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    Wondering what AI actually is? Here are the 7 things it can do for you

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    Sandra Peter, Director of Sydney Executive Plus, University of Sydney and Kai Riemer, Professor of Information Technology and Organisation, University of Sydney.

    You know we’ve reached peak interest in artificial intelligence (AI) when Oprah Winfrey hosts a television special about it. AI is truly everywhere. And we will all have a relationship with it – whether using it, building it, governing it or even befriending it.

    But what exactly is AI? While most people won’t need to know exactly how it works under the hood, we will all need to understand what it can do. In our conversations with global leaders across business, government and the arts, one thing stood out – you can’t fake it anymore. AI fluency that is.

    AI isn’t just about chatbots. To help understand what it is about, we’ve developed a framework which explains the broad broad range of capabilities it offers. We call this the “capabilities stack”.

    We see AI systems as having seven basic kinds of capability, each building on the ones below it in the stack. From least complex to most, these are: recognition, classification, prediction, recommendation, automation, generation and interaction.

    Recognition

    At its core, the kind of AI we are seeing in consumer products today identifies patterns. Unlike traditional coding, where developers explicitly program how a system works, AI “learns” these patterns from vast datasets, enabling it to perform tasks. This “learning” is essentially just advanced mathematics that turns patterns into complex probabilistic models – encoded in so-called artificial neural networks.

    Once learned, patterns can be recognised – such as your face, when you open your phone, or when you clear customs at the airport. Pattern recognition is all around us – whether it’s license plate recognition when you park your car at the mall, or when the police scan your registration. It’s used in manufacturing for quality control to detect defective parts, in health care to identify cancer in MRI scans, or to identify potholes by using buses equipped with cameras that monitor the roads in Sydney.

    A stack of seven red blocks.
    The AI capabilities stack is a framework for understanding how AI is used.
    Sandra Peter & Kai Remer, CC BY-NC-ND

    Classification

    Once an AI system can recognise patterns, we can train it to detect subtle variations and categorise them. This is how your photo app neatly organises albums by family members, or how apps identify and label different kinds of skin lesions. AI classification is also at work behind the scenes when phone companies and banks identify spam and fraud calls.

    In New Zealand, non-profit organisation Te Hiku developed an AI language model to classify thousands of hours of recordings to help revitalise Te Reo Māori, the local indigenous language.

    Prediction

    When AI is trained on past data, it can be used to predict future outcomes. For example, airlines use AI to predict the estimated arrival times of incoming flights and to assign gates on time so you don’t end up waiting on the tarmac. Similarly, Google Flights uses AI to predict flight delays even before airlines announce them.

    In Hong Kong, an AI prediction model saves taxpayer money by predicting when a project needs early intervention to prevent it overrunning its budget and completion date. And when you buy stuff on Amazon, the ecommerce giant uses AI to predict demand and optimise delivery routes, so you get your packages within hours, not just days.

    Recommendation

    Once we predict, we can make recommendations for what to do next. If you went to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour concert at Sydney’s Accor stadium, you were kept safe thanks to AI recommendations. A system funded by the New South Wales government used data from multiple sources to analyse the movement and mood of the 80,000 strong crowd, providing real-time recommendations to ensure everyone’s safety.

    AI-based recommendations are everywhere. Social media, streaming platforms, delivery services and shopping apps all use past behaviour patterns to present you with their “for you” pages. Even pig farms use pig facial recognition and tracking to alert farmers to any issues and recommend particular interventions.

    Automation

    It’s a small step from prediction and recommendation to full automation. In Germany, large wind turbines use AI to keep the lesser spotted eagle safe. An AI algorithm detects approaching birds and automatically slows down the turbines allowing them to pass unharmed.

    Closer to home, Melbourne Water uses AI to autonomously regulate its pump control system to reduce energy costs by around 20% per year. In Western Sydney, local buses on key routes are AI-enabled: if a bus is running late, the system predicts its arrival at the next intersection and automatically green-lights its journey.

    Generation

    Once we can encode complex patterns into neural networks, we can also use these patterns to generate new, similar ones. This works with all kinds of data – images, text, audio and video.

    Image generation is now built into many new phones. Don’t like the look on someone’s face? Change into a smile. Want a boat on that lake? Just add it in. And it doesn’t stop there.

    Tools such as Runway let you manipulate videos or create new ones with just a text prompt. ElevenLabs allows you to generate synthetic voices or digitise existing ones from short recordings. These can be used to narrate audiobooks, but also carry risks such as deepfake impersonation.

    And we haven’t even mentioned large language models such as ChatGPT, which are transforming how we work with text and how we develop computer code. Research by McKinsey found that these models can cut the time required for complex coding tasks by up to 50%.

    Interaction

    Finally, generative AI also makes it possible to mimic human-like interactions. Soon, virtual assistants, companions and digital humans will be everywhere. They will attend your Zoom meeting to take notes and schedule follow-up meetings.

    Interactive AI assistants, such as IBM’s AskHR bot, will answer your HR questions. And when you get home, your AI friend app will entertain you, while digital humans on social media are ready to sell you anything, any time. And with voice mode activated, even ChatGPT gets in on the inter-action.

    Amid the excitement around generative AI, it is important to remember that AI is more than chatbots. It impacts many things beyond the flashy conversational tools – often in ways that quietly improve everyday processes.The Conversation

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Main photo by Tara Winstead: https://www.pexels.com/photo/robot-pointing-on-a-wall-8386440/

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not forprofit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).

    Freedom for Chagos Islands: UK’s deal with Mauritius will be a win for all

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    Peter Harris, Associate Professor of Political Science, Colorado State University

    Britain is close to resolving its territorial dispute with Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago, located in the central Indian Ocean. For years, Mauritius has claimed the island group as part of its sovereign territory. It says that Britain unlawfully detached the islands from Mauritius in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence. The Mauritian position is backed by international courts and the United Nations, creating enormous pressure for Britain to decolonise.

    London, however, has been reluctant to abandon the Chagos Archipelago. This is because the largest island, Diego Garcia, is the site of a strategically important US military base. Britain pledged to make Diego Garcia available to its American ally and has been anxious to avoid a situation where it is prevented from making good on these promises. The US, for its part, has declined to become publicly involved in the dispute. Its private position is merely that the base on Diego Garcia should not be placed in jeopardy.

