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Emma Farge News

05 Sep 2023

Sand Dredging is 'Sterilizing' Ocean Floor, UN Warns

© Alexey Seafarer / Adobe Stock

Around 6 billion tons of marine sand is being dug up each year in a growing practice that a U.N. agency said is unsustainable and can wipe out local marine life irreversibly.Sand is the most exploited natural resource in the world after water but its extraction for use in industries like construction is only loosely governed, prompting the U.N.

25 Jul 2023

UN Starts Removing Oil from Decaying FSO in Red Sea

(Photo: Boskalis)

The United Nations said on Tuesday it had started the removal of more than 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying supertanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast in a complex operation it hopes will ward off a regional disaster.U.N. officials have been warning for years that the Red Sea and Yemen's coastline was at risk as the Safer tanker could spill four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.A U.N. spokesperson said on Tuesday a spill could cost $20 billion to clean up.The war in Yemen caused the suspension in 2015 of maintenance operations on the Safer…

03 Jul 2023

UN Chief Urges Net Zero Emissions Agreement for Shipping by 2050

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for agreement to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at crunch shipping talks in London this week and urged decarbonisation efforts to move faster.China, however, is pushing back on the targets, according to a diplomatic note issued by Beijing.Shipping, which transports around 90% of world trade and accounts for nearly 3% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, is facing calls from environmentalists and investors to deliver more concrete action…

13 Mar 2023

Talks Underway on Black Sea Grain Deal Extension in Geneva

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Negotiations began on Monday between U.N. officials and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin on a possible extension to a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, the Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva said.The Black Sea grain initiative, brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey last July, aimed to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blockaded by Russia's invasion to be safely exported from three Ukrainian ports.The deal…

17 Nov 2022

Black Sea Grain Export Deal Extended

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A deal aimed at easing global food shortages by facilitating Ukraine's agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports was extended for 120 days on Thursday, though Moscow said its own demands were yet to be fully addressed.The agreement, initially reached in July, created a protected sea transit corridor and was designed to alleviate global food shortages by allowing exports to resume from three ports in Ukraine, a major producer of grains and oilseeds."I welcome the agreement…

17 Oct 2022

Russia is Prepared to Quit Black Sea Grains Deal

(Photo: Ukraine Ministry of Transport)

Moscow has submitted concerns to the United Nations about an agreement on Black Sea grain exports, and is prepared to reject renewing the deal next month unless its demands are addressed, Russia's Geneva U.N. ambassador told Reuters on Thursday.The agreement, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July, paved the way for Ukraine to resume grain exports from Black Sea ports that had been shut since Russia invaded. Moscow won guarantees for its own grain and fertilizer exports.The…

14 Apr 2022

Stranded Seafarers Escape Ukraine, Others Trapped

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A portion of the estimated 1,000 seafarers trapped in Ukraine have escaped, the International Labour Organization and industry officials told Reuters, voicing concern for those remaining trapped onboard ships or unaccounted for.Several foreign cargo ships have been struck by crossfire in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24. U.N. agencies have called for urgent action to protect some 1,000 seafarers from at least 20 countries, including in the besieged city of Mariupol…

15 Dec 2021

Ships Traveling the Thawing Arctic are Leaving Garbage in Their Wake

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Following another year of stark climate impacts in the Arctic, scientists warned Tuesday of a new scourge hitting the region: marine trash.With the region warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, sea ice that has long blanketed the Arctic Ocean is disappearing, opening new routes to shipping. Scientists began noticing the trash bobbing in the icy water or piling up on Alaska Bering Strait-area beaches last year.“That’s a direct result of increased human maritime activities…

20 Nov 2020

WTO Sees Trade Rebound, But Likely Year-end Slowdown

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The World Trade Organization said on Friday global trade in goods had rebounded in the third quarter from COVID-19 lockdowns, but predicted a slowdown at the end of 2020.The WTO said its goods trade barometer had risen to 100.7 points from a record low of 84.5 points in August, driven by a surge in export orders. A reading greater than 100 indicates above-trend growth.“The latest reading indicates a strong rebound in trade in the third quarter as lockdowns were eased, but growth is likely to slow in the fourth quarter as pent-up demand is exhausted and inventory restocking is completed…

