KOTA KINABALU (ANN/THE STAR) – The lifeless body of a 36-year-old woman, who failed to reach her workplace after leaving for work, was discovered in Sabah’s Lahad Datu district on the east coast.
Family members found her half-naked body, showing signs of being bludgeoned and slashed, in a banana farm in Kampung Pisang.
Police have not ruled out the woman, who is a foreigner and a mother of five, was raped.
Lahad Datu police chief Assistant Commissioner Dr Rohan Shah Ahmad said the victim’s employer contacted her family when she failed to turn up at the restaurant where she worked.
The victim’s family members went looking for her and made the tragic discovery. ACP Rohan said a police team rushed to the scene to secure the location for investigation.
He said the victim’s mobile phone was missing and no cash was found in her purse.
The body, ACP Rohan said, was sent to the Lahad Datu hospital for an autopsy.
He said the probe has been classified under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
CNA – It does not seem much: a 0.6- per- cent fall in Indonesia’s coffee production this year, according to estimates released last December by the country’s Ministry of Agriculture.
But it is the first such fall since 2019. And as supplies of Indonesian robusta coffee – the kind that is largely found in Singapore’s hawker centres and coffee shops – come down, prices are shooting up.
“In the last four, five months, we’ve seen the robusta prices in Indonesia move very drastically. It’s now around SGD240 for a 60-kilogramme bag,” said Singapore Coffee Association president Victor Mah. About a year ago, traders were paying SGD180.
Singapore’s consumer price index shows that the average price of a cup of kopi (traditional coffee with milk) was SGD1.35 in August, which is seven per cent more than last year’s average price of SGD1.26.
And it could yet get more expensive. The United States Department of Agriculture forecast in June that Indonesia’s 2023/24 coffee output will fall 18 per cent from a year ago to its lowest level since 2011/12.
In a two-part special, the programme Talking Point explores the factors behind the drop and what else is driving the price rises.
PHOTO: FREEPIKHost Steven Chia uncovers how chemicals contributes to higher coffee costs. PHOTO: CNAPHOTO: ENVATOPHOTO: ENVATO
FROM CLIMATIC CONDITIONS TO PESTS
More than 90 per cent of coffee plantations in Indonesia are smallholdings, such as the one owned by second-generation coffee farmer Kerno in Lampung, Sumatra’s southernmost province and one of the country’s biggest robusta-producing regions.
The 50-year-old, who goes by one name, has around 5,000 trees on his farm about the size of two and a half football fields.
Last year, he harvested three tonnes of coffee cherries, the fruit produced by coffee trees inside of which are the coffee beans. This year, he hopes his harvest will be around one tonne.
“It may not even reach that amount. We’d be lucky if we get 800kg,” he said.
Sumatra has been subject to frequent rain and occasional freak weather since last year, which has disturbed coffee trees at a crucial period of the production process.
“After the flowering stage, the flowers turn into small cherries. (But) the heavy rain causes them to fall off. They’ll rot and won’t turn into coffee. Therefore, it isn’t possible to get a big harvest,” said Kerno.
“We lose out to the weather. It’s very sad.”
Other areas in Indonesia have even been hit by hailstorms, which have also affected coffee production.
It is not only the weather that can be volatile, but also fertiliser prices, which hit a peak last year because the pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine and other supply chain issues tightened global supply.
Temperature increases around the world have led to the proliferation of a pest called the coffee berry borer.
These borers are not only becoming more fertile, but also drilling deeper into the coffee cherries.
As they eat their way in, the fruit’s weight reduces. Severely infected cherries drop from the trees, which means they do not ripen and cannot be sold.
Climate change – and its impact on weather conditions – is also causing a rise in diseases such as coffee leaf rust, a fungal disease that reduces coffee yield.
In August, the International Coffee Organisation estimated a shortfall of 7.3 million bags this year.
More coffee is being consumed in Indonesia too. “Every year, the rate of consumption is getting higher and higher,” said Leo Wiriadjaja, co-founder of Lisa and Leo’s Organic Coffee, a farm in North Sumatra.
“That takes away the amount of coffee we can export.”
Then there is El Niño this year. With its hot and dry weather conditions likely to be prolonged, industry players expect a further strain on coffee production and a shortage in supply going into next year.