    In a deal announced in a joint statement, London and Port Louis have agreed that all but one of the Chagos Islands will be returned to Mauritian control as soon as a treaty can be finalised. This comes after nearly two years of intense negotiations. It seems as though settling the dispute was a top priority for Britian’s new Labour government. Though the deal isn’t done yet, it is expected to go through. Both Britain and Mauritius, along with the White House, have endorsed the agreement, indicating that the toughest negotiations are complete.

    Diego Garcia will remain under British administration for at least 99 years – this time with the blessing of Mauritius – enabling Britain to continue furnishing the US with unfettered access to its military base on the island.

    In exchange for permission to continue on Diego Garcia, Britain will provide “a package of financial support” to Mauritius. The exact sums of money have not been disclosed but will include an annual payment from London to Port Louis. Both sides will cooperate on environmental conservation, issues relating to maritime security, and the welfare of the indigenous Chagossian people – including the limited resettlement of Chagossians onto the outer Chagos Islands under Mauritian supervision.

    I’ve studied the Chagos Islands for 15 years, first as a master’s student and now as a professor. It often looked as though this day would never come. The deal that’s been announced is a good one – a rare “win-win-win-win” moment in international relations, with all the relevant actors able to claim a meaningful victory: Britain, Mauritius, the US, and the Chagossians.

    Win for Britain

    Britain went into these negotiations with one goal in mind: to bring itself into alignment with international law. London suffered humiliating setbacks at the permanent court of arbitration in 2015, concerning the legality of its Chagos marine protected area; at the International Court of Justice in 2019, when the World Court found that Mauritius was sovereign over the archipelago; and at the UN general assembly that same year, when a whopping 116 governments called on Britain to exit the Chagos Islands.

    Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos group had even begun to be inscribed into international case law. London could probably have defied international opinion if it had wanted to. Nobody would have forced Britain to halt its illegal occupation of the Chagos Archipelago. But such a course would have badly undermined Britain’s global reputation and its ability to criticise others for breaches of international law. This agreement will give Britain exactly what it wanted: a continued presence on Diego Garcia that conforms with international law.

    Win for Mauritius

    Mauritius, of course, went into these negotiations intent on securing full decolonisation at long last. Britain and the US now recognise that the Chagos Archipelago belongs to Mauritius.

    Mauritius will not have day-to-day control of Diego Garcia, but it will be acknowledged as being sovereign there. The public description of the agreement also doesn’t seem to prohibit Mauritius from exercising its sovereignty over Diego Garcia as it relates to non-military domains.

    Win for the US

    The US is another clear winner from the deal. In fact, hardly anything will change for America. Washington will continue working closely with London, and will not need to negotiate an agreement with Mauritius on its rights to the base or the status of forces.

    Indeed, Pentagon officials should be thrilled that their base on Diego Garcia has been put on firm legal footing. This is something that Britain alone was unable to offer. The bilateral agreement with Mauritius will ensure the security of the base for 99 years – no small feat.

    Good for Chagos Islanders

    Finally, the deal is good for the Chagos Islanders.

    British agents forcibly depopulated the entire Chagos group between 1965 and 1973. The point was to rid the archipelago of its permanent population so that the US base on Diego Garcia would operate far from prying eyes. Britain deported the Chagossians to Mauritius and the Seychelles, which is where most Chagossians and their descendants still live. Some have migrated onwards, including to Britain.

    Britain had long opposed the resettlement of the Chagos group by the exiled Chagossians. Mauritius, on the other hand, has indicated its openness to resettlement of the Outer Chagos Islands – so, not Diego Garcia – something that Port Louis is now free to pursue.

    Not all islanders have welcomed news of an agreement. The Chagossians are a large and diverse group, with differing views about how their homeland should be governed. Some would have preferred Britain to administer the entire archipelago long into the future, feeling that Mauritius was an unwelcoming host to the exiled Chagossians. But Britain could not hold onto the Chagos Islands forever – at least, not lawfully. For their part, the largest Chagossian organisations are content with the deal as it has been announced and will now work with Mauritius on a resettlement plan.

    The critics

    This is the first instance of decolonisation that London has attempted since returning Hong Kong to China in 1997. Predictably, some in Britain are opposed to the settlement. Some accuse the Keith Starmer government of “giving up” the Chagos Archipelago. But the islands were never Britain’s to give up – they were always Mauritian sovereign territory, and Britain was an unlawful occupier.

    They are also wrong to blame this deal for jeopardising the base on Diego Garcia. The opposite is true: for better or worse, the agreement will resolve any uncertainty about the US base’s future. It will have total legal security.

    Finally, critics are grasping at straws when they raise the prospect of Mauritius permitting a Chinese base in the Chagos Archipelago. This is a baseless smear. There is no indication whatsoever that Port Louis has any interest in hosting the Chinese military.

    What happens now?

    Britain and Mauritius still need to reveal the text of their bilateral treaty. But the deal is highly unlikely to fall through. Both governments, plus the White House, have welcomed the agreement – a sure sign that the hard work of negotiations is over.

    All that remains is for the treaty to be ratified – a process that does not require a parliamentary vote in the House of Commons. There is no reason why this cannot be done quickly.This could be the end of a shameful saga that went on for too long.The Conversation

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Main photo from Nasa Johnson on flickr.

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not forprofit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s). 

    How does a disease spread from animals to humans? A lot has to do with people’s behaviour.

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    Barry Schoub, Emeritus professor of virology, Wits University, University of the Witwatersrand

    COVID stunned the world with an unanticipated pandemic. Now mpox, a disease which originated in animals, has been declared a global public health emergency. In this edited extract from his new book Fighting an Invisible Enemy, virologist Barry Schoub, the founding director of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, looks at how diseases spread from animals to humans.

    The introduction of ‘new’ diseases to humans

    Epidemics and pandemics of new diseases arise in two stages. Firstly, the zoonotic spillover event introduces the infectious organism, in the main a virus, into the human population from an animal source. The second stage involves various factors that could promote the spread of the pathogenic communicable organism throughout the human population.

    Zoonotic spillover

    A spillover event occurs when a communicable disease agent crosses the species barrier from animals to humans and then gets established in the human population. This may be the result of humans intruding into remote, isolated wild animal ecosystems, or when wild animals are driven to venture into human habitats or are purposely brought into human environments.

