<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018814-1645587691875-gettyimages-830012916-UKRAINE_WHEAT.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415427" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018814-1645587691875-gettyimages-830012916-UKRAINE_WHEAT.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018814-1645587691875-gettyimages-830012916-UKRAINE_WHEAT-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018814-1645587691875-gettyimages-830012916-UKRAINE_WHEAT-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A summer wheat harvest in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. Vincent Mundy | Bloomberg | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Oil and gas prices are set to spike further as the Russia-Ukraine crisis escalates, but the impact on energy won’t be the only ramification.



From wheat to barley, and copper to nickel, analysts tell CNBC that supply chains are set to be disrupted as the crisis takes a turn for the worse.



Ukraine is considered the “breadbasket of Europe,” and an invasion would result in the food supply chain getting “hit hard,” said Alan Holland, CEO and founder at sourcing technology company Keelvar.



Russia and Ukraine are also big suppliers of metals and other commodities, analysts said.



Tensions between Russia and Ukraine reached fever pitch in the past few days as President Vladimir Putin ordered the Kremlin’s forces into two pro-Russian separatist regions in eastern Ukraine. It came after he said Russia would formally recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="630" height="410" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/download-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-415428" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/download-1.png 630w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/download-1-300x195.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/download-1-138x90.png 138w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /></figure>



U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday described Russia’s actions as the beginning “an invasion” of Ukraine.



Here’s what’s at risk if a military conflict takes place or crippling sanctions are imposed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-food-security"><a></a>Food security</h2>



Ukraine produces wheat, barley and rye that much of Europe relies on, analysts said. It’s also a big producer of corn.



“Even though harvesting season is still a few months away, a prolonged conflict would create bread shortages [and increase consumer prices] this fall,” said Holland.



In fact, it’s not just the European Union that will be hit — many nations in the Middle East and Africa also rely on Ukranian wheat and corn, and disruptions to that supply could affect food security in those regions, said Dawn Tiura, president at Sourcing Industry Group.



“China is also a big recipient of Ukrainian corn — in fact, Ukraine replaced the U.S. as China’s top corn supplier in 2021,” she said.



Wheat and corn prices were already soaring. Wheat futures traded in Chicago have jumped about 12% since the start of this year, while corn futures spiked 14.5% in the same period.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/ukraine-calls-for-meeting-with-russia-as-u-s-warns-of-imminent-attack/">Ukraine calls for meeting with Russia as U.S. warns of imminent attack</a></h3>



Food inflation has been rising, and could worsen if an armed conflict erupts.



“Rising food prices would only be exacerbated with additional price shocks, especially if core agricultural areas in Ukraine are seized by Russian loyalists,” said Per Hong, senior partner at consulting firm Kearney.



He pointed out that Russia is also the world’s top wheat exporter. Together with Ukraine, both account for roughly 29% of the global wheat export market.



Further, any disruptions to the natural gas supply will in turn affect the production of energy-intensive products such as fertilizers — and that’s bound to hit agriculture further, said Holland. Fertilizers were already in short supply last year, leading to soaring prices.



Russia was the largest supplier of natural gas and oil to the European Union last year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Metals and raw materials</h2>



Ukraine has steadily increased its exports over the years, and is now a “huge provider” of raw materials, chemical products and even machinery like transportation equipment, according to Tiura.



It’s also a major supplier of minerals and other commodities, analysts said.



“Ukraine’s currency began declining in value since Russian troops started gathering at the border. This will increase the cost of their exports,” Tiura added.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/russia-says-its-begun-partial-troop-pullback-from-ukraine-border-nato-urges-caution/">Russia says it’s begun partial troop pullback from Ukraine border; NATO urges caution</a></h3>



Russia also controls about 10% of global copper reserves, and is a major producer of nickel and platinum, according to Hong.



Nickel is a key raw material used in electric vehicle batteries, and copper — widely seen as an economic bellwether — is extensively used in electronics manufacturing and construction of homes.



“The U.S. chip industry heavily relies on Ukrainian-sourced neon and Russia also exports a number of elements critical to the manufacturing of&nbsp;semiconductors,&nbsp;jet engines,&nbsp;automobiles and medicine,” Hong said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Impact on Germany</h2>



While most of the European Union would be affected by the escalating crisis, Germany would be especially hard-hit.



Germany derives most of its energy needs for manufacturing and electricity from the natural gas it gets from Russia, said Atul Vashistha, chairman and CEO of supply chain risk intelligence firm Supply Wisdom.



“If tensions continue to rise and we see an increase in disruptions due to a potential war or sanctions, it will hold back manufacturing production in Germany. Factories would need to curtail production which would cascade to manufacturing in other countries,” he told CNBC in an email.



Top exports from Germany include autos and auto parts, other transport equipment, electronics, metals and plastics.

107018814-1645587691875-gettyimages-830012916-UKRAINE_WHEAT

How a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ‘breadbasket of Europe,’ could hit supply chains

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018650-1645562912600-bid-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-415423" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018650-1645562912600-bid-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018650-1645562912600-bid-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018650-1645562912600-bid-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018650-1645562912600-bid-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018650-1645562912600-bid-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107018650-1645562912600-bid-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Photo: via CNBC</figcaption></figure>



WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Russia has begun “an invasion” of Ukraine, and he announced sweeping sanctions on the major Russian bank VEB and its military bank, as well as on the country’s sovereign debt and on three individuals.



The bank sanctions will prohibit American financial institutions from processing transactions for VEB and for Russia’s military bank, PSB. This would effectively cut the banks out of transactions involving U.S. dollars, the global reserve currency.&nbsp;



Biden’s announcement came after Russia’s parliament approved President Vladimir Putin’s request on Tuesday to use military force outside the country’s borders, a development that appears designed to authorize a broader attack on Ukraine.



Biden also announced that the United States would implement comprehensive sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt.



“That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade its new debt on our markets, or European markets either.”



In addition to the sanctions on VEB and Russian debt, the Biden administration sanctioned three individuals, two of whom are the sons of high-ranking Russian government officials.



In announcing the individual sanctions, Biden said the adult children of members of Putin’s inner circle “share the corrupt gains of the Kremlin’s policies, and so they ought to share in the pain as well.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-russia-says-it-s-begun-partial-troop-pullback-from-ukraine-border-nato-urges-caution">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/russia-says-its-begun-partial-troop-pullback-from-ukraine-border-nato-urges-caution/">Russia says it’s begun partial troop pullback from Ukraine border; NATO urges caution</a></h3>



The sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt build upon existing restrictions that Biden signed in 2021, and prohibit American banks from trading shares in or lending to several major Russian sovereign debt funds.



The Treasury Department unveiled a complete list of the entities and individuals sanctioned Tuesday, as well as their subsidiaries and their precise designations.



As Biden announced the tranche of sanctions, he took a major rhetorical step.



Until Tuesday, the U.S. president had not used the word “invasion” himself to describe the Russian military deployment in the two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine. But he said Putin’s actions in recent days had made his intentions clear.



“This is the beginning of a&nbsp;Russian invasion of Ukraine, as&nbsp;[Putin] indicated and asked&nbsp;permission to be able to do from&nbsp;his Duma,” said Biden. “So I’m going to&nbsp;begin to impose sanctions in&nbsp;response.”



Biden said NATO reinforcements would continue to operate only in a defensive capacity, but that this should not be taken to mean that the alliance would not respond in kind to Putin’s military maneuvers.



“Today, in response to Russia’s admission that it will not withdraw its forces from Belarus, I have authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic Allies, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,” said Biden.



“As Russia contemplates its next move, we have our next move prepared as well,” he said.



Biden said there was little reason to believe that Russia still had any interest in diplomacy. He pointed to Moscow’s recent movements of troops and supplies into place along Ukraine’s border.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/ukraine-calls-for-meeting-with-russia-as-u-s-warns-of-imminent-attack/">Ukraine calls for meeting with Russia as U.S. warns of imminent attack</a></h3>



“Russia has moved supplies of blood and medical equipment into position on their border,” said Biden. “You don’t need blood unless you plan on starting a war.”



The prospect of a war involving Russia, the largest supplier of gas and oil to Europe, has rattled markets and fueled fears of higher oil prices.



The S&amp;P 500 closed in correction territory on Tuesday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 482.57 points, or nearly 1.5%.



Biden said he would do everything in his power to insulate American consumers from the cost of Russia’s actions, but he acknowledged that gas prices would likely rise.



“Defending freedom will have costs for us as well, here at home.&nbsp;We need to be honest about that,” he said. But he said the United States was working with other major oil-producing countries on a plan to stabilize prices.



“I want to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump.&nbsp;This is critical to me,” he said.



The possible increase in gas prices comes as Americans endure the highest inflation in decades.



But Biden emphasized that that United States would stand with Ukraine no matter what, and that he was prepared to impose more sanctions if Russia moved forward.



“if Russia goes further with&nbsp;this invasion, we stand prepared&nbsp;to go further as with sanctions,′ he said.

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Biden says U.S. will sanction Russian banks, sovereign debt and individuals after Ukraine ‘invasion’

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/5TT5JBU5VVP3XIKLLLABFFCL24-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-415419" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/5TT5JBU5VVP3XIKLLLABFFCL24-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/5TT5JBU5VVP3XIKLLLABFFCL24-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/5TT5JBU5VVP3XIKLLLABFFCL24-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/5TT5JBU5VVP3XIKLLLABFFCL24-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/5TT5JBU5VVP3XIKLLLABFFCL24-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/5TT5JBU5VVP3XIKLLLABFFCL24-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin attends a news conference in Beijing, China November 9, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang</figcaption></figure>



BEIJING, Feb 22 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;China has appointed senior diplomat Xue Bing to a newly created post of special envoy for the Horn of Africa, a strategically important, conflict-wracked region where China has investments and a naval base on one of the world&#8217;s main shipping routes.



