Environment

2050 is Now

By Paula Caballero
The reality of daily life is that we try to fix the problems that are staring us in the face. In many ways, the desire for short-term results defines the rhythm of both public and private life. So the idea that decisions today will define where we end up in a couple of decades is difficult to grasp, and may even appear outlandish.

Floods, Hurricanes, Droughts… When Climate Sets the Agenda

By Baher Kamal
When officials and experts from all over the world started the first-ever environmental summit hosted by China, they were already aware that climate and weather-related disasters were already seriously beginning to set the international agenda – unprecedented floods in South Asia, strongest ever hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and catastrophic droughts striking the Horn of Africa, among the most impacting recent events.

Taking Stock of SDG Actions on UN’s Development Agenda

By Peter Thomson
Taken together, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, provide humanity with a masterplan for a sustainable way of life on this planet.

How Aid in Cash, Not Goods, Averted a Famine in Somalia

By Roshni Majumdar
In February, when the government of Somalia sounded an alarm to the UN about risks of a famine in the country, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), besides quickly shuffling a response team, was acting from a steep sense of history. The Office, instead of sending out massive aid packages, distributed cash vouchers to families who could spend it to buy goods according to their needs.

Dominica’s Geothermal Dream About to Become Reality

By Desmond Brown
The tiny Caribbean island of Dominica has moved one step closer to its dream of constructing a geothermal plant, a project that is expected to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Cholera in North-Eastern Nigeria: An Endemic Outbreak

By Lindah Mogeni
A recent cholera outbreak in North-Eastern Nigeria has resulted in at least 186 suspected cases and 14 deaths as of Sep. 1, according to Borno State’s Ministry of Health.

Scaling up Development Finance

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The Business and Sustainable Development Commission has estimated that achievement of Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals will require US$2-3 trillion of additional investments annually compared to current world income of around US$115 trillion. This is a conservative estimate; annual investments of up to US$2 trillion yearly will be needed to have a chance of keeping temperature rise below 1.5°C.

Ethiopia’s Internally Displaced Overlooked Amid Refugee Crises

By James Jeffrey
Grasping its limp leg, a woman drags the carcass of one of her few remaining black-headed sheep away from her family’s domed shelter fashioned out of sticks and fabric that stands alone amid the desiccated scrubland a few kilometers from the town of Dolo Odo in the southeast of Ethiopia near the border with Somalia.

Europe, New Border of Africa’s ‘Great Desert’ – The Sahara

By Baher Kamal
With the highest temperatures on record and unprecedented heat waves hitting Europe this year, Africa’s ‘Great Desert’, the Sahara, is set continue its relentless march on the Southern European countries until it occupies more than 30 per cent of Spain just three decades from now.

Towards a Resource Efficient and Pollution Free Asia-Pacific

By Shamshad Akhtar and Erik Solheim
Senior government officials from across Asia and the Pacific will meet in Bangkok this week for the first-ever Asia-Pacific Ministerial Summit on the Environment. The high-level meeting is co-convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) and UN Environment and is a unique opportunity for the region’s environment leaders to discuss how they can work together towards a resource efficient and pollution-free Asia-Pacific.

Climate-Smart Agriculture Urgently Needed in Africa

By Baher Kamal
Africa contributes only 4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while six of the 10 most affected countries by climate change are in Africa, warns a major agricultural research for development partnership, while stressing the urgent need to scale up climate-smart agriculture, improve forestry and transform the productivity of water use.

Women Play Key Role in Solar Energy Projects

By Rabiya Jaffery
Since weather affects everyone, the idea that women are more susceptible to the effects of climate change may strike some as puzzling.

“New Normal” for the U.S., All Too Familiar for the Caribbean

By Kenton X. Chance
The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines says it hopes that the devastating loss and damage that Hurricane Harvey has wrought in Texas might inspire the government of President Donald Trump to rethink its position on climate change.

Young Artists Get Passionate About Renewable Energy

By Jewel Fraser
Conversations about renewable and sustainable energy don't typically include artistic ideas on the subject. However, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) has chosen to engage the region's youth in the conversation by inviting them to create artistic works on sustainable energy for a regional competition.

Protecting Africa’s Drylands Key to the Continent’s Future

By Sam Otieno
Africa’s population continues to grow, putting intense pressure on available land for agricultural purposes and life-supporting ecosystem services even as the scenario is compounded by the adverse impacts of climate change.

Rising Temperatures May Limit Aircraft Takeoffs Globally

By Rabiya Jaffery
Rising temperatures due to global warming may ground up to a third of airplanes worldwide in the decades to come, according to a recently published analysis by Columbia University.

Freshwater to Sea, the Resilience of Oceans

By Peter Thomson
It is a great pleasure to join you today at World Water Week and to be here in Stockholm. This city has been at the forefront of sustainable development since it hosted the first Earth Summit back in 1972, the same year I started my public service as a rural development officer in Fiji!

On Climate Finance, “The SIDS Can’t Wait”

By Desmond Brown
Saint Lucia's Prime Minister Allen Chastanet warns that the clock is running out for small states such as those in the Caribbean as they struggle to develop infrastructure capable of withstanding changes in weather conditions - and that wealthier nations need to step up levels of aid.

Global Warming Puts Asia’s Vital Yields at High Risk

By IPS World Desk
While mainstream media have been widely reporting on the dramatic consequences of tropical storm Harvey in the United States, which has been characterised as the fiercest hurricane to hit this country in over a decade, global warming is expected to have a significant impact on “future yields of everything from rice to fish, particularly in countries situated closer to the equator,” the United Nations warned.

Forced Evictions, Rights Abuses of Maasai People in Tanzania

By Baher Kamal
Indigenous Maasai people in Loliondo region,Tanzania have been facing new cases of forced evictions and human rights violations, a major international organisation supporting indigenous peoples' struggle for human rights and self-determination warned.

Three Solutions for Water and Sanitation for All

By Oyun Sanjaasuren
This week people gather from around the globe at the annual Stockholm World Week. If previous years are anything to go by, the “Water is life” cliché will be repeated endlessly. But the phrase is useful shorthand for this simple fact: water is the cornerstone of human health and economic development. If managed poorly, water is an obstacle to development; if managed well, it brings prosperity and peace.
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