    Alien animal viruses entering the human biome

    The successful introduction of an alien animal virus into the human population is a rare event. It’s rare because of the need for the virus to attach itself to a very specific receptor site on the cell’s surface to initiate infection.

    The attachment to the receptor site is highly specific to that virus in much the same way as a key fits a lock. On that rare occasion when the key can fit the lock, the invading virus successfully establishes itself in the host cell and then initiates the infection process.

    Inside the cell, the virus replicates itself using the machinery of the cell. The progeny virus (a replica of the original) is released from the cell only to infect further cells and repeat the replication process.

    The next step is for it to be released from the body to infect another individual and establish a chain of transmission from human to human, which could ultimately lead to an outbreak of a communicable disease. The behaviour of modern humankind has played a large part in the advent of these new communicable diseases.

    The increasing wildlife trading of exotic animals worldwide, both legal and illegal, facilitates an ever-growing wild animal-human interaction. Multiple opportunities for these interactions to take place result from the trade of exotic animals, or as a result of agricultural expansion and deforestation of wildlife habitats, or the preparation and consumption of wild animals for food in the so-called wet markets of the Far East.

    The reverse chain of events may occur when wild animals are driven to move out of their established habitats and into those of humans in search of food.

    Climate change and new infections

    Climate change has emerged as one of the most serious threats to human health – from floods to droughts to extremes of temperature. Climate change also poses a serious indirect threat to human health as a result of habitat destruction and its knock-on effect on communicable diseases in humans. The outbreak of the viral disease Nipah in Malaysia and Singapore in 1998/1999 provides a graphic example of how the combination of environmental destruction and climate change can create the ingredients for new human diseases.

    The Nipah virus outbreak involved 276 cases, 106 of them fatal. The natural host of this virus is the fruit bat which lives in the forests of these two countries. A combination of the climatic effect of drought, due to the El Niño event, together with a human element – massive deforestation by large-scale burning of vegetation – created a severe haze, which reduced the flowering and fruiting of forest trees.

    Deprived of their natural food source, the fruit bats invaded the cultivated orchards and transmitted the virus to domestic pigs which, in turn, infected humans. The outbreak was brought under control by the large-scale slaughtering of the local pig population.

    New infections

    The plagues of antiquity moved slowly because in those days transportation was far slower. In contrast, with modern air travel plagues can now be very easily transmitted from one end of the world to the other within a day or two.

    We should not be too surprised that the 21st century has presented us with a number of new communicable diseases. Human-wild animal interactions have been promoted by human activities seriously damaging the natural environment of the planet. Humans of the 21st century are challenged by these new diseases in much the same way as the Native Americans of the 15th and 16th centuries, who suffered massive population losses from “new” communicable agents brought to their shores by colonising Europeans.

    In these so-called virgin soil epidemics the novel organism, being completely new to the population, encounters no resistance from population immunity and is therefore able to spread virtually unhindered.

    This is an edited extract from Fighting an Invisible Enemy: The Story of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, published by Wits University Press (2024).The Conversation

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Main photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s). 

    WIO Futures : l’océanographie dans un paysage géopolitique complexe

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    La conférence WIO Futures 2024 s’est achevée avec succès le 17 septembre dernier. L’évènement, qui s’est tenu au Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel à Port-Louis, a rassembé près de quatre-vingts participants dont un large panel d’océanographes, de socio-politologues et de représentants d’organisations nationales et internationales. Organisé par le Charles Telfair Centre et le IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, avec le soutien du Centre for Marine and Earth Sciences de l’université de Curtin, l’évènement a exploré l’intersection entre océanographie, gestion durable et tensions géopolitiques dans l’océan Indien occidental.

    Cette région qui comprend les côtes de l’Afrique de l’Est, la péninsule arabique et diverses nations insulaires, abrite des écosystèmes cruciaux à la biodiversité mondiale et aux moyens de subsistance de millions de personnes. Elle est toutefois confrontée à des menaces existentielles liées au changement climatique, à la surpêche, à la pollution et à la destruction des habitats, des sujets abordés lors de la conférence.

    L’océan Indien occidental est également un point stratégique d’intérêt géopolitique, attirant l’attention de puissances mondiales comme la Chine, l’Inde, les États-Unis et la France, qui cherchent à accroître leur influence dans la région (Brewster, 2019). Ce paysage géopolitique se complique par des dynamiques régionales telles que les disputes territoriales, la piraterie et les ambitions économiques des États côtiers (Bueger and Stockbruegger, 2022).

    S.E. Kate Chamley, Haut-commissaire d’Australie à l’île Maurice, a ouvert l’évènement en appelant à la collaboration transfrontalière. « L’Australie s’est engagée à contribuer à l’élaboration d’une région qui fonctionne selon un ensemble de règles respectant la souveraineté et les droits de l’homme, » a-t-elle souligné. Plusieurs chercheurs – notamment le Dr Venugopalan Pallayil de l’Université du Singapour, le Prof. Malcom Heron du James Cook University en Australie, la Prof. Christine Erbe de Curtin Mauritius et le Prof. John R. Potter de l’Université Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapeligd en Norvège – ont présenté des innovations scientifiques pour mieux comprendre et protéger l’océan.

    La conférence s’est également penchée sur les tensions géopolitiques au sein de l’océan Indien occidental. La Professeure associée Roukaya Kasenally, de l’Université de Maurice (UOM), a détaillé l’importance stratégique de la région et appelé les petits États insulaires en développement à adopter une stratégie de solidarité afin de maintenir leur souveraineté. D’autre part, Veronique Garrioch, Sustainability & Relationships Manager chez IBL Seafood, a discuté des enjeux géopolitiques de l’industrie du thon dans l’océan Indien occidental soulignant l’impact de la concurrence internationale sur les économies locales. Dans le contexte de l’épuisement des stocks de thon, elle a aussi accentué l’urgence d’une coopération entre les différentes parties prenantes afin d’en assurer la pérennité.

