Day: March 20, 2024

Tunis: The year 2023 was the warmest year in 174 years, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said in its annual report on the state of the global climate, released Tuesday, sounding a "global red alert". The WMO report confirmed that 2023 was the warmest year on record, with the global average near-surface temperature at 1.45 °Celsius (with a margin of uncertainty of ± 0.12 °C) above the pre-industrial baseline. It was the warmest ten-year period on record. 'Never have we been so close - albeit on a temporary basis at the moment - to the 1.5° C lower limit of the Paris Agreement on climate change.' said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. 'The WMO community is sounding the Red Alert to the world,' she added. Record-breaking temperatures in Tunis last summer Extreme heat affected many parts of the world. Some of the most significant were in southern Europe and North Africa, especially in the second half of July. Temperatures in Italy reached 48.2 °C, and record-high temperatures were reported in T unis (Tunisia) 49.0 °C, Agadir (Morocco) 50.4 °C and Algiers (Algeria) 49.2 °C. The WMO also said records were also broken for ocean heat, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice loss and glacier retreat. Global average sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) were at a record high from April onwards, with the records in July, August and September broken by a particularly wide margin. The Mediterranean Sea experienced near complete coverage of strong and severe marine heatwaves for the twelfth consecutive year, reported the World Meteorological Organisation. In 2023, global mean sea level reached a record high in the satellite record (since 1993), reflecting continued ocean warming (thermal expansion) as well as the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. The rate of global mean sea level rise in the past ten years (2014-2023) is more than twice the rate of sea level rise in the first decade of the satellite record (1993-2002), said the report. Furthermore, Antarctic sea-ice extent reached an absolute record low for the sa tellite era (since 1979) in February 2023 and remained at record low for the time of year from June till early November. The annual maximum in September was 16.96 million km2, roughly 1.5 million km2 below the 1991-2020 average and 1 million km2 below the previous record low maximum. Glaciers suffered the largest loss of ice on record since 1950. In Switzerland, glaciers have lost 10% of their remaining volume in the last two years. 'Sirens are blaring across all major indicators... Some records aren't just chart-topping, they're chart-busting. And changes are speeding-up,' said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Renewable energies, the only hope For the WMO, renewable energies remain a glimmer for hope, calling for the entry into force of the Nationally Determined Contributions in a context where greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. The organisation also stressed the need to increase investment in the fight against climate change six-fold to reach $9,000 billion by 2030. The aim is to stay within the 1.5° Celsius target set by the Paris Agreement. "The cost of inaction is higher than the cost of climate action," warns the WMO. Over the period 2025-2100, if nothing is done to stay within the Paris Agreement target, the total cost of inaction will be $1,266 trillion - more than 12 times the world's current annual GDP. According to the WMO, global climate-related financial flows almost doubled in 2021-2022 compared to 2019-2020, but represent only 1% of global GDP. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

TUNIS: Sixty urban development plans have been approved across various municipalities in different governorates of the country, pursuant to the provisions of the government decree of November 25, 2020, the Ministry of Public Works announced in a press release on Wednesday. The decree sets out the procedures for coordination between the central administrations, the ministry's external services, public companies and institutions, and municipalities in the preparation or revision of urban development plans and their approval. In addition, a team from the central administration, chaired by Director General of Urban Planning, Abderrazek Chiha, has been tasked by Minister of Public Works and Housing, Sarra ZaSfrani, with monitoring the preparation or revision of urban development plans. This team is also responsible for making regular visits to all regions of the country to attend meetings between representatives of municipalities, stakeholders and governors. The purpose of these meetings is to examine the studi es of the urban development plans and the difficulties hindering their progress, with a view to speeding up their approval. To this end, the Ministry of Public Works has called on all municipalities to speed up the completion of studies on these urban plans "in order to stimulate investment, achieve sustainable development and improve the urban landscape". Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Tunis: The College of the Financial Market Council (CMF) has issued a set of reading guidelines in order to overcome difficulties in the application of certain provisions of General Decision 20 of March 20, 2020, which establishes the criteria and procedures for the appointment of independent members of the board of directors and the supervisory board, as well as the representative of minority shareholders. According to a press release issued by the CMF on Tuesday, the guidelines issued by the college, which met on January 30, 2024, concerned the prohibition of service providers, suppliers or customers of the company concerned from standing for election as independent members of the board of directors and the supervisory board and as representatives of minority shareholders. In the case of suppliers and customers, the CMF Board specified that the prohibition applies to a customer or supplier that is "significant to the company or its group" or "for which the company or its group represents a significant pro portion of the business". Thus, the materiality of the relationship must be related to the size of the volume of business with the company in question. This prohibition applies to "consultants and other service providers who are bound by a service contract entered into directly or indirectly with the company (or group), either by themselves or through an intermediary". "The assessment of independence or conflict of interest must take into account the nature of the contractual relationship that the candidate has with the company, meaning whether it is an ongoing relationship or simply a one-off provision of services," the Board pointed out. In all the above cases, the assessment of whether the relationship with the company or its group is material or not, as well as the question of independence and/or conflict of interest, must be discussed by the board of directors or the supervisory board and the quantitative and qualitative criteria used to make this assessment (continuity, economic dependence, exclusivi ty, etc.) must be included in the application submitted to the CMF". With regard to the provision prohibiting any person exercising a professional activity directly or indirectly related to the financial market and/or the dissemination of financial or other information (set forth in Articles 5.8 and 17.7) from standing for election to the aforementioned positions, the CMF clarified that this prohibition should be understood as "not exercising a professional activity directly or indirectly related to the financial market and/or the dissemination of financial or other information at the time of the application". As a reminder, a minority shareholder is any shareholder who individually holds no more than 0.5% of the capital and institutional investors holding individually no more than 5% of the capital. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Tunis: The sky will be partly cloudy in the north and little cloudy in the rest of the regions on Wednesday night, said the National Institute of Meteorology (INM). Temperatures will be between 13°C and 17°C in the north and center, and between 18°C and 23°C degrees in the south. The wind will blow from the east. It will be strong near the northern and southern coasts with local sand storms, and weak to moderate elsewhere. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Tunis: The position of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) is not intrinsically opposed to the creation of a postal bank, but such an undertaking requires careful prior study to ensure that the conditions for its success are met and to address any potential problems in advance," a representative of the BCT reiterated during a hearing of the parliamentary finance and budget committee. The BCT representative argued for the inclusion of the Financial Inclusion Law in a comprehensive framework and integrated strategic vision, stressing that the main purpose of the law is to establish a new governance structure for financial access. For her part, the representative of the Ministry of Finance reiterated that the aforementioned law is in line with the reform programme aimed at revitalising the national economy and improving the business climate. According to the official, this programme refers to the results of a study conducted by the ministry in 2018, which revealed that the rate of financial inclusion in Tunisia remains low due to the mismatch between supply and demand, the high cost of financial services and the lack of financial literacy. She also recalled the development of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy for the period 2018 to 2022, the main objectives of which were to promote financial inclusion by increasing access to electronic payment accounts and their use. The strategy also aims to establish responsible micro-insurance, offering proximity services tailored to the needs of low-income populations and very small, small and medium-sized enterprises, and to implement a diversified refinancing system adapted to the needs of micro-financial institutions. She said the draft law under consideration embodies the main results of this strategy and aims, in particular, to combat financial exclusion by improving the legal and institutional framework in order to increase the access of vulnerable groups and small enterprises to financial services tailored to their needs, to stimulate development, to create emp loyment opportunities and to combat various forms of marginalisation and exclusion. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse