2014: not such a bad year after all

Climate change From the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and a field behind a Peruvian army base in Lima to Sixth Avenue and Japan’s second city, this year put climate change back on the map. A combination of more pressing economic concerns and the fallout from the disastrous Copenhagen summit in 2009 has meant that cutting the greenhouse gas emissions driving dangerous global warming has not been high on many world leaders’ agendas over the past few years. One leader, however, has almost singlehandedly changed that as he builds his legacy. Barack Obama tightened rules for US coal power plants in June, but much more significantly he helped forge a deal between Washington and Beijing on emissions, adding a fresh sense of momentum to international negotiations. The deal saw the US promise to cut emissions by 28% from 2005 levels by 2025, a rate faster than its current goal for 2020. China, which overtook the US as the world’s biggest emitter nearly a decade ago, said for the first time that it would peak its emissions, by 2030. “2014 was the year climate change landed back on the global political agenda,” said Michael Jacobs, a climate adviser to former British prime minister Gordon Brown. He called the announcement by Obama and Xi Jinping remarkable. “The subject of climate change does not easily induce optimism, but there is now a genuine possibility that a new global legal agreement could be signed in Paris in December next year.” More impetus came in the form of an EU pledge to cut its emissions by 40% by 2030. Despite the encouraging politics, climate change continued at an alarming rate. In September, the most recent data on the emissions being pumped out globally from power plants, factories and cars showed the world is currently on track for the worst predicted levels of warming: 3-5C above pre-industrial levels, rather than the 2C considered a “safe” threshold. Germany looks set to miss its carbon reduction target for 2020, but at least renewables appeared likely to have been the country’s main source of energy in 2014 for the first time in history. With a number of new wind parks opening in November, analysts expect renewables to account for more than the 27% target the EU has set for 2030. The Schleswig Holstein region in the country’s windy north was expected to cover its entire energy needs from renewables in 2014. Public approval remains high. According to a survey by the pollster Allensbach in June, support for the “energy transition” project remains stable at 70%, with only 15% of Germans opposed. Adam Vaughan and Philip Oltermann Egypt In June, just two days after being sworn in as Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, visited a rape victim in hospital. The photo-op that followed was in some ways troubling. The woman was being used as a prop in a publicity exercise, and while her own face was blurred in the images released to the press, that of her relative was not. Sisi’s presence was, however, a minor victory for Egyptian women’s rights campaigners. It was the first time an Egyptian president had acknowledged the problem of endemic sexual violence so publicly. Whether the government’s intentions are sincere or not, at least it wants to be seen to be addressing the issue. In an otherwise bleak year for human rights in Egypt, this was one of a number of moves in 2014 that brought small gains for gender equality. The government criminalised sexual harassment for the first time, leading to the country’s first convictions on such charges. Weeks later, Cairo University became the country’s first state university to institute a policy on sexual harassment.The policy was only written, however, after the university’s head had claimed a female student was at fault for her own mob harassment. The overdue national legislation was seen as a welcome first initiative against a social ill that has typically been either ignored, or blamed on the victim. UN figures suggest that 99% of Egyptian women experience regular harassment in the street. The vague and brief amendment to the penal code was, however, still a long way short of a comprehensive law to govern all aspects of sexual violence, and campaigners wonder how often and how effectively it will be applied in practice. Change is happening, albeit slowly. In February, Hala Shukrallah was elected as the first female leader of an Egyptian political party. “What we’re seeing here is that something truly on-the-ground is happening,” Shukrallah said of the significance of her election. “It’s a reflection of the changes in the people’s psyche.” Patrick Kingsley FGM Before the UN day of action against female genital mutilation in February, few people were campaigning against – or even knew about – a brutal practice that affects more than 130 million women and girls around the world. Little was known about the blood loss, infections, problems during childbirth, extreme pain and loss of sexual pleasure associated with having their genitalia cut. In 2014, however, something unusual happened. An issue that had largely ignored became front page news. The Guardian’s End FGM campaign was at the vanguard of the push. With the website Change.org it backed a petition by Fahma Mohamed from the anti-FGM charity Integrate Bristol calling on the then education secretary Michael Gove to tackle FGM in schools. After it gathered more than 230,000 signatures, Gove met campaigners and agreed to write to schools about the dangers of the practice, which is carried out in communities from 29 different countries in Africa and the Middle East. In May the campaign moved across the Atlantic – taken up by Jaha Dukureh, a 25-year-old mother of three whose petition pushed the Obama administration to promise to carry out a much-needed US prevalence study and set up a FGM working group. Empowered and impassioned by the campaign, Dukureh decided to return to her home country of the Gambia. In October she helped organise the first ever Youth Summit on FGM, which pushed the government to publicly state that it was “committed to end all forms of gender based violence against women and girls, including FGM”, and to promise a national action