    Vassen Kauppaymuthoo, océanographe, a quant à lui insisté sur le besoin d’une collaboration et d’une intégration régional. « Il est primordial que nous prenions conscience de la diversité des pays lorsque nous parlons d’une meilleure gestion de l’océan, » a-t-il souligné, déplorant la tendance à aborder les défis uniquement à échelle locale ou nationale. Le Dr Vonintsoa Rafaly a rappelé le pouvoir des communautés locales à s’unir pour faire entendre leurs voix, en référence à l’avis consultatif de May 2024 émanant du Tribunal international du droit de la mer.

    Dans la matinée du 16 septembre s’est tenue une table ronde, modérée par le Dr Daniel Marie, directeur du Mauritius Oceanography Institue (MOI). Les panélistes, notamment la Prof. Christine Erbe, le Dr Poonam Veer Ramjeawon du Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (MRIC), Gina Bonne, Chargée de Mission à la Commission de l’océan Indien (COI) et Sébastien Sauvage, directeur de l’ONG Eco-Sud ont longuement échangé sur l’économie politique du financement de la recherche marine dans l’océan Indien occidental. « Il est important que les chercheurs établissent des relations durables avec l’industrie qui elle a besoin d’études de fond sur les thèmes marins, » a souligné la Prof. Erbe. Par ailleurs, le Dr Ramjeawon a insisté sur la nécessité pour Maurice de nouers des partenariats régionaux pour développer la recherche avant d’évoquer la réalité des quotas pour le financement opérationnel des projets de recherche.

    La première journée s’est conclue à Odysseo avec une deuxième table ronde, modérée par le Dr Emilie Wiehe et abordant les défis de la recherche dans le paysage complexe de l’océan Indien occidental. Le Dr Pallayil a plaidé pour de plus étroites collaborations avec les universités internationales et le secteur privé, tandis que le Dr Christian Bueger de l’Université de Copenhague a mis en avant le besoin d’une meilleure coopération entre les sciences politique et naturelles pour concevoir l’océan comme un espace interconnecté. Par ailleurs, Raj Mohabeer, Chargé de Mission à la COI a appelé à plus de recherches fondées sur l’action et le Dr Riad Sultan de l’UOM a souligné que le financement de la recherche océanographique est souvent influencé par les intérêts économiques tout en appelant à la publication régulière des données collectées pour mieux informer les stratégies politiques.

    La deuxième journée de conférence, a été consacrée à la présentation des travaux de jeunes chercheurs travaillant sur les défis environnementaux de l’océan Indien occidental, sous la direction du Prof. Ranjeet Bhagooli de l’UOM. Ce dernier et son équipe ont présenté leurs travaux sur les changements dans les habitats des récifs coralliens, les coraux Stylophora madagascarensis et leur réponse au stress thermique, et l’identification des cachalots vivant dans les eaux mauriciennes. D’autres études ont exploré les anomalies de croissance des coraux Acropora, la distribution du mollusque Pinna muricata autour de Maurice et Rodrigues et la diversité des poissons de récif autour de Saint-Brandon. En outre, le Dr Lisa Ah Shee Tee du Reef Association a partagé ses travaux de la conservation volontaires des aires marines comme alternative aux aires marine protégées traditionnelles.

    La conférence WIO Futures 2024 a marqué une étape essentielle pour l’avancement de l’océanographie et de la gouvernance durable dans l’océan Indien occidental. En réunissant un groupe diversifié de participants, l’événement a réussi à mettre en lumière l’importance d’une collaboration intersectorielle et transfrontalière.

    Main photo by Charles Telfair Centre

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).

     

    Put a Price on Shipping Emissions

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    Shania Scotland, Climate Smart Agriculture officer at the World University Service of Canada

    While shipping is essential to the global economy, so is reducing the associated pollution. Requiring shipping companies to pay for their vessels’ greenhouse-gas emissions would go a long way toward advancing this objective, while generating much-needed revenues for climate-vulnerable developing countries.

    ROSEAU, DOMINICA – For most people, the idea of suddenly losing everything – their home, their possessions, and even their family members and friends – is unthinkable. But, for island communities around the world, this idea is all too real. And as the effects of climate change – including more frequent and severe natural disasters and extreme weather events – intensify, the threat is becoming increasingly acute.

    Seven years ago, my home, the small island country of Dominica, was struck by Hurricane Maria – a Category 5 hurricane, which caused catastrophic loss and damage from which we are still recovering. Two other island countries, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, fell victim to a similar tragedy this past summer, when Hurricane Beryl, a Category 4 storm, tore through the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

    Hurricanes have long been a feature of life in the Caribbean. But Maria and Beryl were no ordinary hurricanes: Maria brought record-breaking rainfall, and Beryl was the earliest hurricane in history to reach Category 5 in the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists agree that climate change powered these disasters – and has made more storms like them far more likely.

    It bears repeating that the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change – especially small island developing states (SIDS), like Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada – are often those that have done the least to cause it. As a result, we have little power to mitigate it directly, such as by reducing our own (already low) emissions. But we can still contribute to overcoming the challenge. The key is to work together to compel big polluters to change their behavior.

    There are few polluters bigger than the shipping industry. Not only is shipping responsible for around 3% of total global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions; it also pollutes our oceans with sewage, plastics, and oil and chemicals. Shipping thus causes serious harm to human health, especially for low-income port communities in developing countries, with pollutants from ships estimated to contribute to over 250,000 premature deaths annually.

    To be sure, a functioning shipping industry remains essential both to the global economy and to life in SIDS. Ships move around 80% of all traded products worldwide; for Dominica, this includes virtually all vital goods, from food to tools to medical supplies. Shipping also facilitates the tourism that supports so many livelihoods on our island.

    But, while shipping is essential, so is reducing the associated pollution. That is why the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea – the world’s highest court for marine protection – issued an unprecedented advisory opinion in May stating that countries are legally obliged to cut emissions, including from shipping, in order to protect the ocean.

    Putting a price on the industry’s GHG emissions would go a long way toward advancing that objective. Requiring shipping companies to pay for every ton of emissions from their vessels would raise the cost of using fossil fuels, thereby accelerating the shift toward clean-energy sources.

    According to a recent study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, such a levy would harm the global economy less than other approaches to decarbonizing shipping, such as a clean-fuel standard. And if the revenues generated are directed toward developing economies, the surcharge could reduce global inequality. Those revenues would be substantial: according to the World Bank, a levy of $150 per ton would generate $60-80 billion per year.

