Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1495439
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 22 MARCH 2023 NEWS NEWS MATTHEW VELLA PRICES for private households have been reported to have increased by 7.11% over Feb- ruary 2022, an upward trend that follows the 6.94% in retail price index inflation for Janu- ary over the same period last year. The RPI measures month- ly price changes in the cost of purchasing a representative basket of consumer goods and services. The highest annual inflation rates in February 2023 were registered in housing (14.27%) and food (12.19%). On the oth- er hand, the lowest annual in- flation rates were registered in water, electricity, gas and fuels (nil) and transport and com- munication (1.96%. However, when measured by "impact" – the measure show- ing the change in inflation as a result of the inclusion of an in- dex – it is food that created the largest upward index on annu- al inflation (+2.62 percentage points), largely due to higher prices of take-aways. The second and third larg- est impacts were measured in the housing index (+1.13 percentage points) and the other goods and services in- dex (+0.65 percentage points), mainly on account of higher prices of house maintenance services and cleaning prod- ucts, respectively. On their own, food account- ed for 15.6% of the annual RPI increase, while restaurant ser- vices and takeaway foods ac- counted for 5.89% of the total RPI. But it was the housing index that registered the highest an- nual inflation rate at 14.27%, of which rent registered an annu- al rate of 8.85%. Materials for house maintenance registered an annual rate of 13% and ser- vices for house maintenance registered an annual rate of 17.39%. Higher prices on takeaway food, house repairs push up February inflation Takeaway food, house maintenance and increase in rents push up February retail price index PLANET Earth will cross a criti- cal threshold for global warming within the next 10 years unless nations make an immediate and drastic shift away from fossil fu- els, to prevent the planet from overheating dangerously, ac- cording to a major new report released on Monday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says global average temperatures are estimated to rise 1.5 de- grees Celsius above the world's pre-industrial levels, around "the first half of the 2030s" if hu- mans continue to burn coal, oil and natural gas. Beyond that point, scientists say, the impacts of catastrophic heat waves, flooding, drought, crop failures and species extinc- tion become significantly harder for humanity to handle. And Earth has already warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsi- us since the industrial age. With global fossil-fuel emissions set- ting records last year, that goal is quickly slipping out of reach. The new IPCC report says that only if industrialized nations join together immediately to slash greenhouse gases roughly in half by 2030, and then stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere altogether by the early 2050, will the world have a 50% chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The IPCC said that delays of even a few years would most likely make that goal unattain- able, guaranteeing a hotter fu- ture. "The pace and scale of what has been done so far and current plans are insufficient to tackle climate change," said Hoesung Lee, the chair of the climate panel. "We are walking when we should be sprinting." The report, which was ap- proved by 195 governments, says that existing and currently planned fossil fuel infrastruc- ture — coal-fired power plants, oil wells, factories, cars and trucks across the globe — will already produce enough car- bon dioxide to warm the planet roughly 2 degrees Celsius this century. To keep warming be- low that level, many of those projects would need to be can- celed, retired early or otherwise cleaned up. "The 1.5 degree limit is achiev- able, but it will take a quantum leap in climate action," António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said. The difference between 1.5 degrees of warming and 2 de- grees might mean that tens of millions more people world- wide experience life-threatening heat waves, water shortages and coastal flooding. A 1.5-degree world might still have coral reefs and summer Arctic sea ice, while a 2-degree world most likely would not. Scientists say that warming will largely halt once humans stop adding heat-trapping gas- es to the atmosphere, a concept known as "net zero" emissions. How quickly nations reach net zero will determine how hot the planet ultimately becomes. Both the United States and European Union have set goals of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, while China has set a 2060 goal and India is aiming for 2070. World has less than 10 years to stop catastrophic climate warning – UN Only if industrialised nations slash GHGs by half by 2030 and stop adding CO2 by 2050, will the world have a 50% chance to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius