprise 900 MW which will be completed with the help of Chinese Government.

In 2019, the Philippines generated a modest 1,246 GWh of solar energy. Given the country's geographic location advantage and the high potential for generating electricity from solar energy, its generation capacity is expected to increase from the current 1.2% of the total 23 GW to at least 3.5% of the total 43 GW generating capacity by 2040.

The Sinan solar power plant is a 24 MW photovoltaic power station in Sinan, Jeollanam-do, South Korea. As of 2009, it is the largest photovoltaic installation in Asia. The project was developed by the German company Conergy and it cost US$150 million. It was built by the Dongyang Engineering & Construction Corporation.

The government has a long-term plan to make the PV solar capacity become 6.5 GW by 2020 and 20 GW by 2025. To give further incentives, the government has designated solar energy and LED industries as two industries to actively develop in the near future.

There is no oil on Israeli land and the country's tenuous relations with its oil-rich neighbors (see Arab-Israeli conflict) has made the search for a stable source of energy a national priority. So Israel has embraced solar energy. Israeli innovation and research has advanced solar technology to a degree that it is almost cost-competitive with fossil fuels. Its abundant sun made the country a natural location for the promising technology. The high amount of sunshine received by the Negev Desert every year has spurred an internationally renowned solar research and development industry, with Arnold Goldman (founder of Luz, Luz II and BrightSource Energy), Harry Tabor and David Faiman of the National Solar Energy Center its more prominent members. At the end of 2008 a feed-in tariff scheme was approved, which immediately put in motion the building of many residential and commercial solar energy power station projects. Luz and Bright Source R&D centers in Jerusalem pioneered industrial scale solar energy fields with initial installations in California's Mojave Desert.

In 2018 there has been a proposal for a total of 200 GW of solar power capacity by 2030. The newly announced project is estimated to cost $200 billion through 2030.[citation needed ]

In 2013, the Shams solar power station, a 100 MW Concentrated solar power plant near Abu Dhabi became operational. The US$600 million Shams 1 is the largest CSP plant outside the United States and Spain and is expected to be followed by two more stations, Shams 2 and Shams 3.

European deployment of photovoltaics has slowed down considerably since the record year of 2011. This is mainly due to the strong decline of new installations in some major markets such as Germany and Italy, while the United Kingdom and some smaller European countries are still expected to break new records in 2014. Spain deployed about 350 MW (+18%) of concentrated solar power (CSP) in 2013, and remains a worldwide leader of this technology. European countries still account for about 60 percent of worldwide deployed capacity of solar power in 2013.

Austria had 421.7 MW of photovoltaics at the end of 2012, 234.5 MW of which was installed that year. Most of it is grid connected. Photovoltaic deployment in Austria had been rather modest for many years, while in other European countries, such as Germany, Italy or Spain installations were booming with new records year after year until 2011. The tide has turned in 2012. New PV installations jumped to more than 200 megawatt per year in Austria in an overall declining European solar market. The European Photovoltaic Industry Association forecasts, that Austria, together with other midsized countries, will contribute significantly to European PV deployment in the coming years.

In October 2009, the city of Antwerp announced that they wanted to install 2,500 m ² of solar panels on the roofs of public buildings, which would be worth 265,000 kWh per annum.

In December 2009, Katoen Natie announced that they would install 800,000 m ² of solar panels in various places, including Antwerp. It is expected that the installed solar power in the Flemish region will be increased by 25% when finished, resulting in the largest installation in Europe., the total cost being 166 million euros.

Bulgaria had seen a record year in 2012 when its PV capacity multiplied several times over to more than 1 GW. In 2013, however, further deployment came to a halt.

Germany is among the top 4 ranking countries in terms of installed photovoltaic solar capacity. The overall capacity has reached 42.98 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2017. Photovoltaics contribute almost 6% to the national electricity demands. Germany has seen an outstanding period of photovoltaic installations from 2010 until 2012. During this boom, about 22 GW, or a third of the worldwide PV installations of that period was deployed in Germany alone. However, the boom period ended in 2012, and Germany's national PV market has since declined significantly, due to the amendments in the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) that reduced feed-in tariffs and set constraints on utility-scaled installations, limiting their size to no more than 10 MW.

