The omikron strain is fierce, and India speeds up delivery of indigenous vaccines to Africa

#accelerate#omikron#Africa

As the omicron strain of the novel coronavirus is spreading around the world, India, home to the World's largest vaccine manufacturer, Has accelerated the export of its own vaccines to Africa and other countries.
India said late on Tuesday it would "expeditiously" export more vaccines to African countries to help them fight the omikron strain.
Bharat Biotech announced on November 29 that it had delivered an export order for Covaxin, its homegrown vaccine, in November, the Straits Times reported on December 1. On 26 November, the Serum Institute of India also resumed the export of Covishield, another Indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, which will be distributed to low - and middle-income countries through COVAX, led by WHO and others.
As of November 29, India had exported more than 25 million doses of indigenous vaccines to 41 African countries, mostly through COVAX, according to the Ministry of External Affairs. India's foreign ministry also said on the same day that it would quickly consider "any new request through bilateral or COVAX channels".
In October, India resumed COVID-19 vaccine exports for the first time since April. Since the resumption of exports, India's domestic vaccine production has more than tripled to about 300 million doses a month. India has so far fulfilled all Covishield vaccine supply orders placed through COVAX, supplying Covishield vaccine to African countries such as Malawi, Ethiopia, Zambia, Mozambique, Guinea and Lesotho, and Covaxin vaccine to Botswana. In addition, India recently approved the export to Indonesia of 20 million doses of the US Novavax vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India.
However, groups such as the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust issued a press release on 29 November saying that most of the vaccines given to Africa so far had problems such as "temporary arrangements with little notice and a short shelf life". The African Vaccine Procurement Trust called on donor countries to continue to deliver large amounts of vaccines to Africa in a "predictable manner". It also stresses that vaccines should have a shelf life of at least 10 weeks when they arrive in recipient countries.

Indonesia and the Philippines will join the coal transition program

#accelerate #crucial #strengthening 
Indonesia, the Philippines and India will follow South Africa in accelerating the coal transition as the first recipients of the multi-billion dollar pilot scheme, the Climate Investment Fund (CIF) said on November 4.
These four countries account for 15 per cent of global coal-related emissions. Reducing their carbon emissions will help accelerate the world's goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
Indonesia is committed to reducing the number of coal-fired power plants in the country and replacing them with renewable energy as part of its energy transition, energy Minister Tasrif Said.
The fund says its plan to Accelerate the Coal Transition, or ACT, is the first aimed at developing countries. These countries lack the resources to finance the energy transition, and phasing out coal is seen as crucial to meeting the goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C by 2030.
The new plan will invest in projects ranging from strengthening the nation's capacity to manage the energy transition to decommissioning or other uses of coal assets and creating economic opportunities for coal-dependent communities.