Vladimir Putin Orders Russian Government To Work Towards Paris Climate Goals

Vladimir Putin formally ordered the government to work towards a cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 of up to 30% below emission levels in 1990.

Putin stressed any action must be balanced with the need to ensure strong economic development.

Moscow: President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree ordering the Russian government to work towards meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement to fight climate change, but stressed any action must be balanced with the need to ensure strong economic development. Russia, the world's fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has previously signalled its acceptance of the accord even as environmentalists have criticised Moscow for shunning compulsory emissions targets for companies backed with fines. In a decree published on Wednesday, a public holiday in Russia, Putin formally ordered the government to work towards a cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 of up to 30% below emission levels in 1990. That, said Putin, would mean harnessing the capability of forests and other eco-systems to absorb such gases. Putin's order came with a big caveat. He said any action to cut emissions must take account of the need to ensure steady and balanced socio-economic development, and ordered the government to draw up and ratify a socio-economic strategy up to 2050 that factored in lower emissions. A previous draft of such a strategy has drawn criticism from green groups for allowing emissions to rise before falling. Climate change poses a serious challenge for Russia, whose economy relies heavily on oil and gas production, as well as mining. Some of that infrastructure is built on permafrost, which is vulnerable to rising temperatures. Putin, who has questioned whether human activity is the sole driver of warming climate cycles, has cast himself as a defender of the environment. He has praised the Paris pact in the past, while saying it would require countries to modernise industry, something likely to cost big business billions of dollars and incur job losses, an eventuality he said had to be properly planned for. Source: NDTV

UAE announces relaxing of Islamic laws for personal freedoms

Broadening of personal freedoms reflects the changing profile of a Gulf country seeking robust tourism.

The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday a major overhaul of the country’s Islamic personal laws, allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening alcohol restrictions, and criminalising so-called “honour killings”.

The government said the legal reforms were part of efforts to improve legislation and the investment climate in the country, as well as to consolidate “tolerance principles”.

“I could not be happier for these new laws that are progressive and proactive,” said Emirati film-maker Abdallah Al Kaabi, whose art has tackled taboo topics such as homosexual love and gender identity. “2020 has been a tough and transformative year for the UAE.”

The broadening of personal freedoms reflects the changing profile of a country that has sought to bill itself as a skyscraper-studded destination for Western tourists, fortune-seekers and businesses despite its legal system based on a hardline interpretation of Islamic law.

The changes also reflect the efforts of the Emirates’ rulers to keep pace with a rapidly changing society at home.

The announcement also follows an historic US-brokered deal to normalise relations between the UAE and Israel, which is expected to bring an influx of Israeli tourists and investment.

Allowing alcohol

Changes include scrapping penalties for alcohol consumption, sales and possession for those 21 and over. The legal reforms were announced on state-run WAM news agency and detailed in the state-linked newspaper, The National.

Previously, individuals needed a liquor license to purchase, transport or have alcohol in their homes. The new rule would apparently allow Muslims who have been barred from obtaining licenses to drink alcoholic beverages freely.

Another amendment allows for “cohabitation of unmarried couples”, which has long been a crime in the UAE. Authorities, especially in the more free-wheeling financial hub of Dubai, tend to look the other way when it comes to foreigners, but the threat of punishment still lingered for such behaviour.

The government also decided to get rid of laws protecting so-called “honour killings”, a widely criticised tribal custom in which a male relative may evade prosecution for assaulting a woman seen as dishonouring a family. The punishment for a crime committed to eradicating a woman’s “shame” for promiscuity or disobeying religious and cultural strictures will now be the same for any other kind of assault.

Human rights groups say thousands of women and girls are killed across the Middle East and South Asia each year by family members angered at perceived damage to their “honour”. This could include eloping, fraternising with men, or any transgression of conservative values regarding women.

“There will be tougher punishments for men who subject women to harassment of any kind, which is thought to cover street harassment or stalking,” The National reported.

In a country where expatriates outnumber citizens nearly nine to one, the amendments will permit foreigners to avoid Islamic courts on issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.

The reforms come as the UAE gets ready to host the high-stakes World Expo. The event is planned to bring a flurry of commercial activity and some 25 million visitors to the country after it was pushed back a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: AlJazeera

Bad blood: Why France-Turkey row over Prophet cartoons could leave lasting impact

Slights and barbs have marred relations between France’s Emmanuel Macron and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan for years, but the row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad has dragged them to a new low which could have more lasting consequences.