Xue has previously worked as China&#8217;s ambassador to Papua New Guinea and has experience working in Africa, America and Oceania, China&#8217;s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.



His task will be to work to promote China&#8217;s &#8220;peaceful development&#8221; plan for the region which aims to help countries in the region &#8220;achieve long-term stability, development and prosperity,&#8221; foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily briefing in Beijing.



One of Xue&#8217;s biggest challenges will the continuing war in Ethiopia, Africa&#8217;s second most populous nation and a regional heavyweight that hosts the African Union headquarters in a building built by China. Beijing has also granted billions of dollars in loans to Ethiopia.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-ethiopia-turns-on-the-turbines-at-giant-nile-hydropower-plant">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/ethiopia-turns-on-the-turbines-at-giant-nile-hydropower-plant/">Ethiopia turns on the turbines at giant Nile hydropower plant</a></h3>



The conflict between Ethiopia central government and its northern region of Tigray erupted in November 2020. It has displaced millions of people, plunged hundreds of thousands into famine conditions and sucked in Ethiopia&#8217;s neighbour, the reclusive nation of Eritrea.



China&#8217;s interests in the Horn include its naval base in the tiny country of Djibouti, overlooking a key global shipping route where oil from the Middle East and goods from Asia travel to Europe. Landlocked Ethiopia relies on Djibouti&#8217;s port for trade.



The region is also threatened by instability in South Sudan, where China has substantial oil investments, and spillover from Somalia that has brought deadly attacks in neighbouring Kenya, where China is building substantial infrastructure projects.



Somalia, whose 3,000-km (1,860-mile) coastline runs along the Gulf of Aden into the Indian Ocean, has been riven by civil war since 1991. It has a territorial dispute with neighbouring Kenya over maritime territory believed to hold oil deposits.



China&#8217;s foreign minister Wang Yi announced in January during a trip to East Africa that an envoy for the Horn of Africa would be appointed.



(Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard; Additional reporting by Katharine Houreld in Nairobi; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jonathan Oatis)

FILE PHOTO: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin speaks during a news conference in Beijing

China appoints new special envoy for turbulent Horn of Africa region

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107006470-1643191219978-gettyimages-1237968413-UKRAINE_ODESSA-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415396" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107006470-1643191219978-gettyimages-1237968413-UKRAINE_ODESSA-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107006470-1643191219978-gettyimages-1237968413-UKRAINE_ODESSA-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107006470-1643191219978-gettyimages-1237968413-UKRAINE_ODESSA-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107006470-1643191219978-gettyimages-1237968413-UKRAINE_ODESSA-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107006470-1643191219978-gettyimages-1237968413-UKRAINE_ODESSA-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107006470-1643191219978-gettyimages-1237968413-UKRAINE_ODESSA.jpeg 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Photo: via CNBC</figcaption></figure>



Oil prices jumped as the crisis between Russia and Ukraine escalated.



On Monday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered forces into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine and said he would recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.



In Asia morning trade Tuesday, U.S. crude surged 3.72% to $94.46 per barrel, while Brent jumped 2.46% per barrel to $97.73.



Rising tensions have sent jitters through markets, driving oil prices higher. On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. believes Putin has decided to carry out an attack on Ukraine “in the coming days.”



Russia has built up some 150,000 troops along its border with Ukraine, and the Biden administration said last week that as many as 7,000 additional troops have joined.



The military tensions have sparked concerns that Russia may be preparing to invade Ukraine, triggering fears of a repeat of the Kremlin’s illegal annexation&nbsp;and occupation of Crimea in 2014.



Russia was the largest supplier of natural gas and oil to the European Union last year, and these tensions are lending support to oil prices.



Crude prices recently crossed $90 per barrel, representing an increase of more than 20% this year and a rally of more than 80% since the beginning of 2021. Those gains, however, can also be attributed to other factors such as tight supply.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-russia-says-it-s-begun-partial-troop-pullback-from-ukraine-border-nato-urges-caution">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/russia-says-its-begun-partial-troop-pullback-from-ukraine-border-nato-urges-caution/">Russia says it’s begun partial troop pullback from Ukraine border; NATO urges caution</a></h3>



Oil could spike to $110 per barrel if the crisis worsens, according to Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.



“Should we actually have Russian oil supplies cut off to Europe, which is 3 million barrels a day, we could see oil prices rise another $10 to $15 a barrel, putting Brent at about $110 a barrel,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday.



“The market will rally on an invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine proper, and then it’s going to wait to see where the resupply comes from,” he added.



A deal aimed at reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement is expected to be very close to being reached, raising the possibility of more than 1 million barrels a day of Iranian crude returning to the market.



Lipow said markets would look toward Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to utilize some spare capacity, which he estimated at about 3.5 million to 4 million barrels a day.



Katrina Ell, senior APAC economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the firm estimated geopolitical tensions have added about $10 to $15 per barrel to oil prices.



“So if we continue to see tensions escalate [causing] various supply disruptions to Russia’s oil and gas supplies, then that will continue to add upward pressure to oil prices and then really hurt Asia’s largest economies from a production point of view and from a consumption point of view as well,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday.



Ell said most of Asia’s largest economies are net oil importers.

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Oil prices surge as Russia-Ukraine crisis escalates

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106898635-1623928568153-gettyimages-1233498487-SWITZERLAND_BIDEN_PUTIN.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415358" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106898635-1623928568153-gettyimages-1233498487-SWITZERLAND_BIDEN_PUTIN.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106898635-1623928568153-gettyimages-1233498487-SWITZERLAND_BIDEN_PUTIN-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106898635-1623928568153-gettyimages-1233498487-SWITZERLAND_BIDEN_PUTIN-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>U.S. president Joe Biden (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet during the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange on June 16, 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland. Peter Klaunzer | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



President Joe Biden has accepted “in principle” a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what could represent a last-ditch effort at diplomacy over tensions surrounding Ukraine and a possible avenue to avert a looming invasion directed by Moscow.



Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said Sunday evening that the summit between the two world leaders would happen following a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. That meeting is scheduled for later this week.



Psaki noted that the agreement is conditioned on Moscow holding off on an invasion.



“As the President has repeatedly made clear, we are committed to pursuing diplomacy until the moment an invasion begins,” Psaki said in a statement. “President Biden accepted in principle a meeting with President Putin following that engagement, again, if an invasion hasn’t happened.&nbsp;We are always ready for diplomacy.”



News of a possible one-on-one between Biden and Putin comes as the White House warns that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come at any time. Moscow has for weeks built up its military force on its ex-Soviet neighbor’s northern and eastern borders, with recent totals putting Russia’s force at about 190,000.



The threat of an assault by Russia has kept global markets on edge for much of the last several weeks, with oil prices climbing and equities volatile.



The broad S&amp;P 500, which tracks the equity performance of the largest U.S. companies, is down 3.69% in February, while the Nasdaq Composite has shed 4.8%. West Texas crude oil futures have gained 4.2% over the past month.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-ukraine-calls-for-meeting-with-russia-as-u-s-warns-of-imminent-attack">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/ukraine-calls-for-meeting-with-russia-as-u-s-warns-of-imminent-attack/">Ukraine calls for meeting with Russia as U.S. warns of imminent attack</a></h3>



The potential for imminent conflict forced Biden earlier on Sunday to scrap plans to return to his home in Delaware following a two-hour meeting with his national security team.



The rare Sunday National Security Council meeting began around noon and lasted a little over two hours, according to reporters who watched the attendees arrive and then depart the White House compound. The abrupt cancellation to the president’s holiday-weekend plans carries heightened meaning in recent days given the administration’s belief in a looming Russian offensive.



Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, who’s emerged as a crucial diplomat between the U.S. and Russia over the course of the frenzied weekend. Macron’s office said that, this weekend alone, the French president spoke with Biden, Putin, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German&nbsp;Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.



Moscow has to date insisted it has no plans to invade Ukraine and said its forces in Belarus are there to conduct military drills over the next week.



Despite U.S. concerns that Russia could strike any day, the White House has also stressed that there’s still room for diplomacy. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg appeared to leave room for a peaceful solution when he spoke with CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.



“They have all the capabilities in place, Russia, to launch an attack on Ukraine without any warning at all. No one is denying that Russia has all these forces in place,” Stoltenberg said. “The question is, will they launch an attack?”



Those comments came as Russia’s military launched ballistic and cruise missiles on Saturday, an exercise the Kremlin called a “planned exercise of the strategic deterrence forces.”



— CNBC’s Christina Wilkie contributed reporting

106898635-1623928568153-gettyimages-1233498487-SWITZERLAND_BIDEN_PUTIN

Biden agrees to meet with Putin ‘in principle’ if Russia has not invaded Ukraine

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="548" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/48298862026_670fa39083_b-820x548.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-403422" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/48298862026_670fa39083_b-820x548.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/48298862026_670fa39083_b-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/48298862026_670fa39083_b-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/48298862026_670fa39083_b.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Commission President Ursula von der Leyen</figcaption></figure>



BRUSSELS, Feb 18 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Europe and Africa will work together to resolve by spring a rich-versus-poor nation dispute over how to ensure fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, the head of the European Commission said on Friday.



&#8220;We share the same goal. We have different ways to reach that goal. There must be a bridge between those two ways,&#8221; Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference at the end of a European Union-African Union summit in Brussels.



Von der Leyen said leaders had had a &#8220;good, intense, constructive&#8221; discussion on the topic and that her Commission and the African Union Commission would work together.



&#8220;We will meet college-to-college, meeting here in Brussels in spring and at that time, at the latest, we have to deliver a solution,&#8221; she said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-eu-launches-reset-with-africa-after-pandemic-disruption">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/eu-launches-summit-reset-with-africa-after-pandemic-pause/">EU launches reset with Africa after pandemic disruption</a></h3>



Only 11% of Africans were fully vaccinated at the start of February, according to the World Health Organization, against a mid-2022 target of 70%, which would put it more on par with Europe and other developed regions.



