João Lourenço visits Angola's stand on ocean conservation

Luanda - The Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, on Wednesday visited the Angolan stand in Lisbon, Portugal, designed as part of the United Nations Conference on the Oceans, which has been held since 27 October.

The space was created in a multimodal perspective for moments of interaction, oral presentations, debates and exhibition of the Angolan oceanographic portfolio, by means of informative, digital and non-digital panels. 

At the time of the visit, the Angolan President, who ends today (Wednesday) his 4-day visit to  Lisbon Portugal, was explained the purposes and objectives of the stand installation, which is visited daily by more than 50 individualities, among national and foreign citizens. 

At the opening of the Conference on Oceans, Monday, President João Lourenço transmitted Angola's message, regarding the way in which the oceans and their enormous resources are to be treated. 

The stand is temporary and is expected to operate only during the Conference on the Oceans, which ends on 1 July. 

The main maritime potentialities of the country are on display there, by means of digital and non-digital information panels. 

Visitors can also access content on blue economy, circular economy, management, conservation and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems. 

Combating marine pollution, managing, protecting, conserving and restoring marine and coastal ecosystems, minimizing ocean acidification, deoxygenating and warming, and promoting sustainable fishing are some of the goals to be achieved by the United Nations. 

The measures also include scientific knowledge and the development of marine technological research, the effective implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the promotion of sustainable ocean-based economies. 

Objectives of the Conference 

The first UN Oceans Conference took place five years ago in New York (USA), but it was not until 2021, at the 26th Climate Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, that the ocean was introduced in the articles of the Final Declaration, which represented an advance on the Paris Agreement. 

The conference plenary takes place daily at the Altice Arena, and features eight Interactive Dialogues throughout the week. 

In addition to the plenary sessions and dialogues, there are hundreds of side events on the conference program, including four special events. 

These include the high-level event on Local Governance, the Youth and Innovation Forum, the High Level Symposium and the Forum on Blue Sustainable Economy. 

Military support reduces deaths in Mozambique - Ambassador

Luanda - The Mozambican ambassador to Angola, Osvalda Joana, said in Luanda that the support of the SADC and Rwandan military made it possible to reduce the number of deaths in the country, between 2020 and 2021, by 82 percent.

In a recent interview with ANGOP, on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of Mozambican Independence, the diplomat said that the figures until 2021 showed that there were at least 3,000 dead and 850,000 displaced, but with the operations to support the Mozambican forces, the numbers were reduced by 82 percent.

According to the ambassador, the success of the military operations has to do with the successful measures on terrorism against the group of extremists, carried out by the Mozambican forces, supported by the Rwandan military and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

In another part of the interview, the diplomat spoke about the need to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, in the areas of oil and gas, in which Angola has extensive experience, as well as agriculture and tourism.

"Mozambique and Angola have excellent political and historical relations of friendship, brotherhood, solidarity and cooperation. Cooperation is based on the General Agreement signed between the two countries on 5 September 1978 in Luanda, which stipulates bilateral exchange in the socio-political, economic and technical-scientific areas," she said.

Italy warns of rising energy prices due to temporary closure of Russian gas pipeline

The Italian Minister for Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, warned this Saturday that a new increase in the price of energy is expected in Italy after Russia announced the closure of the Nord Stream gas pipeline for maintenance, EFE said.

 

“The two-week closure of Nord Stream for maintenance will result in an increase in the price of gas and this means that there will be even less gasoline and prices will risebecause the gas market is speculative and there will be more accumulation,” Cingolani said in a televised interview quoted by EFE.

 

Pipeline operator Nord Stream announced that it will close the two channels carrying Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea for 11 days in July to carry out planned repairs.

 

According to Cingolani, this is on top of the 15% less gas Italy already receives from Russia, where Italians import about 40% of the gas they need.

 

Even so, the minister assured that Italy already has 60% of the stocks stored and wants to reach 90%, which he considers “an achievable goal”.

 

Cingolani said that if Russia decided to stop exports, “Italy would suffer less than other European countries”, even if it had to face “a difficult winter”, but ruled out that for now “restrictions will have to be imposed”.

 

For his part, the Italian minister defended the proposal to put a ceiling on the price of gas that is being studied in the European Union.

 

“Europe imports three quarters of russia’s gas through its gas pipelines: who is it going to sell it to if europe doesn’t buy it, it’s a lot of work to liquefy and sell it, so we can afford to create market conditions, which doesn’t mean strangling it but avoid crazy price spikes,” he said.

 

He added that the reference under discussion “is between 80 and 90 euros per megawatt/hour” and that “the challenge is to convince the most skeptical European countries, starting with the Netherlands”.