THERE ARE SOLUTIONS
Despite the challenges faced by Indonesia’s coffee farmers, Wiriadjaja’s plantation – which he owns with his wife, Lisa Matthews – is thriving. One of the reasons they have kept their coffee yields consistent is they use organic fertiliser, that is material they have composted, such as cut grass and by-products of coffee production.
The coffee cherry and the skin of coffee beans, for example, have macronutrient and mineral content for the crops, such as potassium, copper and zinc. The cut grass contains nutrients including carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus.
“By having all of the elements in the compost provided by us from our farm, we know what’s in it. And we can control the microbiology in it,” said Matthews.
“When you buy synthetic fertiliser, you’re relying on what’s printed on the outside of the bag to be what’s on the inside.
“But a lot of farmers have found out that sometimes the fillers (added to) these fertiliser bags can be detrimental to the crop. They can introduce the wrong kind of bacteria.”
The use of compost, rather than synthetic fertiliser, also results in an annual cost saving of 30 per cent for the farm, reckoned the soil expert.
The couple have another natural type of fertiliser growing all over their farm – yellow clover.
“It creates a healthy biology within the soil by producing nodules on the end. That contains the nitrogen. And that’s released into the microbes. The microbes change it into an absorbable form for the trees, and it keeps the leaves healthy,” said Matthews. – Derrick A Paulo
Jannik Sinner’s supporters called ‘Carota Boys’ cheer outside the Pala Alpitour. PHOTO: AP
TURIN, ITALY (AP) – They’ve quickly become some of the most recognisable fans in tennis.
And what began as a spur-of-the-moment idea between six supporters of Jannik Sinner to dress up as carrots has turned into a fully sponsored globe-trotting enterprise.
After first appearing at the Italian Open in May, the orange-clad “Carota Boys” quickly picked up support from one of Sinner’s sponsors and were sent to cheer for their favourite player at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Orders for T-shirts featuring the Carota Boys’ logo have come in from Brazil, Greece, Switzerland, France and the United States.
“It’s all been far beyond anything we could have imagined,” said Carota Boys member Enrico Ponsi.
Last week, the group of six boyhood friends were treated to a private meeting with their idol.
“They’re almost more famous than I am,” Sinner said. “I got the names but I still got a little bit confused, because they have these good looking costumes with the carota.”
Jannik Sinner’s supporters called ‘Carota Boys’ cheer outside the Pala Alpitour. PHOTO: AP
“It’s great to have this dedicated fan club. It’s growing, so I’m happy for them,” Sinner added. “It’s funny.”
The carrot idea is partly a tribute to Sinner’s red-orange hair and how he ate carrots instead of the more common banana during a changeover at a tournament in Vienna in 2019. “Carota” is the Italian word for carrot.
While they’ve been around the globe recently, this week the carrots are staying closer to their roots.
That’s because the ATP Finals in Turin is located just an hour’s drive from the Carota Boys’ hometown of Revello.
“Whereas at other tournaments we’ve had to leave after a few days, this one we can attend all week,” Ponsi said before Sinner opened the tournament with a convincing 6-4, 6-4 win over Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday.
So who are the Carota Boys? They’re all in their 20s – only slightly older than the 22-year-old Sinner.
Besides Ponsi, there’s Gianluca Bertorello, Alessandro Dedominici, Lorenzo Ferrato, Francesco Gaboardi and Alberto Mondino.
Ponsi and Dedominici work in agriculture, Bertorello is a baker and the others are office workers.
THE WASHINGTON POST – Celine Brewer still remembers the glares when she got on a flight with her baby boy. The people in front of her demanded new seats right away – and then the baby started to cry before the plane even took off. Cue a new demand for different seats.
“I got very angry, and I got very stressed out,” said Brewer, owner of the site Baby Can Travel. She turned on her phone to distract the baby, who fell asleep for the entire flight.
But several years later, she still smarts at the memory of the impatient fellow passengers.
“You guys could have given me an ounce of compassion and a moment to figure this out,” she said.
Strangers’ reactions to wee wailing passengers have gone viral recently, with one man unleashing a string of expletives to a flight attendant, asking if a howling baby had paid “extra to yell.” Earlier this month, the rapper Chika took her complaints to Twitter when a tiny first-class passenger’s cries woke her up.
While commenters send up pleas for child-free flights, the reality is that families with small kids have every right to travel by air. And just like adults might lose their cool on a plane, babies – who, after all, communicate by crying – can’t always keep it together. Experts say sometimes the tears are unavoidable, but they do offer some tips on the best ways to help.
BEFORE THE FLIGHT
Etiquette expert Jackie Vernon-Thompson, founder of From the Inside-Out School of Etiquette, said parents have the responsibility to plan ahead and pack what their baby or toddler might need on a flight to stay comfortable. That could include a crucial blanket, preferred pacifier or favourite stuffed animal.
Parents who have rules against screen time might need to reconsider before flying, she said: “That policy will probably need to be thrown out the window for the flight.”
PHOTO: FREEPIKPHOTO: ENVATOPHOTO: FREEPIK
Flight attendant Sydoni O’Connor and mother of a toddler, said in a TikTok that she started using noise-cancelling headphones for her daughter when she was still an infant who flew frequently.
In an interview, she said that now that her daughter is older and prefers different foods all the time, she’ll bring a little snack tray with six compartments and fill them with “a little bit of everything she’s been liking this week.”
Because a soggy diaper might spark tears, and airplane lavatories are notoriously crowded, Brewer said she always tried to change her kids’ diaper before getting on the plane – a preventive move for short flights, at least. While some strangers prescribe Benadryl for other passengers’ flying babies, Boston Children’s Hospital primary care paediatrician Claire McCarthy said no one should give the medication to a baby without first checking with their doctor.
“It can have side effects, especially if repeated doses are given on long flights,” she said in an e-mail. “Also, sometimes instead of making children sleepy, it can have the opposite effect!”
McCarthy, an assistant professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School and spokesperson for the American Academy of Paediatrics, said that if parents have discussed risks and the safest way to give Benadryl, she suggests a trial dose at home in advance to see what effect it has on the baby.
ON THE PLANE
McCarthy said in her e-mail that there are a few reasons babies might cry on a plane, beyond the reasons they cry as part of normal life. They may be in pain because of pressure changes at takeoff and landing; they may be tired and find it difficult to sleep without their normal surroundings; they might want to move around instead of being stuck in a confined space or they might be disoriented and scared.
She said feeding the baby or having them suck on a pacifier when the plane takes off or lands can help with the pressure change. If a baby has a cold or ear infection, acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help because they might be in worse pain. McCarthy said it’s worth trying to tweak a sleep schedule so a baby’s nap takes place during the plane ride, even if that means keeping them awake longer ahead of time. If the baby is still crying on the plane, she said parents should reach into their bag of regular tricks.
“I would suggest trying everything that works at home – at least everything you can do while in the constraints of a plane,” she wrote. “It’s important, obviously, to follow all safety instructions.”
When possible, Brewer said she would try to put her kids in a baby carrier and walk around the plane to soothe them.
Distractions also help, she said, even something as simple as a plastic cup with ice or a spoon or a fellow passenger who is willing to engage the baby. “If there’s some way that they’re offering to help, take it,” she said.
FOR FELLOW FLIERS
Not your baby, not your problem? Not exactly. Fellow passengers or flight attendants can take the situation from bad to worse – or potentially make it better.
Brewer remembers one overnight flight from Calgary to Japan when her 14-month-old son slept for less than an hour.
“We were so exhausted,” she said. “And the lovely flight attendant came over and said, ‘You guys look like you need a break.’”
She took the baby for a walk around the plane, and Brewer remembers being grateful.
O’Connor said that as a flight attendant, she’ll often sit down with a mom whose baby is crying and encourage her, ask if she needs something or just start a conversation about the baby just to move the focus from the tears.
She recognises that people might be concerned about germs, especially given the last few years of pandemic air travel, but she still thinks it’s okay for someone to offer a hand with a baby – or even just to play a game or make a funny face. That kind of interaction helps lighten the mood and make a stressed parent feel less alone, she said.
As a travelling parent, she said she’s had a moment where she was trying to get something from the overhead baggage compartment and someone offered to hold her baby.
“All of a sudden the baby has fallen asleep on the lady and they’re just in love,” she said.
