LONDON, Nov 3,2021: Indonesia could phase out coal-fired power plants by 2040 if it gets sufficient financial help from the international community, the finance minister told Reuters.
The Southeast Asian archipelago is the world’s fourth-most populous country and eighth biggest emitter of greenhouse gas, with coal making up about 65% of its energy mix. It is also the world’s biggest coal exporter.
Visiting the Scottish city of Glasgow for the COP26 conference, Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Indonesia wouldannounce on Wednesday detailed plans to move to cleaner energy, with the phase-out of coal being the key issue.
Previously, Indonesia said it planned to phase out coal for electricity by 2056, as part of a plan to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2060 or earlier.
“If we are going to put forward until 2040, then we need to have funding to retire coal earlier and to build the new capacity of renewable energy,” Sri Mulyani said.
“That is exactly what has now become the core issue and I’m now as the finance minister calculating what does it mean to retire coal earlier. How much does it cost us?” she said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week told the UK parliament that President Joko Widodo had said Indonesia was going to bring forward the abolition of coal use to 2040.
Indonesia had not previously confirmed such a plan.
Sri Mulyani told Reuters that meeting such a target was conditional on getting financial help from multilateral institutions, the private sector and developed countries.
She said the plans to be announced on Wednesday moved Indonesia’s climate targets beyond “rhetoric” into the technical details and that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other financial institutions were “very excited” with their ideas.
The ADB is leading a group of financial institutions to devise plans to speed up the closings of coal-fired power plants in Asia, including in Indonesia, by buying the assets and winding them down.
Jakarta has identified 5.5 gigawatts of coal power plants that could be retired early in the next 8 years, estimating this would cost $25 billion to $30 billion.
Sri Mulyani said the country would also need international support to ensure electricity remains affordable when it switches to renewable sources, citing a temporary calculation of a need for $10 billion to $23 billion in “implicit subsidies” for renewable power projects until 2030.
New Delhi, Nov 1: The results of NEET examination for admission to undergraduate medical courses were announced tonight with three candidates scoring full marks.
The National Testing Agency, which conducted the exam, released the final answer key on the official website (neet.nta.nic.in and ntaresults.nic.in.) even as the results were mailed directly to aspirants’ email IDs.
According to the answer key, three students scored full marks in the entrance test. Mrinal Kutteri, Tanmay Gupta and Karthika G Nair secured 720/720 marks each. Their ranks will be announced by the NTA later.
Candidates who have qualified NEET 2021 exam would be able to apply for admission to various government and private colleges across the country.
The exam was conducted in pen and paper mode on September 12, 2021 at various exam centres across India.
A total of 13.66 lakh candidates had appeared in the exam this year. The qualified candidates can now apply for MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BHMS and other undergraduate medical courses in participating institutes.
Islamabad, Oct 31: Pakistan government on Sunday said an agreement has been reached with the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) after the latest round of dialogue between the two parties.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Federal Minister Ali Mohammad Khan, professor Mufti Muneeb made this announcement at a press conference held in Islamabad.
According to Mufti Muneeb, TLP chief Saad Rizvi has also endorsed the agreement and said this agreement was not a “victory or defeat” of any group, reports The Express Tribune.
“The agreement was reached after sense prevailed over aggression.”
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Khan will head the steering committee that will work to implement the clause of the agreement.
Both parties held a 12-hour-long meeting to come to a conclusion. Muneeb said it was fortunate that the agreement was reached before the situation got out of hands.
Mufti did not give specific details of the agreement and said details will but will be made public soon.
Muneeb said the “positive impact” of the agreement would be visible in the coming week and called this settlement “in the best interest of Pakistan and its citizens”.
“This is the news for the entire nation, and the national media should portray it in a positive manner, ” he said, thanking all groups involved in the negotiations.
“I am thankful to the prime minister for empowering the committee and trusting it, and also to the committee for working dedicatedly to resolve this matter,” he said, adding that the TLP exhibited the same attitude.
Washington [US], October 30,2021: The US government’s Afghanistan watchdog has slammed the US Defence and State Department for withholding “crucial information” about US operations during the 20-year military presence.
At a press conference in Arlington, Virginia on Friday, US Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko said the Biden administration is withholding information from the public that could have predicted the fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban.
The US troops completed withdrawal on August 30 this year after the Taliban warned the US of the consequences of not withdrawing before the set deadline.
After the completion of a messy US drawdown from Afghanistan, the Taliban took control of the country and set up a government without representation from the minority communities.
“In essence, nearly all the information you needed to know to determine whether the Afghan security forces were a real fighting force or a house of cards waiting to fall,” Sopko was quoted as saying by Axios news.
“In light of recent events, it is not surprising that the Afghan government, and likely some in Departments of Defense, wanted to keep that information under lock and key,” he added.
He added that the Department of Defense, at the request of the Afghan government, restricted information to the public dating back to 2015 that detailed the performance of the Afghan security forces.
“The full picture of what happened in August — and all the warning signs that could have predicted that outcome — will only be revealed if the information that the Departments of State and Defense have already restricted from public release is made available,” he said.
Sopko argued that the withheld information would have helped Congress and the public assess whether the Afghan security forces were a real fighting force or a house of cards waiting to fall.
The information would have also helped Congress and the public assess whether the US should have ended its mission in Afghanistan earlier, he added.