Large PV power plants in Germany include Senftenberg Solarpark, Finsterwalde Solar Park, Lieberose Photovoltaic Park, Strasskirchen Solar Park, Waldpolenz Solar Park, and Köthen Solar Park.

By September 2013, the total installed photovoltaic capacity in Greece had reached 2,523.5 MWp from which the 987.2 MWp were installed in the period between January-September 2013 despite the unprecedented financial crisis. Greece ranks 5th worldwide with regard to per capita installed PV capacity. It is expected that PV produced energy will cover up to 7% of the country's electricity demand in 2014.

A large solar PV plant is planned for the island of Crete. Research continues into ways to make the actual solar collecting cells less expensive and more efficient. Smaller solar PV farms exist throughout the country.

Italy added nearly 400 MW of solar PV capacity in the year 2017 reaching a total installed PV capacity of around 19.7 GW.

At the end of 2010 there were 155,977 solar PV plants, with a total capacity of 3,469.9 MW. The number of plants and the total capacity surged in 2009 and 2010 following high incentives from Conto Energia. The total power capacity installed tripled and plants installed doubled in 2010 compared to 2009, with an increase of plant's average dimensions.

Energy production from photovoltaics was 1,905.7 GWh in 2010. Annual growth rates were fast in recent years: 251% in 2009 and 182% in 2010. More than a fifth of the total production in 2010 came from the southern region of Apulia.

In December 2012, solar PV in Italy provided employment to 100,000 people especially in design and installation.

A large photovoltaic power project, the Serpa solar power plant, has been completed in Portugal, in one of Europe's sunniest areas. The 11 megawatt plant covers 150 acres (0.61 km ²) and comprises 52,000 PV panels. The panels are raised 2 metres off the ground and the area will remain productive grazing land. The project will provide enough energy for 8,000 homes and will save an estimated 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

The Moura photovoltaic power station is located in the municipality of Moura, in the interior region of Alentejo, Portugal. Its construction involves two stages, with the first one being constructed in 13 months and completed in 2008, and the other will be completed by 2010, at a total cost of €250 million for the project.

Romania has an installed capacity of 1.2 GW as of 2014. Romania is located in an area with a good solar potential of 210 sunny days per year and with an annual solar energy flux between 1,000 kWh/m2/year and 1,300 kWh/m2/year. The most important solar regions of Romania are the Black Sea coast, Dobrogea and Oltenia.

Current production of 5 MW is very modest, however there are plans for an expansion in capacity by 70 MW in 2012-13 in a $210 million joint project by Rosnano and Renova. The development of renewable energy in Russia has been held back by the lack of a conducive framework and government policy.

Spain was an early adopter in the development of solar energy, since it is one of the countries of Europe with more hours of sunshine. The Spanish government committed to achieving a target of 12 percent of primary energy from renewable energy by 2010 with an installed solar generating capacity of 3000 megawatts (MW). Spain is the top tenth in the installed PV solar capacity and used to export 80 percent of solar power output to Germany. Total solar power in Spain reached nearly 7 GW by the end of 2016 including both installed PV and CSP. Nearly 8 TWh of electricity was generated from photovoltaics, and 5 TWh from CSP plants in 2016. Solar PV accounted for nearly 3% of total electricity generation in 2016 along with an additional of 1.9% from solar thermal.

Through a ministerial ruling in March 2004, the Spanish government removed economic barriers to the connection of renewable energy technologies to the electricity grid. The Royal Decree 436/2004 equalized conditions for large-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic plants and guaranteed feed-in tariffs, which led to a boost in solar power adoption in Spain. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Spanish government drastically cut its subsidies for solar power and capped future increases in capacity at 500 MW per year leading to a stagnation in the new installations.

Registered solar capacity of Turkey stood at 3,420 MW by the end of 2017, although the actual installation can be lower. The increase in registrations mostly happened in December and was attributed to a reduction in feed-in tariffs starting from 2018 (from US$0.13 to US$0.10).