Even if other passengers don’t actively engage, extending compassion or understanding for parents rather than getting agitated can help, Brewer said. – Hannah Sampson
ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Afghanistan urged Pakistan yesterday to release thousands of containers of imports it said were stuck at Karachi port since Islamabad clamped down on transnational cargo.
Pakistan authorities say they have lost millions of dollars in taxes because goods are being sent duty-free from its ports to land-locked Afghanistan, and then smuggled back across the border.
Afghan authorities say Pakistan has stopped more than 3,000 Afghanistan-bound containers at Karachi port while demanding more tax and duty payments, causing millions of dollars in losses to traders.
The issue was raised yesterday by Afghanistan’s Minister of Industry and Commerce Nooruddin Azizi, in a meeting with Pakistan’s caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Jalil Abbas Jilani.
They spoke about “the transit problems and challenges of the two countries” a statement from the Afghan embassy said. “Hundreds of these containers have been parked since several months, while some have been stopped more than a year. The goods inside are spoiling and the traders are suffering losses,” an official of the Afghan consulate in Peshawar told AFP.
The trade row is one of several thorny issues that have grown between Kabul and Islamabad since the Taleban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
An angler hauling up a small redtail catfish
. PHOTO: THE STAR
ANN/THE STAR – Novice anglers often face challenges in finding opportunities to learn the ropes. Imagine you’re new to fishing and strike up a friendship with an experienced angler.
You muster the courage to ask them to take you fishing sometime. The response is usually either a straightforward refusal or a vague promise of a future outing that never materialises.
Seasoned anglers tend to shy away from taking beginners on fishing trips because such outings often turn into prolonged instructional sessions. Faced with novices who lack knowledge and skills, experienced anglers end up socially obligated to handle tasks like setting up rigs, baiting hooks, and even unhooking landed fish.
Essentially, they become mentors who double as assistants while their mentees grapple with the fundamentals of handling a rod and line.
Bear in mind that seasoned anglers want to catch fish, too, and will be deprived of the chance when they spend time helping white-belt anglers.
That being the case, how and where will junior anglers then ever find good chances to practise?
An angler battling with a giant Mekong catfish. PHOTO: THE STARAn angler hauling up a small redtail catfish. PHOTO: THE STARA female angler with her catch: an Amazon redtail catfish . PHOTO: THE STAR
To get through this learning curve without imposing on their betters, they need “payponds”.
“Nearly every angler I know started out at payponds. You can spend every day tying knots and rigs at home, but without a fish at the other end of the line, there is little chance to really learn how to fish,” said angler KL Ng, 45, who has been angling for over 20 years.
Ng said he would still occasionally drop by a saltwater paypond in Teluk Panglima Garang, Selangor, to practise fighting fish above 30kg, such as groupers.
“You have to spend time angling and making tonnes of mistakes to learn, develop the needed hand-eye coordination, and clock in enough repetitions (casting the lure or bait thousands of times) for muscle memory to form.
“How to cast without whipping the rod so hard that the bait rips clean off the hook? Which angle in the arc of the cast to release the line to get the optimal distance? How to fight a hooked fish by applying side-strain to stop it from veering left and right?
“Just like how golfers regularly go to the driving range to practise their swings, anglers who treat their passion as a sport also need to regularly practise.
“An actual fishing trip can be seriously expensive, so a paypond is more viable in the name of practice,” Ng said.
The word is not in the dictionary, but search for “paypond” on the internet, and you will find them all over Malaysia. Another way to find them is to search for “kolam bayar” or “kolam pancing”.
Simply put, you pay for the right to fish in these ponds stocked with fish.
Payponds are where you can make a fool of yourself. See for yourself how fish can pull hard enough to unravel a lousily tied knot.
Feel how, because you tighten the fishing reel’s drag too much, a strong fish can snap your line.
“I hear, and I know. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand. That’s how you learn angling,” stressed Ng.
In a paypond, you can realistically expect to set the hook on at least one large fish, even as a total newbie. By “large”, that will be between five kg and 30kg, if not larger.
It will be a tough fight. Your rod will bend to such an extreme curve that you face the real prospect of helplessly holding on as your rod breaks with a sickening “PIAKKK!”.
In Kamunting, Perak, the owner of two large payponds, Teoh Bee Khoon, asserts that he has released more than 40 tonnes of specimen-size fish into his ponds over the last 10 years, and the largest ever hauled up from his ponds was a giant Mekong catfish weighing over 40kg.
