Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 14 October 2015

:: Business ::

African Development Bank to triple climate financing to $5 billion annually

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has announced that the Bank would nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach $5 billion annually by 2020.
AfDB’s climate spending would increase to 40 per cent of its total new investments by the targeted date.
“Climate change is both an urgent threat and a unique opportunity,” Dr Adesina said in the Climate Finance Ministerial Meeting co-hosted by Peru and France in Lima as part of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual conference.
AfDB, established in 1964 and headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, is owned by the 54 African countries and 26 non-African countries, aimed to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries, thus helping to reduce poverty through mobilising and allocating resources for investment, providing policy advice and technical assistance.
Half of the $5 billion would be dedicated to reducing Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions by unlocking Africa’s enormous potential for renewable energy, especially solar, hydro, wind and geothermal power.
The remaining half would assist African economies adapt to climate change through measures such as investing in climate-resilient crops, building sustainable infrastructure and improving irrigation and access to water.
To this end, the Bank would also be integrating climate resilience into all of the infrastructure projects it finances.
The Bank has committed almost $7 billion to support climate-resilient and low-carbon development in Africa in the past four years.
Its energy investments last year would deliver power that is 90 per cent generated from renewable sources. The AfDB also supports the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative and the Africa Adaptation Initiative, both endorsed by the African Union heads of state and government.

:: Science & Technology ::

Melting of Antarctic ice shelves may double by 2050

The surface melting of Antarctic ice shelves may double by 2050 and surpass intensities associated with ice shelf collapse by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate, a new study has warned.
Ice shelves are the floating extensions of the continent’s massive land-based ice sheets, researchers said. While the melting or breakup of floating ice shelves does not directly raise sea level, ice shelves do have a “door stop” effect: They slow the flow of ice from glaciers and ice sheets into the ocean, where it melts and raises sea levels.
“Our results illustrate just how rapidly melting in Antarctica can intensify in a warming climate,” said Luke Trusel, lead author and postdoctoral scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in US.
“This has already occurred in places like the Antarctic Peninsula where we’ve observed warming and abrupt ice shelf collapses in the last few decades,” said Trusel.
To study how melting evolves over time and to predict future ice sheet melting along the entire Antarctic coastline, the scientists combined satellite observations of ice surface melting with climate model simulations under scenarios of intermediate and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions until the year 2100.
The results indicate a strong potential for the doubling of Antarctica-wide ice sheet surface melting by 2050, under either emissions scenario.
However, between 2050 and 2100, the models show a significant divergence between the two scenarios.
Under the high-emissions climate scenario, by 2100 ice sheet surface melting approaches or exceeds intensities associated with ice shelf collapse in the past.

:: Sports ::

Netherlands fail to qualify for Euro 2016

The Netherlands' hopes of a dramatic rescue act in Euro 2016 qualification evaporated as they conceded two first-half goals and eventually lost 3-2 at home to 10-man Czech Republic on Tuesday.
The Dutch, third at the World Cup in Brazil last year, had to win their final qualifier and hope Turkey lost at home to Iceland to sneak into third place in Group A and book a slot in next month's playoffs.
However, defeat consigned the Netherlands to fourth spot behind the Turks, who won 1-0 to secure a place at the finals as the best third-placed team, while the Czechs topped the group..
The Netherlands were crowned European champions in 1988 and were third in 1992, 2000 and 2004. They went out at the group stage of the last edition in Poland and Ukraine in 2012.