ah there was always liked. we're brave enough to see it only with me. for all the main stories now people around the world are bidding farewell to 2021. but for the 2nd year, running many new year celebrations are being held in the shadow of the corona virus pandemic. the official firework display was cancelled in new zealand. one of the 1st countries to ring in 2022 in its place was a light shone all plans at sky tower and hop a bridge. but in australia,

the traditional fireworks shown sidney harbor went ahead. 16 tons of pyrotechnics by ignited for the display spy, australia recording more than 32400 covert cases on new year's eve, which is a new daily hi. will you? k reported another record number of new infections on friday from which is more than a 189000. a british prime minister boris johnson has not been years. you've celebrations here. instead encouraging people to take a cova test and to get vaccinated. the people who think the disease can't hurt the look at the people going into hospital. now. that could be you look at the intensive care units and the miserable legally suffering of those who did not get that booster. that could be you. so making your new year's resolution far easier than losing weight or keeping your diary. falling a walk in center or make an online appointment. get that job and do something that

will make 2022. a happy new year. russell reco numbers of covered infections are being reported in the us nearly 650000 people tested positive in the past day. while some cities in france including the capital, paris of made moscow mandatory outside. and in other news, devastating fires have destroyed hundreds of homes in the usa of colorado. tens of thousands of people have had to evacuate the area. officials, a warning that people may have died in a fire hotel shopping, santa and apartment complex. and for a 2nd day, south africans have paid their respects to desmond. tutu is that simple. pine casket will spend the night in cape town, saint george's cathedral before his funeral on saturday. those the headlines counting the cost is next from talk to

the wild. the army, as we listen, design is, are making serious effort and just dropped the trend we need to make a storm is done and i use hello. i'm getting obligated. this is counting the cost on al jazeera. you're looked at the world of business and economics. this week, the climate emergency, the price of going green and why it doesn't need to cost the earth. so what does the world waiting for? also the sweet new zealand and economic test bed for inflation in the 19th half the world. central banks watching closely for risk next experiment. this time it's targeting surging house prices. her iraq has no golds deposits yet. it's

become one of the country's top exports billions export to turkey. we find out why the was a nation responsible for the biggest share of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today. president biden has pledged more money and made new commitments to fight climate change. after his predecessor walked away from commitments to reduce harmful emissions that threatened to wreak havoc to global weather patterns, raising sea levels, and displacing people. washington is making climate change a priority. and once the number one, a number 3, big emitters, china, and india to contribute more to the fight was a pandemic has proven where there is a will. there is a way and money is no object. in fact, the global cost of a transition to renewable energy by 2050 would be $73.00 trillion dollars. that's according to stanford university,

which research was believe could be recovered over a period of 7 years. and there's added benefits, the shift to a 0 carbon global economy would create $28600000.00 more full time jobs than if nations continue their current reliance on fossil fuels. will not the united states wants to make the transition to renewables over the next 9 years. it could, the cost would be $4.00 trillion dollars or a little more than the cost of $2.00 wars. and i've got a son. that number comes from energy consultants with mackenzie, but even they acknowledge that would not be feasible because a social and political issues. well, one of the biggest factors is what to do with businesses that emitting contribute to climate change. they would need time to transition. otherwise, the global financial system that includes banks, pensions and insurance, could be sitting on losses of 20 trillion dollars. but there is a mechanism that penalize is big polluters by making them buy credit to offset

their emissions. it's called carbon trading. so you may have heard of deals like this where ill on must tesla cells, carbon credits generating revenue of $1580000000.00 in 2020. and this year a volkswagen and china bought credits and a maker of electric cars. and then their oral companies like b p that are cheap to dump acids to reduce their carbon footprint it sold at alaska. oil feels to a little known privately held company called hill corps for $4600000000.00. the problem is the world doesn't see a drop in emissions. they still exist, but a publicly traded company with shareholders and activists has now offloaded verifiable emissions to a company that has little incentive to declare them. so this is what we're going to do will pick up on carbon trading right after this report from kristen salumi in new york. that's where our authorities are promising to have 70 percent of their electricity come from renewable sources by 2030. it's one of the most ambitious

