Environment

Q&A: How Vietnam went from Zero to Hero in Developing Solar Projects and What Other Countries Can Do for Climate Change

By Samira Sadeque
A week ago, downtown New York witnessed one of the most historic moments in the climate action moment — hundreds of thousands of people attended the Climate Strike, where teen activists delivered powerful speeches and blows to world leaders for not taking climate change seriously.

Investments to Cushion African Countries against Climate Shocks Not Enough

By James Reinl
African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina unveiled millions of dollars of new pledges at the United Nations this week amid growing fears of climate change ravaging the continent and derailing anti-poverty targets.

Finance Global Green New Deal for Sustainable Development

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can only be achieved by 2030 with the political will to change international economic rules and mobilize resources needed for a massive public sector-led investment push to reinvigorate world economic progress sustainably, says UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report 2019 (TDR 2019).

A Rising Youth Movement Picks Up Where Governments Have Failed

By Thalif Deen
When the Youth Climate Summit concluded last week, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres predicted that if governments still lack the political will to make peace with nature, “there is huge hope in what the youth is doing all over the world".

Oceans in Crisis as they Absorb the Brunt of Climate Change

By Miriam Gathigah
Warnings of strong winds, high waves and reduced visibility along the East African coastline are increasingly common. But local fisher folk like Ali Sombo from Kwale County, situated along Kenya's Indian Ocean Coastline, don't always heed the warnings by the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) to stay clear of the open sea during rough waters.

Climate Emergency: A Humanitarian Call to Action


By Avril Benoit
We saw this coming. As humanitarians, our risk assessments in different parts of the world have always factored in the potential for extreme weather events and the spread of vector-borne diseases, of drought, desertification, and mass displacement. Emergency first responders like us work up scenarios for interventions and gain experience each time we put our planning to the test in real crises.

How to ‘Fix the Business of Food’ and Save the Planet

By Samira Sadeque
With up to one billion undernourished people around the world, and agriculture and land use systems increasingly vulnerable to climate change and land degradation, more companies within the global food industry need to start aligning their operations with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.

Fighting Climate Change: We Must Not Forget the Soils

By Esther Ngumbi
Around the world, citizens took to the streets to demand their governments address climate change. In the U.S., this widespread activism illustrates the findings of a newly released report by the Chicago Council on Global affairs which found for the first time that the majority of Americans consider climate change a threat and the most critical foreign policy issue facing the country.

How Slow Moving Asbestos Regulations Compromise Health

By Sarah Wolverton
Last year, the United States introduced a new asbestos rule that was received both positively and negatively and Canada banned the mineral altogether. Countries like the U.K. and Australia continue to struggle with the health implications of historic asbestos use, despite both having bans for several years. In contrast, nations like Russia and Vietnam continue to manufacture and use the mineral frequently. 

Nature’s Solution to Climate Change

By Ralph Chami, Sena Oztosun, Thomas Cosimano, and Connel Fullenkamp

When it comes to saving the planet, one whale is worth thousands of trees.

Africa’s Industrial Development: Turning Challenges into Opportunities

By Li Yong
When world leaders gathered in New York for the 70th session of the General Assembly back in 2016, and proclaimed the period 2016-2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III), it reaffirmed the importance of industrialization in supporting Africa’s own efforts towards sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and accelerated development.

We Need Biodiversity-Based Agriculture to Solve the Climate Crisis

By Vandana Shiva
The Earth is living, and also creates life. Over 4 billion years the Earth has evolved a rich biodiversity — an abundance of different living organisms and ecosystems — that can meet all our needs and sustain life.

The Social Impact of Economic Inequality

By Blerim Mustafa
Increasing economic inequality is a defining challenge of our time. In recent years, it has triggered analysis and reflection by many scholars, politicians and others on its causes and consequences on economic growth and efficiency, politics and democracy, human rights, individual behaviors, access to health, social cohesion and environmental degradation. The perception that the top 1% of income earners are gaining at the expense of the other 99% has resulted in widespread public debates in many countries on the social and political repercussions of inequality.

In Southern Brazil, Need Becomes an Environmental Virtue

By Mario Osava
The state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil is the largest national producer and exporter of pork and this year it also leads in exports of chicken, of which it is the second-biggest producer in the country.

World’s Hard Fought Battle Against Climate Change

By Thalif Deen
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres describes the ongoing crisis as a “climate emergency”-- as the world continues its hard fought battle against devastating droughts, floods, hurricanes and rising sea levels that threaten the very existence of small island developing states located in low-lying areas.

Confronting the New Climate Reality in Asia and the Pacific

By Kaveh Zahedi
In less than ten days world leaders will be gathering at the United Nations in New York for the Climate Action Summit. Their goal is simple; to increase ambition and accelerate action in the face of a mounting climate emergency. For many this means ambition and action that enables countries to decarbonize their economies by the middle of the century. But that is only half the equation. Equally ambitious plans are also needed to build the resilience of vulnerable sectors and communities being battered by climate related disasters of increasing frequency, intensity and unpredictability.

A Brief Guide to the Impacts of Climate Change on Food Production

By Daisy Simmons
Food may be a universal language – but in these record-breaking hot days, so too is climate change. With July clocking in as the hottest month on Earth in recorded history and extreme weather ramping up globally, farmers are facing the brunt of climate change in croplands and pastures around the world.

‘I Want my Kids to Know What a Rhino and Turtle Are’ – #ClimateStrike Kids Say

By Crystal Orderson
From Nigeria, to Kenya to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to South Africa, thousands of African climate campaigners have taken to the streets joining millions around the world for the global Climate Strike ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019, which starts in New York next week.

Rural Bangladesh Families Spend 2.0 Billion Dollars on Climate Change ― Dwarfing Government & International Finance

By Andrew Norton
In an alarming imbalance struggling families in rural Bangladesh spend almost US$2 billion a year on preventing climate-related disasters or repairing damage caused by climate change ― far more than either the Bangladesh government or international bodies.

Biogas Makes Pig Farming More Sustainable in Southern Brazil

By Mario Osava
Biogas has the potential to provide 36 percent of the electricity consumed in Brazil or replace 70 percent of diesel if purified as biomethane, according to the Brazilian Association of Biogas and Biomethane (Abiogas).

Not Enough Good Information About Africa’s Climate for Adaptation

By Isaiah Esipisu
"We don't have a good appreciation of our local weather systems," says Dr James Kinyangi head of the African Development Bank's climate and development Africa special fund, which supports investments in climate and weather observations networks in Africa.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*