Many developing countries have called for a waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights for COVID vaccines and treatments. Rich nations, including many in the EU, say existing rules allowing countries to grant licences to local companies would boost production more effectively.



The WHO earlier announced in Brussels that six African countries &#8211; Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia &#8211; had become the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2UT26T&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that IP barriers had nevertheless hampered his country and that a waiver of IP rights was required to spread production more evenly.



&#8220;We are talking about the lives of millions, hundreds of millions of people, rather than the profitability of the few companies,&#8221; he said. &#8220;While we appreciate the donations, they are never a sustainable way or mechanism to build resilience.&#8221;



(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Christina Fincher)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

EU, Africa aim to resolve vaccine patent dispute by spring -EU chief

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="550" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PNMN5P5AAJOZRODXA2VOYSBQQY-820x550.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-415328" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PNMN5P5AAJOZRODXA2VOYSBQQY-820x550.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PNMN5P5AAJOZRODXA2VOYSBQQY-300x201.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PNMN5P5AAJOZRODXA2VOYSBQQY-134x90.jpg 134w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PNMN5P5AAJOZRODXA2VOYSBQQY-768x515.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PNMN5P5AAJOZRODXA2VOYSBQQY-1536x1030.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PNMN5P5AAJOZRODXA2VOYSBQQY-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks to officials during a tour of the Pasteur Institute vaccination and testing facility, in Dakar, Senegal, February 9, 2022. REUTERS/Edward McAllister/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



BRUSSELS, Feb 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The EU welcomed&nbsp;more than 40 African leaders to Brussels on Thursday in an effort to reassert its influence on a continent where China and Russia have made hefty investment inroads, and where many felt let down by Europe&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccines rollout.



The European Union will offer several packages of support at the summit to bolster health, education and stability in Africa, and will pledge half of a new 300 billion euro ($340.9 billion)investment drive launched to rival China&#8217;s Belt and Road Initiative.



But the meeting also takes place just as France and its allies fighting Islamist militants in Mali said on Thursday they would begin their military withdrawal from the country.<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2US2QG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



European and other wealthy nations were heavily criticised for hoarding protective equipment and later vaccines during the pandemic, with some African leaders saying the slow pace of donations could lead to &#8220;vaccine apartheid&#8221;.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-after-g7-pledge-eu-seeks-to-rival-china-s-belt-and-road-with-own-infrastructure-plan">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/after-g7-pledge-eu-seeks-to-rival-chinas-belt-and-road-with-own-infrastructure-plan/">After G7 pledge, EU seeks to rival China’s ‘Belt and Road’ with own infrastructure plan</a></h3>



By the start of February, only 11% of Africans were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus &#8211; far fewer than in richer parts of the world.



Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio challenged Europeans to remember there are &#8220;human beings on the other side&#8221; in Africa who have been left behind in the unequal global response to COVID-19, adding this has security implications.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2US63Y&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



There was also dismay over Europe&#8217;s travel bans on South Africa after the Omicron variant was detected there late last year.



South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he and other African leaders would raise the issue of intellectual property rights for COVID vaccines and treatments. Many developing countries want these rights waived, but face opposition from rich nations, including many in the EU.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="thorny-issues">THORNY ISSUES</h2>



Tensions run deeper on other issues between two continents with colonial ties, including over migration flows and the erosion of democracy in several African countries, some of which have recently seen coups d&#8217;etat including Mali.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2UC5F1&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Frank Mattheis, an expert in regional studies at the United Nations University, said the summit would seek to highlight areas where cooperation is promising and avoid thorny issues.



The European Commission announced this week that the EU and the Gates Foundation would invest&nbsp;more than&nbsp;100 million euros in the next five years to help set up an African medicines regulator to boost the continent&#8217;s drugs and vaccine production.<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2UQ1F5&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The race to establish the African Medicines Agency (AMA) comes after the pandemic exposed the region&#8217;s dependence on imported vaccines.



Just over 5% of medicines and 1% of vaccines consumed by Africa&#8217;s population of 1.2 billion people are produced locally. The EU says it will provide support to help Africa produce 60% of the vaccines it needs by 2040.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-who-warns-new-covid-variants-could-emerge-that-are-fully-resistant-to-vaccines-as-pandemic-drags-on">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/who-warns-new-covid-variants-could-emerge-that-are-fully-resistant-to-vaccines-as-pandemic-drags-on/">WHO warns new Covid variants could emerge that are fully resistant to vaccines as pandemic drags on</a></h3>



Part of the funding for the AMA will come from 150 billion euros to be mobilised for Africa over the next seven years under the EU&#8217;s Global Gateway scheme.



Separately, the European Investment Bank announced on Thursday it would make available 500 million euros in cheap loans to African countries to strengthen healthcare systems. That credit line is expected to mobilise a total of 1 billion euros in private and public investments, the bank said.



W. Gyude Moore, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Development, welcomed the investment pledge and said he hoped it would start a partnership of true equals.



&#8220;But there is a long history of unfulfilled promises like this when it comes to the EU and Africa, so the African Union, while cautiously optimistic, will remain sceptical until this pledge is converted into projects on the ground.”



($1 = 0.8800 euros)



(Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Duncan Miriri and Katharine Houreld in NairobiEditing by Gareth Jones, Frances Kerry and Andrew Heavens)

FILE PHOTO: EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks to officials during a tour of the Pasteur Institute in Dakar

EU launches reset with Africa after pandemic disruption

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/LRXBGCQS3NOURH6SRUH42RQOGA-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-415312" width="820" height="547" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/LRXBGCQS3NOURH6SRUH42RQOGA-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/LRXBGCQS3NOURH6SRUH42RQOGA-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/LRXBGCQS3NOURH6SRUH42RQOGA-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/LRXBGCQS3NOURH6SRUH42RQOGA-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/LRXBGCQS3NOURH6SRUH42RQOGA.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Indonesia’s Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani and Indonesia’s Central Bank Governor Perry Warjiyo lead the opening ceremony of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 17, 2022. Mast Irham/Pool via REUTERS</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG/LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Wealthy nations must improve their floundering flagship debt relief initiative or face a spate of debt crises in the developing world, experts and campaigners say as finance chiefs of G20 major economies prepare for meetings later this week.



As the pandemic battered global economies, the Group of 20 leading economies launched measures, including a temporary debt service suspension for poor countries to provide breathing room, as well as the Common Framework &#8211; a debt restructuring scheme for long-term relief.



The Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) has now expired. Meanwhile, having signed up for the Common Framework a year ago, Zambia, Ethiopia and Chad have yet to receive relief.



Their uncertain fate, coupled with the fear of being punished by the market, have led other governments to steer clear of the Common Framework.



&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t give them any incentives,&#8221; the Washington-based Center for Global Development&#8217;s Daouda Sembene, a former director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told Reuters.



&#8220;Unfortunately, it so far has done some harm and not necessarily good.&#8221;



Alarm bells are ringing for many. According to the&nbsp;IMF, some 60% of low-income countries &#8211; mostly in Africa &#8211; are either in debt distress or at high risk of it, up from less than 30% in 2015.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2U51LA&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



This year, 74 low-income nations must repay $35 billion to bilateral and private lenders &#8211; nearly double from 2020, the World Bank calculated. With the U.S. Federal Reserve on the verge of hiking interest rates, borrowing costs are set to increase for riskier emerging markets.



U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for action on relief for poorer nations and will urge her G20 counterparts to work towards shoring up developing countries.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2UQ2YD&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



World Bank President David Malpass said last month the slow pace of relief is increasing the risk of sovereign defaults.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2TR18V&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Hung Tran, a former IMF deputy director now with the Atlantic Council think tank, wrote this week that G20 initiatives to deal with debt had &#8220;<a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-g20s-unfinished-business-dont-let-debt-do-us-part" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">largely failed</a>&#8220;.



&#8220;Unless these efforts are strengthened, sovereign debt crises will prevent vulnerable countries from fully bouncing back after the pandemic.&#8221;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revised-relief-plan">REVISED RELIEF PLAN</h3>



Officials in Indonesia, which holds this year&#8217;s G20 presidency, say debt relief is one issue on the agenda when finance ministers meet on Thursday and Friday.



IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva wants the Common Framework beefed up with timelines to speed up decision-making and clear comparability of treatment enforcement, providing creditors comfort that the process is fair.



She also wants debt service standstills during restructuring negotiations and an expansion of the framework&#8217;s remit as many countries holding the bulk of at-risk debt are not poor enough to currently qualify for relief.



Others are pushing for deeper revisions.



The Atlantic Council&#8217;s Tran believes debt service standstill should prevent ratings agencies from downgrading countries seeking relief.



Tim Jones of the UK-based Jubilee Debt Campaign says a plan is needed to deal with private creditors and bondholders,&nbsp;who refused to participate in the now expired DSSI initiative.



&#8220;You need to make clear the alternative is them not being paid anything,&#8221; he said



What action, if any, the G20 delivers this week remains to be seen. Finance ministers might be absorbed by issues closer to home &#8211; geopolitical tensions, rising global inflation and tighter monetary policy.



&#8220;So what happens in 30 low-income countries, even though it&#8217;s 30 countries, is something that could be happening on another planet,&#8221; World Bank Chief Economist Carmen Reinhart told Reuters.



Even a functioning Common Framework will solve only half the problem, experts say. Countries must get help&nbsp;in&nbsp;growing economies, not just traditional austerity measures.



&#8220;It is not solving a growth problem, and you cannot solve a debt problem by killing growth,&#8221; said Vera Songwe, the executive secretary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa.



