Countries that fail to act in line with their climate commitments will be warned in the United Nations climate summit in 2023 when a stock taking of actions and commitments will be evaluated, Fatih Birol, head of International Energy Agency (IEA), told Anadolu Agency in an interview on the sidelines of COP26.

COP presidency has assigned IEA to track and announce the countries' progress, Birol said.

Although Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5°C, is legally binding, there is globally no sanction or penalty on countries which do not fulfill their climate commitments.

'We will track countries' actions and announce if they turn commitments into practice until 2023. We will announce which countries adapt or fall behind their pledges. In 2023 COP summit which will probably take place in the United Arab Emirates, there will be a stock taking meeting,' Birol noted.

'There will be a kind of sanction in terms of warning,' he added.

A growing number of countries commit to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and 2060 with India by 2070.

In the first week of COP26, major coal producers including South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam committed to phase out coal power generation or end new coal construction while coal power countries like Poland and Ukraine pledged to chase out coal.

China and the US did not join the pledges to stop using coal.

Birol also underlined the importance of commitments in climate finance which he sees as the biggest challenge in the fight against climate change.

In 2009, developed countries committed to a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation.

The goal was reaffirmed under the Paris Agreement in 2015, as the parties committed to continue delivering on the goal through 2025.

COP26 presidency announced ahead of the summit that developed countries will only be able to meet the $100 billion pledge in 2023.

'The developing countries need around $1.1 trillion annually for climate change fight and clean energy transition. Developed nations fail to finance even the $100 billion pledge,' Birol said.

Almost 90% of emissions will come from developing and emerging countries but only 20% of the clean energy investment go to these countries, he said.

Birol explained that in developed countries like the US, Europe or Japan, the capital meets the energy investments in a way but this is not the case in the developing and emerging countries.

'There are a number of barriers for these countries to access finance,' he said adding that there are 600 million people in Africa and 1 billion people globally, who have no access to electricity.

'More distressing is that 2.6 billion people in the world use wood and turf for cooking and warming. This is a great problem which leads to respiratory disease in children and women. This disease is one of the most spread three reasons for premature deaths,' Birol concluded./aa

The first week of the COP26 climate summit saw a wide range of commitments with more than 40 countries pledging to phase out coal by 2050.

And more than 100 leaders vowing to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.

This was also the first time that a COP conference included a major event on methane, with 105 countries, including 15 major emitters such as Brazil, Nigeria and Canada, signing a Global Methane Pledge.

The historic commitment, led by the US and EU, alongside the UK COP26 presidency, equates to 40% of global methane emissions and 60% of global GDP.

On the very first day of the summit, US president Joe Biden acknowledged that former US President Donald Trump pulled America out of the Paris climate accord, and that "put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit.'

Russia and China have sent delegations to Glasgow but not their presidents, which was criticized by other leaders.

Moscow promised to be carbon neutral by 2060 and it is among other signatories of a declaration on forests and land use, pledging an end to deforestation by 2030.

One of the biggest polluters, India, also pledged to get to net-zero by 2070, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

And Australia, even before the summit, as BBC reports, was lobbying the UN to alter an important scientific report on how to tackle climate change.

No surprise, it promised to diminish methane emissions by 30% by 2030, and declined to agree to phase out coal-fired power and halt investing in new coal plants at home and abroad.

Climate finance to developing countries

Channeling funds to fight climate change in developing countries was one of the main metrics for success at the summit. But rich countries apparently have not delivered on pledges at the conference.

Rich countries had committed $100 billion a year by 2020 to help underdeveloped countries tackle the effects of climate change.

But that goal has not yet been achieved, and now the COP26 Presidency said it is highly unlikely to get there in 2021 or next year.

The presidency does, however, say it is certain it will be met by 2023 -- a pledge many see as a huge disappointment.

The statement said the UK would spend £576 million ($785 million) on a package of initiatives to mobilize finance into developing economies.

Meanwhile, a former governor of the Bank of England made all big western banks sign his Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, announcing $130 trillion from 450 financial groups directed at decarbonization.

Several countries made new pledges to level up finance to support developing countries in dealing with the effects of climate change, including a commitment from Norway to triple its climate adaptation finance along with Japan and Australia to double theirs, and vows by Switzerland, the US, and Canada on adaptation funding.

Whitest, most segregated COP ever

Climate activists called the UN summit the whitest, most segregated, most divisive COP, with media and civil society representation from developing countries restricted because of travel restrictions. There were also “red list” impositions and an early closing of the media accreditation system.

Nearly 100,000 people have marched in Glasgow to demand urgent action in the fight against climate change.

"COP26 has been named the most excluding COP ever," Swedish teen Greta Thunberg said in expressing her anger at the climate talks.

"This is no longer a climate conference. This is a Global North greenwash festival. A two-week celebration of business as usual and blah blah blah," she said.