“There are fish deaths, but we don’t keep track of exactly how many fish are in the ponds,” he said.
Not just any fish. Teoh stocks his ponds with giant Mekong catfish, Asian and Amazon redtail catfish, Siamese carp, temoleh (Julien’s golden carp), pacu, giant toman, freshwater barramundi and patin catfish.
These are hard-fighting game fish from around the world, and some of them are non-native species which must not be allowed into Malaysia’s public waterways. Teoh said Fisheries Department officers visited his ponds more than once to make sure there was no chance of the fish escaping.
“The officers reminded us that if we ever cease operations, we must contact them to make arrangements for the fish to be moved to a new, safe location under their care,” Teoh said.
Some payponds, especially those near the sea, are stocked with mostly farmed golden snappers (jenahak) and mangrove jacks (siakap merah) of about one kg which anglers are allowed to bag; these ponds charge a premium fishing fee since the objective is for you to have your fishing fun and eat the fish too.
But the fish in Teoh’s payponds and in other payponds of similar styles are not for sale.
You cannot bag your catches to eat or rear them at home because these ponds have a strict catch-and-release policy. – Arnold Loh
Protestors holding a photo of Mahsa Amini. PHOTO: AFP
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence against a man convicted of killing a Revolutionary Guards officer during nationwide protests last year, the judiciary said.
Officer Ali Nazari was killed in October 2022 as nationwide demonstrations gripped Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody the previous month, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.
A Tehran court handed down the death sentence in June, saying it was “in accordance with the retribution law” in force in Iran.
The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence late on Monday, Mizan said, without identifying the condemned man.The death of Amini, an Iranian Kurd, followed her arrest for an alleged breach of Iran’s strict dress code for women.
Last year’s protests saw hundreds of people killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands more arrested over what officials labelled as foreign-instigated “riots”.
Seven men have been executed after being convicted of murder or other violence against security force personnel during the protests.
Protestors holding a photo of Mahsa Amini. PHOTO: AFP
PARIS (AFP) – World oil demand will rise slightly more than expected this year as China’s appetite for the fossil fuel hit a record and the Israel-Hamas war did not hit supply flows, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday.
The Paris-based organisation said global demand is forecast to hit an all-time high in 2024, although it will grow at a sharply slower pace. “World oil demand continues to exceed expectations,” the IEA said in its monthly oil market report.
The IEA said demand from China, the world’s top importer of crude and its second biggest economy, reached another record high at 17.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in September.
Global oil demand is now forecast to reach 102 million bpd in 2023, the IEA said.
China is expected to account for 1.8 million bpd of the 2.4 million bpd increase in world demand. Demand is expected to grow by 940,000 bpd in 2024.
“Despite growth that is almost two-thirds lower than this year’s increase, global oil demand is set to rise to a record annual high” of 102.9 million bpd in 2024, the IEA said.
The war in the Gaza Strip, which began last month, raised concerns of a wider Middle East conflict that would disrupt the flow of oil supplies. But the IEA said “there has been no material impact on oil supply flows from the war between Israel and Hamas”.
ABOVE & BELOW: Jayson Tatum lines up a shot against Josh Hart; and Kristaps Porzingis blocks a shot by Julius Randle. PHOTO: AP
AP – The Boston Celtics were missing a lot of three-point shots. They missed a bunch of layups, too.
Coach Joe Mazzulla would have been happy to make adjustments, but his options were limited.
“If I could come up with another shot besides a three or a layup, I’ll do it,” Mazzulla said after the Celtics snapped out of a shooting funk to beat the New York Knicks 114-98 yesterday. ”You can’t kick it in. I mean, we couldn’t throw it in the ocean.”
Jayson Tatum scored 17 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, when the Celtics turned a 91-88 lead into a runaway. After missing seven of his first eight three-point attempts, he hit four straight down the stretch – including a contested one that led to a four-point play after the Knicks cut the deficit to three points.
“I’ve played enough games, had enough tough shooting nights,” said Tatum, who finished 13 for 23 in the game after going six for eight in the fourth quarter. ”All really, really good scorers know it just takes one to change your momentum, change how you feel about yourself shooting the ball. And once you see one go in, you just feel a lot better about yourself.”