At the end of 2011, there were 230,000 solar power projects in the United Kingdom, with a total installed generating capacity of 750 megawatts (MW). By February 2012 the installed capacity had reached 1,000 MW. Solar power use has increased very rapidly in recent years, albeit from a small base, as a result of reductions in the cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels, and the introduction of a Feed-in tariff (FIT) subsidy in April 2010. In 2012, the government said that 4 million homes across the UK will be powered by the sun within eight years, representing 22,000 MW of installed solar power capacity by 2020. As of April 2015, PV capacity had risen to 6,562 MW across 698,860 installations. The latest government figures indicates UK solar photovoltaic (PV) generation capacity has reached 12,404 MW in December 2017.

Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant near Sarnia, Ontario, was in September 2010 the world's largest photovoltaic plant with an installed capacity of 80 . until surpassed by a plant in China. The Sarnia plant covers 950 acres (380 ha) and contains about 10.3 million sq feet / 966,000 square metres (96.6 ha), which is about 1.3 million thin film panels. The expected annual energy yield is about 120,000 MW·h, which if produced in a coal-fired plant would require emission of 39,000 tonnes of CO ₂ per year.

Canada has many regions that are sparsely populated and difficult to access, but also does not have optimal access to sunlight given the high latitudes of much of the country. Photovoltaic cells are increasingly used as standalone units, mostly as off-grid distributed electricity generation to power remote homes, telecommunications equipment, oil and pipeline monitoring stations and navigational devices. The Canadian PV market has grown quickly and Canadian companies make solar modules, controls, specialized water pumps, high efficiency refrigerators and solar lighting systems. Ontario has subsidized solar power energy to promote its growth.

By the first half of 2015 Chile reached 546 MW of PV installed capacity, and 1,647 MW are under construction.

In the Dominican Republic, the Monte Plata Project is the largest operating solar plant in the Caribbean with an installed capacity of 69MW.

In 2014, a 1.6 MW photovoltaic rooftop system at a seaside resort, located near the parish capital, Lucea in the parish of Hanover, was inaugurated. It was developed by Sofos Jamaica, and is the largest in Jamaica until a 20 MW utility-scale solar PV plant is constructed in the Parish of Clarendon in 2015.

No central database yet exists with information on installed capacity but, web searches reveal media articles, press releases and vendor web pages that share some details. Based on these sources up to the middle of 2015, there was over 3.7 MW connected to the grid but, a sizeable portion of that total, including the 1.6 MW rooftop system of a seaside resort and a commercial 500 kW-system in the country's capital, Kingston, do not feed power back to the grid despite being interconnected.

Mexico was the greatest solar energy producer in Latin America until passed by Chile. It is planning a solar trough-based plant with 30 MW which will use a combined cycle gas turbine about 400 MW to provide electricity to the city of Agua Prieta, Sonora. To date, the World Bank has given US$50 million to finance this project.

Solar power in the United States includes utility-scale solar power plants as well as local distributed generation, mostly from rooftop photovoltaics. Installations have been growing rapidly in recent years as costs have declined with the U.S. hitting 76 GW of installed solar PV capacity at the end of 2019. The United States is in the top 4 ranking for countries with the most solar PV installed. The American Solar Energy Industries Association projects that total solar PV capacity will reach over 100 GW by 2021.

Electrical generation has been rising in tandem with capacity as U.S. Energy Information Administration data show that utility-scale solar power generated 1.8% of total U.S. electricity in 2019, up from <0.1% in 2005. This figure is even higher in certain states, already reaching over 10% of generation in five states (California, Hawaii, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Vermont).

The United States conducted much early research in photovoltaics and concentrated solar power and is among the top countries in the world in deploying the technology, being home to 4 of the 10 largest utility-scale photovoltaic power stations in the world as of 2017. The energy resource continues to be encouraged through official policy with 29 states having set mandatory renewable energy targets as of October 2015, solar power being specifically included in 20 of them. Aside from utility projects, roughly 784,000 homes and businesses in the nation have installed solar systems through the second quarter of 2015.