Despite unprecedented commitments from financial institutions to align their portfolios, products and services with the 2015 Paris Agreement, the quality of pledges was not seen as enough to make a real impact./aa

Coffee and sunshine... What could be more Italian? Okay, maybe add pizza to the mix. But, pizza aside, the former duo of Italian delights has been the subject of two engineers' special project in Rome as they created an environmentally friendly way to roast coffee beans without electricity or gas.

Antonio Durbe and Daniele Tummei have spent almost six years building and perfecting their sunlight coffee roaster.

The result is a system that needs a piece of land about the size of half a tennis court and sunny weather to roast up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of coffee an hour.

The plant is run entirely by energy from the sun. Rays of sunlight are concentrated by a set of mirrors on a coffee roaster and even the few electrical parts are powered by a small solar panel. Sensors controlled by a computer allow the mirrors to follow the sun throughout the day and focus its light on a rotating steel basket that contains the fresh coffee beans.

The basket reaches peak temperatures of about 240 to 250 degrees Celcius (450 to 480 degrees Fahrenheit), depending on the sun's brightness, and can roast the beans in 20 minutes.

The process isn't only environmentally friendly and economically convenient. According to Durbe and Tummei, it also better preserves the coffee’s aroma, giving it a richer flavor.

Unlike conventional hot air ovens, which are typically gas-powered, the concentrated sunlight roasts the coffee without heating the air around it – penetrating the grains in a more uniform way and without burning the exterior.

Naturally, the system does depend on good weather. On cloudy days or after sunset, coffee lovers need to turn elsewhere.

However, in sunny southern Italy, a plant with 40 mirrors is capable of roasting up to 30,000 kilograms (66,000 pounds) of coffee a year, saving about 60,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to the inventors.

Their Purosole, or pure sun, coffee can be bought online, but the main goal of the inventors is selling their solar coffee roasting plants to small businesses who are sensitive to the environment. Right now, they are operating their plant in the garden of a friend.

The system can be put to other uses as well. At the end of a long work day, Durbe and Tummei place a grill in in front of the mirrors to prepare some delicious sunlight barbecue./agencies

At least eight people were killed and 25 more injured at a music festival in Houston after a large crowd rushed toward the stage late Friday, officials said.

Hip-hop star Travis Scott's open-air concert Astroworld at the NRG Park continued even after the deadly stampede.

Speaking at a news conference, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner described the night as "a tragedy on many different levels."

He said seven of the eight victims have been identified – the youngest one is just 14 years old, while the oldest one 27.

As many as 25 injured people were taken to the hospital, of which 13 still remain hospitalized, with no one is missing so far, said Turner.

Mentioning that the "incident is being thoroughly investigated," Turner said there were many questions to be answered.

Even though the organizers of the event said that the night ended early than planned, Scott kept on performing for an additional 40 minutes after the incident.

Speaking to the media, Houston Fire chief Samuel Pena said there were 50,000 concert-goers in the Astroworld Music Festival, and things got out of control when "the crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage," adding that this caused people to panic.

As fans in the sold-out audience pressed toward the stage, people began to fall unconscious, some apparently suffering cardiac arrest or other medical issues, officials told reporters outside the venue. Minutes later the chaos was declared a "mass casualty incident."

While the deadliest moments occurred after 9.30 p.m., Pena said a total of more than 300 patients, including people injured in the worst moments since the incident began, were being treated at a field hospital.

Meanwhile, the Houston-born rapper Scott said he was "absolutely devastated."

"My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival," he said on Twitter, adding: "Houston PD (police department) has my total support as they continue to look into the tragic loss of life."

"I'm committed to working together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need," he added.

The festival, which is in its third year, kicked off Friday and was expected to be a two-day event, but officials said Saturday's lineup had been canceled.

An NRG Park spokesperson said they were "deeply saddened by the heartbreaking loss of life and pain experienced by all those impacted by this tragedy."

"We are fully cooperating and working closely with police and local authorities as they investigate how this tragedy occurred at the Astroworld Festival," the spokesperson said./agencies

According to Al Qabas newspaper, the fees collected by Kuwait are considered the lowest among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.Image Credit: shutterstock

 Kuwait is expected to increase the government service fees on expats by a whopping 500 per cent in the next year, local media reported.

According to Al Qabas newspaper, the fees collected by Kuwait are considered the lowest among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The paper said the Board of Directors of the Public Authority of Manpower will form a committee to review all fees for renewing work permits in Kuwait for raising the price.

The move comes soon after Kuwait officially scrapped the decision number 520 of 2020, which bans issuing new work permits for expats above 60.

Chaired by Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Al Salman, the Board of Directors decided to form a unit headed by the Fatwa and Legislation Committee to oversee the legal drafting of the upcoming “manpower” decisions, including raising government service fees in the next year 2022, in order to avoid any errors that conflict with local laws and international treaties.