Britain could revive domestic production of super strong magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines with government support, to cut its reliance on China and achieve vital cuts in carbon emissions, two sources with direct knowledge said. 

A government-funded feasibility study is due to be published on Friday, laying out the steps Britain must take to restart output of rare earth permanent magnets, the sources said. 

A magnet factory would help Britain, hosting the COP26 U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, meet its goal of banning petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and slashing carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. 

British production of the magnets vanished in the 1990s when the industry found it could not compete with China. But with the huge growth in demand, the government is keen to secure enough supply. 

Last month, the government set out plans to achieve its net zero strategy, which includes spending $1.15 billion to support the roll out of electric vehicles (EVs) and their supply chains. 

The study outlines how a plant could be built by 2024 and eventually produce enough of the powerful magnets to supply 1 million EVs a year, the sources who have read the report said. 

“We’re looking to turn the tide of shipping all this kind of manufacturing to the Far East and resurrect U.K. manufacturing excellence,” one of the sources said. 

The government’s Department for Business declined to comment on details regarding a possible magnet factory because the report has not been released. 

“The government continues to work with investors through our Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to progress plans to build a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain in the U.K.,” a spokesperson said in an email. 

EV ramp up 

British rare earth company Less Common Metals put together the feasibility study and is considering seeking partners to jointly build the factory, the sources said. 

LCM is one of the only companies outside of China that transforms rare earth raw materials into the special compounds needed to produce permanent magnets. 

Automakers will need the magnets as they ramp up EV output in Britain. Ford said last month it would invest up to $310 million in an English plant to produce around 250,000 EV power units a year from mid-2024. 

Rare earth magnets made of neodymium are used in 90% of EV motors because they are widely seen as the most efficient way to power them. 

Electric cars with these magnets require less battery power than those with ordinary magnets, so vehicles can travel longer distances before recharging. 

A race by automakers to ramp up EVs and countries to switch to wind energy is due to boost demand for permanent magnets in Europe as much as tenfold by 2050, according to the European Union. 

The sources said government support would be vital so Britain could compete with China, which produces 90% of supply. 

The strategy mirrors similar efforts by the EU and the United States to create domestic industries of raw materials, rare earth processing and permanent magnets. 

 
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Regularly cursed at and sometimes physically assaulted by patients, nurses in the U.S. have had enough. As VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports, the pandemic is accelerating a longstanding problem of violence against frontline health care workers. A warning: some images in this report may be disturbing.
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The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe said Thursday the continent is now the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for 59 percent of all cases globally.

At a virtual news briefing from Copenhagen, Hans Kluge said the current pace of transmission across the region’s 53 countries is of grave concern. He said new cases are approaching record levels, with the delta variant of the coronavirus driving the surge.

Kluge said his agency’s latest data shows hospitalizations in the region more than doubled in one week.

He noted officials are seeing increasing trends across all age groups, but that the rapid increase in the older population is of the most concern. He said this is translating into more people having severe cases and dying, with 75 percent of the deaths among persons aged 65 or older.

Kluge said one reliable projection indicates that at the current pace, Europe could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths by the first of February. COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus.

He also cited uneven vaccination rates and the relaxation of public health and social measures throughout the region as the cause of the surge.

While a billion doses of vaccine have been distributed, in Europe, only 47 percent of the total population are fully vaccinated. He says in eight nations, at least 70 percent of the people have been inoculated fully. Kluge notes the rate remains below 10 percent in two other countries.

Kluge encouraged nations with low vaccination rates to increase coverage, particularly among priority groups such as the elderly. He urged nations with high vaccination rates and ample supply to share with less fortunate nations.

He also said that vaccines are most effective when used with other preventive measures, such as social distancing and mask-wearing. Kluge said if the region achieved universal mask use, 188,000 lives could be saved between now and February.

The WHO region chief said, “We must change our tactics, from reacting to surges” of COVID-19 to “preventing them from happening in the first place.” 

 
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A New Zealand research project is looking at ways to produce hydrogen in Antarctica to reduce carbon emissions.  

A four-month New Zealand project is investigating whether hydrogen could be generated, used and stored at Scott Base, its Antarctic research facility, to reduce its reliance on carbon-based fuels.  Those fuels are currently used for transportation, cooking and heating.  A special grade fuel is shipped in on ice-breakers.  

Surplus power from wind turbines at Scott Base could be used to generate green hydrogen for hydrogen fuel cells that produce electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen atoms.  