clean energy plans in the country. in the heart of new york said the legendary big alice, once the world's largest electric generating unit, its owner rise, light and power. now wants to make it the cleanest with plans to build the largest battery facility in the country right here in 2 years, a storage facility for renewable energy. what are the challenges that you face to meet this deadline in terms of the c o, clint plumber acknowledges it won't be easy. our challenge is new york show just also the countries challenge and world challenges. how do we transition from a economy? a city that's run primarily on fossil fuels for as long as that electricity, one that's focusing on now running on clean energy infrastructure, large electromagnet, and they're taking their dirtiest carbon spewing oil and gas, fire generators, offline to make way for the batteries. they'll also need transmission lines to tie

in to wind and solar farms outside the city. but currently renewables make up just 2 percent of down state energy. new york is attempting to win itself off of fossil fuels at the same time. it's taking another major source of carbon for electricity, offline the indian point, nuclear power plant in 2019. this facility alone was responsible for 13 percent of the state's power. while environmentalists long push for it's closure, some are now arguing nuclear power is currently the only carbon free technology able to replace fossil fuels. they point out the state is building more natural gas facilities to make up the difference. if you look at the examples of germany and vermont and california, there are small studies that have shown that when you get rid of nuclear in general air pollution and carbon emissions actually increase. still others say to switch to renewables has to start happening for new york power to be carbon free by 2040 right now. barrier technology when solar technology,

this tremendous effort under way to make those technologies less expensive, more reliable, and where possible, smaller all agree. the need to keep the lights on and eliminate fossil fuels. mean there must be change on the horizon. christian salumi al jazeera new york. so that's just one story of the energy transition. and as we said earlier, many companies are using carbon credits to a their transition to renewables. but are they fit for purpose? well, my next guest is nikolai bartlett's is the global director of climate change environment monitoring advisory, c. d. p. thanks for speaking to us and counting the cost. your latest research find about half of the world's biggest 500 companies are indeed factoring carbon accounting in their business plans. but let's just look at the top half empty for a moment's at this stage in our climate emergency. it's not really good enough,

is it? no, indeed. i mean, we have seen an 80 percent jump in the last 5 years of companies internalizing carbon costs. and those driving different investment fissions, but we need to see a much higher proportion of them doing so as you've just articulated carbon the pricing ultimately places and monetary value on, on carbon itself. and whether it's in to regulation or what the companies do it themselves. the a, mr. trigger, a change in investment decisions. and of course, there's a direct link between companies doing this and the regulation in the market. we've also seen that it does drive change when it's huge, so it goes hand in hand with some of the, the emission reduction activities that companies are giving. so we see a direct correlation. those companies that use the price and those companies that are setting science based targets, investing in renewable energy, etc, directly correlated. at the same time i have, it's interesting to see, you know, this year we've seen a big spike in, for example,

the european emission trading scheme in terms of prices. the median company, the price, the median price that we see companies are reporting to us that they use internally is about $28.00. now this is below where the e t, yes spike to this year. so it seems to me that not only more companies need to do it, but the, the prices that they use need to increase, right? so let me ask you this, the cost of renewables are falling. and now is the time to push ahead and leave struggling companies behind anything else other than that, we'll just look like socializing their failures. absolutely, absolutely. and of course it's not just about the noodles. and it's not just about common pricing regulation per se. there are a myriad of regulation signals that are coming down the market faust in many countries, almost all countries right now, whether it be targets, whether it be standards, whether it, whether it be incentives, whether it be investment path patterns changing. these are changing the way in