(Reporting by Joe Bavier and Rachel SavageAdditional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington D.C., Gayatri Suroyo in Jakarta, Loucoumane Coulibaly in Abidjan, Diadie Ba and Ngouda Dione in DakarEditing by Karin Strohecker and Mark Heinrich)

LRXBGCQS3NOURH6SRUH42RQOGA

G20 must push relief to avoid debt crises – experts, campaigners

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107013437-1644478952090-gettyimages-1238340954-ts12234c.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415289" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107013437-1644478952090-gettyimages-1238340954-ts12234c.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107013437-1644478952090-gettyimages-1238340954-ts12234c-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107013437-1644478952090-gettyimages-1238340954-ts12234c-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems during the Allied Resolve 2022 joint military drills by Belarusian and Russian troops. Russian Defence Ministry | TASS | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



LONDON — NATO has accused Russia of increasing the number of troops it has amassed at the Ukrainian border a day after Moscow claimed it had begun withdrawing some of its military units.



Western leaders have warned that they are yet to see evidence of such a move, after a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday that some units, having completed military drills near the border, were already on the move.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-russia-says-it-s-begun-partial-troop-pullback-from-ukraine-border-nato-urges-caution">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/russia-says-its-begun-partial-troop-pullback-from-ukraine-border-nato-urges-caution/">Russia says it’s begun partial troop pullback from Ukraine border; NATO urges caution</a></h3>



The Russian government released video footage on Wednesday which it claimed showed military units returning to their permanent deployments after completing exercises. CNBC has not been able to verify the authenticity of the footage.



Russian officials have also announced that troops engaging in military exercises in Belarus, to Ukraine’s north, would also be returning to their permanent bases on Feb. 20. However, Western leaders have cast doubt on Russia’s claims.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-russia-continues-military-buildup"><a></a>Russia ‘continues military buildup’</h2>



NATO defense ministers are due to meet in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss what the military alliance has called “the most serious security crisis we have faced in Europe for decades.”



Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting on Wednesday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said it “remains to be seen whether there is a Russian withdrawal.”



“So far, we have not seen any de-escalation on the ground. On the contrary it appears that Russia continues their military buildup,” he said.



Stoltenberg added that Russia has “always moved forces back and forth,” so footage that shows movement of forces and tanks “does not confirm a real withdrawal.”



Stoltenberg has said NATO allies “remain ready to engage with Russia.”



The Kremlin said Wednesday that NATO was “wrong” to say there is no evidence of Russian withdrawal from the border, Reuters reported, adding that President Vladimir Putin had a desire to negotiate diplomatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mixed-signals"><a></a>‘Mixed signals’</h2>



Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Sky News on Wednesday that while the West has seen “some positive signs” from Russia, “the intelligence we’re seeing today is still not encouraging.”



“We’ve got Russian field hospitals being constructed near the border with Ukraine in Belarus, which can only be construed as preparation for an invasion,” he said. “So mixed signals, I think, at the moment.”



Johnson’s comments came after a warning from U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday that Washington had not yet confirmed that Russia had withdrawn any of its military units from the Ukrainian border.



“We have not yet verified that Russian military units are returning to their home bases. Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position,” he said in a speech at the White House.



“And the fact remains [that] right now, Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine in Belarus and along Ukraine’s border.”



Warning that “an invasion remains distinctly possible,” Biden added that any use of force by Moscow would lead to “incredible human suffering.”



He urged Russia to choose a diplomatic path toward resolving the issue.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-russia-is-willing-to-go-to-war-and-incur-sanctions-over-ukraine-analysts-warn">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/russia-is-willing-to-go-to-war-and-incur-sanctions-over-ukraine-analysts-warn/">Russia is willing to go to war and incur sanctions over Ukraine, analysts warn</a></h3>



Thousands of Russian troops began engaging in military drills last week in a move that was widely seen as a display of strength by Moscow. The drills came as more than 100,000 soldiers, tanks, missiles and even fresh blood supplies had been moved to Russia’s border with Ukraine.



Moscow has repeatedly insisted it has no plans to invade Ukraine, despite warnings from Western countries in recent days that an invasion is likely to be imminent.



Russia is demanding that Ukraine never be permitted to become a NATO member, and has said it wants the organization to roll back its presence in Eastern Europe. Since 2002, Ukraine has sought entry into NATO, the world’s most powerful military alliance. The group’s Article 5 clause states that an attack on one member country is considered an attack on all of them.



The U.S. and NATO have said that such a request from Russia cannot be accommodated.



Speaking to European lawmakers on Wednesday, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged the Kremlin “not to unleash further violence in Europe.”



“Yesterday Russia was certainly sending conflicting signals,” she said. “On the one hand, authorities announced Russian troop pullbacks. On the other hand, the Duma [Russian Parliament] votes for full recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics.”



The situation at Ukraine’s border is part of a broader, long-term issue.



Moscow annexed Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine, in 2014, and around 13,000 people in the eastern region of Donbas have died in an ongoing conflict between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.



Russian lawmakers voted on Tuesday to ask Putin to recognize two Moscow-backed breakaway regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, as independent.

107013437-1644478952090-gettyimages-1238340954-ts12234c

NATO says Russia is increasing troop numbers at Ukrainian border, calls for talks

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="546" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106528250-1588939822963gettyimages-1192157964-820x546.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415285" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106528250-1588939822963gettyimages-1192157964-820x546.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106528250-1588939822963gettyimages-1192157964-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106528250-1588939822963gettyimages-1192157964-135x90.jpeg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106528250-1588939822963gettyimages-1192157964-768x511.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106528250-1588939822963gettyimages-1192157964-1536x1022.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106528250-1588939822963gettyimages-1192157964-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel Photo: via CNBC</figcaption></figure>



Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel said it’s “reasonable” to assume that we may be approaching the final stages of the pandemic.



“I think that is a reasonable scenario,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” when asked about views that the Covid-19 pandemic may now be in its final stages.



“There’s an 80% chance that as omicron evolves or SarsCov-2&nbsp;virus evolves,&nbsp;we are going to see less and less virulent viruses,” he said Wednesday. &nbsp;



He also said there’s another “20% scenario where we see a next mutation, which is more virulent than omicron.”



“I think we got lucky as a world that omicron was not very virulent, but still are we see thousands of people dying every day around the planet because of omicron,”&nbsp;he said.



According to the World Health Organization, there were 15.47 million new cases reported in the last 7 days worldwide, and 73,162 deaths in the same period.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-moderna-working-with-world-health-leaders-on-covid-booster-that-targets-omicron-for-this-fall-ceo-says">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/moderna-working-with-world-health-leaders-on-covid-booster-that-targets-omicron-for-this-fall-ceo-says/">Moderna working with world health leaders on Covid booster that targets omicron for this fall, CEO says</a></h3>



Some studies have shown that while the omicron variant appears more contagious, it generally doesn’t make people as sick as delta does.



Health officials have also highlighted that omicron’s threat may be fading.



But the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned in January that it’s dangerous to assume the pandemic is approaching its endgame. In fact, he said it’s “nowhere near over,” and cautioned that new variants will likely emerge as omicron spreads rapidly across the globe.



In January, Moderna announced it started a clinical trial to study the safety and efficacy of a booster shot that specifically targets the omicron variant.



The first participant in the trial has already received a dose of the omicron-specific booster shot, according to the company. It expects to enroll about 600 adult participants ages 18 and over to be split between two groups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-asia-expansion-plans"><a></a>Asia expansion plans</h2>



Separately, Moderna announced plans to expand its presence in Asia.



“The reason we want to expand in Asia is the importance of that region,” he told CNBC.



“The fact that this virus is not going away, as we’ve been saying since almost the beginning — this virus is going to stay with humans forever, like flu and we’d have to live with it.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-nigeria-is-working-on-covid-19-vaccine-president-says">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/nigeria-is-working-on-covid-19-vaccine-president-says/">Nigeria is working on COVID-19 vaccine, president says</a></h3>



Bancel said he finds Asia’s economic expansion “very exciting,” and that the company intends to open new subsidiaries in Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.



The expansion comes as Moderna “continues to scale up the manufacturing and distribution of its COVID-19 vaccine and future mRNA vaccines and therapeutics,” the U.S. biotech firm said in a statement.



Moderna’s messenger RNA vaccine is currently not available in Hong Kong, which recently saw a surge in Covid cases. Bancel said the company is currently “working with authorities to get it authorized.”

106528250-1588939822963gettyimages-1192157964

Moderna CEO says it’s ‘reasonable’ to think pandemic may be in its final stages

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107015734-1644952070737-gettyimages-943431290-virus_1_0_00221.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415281" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107015734-1644952070737-gettyimages-943431290-virus_1_0_00221.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107015734-1644952070737-gettyimages-943431290-virus_1_0_00221-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107015734-1644952070737-gettyimages-943431290-virus_1_0_00221-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>3d illustration of HIV virus. Artem_Egorov | iStock | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



An American research team reported that it has possibly cured HIV in a woman for the first time. Building on past successes, as well as failures, in the HIV-cure research field, these scientists used a cutting-edge stem cell transplant method that they expect will expand the pool of people who could receive similar treatment to several dozen annually.



Their patient stepped into a rarified club that includes three men whom scientists have cured, or very likely cured, of HIV. Researchers also know of two women whose own immune systems have, quite extraordinarily, apparently vanquished the virus.



Carl Dieffenbach, director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of multiple divisions of the National Institutes of Health that funds the research network behind the new case study, told NBC News that the accumulation of repeated apparent triumphs in curing HIV “continues to provide hope.”&nbsp;



“It’s important that there continues to be success along this line,” he said.



In the first case of what was ultimately deemed a successful HIV cure, investigators treated the American Timothy Ray Brown for acute myeloid leukemia, or AML. He received a stem cell transplant from a donor who had a rare genetic abnormality that grants the immune cells that HIV targets natural resistance to the virus. The strategy in Brown’s case, which was first made public in 2008, has since apparently cured HIV in two other people. But it has also failed in a string of others. 