The hydrogen initiative is a collaboration between Antarctica, New Zealand, a government scientific body, and the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.  The project started in August and will finish this month. 

The project faces some obstacles, including geographic isolation and extreme weather. Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest continent. In 1983, a temperature of minus 89.2 degrees was recorded. 

Brendon Miller, a consultant chemical engineer, says it is an ambitious plan.  

“We would like to demonstrate that we can use hydrogen effectively as an energy source to replace fossil fuels. It is a very challenging environment to do it in Antarctica. But, actually, there are some things going for it because the alternates like batteries are quite awkward to use for long-term storage particularly at very cold temperatures,” Miller said.  

New Zealand’s work in Antarctica focuses in large part on global warming.    Experts have said the world’s southernmost continent was very sensitive to rising temperatures, and it also influenced the global climate system.  Earlier this year, the New Zealand government said it would spend  $200 million to guarantee the future of its scientific hub at Scott Base. 

Scientific projects in Antarctica are highly collaborative, bringing together researchers from around the world.    
Twenty-nine countries, including Australia, China and the United States, operate bases in Antarctica. 
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No in-person school. Isolation from friends. Lost rites of passage like graduation ceremonies. The COVID-19 pandemic upended the lives of many children in the United States.

“A lot of children’s joy comes from being with friends or from play, and from social interaction. When you ask kids, ‘What’s making you happy?’ 90% of the time, it’s being around friends or doing things with friends,” says Elena Mikalsen, head of the Psychology Section at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio in Texas. “That was kind of taken away during the pandemic. … For the longest time, all kids had was the academics and no joy.” 

A recent report finds that the uncertainty and disruption caused by COVID-19 has negatively affected the emotional and mental health of about one-third of America’s youth. So much so that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), along with other children’s health organizations, has declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.

“Elevated symptoms of anxiety, depression or stress,” says Nirmita Panchal, a senior policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a nonprofit organization focusing on national health issues. “There’s also been a number of changes in behavior that parents have reported with some children having a poor appetite and difficulty sleeping. For others, it may be fear or irritability and clinginess.”

Panchal co-authored the report, which found that 8% of children between the ages of 3 and 17 currently have anxiety. That number rises to 13% among adolescents ages 12 to 17.

“During the pandemic, children, just like everybody else, have experienced a number of changes and disruptions,” Panchal says. “That includes school closures, possibly financial difficulties at home, isolation, perhaps the loss of loved ones and then difficulty accessing health care. So, all of these factors may be contributing to increased mental health issues among children.” 

Rates of children’s mental health concerns and suicide steadily increased between 2010 and 2020, according to the AAP, which says the pandemic has made the crisis worse with “dramatic increases” in the number of young people visiting hospital emergency rooms for mental health-related concerns, including possible suicide attempts.

Maryland psychologist Mary Karapetian Alvord says uncertainty, as well as losing out on school activities, provoked varying levels of grief in young people.

“Particularly high school students, who really lost out on all of the fun activities, the fun clubs, and also graduations and homecoming, football games and all the social as well as the outlets that they have,” says Alvord, who is also an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at The George Washington University School of Medicine. “So, those are themes that have dominated this pandemic, I think, grief, loss on all those different levels, and then just constant uncertainty. And we then get a rise in anxiety.”

Alvord says the young people being seen at her practice have a sense that they’re not moving forward, which has led to anger, frustration, sadness and anxiety. 

“It runs the gamut, but kids have lost time,” she says. “They have a sense that they have lost time, and not in terms of only maybe some academic skills, which a lot of the schools are concerned about, but in terms of maturity. How do you mature as a kid? It’s not by being home 24/7.” 

And while children missed being in school with their friends, the idea of returning to in-person classes also triggered some anxiety. 

“Some kids were scared to go back to school because they were afraid of contracting COVID. They were afraid of what school might look like and what that would entail, especially kids that already were more predispositioned to have anxiety or depression,” says psychologist Nekeshia Hammond, former president of the Florida Psychological Association. “It basically made that process a lot more stressful. And not just school but going back into social situations.” 

The pandemic has shaken the sense of safety most children feel. More than 140,000 children in the United States lost a primary and/or secondary caregiver to COVID-19.

“The majority of kids just have this innocence, in a way, that the world is safe. ‘I’m going to be OK. People are here to protect me,’” Hammond says. “And that got stripped away for a lot of kids who don’t feel the world is safe.” 

Children of color have been disproportionately impacted by the losses caused by the pandemic. And not solely because they were more likely to lose a loved one to the virus. 