which we need to invest in the future and the assets we make in the future. we've seen a continuous increase in carbon pricing itself regulation over the last many years . we're about 60 full jurisdictions have a carbon priced right now, whether at a state or provincial level or at a national level. and of course, china announced that it will be launching and emissions rating system in 2021. but we need this quicker and we needed foster. and in terms of, of, of, of carbon pricing itself. it is incredibly helpful. full sectors such as cement and steel, where renewables and cain energy will not be the only solution to, to the technology challenges they have. you also have this announcement by the e u that it plans to have a buddha tax adjustment, which means that the cost of comp and will be included in the cost of those products if they brought in from outside of the european union. and i think this is

also really interesting and something that companies need to watch out for local were mentioning b p earlier on and b, p has sold at alaska oil business. the new buyer is a private company. so this is good for b p. but those emissions still exist, who's actually monitoring the private buyer? well, this is a really interesting question. and of course we may see more of this is the trend in the future. we see that with a significant number of fossil fuel assets right now, going into private hands, private equity. i think what we're seeing is we obviously need regulation and we need monitoring. now we have increased scrutiny on those companies who are listed and we need to now stop shine. the spotlight on the companies that are not listed and regulation is vital, of course. but all of the monitoring that needs to happen by and g o is by civil society by, by the media. and particularly by the investment community themselves. we work with over 9600 investors that have about 110 trillion in assets. and over the last 20

years we've been working with them to get companies to measure and manage these type of emissions rates as low many banks. apologies. i mean, look at banks for a moment. so while they talk about net 0 targets, that hasn't really stop them from continuing to finance, coal oil as well as gas ventures. absolutely. we have a, another piece of analysis coming out in about 2 weeks time, which really looks at what banks have disclosing to us. and while you see a significant number of banks saying they're aligning their own internal practices and this investment and lending decisions with the parents agreement with a below 2 degree world, this is not yet translated into a shift in their portfolio. we need to see that we need to see it quickly. i think not enough focus has been put on the banking community in the space. so we have the momentum. now we have the scrutiny and i think civil society and other actus that's where they need to be. focus the financing of these things needs to stop and banks

play a major role. not ok. nikolai bartlett, thank you so much for speaking to us from london. thank you very much. now before we leave this topic, one more report for you and it's important on so many levels because china is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, president she, japan has pledged to fight climate change, but the government continues to build new co plants. one of the leading sources of carbon emissions. katrina, you reports of judging and jang province. plumes of toxic smoke leaking from power plants and factories is a common sight and shanty. the northwestern province has for decades powered china's economic growth primarily by burning coal. it's contributed to the nation, becoming the world's top to lucia, responsible for roughly one 3rd of global carbon emissions. the cold industry employs most of the people who live here. oh, pollution, over there. it's been polluting for decades. if they shut down all the factories or

what are we going to do? everyone worked for the factories. last year this region produced about 1100000000 tons of coal, toners reliance on burning coal as its main source of entity is its biggest obstacle to lowering carbon emissions. the government is struggling to find ways to curb it's years of coal without affecting jobs or harming economic growth. pollution caused by burning fossil fuels regularly shrouds the capital in heavy smoke. baiting has pledged to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and eliminate them altogether by 2060. but it's yet to detail how exactly it plans to achieve this is not only about commitment is all about though what we actually do right. in the next 5 years, we're expected, china can implement more concrete policies and to, to give us a more clear road map. how are they gonna achieve? these 2 are carbon targets increasing the use of renewable energy sources is

crucial. china is already the world's largest producer of wind and solar power. it's also the biggest market for electric vehicles. the government has tightened regulations to pressure con makers into transitioning away from gas. but many say that's not enough. u. s. climate envoy, john kerry, was in shanghai trying to convince authorities to do more the eager to 3 in agree bigler. 44 big country with 1400000000 people that these goals are not easily delivered. some countries are asking china to do more on climate change. i'm afraid this is not very realistic. researchers say china must close down more than 500 coal fired power plants in the next decade to meet its climate pledges. but it continues to approve new ones at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world. the ssion, she government is planning to close down some older factories here and build what it says. oh, greener, more efficient whole facilities. some parts of china, at least it seems the road to clean energy will be long and slower. katrina,