20 May 2020

WTO's Goods Trade Index at Record Low Amid COVID-19 Disruptions

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Wednesday its goods trade indicator fell to the lowest level since its launch, indicating global trade was likely to fall “precipitously” in the first half of 2020 due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.The indicator, launched in July 2016, fell to 87.6 from 95.5 in February, the Geneva-based body said. Readings of less than 100 indicate trade below medium-term trends.“The current reading captures the initial phases of the COVID-19 outbreak…

01 Oct 2019

As Ocean Fears Gather Pace, WTO Fishing Talks Stall

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The oceans are under siege, campaigners warn, and fish stocks could collapse unless a global deal is struck swiftly to ban harmful fisheries subsidies. The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, can't agree on who will head the committee to discuss the issue, according to sources close to the negotiations.More than 90 percent of fish stocks are at maximum sustainable levels or overfished, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and environmentalists say a subsidies…

03 May 2017

Chinese Vessels Detained off West Africa for Illegal Fishing

West African countries have detained eight Chinese ships for fishing illegally and the boats' owners could be subject to millions of dollars in fines, environmental group Greenpeace and government officials said. Inspectors from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau boarded the ships off their coasts which they found to be violating regulations on catching protected fish and using nets with small holes to facilitate bigger hauls. The arrests came after a two-month regional patrol on a Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza which carried inspectors from the West African countries, in a bid to supplement national efforts, which are often hamstrung by budget and technology constraints.

02 Feb 2015

Ghana Orders Emergency Barges to Address Power Crisis

Ghana has ordered a small fleet of emergency barges with the capacity to generate up to a total of 1,000 megawatts of electricity to address a worsening power crisis, the government said on Monday. Inadequate water levels at the West African country's three hydro power facilities and the frequent breakdown of equipment at power plants has resulted in demand outstripping supply, Minister of Power Kwabena Donkor told a news conference. The barges with onboard power-generation capacity will float off the capital Accra. They were ordered from General Electric and other suppliers, and are expected to begin arriving in April so all are in place by the middle of the year. Ghana's power crisis has led to long outages for consumers, including industrial users such as mines and manufacturing firms.

08 Aug 2014

Gabon Signs Offshore Oil Contracts with 6 Companies

Gabon's oil ministry said on Friday it had signed seven oil contracts with six companies as part of an offshore licensing round expected to attract at least $1.1 billion in investment to the sector. "(We) proceeded on August 8 with the signing of seven oil contracts with the companies Impact, Repsol, Marathon , Noble Energy, Petronas and Woodside," the ministry said in a statement. (Reporting by Gerauds Obangome; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn)

04 Aug 2014

Mixed Prospects for Ivorian Cocoa Crops

Ivory Coast weather over the past week indicated mixed prospects for its main cocoa crop, with overcast weather and no rain potentially hurting development of plants in most regions, but good sunny conditions in others. In the world's top cocoa producer, farmers said that sunshine was crucial in this period of development of the main crop to help the growth of flowers and small pods now emerging on trees. The size of the crop will depend on the number of flowers that turn into small pods. The marketing season for the Ivorian mid-crop, which began on April 1, is tailing off, meanwhile. In the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, farmers reported no rainfall and a lack of sunny spells for a second consecutive week.

17 Jul 2014

Cameroon Cocoa Exports Down from Last Year

Cameroon, the world's fifth cocoa grower, has exported 152,941 metric tons of cocoa beans from the start of the 2013/14 season to end-June, down from 203,220 metric tons in the corresponding previous season, the National Cocoa and Coffee Board said on Thursday. The roughly 25 percent fall in total exports came despite higher shipments in June when 4,256 metric tons of cocoa left ports compared with 2,305 metric tons for the same month last year and 2,268 tonnes in May. NCCB indicated that there were 11 exporters for the month, down from 13 in May, with Producam exporting a hefty 1,003 metric tons, followed by Olam Cam with 983 tonnes and Telcar Cocoa Ltd with 853 metric tons.

