The money spent on environmental fuel project exceeded the billion dinars barrier at the end of last August, reports Annahar daily quoting reliable sources. The sources indicated this money was spent on local contracts, which contributed to promoting the market recovery.

The sources stated the total amount actually spent on the project until the end of last August was to 4.518 billion dinars and the share of the local component is 23.4 percent The sources pointed out, the total cost of the project is 4.6 billion dinars, equivalent of 15 billion dollars. The source also pointed out Kuwait is on the right tract of completing the project on time, in spite of the liquidity crisis the country has been suffering from for the past two years.

The environmental fuel project, the sources say, contributes to achieving the strategic direction of the KPC of reaching the refining capacity of 1.6 million barrels in 2025 at the highest transformative level by maximizing the discharge of heavy Kuwaiti oils into the KNPC refineries and meeting the local energy needs. The total refining capacity will reach 800,000 barrels per day for the Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries, through the implementation of the giant project in which the share of the Mina Abdullah refinery will be 454,000 and the Ahmadi refinery 346,000./ ARAB TIMES

Worldwide tobacco use has decreased by 25 million people since 2015 despite a growing population, and this trend is projected to continue in the coming years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report released on Tuesday.

The WHO global tobacco trends report shows that there are around 1.3 billion tobacco users globally, compared to 1.32 billion in 2015, with the figure expected to fall to 1.27 billion by 2025.

Sixty countries are now on track to meet the voluntary global target of reducing tobacco consumption by 30% between 2010 and 2025.

“It is very encouraging to see fewer people using tobacco each year, and more countries on track to meet global targets,” said Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO.

“We still have a long way to go, and tobacco companies will continue to use every trick in the book to defend the gigantic profits they make from peddling their deadly wares. We encourage all countries to make better use of the many effective tools available for helping people to quit and saving lives,” the official said in the statement.

Ruediger Krech, the WHO’s director for health promotion, said in its previous reports, only 32 countries were on track to meet their voluntary tobacco reduction targets, but that number has nearly doubled this year.

“Countries are at all income levels are making progress and getting on track to meet the targets. The evidence is clear,” he added.

1.3B tobacco users worldwide

Noting that currently, around 1.3 billion people worldwide are tobacco users, according to the figures for 2020, Krech said: “The number has already reduced 25 million since 2015, or roughly 5 million tobacco users fewer each year in the past five years, and is expected to reduce another 28 million by 2025.”

In 2020, 22.3% of the global population used tobacco, 36.7% of all men, and 7.8% of women.

The WHO said currently 60 countries are on track to achieve the tobacco use reduction target by 2025.

Since the last report two years ago, two other regions -- African and Southeast Asian -- have now joined the Americas region in committing to a 30% reduction.

“Over the last five years, the number of male tobacco users has dropped by 2 million to 1,067,000,000, despite the global population growing by 183 million in the same five-year period,” Krech noted.

Over the same five years, female tobacco users have dropped by 23 million to 231 million, despite the global population growing by 178 million.

The WHO official said women in Europe are the slowest in the world to cut tobacco use.

“This is the only region not on track to get the reduction at 30%. For women, around 18% of women in European region still use tobacco, which is substantially more than in any of the other WHO regions,” Krech added./agencies

Russia on Tuesday confirmed that it had held an anti-satellite missile test in space.

Responding to a US accusation that Moscow was creating risks for the International Space Station, the Defense Ministry said the US State Department and Pentagon were hypocritical in there calls to work out "universal norms that the global society would use in the exploration of outer space."

"For many of years, the Russian Federation has been calling on the United States and other space powers to sign a treaty on the prevention of the deployment of weapons in outer space. The draft of this treaty has been submitted to the UN. The United States and its allies are blocking the adoption," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry accused Washington of maintaining its efforts for space militarization even as it openly declares that it does not want to commit itself to any obligations in space, noting the creation of the US Space Command last year and its official adoption of a new space strategy defining one of its main goals as creating "a comprehensive military advantage in space."

Even before declaring the establishment of the Space Command, the Pentagon had been actively developing and testing the latest strike-combat weapons of various types in orbit, including the latest modifications of unmanned X-37 spacecraft, without any notification, the ministry said.

"The actions of the American side are assessed as a threat and are incompatible with the stated goals of the peaceful use of outer space," it stressed.

Under these circumstances, the Russian Defense Ministry is carrying out planned activities to strengthen its defense capabilities, eliminating the possibility of sudden damage to the country's security in space and on the planet, the ministry noted.

"In particular, on November 15 of this year, the Russian Defense Ministry successfully conducted a test, as a result of which the inactive Russian spacecraft 'Tselina-D', which had been in orbit since 1982, was hit," it said.

The ministry insisted that the US is "well aware" that the fragments formed during the tests did not and will not pose a threat to orbital stations, spacecraft and space activities.

"The fragments are included in the main catalog of the Russian space control system and are immediately taken for maintenance until their existence ceases," the ministry said.

It also claimed that similar tests in outer space had already been conducted by the US, China, and India.

On Monday, the US State Department accused Russia of conducting "a destructive test of a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile against one of its own satellites."

The test generated "fifteen hundred pieces of trackable orbital debris and will likely generate hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris," it said.

"The events of November 15, 2021, clearly demonstrate that Russia, despite its claims of opposing the weaponization of outer space, is willing to jeopardize the long-term sustainability of outer space and imperil the exploration and use of outer space by all nations through its reckless and irresponsible behavior," it added.

The State Department promised to continue work with its allies and partners in order to find a response "to this irresponsible act."