A number of Pacific island states have committed to high percentages of renewable energy use, both to serve as an example to other countries and to cut the high costs of imported fuels. A number of solar installations have been financed and assisted by Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. Solar farms have gone online in Tuvalu, Fiji and Kiribati. UAE-Pacific Partnership Fund solar projects completed by Masdar in 2016 included: 1MW in the Solomon Islands, 500 kW in Nauru, 600 kW in the Marshall Islands, 600 kW in Micronesia and a 450 kW solar-diesel hybrid plant in Palau. American Samoa has 2 MW of solar installed at Pago Pago Airport.

Australia had over 17,616 megawatts (MW) of installed photovoltaic (PV) solar power by June 2020 making it a leader in solar power deployment on a watts per capita basis. The largest solar power station in Australia is the 313 MW Limondale Solar Farm. Other significant solar arrays include the 220 MW Bungala solar plant, 168 Daydream Solar Farm, 150 MW Coleambally Solar Farm and 133 MW Finley Solar Farm.

A 9 MW e (megawatts, electrical) solar thermal `coal saver' system was constructed at Liddell power station. The system used `compact linear Fresnel reflector' technology developed in Australia. It provided solar-powered steam to the 600 MW black coal power station's boiler feedwater heater. By 2016, it was "effectively" closed and an effort to build a similar 40 MW solar boost at Kogan Creek coal power station was stopped.

The planned Australia-ASEAN Power Link aims to connect Singapore to 26,000MW of solar and wind energy in the north west of Australia.

In 2010, New Zealand's largest thin film solar array was the 20 kW array installed at Hubbard Foods A 21.6 kW photovoltaic array was installed in Queenstown in 2009. In April 2012, New Zealand's largest solar power plant was the 68.4 kW array installed to meet 70% of the electricity needs of South Auckland Forging Engineering Ltd, which is expected to pay for itself in eight to nine years.

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Many countries and territories have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources. Solar power plants use one of two technologies: Worldwide growth of photovoltaics is extremely dynamic and varies strongly by country.

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Italian shoppers could soon enjoy a discount on products sold loose as part of a range of measures expected to be approved by the government as it strives to take action on the environment.

The initiative would give financial incentives to shopkeepers to reduce the price of food items and detergents sold without packaging, and of drinks, shampoos and other liquids sold from dispensers or in reusable containers.

Timeline
Half a century of dither and denial - a climate crisis timeline

The US senator Jim Inhofe, whose main donors are in the oil and gas industry, leads the "Climategate" misinformation attack on scientists on the opening day of the crucial UN climate conference in Copenhagen, which ends in disarray.

Mohammed Barkindo, secretary general of Opec, which represents Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Iran and several other oil states, says climate campaigners are the biggest threat to the industry and claims they are misleading the public with unscientific warnings about global warming.

The bill will be discussed by the prime minister Giuseppe Conte's cabinet on Thursday afternoon. Other measures include giving public transport season tickets to those who stop using their cars, mopeds or scooters, a €20m (£18m) investment in electric and hybrid school buses, an urban reforestation plan and an environmental campaign in schools.

"We have norms that will counteract the climate emergency at 360 degrees," Sergio Costa, the environment minister, wrote on Facebook.

Conte told a conference on Thursday that Italy is seeking to be a leader in making the economy more sustainable. He had promised to make environmental action a priority in a speech before the new left-leaning government, a coalition of the Five Star Movement (M5S) and Democratic party, was voted into power in early September. Conte also made a dramatic call for urgent action at the recent UN climate action summit in New York after news emerged that a massive portion of a Mont Blanc glacier was in danger of collapse.

Luigi Di Maio, whose M5S party has long prioritised the environment in its campaigning, said the climate bill represents "a new vision of a green Italy" that would put the country at the forefront in Europe.

Q&A
Why is the Guardian changing the language it uses about the environment?

The Guardian has updated its style guide to introduce terms that more accurately describe the environmental crises facing the world. Instead of "climate change", the preferred terms are "climate emergency, crisis or breakdown" and "global heating" is favoured over "global warming".