    For countries like Dominica, such a policy would be a game-changer. It would reduce the pollution from ships that come to our shores, make our ports and supply chains more resilient to rising sea levels and extreme weather events, advance a just energy transition, and support progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

    An ideal opportunity to accelerate progress toward this goal is about to unfold in London. Between September 23 and October 4, the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) and its 175 member states will attempt to agree on a set of policies for reducing shipping emissions, including some form of emissions pricing, to be adopted in April 2025.

    In the negotiations, SIDS must stand together to ensure that the levy is sufficiently high, and that the revenues will be distributed equitably. Already, a growing majority of countries want to see a levy mechanism adopted at the IMO, but others, including Brazil and China, continue to resist this opportunity.

    Belize and Pacific island states are calling for a price of $150 per ton, with the revenues going mostly to SIDS and least developed countries to finance investment in zero-emissions energy, ships and maritime infrastructure, and broader climate and resilience goals. More countries, in the Caribbean and beyond, must join them. When speaking in unison, our voices will matter.

    Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024.
    www.project-syndicate.org

    Main photo by AF Photos on Flickr

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).

    Small-Island Solidarity and Climate Common Sense

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    0

     

    Nadia Calviño, President of the European Investment Bank.

    Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships.

    LUXEMBOURG – While efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change will remain a top international priority for decades to come, the most urgent risks from global warming require immediate action and new ideas. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga last month, “If we save the Pacific, we save the world.”

    Since the Paris climate agreement was signed eight years ago, much progress has been made to create a more sustainable economy, with new technological solutions allowing countries to maintain strong growth while also reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. Governments, businesses, and households are increasingly determined to support climate investments. Renewable energy is becoming businesses’ first choice for electricity generation. Innovation is boosting the competitiveness of green alternatives. And financial institutions are allocating more than $1 trillion each year to green projects.

    In this context, sustained and concerted action at a global level will be the key to success. Yet the progress has been too slow for the world’s most vulnerable regions. For people living on small islands and grappling with rising sea levels, extreme weather, and ocean warming, climate change is already an existential threat. Despite their minimal carbon footprints, these regions are at the forefront of the problem. Their challenges today will become the global crises of tomorrow.

    For small islands, adaptation is critical. Caribbean and Pacific Island states, along with parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, face many more severe climate-related problems than other parts of the world. They also are more vulnerable financially. Whether borrowing money to recover from natural disasters or investing to strengthen their resilience to climate change, they face higher interest rates, and these additional costs come at the expense of investments in health and education.

    As the world leader in humanitarian and development aid, the European Union is one of the closest partners that small island states and other vulnerable regions have in combating climate change. Under the EU’s Global Gateway investment strategy, we have put our money where our mouth is, because our commitment reflects both genuine solidarity and common sense. We know that the costs of a disorderly green transition would far exceed the costs of investing in climate adaptation and mitigation right now. The gradual, credible changes that we make today are what will spare us the massive economic, social, and environmental damage caused by unchecked climate change.

    A few recent examples illustrate our commitment. In Kiribati, a small island state in the central Pacific, rising sea levels may render many islands uninhabitable within a few decades. So, the EU and its financial arm, the European Investment Bank, are working with the World Bank and other international financial institutions to study the possibility of building a new seaport, which will help relocate people from smaller islands to safer ground. Such projects can be a beacon of hope for vulnerable populations everywhere.

    In the Caribbean, where violent storms and rising temperatures are straining water infrastructure and the surrounding seas and marine ecosystems, an EU-backed water management and clean oceans program will provide expert support to launch water projects in 15 Caribbean countries. This work will improve water security, sanitation, solid-waste management, and flood protection, as well as helping to preserve our oceans.

    The EU and EIB are also pooling resources to transform the way Cabo Verde (an island country off the coast of West Africa) uses and produces energy. This ambitious project will assist the government’s plan to phase out fossil fuels by 2040. By focusing on renewable energy and storage, it will cut pollution and significantly benefit Cabo Verde’s water sector, which relies heavily on desalination – a highly energy-intensive process. With far-reaching environmental and economic benefits, such investments will make Cabo Verde a model for sustainable development across the region.

    Finally, in Barbados, we are supporting investments to help deal with floods and hurricanes. One project, in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, will improve sewage treatment and groundwater management, and we are also supporting a system to recycle wastewater for agricultural use. To enable these investments, we are funding a “debt for climate conversion” program that responds to Barbados’s particular financial needs in the bond market.

    These projects demonstrate what meaningful support for small island states looks like. The Global Gateway program is helping not only with adaptation and water security, but also with renewable energy, digital innovation, education, health care, and green transportation.

    In each case, we need to think differently, because we are confronting challenges that none of us has seen before. Tackling climate change is the most important mission of our time, and innovation and new ideas are essential. By working together to implement them, we will provide a better world for the world’s most vulnerable populations – and for us all.

    Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024.
    www.project-syndicate.org

    Main photo by junsjazz on Flickr

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).

    New fish found off Madagascar: remarkable long-nosed skate discovered in the deep ocean

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    Simon Weigmann, Associated Scientist, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change

    The Madagascar Ridge, in the southwestern Indian Ocean, is a remote, elevated area of seabed south of Madagascar. In 2016, my colleagues and I discovered a new cartilaginous fish species in its deep waters; a catshark that we named Bach’s catshark (Bythaelurus bachi) after German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. (In 2017 we discovered another new deep-water catshark that’s very similar to B. bachi but from the northwestern Indian Ocean off Somalia. We named it Bythaelurus vivaldii after another composer, Italian Antonio Vivaldi.)

    Sharks, rays and skates are all examples of cartilaginous fish; their skeletons are primarily composed of cartilage, not bone.

    Now we can add another new species from the Madagascar Ridge to our list of finds in African waters. We recently published a journal article describing the species, which we’ve named the Brown longnose skate (its scientific name, longirostris, means long, stiff snout – its most immediately visible defining feature). To date, both new species have only been found on the southern end of the Madagascar Ridge, and have not been recorded anywhere else in the world.

    Though this is exciting it also raises concerns. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species estimates that, collectively and globally, 37% of shark, skate and ray species are currently threatened with extinction. Some skates are caught in targeted fisheries but the main threat they face is becoming by-catch of fisheries targeting bony fishes.

