The Global Carbon Budget report, published on Tuesday during the COP28 climate summit, said that despite efforts to curtain greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet, these emissions are still on the rise. The report, produced by the Global Carbon Project, said that global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels are likely to hit a record high this year, further worsening climate change and fuelling more destructive extreme weather. In 2023, the CO2 emissions are expected to be 1.4 per cent higher than in 2019. As per the report, countries are expected to emit a total of 36.8 billion metric tons of CO2 from fossil fuels in 2023 — a 1.1% increase from last year. Including the land use emissions, global CO2 emissions are set to total 40.9 billion tons this year.
On 30 November, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal convened a virtual US-India CEO Forum meeting as a follow-up to the March 2023 Forum meeting in New Delhi, India. During the meeting, CEOs provided both governments with updates on the status of their recommendations on how to advance the commercial ties of the two countries. They also discussed topics like supply chain resiliency, workforce development, regulatory and standards harmonisation, and economic collaboration. During the meeting, the two sides highlighted recent government initiatives that were inspired by the CEOs’ recommendations.
North Korea slammed the US on Monday for allowing South Korea to launch a spy satellite from American territory, days after it condemned the North for its successful satellite launch. “It is a space-level tragicomedy that the US, going frantic with illegal denunciation and sanctions moves over the exercise of (North Korea’s) sovereignty, has shown behavior based on double standards by launching a spy satellite of (South Korea) in a shameless manner,” an unidentified spokesperson for North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration said in a statement.
China criticised the US for viewing it as a threat after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo defended Washington’s move to deprive the Asian nation of advanced semiconductors. “The US should stick to the right perception and work with China to deliver on the common understandings reached in the San Francisco meeting,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told the press on Monday.
On Monday, Deputy Commander of Russia’s Northern Fleet’s 14th Army Corps, Major-General Vladimir Zavadsky, was killed in the zone of the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, Voronezh Region Governor Alexander Gusev announced on his Telegram channel. Gusev stated that Zavadsky died “in the line of duty in the zone of the special operation” without providing further details.
Russian and Chinese-linked cyber groups breached a major nuclear waste site in the UK, the Guardian reported on Monday. Sellafield, the UK’s most hazardous nuclear site, has been hacked by cyber groups. According to the report, the site contains the world’s largest plutonium stockpile and is a garbage dump for nuclear waste from weapons programmes and decades of atomic power generation. Reports suggest that Sellafield’s most sensitive activities, including radioactive waste movements, leak monitoring, and fire checks, might have been compromised.