This therapeutic process is meant to replace an individual’s immune system with another person’s, treating their cancer while also curing their HIV. First, physicians must destroy the original immune system with chemotherapy and sometimes irradiation. The hope is that this also destroys as many immune cells as possible that still quietly harbor HIV despite effective antiretroviral treatment. Then, provided the transplanted HIV-resistant stem cells engraft properly, new viral copies that might emerge from any remaining infected cells will be unable to infect any other immune cells.&nbsp;



It is unethical, experts stress, to attempt an HIV cure through a stem cell transplant — a toxic, sometimes fatal procedure — in anyone who does not have a potentially fatal cancer or other condition that already makes them a candidate for such risky treatment.&nbsp;



Dr. Deborah Persaud, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who chairs the NIH-funded scientific committee behind the new case study (the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network), said that “while we’re very excited” about the new case of possible HIV cure, the stem cell treatment method is “still not a feasible strategy for all but a handful of the millions of people living with HIV.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pushing-the-envelope-in-hiv-cure-science"><a></a>Pushing the envelope in HIV-cure science</h2>



Dr. Yvonne J. Bryson, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, described the new case study Tuesday at the virtually held annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. 



The “New York patient,” as the woman is being called, because she received her treatment at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, was diagnosed with HIV in 2013 and leukemia in 2017.



Bryson and Persaud have partnered with a network of other researchers to conduct lab tests to evaluate the woman. At Weill Cornell, Dr. Jingmei Hsu and Dr. Koen van Besien from the stem cell transplant program paired with infectious disease specialist Dr. Marshall Glesby on patient care.&nbsp;



This team has long sought to mitigate the considerable challenge investigators face in finding a donor whose stem cells could both treat a patient’s cancer and cure their HIV.



Traditionally, such a donor must have a close enough human leukocyte antigen, or HLA, match to maximize the likelihood that the stem cell transplant will engraft well. The donor must also have the rare genetic abnormality conferring HIV resistance.



This genetic abnormality largely occurs in people with northern European ancestry, and even among people native to that area, at a rate of only about 1 percent. So for those lacking substantial similar ancestry, the chance of finding a suitable stem cell donor is particularly low.



In the United States, African Americans comprise about 40 percent and Hispanics about 25 percent of the approximately 1.2 million people with HIV; whites comprise some 28 percent.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cutting-edge-treatment"><a></a>Cutting-edge treatment</h2>



The procedure used to treat the New York patient, known as a haplo-cord transplant, was developed by the Weill Cornell team to expand cancer treatment options for people with blood malignancies who lack HLA-identical donors. First, the cancer patient receives a transplant of umbilical cord blood, which contains stem cells that amount to a powerful nascent immune system. A day later, they receive a larger graft of adult stem cells. The adult stem cells flourish rapidly, but over time they are entirely replaced by cord blood cells.



Compared with adult stem cells, cord blood is more adaptable, generally requires less of a close HLA match to succeed in treating cancer and causes fewer complications. Cord blood, however, does not typically yield enough cells to be effective as a cancer treatment in adults, so transplants of such blood have traditionally been largely limited to pediatric oncology. In haplo-cord transplants, the additional transplantation of stem cells from an adult donor, which provides a plethora of cells, can help compensate for the paucity of cord blood cells.&nbsp;



“The role of the adult donor cells is to hasten the early engraftment process and render the transplant easier and safer,” van Besien said.&nbsp;



For the New York patient, who has a mixed-race ancestry, the Weill Cornell team and its collaborators found the HIV-resistant genetic abnormality in the umbilical cord blood of an infant donor. They paired a transplant of those cells with stem cells from an adult donor. Both donors were only a partial HLA match to the woman, but the combination of the two transplants allowed for this.&nbsp;



“We estimate that there are approximately 50 patients per year in the U.S. who could benefit from this procedure,” van Besien said of the haplo-cord transplant’s use as an HIV-cure therapy. “The ability to use partially matched umbilical cord blood grafts greatly increases the likelihood of finding suitable donors for such patients.”



Another benefit of relying on cord blood is that banks of this resource are much easier to screen in large numbers for the HIV-resistance abnormality than the bone marrow registries from which oncologists find stem cell donors. Before the New York patient became a candidate for the haplo-cord treatment, Bryson and her collaborators had already screened thousands of cord blood samples in search of the genetic abnormality.



The woman’s transplant engrafted very well. She has been in remission from her leukemia for more than four years. Three years after her transplant, she and her clinicians discontinued her HIV treatment. Fourteen months later, she still has experienced no resurgent virus.



Multiple ultrasensitive tests can detect no sign in the woman’s immune cells of any HIV capable of replicating, nor can the researchers detect any HIV antibodies or immune cells programmed to go after the virus. They also drew immune cells from the woman and in a laboratory experiment attempted to infect them with HIV — to no avail.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="remaining-cautious"><a></a>Remaining cautious</h2>



At this stage, Bryson and her colleagues consider the woman in a state of HIV remission.



“You don’t want to over-call it,” Bryson said of favoring the word “remission” over “cure” at this stage.



Case in point: Johns Hopkins’ Deborah Persaud was the author of a case study she first presented in 2013 of a child in Mississippi who was in a state of what at the time she called a “functional cure.” After apparently contracting HIV from her mother in utero, the baby was treated with an atypically intensified antiretroviral regimen shortly after birth. When Persaud announced the case study, the toddler had been off of HIV treatment for 10 months with no viral rebound. News of this supposed HIV cure swept the globe and ignited a media frenzy. But the child’s virus wound up rebounding 27 months after her treatment interruption.



If enough time passes without any signs of active virus — a few years — the authors of this latest case study would consider the New York patient cured.



“I’m excited that it’s turned out so well for her,” Bryson said. The apparent success of the case, she said, has given researchers “more hope and more options for the future.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="why-is-hiv-so-difficult-to-cure"><a></a>Why is HIV so difficult to cure?</h2>



When the highly effective combination antiretroviral treatment for HIV arrived in 1996, Dr. David Ho, who was one of the architects of this therapeutic revolution and is the director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City, famously theorized that given enough time, such medications could eventually eradicate the virus from the body.



To date, there are a handful of cases of people who were started on antiretrovirals very soon after contracting HIV, later went off treatment and have remained in viral remission with no rebounding virus for years. 



Otherwise, Ho’s prediction has proved false. During the past quarter century, HIV-cure researchers have learned in increasingly exacting detail what a daunting task it is not only to cure HIV, but to develop effective curative therapies that are safe and scalable.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



HIV maintains such a permanent presence in the body because shortly after infection, the virus splices its genetic code into long-lived immune cells that will enter a resting state — meaning they stop churning out new viral copies. Antiretrovirals only work on replicating cells, so HIV can remain under the radar of such medications in resting cells for extended periods, sometimes years. Absent any HIV treatment, such cells may restart their engines at any time and repopulate the body with massive amounts of virus.



Timothy Brown’s case, published in 2009, ignited the HIV-cure research field, which has seen soaring financial investment since.



In 2019, researchers announced two new cases of HIV remission following treatments that mirrored what Brown received. These included London resident Adam Castillejo, who had Hodgkin lymphoma, and a man in Düsseldorf, Germany, who had AML. 



More than three years have passed since these two men have been off of HIV treatment with no viral rebound. Consequently, the authors of each of their case studies — University of Cambridge’s Ravindra K. Gupta and Dr. Björn Jensen of Düsseldorf University Hospital — each recently told NBC News their respective patient was “almost definitely” cured of the virus.



Since 2020, scientists have also announced the cases of two women whose own immune systems have apparently cured them of HIV. They are among the approximately 1 in 200 people with HIV known as “elite controllers,” whose immune systems can greatly suppress viral replication without medication. In their cases, their bodies went even further and apparently destroyed all functional virus.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="a-less-toxic-treatment"><a></a>A less toxic treatment</h2>



Another major upside of the haplo-cord transplant the New York patient received, compared to the treatment of her three male predecessors, is that the use of cord blood — for not entirely understood reasons — greatly reduces the risk of what’s known as graft vs. host disease. This is a potentially devastating inflammatory reaction in which the donor cells go to war with the recipient’s body. The men in the three other HIV-cure cases all experienced this, which in Brown’s case caused prolonged health problems.&nbsp;



Brown died at 54 in September 2020 from recurrent leukemia. 



The New York patient was the second person with HIV to receive a haplo-cord transplant in hopes of curing the virus. However, the first person died of his cancer soon after his 2013 treatment.



By contrast, the New York patient, Bryson said, remains “asymptomatic and healthy.”



“She’s enjoying her life,” Bryson said.

107015734-1644952070737-gettyimages-943431290-virus_1_0_00221

Scientists have possibly cured HIV in a woman for the first time

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107010806-1643907733004-gettyimages-1238160938-ts1211c4.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415273" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107010806-1643907733004-gettyimages-1238160938-ts1211c4.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107010806-1643907733004-gettyimages-1238160938-ts1211c4-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107010806-1643907733004-gettyimages-1238160938-ts1211c4-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A serviceman of a motor rifle unit of the Russian Southern Military District takes part in a field firing exercise held by the tank force of the Russian Western Military District at Kadamovsky Range, Russia, Feb. 3, 2022. Erik Romanenko | TASS | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Moscow is starting to return some troops at the Ukrainian border to their bases, the Russian government announced Tuesday — but Western officials have urged caution over taking Russia’s claims at face value.



In a statement early on Tuesday, Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, said troops that had recently been posted to Russia’s southern and western military districts — which share a border with Ukraine — had completed their military drills and “have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today.”



Konashenkov also announced that Russian troops currently engaged in military drills in neighboring Belarus, which shares a border with Ukraine to the latter’s north, would return to their permanent bases when the exercises ended on Feb. 20.



Thousands of Russian troops began engaging in military drills last week in a move that was widely seen as a display of strength by Moscow. The drills came as more than 100,000 soldiers, tanks, missiles and even fresh blood supplies had been moved to Russia’s border with Ukraine.