you al jazeera says she, province, china now think new zealand. what comes to mind the all blacks rugby team? it's mallory culture and it's picturesque landscape. and yes, it's exceptional handling of the pandemic, but it's also been known as a leader in the field of economics. back in 1989 new zealand central bank was the 1st to commit to a specific target for consumer price inflation venue. the biggest threat to the world economy. at the time, there was great opposition to the idea, but inflation fell from 8 to 2 percent over 2 years. and inflation targets were adopted by most central banks to take runaway prices. so it wouldn't surprise you that the prime minister just send to our durn has tossed the central bank to limit the rise of house prices. an important issue globally, when you consider, despite the pandemic house prices have stored in new zealand, the average house price increase by 24.3 percent to $826000.00 new zealand dollars

. and march 2021, a record high for the country. now this is such an important issue globally on so many levels. so let's get some analysis from oakland. we're joined by bernie smith, who's the chief executive officer of the monte cilia, housing trash. thanks so much for speaking to us on counting the cost, the prime minister to send the order and was a little elected on the promise of housing affordable housing. how's that going? it's not been going very well for the government at all. and frank, the 4 years and 10 so far prices have rapidly increased to the extent that it's actually creating homelessness, and costing the government a $1000000.00 a day, just an emergency and transitional housing. so how did i get to the point where there's a chronic housing shortage with president government would suggest that it was the

previous, a national government, but they know as well as we know on the ground that it's been decades in the making a by governments on the right and the left have that a real desire to have a market driven economy because it means a healthy economy. they haven't been building the houses, the level that they did in the fifties and sixties. and you know, the population has gone from 2000000 to 5000000 and we were just in the situation. now that seems impossible to turn around, but i'm sure we will at some time. so is it possible to come point one reason or several reasons behind the house price raises? it is a speculation. the central banks printing money building regulations high immigration?

what is that, or is it a combination of all of those? it's a combination of $1.00 of those speculators, for instance, if a got a $1000000.00 on the bank, they might get dying about point 5 percent interest, which is very little retain. i could buy a house for a $1000000.00 and click it, and then a couple of years, some in some cases by can flip it on months and mike, hundreds of thousands of april a that taking advantage of the lack of supply of housing. and of course, of a government assisting low income families with income related rained. so the speculation has continued.

they the central bank as much as the government does desired to un, hender it in the same, so from stopping or slowing down the housing market as safer bank a spice to be totally independent and it's mind drivers to ensure that the economy stays healthy. so really the government has no swipe on what it does. it can give advice, but a cons. instruct what happened to the government. $2000000000.00 plan to build more housing p. we build a rebuild. became the laughing stock of, of fun, usina. and i really because we billed, was trumpeted as part of their election came buying to, to build $100000.00 houses per year. and so that

i've had 10 years. so $10000.00 a year, the steve, they wrote about $300.00 and of those $300.00 that would barely able to sell a half of ice. they're building them in the wrong locations. the price benchmarks were in correct. so the taken that target away totally. and now instead of having inspirational policy, says they called the k me bill, that they've got what they call foundational and policy. so in other words, i, we're not going to say any targets or in this for the long haul. and i'm the now i starting to get a little bit of traction on the, on the key we build development, but we're talking about one or 2000. we're not talking about tens of thousands at

this point. right. and do you think that it would be possible for the central bank to control house prices, inflation there's, there's no doubt that they are central bank could control if they say chinese. but the difficulty is they need to manage the economy as a hall. and i don't see it as i understand it as the key responsibility. that's really the government's responsibility by ensuring that the government pozole the labors at possibly chain to ensure that that housing and that is a right to every individual in this country, in many countries across the world that everyone has an opportunity, withers rainbow, or whether it's a purchase and the government's just not doing it because they're becoming more

