– Earlier story

Demand for the handmade clay items dries up

OUAGADOUGOU:

Six people were shot dead on Monday by police in eastern Burkina Faso during a “terrorist attack” on a security patrol, security sources said.

An officer was also wounded in the incident at about 0500 GMT near Bougui, about 10 kilometres (6 miles) from Fada N’Gourma, the main town in the Eastern Region administrative area, a source said. (AFP)

NAJAF, Iraq, Dec 3, (AFP): Adel al-Kawwaz expertly spins the potter’s wheel, shaping the wet clay into a smooth jug. His family is famous for this millennia-old Iraqi craft, but Kawwaz is struggling to keep it alive.

For thousands of years, clay utensils for storing food and cooking were found in virtually every home in Sumer, the earliest known civilization in modern-day southern Iraq.

Kawwaz’s own family drew their name from the jug, or “kawz” in Arabic, which they have produced for more than 200 years from clay found at a lake by Najaf, a holy Shiite Muslim city.

“Making clay vases is a craft that my family had become famous for,” says 45-year-old Kawwaz wistfully.

Pottery has deep roots in Iraq, where ancient civilizations turned to clay to build their homes, shape their cooking utensils, and even make their ovens.

Cuneiform, one of the earliest forms of writing invented by the Sumerians, was also carved into clay tablets.

But now, with a flood of more modern products, demand for the handmade clay items has dried up, says Kawwaz.

His family’s jugs were shaped from Najaf mud, dried in the shade, then baked at high temperatures for no less than 15 hours.

In Iraq, one of the hottest countries on earth, they were indispensable.

“These vases were used to keep water cool or preserve food. They were placed in the shade or hung in another high location,” he says. Some Iraqis even used them to store jewelry. “Those that practiced pottery would make a lot of money because they were common items in ancient Iraqi households,” says Kawwaz.

They were surprisingly handy during the era of Saddam Hussein, when many families struggled financially, as well as in the 1990s, when international sanctions hit Iraq.

With household appliances extremely rare or unaffordable for most of the population, Iraqis once again relied on clay.

“The income of most families did not allow them to buy a refrigerator or freezer to keep their water cold, so most used clay

climate summit: “We are still not doing enough, nor moving fast enough”.

Monday will see leaders from at-risk nations such as Fiji, Nigeria and Nepal plead their case at the COP24 climate talks, which aim to flesh out the promises agreed in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

But host Poland – heavily reliant on energy from coal – will push its own agenda: a “just transition” from fossil fuels that critics say could allow it to continue polluting for decades. (RTRS)

Shell bids to cut CO2:

Royal cauldrons,” he says.

Back then, his family sold their large jugs in bulk – sometimes thousands per week across every Iraqi province. But times have changed. “We sell very few now – the numbers in an entire year don’t hit 100 or 200 jugs,” says Kawwaz.

Farmers who once used the large containers are opting for cheaper goods, made either elsewhere in Iraq or imported.

“They buy plastic bags imported from China, so now we rarely sell clay pots,” says Kawwaz in his studio, itself made of mud and covered in palm leaves.

He makes the vases by special request only, but admits it’s hardly worth it.

Small jugs cost just 2,500 dinars or around $2, while the larger cauldrons that hold several dozen litres (gallons) are sold at 15,000 dinars.

Despite the prevalence of electric and gas cookers, Um Haydar prefers her trusty clay oven.

On her rooftop terrace in Old Najaf, she uses it to bake her own traditional bread every morning.

“The taste of bread made in a traditional oven is so different from bread baked in an electric or gas oven,” says Um Haydar, as the searing oven near her radiates an enticing smell.

Well into her sixties, the Iraqi woman is dressed in a traditional black robe that covers her from head to toe.

Like her mother and grandmother before her, she has stuck to tradition when it comes to the clay oven, with one exception -- she didn’t build it herself.

But some Iraqis, like Haydar al-Kaabi, insist on the full Sumerian experience.

On the edge of the Najaf Sea, Kaabi begins mixing together ingredients to make his own oven.

“To the clay, you have to add reeds, red sand, and synthetic wool fibres. You let the mixture rest for two days so the clay becomes compact,” he explains to AFP.

Despite the drop in sales, this potter is upbeat.

Dutch Shell caved in to growing investor pressure over climate change on Monday with plans to set short-term targets for reducing its carbon footprint.

BP and Total have already set short-term targets, but Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden had previously resisted TOKYO, Dec 3, (AFP): The end of the pager era is nigh in Japan after five decades as the country’s last provider announced on Monday it would be scrapping its service next year.

Tokyo Telemessage, the only pager service provider left standing, said it had decided to terminate its service to Tokyo and three neighbouring regions in September 2019 – describing the development as “very regrettable”.

“Pagers were once a huge hit... but the number of users is now down to 1,500,” the company said in a statement, adding it had stopped manufacturing the hardware device 20 years ago.

setting hard goals, saying it would be “foolhardy” to expose Shell to legal challenges.

But following discussions with investors, the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant said that from 2020 it will set three- to fiveyear targets every year which will include specific net carbon footprint targets.

Shareholders had criticized Shell for last year setting longterm “ambitions” to halve its emissions of carbon dioxide by 2050, which lacked binding targets for implementation. (RTRS)

World Bank ups funds:

The World Bank will give equal weight to curbing emissions and helping poor countries deal with the “disastrous effects” of a warming world as it steps up investments to tackle climate change in the first half of the 2020s, it said on Monday.

The bank and its two sister organizations plan to double their investments in climate action to about $200 billion from 20212025, with a boost in support for efforts to adapt to higher temperatures, wilder weather and rising seas.

The latest figures on climate funding for developing countries show barely a quarter has been going to adaptation, with the bulk backing adoption of clean energy and more efficient energy use, aimed at cutting planet-warming emissions. (RTRS)