Environment

Water and Sanitation Seek Rightful Place in Post-2015 Agenda

By Thalif Deen
When the General Assembly unanimously adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back in 2000, water and sanitation were reduced to a subtext - never a stand-alone goal compared with poverty and hunger alleviation.

HONDURAS: Activists Protest Lack of Transparency in Extractive Industry

By Thelma Mejía
The Honduran government’s announcement of its plans to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has raised expectations as well as doubts, particularly due to the speed with which it aims to complete a process that has taken several years in other countries of the region.

Visions of a Sustainable, Pollution-Free New York by 2030

By Stephen Leahy
As usual, midtown Manhattan is packed with whisper-quiet cars and trams while thousands walk the streets listening to the birds of spring sing amongst the gleaming, grime-free skyscrapers in the crystal-clear morning air.

Stories Sprout like Warnings in Japan’s Tsunami Wasteland

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
As a survivor of Japan’s deadliest tsunami in living memory, Shun Ito dedicates his mornings to evoking stories of heroism that helped to save lives in this port town that was decimated on that fateful March afternoon two years ago.

Secretive U.S. Amendment Would Weaken Biotech Oversight

By Carey L. Biron
Food safety advocates, environmentalists and health professionals here are engaging in a fervent last-minute campaign to highlight a controversial legislative amendment they say would gut the ability of both the judiciary and the federal government to regulate genetically modified agricultural products.
Artisanal miner panning for gold in Choluteca, Honduras. - Thelma Mejía/IPS

HONDURAS: Activists Protest Lack of Transparency in Extractive Industry Transparency Process

By IPS Correspondents and - -
The Honduran government’s announcement of its plans to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has raised expectations as well as doubts, particularly due to the speed with which it aims to complete a process that has taken several years in other countries of the region.

How to Break the Stalemate on Global Sustainability

By Isolda Agazzi
The current growth model is not sustainable. Neither the green economy nor alternative sources of energy can prevent global warming. Solutions will come from concerted actions at the local and national levels, from the adoption of instruments and practices borrowed from other disciplines like peacebuilding, and from the move to a “no-waste economy”, according to experts here.

Food Policies Failing the World’s Hungry

By Joe Hitchon
The world’s food security remains “vulnerable”, new data suggests, with some 870 million people experiencing sustained hunger and two billion suffering from micronutrient deficiencies.

Obama Proposes Major New Renewables Research

By Carey L. Biron
President Barack Obama on Friday unveiled a broad new proposal to step up U.S. research into renewable energy technologies, particularly in transportation, which is responsible for around 70 percent of the United States’ oil use.

Transparency Could Tighten Drought Policy

By Isolda Agazzi
Scientists gathered in Geneva for the first High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP) in over 30 years have identified data collection and sharing as some of the main challenges to effective prevention of drought. Clear goals and strong political will are vital to building policies at the national level, they say.

Green Taxes Seek a Spot in Mexico’s Reform Bill

By Emilio Godoy
As the Mexican government prepares a broad tax reform bill, experts and activists see it as an opportunity to include new “green taxes” aimed at raising funds for curbing pollution.

Native Women Bring Solar Energy to Chile’s Atacama Desert

By Marianela Jarroud
Three indigenous communities from the Chilean highlands have just received solar panels, which will be set up and maintained by unlikely solar engineers: five native women who travelled halfway around the world to India and overcame language and other barriers to bring photovoltaic energy to their villages.

Q&A: Water Disputes Get Resolved While Other Conflicts Rage

By Thalif Deen
What has education, science and culture to do with one of the world's most scarce and finite resources? Plenty, says the United Nations, which has designated the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as the lead agency to promote the 2013International Year of Water Cooperation (IYWC).

Drought Hits Policies

By Isolda Agazzi
Drought has dramatically increased as a consequence of climate change. Most countries react to it only after it has occurred, but don’t have national policies to prevent it. The high-level meeting on national drought policies in Geneva this week is trying to match scientific knowledge with political awareness.

Civil Society Wants Bigger Role in Green Climate Fund Planning

By Carey L. Biron
As the new board of the United Nations Green Climate Fund meets in Berlin this week, activist and watchdog groups here and around the world are expressing frustration over proposed rules they say are already significantly limiting civil society participation in the new initiative.

Public Pays for Fukushima While Nuclear Industry Profits

By Stephen Leahy
Two years after Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the country faces 100 to 250 billion dollars in cleanup and compensation costs, tens of thousands of displaced people and widespread impacts of radiation.

Brazilian-Made Plastic Solar Panels, a Clean Energy Breakthrough

By Alice Marcondes
As part of the country’s growing emphasis on green tech research, Brazilian scientists have developed plastic solar panels that could revolutionise power generation from this clean, renewable energy source.

India Strives to Become ‘Drought Proof’

By Manipadma Jena
In a country of 1.2 billion people, the threat of drought takes on epic proportions. Over a period of two centuries (between 1801 and 2002), India experienced 42 severe droughts, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation. One of these, in 1979, cut food grain production by 20 percent; another, in 1987, damaged 58.6 million hectares of cultivated land, affecting 285 million people.

Changing Weather, Changing Fortunes

By Amantha Perera
Sri Lanka has paused for breath after the extreme weather conditions last year that many associate with climate change.

Necessary Extinction

By Kumi Naidoo
When the environment changes, smart creatures adapt. And, in the face of a changing climate and changing economics, smart people are backing green energy. In 2011 almost a third of new electricity came from renewable sources. But, just as the first mammals had to contend with a world of dinosaurs, the pioneers of green energy have to contend with a world based on an obsolete carbon-based energy system that refuses to upgrade.

Canada Losing Its Seasons

By Stephen Leahy
"Canada is not a country, it's winter," Canadians say with pride. But the nation's long, fearsome winters will live only in memory and song for Canadian children born this decade.
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