plan. Prosecutions have proved tricker. In the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service took no further action in 10 out of 12 cases referred to it by police. The first FGM trial, of doctor Dhanuson Dharmasena, 32, and another man who cannot be named, is due to start in January at Southwark crown court. In Egypt a landmark case again the first doctor charged with FGM ended in his acquittal. Towards the end of the year, the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon launched a joint UN Population Fund–Guardian programme to change how FGM is reported. Five international reporting grants to allow journalists in Kenya focus on FGM were announced, which Ban said he hoped could act as a template for other African countries. Alexandra Topping France 2014 was arguably a vintage year for French sportswomen breaking into fields that were previously exclusively male. In June, Andy Murray surprised fans and commentators when he appointed the French tennis champion Amélie Mauresmo as his coach. The double grand slam champion and former world number one is only the second woman to coach a top-10 world tennis player. Martina Navratilova, the winner of 41 grand slam singles and doubles titles, said of Mauresmo’s appointment: “It widens the field and widens the possibilities. The ball doesn’t know if you’re male or female. The strategy is the same. “If a guy like Murray doesn’t care, why should anyone else care?” The appointment of the first woman as head coach of a male professional football team in France, however, ended up being almost as complicated as the offside rule. Portuguese-born Hélèna Costa joined the second division club Clermont Foot 63 in May, making her - on paper at least - the first and only female manager in the highest two divisions of any professional European league. “As a woman, it’s made me happy,” Véronique Soulier, the president of the club’s supporters’ association, told journalists. Six weeks after making sporting history though, and on the eve of the start of the season, Costa walked out before overseeing a single match. She suggested her ground-breaking appointment had fallen foul of some old-fashioned sexism, telling a Portuguese newspaper that her male colleagues had sidelined her and left her convinced she was just a “face” to attract publicity to the club. Shortly afterwards Clermont Foot 63 appointed Corinne Diacre, a former women’s football international, as manager. Diacre, a midfielder with 121 caps, was chosen from 45 applicants for Costa’s job, but it was not until September that her team won its first match. France already boasts the only woman trainer of a French championship rugby team after the appointment of Audrey Zitter to the second division Montpellier team, the Diables Rouges or Red Devils. Zitter grew up in a family of rugby players and is married to a former international. Kim Willsher Germany Germany’s 7-1 defeat of Brazil in the World Cup semi-finals may have been the most talked about moment of the competition, but their eventual triumph had a more personal meaning for many supporters. The win was the first for a unified Germany, adding to West Germany’s three titles, and the moment was particularly significant in the year that the country celebrated 25 years of reunification. It was fitting that one of the country’s most popular sites for watching the games was the “Fan Mile” at the Brandenburg Gate, an area that had been a deserted strip of death during the division of Berlin. In July, thousands gathered in the former no-man’s-land to watch each match, and later to give the victorious team a hero’s welcome. In November, it was the scene of further celebrations as Germans marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with concerts, speeches and the release of 7,000 illuminated balloons placed along the former path of the wall. The country’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, who was working as a scientist in East Berlin in 1989, spoke of her own experience of crossing to the west. She told crowds “there was just this incredible feeling of happiness”. Despite the optimism, Germany’s east-west divide has not completely disappeared. Twenty-five years on, the former GDR lags behind in income and employment rates. Its GDP is two-thirds that of the rest of the country, but there are signs of improvement. The government’s annual report on the state of unification showed that the mass migration from east to west had almost stopped. Germany has also been praised this year for its social equality, after capping rent rises in inner-city areas and abolishing university tuition fees. Moves to introduce Frauenquote to ensure women hold at least 30% of executive positions have been applauded, and the country has retained its status as the eurozone’s economic powerhouse. Merkel has urged other divided nations to take inspiration from Germany’s success. In a speech at the Berlin Wall memorial, she told hundreds of thousands of visitors that the events of 1989 “showed us that the yearning for freedom cannot be forever suppressed”. “The collapse of the wall showed us that dreams can come true, that nothing has to remain as it is. It’s a message of encouragement to tear down other walls, walls of dictatorship, violence, ideologies and enmity,” she said. Catherine Edwards India After swords into ploughshares come plastic bags into fuel. A team of Indian scientists have discovered how to transform the rubbish that litters almost every open space in the emerging South Asian economic powerhouse into something that could power a car. “It’s a double advantage,” said Raghubansh Kumar Singh, a chemical engineer at the National Institute of Technology, in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. “India is short of energy, and there are plastic bags everywhere which are not biodegradable which … cause lots of problems to the environment. We can solve this problem.” The process involves heating the waste to between 400 and 500C over china clay, commonly found in India. The constituents of the plastics break down, producing around 700 millilitres of oil derived from every kilo which can be mixed with traditional diesel or petrol. “We have tested on engines in