Doha, Qatar | AFP | Qatar is to leave OPEC next month in order for the Gulf state to focus on gas production, Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi announced on Monday. “Qatar has decided to withdraw its membership from OPEC effective January 2019,” Kaabi said at a Doha press conference. He …
Read More »Global warming outpaces efforts to slow it: UN
Paris, France | AFP | Humanity is falling further behind in the race against climate change, with the gap between greenhouse gas emissions and levels needed to achieve the Paris climate treaty temperature goals continuing to widen, the UN said Tuesday. With only a single degree Celsius of warming so …
Read More »Macron acknowledges protests, but won’t ‘change course’
Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron sought to take the heat out of mass anti-government protests over taxes on Tuesday, saying he had heard the anger but would not change course. The 40-year-old centrist acknowledged that many struggling households felt penalised by an increase in fuel taxes …
Read More »Saudi energy giant Aramco signs deals worth $27.5 bln
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP | Saudi energy giant Aramco has signed 31 agreements and memoranda of understandings worth $27.5 billion with local and international suppliers, CEO Amin Nasser said Monday. “We signed $27.5 billion (24 billion euros) in a total of 31 commercial collaborations,” Nasser said in a statement …
Read More »Vivo Energy launches new fuels
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Fuel distributor, Vivo Energy Uganda has launched new fuels with additives to give motorists best and extra levels of performance. Speaking to motorists during a tour of the company’s depot in Namuwongo near Kampala city on Nov.12, Gilbert Assi, the company’s managing director said the …
Read More »US approves $550 mln aid to boost Senegal electricity
Washington, United States | AFP | The United States on Wednesday announced $550 million in assistance to Senegal to help the fast-growing country meet rising demand for electricity The Millennium Challenge Cooperation, a US government body created in 2004 that awards grants to countries that commit to good governance and …
Read More »A machine makes water out of air – Watergen’s atmospheric water generator
Hanoi, Vietnam | AFP-Services (text stories) | Imagine you could quench your thirst with water that doesn’t originate from a river, spring or lake, but comes directly out of the blue sky, from the air that surrounds you. What sounds like a science fiction movie is already a reality, and …
Read More »A ‘deal for nature’ to rescue wildlife: WWF chief
Paris, France | AFP | The global population of fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals has declined 60 percent since 1970, according to the WWF’s “Living Planet” report released Tuesday. WWF director general Marco Lambertini tells AFP what went wrong and what’s at stake. – How bad is it? – …
Read More »S.Africa coal belt among world’s pollution hotspots: Greenpeace
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s eastern Mpumalanga province has the most polluting cluster of coal-fired power stations in the world producing record levels of nitrogen dioxide, a report by environmental campaign group Greenpeace said Monday. Mpumalanga, which borders Mozambique, is the hub of South Africa’s coal industry …
Read More »Is Africa starting to choke on China’s lending glut?
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | It was a time for smiles and handshakes as the delegations from Sierra Leone and China Exim Bank sealed a loan to provide the impoverished West African state with a new airport. Just months later, the much-trumpeted Mamamah International Airport scheme, estimated to cost …
Read More »
The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price