The scale of the climate and wildlife crises has been laid bare by two landmark reports from the world's scientists. In October 2018, they said carbon emissions must halve by 2030 to avoid even greater risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. In May 2019, global scientists said human society was in jeopardy from the accelerating annihilation of wildlife and destruction of the ecosystems that support all life on Earth.

The editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, says: "We want to ensure that we are being scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on this very important issue. The phrase 'climate change', for example, sounds rather passive and gentle when what scientists are talking about is a catastrophe for humanity."

Other terms that have been updated include the use of "wildlife" rather than "biodiversity", "fish populations" instead of "fish stocks" and "climate science denier" rather than "climate sceptic".

Damian Carrington Environment editor

"It's difficult to assess what kind of impact each measure will have but for sure, this decree is a start," said Gianfranco Pellegrino, a politics professor at Rome's Luiss University who has written extensively about climate change. "The environment minister is taking climate change seriously and this is an improvement in respect of previous ministers. We need a law because we can't confront the climate emergency without legislation."

Among Italy's biggest challenges is tackling the huge amount of plastic littering the country's shores, with alarming data published on Thursday by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra) revealing that more than 500,000 tonnes of plastic waste end up in the Mediterranean each year. The waste is mostly comprised of shopping bags, plastic bottles and product packaging. The data was collated with the help of fishermen, who reported that their nets now collect more waste than fish. Ispra also said Italian beaches "host" between 500 and 1,000 items of rubbish every 100 metres.

Plastic waste brought ashore in Livorno, Tuscany. Photograph: Laura Lezza/Getty Images

"The situation in the Mediterranean is serious," said Cecilia Silvestri, a researcher at Ispra.

"The problem is that the Mediterranean is a closed basin ... and it is compromised because of rubbish that gets dumped in the sea in north African countries that don't yet have a sufficient waste management system. The rubbish circulates and ends up near our coastline."

Profile
Plastic - what's the problem?
Show

Why the sudden focus on plastics?
Mankind produces roughly its entire body weight in plastics every year. But the vast majority of it is either not recycled, unrecyclable, or doesn't get reused once it's been recycled. Volumes ending up in the natural environment are surging. Plastic can take as much as 500 years to decompose.

What are the implications?
Plastic is ubiquitous - and often deadly. It kills sea creatures that eat it but cannot digest it. It gets into the human food chain by contaminating the fish that we eat. It is even in our tap water. There is no science about the long-term impact of humans ingesting plastic.

What is to be done?
Taxing plastic bags - or even banning them outright as Kenya has done - has changed consumer and producer behaviour. But what next? Deposit return schemes for plastic bottles work well in several countries. Charging for one-time coffee cups also seems to be on the agenda. But the real solutions may not be top down but ...

... bottom up?
Yes. Grassroots movements led the way on plastic bags, and have spawned others such as Refill, which emphasises reusing bottles, and A Plastic Planet, which urges plastic-free aisles in supermarkets. Popular culture remains hugely important: it's just possible that the British series The Blue Planet has changed attitudes overnight.

Photograph: Zakir Chowdhury/Barcroft Images/Barcroft Media

Plastic is also heavily polluting Italy's lakes. "I was in Lake Como recently and discovered the lake is the most polluted in Europe with microplastic," said Pellegrino. "Plastic is a real problem and needs to be addressed very soon."

Pollution is another major issue, especially in Italy's northern cities. While Italy's greenhouse gas emissions have been decreasing over the past decade, the country was criticised this year by the European Climate Foundation for failing to provide an adequate plan to further reduce emissions and dependency on fossil fuels.

"Emissions remain a problem and another issue is extinctions - in Italy there are many species that are close to dying off," added Pellegrino.

An estimated 1 million Italian schoolchildren took part in a global climate strike inspired by the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on 27 September.

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Italy proposes to cut prices for food sold without packaging

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Italian shoppers could soon enjoy a discount on products sold loose as part of a range of measures expected to be approved by the government as it strives to take action on the environment.

