Climate Change

The United Nations, 75 Years Young: Engaging Youth Social Entrepreneurs to Accelerate the SDGs

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
This year, the United Nations is marking its 75th anniversary – a milestone of extraordinary economic and social progress in Asia and the Pacific. While the Organization enjoys a lifespan almost equal to the world’s improved average life expectancy, the future lies with those who have recently embarked on theirs: our young people.

Capture of CO2 and Hydrogen as Part of Latin America’s Energy Future

By Emilio Godoy
While struggling to increase the generation and consumption of renewable energy, Latin America is beginning to see the rise of new technologies, such as the capture and storage of carbon and hydrogen from fossil fuels or wind and solar energy.

‘The Sahel – a Microcosm of Cascading Global Risks Converging in One Region’

By Samira Sadeque
The European Commission this week pledged $27.8 million in humanitarian support to the Sahel region as floods and the coronavirus pandemic exacerbate the stability in a region deeply in conflict. While the figure is less than 2 percent of the $2.4 billion that the United Nations has appealed for, Amnesty International researcher Ousmane Diallo told IPS that despite past donations from international development partners to Sahelian countries, the situation hasn’t improved over the years.

Climate Change: New Threat to Nepal’s Rhinos

By Mukesh Pokhrel
Nepal’s population of one-horned rhinoceros that survived hunting, a shrinking habitat and wildlife trafficking are now faced with a new threat: changes in their living environment due to a rapidly-warming atmosphere.

Gendering Agriculture so Women Take the Lead in Feeding Africa

By Rhoda Tumusiime and Steven Cole
Africa’s hopes of feeding a population projected to double by 2050 amidst a worsening climate crisis rest on huge investments in agriculture, including creating the conditions so that women can empower themselves and lead efforts to transform the continent’s farming landscape.

Scaling Up SDG4 in Crises

By Yasmine Sherif
Out of global crises spring opportunities for change. In crisis, change is not an option. It is a necessity. And, as Plato famously noted: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is an invention that sprang out of crisis and was borne of necessity.

Nobel Peace Prize to World Food Programme Delivering Life-Saving Sustenance to Millions Worldwide

By Thalif Deen
With the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize bestowed on the Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations and its affiliated agencies continue to hold a monopoly of one of the world’s most prestigious annual awards.

Teachers Shoulder the Burden: Improving Support in Crisis Contexts

By Yasmine Sherif, Dean Brooks and Mary Mendenhall
Teachers are at the heart of children and young peoples’ educational experiences. Teachers play multiple roles in their students’ lives by supporting their learning, providing them with inclusive and safe environments to grow and develop, and helping them become more confident as they make their way in the world. As we commemorate World Teachers’ Day on Monday, 5 October and its theme--Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future--we must recognize the inspiring and transformative role that teachers working in armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change induced disasters and protracted crises play in their students’ lives.

Energy Transition and Post-Covid Recovery, a Challenge for Latin America

By Emilio Godoy
The way forward for energy transition and its link to an economic recovery after the depression caused by the covid-19 pandemic is focusing attention in Latin America and Europe, according to the 2nd Madrid Energy Conference (MEC), which concluded this Friday 2.

Sustainability of Zimbabwe’s Natural Food Sources take a Knock Amid Growing Economic Crisis

By Ignatius Banda
Sarudzai Moyo, a former teacher, has begun a new career as a fishmonger. Once a week she makes the 450km journey from Bulawayo to Binga, on the shores of Lake Kariba, where she buys between 100 and 150 kilograms of fish for resale as the demand for cheaper dietary options increase in Zimbabwe.

The Triple Humanitarian Crisis and Why Kenya Deserves An A + in its Response

By Siddharth Chatterjee
The United Nations Deputy Secretary General, Ms Amina Mohammed recently commended “Kenya’s exemplary role in its response to COVID-19 and in advancing Agenda 2030”.

A 10-Year-Old Commitment to Biodiversity Misses Virtually All of its Targets

By Thalif Deen
The coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over one million people worldwide and destabilized the global economy, also upended the UN’s ambitious socio-economic goals, including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2030.

From Pledges to Policy and Practice: Moving Nature to the Heart of Decision-Making

By Ana María Hernández Salgar
This week, Heads of State and Government from 64 countries announced one of the strongest pledges yet to reverse the loss of biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people by 2030. Advancing from powerful pledges to concrete policy and action, however, means that nature must be moved to the heart of global, national and local decision-making. It’s time for nature to be reintegrated into everything we do.

Pivoting Through the Pandemic: A Global Problem with a Pacific Solution

As the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) reported earlier this year, COVID-19 has caused massive disruptions to ocean observing systems around the globe, as research cruises, maintenance visits, and sensor deployments have been postponed or cancelled.

Q&A: How Fast Fashion Sits at the Crucial Intersection of Environmental & Gender Justice

By Samira Sadeque
Racism “keeps the global north oblivious to the effect of fast fashion addiction on the global south” say environmental and gender justice experts.

‘Leave No one Behind’: How Inclusive is World Leaders’ Call to Climate Action?

By Samira Sadeque
Wrapping up Climate Week at the United Nations General Assembly, global leaders called for climate action that may be “ambitious but achievable” and called for climate measures that would “leave no one behind”. But some climate activists remain concerned about how this can be achieved.

Making State-Owned Enterprises Work for Climate in China and Beyond

By Philippe Benoit and Alex Clark
President Xi Jinping announced on Tuesday China’s aim to become carbon neutral before 2060. Achieving this goal will require the support and engagement of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as they currently generate more than half of the country’s energy sector emissions. SOEs are major drivers of greenhouse gas emissions globally, particularly in emerging economies. 

Scientists Draw up Guidelines to Help Agri-food Companies Align with 2030 Agenda

By Isaiah Esipisu
In Amuru district, 47 kilometres from Gulu town in northwestern Uganda, the Omer Farming Company has proven that it is possible to farm on thousands of acres of land using methods that conserve the environment and its biodiversity.

Bending the Curve on Biodiversity Loss Requires Nothing Less than Transformational Change

By Jamison Ervin
A spate of reports on biodiversity – the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystems, the Living Planet Report, the Global Forest Resources Assessment Report and the Global Biodiversity Outlook- paint a stark picture for the world’s biodiversity.

Africa at the Crossroads: Time to Abandon Failing Green Revolution

By Million Belay and Timothy A. Wise
As COVID-19 threatens farming communities across Africa already struggling with climate change, the continent is at a crossroads. Will its people and their governments continue trying to replicate industrial farming models promoted by developed countries? Or will they move boldly into the uncertain future, embracing ecological agriculture?

Nono the Carbon Footprint Bear—Part of Peru’s Ambitious Work on Climate Action

By Kirla Echegaray Alfaro
On the eve of its bicentennial, Peru is addressing climate change with the needed sense of urgency and ambition. Our inclusive, ‘whole society’ approach aims to awaken new opportunities that are within reach of all of our citizens. Like COVID-19, climate change is a landmark which will have a clearly established before and after period. Without a doubt, it is paving a path towards sustainable development that will improve the well-being of all Peruvians.
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