    Because we know so little about Leucoraja longirostris, it’s hard to understand what risks it might face from fisheries. However, we know from other examples elsewhere in the world that deep-water species like the Brown longnose skate battle to withstand intensive fishing pressure. That’s because, generally, deep-sea fish grow slowly, mature late and have a low reproductive rate.

    Further research is essential. Scientists must learn more about this and other skate species’ distributions, life histories, population sizes and trends, as well as the threats they face. This will not just fill in knowledge gaps: it can lead to more effective conservation and management policy decisions.

    Skates

    The smallest skate, the Cuban pygmy skate (Fenestraja cubensis) reaches a tiny maximum total length of 23 cm. The largest, the Roughskin skate (Dipturus trachyderma) can grow to a total length of 264 cm.

    However, although some skate species and their famous egg cases, affectionately known as mermaid’s purses, are rather well-known to the public, many are poorly known even among scientists.

    Many species are only found in deep waters – even recorded down to a depth of more than 4,000 meters. At this depth, known as the abyssal zone, the pressure is about 400 atmospheres, or 400 times greater than the pressure at sea level. Very few fish species enter such depths.

    In 1988/89, a large expedition was carried out by the Russian research vessel Vityaz, which sampled many areas in the deep western Indian Ocean, and during which a large number of interesting cartilaginous fish species were found. I became interested in this material more than a decade ago and began researching the fish species that live on the floor of the Madagascar Ridge. Most of the material is held in the Zoological Museum of the Centre for Taxonomy and Morphology of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Hamburg, Germany.

    It was while studying this material that my colleagues and I identified the Bach’s catshark and the Brown longnose skate; there were specimens of both from the 1988/89 expedition but these had not been studied completely.

    The new species

    L. longirostris is uniformly brown above, like many other skate species living in dark, deep waters, where pronounced colour patterns are not really necessary. Rays and skates from shallower waters often use colour patterns to camouflage or to warn predators that they’re not safe to eat; in the deep sea this isn’t needed.

    L. longirostris can be distinguished from other skate species by its long snout and many other anatomical features. These include morphometrics (the measurement of living organisms and their parts) and meristic counts (countable traits such as number of tooth rows, vertebrae, fin rays etc.).

    The claspers are another important characteristic. These are paired organs that male cartilaginous fish use to assist the transfer of sperm into the body of the female during copulation.

    Species are grouped within genera and genera are grouped within families. L. longirostris’ claspers allowed us to show what genus it belongs to. The snout, meanwhile, is unique and confirmed that we were dealing with a previously unidentified species.

    Risks from fishing

    There’s not much information available about fisheries that operate in the area of the Madagascar Ridge, so it’s not possible to precisely quantify the risk to this skate. We assume that the risk isn’t high, since it’s in a rather remote area where it’s difficult to do bottom trawling; the southern Madagascar Ridge’s coral reefs also make it partially jagged.

    But we cannot be certain without more data. It will be crucial to learn more about the species to properly understand the risks it faces and to help contribute to conservation efforts. For that to happen, new specimens will need to turn up; we’ve studied and described what is available. In the meantime, I am continuing my research on poorly known cartilaginous fishes, with a special focus on the western Indian Ocean – who knows what still remains to be discovered?The Conversation

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Main photo by dav12 on Flickr

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s). 

    How Financial Markets Can Drive Climate Action

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO of E.L. Rothschild, Founder and CEO of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism.

    LONDON – Climate change is on the ballot in November’s US presidential election. A second Donald Trump presidency could lead to an additional four billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, erasing the progress made under President Joe Biden. Conversely, Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, established a record of being tough on polluters during her tenure as California’s attorney general.

    Meanwhile, Europe’s rightward shift and complicated coalition politics are slowing global climate action. As Western democracies grapple with rising political uncertainty, it may be up to capital markets to save the planet.

    Alas, our financial system is caught in a classic prisoner’s dilemma: it is costly for any single institution to decarbonize on its own while others continue to profit from carbon-intensive portfolios. But if all asset owners and managers committed to reducing CO2 emissions and supporting a just climate transition that protects workers, communities, and consumers, they could create long-term value and deliver prosperity for all.

    The inconvenient truth is that without robust climate policies – such as carbon pricing and elimination of fossil-fuel subsidies to reallocate capital toward clean energy – there is little incentive for collective action. In a world where it pays to pollute, investors will be tempted to support companies with unsustainable practices, shifting the burden of the energy transition to others and ultimately leaving everyone worse off.

    Contrary to activists’ hopes, climate action is not necessarily a win for everyone. A once-in-a-generation transition carries financial and political risks, as well as opportunities, creating winners and losers throughout the investment value chain. The question, then, is whether major asset owners and managers can steer markets toward achieving climate goals and generate sufficient financial returns.

    The answer is yes, but achieving this requires three major strategic shifts. First, investors must engage with high-emitting companies rather than simply divesting from them. Divestment campaigns often trigger partisan efforts to protect the fossil-fuel industry, whereas engaging with high-emitting companies and tracking their progress offers tangible climate benefits beyond portfolio decarbonization.

    In a 2023 study, for example, economists Kelly Shue and Samuel Hartzmark analyzed nearly two decades of emissions data from more than 3,000 companies, finding that high-emitting “brown” companies produce, on average, 261 times the emissions of climate-friendly “green” firms. This suggests that a 1% reduction in the emissions of an oil or gas company has a far greater environmental impact than a tech company or a bank achieving net-zero emissions. As geopolitical tensions rise and national fossil-fuel production becomes increasingly vital for energy security and affordability, policymakers should keep these findings in mind.

    Second, investors must actively seek emissions reductions instead of passively investing in low-carbon industries. As recent years have shown, exchange-traded funds focused on environmental, social, and governance investments not only underperform the market but also fail to accelerate climate action.

    Moreover, it has become abundantly clear that Big Tech companies like Meta (Facebook), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet (Google) tend to dominate sustainable equity funds. Although these funds may seem environmentally friendly at first glance, research shows that by directing capital away from high-emitting companies, they have inadvertently deprived critical sectors of the resources they need to invest in the clean-energy transition.

    By contrast, active funds that focus on encouraging carbon-intensive companies to decarbonize can drive climate action by channeling investments into sectors like renewable energy and waste management. A prime example of this approach is the $100 Billion Climate Action Plan launched by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which aims to improve cement production and retrofit fossil-fuel facilities.

