State of Energy Report

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has set a target of achieving 5% of its energy mix from renewable energy by 2030 while also seeking to reduce energy intensity by 30%, according to a new 200-page report released Monday.  Like a number of countries in the Arab region, it seeks to place sustainable energy solutions at the centre of a new sustainable development pathway.

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ESCAP Pioneers Platform for Expanding Social Protection

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) last week launched a cutting-edge platform designed for expanding social protection in the region.

UN Urged to Address Corporate Human Rights Abuses

A statement signed by more than 100 civil society organisations and social movements calls for member states to take steps towards establishing a binding international treaty to deal with corporate human rights abuses. The statement coincides with the beginning of the second annual UN Forum on Business & Human Rights in Geneva.

WFP FORCED TO REDUCE FOOD ASSISTANCE IN DRC

The Rome-based  World Food Programme (WFP) may be forced to reduce or interrupt some of its activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), leaving thousands of people with no food assistance. This is due primarily to serious resource constraints.

Saving Children From Loggers

Logging is the largest industry in the Solomon Islands, an archipelago located northwest of Fiji, where 80 percent of the islands are covered in tropical rainforest. But, although timber accounts for 60 percent of this South Pacific nation’s export earnings, most local communities have experienced no beneficial development.

Skateboarding Can Be Empowering

An array of colourful quarter pipes, bank ramps and a fun box come to life as a clutch of Cambodian youngsters do balancing tricks, kick-flips and kick turns. The all-girl session at a skating facility near the Russian Market here is facilitated by 20-year-old Kov Chansangva, popularly known as Tin.

Today’s Forecast Is for Climate-Proof Farming

Even as weather extremes bedevil Caribbean farmers, Ramgopaul Roop has turned his three-acre fruit farm into a showcase for how to beat climate change. His conservation farming methods include water harvesting and growing lemon grass as mulch. Since the grass is also a weed, it discourages the growth of other harmful weeds without the use of herbicides.

Taking Efforts to Fight Prejudice in Cuba to the Barrios

From a very young age, Irma Castañeda has braided her curly hair and cared for it with natural recipes inherited from her mother, ignoring the widespread conception that black women’s hair is “ugly” or “bad”.

Blocking NATO to Stop Drones

Upping the ante against U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, celebrated cricketer-turned-political leader Imran Khan has threatened to block NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where his party leads a coalition government.

Big Coal Angles For a Slice of Climate Finance Pie

Power generation is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Choosing the right options for less-polluting energy sources in the future is a vital question – in which energy-starved Africa has a keen interest. In one camp, highly polluting industries are appealing for support under any new climate finance mechanisms established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process.

Keeping the Philippines from Becoming Another Haiti

Nearly two weeks after Typhoon Haiyan devastated parts of the central Philippines, experts and activists here are warning that post-disaster reconstruction needs to be more transparent than past such efforts, while also focusing on a long-term assistance strategy that goes beyond immediate emergency relief.

Guarded Tone in Geneva as Negotiators Seek Iran Accord

Amidst rising expectations of a breakthrough, Iran and six world powers Wednesday resumed their quest for a deal on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme that seemed just within reach earlier this month.

Bank Crash Hits Women Harder

Women in Iceland have been more badly affected by the economic collapse in 2008 than their male counterparts, both in terms of physical and mental health, studies show.

Indonesia’s Forest Communities Victims of ‘Legal Land Grabs’

- Indonesia’s rainforests are facing “legal land grabs”, allege NGOs. Its ancient communities are finding that their ancestral lands are slipping into the hands of foreign companies for oil palm cultivation, as demand for the product grows in Europe, India and China.

UNFPA Calls for Development Goal on Youth

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is calling for a youth centered goal in the post-2015 economic agenda currently under discussion. Young people are a vital force that must be front and centre in global development efforts, said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director.

SIWI to Host First UNESCO Centre in Sweden

The Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has  decided to establish a research centre in Sweden focusing on international water issues. The centre will be run by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) in collaboration with Uppsala University and the University of Gothenburg.

Cancer a Heavy Burden for Cash-Strapped Cuban Families

The meagre budgets of Cuban families are put to the test when one of the members is diagnosed with cancer. Although treatment is free of cost, only extended networks of support help alleviate the economic impact of the disease, which is now the number one cause of death.

Rwandans Poised to Take on African Fashion

When Rwandan designer Colombe Ituze Ndutiye began drawing at the age of six, she thought she would grow up to be a cartoonist.

U.N. Oversees Immunization Against Polio in Middle East

The UN children’s agency UNICEF is overseeing the largest-ever consolidated immunization under way in the Middle East to stop a polio outbreak, aiming to vaccinate over 20 million children in seven countries and territories repeatedly.

Libya’s Berbers Close the Tap

“Oil tankers won´t get crude from this port until Tripoli finally meets our demands,” says Younis, one of the Amazigh rebels today blocking one of Libya´s largest gas and crude oil plants.