Environment

Let’s play!

By Heike Kuhn
For the first time ever, we will commemorate the joy of playing with an International Day of Play“ on June 11, 2024. On their website, the UN state that this „marks a significant milestone in efforts to preserve, promote, and prioritize playing so that all people, especially children, can reap the rewards and thrive to their full potential“. But why ist playing so important?

Explainer: What You Need to Know About Climate Change and Blue Carbon

By Aishwarya Bajpai
The area where land meets the sea, known as coastal ecosystems, could be the key to reducing the effects of climate change. What is blue carbon? Blue carbon refers to the carbon dioxide (CO2) stored within marine or coastal ecosystems worldwide. These ecosystems include coastal plants such as mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes, which trap CO2 in their seabeds.

Are We Equipping Women or Merely Filling the Gender Gap?

By Ashley Malepe
In the expansive field of groundwater resource management, a pressing question often emerges: are we truly equipping women with the necessary tools and opportunities to thrive, or are we simply attempting to fill in the gender gap without tackling the root causes?

Blue Economy Must Benefit Fishing Communities in Global South, Says WorldFish Chief

By Neena Bhandari
The Global South is crucial for ensuring aquatic food security to feed the growing world population. It is imperative that blue economy initiatives benefit fishing communities in developing and small island nations, which are facing disproportionate impacts of climate change, says Dr Essam Yassin Mohammed, Director General of WorldFish, an international non-profit research organization based in Penang, Malaysia.

Quiet Revolution Underway as IFAD’s Innovative Solutions Rise to Global Rural Challenges

By Joyce Chimbi
Technology and innovation are at the center of the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s strategy to fulfill its global mission to eradicate poverty and hunger in the developing world, IFAD’s President Alvaro Lario told IPS in an exclusive interview.

World Environment Day: UN Secretary-General Reckons with ‘A Moment of Truth’ on Climate Action

By Naureen Hossain
Coming at a time of record-breaking global temperatures over the last twelve months, the UN chief calls on world leaders, including the G20 and G7 members, to commit to their climate action goals as laid out in the Paris Agreement. Experts across multiple industries are also encouraged to do their part to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis.

Europe Can Reap Sizable Energy Security Rewards by Scaling Up Climate Action

By Geoffroy Dolphin, Romain Duval, Galen Sher and Hugo Rojas-Romagosa
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered Europe’s worst energy crisis since the 1970s and put energy security back at the top of the policy agenda. Policymakers reacted swiftly by securing alternative natural gas supplies, improving energy efficiency, and expanding renewables.

Explainer: How India’s Political Parties Neglect Climate Change

By Umar Manzoor Shah
As India's 968.8 million voters were gripped by election fever, the worst-ever heat wave held the country in its clutches. 

Bringing Drought and Floods, El Niño Hits the Most Fragile in Southern Africa

By Paul Virgo
Kaponde Likando does not know how his family will survive until the next farming season. “We are not going to have anything (to harvest),” said the 60-year-old from Chingobe village in southern Zambia after his maize, sorghum, groundnut and sweet potato crops failed. “This has been the very opposite of what we expected.”

World Environment Day 2024

Ecosystems are being threatened all over the world. From forests to drylands. From farmlands to lakes.

Biodiversity Meetings in Nairobi End, All Eyes Are Now on COP16

By Stella Paul
Regions struggling to revise and update their National Biodiversity Plans aligning them with the Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at COP15, will now be given the technical and scientific support to develop and submit their plans on time. This was one of the key decisions of the 4th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI)—the crucial pre-COP meetings of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (UNCBD)—to review the status and challenges of implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which started on May 22 and ended in Nairobi late in the evening of May 29, 2024.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Calls for Concrete Finance Commitments for Small Island Developing States

By Alison Kentish
Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland is calling for concrete commitments to climate finance that will acknowledge the multi-dimensional vulnerability faced by the world’s small island developing states (SIDS).

The Dilemma for Small Island Developing States: Recovery or Development?

By Simone Galimberti
“We are facing unenviable decisions, between the recovery of today or the development of tomorrow”. These were the words of Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, of Samoa at the opening of the 4th International Conference on Small Islands Developing States (SIDS4).

Maggot Farming Creates Entrepreneurs, Saves Farming Costs in Zimbabwe

By Jeffrey Moyo
Three years ago, 43-year-old Benard Munondo was an "ordinary" Zimbabwean teacher at a local primary school, but now he has turned maggots into gold. Thanks to maggot farming, Munondo, who has never owned a home nor driven a car, now has both. In 2020, a week’s training on maggot farming changed his world.

Plastic Soup, Plastic Islands: How Small Island Developing States can end Plastic Pollution

By Sulan Chen, Inka Mattila and Vera Hakim
Scattered over the vast area of our oceans, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are often pictured as blue, serene and beautiful paradises. However, we are risk losing the beauty of these islands, due to the triple threats of climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution, especially marine plastic debris.

UN, International Partners Coordinate Aid to Papua New Guinea Landslide Disaster

By Naureen Hossain
As the communities of Enga province in Papua New Guinea contend with the landslide that has devastated the residents of Yambani, the United Nations and its partners have been active on the ground addressing the immediate humanitarian needs, according to agencies. 

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, says “extraordinary rainfall” and weather pattern changes were responsible for multiple disasters in the Pacific Island nation this year, including the landslide last Friday.

Explainer: Why Is It Important for Venezuela to Adopt Escazú Agreement in the Coming Year?

By Margaret López
Venezuela is one of the few countries outside the Escazú Agreement, a treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean ratified by 16 member countries that guarantees access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decisions, and environmental justice.

South Suffering Due to Powerful Nations’ Policies

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The World Bank expects the international economic slowdown to be at its worst in over four decades in 2024. This is mainly due to powerful Western nations’ contractionary macroeconomic and geopolitical policies.

People at Risk Need Protection Before Another Hot Summer

By Jonas Bull
Spring has traditionally brought a welcome new beginning: daylight increases, flowers bloom and temperatures are pleasantly warm. However, in recent years, it’s also brought justified fears about extreme heat with summers in Southern Europe getting increasingly hot because of climate change. Older people, children, people with disabilities, and people with mental health conditions are among those at higher risk.

Uniting for Climate Action: UN, World Bank and UNDRR Leaders Push for Climate Finance, Justice and Nature-Based Solutions for SIDS

By Alison Kentish
As leaders of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) meet for the 4th International Conference on SIDS in Antigua this week, top United Nations and World Bank officials are calling for urgent action to help SIDS tackle their unique challenges and plan for the next decade.

To Tackle Climate Crisis, the World Bank Must Stop Financing Industrial Livestock

By Carolina Galvani and Monique Mikhail
Last week, the World Bank Group released a new report that highlights the urgent need to drastically reduce GHG emissions to address the climate crisis and calls on countries to act. However, while the World Bank’s acknowledgment of the damaging climate impacts of industrial agriculture is a crucial step forward, it’s simply not enough.
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