US has no good reason to stall on Rohingya genocide label
Perhaps the two most egregious human rights crises currently unfolding in the world are the situations of the Uighurs in China and the Rohingya in Myanmar. The US has declared a genocide in the case of the Uighurs. It has so far resisted doing the same for the Rohingya. Why? To be sure, the two crises are not identical. Both affect Muslim minorities in the western borderlands of their respective countries and both number about 2 million, but beyond that the approach of the two states to these peoples are very different. China wants to keep individual Uighurs within the country, but erase their Uighur identity and subsume them into the Han Chinese majority. It even detains individuals to prevent them from fleeing the country and the Communist Party’s re-education camps. In contrast, Myanmar has already forcefully evicted more than 1 million Rohingya individuals from the country altogether — the vast majority of the group’s numbers — and has no intention of absorbing any of those remaining in internal refugee camps into the wider Burmese population. One could argue that the Chinese approach is more subtle. And, given the resources the Chinese state is pouring into the project, perhaps it is more likely to succeed in the long run. But no one could argue that the approach taken by Myanmar is not far more violent. Uighurs have the option to comply, or to pretend to comply, with the crazy restrictions imposed on them by the Communist Party. Tens of thousands of Rohingya were never given such an option. They were brutally tortured, raped and murdered in order to scare the rest of their people into fleeing the country. So why did the US declare the Uighur situation a genocide, but not the Rohingya situation as well? The discrepancy currently has nothing to do with the respective facts of the two cases and everything to do with politics.
India targets net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, says Modi
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
COP26: What climate summit means for one woman in Bangladesh
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
Why China's climate policy matters to us all
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
Deliver on promises, developing world tells rich at climate talks
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.