laboratories with no problem at all. It’s effective and very, very cheap,” Singh said. The Indian effort is one of a number of bids to find commercially viable ways of converting the vast quantities of plastic bags cluttering up the planet into fuel. Researchers in the US and Japan are also working to perfect technology which could produce significant amounts of fuel. Bags make up a sizeable portion of the giant patches of “plastic soup” in the world’s oceans. Trillions are manufactured every year and at least 80% are thrown away after use. According to the Delhi government’s website, the city, which is home to 17 million people, generates 574 tonnes of plastic waste each day. Singh said his work had attracted considerable commercial interest. “Many people are approaching us with possible investments,” he said. Jason Burke Somalia A blind man traces his finger over braille, smiling as he spells out the words “Mogadishu rising”. A man jogs along a gorgeous coastline, construction workers mix cement and hammer nails, cafe patrons relax over cake and coffee, and hopeful young people repeat the mantra over an upbeat soundtrack: “Mogadishu rising”. The video was released on YouTube to promote the third TEDxMogadishu, an event with speakers including an architect, business entrepreneur, martial arts teacher, singer-songwriter, women’s rights activist and creator of a video series known as the Mogadishu Diaries. Workshops were also held at four universities. Mogadishu, once the last place in the world to look for joy, provided some solace during a relentlessly grim 2014. There can be no downplaying the persistent mortal dangers – in February a UN convoy and the presidential palace suffered deadly attacks – but the city’s residents continue to show defiance, resilience and hope. The Somali capital is enjoying a construction boom, with demand far outstripping supply and rental prices trebling in some neighbourhoods. An apartment in the new Safari complex reportedly costs nearly £222,000. The market is being buoyed by professionals pouring back from the Somali diaspora. Al Jazeera recently reported that the international airport, once abandoned, “is now a beehive of activity” with 70 flights arriving daily and new terminals under construction. “A can-do attitude is currently gripping Somalia,” the report said. “Mogadishu’s skyline is ever changing.” Since the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab was chased out of the city in 2011, there have been tentative, incremental steps towards a normal urban life. Cafes and restaurants have opened, embassies have returned and beaches have become popular again. In the past couple of months Mogadishu has introduced its first cash machine, its first independent art fair and the first postal service for more than 20 years. One of the engines of the revival is Turkey, a leading donor and ally whose firms are upgrading Mogadishu’s air and seaports, and building schools, hospitals and mosques. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was the first leader from outside Africa to visit Mogadishu in nearly 20 years and Turkish Airlines became the first international airline to return. No one is pretending that Mogadishu will be on the tourist map any time soon. Al-Shabaab still controls swaths of Somalia’s countryside and settlements from which it continues a guerrilla-style campaign. But it has been losing ground and in September its leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a US air strike. Its hold on the capital is long gone, and in a year of global turmoil Mogadishu could claim, just for once, to be trending in the right direction. David Smith Spain On a cold night in early December, the Madrid-based art collective luzinterruptus jammed 200 syringes in a piece of lawn next to Spain’s health ministry. Each syringe was filled with a white light, creating a small patch of illumination that glowed bright in the dark night. The installation represented the battle being waged by many in Spain to maintain the quality of the country’s healthcare system in the face of crippling austerity measures, the group said. It’s a battle that’s all too familiar to Rafael Matesanz. Tapped to lead the country’s national transplant organisation in 1989, Spain was a laggard in transplants when he came into the job. Two decades later, Matesanz and his team have helped transform Spain into a world leader. In 2014, as the country’s health service reels from cuts, Spain racked up a record-breaking year for organ donations and transplants. “In 2013, we carried out more than 4,200 transplants,” said Matesanz. “This year we’ll be around 4,400.” Spain’s donation rate, one of the highest in the world, has risen to more than 36 per million in the past year, he said. The EU average is 19 per million. Much has been written about the Spanish model over the years, including its innovative use of highly trained hospital coordinators who approach families at the moment of deciding when to donate. Matesanz has become an in-demand speaker, as health authorities in Canada, Portugal and the UK turn to his team for advice on how to implement similar reforms, and the World Health Organisation has adopted the Spanish organisational model. In recent years, however, as Spanish authorities signed onto austerity measures to combat the economic crisis, the country’s transplant system has not been spared. The organisation’s training budget was reduced by 20% while, across the board, the country’s annual national health budget took a €7bn (£5.5bn) cut in 2012. “The reality is that we have fewer doctors, fewer nurses and less money than we had four or five years ago,” said Matesanz. Countering the cuts is the fact that the country’s transplant system has become a source of pride, he said. “So everyone who works in the system gives it their best. We’re now doing more with less, which is ideal for a crisis like this one.” Twenty-two years after they first began to set the standard for transplants, Matesanz and his team continue to eye improvements. “We want to get to 5,000 donations,” he said, pointing to their recently completed five-year plan as a roadmap. “These are realistic goals. We’re not dreaming.” Ashifa Kassam