International
World risks more years of high energy prices, emissions: IEA

AFP
The world faces more years of high energy prices and emissions unless the electricity sector changes faster after demand hit a record last year, the International Energy Agency said Friday.
The economic recovery from the Covid pandemic, combined with unusual weather conditions, caused electricity demand to jump by more than six percent in 2021, the largest increase since 2010, the IEA said.
In absolute terms, the increase of more than 1,500 terawatt-hours was the largest ever, the Paris-based agency said in its semi-annual Electricity Market Report.
This pushed prices to unprecedented levels while emissions from the electricity sector rose by seven percent in 2021 — an all-time high after having decreased the previous two years, the IEA said.
While renewable power experienced “impressive growth”, electricity generation from coal and natural gas hit record levels, the report found.
“In the absence of faster structural change in the sector, rising demand over the next three years could result in additional market volatility and continued high emissions,” the IEA said.
IEA executive director Fatih Birol said emissions from electricity must fall by 55 percent by 2030 if the world is to meet a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“But in the absence of major policy action from governments, those emissions are set to remain around the same level for the next three years,” Birol said in a statement.
“Not only does this highlight how far off track we currently are from a pathway to net zero emissions by 2050, but it also underscores the massive changes needed for the electricity sector to fulfil its critical role in decarbonising the broader energy system.”
Birol also warned that high electricity prices “have been causing hardship for many households and businesses around the world and risk becoming a driver of social and political tensions.”
China accounted for around half of the global growth in electricity demand last year. The country experienced power cuts due to coal shortages — a problem also encountered by India.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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