    Importantly, there is little evidence that merely decarbonizing a portfolio translates into reduced greenhouse-gas emissions. To support the clean-energy transition, institutional investors must engage with both high- and low-emitting industries, incentivizing carbon-intensive companies to provide emissions disclosures to mitigate the negative impact of high emissions on their stock-market valuations. Given that the shift to a low-carbon economy requires significant long-term investment, institutional investors could also direct capital toward emerging technologies such as sustainable aviation and safe nuclear energy.

    Lastly, investors must seize the unique market opportunities created by weak national climate policies. According to the International Energy Agency, clean-energy investments will exceed $2 trillion in 2024 – roughly twice the amount invested in fossil fuels.

    To be sure, a second Trump administration could jeopardize the Biden administration’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act. But a slowdown in green investment is not inevitable, given that the IRA’s incentives – including $369 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for clean energy – have won support from voters, investors, companies, state and local officials, and even some Republican lawmakers. The IRA’s impact – catalyzing $240 billion in clean-energy investments in its first year – cannot be ignored.

    While green investments enable institutional investors to navigate domestic volatility, contribute to the fight against climate change, and generate returns, today’s unregulated carbon markets might give the impression that companies are prioritizing carbon offsets over meaningful decarbonization that benefits local communities. Initiatives led by climate and finance experts, such as the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, could thus play a pivotal role in setting standards for carbon credits and maintaining market integrity, helping to scale this essential climate-financing tool.

    Regardless of the political climate, 2024 is set to surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record. In an economy that values financial returns above all else, it is natural for individual companies to focus on profits. But focusing exclusively on generating returns overlooks the catastrophic impact of increasingly frequent extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods, and wildfires.

    As climate-related disruptions intensify, large institutional investors are uniquely positioned to lead the green transition while still delivering financial returns, thus bringing us closer to meeting the emissions targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Now is the time for markets to rise to the occasion and help us win the defining fight of our time.

    Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024.
    www.project-syndicate.org

    Main photo by PixaBay on Pexel

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).

    Rebooting the Sustainable Development Goals

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    John W. McArthur, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution

    Zia Khan, Senior Vice President for Innovation at The Rockefeller Foundation

    NEW YORK – It is a truism in the business world that vision without execution is a hallucination, and execution without vision is futile. The same principle applies to global policy: ambitions without solutions are just hopes, while solutions without ambition lead to stagnation.

    The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 are a case in point. These 17 objectives and 169 underlying targets were unanimously adopted by all United Nations member states in 2015. They constitute an ambitious agenda to address global challenges like poverty, health, gender equality, labor, education, and climate change.

    With six years remaining until the 2030 deadline, the world is far from achieving most of these goals. Despite significant improvements in some areas – such as a million more children reaching their fifth birthday each year – progress has been too slow in many others.

    While financing gaps are rightly often cited as a key factor, the biggest obstacle to achieving the SDGs is the lack of systematic approaches to creating scalable solutions. Slow and steady gains can lead to significant advances over time, but if progress becomes too slow, the sense of achievement and hope for the future can dissipate.

    Achieving systemic gains requires boldness. In 2015, the SDGs were launched with a call for transformation. But calling for transformative solutions is easier than developing them. Although markets are powerful drivers of innovation, we need solutions capable of tackling broader public interests. Progress often requires new forms of collaboration between public, private, scientific, and civil-society institutions, or even the creation of new ones. But many organizations have difficulties updating their goals or building partnership strategies. Siloed professional communities are difficult to unite, leaving vested interests and the forces of inertia to crowd out innovation. Consequently, partnership remains more an aspirational value than a skills-based discipline, and policy debates often prioritize ideology over practical solutions.

    Against this backdrop, achieving the SDGs by 2030 requires new approaches that are audacious enough to inspire but also practical enough to be viable – concepts that capture the imagination while steering implementation debates toward tangible results. This could mean anything from a new global fund designed to ensure that digital cash transfers reach the world’s poorest communities, or an “interspecies money” mechanism that leverages artificial intelligence to provide animals with a say on how digital currencies can be spent on their own protection. It could also mean developing a public data tool to help investors identify and avoid companies that use forced labor.

    New technologies, institutions, and approaches all have the capacity to mobilize energy and expertise to achieve common, quantifiable objectives. Crucially, the fresh approaches we have in mind must convince people to abandon current practices and pool their creativity and resources toward a greater goal.

    But big ideas rarely emerge on their own. Our respective professional experiences and collaborative efforts have taught us that innovative SDG solutions must be encouraged, cultivated, and supported. As co-chairs of 17 Rooms, a partnership between the Brookings Institution and The Rockefeller Foundation, we have worked with several dozen groups of extraordinary professionals around the world on initiatives related to all 17 goals. Having watched them experiment with various approaches, we have learned a few lessons about how to drive positive change.

    First, venues for cross-sector cooperation on sustainable development remain too rare. We have been struck by the sense of novelty leaders from all sectors frequently express when encouraged to craft bold actions together to achieve even individual SDG targets.

    Second, how ideas are shaped matters. To create platforms for the best ideas to emerge, the world needs tools, processes, and systems that can bring together diverse views, and yet the lack of available tools for developing multi-stakeholder solutions is startling.

    Third, the development and adoption of big ideas should be interlinked. Too often, experts devise new solutions without understanding the realities faced by those who would be responsible for implementing them. Conversely, policymakers often fail to seek out innovative ideas and are rarely held accountable for not doing so.

    A fourth lesson concerns the need to determine early on who will pay and how. Regrettably, the SDGs were launched without sufficient agreement on funding, making even small amounts of money difficult to secure. Without adequate financing, big ideas will remain just that – ideas.

    Fifth, there is no substitute for leadership. Institutions and systems are crucial for large-scale deployment, but the passion and dedication of individuals championing big ideas are much more important than a perfect strategy or project. Since roadblocks are inevitable in an age of technological disruption, policy entrepreneurs must be as agile as their counterparts in the business world in navigating constantly shifting terrain.

    To be sure, some people may argue that the current geopolitical climate is too challenging to pursue big ideas or develop systematic approaches to achieving the SDGs. We disagree. If anything, today’s heightened tensions underscore the need to chart a better path forward. When the world seems stuck or off course, policy tweaks are unlikely to have a significant impact. New ideas, on the other hand, can foster a sense of opportunity and combat despair.