"We call upon all responsible spacefaring nations to join us in efforts to develop norms of responsible behavior and to refrain from conducting dangerous and irresponsible destructive tests like those carried out by Russia," it said./agencies

A breast milk bank has been established in Uganda to help babies who are born prematurely and mothers who are dealing with low milk supply.

The facility at the Saint Francis Nsambya Hospital on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital Kampala is supported by the country's Health Ministry.

The first-of-its-kind facility has garnered the interest of women.

"I am very happy about the development. It will go a long way in saving lives of our babies," said Dorothy Kituyi, a mother of three children.

Dr. Victoria Nakibuuka , a specialist in child diseases, said: "87% of women in Uganda have welcomed the establishment of the breast milk bank and said they are willing to donate their breast milk."

She said donating and storing breast milk is essential to save the lives of babies.

It also helps babies whose mothers died during childbirth, she said.

Dr. Richard Mugahi from the Health Ministry said 180,000 babies in the country are born prematurely every year./aa

Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar on Tuesday announced he will run in the country’s upcoming presidential elections.

In a televised speech, Haftar said the elections are the only way out of the Libyan crisis.

"I declare my candidacy for the presidential elections, not because I am seeking for authority but because I want to lead our people towards glory, progress and prosperity," Haftar said.

Haftar is a controversial figure in the Libyan political scene, who is backed by regional powers, including Egypt, France and Russia.

Haftar's self-proclaimed "Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan National Army” has contributed greatly to the decade-long turmoil in Libya after leading a 14-month military offensive, with the support of foreign powers, to unsuccessfully topple the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in the west.

Mass graves in Libya’s southwestern city of Tarhuna, a former stronghold for Haftar, continue to be discovered since the warlord’s defeat in June 2020 with hundreds of bodies exhumed.

Having helped former strongman Muammar Gaddafi come to power in 1969, Haftar fell out with his boss in the late 1980s and sought asylum in the US.

Haftar reappeared in the Libyan political scene during the 2011 uprising that led to Gaddafi’s ouster and subsequent death.

He joined the Libyan opposition and made the eastern city of Benghazi his base and stronghold.

Despite the February agreement that paved the way for a unity government in Libya, Haftar still acts independently of the legitimate government and leads an armed militia that controls vast areas in the east.

On September 22, Haftar assigned his forces' chief-of-staff to take his military post temporarily for three months to prepare himself for running for elections.

Libya’s presidential and parliamentary elections are set to take place on Dec. 24 under an UN-sponsored agreement reached by Libyan political rivals during meetings in Tunisia on Nov. 15, 2020.

The oil-rich country’s electoral commission on Nov. 8 opened registration for candidates in the polls despite ongoing tensions between the parliament, the High Council of State, and the unity government regarding electoral powers and laws.

Libyans hope that the upcoming elections will contribute to ending an armed conflict that has plagued the oil-rich country for years./agencies

Several Middle East oil-producing countries, whose economies are highly dependent on oil and gas revenues, are aware of the need to transition to clean energy and are trying to do so, Fatih Birol, head of International Energy Agency (IEA), told Anadolu Agency exclusively.

Birol received a lifetime achievement award on Monday at the major international energy industry conference ADIPEC hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UEA). The award was presented by the UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber in recognition of Birol’s long-standing work assessing the global energy sector and providing clarity on how it can adapt to the clean energy transition.

"I see this award as a very significant way of showing how oil producer countries are in a search of guidance for clean energy transition," he said, adding that the decline in oil revenues in these countries will not only be felt economically but socially.

According to Carbon Tracker data, Iraq's fiscal dependence on oil and gas makes it the most vulnerable country with a share of the revenue from this sector reaching as much as 89%.

Other notable countries with high dependency rates on oil and gas revenue include Bahrain and Libya both at 72%, and Saudi Arabia at 69%. Around 67% of Kuwait's economic revenue is derived from oil and gas, while this sector accounts for 52% in the UAE.

He stressed the importance for these oil and gas producing countries to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and rapidly shift to cleaner alternatives.

"More than at any other point in recent history, fundamental changes to the economic model of resource-rich countries look unavoidable. The future will look very different from the past," Birol said.

He acknowledged that some oil producer countries are hesitant in taking steps against climate change but he argued that "the global warming that is already affecting us all worldwide is especially treacherous for Middle Eastern and North African countries. Some are experiencing warming at a far higher rate than the global average. The region is today going through its worst drought in over 900 years."

To kickstart the clean energy transition in the region, he said the IEA will initially work with the UAE to create a roadmap by 2050 focusing on clean energy transition, covering clean energy technologies including hydrogen, ammonia, carbon capture and storage.

He said Qatar, Oman, Egypt and Iraq, which also want to make the shift to clean technologies and have huge potential to do so, will also follow developments on this roadmap.

Birol stressed the significance of both Egypt and the UAE becoming more involved in the organization for the fight against climate change and clean energy transition, with Egypt’s plans to host the 27th session of the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) next year while the UAE will host the 28th COP in 2023.

However, he affirmed that these countries need a clear strategy and political will to make the clean transition possible.

"Some countries have this vision. Sufficient finance should be channeled for the transition in these countries," he concluded.

According to IEA data, clean energy investment in Middle East producer countries currently amounts to $16 billion annually, with the majority designated for clean electricity investments covering renewables, electricity networks and battery storage.

The share of the region's clean energy investments in global clean energy spending is around 2%, considerably below its share of the total energy demand of about 5%.

The IEA in its net zero emissions by 2050 scenario forecasted that investments need to increase 10 fold to around $130 billion in 2030 and 20 fold to $295 billion annually between 2030 and 2050./aa