Celtics’ Jayson Tatum takes a shot over Knicks’ Julius Randle during an NBA basketball game in Boston. PHOTO: APABOVE & BELOW: Jayson Tatum lines up a shot against Josh Hart; and Kristaps Porzingis blocks a shot by Julius Randle. PHOTO: APPHOTO: AP
Jaylen Brown added 22 points and Kristaps Porzingis had 21 against the team that drafted him.
Jalen Brunson scored 26 points and Julius Randle had 25 points and nine rebounds for New York, which was without RJ Barrett, who missed the second night of a back-to-back with a migraine headache. The Knicks had won three in a row since opening the season 2-4, including a loss to Boston in their opener.
Mazzulla said of trading punches against a longtime rival, “It’s the best. I love games like this, because it’s going to reveal who we are, what we’ve been doing and where we need to get better,” he said. “You’re not playing as well as you can be, and you’re only down one.
You’ve got to be thankful for that, because it could be a lot worse. And I thought our guys just stuck with it, with the right mindset.”
The Knicks led by eight with 75 seconds left in the second quarter before Boston made three straight baskets, scoring nine of the last 11 points of the half and cutting it to 53-52 on Brown’s three-pointer at the buzzer. Boston led by as many as 10 late in the third quarter, but the Knicks closed to 91-88 when Brunson hit a long three with eight minutes left. Tatum answered with a step-back three and drew the foul, giving Boston a 95-88 lead.
“I missed so many wide-open threes. I made the toughest one of the night, and I missed all the easy ones,” Tatum said. “That kind of got me going. I’ll take it.”
Jrue Holiday, who surpassed 15,000 points for his career with a third-quarter three-pointer, hit another three to make it a 10-point game.
The first session of the APEC Finance Ministers Meeting. PHOTO: AFP
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Leaders of Asia-Pacific economies want to boost output with an eye on issues like reducing inequality and protecting the environment, United States (US) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday.
Her comments at a press conference come at the end of talks with finance ministers of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
Citing legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act – a signature achievement of US President Joe Biden – Yellen told reporters “APEC economies recognise the potential of this strategy and are pursuing similar policies.”
Economic development and environmental action need to work together if the world is to combat global warming, Yellen said.
“We need to further improve our long-term economic outlook by boosting labor supply, innovation, and infrastructure investment, in ways that are also sustainable and reduce inequality,” Yellen said in San Francisco.
After several years focused on post-pandemic recovery, 2023 was a “pivotal year” for APEC, said Yellen, a time where governments could refocus on “advancing fiscal reforms to build our economies over the long run.”
The first session of the APEC Finance Ministers Meeting. PHOTO: AFP
But economic development cannot be separated from the immediate need to wean humanity off planet-warming energy sources, she said, noting that less wealthy countries needed help to make the leap.
“We’ve discussed how to finance efficient and effective energy transitions while supporting the individuals and communities who are most vulnerable,” she said, referencing as an example the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP) in Vietnam and Indonesia.
These agreements define conditions for rich countries to commit to financially assisting the energy transition of developing countries.
The JETP for Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, was unveiled last year. It provides public and private funding of up to USD20 billion in exchange for capping emissions from the electricity sector by 2030 and reaching zero emissions in 2050.
REDUCING INEQUALITY
At the end of talks on Monday, Yellen also noted that efforts to build a stable economic relationship with China are moving “along the right path”.
She said leaders are focusing on “unlocking the flow of sustainable finance” as well, like by exploring ways to encourage the development of credible climate commitments and to create effective voluntary carbon markets.
Not all financing systems are equal, Yellen said earlier Monday, noting that the markets for carbon credits need to be examined for ways to improve their integrity.
Carbon credits, which allow companies to offset their carbon dioxide emissions, effectively permitting them to claim a heavily-polluting product is “carbon neutral”, are increasingly coming under the microscope, amid claims by critics that they amount to greenwashing.
Besides working with the private sector and international financial institutions, Yellen added, “There is also commitment to continued work on the responsible development of digital assets.”
Digital assets technologies carry risks, which calls for regulation, she noted. Such assets include unbacked crypto-assets and central bank digital currencies.
Leaders of the bloc will gather in San Francisco for a summit later in the week.