Moscow has repeatedly insisted it has no plans to invade Ukraine, despite warnings from Western countries in recent days that an invasion is likely to be imminent.



The Kremlin said Tuesday that Russia had always said its troops would return to their bases after participating in military exercises, Reuters reported.



Dubbing U.S. warnings that Moscow would launch an attack on Wednesday “baseless hysteria,” a Kremlin spokesperson said tensions had been exacerbated by a huge buildup of Ukrainian forces and U.S. claims that war was imminent, according to the news agency.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-no-sign-of-de-escalation"><a></a>‘No sign of de-escalation’</h2>



However, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference on Tuesday that while there was reason for “cautious optimism” over the situation in Ukraine, the military alliance so far had “not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side.”



“Russia has amassed a fighting force in and around Ukraine unprecedented since the Cold War,” he said. “Everything is in place for a new attack. But Russia still has time to step back from the brink, stop preparing for war and start working for a peaceful solution.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-russia-is-willing-to-go-to-war-and-incur-sanctions-over-ukraine-analysts-warn">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/russia-is-willing-to-go-to-war-and-incur-sanctions-over-ukraine-analysts-warn/">Russia is willing to go to war and incur sanctions over Ukraine, analysts warn</a></h3>



NATO has not received any response from Russia regarding its request for a meeting to discuss the current situation, Stoltenberg told reporters, adding that any move from Russia into Ukraine would violate international law.



He added that Russia’s continued efforts to destabilize Ukraine, through its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support of Russian separatists in the country, as well as the current buildup of troops along the Ukrainian border and near NATO territory, meant the organization may need to consider making long-term security adjustments.



Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Foreign Office told CNBC in an email that Britain will “judge the Russians by their actions not their words.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="win-for-the-west"><a></a>Win for the West?</h2>



Timothy Ash, senior emerging markets sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said in a note Tuesday that “if Putin has really blinked, this would be huge win for Biden, [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the West,” adding that it would be difficult to see the entire situation as anything but a big defeat for Putin.



“What did he achieve?” he said. “He managed to rally the West back around NATO, which again has common purpose. Ukrainian sovereignty [has been] affirmed, even strengthened.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-ukraine-calls-for-meeting-with-russia-as-u-s-warns-of-imminent-attack">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/ukraine-calls-for-meeting-with-russia-as-u-s-warns-of-imminent-attack/">Ukraine calls for meeting with Russia as U.S. warns of imminent attack</a></h3>



As a result of Russia’s aggressive activity, Ukraine’s military was now better armed and better able to defend itself, Ash added.



“Russia has been called out as an unreliable energy supplier — the West will accelerate diversification away from Russian energy sources,” he said. “Some will say [Putin] was the Russian leader who actually lost Ukraine. That will be his mark in history — he accelerated Ukraine’s Western orientation.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="diplomacy-far-from-exhausted"><a></a>Diplomacy ‘far from exhausted’</h2>



In a televised exchange on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told President Vladimir Putin that the avenues the Kremlin could use to secure the security guarantees it has demanded — including diplomacy — “are far from exhausted.”



While Lavrov suggested continuing along the diplomatic route, he added: “We have already warned more than once that we will not allow endless negotiations on questions that demand a solution today.”



Russia is demanding that Ukraine never be permitted to become a NATO member, and has said it wants the organization to roll back its presence in Eastern Europe.



Addressing the Ukrainian population on Monday, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine “wants &#8230; to resolve all issues exclusively through negotiations.” But he added that Ukraine could respond to any aggression with its “great army” that has “unique combat experience and modern weapons.”



In a phone call on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed that “a crucial window for diplomacy” still remained, reiterating that a significant package of sanctions — including reducing European countries’ reliance on Russian gas — would be imposed if Russian aggression escalated.



Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau — the current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — is due to convene talks in Moscow on Tuesday between Lavrov and the OSCE’s chairperson-in-office in Ukraine, Mikko Kinnunen.



Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Putin. Scholz met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday.



Despite the Kremlin doubling down on its claims that Russia doesn’t have plans to invade Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies have been warning that an invasion could happen “any day now.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to close on Monday, relocating staff to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.

107010806-1643907733004-gettyimages-1238160938-ts1211c4

Russia says it’s begun partial troop pullback from Ukraine border; NATO urges caution

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014180-1644587364185-gettyimages-1367504403-vcg111366809619.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415266" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014180-1644587364185-gettyimages-1367504403-vcg111366809619.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014180-1644587364185-gettyimages-1367504403-vcg111366809619-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014180-1644587364185-gettyimages-1367504403-vcg111366809619-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A bulldozer pushes coal onto a conveyor belt at the Jiangyou Power Station on January 28, 2022 in Jiangyou, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province of China. Liu Zhongjun | China News Service | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



LONDON — Banks and investors have channeled massive sums of money to support the coal industry in recent years, according to new research, propping up the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel at a time when humanity is facing a climate emergency.



Analysis published Tuesday by campaign groups Urgewald and Reclaim Finance, alongside more than two dozen other NGOs, found that commercial banks channeled $1.5 trillion to the coal industry between January 2019 and November last year.



The research shows how a tiny number of financial institutions from a handful of countries play an outsized role in keeping the coal industry afloat.



Indeed, financial institutions from just six countries — the U.S., China, Japan, India, Canada and the U.K. — were seen to be responsible for more than 80% of coal financing and investment.



“These financial institutions must come under fire from all quarters: civil society organizations, financial regulators, customers and progressive investors,” Katrin Ganswindt, head of financial research at Urgewald, said in the report. “Unless we end financing of coal, it will end us.”



Coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel in terms of emissions and therefore the most critical target for replacement in the transition to renewable alternatives.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014183-1644587562136-gettyimages-1284106394-0g1a3168_2020110580009386.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415267" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014183-1644587562136-gettyimages-1284106394-0g1a3168_2020110580009386.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014183-1644587562136-gettyimages-1284106394-0g1a3168_2020110580009386-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014183-1644587562136-gettyimages-1284106394-0g1a3168_2020110580009386-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Fog shrouds the Canary Wharf business district including global financial institutions Citigroup Inc., State Street Corp., Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and the commercial office block No. 1 Canada Square, on the Isle of Dogs on November 05, 2020 in London, England. Dan Kitwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The International Energy Agency has made clear that unless coal is rapidly retired there is little chance, if any at all, of curbing global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.



Yet, even as policymakers and business leaders repeatedly tout their commitment to the so-called “energy transition,” the world’s fossil fuel dependency remains on track to get even worse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-who-are-the-top-lenders-to-coal-clients"><a></a>Who are the top lenders to coal clients?</h2>



The findings outline all corporate lending and underwriting for companies on Urgewald’s Global Coal Exit List but exclude green bonds and financing that is directed toward non-coal activities. The GCEL refers to a list of 1,032 companies that account for 90% of the world’s thermal coal production and coal-fired capacity.



It is the first GCEL finance research update since the COP26 climate conference was held in Glasgow, Scotland late last year. Campaigners say it is for this reason that the analysis should be seen as a benchmark to assess the integrity of promises made at COP26.



Major coal-dependent nations at the U.N. talks pledged for the first time to “phase down” coal-fired power generation and inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels. A last-minute intervention to amend the terminology of the Glasgow Climate Pact to “phase down” rather than “phase out” sparked fears among many it would create a loophole to delay desperately needed climate action.



“Banks like to argue that they want to help their coal clients transition, but the reality is that almost none of these companies are transitioning. And they have little incentive to do so as long as bankers continue writing them blank checks,” Ganswindt said.



The NGOs research shows that while 376 commercial banks provided $363 billion in loans to the coal industry between January 2019 and November 2021, just 12 banks accounted for 48% of total lending to companies on the GCEL.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014176-1644587093063-gettyimages-1237695633-zarzycka-conflict220112_npegi.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415268" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014176-1644587093063-gettyimages-1237695633-zarzycka-conflict220112_npegi.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014176-1644587093063-gettyimages-1237695633-zarzycka-conflict220112_npegi-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014176-1644587093063-gettyimages-1237695633-zarzycka-conflict220112_npegi-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Turów Power Station in the southwest of Poland. Dominika Zarzycka | NurPhoto | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Of these so-called “dirty dozen” lenders, 10 are members of the U.N.’s Net Zero Banking Alliance — an industry-led initiative committed to aligning their portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050.



The top three lenders providing loans to the coal industry consist of Japan’s Mizuho Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and SMBC Group, respectively, followed by the U.K.’s Barclays and Wall Street’s Citigroup.



A spokesperson for Barclays said the bank had committed in Jan. 2019 “to not provide any project finance for the construction or material expansion of coal-fired power stations or the development of greenfield thermal coal mines anywhere in the world.”



Barclays has since said it will not provide general corporate financing specifically for new or expanded coal mining or coal-fired power plant development and says it has tightened restrictions on financing of thermal coal mining and power clients.



Meanwhile, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial said it has announced targets to achieve net-zero emissions in its operations by 2030 and its finance portfolio by 2050.



“MUFG takes its mission of contributing to the sustainable growth of clients and society seriously, and is therefore committed to operating in a manner that is both socially responsible and in accordance with the long-term developmental requirements of the markets that it operates in,” a spokesperson said.



Mizuho Financial and Citi both declined to respond to the NGOs analysis when contacted by CNBC.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="vast-amounts-of-cash"><a></a>‘Vast amounts of cash’</h2>



The study found it is underwriting that now accounts for the lion’s share of capital that banks mobilize for their coal clients. Underwriting refers to the process by which banks raise investment or capital for companies by issuing bonds or shares on their behalf and selling them to investors such as pension funds, insurance funds and mutual funds.



