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World food prices hit new 10-year high in October

https://youtu.be/vfyWTRIB01w

PARIS, Nov 4 (Reuters) – World food prices rose for a third straight month in October to reach a fresh 10-year peak, led again by increases in cereals and vegetable oils, the UN food agency said on Thursday. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food price index, which tracks international prices of the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 133.2 points last month compared with a revised 129.2 for September. The September figure was previously given as 130.0. The October reading was the highest for the index since July 2011. On a year-on-year basis, the index was up 31.3% in October. Agricultural commodity prices have risen steeply in the past year, driven by harvest setbacks and strong demand.  The FAO’s cereal price index rose by 3.2% in October from the previous month. That was led by a 5% jump in wheat prices, which climbed for a fifth consecutive month to reach their highest since November 2012, FAO said. “Tighter availability in global markets due to reduced harvests in major exporters, especially Canada, the Russian Federation and the United States of America, continued to put upward pressure on prices,” FAO said of wheat. Wheat futures started November at new peaks, with U.S. prices at fresh highs since 2012 and Paris front-month futures at a record high as import demand remained brisk. World vegetable oil prices jumped 9.6% on the month to set a record high, supported by further strength in palm oil prices as labour shortages in Malaysia continued to hamper production, FAO said. In contrast, global sugar prices eased 1.8% in October, ending a run of six straight monthly rises, according to FAO. Rome-based FAO cut its projection of global cereal production in 2021, to 2.793 billion tonnes from 2.800 billion estimated a month ago, according to its cereal supply and demand outlook. That mainly reflected reduced wheat output estimates for Iran, Turkey and the United States, offsetting an increased forecast for coarse grain production. Expected world cereal output would still represent a record, but would trail projected demand, leading to a fall in forecast cereal stocks, FAO said. Demand was supported by a raised projection of global cereal trade to a new record, bolstered by increased wheat trade. NN: This is more of that embedded inflation i have been warning about that the sold out FED refuses to acknowledge never mind raise interest rates. You cannot solve a problem you refuse to acknowledge you have…..

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U.S., Canada among 20 countries to commit to stop financing fossil fuels abroad

Major backers of coal, oil and gas projects will stop supporting them from 2023, instead backing clean energy in other countries

Four major economies have agreed to end their support for fossil fuel projects internationally in an announcement campaigners hailed as a “historic breakthrough”. At an overflowing event on the sidelines of Cop26 climate negotiations in Glasgow, Canada, the US and Italy joined the UK in promising not to commit any new finance for unabated coal, oil and gas projects in other countries by the end of 2022. Oil Change International campaigner Laurie van der Burg said: “The signatories of today’s statement are doing what’s most logical in a climate emergency: stop adding fuel to the fire and shift dirty finance to climate action.” E3G sustainable finance expert, Iskander Erzini Vernoit called it a “historic breakthrough that would not have been possible just a few years ago.” In total, 20 countries and five development banks signed the pledge. Big fossil fuel backers missing from the list include Japan, South Korea, China, France, Germany, Australia, the African Development Bank and World Bank.

As a last-minute addition, Italy was left off this map of signatories distributed by the UK government (Photo: Screenshot/Youtube/UK government)

Many developed country governments financially support projects abroad that they expect to benefit their own economies. They do this through offering export credit guarantees, so that their taxpayers bear a project’s risk rather than the private companies, or by offering loans on better terms than private banks. Research by Oil Change International shows that, in 2018-2020, Canada was the biggest financer of foreign fossil fuels in the G20, contributing $11bn a year. Speaking at the pledge’s launch event in Glasgow, Canadian minister of natural resources Jonathan Wilkinson cited the International Energy Agency’s recent report on what net zero by 2050 means for the global energy sector. He said: “The report called for immediate and massive deployment of all available clean and efficient energy technologies combined with a major global push to accelerate innovation… we need to deploy public resources in a way that is consistent with our climate goals”. The same analysis shows that the US provided $3.1bn a year while Italy contributed $2.7bn and the UK contributed $1.4bn. John Morton, climate counsellor to the US treasury, told the launch panel: “We don’t want to be using scarce public resources to lock in assets that will become stranded in a relatively short period of time as the world continues to transition.” Last year, the US, UK and Italy announced $7bn of public financing to a gas project in Mozambique. Maputo-based E3G analyst Jonathan Gaventa told Climate Home News: “Future projects of this type will be much more difficult to finance”. He added that the announcement puts in doubt whether US oil firm Exxon will be able to get US public finance for its Rovuma gas project in Mozambique. Shell and Equinor’s gas project in Tanzania will be difficult to finance too, he said.

