World roundup: March 4 2022

Stories from North Korea, South Africa, Costa Rica, and more

INTERNATIONAL

In today’s global news:

• Worldometer is tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

• The New York Times is tracking global vaccine distribution.

• Countries attending the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi agreed earlier this week to draft a global treaty on plastic pollution by 2024. The details are of course yet to be ironed out but in theory the treaty could cover everything from the amount of new plastics manufactured to manufacturing techniques to recycling and beyond. Advocates are hoping for a process that takes after the late 20th century effort to phase out ozone depleting chemicals, which was largely successful, rather than the current effort to reduce carbon emissions, which is mostly going nowhere.

MIDDLE EAST

TURKEY

The Turkish government held its first-ever “climate council” late last month, with an eye toward developing specific steps to implement its 2053 “net zero” carbon emission pledge. Apparently it didn’t go according to plan, because as Al-Monitor’s Selin Ugurtas reports, attendees didn’t even come up with a plan to phase out coal. Suffice to say Turkey isn’t going to get to “net zero,” as empty a signifier as that is, without moving beyond coal within the next decade, give or take.