Mikalsen, who works primarily with minority youth and inner-city youth in Texas, found that many of the children she spoke to were forced to use their smartphones for their schooling because they didn’t have computers at home. Spotty internet connections made it difficult to stay in touch with their schoolwork and to get their assignments. 

 

Some of Mikalsen’s young patients were home alone all day because their parents are essential, front-line workers. 

“A lot of the kids that I was talking to during the pandemic, they were completely alone at home, left to be there by themselves and, ‘Hey, if you can get connected to school, that’d be great, but if you don’t, no big deal,’” Mikalsen says. “So many kids that I talked to, they just slept all day and had nobody to talk to. Things like that can really cause a lot of depression and anxiety.” 

And then there was the societal upheaval caused by the police murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in Minneapolis. Video of police officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck while Floyd struggled to breathe went viral, sparking nationwide protests against police brutality.

“All of that affects kids of color in a different way, on top of a global pandemic, on top of, ‘You can’t go to school, and you lost a loved one.’ It was basically more compounded,” Hammond says. “There were so many different stressors all at one time, which made it extremely difficult as far as coping, and as far as mental health.”

The AAP is calling for more federal funding for mental health screenings and treatment for all children from infancy through adolescence, with an emphasis on making certain kids from less privileged homes get the services they need.

“We don’t want to wait until it’s unmanageable. We want to have scaffolding and services in place to catch kids when they’re having that much trouble,” Alvord says. “We’re all tied to one another, and if your family is doing better, then those kids get sent to school and they’re doing better in school. Which helps the whole health of the classroom. Which helps the teachers do better to teach and do what they need to, instead of having to deal with the mental health crisis.”
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Maintaining the unique environment of the Galápagos Islands and protecting the surrounding marine resources is testing Ecuador. China’s industrial fishing fleet threatens the islands, but China is a key trading partner. Jaime Moreno has this report.

Video: Nelson Abril
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Over the past few years, the so-called healing crystals trend has resurfaced in the wellness industry, even though the stones have no scientifically proven health benefits. Karina Bafradzhian has the story.
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The COP26 climate summit is taking place against the backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic. As richer nations begin to reopen, thanks to rapid vaccination programs, most people in developing countries are still waiting for their first dose, despite global pledges to distribute more vaccines.

Analysts say distrust between richer and poorer nations could hamper climate negotiations at the COP26 summit. 

In most high-income countries, more than 70% of the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But in low-income countries, the figure is less than 4%, according to figures from the University of Oxford. 

“If this level of vaccine inequity remains in place, 5 million people will die unnecessarily next year,” said Robert Yates, director of the global health program at Chatham House. 

 

At the G-7 summit in June, leaders of the world’s richest nations pledged to share 1 billion vaccine doses with poorer countries — half from the United States. In total, the U.S. has now pledged to share 1.1 billion doses through 2022.

Yet, while many Western nations are offering a third booster shot for fully vaccinated adults, most people in developing nations still await their first dose.

As negotiations on combating climate change continue at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, trust between poorer and richer nations is fragile, Yates said. 

“You can very much see countries, particularly in the South, saying, ‘Well, why should we cooperate with you on this issue which is happening now but is going to get worse — on the situation around climate change — when you’re patently not helping us at sufficient scale on something of a much, much more immediate nature that can threaten millions of people’s lives next year?’”

COP26 organizers offered free vaccines to registered delegates unable to get them in their home countries. However, high travel costs, a lack of hotel rooms and concerns over high COVID-19 infection rates in Britain have kept some participants away. 

Musonda Mumba, director of the Rome Center for Sustainable Development, part of the United Nations Development Program, chose not to attend the summit. She recently spoke to VOA from Nairobi.

“Climate change is not just a climate issue, it’s a climate justice issue. And so, you see an intersection on the COVID side of things and on the climate change side of things, as well, really converging. The issue of trust and empathy and transparency has come up over and over and over again. And I think this will be the test case. This will be a testing moment for the world, this Glasgow COP,” she said.

Scientists say the world is facing two emergencies at once. At the COP26 summit, there is a recognition that countries must work together to tackle the existential threat of climate change. But many of the delegates will return home to countries still gripped by the coronavirus pandemic in urgent need of lifesaving vaccines. 
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The COP26 climate summit is taking place against the backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic. As richer nations begin to reopen thanks to rapid vaccination programs, most people in developing countries are still waiting for their first dose. Henry Ridgwell reports from the summit in Glasgow on whether distrust between richer and poorer nations could hamper climate negotiations. 

