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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
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Hello,
The week begins on a somber note in Mexico, with the count of deceased or missing people due to Hurricane Otis approaching 100.
The Category 5 storm hit the Mexican Pacific resort city of Acapulco last week with winds of 165 miles per hour (266 km per hour), flooding the city, tearing roofs from homes, hotels and other businesses, submerging vehicles, and severing communications as well as road and air connections.
Otis intensified with unexpected speed just prior to making landfall on Wednesday, becoming the most powerful storm to ever strike Mexico’s Pacific coast. It caught forecasters by surprise, gathering strength with unexpected speed before it came ashore, and surpassed initial predictions.
Here are some other stories catching my attention today:
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People walk on a beach next to debris, in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis, in Acapulco, Mexico. REUTERS/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha
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Residents in flooded areas have criticized the lack of government help. Many are struggling to find food and water.
“I was cleaned out, left with nothing,” said Blanca Estela Morales, a wheelchair-bound 52-year-old staying in a government-run shelter after her home was flooded. “This is really hard for me – we sleep on the floor, we don’t have water to wash with.”
Looting broke out as the city’s population of nearly 900,000 became increasingly desperate for food and water.
“Right now, money’s no use to us because there’s nothing to buy, everything’s been looted,” 57-year-old Acapulco resident Rodolfo Villagomez said after Otis tore through the city. “It was total chaos. You could hear it here hissing like a bull.”
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Mexico’s government intensified efforts to get Acapulco back on its feet as the toll of dead and missing continued to rise.
The cost of damage from the hurricane could climb as high as $15 billion according to estimates, and Mexico has sent some 17,000 members of the armed forces to keep order and help distribute tonnes of food and supplies in Acapulco.
“We’re going to talk to the insurers so that they do not delay the procedures, so that they act soon,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said during a press conference while pledging other forms of assistance.
“For those who do not have insurance, we are going to find a way (for them) to benefit from cheap loans, both from commercial banks and development banks.”
Consultancy CoreLogic wrote in a research note that insurable damage to buildings from Otis’ winds alone could reach $15 billion, adding that in Mexico insurance coverage tends to be limited to hotels and resorts.
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Mexico will likely receive a payout of some $62.5 million from a catastrophe bond that insures the country against earthquakes and hurricanes, Plenum Investments estimated.
The investment manager calculated “a high probability” Mexico will get half of the bond’s $125-million payment earmarked towards Pacific hurricanes.
In 2020, the World Bank issued four tranches of catastrophe bonds for the country’s natural disaster fund, FONDEN, to insure against earthquakes and hurricanes for four years.
Bond documents showed Mexico had paid an undisclosed insurance premium for $485 million worth of coverage, which the World Bank transferred to 38 catastrophe bond investors.
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Volcanologists carry out a survey at the site of the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) volcanic region in Pozzuoli, Italy. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
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- Volcanoes: Over the past weeks, Italy’s government has been planning for a possible mass evacuation of tens of thousands of people who live around the vast volcanic area known as the Campi Flegrei, or Phlegraean Fields, from the ancient Greek word for burning. Elsewhere, a seismic swarm has hit the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland with more than 5,500 small earthquakes in the last three days, raising the prospect of a volcanic eruption, the country’s meteorological office (IMO) said. Read more on Italy and Iceland’s preparations for possible volcanic eruptions here and here.
- Authorities urged thousands of people in Australia’s Queensland state to evacuate as bushfires that have destroyed at least 30 homes continued to threaten rural towns. More than 35 bushfires were burning on Saturday in Queensland, with the town of Tara, about 890 kilometers (550 miles) north of state capital Brisbane, among areas most at risk, according to fire authorities.
- Nepal’s snow-capped mountains have lost close to one-third of their ice in over 30 years due to global warming, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after a visit to the area near Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.
- The presidency of next month’s COP28 climate summit, the International Renewable Energy Agency and the Global Renewables Alliance urged governments to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 as part of efforts to stop global warming exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius. Click here for more on the joint statement.
