play which marked 200 years since met code gained independence from spain. john holman, al jazeera met who city the u. k, is enjoying the warmest new year's day and record with high temperatures set for a 2nd consecutive day. the weather was unusually mile in central london, with temperatures reaching 16.3 celsius. last time the turn of the year was this one was more than a 100 years ago. ah, this is al jazeera, these are the top stories of funerals being held for south african. archbishop desmond tutu is been described as a crusader in the struggle for freedom, justice, equality and peace. the anti apartheid hero died last sunday. at the age of 90000 of people marched in cities across a rack to voice their anger at the u. s. 2 years after a top iranian general was assassinated, hassam solar money was killed, and

a u. s. john strike near baghdad airport. uganda is reopening laughter. one of the strictest locked downs in the world. schools will start up again after being closed for nearly 2 years. and i, time curfew is expected to be lifted on january, the 10th or than a 1000 people are now in hospital with corporate 19 in the australian states with the largest number of people. that's the highest number of cases since october that are warnings. the pressure on the new south wales hospital system could become critical set of clarks got more from noosa in queensland, victoria which is the 2nd 2nd largest dice. it also recorded plot big numbers in the 172 new cases and trade this and, but this is the decrease in delhi tie, somebody since christmas. having said that, the testing numbers have also coincided with that drop. we had most testing sentence across a victoria shot fuel. they said we'd use the high temperatures, we have a strain he had 38 degree. and that also was

a case where we had some testing finish close and therefore it was a drop in nissan. wells numbers the previous days we've had 20 to 23000 cases in the law in france now benz plastic packaging on most fruit and vegetables, president among the macro as called the move a revolution. he says it shows the country's commitment phasing out single use plastics by 2040. the united states has blocked ethiopia, molly and guinea from a duty free trade program over a ledge, human rights violations and recent crews. if he has asked the by ministration to reconsider the decision, the african growth and opportunity act allows some african countries to export products to the us and avoid certain taxes. and was the headlines that is going to continue here on algebra after counting the cost, goodbye. i

will just hear what ever you. ah ah, hello, i'm danny. navigate. 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 this week, new zealand and economic test bed for inflation in the ninety's, half the world, central banks watching closely for risk. next experiments. this time it's targeting surging house prices. 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 the 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 the social and political issues. but 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 $1.00, a $1000000000.20. and this year a volkswagen in china bought credits and a maker of electric cars. and then their oral companies like b p that are keen to dump acids to reduce their carbon footprint. it's sold at alaska. oil feels to a little known privately held company called hill court for $5600000000.00. 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 a c o quick plumber acknowledges it won't be easy. our challenge is new york show. jen is also the countries challenge and world challenges. how do we transition from a economy city that's run primarily on fossil fuels for the ones that electricity? one that's focusing on now running on clean energy infrastructure 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

into 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 free 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 its 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 in 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 we're possibly 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 nicholas 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 finds 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 cup 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 doing. so we see a direct correlation. those companies that use the price and those companies all settings time space 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 will just look like socializing their failures, won't it? absolutely, absolutely. and of course it's not just about the noodles. and it's not just about carbon 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. it self regulation over the last many years . we're about 60 full jurisdictions have a carbon price right now, whether at a state or provincial level or at the 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 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 a 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 start 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 along 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 if the investments and lending decisions with the power 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 in that. 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 shipping has pledged to fight climate change, but the government continues to build new coal plants, one of the leading sources of carbon emissions. katrina, you reports her judging and jang province. plumes of toxic smoke leaking from power plants and factories is a common site 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 living now is been polluting for decades. if they shut down all the

factories or what are we going to do? everyone works 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 handling economic growth. pollution caused by burning fossil fuels regularly shrouds the capital in heavy smoke. beijing, his pledge 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, where we actually do rights. in the next 5 years we're expected. china can implement more concrete policies and to, to give us a more clear roadmap. 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 carmakers into transitioning away from gas, but many say that's not enough. you as 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 sion 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 smaller. 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 to 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 stillia 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 to go and frank the 4 years and 10 so far prices 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 is a chronic housing shortage with prison?

government would suggest that it was the previous, a national government. but i know, as well as we know on the ground that it's been a decades in the making a vice 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 rises? it is

a speculation. the central banks printing money building regulations high immigrations . what is it, or is it a combination of all of those? it's a combination of one of those speculators, for instance, if a got a $1000000.00 in the bank, they like to gain about point 5 percent interest, which is very little retain. i could buy a house for a $1000000.00, and i click it and then a couple of years. some in some cases by can flip it on months and my hundreds of thousands and 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, i hinder it in the st. so from stopping or slowing down the housing market, i think for bank of spice to be totally independent and it's my drivers to ensure that the economy stays healthy. so really the government has no swipe on what it does. it can give advice, but it comes on strike. what happened to the government to $1000000000.00 plan to build more housing key we build time to rebuild became the laughing stock of, of fund museum. really because we billed was trumpeted as part of their election campaign 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 and of those 300, there were barely able to sell a half of those. they're building them in the wrong locations. the price benchmarks were in correct. so that taken that target away totally. and now instead of having inspirational policy says they go to k me bill that they've got what they call foundational a policy. so in other words, 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 side 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 k responsibility. that's really the government's responsibility by ensuring that the government pozole the laborers at possibly came to ensure that that housing and that is a roy 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 practiced 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 bookshop, the same melting pot has been used for decades. no job. the amuse 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 mainly due to the i'm nanny. we hope the government supports us with new machines. we want support for the workshops and we demand to stop exporting gold. philip 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 and disregard the local industry has died nor does go but all local industries. and there is a lack of electricity. iraq is not attractive for investment and not business

friendly. 3 or traders and businessmen go to turkey and other countries because it is better quality and cheaper. and so how much gold goes in and out of europe. 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 the ministry of planning to get me out and was told that in fact, this issue of how much is imported is not our job. we only plan for the quality and legal important 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 smuggling. 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 due to lack security crossings, and lawlessness is gold being smothered from neighboring countries. and europe,

economic uncertainty leads to increase local demand despite the current could on the wireless pandemic. this bar of gold cost 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 ocoee the nurse from glittering religious sites to important social occasions. iraq, these have had a century or relationship with gold and 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 their fact that. and that's our show for this week, but there's more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash ctc. that'll take you straight to our page, which has entire episodes for you to catch up on. i'm daddy navigator you've been watching, counting the. com. thanks for joining us. the news on al jazeera is next. ah,

it's the political debate. so that's challenging the way you think. have agencies fail hating the situation is, was them? it was before the after this in the found bites and digging into the issue is a military advancement. going to stop the family ticket i is under a company supervisor. now people are debating how will climate migration differ for those who have and those who don't have lot of countries see, we will pay poor countries to keep refugees there. a park with me markum on hill on al jazeera, a right of passage present to the generation. my cousin was laying down there until a screaming she was helpless. the woman who after indoors as go so far, told of pain, for what fact my knight meets the women affected by f g m. and those re shaping perception. do you think people will abandon the site eventually, but those take al jazeera correspond the cut

teaching. yes, you can watch out to see were english streaming light on light duty channels plus thousands of off programs. award winning documentaries and game death. news reports subscribe to youtube dot com forward slash al jazeera english. ah. south africa pays tribute to anti apartheid hero and nobel peace prize. winner desmond tutu, recalling was being described as his persistent fight for justice and freedom. ah, about this, and this is all the 0 alive from doha also coming up marches in iraq to remember cost him, solar mani the powerful iranian general killed in a u. s. jerome strike 2 years ago. back in business you.