    Lastly, private-sector and civil-society leaders are just as vital to generating big ideas as public officials. Big ideas can drive change at every level, from local councils to international forums. But achieving the SDGs requires new platforms that can foster innovation across sectors and empower relevant actors to advance solutions independently.

    At 17 Rooms, we have learned from our successes and missed opportunities. With six years remaining until the 2030 deadline to achieve the SDGs, we are actively seeking big ideas. We hope others will adopt a similar approach and help all of us build platforms to facilitate innovative solutions.

    This commentary draws on insights generated through the 17 Rooms Initiative, convened by the Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings and The Rockefeller Foundation.

    Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024.
    www.project-syndicate.org

    Main photo by United Nations Photos on Freepik

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).

    As Disinformation Thrives, Democracy Dies

    By
    Charles Telfair Centre
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    Nishant Lalwani, Co-Founder and CEO of the International Fund for Public Interest Media.

    Maha Taki, Director of the What Works Unit at the International Fund for Public Interest Media.

    James Deane, Co-Founder of the International Fund for Public Interest Media.

    LONDON – Last year, OECD countries collectively allocated more than $220 billion in official development assistance (ODA). But a rising tide of disinformation is undermining the effectiveness of these investments.

    For example, a massive increase in financing for climate adaptation is urgently needed, but the impact of calls for increased investment would likely be limited if disinformation campaigns persuade people that global warming doesn’t exist or is not worth addressing. As COVID-19 showed, pandemic responses can be undermined if people fall victim to misleading health advice. And without a free and independent press to hold politicians and policymakers to account, famines become more likely, because increasingly scarce resources such as water and arable land may be poorly managed in the absence of transparent and equitable governance.

    More worryingly, disinformation threatens not only development, but also democracy itself. As news organizations struggle to survive in a complex and fast-changing media landscape, abuses of political and corporate power go unchecked. Independent journalism is one of the cheapest and most efficacious bulwarks against authoritarianism. In fact, it is so effective that autocrats are spending billions of dollars each year to undermine it by influencing domestic and foreign media narratives, as Freedom House’s report on China’s global media influence shows.

    And yet, while autocratic regimes invest billions in disinformation, Western countries are doing little to address the problem. To be sure, policymakers and politicians emphasize the vital role of press freedom in speeches, disinformation reports, and democracy conferences. But global government investment in public-interest journalism remains shockingly low.

    The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) recently published a landmark report that underscores this “mismatch between rhetoric and resource allocation.” A detailed mapping study of ODA for media found that donor countries have not allocated enough resources to respond adequately to the dramatic erosion of information integrity worldwide.

    Over the last decade, the percentage of the global population living under autocratic rule has risen, from 49% to 70%, disinformation has surged in every country, and the financial threats confronting independent media have become existential. But support for media has remained stagnant, with 38 OECD countries spending a total of around $500 million per year – or about a third of Russia’s estimated propaganda budget. This represents less than 0.2% of total ODA in 2022 (the most recent year for which statistics are available).

    Worse, only a small fraction of this support is directly channeled to independent media organizations in recipient countries. The report finds that less than 10% of ODA for media and the information environment is delivered to journalists, media outlets, and civil-society organizations focused on journalism. This represents a mere 0.05% of total ODA between 2016 and 2022. Unless ODA for journalism is significantly increased, public-interest media in many countries will die out, with dire consequences for the societies served by these outlets. Democratic processes will be destabilized, and progress on development will be stunted – perhaps irrevocably so.

    Fortunately, some donor countries have finally begun to recognize this need. In March, the OECD DAC published a new set of principles for providing relevant and effective support to media and the information environment, which call for increasing financial and other forms of support, and strengthening local leadership and ownership. This means “ensuring a more significant share of ODA for media development reaches local and regional actors directly” and “increasing the availability and accessibility of direct, flexible, and reliable support, including core funding and longer-term, multi-year funding.”

    This suggests that the low levels of spending on independent journalism do not reflect a lack of knowledge or evidence. Rather, donor countries consider this type of support to be politically challenging and difficult to execute – and rightly so. Investment in independent media can complicate government-to-government relationships. Moreover, even large donor countries are unable to invest in the staff required to support media organizations effectively as part of their bilateral ODA support to countries.

    In addition, preserving the editorial independence of media outlets remains essential. While the amount of ODA going directly to media organizations is unacceptably low, it would also be inappropriate for donor countries to increase direct support themselves – no government should be picking and choosing which news outlets are worthy of support.

    Our organization, the International Fund for Public Interest Media (which financially supported the OECD DAC study but played no role in data collection or analysis), was created to address these challenges. As a multilateral fund that pools contributions from a large and diverse group of donors, it is designed to channel funding to media outlets quickly and at scale, without compromising the editorial independence of the newsrooms it supports.

    Equally important are the other global, regional, and local organizations that help strengthen the capacity of independent media, advocate for press freedom, and push for regulatory reform. The International Fund was set up to work in synergy with these entities.

    All of these initiatives are ready to scale up their support. But they need more resources. They must also work together to make media support a more central part of political discussions related to foreign policy and international development. Working together, we can urge government decision-makers who have leverage over ODA spending to increase support for this critically important area. This can be achieved by amplifying constructive voices and broadening the coalition of actors supporting independent media, particularly by connecting journalism’s plight to other high-profile problems such as disinformation and corruption.

    Looking ahead, artificial intelligence will fundamentally alter the information ecosystem, making investment in journalism even more critical. With enough funding, independent news outlets will be able to develop the tools and the capacity to deploy new technologies in the service of the public interest, rather than being left behind – as they were after the rise of social media. If OECD donor countries increased their support for media from 0.2% to 1% of total OAD – a relatively small increase, given the scale of the challenge – more than $2 billion would be available for the sector globally.

    Western countries have been lamenting the crisis in independent media for over a decade now. But foreign-aid spending on journalism has remained flat over that period. The world has changed drastically in the last ten years, and a shift in donor strategy is long overdue. Now is the time to save independent journalism. The longer we let disinformation thrive, the less likely it will be that democracy survives.

    Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024.
    www.project-syndicate.org

    Main photo by rawpixel.com on Freepik

    Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).

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