South Africa $8.5bn finance package offers a model for ending reliance on coal

The signatories to this commitment pledged to  “encourage further governments, their official export credit agencies and public finance institutions to implement similar commitments into COP27 and beyond”. While major European countries like France, Germany and Spain did not sign the agreement, E3G’s sustainable finance expert Iskander Erzini Vernoit told Climate Home News he was hopeful that they soon would. He pointed out that French development bank Agence Française de Développement (AFD) had signed the statement. But analysts said that the big Asian fossil fuel financers – Japan, South Korea and China – are less likely to sign up soon. All three have only agreed to phase out finance for the most polluting fossil fuel, coal, this year. The World Bank also did not sign up. In 2018-2020, it was the biggest multilateral back backer of fossil fuels, committing an average of nearly $2bn a year. Van Der Burg told Climate Home News that the US’ changing position could influence the bank. The US is the biggest shareholder in the World Bank and all of its presidents have been US citizens. NN: Talk about doubling down on a losing hand. Oil works, Nuclear works, natural gas works even nasty coal works… And the proof s the majority of the worlds energy comes from these c=sources,,,, Solar is marginal and wind is very problematic. So they are going to finance losers and shit on the systems that do work……. If you want to see how this thinking works out look no further then to England and Germany…… Forcing the greeneewenneieee technology prematurely will result in blackouts. And the support the carbon imitative has among the stupid money will melt away in the hot summer as the air conditioning shuts down for lack of power….

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Europe’s COVID spread is “warning shot” for rest of world – WHO

GENEVA (Reuters) – Europe registered a 55% rise in COVID-19 cases in the last four weeks, despite the availability of vaccines, which should serve as a “warning shot” to other regions, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Thursday. WHO emergency director Mike Ryan said that some European countries have “sub-optimal vaccination coverage” despite availability. “It’s a warning shot for the world to see what is happening in Europe despite availability of vaccination,” Ryan told a news conference.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin showed about 70% efficacy against the delta variant. The WHO said on Wednesday that it has granted approval for its emergency use listing

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U.S. Gasoline Prices Set To Dip

U.S. retail gasoline prices have started to decline in recent days and could drop even further, according to fuel-savings app GasBuddy. “If you don’t need gas, my suggestion is wait,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, tweeted on Wednesday when international crude oil prices crashed by 4%. “*LARGE* declines in spot #gasprices coast to coast today will trigger falling retail prices,” De Haan noted. As of November 4, the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.415, according to data from AAA. The national average gasoline price is 21 cents more than a month ago, $1.27 higher compared to a year ago, and 79 cents more than at this time of the year in 2019. The crude price rally, the still strong U.S. gasoline demand even after Labor Day, and the falling gasoline inventories across the country have pushed U.S. gasoline prices to a 7-year high in recent weeks. Over the past week to November 1, the national average price for a gallon of gas rose to $3.40, but the two-cent increase over the previous week was the smallest weekly increase in a month, AAA said on Monday. “News that Iranian oil, which has not been sold globally in large quantities since 2018, may return to the world market coupled with an OPEC+ meeting on November 4 via videoconference, is increasing market volatility, but slowing pump price increases, at least for now,” according to AAA. “We have finally seen a little dip in domestic demand for gasoline, which may signal that the seasonal post-Labor Day easing was a little delayed this year,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross commented. “And if the recent steady increase in crude oil prices takes a breather too, consumers may benefit at the pump with smaller price hikes,” Gross added. The crude price rally did take a breather earlier this week, dragged down by expectations of the Fed’s start of tapering of asset purchases and estimates of increasing U.S. crude oil inventories and higher U.S. oil production. Oil prices dipped on Wednesday after the EIA reported an oil inventory build of 3.3 million barrels for the week to October 29 and the Fed said it would start tapering asset purchases later in November

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OPEC+ confirms 400,000 bpd output increase

Opec+, the oil exporters bloc behind historic production cuts, agreed to increase output by 400,000 barrels per day in December and will not meet demands from the US to bring on additional supply. The group, headed by Saudi Arabia and Russia, stuck to its earlier agreement to bring a total supply of 2 million bpd back to markets by the end of the year. The group said it was reconfirming “the production adjustment plan and the monthly production adjustment mechanism approved at the 19th Opec and non-Opec ministerial meeting and the decision to adjust upwards the monthly overall production by 400,000 bpd for the month of December 2021″. NN: Canada is adding barrels from their tar sands fields, US is adding barrels from the Oklahoma, Dakotas and Permium basin  fracking wells. And off shore is gearing  up. 500,000 BPD here and  400,000 BPD their and a million BPD everwhere and you end up with a oversupplied market by spring

 

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Oil prices rise ahead of OPEC+ meeting

LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices rose more than $2 on Thursday, lifted by expectations that OPEC and its allies will stick to slow output increases despite calls from the United States and large importers for additional supply to cool the market. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, meets later on Thursday and is expected to reconfirm plans to keep monthly supply increases at 400,000 barrels per day (bpd). “Oil prices have traded in a narrow range thus far this week, with investors assessing the likelihood of OPEC+ succumbing to pressure to add more crude to global oil markets as well as deliberations from the Federal Reserve policy meeting,” said Ehsan Khoman, head of emerging markets research at MUFG.   Citi analysts said that OPEC+ is likely to stick to current policy despite pressure from oil importers. “The majority of OPEC+ members cannot raise production from current levels,” the bank said in a note, adding that even Saudi Arabia has emphasised the need to exercise caution given continuing uncertainty over the COVID-19 pandemic. Top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia are also more confident that higher oil prices will not elicit a fast response from the U.S. shale industry, OPEC+ sources said, reflecting a desire to rebuild revenue and supporting the case against raising OPEC+ output more quickly.

However, several large oil companies plan to increase output or shale spending next year, which could undercut OPEC+ efforts to control supply and support price

Oil prices had earlier been in negative territory after Iran and six global powers agreed to resume talks on Nov. 29 to revive the 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran has demanded that the United States drops sanctions that have limited its oil exports. On Wednesday both benchmarks posted their biggest daily percentage declines since early August after weekly inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a larger than expected rise in crude stocks last week. NN: this is the kind of volatility we tend to see at markets tops…. I hope not.. I would love to stick some oil up their asss’s at $100 a barrel….

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Britain sets out how finance can help meet net-zero goals

UK companies will be required to set out plans by 2023 for a transition to a low-carbon economy, as part of steps to make Britain the world’s first net-zero financial centre

* Transition plans for listed companies and asset managers

* Britain to set out transition pathway for finance in 2022

* New task force to set ‘gold standard’ for transition plans

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – British finance minister Rishi Sunak will tell companies on Wednesday to set out plans by 2023 for a transition to a low-carbon economy, as part of steps to make Britain the world’s first net-zero financial centre. These plans must include targets to mitigate climate risk, interim goals between now and 2050, and measures to meet them, the finance ministry said ahead of a speech by Sunak to the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. However, there will be no mandatory net-zero commitments for firms or a ban on investments in carbon intensive activities, the ministry said. Instead, investors would have to determine if companies’ plans were adequate or credible. “There will be new requirements for UK financial institutions and listed companies to publish net zero transition plans that detail how they will adapt and decarbonise as the UK moves towards to a net zero economy by 2050,” the ministry said.

A new task force will offer a model for transition plans in an attempt to avoid ‘greenwashing’.

Britain will also publish next year proposals setting out how the financial sector should transition to net zero by 2050. Sunak welcomed a planned announcement from the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero that over $130 trillion of private capital, equivalent to 40% of the world’s financial assets, would now be aligned to climate goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the ministry said. This would help “rewire the entire global financial system for net zero”, Sunak said in an extract of his speech. The alliance is a grouping of more than 160 financial firms chaired by former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. Britain will seek to address barriers to finance faced by developing countries with a series of new green initiatives, including 100 million pounds ($136 million) to help developing countries get funding for climate plans, the ministry added. Sunak expects a $100 billion climate finance target for the most vulnerable countries will be met by 2023, aided by a new financing mechanism to boost investment in clean energy like solar and wind power in developing countries. Britain will feed returns from its investments in Climate Investment Funds, a project to help developing countries backed by lenders like the World Bank, into the planned new mechanism for issuing billions of pounds of green bonds for clean energy projects, the ministry said. NN: Classic big bro government. Spend money you don’t have, on a problem you don’t have on solutions you don’t have…Hoe do you think this will turn out?

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A potentially faster-spreading Delta variant, AY.4.2, has been spotted in 8 states

A potentially faster-spreading “sub-lineage” of the coronavirus Delta variant named AY.4.2 has been spotted by labs in at least 8 states, and health authorities in the United Kingdom say they are investigating a growing share of cases from this strain of the virus.

Labs in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Washington state, plus the District of Columbia, have so far spotted at least one case of AY.4.2.

While it may spread somewhat faster, health authorities have not found evidence of more severe illness caused by the variant, and they say current vaccines remain effective against it.

A faster-spreading sub-variant of the Delta variant known as AY.4.2, or the Delta Plus strain, has been detected in at least eight states across the U.S. At least one case of the new AY.4.2 variant has been found in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia, CBS News reported. According to the World Health Organization, the AY.4.2 variant has also been detected in at least 42 countries. While the AY.4.2 mutant, which was first detected in the U.K. in July, has been found to be faster spreading than the Delta variant, it is not thought to be a strain of concern, according to health officials. The variant has not been shown to cause more severe illness, and current COVID vaccines have shown to be effective against the strain, health officials have said, according to CBS News. However, some data indicated that it can cause more severe illness in unvaccinated people, although this has not been confirmed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When it comes to the AY.4.2 variant, Dr. Summer Galloway, executive secretary of the U.S. government’s SARS-CoV-2 Interagency Group, told CBS News that little is known about the variant. However, it appears to pose a low risk to Americans.