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Ch. 2
Rural settlement in the Tsoelike Valley, Lesotho.

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Can anything be done about beach erosion?

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Can anything be done about beach erosion?

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Cape coast of South Africa, Against beach erosion

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Cape coast of South Africa, Against beach erosion

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The Bay Of Islands Resort Tohitapu Road, Paihia, Nuova Zelanda

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Ch. 5
The Bay of Islands, New Zealand.

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The site of Kingston's international airport

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The site of Kingston's international airport

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Ch. 5

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The site of Kingston's international airport

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Mangroves vs development on Grand Cayman

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Mangroves vs development on Grand Cayman

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Ch. 5

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Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, Gibraltar Rd, Skegness, Regno Unito

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Ch. 5

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Sand dune and beach destruction on the Moroccan coast

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Sand dune and beach destruction on the Moroccan coast

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Ch. 5

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Sand dune and beach destruction on the Moroccan coast

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Paraná, Provincia di Entre Ríos, Argentina

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Paraná, Provincia di Entre Ríos, Argentina

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Paraná, Provincia di Entre Ríos, Argentina

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raging fire described as "completely out of control" is threatening one of South America's major wetland ecosystems. The fire has been burning for months now, and is visible from the balconies of luxury apartments along the shoreline of the Paraná River in Argentina's central city of Rosario

Locals have been sharing photos and videos of the fires on social media.

In normal times, Rosario's riverfront homes enjoy a spectacular view of the seemingly never-ending green grasslands on the opposite bank of the Paraná, a waterway stretching over a mile across as it passes through the city.

In recent months, however, dwellers in the luxury condos have been congregating on their balconies as the wall of red flames from thousands of fires raging through the Paraná delta grasslands rises high into the sky.

"Everything is burning, it's completely out of control," Leonel Mingo, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Argentina, told the Guardian. "Once a fire reaches that scale, it becomes virtually impossible to stop."

The Paraná is South America's second largest river after the Amazon and the eighth longest river in the world. Its floodplain, known by Rosarinos as "la isla", is not actually an island, but a vast delta covering some 15,000km2 , through which the Paraná drains towards the Atlantic Ocean 300km away.

The giant delta is clearly visible in satellite imagery as a dark green wedge on the northern margin of the Paraná from Rosario to Buenos Aires.

Giant plumes of smoke from the fires raging since February have at times covered the streets of Rosario and other places along the Paraná with a layer of ash from scorched plants and animals. The air in Rosario has been unbreathable for weeks at a time.

The view from space shows the delta becoming significantly drier over recent years.

Jorge Liotta, a biologist specialising in the abundant wildlife of the delta, lives with his wife and two young children in the nearby riverside city of San Nicolás de los Arroyos. Their home is just a block from the Paraná's shoreline.

"The other night I walked to the river and could see seven fires burning in the distance," Liotta told the Guardian. "It depends on the wind if the smoke hits you, but when it does, the smoke is so thick that the sun turns red and you can barely see the house next door. What's worse, it gets inside your home. People with asthma and other breathing difficulties are really suffering."

Far from abating, the number of fires has been rising. Liotta works at the Scasso Natural Science Museum in San Nicolás, where he has been monitoring the delta fires via Nasa satellites. "We've identified 8,024 likely fires so far this year, almost half of them this month of July."

Liotta worked backwards and found the scale of the
calamity was unprecedented. "The average number of yearly satellite-detected hotspots was only 1,800 in 2012-2019. We're already at over 8,000 and barely halfway through the year."

Although cattle ranchers, illegal hunters and property developers have encroached on its rich habitat, the Paraná delta still teems with diverse wildlife, all facing a dire challenge to their survival.

Liotta says it breaks his heart to imagine the scale of destruction. "I can't help thinking about the animals when I see the fires. If we humans are suffering so much, can you imagine what it must be like for the creatures being burned alive?"