In the almost two-year period from January 2019 through to November last year, 484 commercial banks channeled $1.2 trillion to companies on the GCEL through underwriting. Of these, just 12 banks were found to account for 39% of the total underwriting since 2019.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106809103-1607594427056-gettyimages-527335076-270114clayton_newyork_0553.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415269" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106809103-1607594427056-gettyimages-527335076-270114clayton_newyork_0553.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106809103-1607594427056-gettyimages-527335076-270114clayton_newyork_0553-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106809103-1607594427056-gettyimages-527335076-270114clayton_newyork_0553-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>The JP Morgan Chase &amp; Co. headquarters, The JP Morgan Chase Tower in Park Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan, New York. Tim Clayton &#8211; Corbis | Corbis Sport | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The Industrial Commercial Bank of China, the China International Trust and Investment Corporation and the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank were identified as the top three respective underwriters of the coal industry. Indeed, the only non-Chinese bank among the top 12 underwriters for the coal industry was JPMorgan Chase, the biggest U.S. bank by assets.



Jason Opeña Disterhoft, senior climate and energy campaigner at Rainforest Action Network, said JPMorgan’s list of coal clients in 2021 “reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the most carbon-heavy companies on the planet.”



He added: “Despite a new coal policy in 2020, it’s still servicing top carbon polluters like China Huaneng, Eskom, American Electric Power and Adani.”



A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase said: “Being the first U.S. bank to set Paris-aligned 2030 carbon reduction targets, including for the electric power sector, and creating a $2.5 trillion sustainability effort are clear examples of our ongoing commitment to support the transition to a low-carbon economy.”



Reflecting on the findings of the research, Urgewald’s Ganswindt told CNBC that it was important to see the big picture when it comes to how banks provide support to the coal industry.



“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether banks are supporting the coal industry by providing loans or by providing underwriting services. Both actions lead to the same result: Vast amounts of cash are provided to an industry that is our climate’s worst enemy,” she said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-about-investors"><a></a>What about investors?</h2>



While banks play a pivotal role in helping coal companies get their hands on the capital through underwriting their share and bond issuances, the NGOs behind the research recognized it is ultimately investors that are the buyers of these securities.



The research identifies almost 5,000 institutional investors with combined holdings of over $1.2 trillion in the coal industry. The top two dozen account for 46% of this sum as of November 2021. U.S. investment giants Blackrock and Vanguard were found to be the two largest institutional investors, respectively.



“No one should be fooled by BlackRock’s and Vanguard’s membership in the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. These two institutions have more responsibility for accelerating climate change than any other institutional investor worldwide,” Yann Louvel, policy analyst at Reclaim Finance, said in a statement.



He added it was “absolutely frightening” to see that pension funds, asset managers, mutual funds and other institutional investors were still betting on coal companies in the midst of the climate emergency.



BlackRock declined to comment on the NGOs findings.



A spokesperson for Vanguard told CNBC that the company was “committed to encouraging companies, through effective stewardship, to address material climate risks” through the energy transition.



“As an asset manager Vanguard has a fiduciary responsibility to the broad range of retail, intermediary and institutional investors who have entrusted us with their assets,” they said. “Our mandate is to invest client assets in accordance with the investment strategies they have selected, and to act as a steward of those assets. We take this responsibility very seriously.”

107014180-1644587364185-gettyimages-1367504403-vcg111366809619

Banks haven’t quit coal. Study says commercial lenders have channeled $1.5 trillion to the industry since 2019

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014665-16447660582022-02-13t101132z_536932097_rc2yis9b2084_rtrmadp_0_ukraine-crisis-russia-navy.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415250" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014665-16447660582022-02-13t101132z_536932097_rc2yis9b2084_rtrmadp_0_ukraine-crisis-russia-navy.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014665-16447660582022-02-13t101132z_536932097_rc2yis9b2084_rtrmadp_0_ukraine-crisis-russia-navy-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/107014665-16447660582022-02-13t101132z_536932097_rc2yis9b2084_rtrmadp_0_ukraine-crisis-russia-navy-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Russian Navy’s diesel-electric submarine Rostov-on-Don sails in Bosphorus, on its way to the Black Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey, on February 13, 2022. Yoruk Isik | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



Ukraine has requested a meeting with Russia within 48 hours as U.S. intelligence officials warn that a Russian invasion could begin this week.



On Sunday evening, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia had failed to respond to a request Ukraine had filed under the Vienna Document — a treaty signed by 56 member states aimed at maintaining military transparency across Europe — for a meeting.



“Consequently, we take the next step,” Kuleba said in a statement. “We request a meeting with Russia and all participating states within 48 hours to discuss its reinforcement and redeployment along our border and in temporarily occupied Crimea.”



U.S. National security advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday that a Russian attack on Ukraine could happen “any day now.”



“That includes this coming week,” he said.



Security officials in Washington, London and Ukraine told Politico on Friday that U.S. intelligence officers had briefed allies last week that the invasion may begin on Wednesday Feb. 16. However, Sullivan said on Sunday that officials “cannot perfectly predict the day.”



Speaking to CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Monday, Ukrainian ambassador to the U.K., Vadym Prystaiko, said that there was intel that suggested a Russian invasion on Wednesday was possible.



“This is specifically made public to tell the aggressor that we know about the plans, and if they don’t happen it could be because the public already knew that they are plotting something,” he said.



However, he added that there was also intel that implied alternative invasion timeframes. &nbsp;



“But regardless of the intel, the problem is that Ukrainians are pushed to panic,” Prystaiko said. “Airlines are canceling flights, money is being withdrawn by investors. Ukrainians feel that they have been abandoned.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="read-more-russia-is-willing-to-go-to-war-and-incur-sanctions-over-ukraine-analysts-warn">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/russia-is-willing-to-go-to-war-and-incur-sanctions-over-ukraine-analysts-warn/">Russia is willing to go to war and incur sanctions over Ukraine, analysts warn</a></h3>



An estimated 30,000 Russian troops are currently engaged in a 10-day program of military drills with neighboring Belarus, which also shares a border with Ukraine.



The drills, widely seen as a display of strength by Russia, come as over 100,000 soldiers, tanks, missiles and even fresh blood supplies have been moved to Russia’s border with Ukraine.



Russia is demanding that Ukraine never be permitted to become a member of the NATO military alliance and has said it wants the organization to roll back its presence in Eastern Europe.



Moscow has insisted it has no plans to invade Ukraine.



Ukraine has also accused Russia of creating a sea blockade, according to the BBC, with officials claiming the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea have been blocked by Russian forces, which are set to begin naval drills this week.



Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, a peninsula in Ukraine’s south, in 2014.



Prystaiko told CNBC on Monday that the Ukrainian government had not yet had a response from Moscow regarding its request for a meeting.



“But that’s not the only way we are trying to get understanding with Russia,” he said. “We have our own negotiations — it’s not like we’re relying on what the West is doing for us, we are doing our part.”



He added Ukraine was in a “very difficult” and “very unfair” situation, noting that the country was still living with the concessions it made under the Vienna Document after Russia annexed Crimea.



“But we are still [using the processes of] the same document to try to find a way to diplomatically diffuse the situation,” he said. “It’s not just this [situation]. We’ve been in a war for seven years.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-diplomatic-efforts-continue"><a></a>Diplomatic efforts continue</h2>



U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a call on Sunday.



“President Biden reaffirmed the commitment of the United States to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” White House officials said in a press release.



“President Biden made clear that the United States would respond swiftly and decisively, together with its Allies and partners, to any further Russian aggression against Ukraine. The two leaders agreed on the importance of continuing to pursue diplomacy and deterrence in response to Russia’s military build-up on Ukraine’s borders.”



It came after a call between Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, in which Biden reiterated that the U.S. and its allies and partners would “respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia.”



Biden told Putin that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering” and “diminish Russia’s standing,” the White House said in a statement, with the U.S. president adding that although the U.S. and its allies were prepared to engage in diplomacy, they were also “equally prepared for other scenarios.”



U.S. allies, including the U.K. and France, have also been in talks with Russian ministers in recent weeks in a bid to resolve the tensions diplomatically.



British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned last week that Europe is “on the edge of a precipice,” adding that “things are as dangerous as I have seen them in Europe for a very, very long time.”



On Monday, finance ministers of the G-7 nations — comprised of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. — issued a statement pledging financial support for Ukraine, vowing to “collectively impose economic and financial sanctions which will have massive and immediate consequences on the Russian economy” should Moscow engage in any further military aggression toward Ukraine.



Bob Menendez, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, told CNN last month that the committee was devising the “mother of all sanctions” against Russia that would be “crippling to their economy” as a method of defending Ukraine.



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German ministers have also said that Russia will face “massive” economic consequences if it takes any aggressive action against Ukraine, and British lawmakers have publicly taken the same stance.



However, while some Western countries have sent military hardware to Ukraine, the German government has refused to send weapons to the country. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is scheduled to travel to Kyiv on Monday to meet Zelenskyy, and will meet Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.



Scholz reiterated on Sunday that a Russian attack on Ukraine would lead to “hard reactions and sanctions that we have carefully prepared and that we can put into effect immediately,” Reuters reported.



Berlin was not expecting “concrete results” from the talks, according to the news agency, but Scholz would emphasize that the Kremlin “should not underestimate the unity between the European Union, United States and Britain.”



Jan Friedrich Kallmorgen, founder and managing partner at Berlin Global Advisors, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday that it made strategic sense for Biden to be leading the diplomatic effort.



“Putin doesn’t take international organizations like the OECD or the EU so seriously, he likes to talk bilaterally, he likes to be in the limelight, he likes Macron and Scholz visiting him, and the big prize of course is the United States,” he said.



Kallmorgen added that the crisis was likely to trigger a “remarkable shift” toward more robust foreign policies in Germany and other Western nations, which would likely include greater commitments to NATO.



“Putin deserves a trans-Atlantic award for bringing [the West] closer together than ever since 1999,” he told CNBC.