“Right now, I think there’s not a lot that we know. But in terms of the risk that it poses to public health, the prevalence is very low in the U.S. and we don’t really anticipate that the substitutions [of AY.4.2] are going to have a significant impact on either the effectiveness of our vaccines or its susceptibility to monoclonal antibody treatments,” Galloway said. The CDC estimates that the AY.4.2 variant accounts for less than 0.05% of cases of COVID in the U.S. for the last several weeks, an agency spokesperson told the news outlet. Together, the Delta variant and sub-lineage variants make up virtually 100% of the COVID cases in the U.S. and they  have for several months, the CDC said.While the AY.4.2 Delta Plus variant is being watched closely, health authorities say they are already on the lookout for new variants on the horizon. NN: The published data on the AY.4.2 mutation show a much grimmer picture then the blow blue sky up your ass CDC. You have read the part about record numbers of infections we have been publishing….. Obviously something very very bad is happening. To poo poo this is a deadly mistake we are not going to make…… AY.4.2 is of a highly mutated virus that is much muck more infectious and deadlier.  Their are significant changes to the spike proteins that our vaccines target. And unless your anybodies are topped up it may get through. The antidotal preliminary data suggest this could be the next wave to sweep the planet…. And it has started  in China, Russia and now Europe……. As long as they allow come fly with me we will all have this new strain around us,  It Ain’t over…. The honest answer is we need more data. To blow this off like the CDC wants is nothing short of criminal…….

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Germany adds record 33,949 COVID cases….. Virus deaths rise at record pace in Russia

The number of confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Germany increased by 33,949 per day, which is the highest since the start of the pandemic in the country. The corresponding data follows from published on Thursday, November 4, materials of the Berlin Institute of Virology named after Robert Koch. The previous anti-record was recorded on April 22, then 29,518 cases of coronavirus were detected per day. In total, 4,672,368 cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic. The seven-day spread index (the number of infections per 100 thousand people per week) is 154.5. At the same time, seven days ago, it was at the level of 130.2. Earlier, on November 3, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that Germany was facing the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the way the vaccination campaign is going on in the country. According to him, in Germany so far only 2 million people have received a booster vaccine. At the same time, Vladimir Chizhov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Union (EU), announced on November 2 that Russia and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) would soon be able to reach a common understanding of mutual recognition of certificates of vaccination against coronavirus if a number of agreements were reached.

Virus deaths rise at record pace in Russia
Russia has reported a pandemic high for both new coronavirus infections and fatalities over 24 hours, with the country’s vaccination drive at a snail’s pace and few restrictions in place. Officials registered 31,299 new infections and 986 deaths from Covid-19 over 24 hours, bringing Russia’s total fatalities to 220,315 – the highest toll in Europe. The surging outbreak has come with just 31% of Russians fully inoculated, according to the Gogov website, which tallies coronavirus data from the regions. A lack of tough restrictions has allowed the disease to spread, though a number of regions have reintroduced QR codes for access to public places. The Kremlin has balked at reintroducing major restrictions despite calling the country’s vaccination rate “unacceptably” low, saying this week authorities have to ensure “the economy continues working.” Spokesman Dmitry Peskov once again ruled out a lockdown and said that authorities have to “continue to explain to people that it is necessary to be vaccinated”. “It’s irresponsible not to get the vaccine,” he told reporters. But Mr Peskov added that Russia’s healthcare system was prepared for the onslaught in coronavirus patients, saying that it is not “overwhelmed”. “The entire medical infrastructure is mobilised,” he said. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko for his part blamed the growing spread on the “behaviour” of Russians and called on them to get vaccinated. “If we do not introduce general restriction measures now we run the risk of a continuing rise in cases,” he was cited by state news agency TASS as saying. He did not, however, specify possible restrictions. While several Russian-developed jabs have been available for months, authorities have struggled to inoculate a vaccine-sceptic population. Independent polls show that more than half of Russians do not plan to get a shot. Moscow – the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak – has so far withheld from bringing back restrictions, but on Monday announced that it would open two dozen sites around the capital where residents could get free express tests. Independent experts have accused authorities of downplaying the severity of Russia’s epidemic. Under a broader definition of deaths linked to the virus, the Rosstat statistics agency said last week that by the end of August more than 400,000 Russians with the coronavirus had died. NN: Its the mutant strain I warned you about…..  We will be publishing more on this….