Officials on both sides describe a series of behind-the-scenes frosty exchanges and grudges between the two leaders going back years, long before the row of the past few weeks.

But if they cannot find a way to mend bridges, momentum is likely to build for a proposal, driven by France, for European Union sanctions on Turkey’s already-fragile economy, according to Turkish analyst Sinan Ulgen.

“Neither Erdogan in Turkey nor Macron in France will step back,” said Ulgen, head of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies think tank.

A French official familiar with policy towards Turkey said that in the light of the events of the past few weeks: “The question of sanctions is going to be raised.”

EU leaders have already said that if Turkey fails to de-escalate tensions in the eastern Mediterranean by December 10, sanctions would follow, though there is no draft proposal yet.

The latest dispute flared after a French teacher who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet published in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo was beheaded in France last month.

The French government, backed by many citizens, saw it as an attack on freedom of speech. Macron vowed to redouble efforts to stop conservative Islamic beliefs subverting French values.

Erdogan accused Macron of an anti-Islamic agenda and said he needed a mental health check. Western countries mocking Islam, he said, want to “relaunch the Crusades”.

At root, Franco-Turkish ties soured because of rival strategic interests, analysts and officials say.

Ankara has growing influence in Syria, north Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, while Macron is the most outspoken defender of European interests in those places.

The rivalry has spilled into personal clashes before.

In August 2017, three months after he became president, Macron told an interviewer that having to talk to Erdogan was one reason being head of state was not as “cool” as people thought.

The comment caused “big disappointment and shock” in Erdogan’s entourage, said one senior Turkish official.

“The president chose to directly convey his discontent over the comment to Macron himself,” the official said.

Then, in March 2018, Macron met a delegation including the Syrian Kurdish YPG, a group designated by Turkey as a terrorist organization but viewed by Western powers as an ally against ISIS in Syria.

Erdogan publicly accused France of abetting terrorism. A source close to the Turkish leader said Macron’s stance on the Kurds “causes tensions both in some face-to-face meetings and phone calls.”

Reuters Wednesday 04 November 2020

Fraught meeting

French officials grew frustrated by Turkey’s actions in Syria, accusing it of backing “radical Islamists” among the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, a charge Ankara denied.

When they objected, French officials said, Turkey hinted it could send Syrian refugees toward Europe’s borders, jeopardizing a deal with the EU to stem the flow of migrants into Europe in return for billions of euros in aid.

Erdogan repeatedly threatened, in public speeches, to “open the gates” for Syrian refugees. A second French official said Macron’s team viewed such threats as attempted blackmail.

By the time Erdogan and Macron met at a NATO summit in July 2018, relations were particularly low.

Delegation members had fraught exchanges and eventually all officials were sent out, apart from interpreters, so Erdogan and Macron could talk man to man, the second French official said.

But there was no thaw. “It’s a cold relationship,” said the French official. Asked for their account of the meeting, Turkish officials did not comment.

In November 2019, Macron told an interviewer NATO was experiencing “brain death” because a member state, Turkey, was going against alliance interests in the Middle East. In response, Erdogan said Macron should check if he was brain dead.

After that, said a French diplomat, “there was a deterioration in relations.”

The two leaders nonetheless kept open lines of communication. Phone conversations were civil, according to the French diplomat. Macron’s team distinguished Erdogan’s public rhetoric, which they felt was to shore up his domestic support, and his real intentions, the diplomat said.

But the rhetoric of recent weeks has reached an unprecedented low.

The French president decided not to reciprocate to Erdogan’s latest comments, the first French official said, because personal insults were undignified.

While world leaders sent Macron text messages offering condolences on the killing of the teacher, none were sent to Macron on Erdogan’s behalf, the official said.

Macron’s predecessor as president, Francois Hollande, had frequent interactions with Erdogan while he was in office and compared him to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Erdogan is a nationalist orator who, like Putin, is capable of flying off the handle,” Hollande told Reuters.

“In a month or two, if he needs to, he will speak to Macron, but it remains to be seen if Macron will let him do that without consequences.”

Source: Al Arabiya