Page 26 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine December 2023
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26 I Companies & Markets bne December 2023
saw the largest decrease – from 30% to 26% – compared to 2015. A total of 3mn hectares of land in Uzbekistan have been degraded due to the drying of the Aral Sea.
Between 2018-2022, Uzbekistan carried out saxaul planting on an area of 1.6mn hectares to eliminate salt and dust emissions from the drained bottom of the Aral Sea.
Kazakhstan increased irrigated lands by 40%, expanding the total irrigated area to 2mn hectares. In Kyrgyzstan, some 120,000 hectares of pastures and forests are now under sustainable land management, including a pasture rotation system. Turkmenistan committed to restoring 160,000 hectares under its national ‘greening the desert’ initiative by 2025.
Although land degradation varies by region, the warning seen in the UNCCD data is that if current trends persist a staggering 1.5bn hectares of land will need to be restored globally by 2030 to reach targets enshrined in the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the UNCCD said.
Barron Orr, UNCCD chief scientist, said: “Although global trends are going in the wrong direction, it is still possible to not only meet but exceed land degradation neutrality goals. This can be done by stopping further degradation while accelerating
EBRD supports €3bn plan for North Macedonia's green energy transition
Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje
International institutions including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank have pledged their support for a comprehensive €3bn plan to facilitate North Macedonia's transition from coal to renewable energy sources.
The announcement, confirmed by the EBRD on November 17, sets the stage for a transformative initiative that aims to address environmental concerns and reshape the country's energy landscape.
A spokesperson from the EBRD refrained from disclosing details, saying that they are slated to be unveiled during the COP28 United Nations Climate Change conference. The conference is scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 12, at Expo City in Dubai.
More than 80% of about 400mn hectares of Central Asia is covered by deserts and steppes, which coupled with climate change and lasting droughts, represent a natural source of sand and dust storms (SDS). Unsustainable practices of irrigation farming and livestock grazing, mining and other land use change activities create conditions for the formation of human-induced SDS sources. Nearly 6.5mn people or 9% of the region’s population live in high-risk areas.
The SDS-prone area in Central Asia equals 85mn hectares (medium and high risk) -- UNCCD factsheet.
efforts on existing commitments to restore one billion hectares of land by 2030 with funding and action hand-in-hand.”
Around the world, approximately $5bn in bilateral and multilateral funding flowed into global efforts to combat desertification, land degradation and drought between 2016 and 2019. This helped 124 nations roll out a wide range of projects aimed at addressing these challenges, UNCCD said.
The focus of North Macedonia's coal-to-renewables transition is the REK Bitola thermal power plant that contributes over 70% of the country's total electricity production. / ESM
“[W]e can’t provide more detail before COP28,” the EBRD’s green spokeswoman Vanora Bennett said in a written statement to bne IntelliNews.
However, according to Reuters, the overarching objective of the plan is to retire the country's two coal power plants and replace them with a substantial 1.7 GW of renewable energy capacity.
The move aligns with global efforts to combat climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, underscoring the importance of North Macedonia's transition away from coal, which constitutes 40% of its energy source.
In the focus of the coal-to-renewables transition is the thermal power plant REK Bitola, the largest producer of electric energy in North Macedonia, contributing over 70% of the country's total electricity production.
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