Camera: Henry Ridgwell    
Produced by: Kimberlyn Weeks
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Philanthropist Bill Gates says the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $315 million to help small farmers around the world grow crops that will adapt to climate change.

In an interview with VOA from Glasgow where he is attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference, Gates said the money will go to a seed consortium which will help farmers thrive in changing environments.

The interview was edited for brevity and clarity. 

 

Q: Help us visualize the scope of the problem when it comes to climate change. What are we facing and how much should we be concerned?

A: Well, climate change is one of the biggest challenges mankind has ever faced. Year by year, because of these carbon emissions, the climate will be getting hotter and that means, particularly anywhere near the equator, the ability to do outdoor farming or outdoor construction work will become impossible. And so that’ll really destabilize people who live in these tropical zones. And so we have to do two things: we have to stop those emissions, where there’s an ambitious goal to do that by 2050, and then in the meantime we need to help countries adapt to these changing weather conditions, for example, you know, giving them better seeds.  

Q: How are we going to know that COP 26 is a success? 

A: We’ve deeply engaged the private sector. We’ve identified the need for innovation and how we get every sector working together to drive that innovation. And we’re now paying significant effort to adaptation. And so those three things were not there in Paris. I’m not saying that the commitments here are good enough. We need to see over the next five years the same type of increased engagement on the different issues, you know, better policies, more private sector and more innovation, including the innovation that’s focused on the adaptation.

 

Q: What else are you referring to in terms of innovation? 

A: A number of countries are announcing increased resources, including President Biden. We’re announcing $315 million over the next three years for the seed consortium which is called the CG System. That makes the seeds for all the different countries and the big priority for that money will be seeds that can be even more productive despite the challenge of climate change.  

And so overall we expect that an additional billion dollars, including our money, will be committed to that effort. That has the potential to benefit literally hundreds of millions of these smallholder farmers. So probably won’t get the attention it deserves, but probably the biggest move for adaptation using innovation for that will be announced here. 

Q: What are your thoughts on the impact of climate change in underdeveloped countries, especially in a region like Africa?

A: Well, as you say, it’s a great injustice. And in fact, my interest in climate change came from seeing that through our agricultural work in Africa the farmers were often having a more difficult time. And so they’re already facing these difficulties, which will get significantly worse between now and the end of the century. And so I studied the issue of climate change and the Gates Foundation took on this adaptation as a big priority. That wasn’t getting much attention. So I joined together with some others to create the ‘Commission on Adaptation’ and we had …a lot of great participation and did a report that highlighted some of these key investments.  

Q: What do you think all of us can do to contribute to this global solution in fighting climate change?  

A: Well, certainly there are products that have lower emissions…In rich countries, you know, we are starting to have food indications of which kinds of food cause what emissions. And we have more and more electric cars. You know we have the ability to heat your home with what’s called an electric heat pump versus using a hydrocarbon like natural gas to your house. You know I would say that for the individual, political engagement is also important because this is a problem where we have to make near-term investments (and) even some short-term sacrifice to get the long-term benefit of having drastic climate change impacts. And so, educating people that this is very worth doing, particularly getting young people engaged.
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At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, U.S. President Joe Biden apologized for the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate accord under his predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden said the U.S. is now back at the table to lead on climate. But as White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports, it’s unclear just how much he can deliver.
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Hopes are already fading that the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow will result in any new deal for a significant cut in global greenhouse gas emissions, after China and Russia declined to attend the conference and India’s pledges fell short of expectations. 

The summit got under way Monday as dozens of world leaders addressed the delegates, defending their performances on climate action and in some cases presenting new emissions targets.

Over 25,000 delegates are attending the two-week conference, including heads of state, government ministers, nongovernmental organizations, official observers and media.

Hundreds of protesters and members of the public are also gathering outside the secure “Blue Zone” on the banks of Glasgow’s River Clyde. The area has become official United Nations territory for the duration of the summit. 

Scientists have warned that a failure to agree to much deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions will result in catastrophic and irreversible climate change. 

Global warning

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres set a grim tone in his address to world leaders. 

“Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink. We face a stark choice: Either we stop it, or it stops us. And it’s time to say ‘enough.’ Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves,” Guterres said. 

“The science is clear. We know what to do. First, we must keep the global goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive,” he added, referring to the goal of limiting the average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. 

Will that warning be heeded?