'I can't help thinking about the animals when I see the fires', says biologist Jorge Liotta. Photograph: Taller Ecologista

He recites a list of the delta's species: "There's the carpincho [capybara], the world's largest rodent, a relative to the guinea pig, but the size of a farm pig, weighing over 60 kilos, aquatic and highly gregarious. Then the gato montés [wildcat], a solitary hunter at the top of the delta food chain despite being only the size of a domestic cat, either spotted like a leopard or entirely black like a panther. Then there's an endless variety of birds, invertebrates, mollusks, rare insects, amphibians, reptiles ... which must be suffering an incredible mortality rate."

The coronavirus pandemic has added to the problems, making it impossible for experts to travel to the affected areas. But it has not thwarted cattle ranchers, driven from more productive lands by the growth of soya bean plantations, from sending their cattle to graze on the constantly shifting delta islands.

With hardly any roads or infrastructure, the delta remains a daunting challenge for those without expert knowledge of the region. "You have to get around on horseback or by boat", says Liotta. "Cattle ranchers ship their livestock to the islands on barcos jaula [cage boats], sometimes two storeys high, that carry around 60 heads of cattle each."

Satellite-detected hot spots in the delta have increased dramatically in the past decade. Photograph: VIIRS/Modis/Nasa

The unregulated expansion of cattle ranching is the main culprit for the expanding fires says Laura Prol, an ecologist from the Rosario-based environmental NGO Taller Ecologista.

"The delta has always been used by livestock farmers to graze their cattle, but the number of cattle grew 500% between between 2000 and 2010," Prol told the Guardian. "Although that number has dropped some in the last decade, ranchers continue burning the dead winter grass as if they were still in the 19th century, the idea being for the new grass beneath to sprout stronger."

Prol points to illegal carpincho hunters lighting fires to corral their prey and tourists from Rosario who cross the river to hold barbecues and kayak in the delta as other likely culprits.

"But the real problem is that 2020 has been one of the driest of recent years, which causes two problems. First, without proper humidity the dead grass becomes highly flammable, and second, the low level of the river dries out the canals that usually act as buffers that stop the fire from expanding beyond individual islands," says Prol.

The environmentalist is also frustrated by the coronavirus pandemic making it almost impossible to see the terrain first hand. "We can't go, but cattle ranchers, tourists and illegal hunters are still getting there."

The shocking photos posted on social media, and the sheer extent and duration of the fires, have prodded the authorities into action.

Environment minister Juan Cabandié has opened legal action against alleged culprits, tweeting geolocation maps pinpointing the fires and demanding local judges identify and arrest the landowners. "They must tell us who owns these lands, arrest them and put those responsible on trial."

Falling water levels have exposed the shore along the Parana River. Photograph: Reuters

The city of Rosario has also demanded legal action and sent firefighting helicopters to the area.

But environmentalists say more is needed. "Legal action won't stop the fires. What is needed is a long-term environmental policy to deal with the drop in the level of the river caused by the changing climate and by the El Niño weather phenomenon," says Prol. "This year's dry spell might also be an effect of the fires in the Amazon last year, in which a large amount of vapour-producing vegetation that then turned to rain perished. Finding the culprits for this year's fires is of course important, but we need real environmental protection."

Mingo of Greenpeace agrees. "We have been lobbying for years for a comprehensive wetlands law. The reason these fires are raging is because there is no legislation. We need to ban cattle farming in the delta. Because right now, with this dry weather, with the drying up of the Paraná river and without a campaign to change the traditional use of fire by cattle ranchers to clear land for pasture, you have the perfect storm."
Send us your stories and thoughts at animalsfarmed@theguardian.com

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'Everything is burning': Argentina's delta fires rage out of control

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raging fire described as "completely out of control" is threatening one of South America's major wetland ecosystems. The fire has been burning for months now, and is visible from the balconies of luxury apartments along the shoreline of the Paraná River in Argentina's central city of Rosario Locals have been sharing photos and videos of the fires on social media.

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Watch the Aral Sea's eastern basin disappear - interactive

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Nasa satellite images show how an area of the Central Asian inland sea - once the fourth largest in the world - became completely parched in less than 20 years

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Tropical cyclone Winston, Fiji, February 2016.

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Tropical cyclone Winston, Fiji, February 2016