- Air quality: The air quality in both India and China has worsened this week. Pollution levels rose to the highest this year in India’s capital on Monday. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities issued their highest warnings for fog and haze on Tuesday as smog enveloped major cities in northern China, warning the public that visibility could drop to less than 50 meters (164 feet).
- General Motors and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have reached a tentative agreement, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday, winning record pay hikes to end six weeks of a coordinated strike against the Detroit Three automakers. Reuters reporters Bianca Flowers and Lisa Baertlein speak to experts who say gains won by unions could spur more organizing and motivate non-unionized companies to try to stave off those efforts in a feature here.
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Lithium miners have had a tough year as weak electric vehicle (EV) sales growth led to high stockpiles and sent prices of the metal tumbling, as they came under pressure due to concerns of falling near-term demand and oversupply. Lithium is a key metal used in EV batteries.
Lithium prices in China, the metal’s top consumer, sank during the quarter, hit by lackluster buying. The Chinese spot battery grade lithium carbonate prices fell around 45% to 165,000 Chinese yuan ($22,561.63) per tonne during the July-September quarter.
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A general view shows the water conditions of the Piraiba river before a summit of Amazon rainforest nations, in Belem, Para state, Brazil. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
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Today’s spotlight focuses on the interconnection between environmental conservation and societal behaviors. Nations agreed to cooperate on the governance and preservation of the Amazon, the Congo basin, and forests in Southeast Asia in a summit in the Republic of Congo, whilst a striking art installation in Naples aims to draw attention to the adverse effects of human actions on the environment.
Countries that are home to the world’s three major rainforests agreed to cooperate to overcome deforestation and safeguard biodiversity but fell short of a concrete alliance to protect the vital carbon sinks.
The announcement came on the final day of the Congo Republic-hosted Three Basins summit, which brought together presidents, NGOs, technical experts and finance sector officials to strengthen governance and preservation of the Amazon, the Congo basin, and forests in Southeast Asia.
“We’ve realized that joining forces is an absolute necessity, and we’ve recognised that the initiative to unite the three basins is part of an inevitable dynamic,” said Republic of Congo environment minister Arlette Soudan Nonault.
Over the three days of the summit in Brazzaville, experts and policymakers from countries with tropical forests discussed shared priorities ahead of the U.N. COP28 climate talks next month. They examined different funding mechanisms to help developing countries preserve their important ecosystems.
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Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto’s ‘Venus of the Rags’ is displayed in Piazza Municipio before being destroyed in a fire, in Naples, Italy. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
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Elsewhere, a giant open-air art installation by Italian contemporary artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, destroyed in an arson attack in July in Naples, will be given new life in the city, local authorities said.
The new version of the “Venus of the Rags” will be unveiled in January and set up again in Piazza del Municipio, a square in the heart of the southern Italian city, for four months.
It will absorb what was left from the fire of the original artwork, art critic Vincenzo Trione explained, “to show that it is possible to rise from the ashes, not only metaphorically”.
The installation is meant to convey the juxtaposition between eternal beauty, represented by Venus, and modern society’s social degradation and consumerism.
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“The climate clock is in the red – this is the final opportunity to make game-changing moves that can avert the worst impacts. Société Générale needs to quit its support for fossil fuels, and throw its weight behind the surge in renewable power that will see Europe clean up its power system by 2035.”
Brigitte Alarcon, campaigner at European non-profit, Beyond Fossil Fuels
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- Nov. 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates: S&P Global Commodity Insights, with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, hosts Dubai Energy Forum.
- Nov. 1, Jakarta, Indonesia: The nation makes its $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) proposal public. The government and JETP secretariat will allow for public consultation on the proposal ahead of its official launch.
- Nov. 1, London, United Kingdom: Britain will host a global summit on artificial intelligence at Bletchley Park, inviting political leaders and tech bosses to try to agree on an approach to the fast-developing technology.
- Nov.2, California, United States: Elon Musk is expected to object to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s bid to force him to testify in the regulator’s investigation into his $44 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter, now known as X.
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