“There’s very clear resolve, we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet. I think there’s a very coordinated, very robust answer that’s the sanctions, which I think are credible, and there’s also the willingness to increase NATO presence in NATO countries if needed.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="u-s-winds-down-presence-in-ukraine"><a></a>U.S. winds down presence in Ukraine</h2>



Last week, Biden issued a warning that U.S. citizens should leave Ukraine immediately, telling NBC News that “things could go crazy quickly” in the country.



However, he ruled out sending U.S. troops into Ukraine, saying there was no scenario in which he could see this happening — including as part of an evacuation scheme for U.S. nationals.



Some airlines have reportedly canceled or diverted flights to Ukraine as tensions continue to mount.



On Saturday, the Pentagon ordered all U.S. troops in Ukraine to leave the country and reposition elsewhere in Europe.



U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday that the government was continuing to “draw down” its embassy in Ukraine, adding that “an invasion could begin at any time.”

107014665-16447660582022-02-13t101132z_536932097_rc2yis9b2084_rtrmadp_0_ukraine-crisis-russia-navy

Ukraine calls for meeting with Russia as U.S. warns of imminent attack

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106965383-1635190543589-zuck.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-415097" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106965383-1635190543589-zuck.jpg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106965383-1635190543589-zuck-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/106965383-1635190543589-zuck-160x90.jpg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, October 23, 2019. Erin Scott | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



Facebook parent Meta lost more than $237 billion in value Thursday. That’s the biggest one-day drop in value in the history of the U.S. stock market.



Meta’s plunge, based on a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast, topped the prior record set by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple</a>, when it lost $182 billion in market value in September 2020.



The seven biggest drops in stock market history have all occurred in the last two years, as Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Amazon have ballooned in valuation. Prior to 2020, the largest drop was from Facebook — a $119 billion decline in 2018. That also occurred after Facebook forecast revenue below analyst estimates.



Meta’s drop in value comes as the company is looking past its current businesses, such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and toward the metaverse, a virtual world based on new technology. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday Meta had a net loss of $10 billion in 2021 attributable to Meta’s investment in the metaverse.

106965383-1635190543589-zuck

Facebook’s $237.6 billion fall sets record for largest one-day value drop in stock market history

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="615" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/7641739030_aa820e43be_b-820x615.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-409855" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/7641739030_aa820e43be_b-820x615.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/7641739030_aa820e43be_b-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/7641739030_aa820e43be_b-107x80.jpg 107w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/7641739030_aa820e43be_b-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/7641739030_aa820e43be_b.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>JP Morgan
Photo: Solvency Ii Wire www.solvencyiiwire.com</figcaption></figure>



NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) &#8211; Government debt issuance in emerging markets was the lowest for any January since 2016, bankers have estimated, as the typically busy month faced nerves about both rising global interest rates and volatile geopolitics.



Analysts at U.S. investment bank JPMorgan calculated that $17.9 billion of EM sovereign bonds were sold last month, down about 40% from a record $32.2 billion issued last year when many EM governments looking to fill COVID spending gaps were able to borrow at all-time-low rates.



&#8220;Heightened rates and higher rates volatility remained the key hurdle for sovereigns looking to enter the market in January,&#8221; JPMorgan&#8217;s analysts said.



&#8220;A more hawkish FOMC last week raises the bar for new issuance even higher now,&#8221; noting that Chile issued bonds immediately after the U.S. Federal Reserve&#8217;s meeting, &#8220;which could suggest a greater sense of urgency to finance earlier in the year before rates rise further.&#8221;



Economists now expect the U.S. central bank, which tends to drive global borrowing costs, to raise its interest rates five times before the end of year. The last time it delivered five hikes within such a short window was August 2005 to June 2006 when they went up 7 times.



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The premium that international investors demand to buy EM debt rather than U.S. Treasuries has been rising since June. The average yield &#8211; a borrowing cost proxy &#8211; for developing countries to borrowing in their own currencies is also now almost 6% for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic erupted in early 2020, and mid-2019 excluding that.



Breaking down this year&#8217;s issuance figures also shows that countries seen as having stronger finances and classed as &#8216;investment grade&#8217; by credit rating agencies have sold the lion&#8217;s share at $16.4 billion, whereas weaker high-yield or &#8216;junk&#8217;-rated countries have sold just $1.5 billion worth.



Turkey, which has been gripped by a currency crisis over the last six months, leads the pack in terms of expected issuance for the rest of the year at $11 billion, followed by China and Indonesia with $10 billion and $9 billion respectively.



Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is also expected to sell $6.5 billion of debt while Kuwait, which saw its credit rating cut last week, is seen borrowing $6 billion.



Maturities in February include Turkey and Romania with $2 billion each, and Lithuania with $1.5 billion.



(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Marc Jones in London; editing by Richard Pullin and Bernadette Baum)

7641739030_aa820e43be_b

Borrowing market nerves see lowest EM debt issuance since 2016

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="549" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/D5WZAQCMHJLCPBV7AD2PNE6YQM-820x549.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-414991" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/D5WZAQCMHJLCPBV7AD2PNE6YQM-820x549.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/D5WZAQCMHJLCPBV7AD2PNE6YQM-300x201.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/D5WZAQCMHJLCPBV7AD2PNE6YQM-134x90.jpg 134w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/D5WZAQCMHJLCPBV7AD2PNE6YQM-768x515.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/D5WZAQCMHJLCPBV7AD2PNE6YQM-1536x1029.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/D5WZAQCMHJLCPBV7AD2PNE6YQM-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: A sign adorns the building where mining company Rio Tinto has their office in Perth, Western Australia, November 19, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



Feb 1 (Reuters) &#8211; A report released by Rio Tinto on Tuesday outlined a culture of bullying, harassment and racism at the global mining giant, including 21 complaints of actual or attempted rape or sexual assault over the past five years.



Nearly half of all employees who responded to an external review of the miner&#8217;s workplace culture commissioned by Rio said they had been bullied, while racism was found to be common across a number of areas.



Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said the results were &#8220;disturbing&#8221; and the company would implement all 26 recommendations from the report by former Australian sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.



&#8220;The eye opener for me was two-fold,&#8221; Stausholm told Reuters. &#8220;I hadn&#8217;t realised how much bullying exists in the company and secondly that it&#8217;s quite systemic &#8211; the three issues of bullying, sexual harassment and racism &#8230; that&#8217;s extremely disturbing.&#8221;



Rio Tinto launched the review in March last year, not long after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rio-tinto-ceo-idUSKBN28R0HJ">Stausholm took over the top job</a> in the wake of a widespread backlash against the company after it blasted the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters to expand an iron ore mine.



More than 10,000 employees, nearly a quarter of its 45,000-strong workplace shared their experiences and views for the study.



The report found nearly 30% women and about 7% of men have experienced sexual harassment at work, with 21 women reporting actual or attempted rape or sexual assault.



Racism was a &#8220;significant challenge&#8221; for employees at many locations. People working in a country different to their birth experienced high rates of racism while nearly 40% of men who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in Australia had experienced racism.



&#8220;I have copped racism in every single corner of this company,&#8221; one employee was anonymously quoted as saying.



Rio said reforms will focus on a commitment from the company&#8217;s leadership to create a safe and inclusive working environment, including by increasing diversity within the company. It would also ensure the company&#8217;s remote mine site facilities are safe, and make it easier for staff to call out unacceptable behaviours.



&#8220;Clearly much more needs to be done to ensure the safety of workers in the resources sector,&#8221; said Owen Whittle, Secretary for UnionsWA, which represents over 30 workers groups which have over 150,000 members in Western Australia.



&#8220;With nearly half of the workforce reporting bullying, it is clear that they have failed workers over a long period of time and need to do far more to prevent harassment and bullying in workplaces,&#8221; he said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sexism-racism">SEXISM, RACISM</h2>



The Rio report comes ahead of the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australian-probe-put-spotlight-sexual-harassment-mining-camps-2021-08-13">release of another report by the West Australia state government later this year on sexual harassment at mining camps</a> in the state, which provides more than half of the world&#8217;s supply of iron ore.



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/bhp-has-fired-48-workers-sexual-harassment-since-2019-2021-08-20/#:~:text=The%20survey%20of%20425%20workers,in%20the%20last%2012%20months">Submissions to the inquiry last year said sexual harassment was rife at mining camps in Western Australia</a>, which is home to mines of global firms including BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue.



A Western Australia state minister, Rita Saffioti, told Australia&#8217;s ABC News that she was very disturbed by the number of allegations.



&#8220;You want everyone to be able to feel safe in their workplace. Also in particular in those areas where you&#8217;re a bit more isolated from friends and family and you want to have the utmost protection from having that type of behaviour,&#8221; she said.



In a 2020 report, an Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into sexual harassment found that 74% of women in the mining industry had experienced some form of sexual harassment in the past five years, partly due to a gender imbalance.



Nearly 80% of Rio Tinto&#8217;s workforce is male.



&#8220;Creating a safe, respectful work culture will encourage people of all backgrounds and diversity to thrive in our organisations,&#8221; Kellie Parker, the Australian CEO for Rio Tinto told Reuters.



Male and female employees in South Africa experienced the highest rates of racism. Employees spoke of the frequency of racism and its impacts on their confidence, self-esteem and work performance.



&#8220;Rio is a Caucasian oriented company,&#8221; one employee said in the report.



Rio said the report came at a pivotal time as workplace cultures shift against the backdrop of #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and other global movements, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/rio-tinto-should-pay-restitution-sacred-aboriginal-caves-blast-inquiry-2020-12-11">as well as an Australian inquiry into Rio&#8217;s destruction of Juukan Gorge</a>, culturally significant rock shelters.



Stausholm said Juukan Gorge had triggered the biggest management change in the history of Rio and the new team wanted to drive more change.



&#8220;Its a matter of using the momentum of the moment now and try to move these actions forward fast because we cannot change these from one day to another.&#8221; 



(Reporting by Praveen Menon; editing by Richard Pullin)

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