central. and i believe the, the more focused on being re elected in a couple of years than what they are in the st. so being focused on the needs of families that are falling into homelessness. and i focus their own bernice has said the chief executive officer of the month of cecilia housing trust. thank you so much for speaking to us from auckland. no worries at all. thank you. and finally, gold has become one of iraq's top exports, despite there being no gold deposits in the country. in 2020 iraq exported nearly a $1000000000.00 worth to turkey alone. so what's the secret osama bin job aid reports from baghdad. in an old bagdad workshop, the same melting pot has been used for decades. natural dilemma converts old gold into 21 carrot bars. in the chemical process, each element is carefully measured and added according to the weight. he's been

doing it for years, but business is not what it was before. the 2003 us invasion. now with the rising demand for newer and final designs, most of his orders go to turkey or gulf states for local goldsmiths. it's difficult to compete with more than machinery, cheap electricity, and labor. and it's minnesota to the i'm nannie. we hope the government supports us with new machine. we want support for the workshops and we demand to stop exporting gold. gold is now among iraq stopped, 3 exports after oil. the trade with turkey alone has reached nearly a $1000000000.20 in 2019 doesn't produce gold, but imports it from other countries. and gold traders export it for processing into jewelry. so now, lia and this read, the local gl industry has died. no, just go, but all local industries and there's a lack of electricity. eric is not attractive for investment and not business

friendly. 3 or traders in business then go to turkey and other countries because it is better quality and cheaper and high. so how much gold goes in and out of iraq? apparently, there is no clear data. we asked the ministry of trade, who directed us to the ministry of finance, who told us to ask the central bank, which in turn said that data must be kept by them in history of planning. why it can be often was told that in fact this issue of how much is imported is not our job. we only plan for the quality and legal import out of the organization for quality and standards monitors. goldsmith all over iraq. also, we have offices at border crossings and airports to guarantee quality and reduce smugly. deep rooted corruption and a weak economy makes it easier for black market operators to move things across borders. diplomatic sources told out there are that due to lack security crossings . and lawlessness is gold being smuggled from neighboring countries. and iraq's

economic uncertainty leads to increased local demand despite the current could no virus pandemic. this bar of gold costs about $55000.00 in today's market because of iraq security. many families are investing in precious metals, rather than keeping their money in dollars or the nurse from glittering religious sites to important social occasions erupting have had a century or relationship with gold. and as the precious commodity is now a major economic entity, they want the government to ensure it adds to the economy rather than taking away from it from my job without there are like that. and that's are so for this week, but there's more for you online it, i'll just the result. com slash ctc. that'll take you straight to our page, which has entire episodes for you to catch up on. i'm daddy and abigail, you've been watching counting the ca. thanks for joining us. the news on al jazeera is next ah,

january on, i just need i, we look back on us president joe biden supposed deal in office 12 months on from the capital building by the part of the st. enjoy in our social media community. s, sierra leon's, recovery from civil war continues. we mock 2 decades since the end of one of africa's most political complex, the bottom line, steve clemons dives headlong into the us issues that shape the rest of the world. as we enter the 3rd year, having 19, we go back to woo hm. where it all began, and investigate how far we've come. since the pandemic stuff. january on a just a year. 2020 the year of locked downs and social distance saying he can't reach across the screen and get someone to hug. alley re explore is one of the global pandemic. speakers side effects loneliness. every one who lives alone has been forced to be socially isolated for the 1st time ever highlighting its effect from

physical and mental health and discovering unique ways of coping. controlling, being alone to get that episode to of all hail the locked down on al jazeera. ah. ready turned down celebrations around the world as people ringing another new yeah. in the shadows of cove it ah, well i'm so rahman, you're watching out there alive. my headquarters here in the hall, coming up in the next half hour. come the rollercoaster. up down a breath taking covert infections be blaine don't vaccine, deny is hesitancy or even inequality.