India is the world’s third-biggest polluter. Hopes were high ahead of the summit that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would seek to grab the limelight in presenting ambitious new plans to cut emissions.

“Between now and 2030, India will reduce its total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes (metric tons). … By 2070, India will achieve the target of net-zero emissions,” Modi told delegates, describing the policies as “an unprecedented contribution by India towards climate action.” 

However, the target date of 2070 is 20 years later than the U.N. target of 2050. 

In his address Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said “we only have a brief window” to fight climate change. Earlier this year, he had pledged that by the end of the decade, the U.S. would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% or more below 2005 levels. 

While Biden was speaking in Glasgow, however, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a fellow Democrat, said he did not yet fully support the $1.75 trillion bill in Congress that included more than $550 billion in climate spending. 

The White House also released on Monday its plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

No-shows 

Arguably, the biggest story of the summit is not what’s being said on stage but rather is who hasn’t shown up at all. President Xi Jinping of China, which is by far the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is not attending the summit. Xi offered a written statement calling on richer nations to do more to support developing countries in dealing with climate change, but he made no new significant pledges to cut emissions. 

Xi’s absence is a major setback, said China analyst Martin Thorley of the University of Exeter. “Xi Jinping’s no-show at COP26 is an important reality check for those who expect enlightened climate policy from the Chinese Communist Party.” 

Thorley continued, “Whilst it is argued that authoritarian rule gives the leadership more scope to implement ambitious climate policy, it also gives the leaders greater capacity to block out civil society pressure that in other parts of the world is driving change. … Though there is genuine concern about the climate in some quarters within the Party, the threat to the CCP’s supremacy by power shortages mean that continued reliance on coal will be tolerated,” he wrote in an email to VOA. 

“That Xi Jinping addressed COP26 in writing only will be a massive disappointment to organizers and campaigners alike. Until very recently, China was considered a genuine leader on climate change,” Thorley added.

Others argue that COP26 can make significant progress without Xi.

“(Xi’s absence) could be probably because they don’t have too much else to offer,” said Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, head of climate and energy at the World Wildlife Fund and the former president of the 2014 COP20 climate summit in Lima, Peru. 

“And probably they would prefer to avoid the pressure of being in a COP (climate summit); that could be the reality. But let’s recognize that Minister Xie (Xie Zhenhua, China’s special climate envoy), it’s probably his tenth COP. He’s a top-level officer of the Chinese government — I think that is a good signal. But for sure, we are missing President Xi,” he added. 

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which is the world’s fourth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is also absent. 

Among climate campaigners at COP26, the disappointment is already palpable. 

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist who has inspired youth protests around the world, told a rally outside the summit, “This COP26 is so far just like the previous COPs. Add that has led us nowhere. They have led us nowhere. 

“Inside COP, there are just politicians and people in power pretending to take our futures seriously. Pretending to take the present seriously of the people who are being affected already today by the climate crisis. Change is not going to come from inside there,” she said. 

COP26 shouldn’t be written off so early, however, said Pulgar-Vidal. “To have finally a collective vision for the world that nobody’s doubting or questioning, I think it is a good thing. But now we need to have more clear actions, not only targets but more clear actions.”

Positives 

Not all hope was lost, however. According to The Associated Press, a coalition moved Monday to put $1.7 billion toward protecting Indigenous peoples and tropical forests in the coming four years. Involved are the governments of the U.S., United Kingdom, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands as well as 17 private investors including The Ford Foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund and Bloomberg Philanthropies. 

Amid the bleak warnings from the speakers at the summit, Max Blain, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said “we are seeing some positive signs so far” that leaders are understanding the seriousness of the situation, according to AP. 

“We expect to see countries to come forward with some more commitments” during the summit, Blain said. “We continue to encourage that those are ambitious, measurable targets that can be delivered particularly in the next decade.” 

The president of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, also vowed to increase his country’s climate finance by half by 2023 as part of a global effort by wealthy countries to help developing nations combat and adapt to the changing climate, the AP reported. 

World leaders will address the summit again Tuesday, before most head back to their home countries, while the negotiations continue at ministerial level. COP26 is due to finish November 12, but it could run longer if it looks as though the talks will succeed in reaching a new climate deal. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 
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There are stark warnings from scientists that a failure to agree to much deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions will result in catastrophic and irreversible climate change. But as Henry Ridgwell reports from Glasgow, Scotland, hopes are already fading that the COP26 climate summit will result in any new deal to save the planet. 

Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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