14 Jul 2014

High Shipping Costs Deter Buyers of W. Africa Crude

Nigerian crude oil differentials held at two-year lows on Monday as demand remained subdued, partly due to high shipping costs from West Africa to Europe. Nearly half of the loading program for August, which originally had 65 cargos, was unsold on Monday. But traders said that demand might pick up temporarily later this week as traders placed cargoes for India Oil Company's import tender. High freight rates aboard suezmaxes to Europe are deterring shipments to refineries there, traders said. Rising exports of similar oil grades from Libya has also hurt demand. Libyan oil output has risen to 470,000 barrels per day (bpd) as the El Sharara oilfield ramps up, the state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Sunday.

10 Jul 2014

Funds Secured for 2nd Abidjan Container Port

Banque Atlantique, SocGen and Afreximbank have raised 200 million euros ($272.81 million) to start a second container terminal at Abidjan port in Ivory Coast, a banking spokesman said on Thursday. The new terminal contract, awarded to a group led by France's Bollore last year, should boost capacity at one of Africa's busiest ports - a gateway for landlocked nations to the north and a transit point for beans from the world's top cocoa grower. Port traffic is booming and total tonnage surpassed 21 million metric tons in 2013. Banque Atlantique has raised 100 million euros and Societe Generale and Afreximbank gave 50 million euros each, Souleymane Diarrassouba, director general of Banque Atlantique, told Reuters. His bank is a subsidiary of Banque Populaire du Maroc.

16 Jun 2014

Weather Threatens Ivory Coast Cocoa Crops

Abundant rains combined with infrequent and short spells of sunshine in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa-growing regions created wet growing conditions last week that could dent the size of the April-to-September crop, farmers said on Monday. The marketing season for the mid-crop in the world's top cocoa grower opened on April 1 and harvesting is expected to start to decline from mid-July. Farmers said frequent spells of sunshine spells would be needed in the next few weeks to ensure a healthy harvest. Wet weather has attracted insects to the plantations and some pods have been rotting on the trees of farms where there is insufficient place to store the beans. "The beans will be ruined before our eyes. It has become difficult to work.

02 Jun 2014

Abundant Rains, Sun Seen Boosting Ivorian Cocoa Crop

Abundant rainfall and sunny spells last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions are set to improve growing conditions to ensure a strong finish of the April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said on Monday. The marketing season for the mid-crop officially opened on April 1 and harvesting is picking up rapidly. Farmers in most regions said the weather conditions should allow for robust output through to at least July. In the centre-western region of Daloa, producing a quarter of Ivory Coast's national output, farmers said that the good weather conditions had helped produce large beans. "There's a lot of sunshine. That will avoid problems and improve the quality," said farmer Desire M'Bra, who farms near Daloa.

19 May 2014

Ivory Coast's Abundant Rains Mixed for Cocoa Crop

Abundant and regular rains last week in Ivory Coast's cocoa growing regions raised concerns of crop damage, although conditions were good for the development of the mid-crop elsewhere, farmers said on Monday. The marketing season for the April-to-September mid-crop officially opened on April 1 and harvesting is accelerating rapidly. Farmers in most regions said the weather conditions should allow strong output into July. In the western region of Duekoue, farmers said they were concerned about crop damage as it had rained almost the entire week, leading to flooding in some areas. "The rain has come down hard. There was flooding in some parts and some houses collapsed," said farmer and cooperative manager Amara Kone.

14 May 2014

Gabon Drops Three Firms from Offshore Oil Talks

Three companies previously named as winners in an offshore oil licensing round in Gabon have been dropped from the list, Gabon's oil mininster said on Wednesday. The three firms were Noble, Cobalt and Elenilto. "The offshore requires huge investment and the companies turned down did not meet those requirements," oil minister Etienne Ngoubou told reporters. "Total has been called in for discussions with the body in charge of negotiations," Ngoubou said. Total was not previously named as a winner in the October 2013 licensing round. (Reporting by Jean Rovys Dabany; Writing by Emma Farge, editing by David Evans)

08 May 2014

Oil Rig Helicopter Crashes off Ghana's Coast, Killing Three

A service helicopter carrying workers to an oil rig off the coast of Ghana operated by Russia's Lukoil crashed into the ocean on Thursday, killing at least three people, a military spokesman said. Four people were rescued and another was missing, military spokesman Mbawine Attintande said. The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said the incident occurred after the helicopter took off from the western port of Takoradi on its way to the Jack Ryag oil rig near the giant Jubilee field. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Emma Farge and Robin Pomeroy)