United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Global Biodiversity Agenda: Nairobi Just Added More to Montreal’s Plate

By Stella Paul
As the last working group meeting of the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Agenda concluded here on Sunday, the delegates’ job at COP15 Montreal just got tougher as delegates couldn’t finalize the text of the agenda. Texts involving finance, cost and benefit-sharing, and digital sequencing – described by many as ‘most contentious parts of the draft agenda barely made any progress as negotiators failed to reach any consensus.

Centering Gender in the Next Biodiversity Agenda: A Long Way to Montreal

By Stella Paul
“I often hear, ‘What do women have to do with biodiversity?' And I want to ask them back, 'What do men have to do (with biodiversity)?’,” says Mrinalini Rai, a prominent gender equality rights advocate at the 4th Meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group of the UN Biodiversity Convention, which started this week in Nairobi.

Indigenous Communities Want Stake in New Deal to Protect Nature

By Busani Bafana
In early June 2022, more than 30 people from the Maasai community in the Loliondo division in Tanzania’s northern Ngorongoro District were reportedly injured, and one person died following clashes with security forces over the demarcation of their ancestral lands for a new game reserve.

Only Small Percentage of COVID-19 Recovery Allocated to Green Initiatives

By Samira Sadeque
Last year, only $368 billion of a $14.6tn budget geared towards COVID-19 recovery measures across the world’s largest 50 countries took into account green recovery initiatives, according to a report launched yesterday, Mar. 10.

A Growing Shift in the Narrative about Climate Action

By Samira Sadeque
A keen awareness about the intersection of our ecosystem and the “accelerating destabilisation of the climate” is helping shift the narrative for climate action and can help us transition from being polluters to becoming protectors of the climate, said Marco Lambertini, Director General at the World Wide Fund for Nature.

UN Blueprint that Could Urgently Solve Earth’s Triple Climate Emergencies

By Manipadma Jena
“Our war on nature has left the planet broken. This is senseless and suicidal. The consequences of our recklessness are already apparent in human suffering, towering economic losses and the accelerating erosion of life on Earth,” António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations said.

Electrification of Transport: A Challenge for Urbanised Latin America

By Mario Osava
Electric transport, still limited in Latin America despite its urban benefits, could expand during the post-pandemic economic recovery, says Adalberto Maluf, president of the Brazilian Association of Electric Vehicles (ABVE).

Why Environmental and Humanitarian Action Must Be Linked

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Environmental and humanitarian action is often understood as two different sectors. However, the lack of awareness regarding its intersections could lead to further long-term devastation.

Healthy Oceans, Healthy Societies

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Over recent years, there have been shocking reports of marine endangerment and plastic pollution. The threats are clear, and now urgent action is needed more than ever.

Taking the Lead in Fight Against Climate Change

By A. D. McKenzie
As the grandchild of Jamaican citizens who moved to Great Britain, Monique Taffe says she inherited a tradition of recycling and learned not to be part of the “throwaway culture”, as some environmentalists have labelled consumerist societies.

Looking Beyond Fossil Fuels To Reduce Emissions

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
In midst of the 24th United Nations climate change conference (COP24), many are trying to double down in the search for practical, actionable solutions to the climate crisis: land itself.

Sri Lanka’s Small Tea Farmers Turn Sustainable Land Managers

By Stella Paul
As the mercury rises higher, Kamakandalagi Leelavathi delves deeper into the lush green mass of the tea bushes. The past few afternoons there have been thunderstorms. So the 55-year-old tea picker in Uda Houpe tea garden of Sri Lanka’s Hatton region is rushing to complete her day’s task before the rain comes: harvesting 22 kgs of tea leaves.

Caribbean Biodiversity Overheated by Climate Change

By Ivet González
The nearly 7,000 islands and the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea are home to thousands of endemic species and are on the migration route of many kinds of birds. Preserving this abundant fauna requires multilateral actions in today’s era of global warming.

Shifting Sands: How Rural Women in India Took Mining into their Own Hands

By Stella Paul
Thirty-seven-year-old Kode Sujatha stands in front of a hut with a palm-thatched roof, surrounded by a group of men shouting angrily and jostling one another for a spot at the front of the crowd.

Putting the “Integrity of the Earth’s Ecosystems” at the Centre of the Sustainable Development Agenda

By Kanya D'Almeida
By 2050, we will be a world of nine billion people. Not only does this mean there’ll be two million more mouths to feed than there are at present, it also means these mouths will be consuming more – in the next 20 years, for instance, an estimated three billion people will enter the middle class, in addition to the 1.8 billion estimated to be within that income bracket today.

From Residents to Rangers: Local Communities Take Lead on Mangrove Conservation in Sri Lanka

By Amantha Perera
Weekends and public holidays are deadly for one of Sri Lanka’s most delicate ecosystems – that is when the island’s 8,815 hectares of mangroves come under threat.

Zimbabwean Women Weave Their Own Beautiful Future

By Busani Bafana
Seventy-seven-year-old Grace Ngwenya has an eye for detail. You will never catch her squinting as she effortlessly weaves ilala palm fronds into beautiful baskets.

Opinion: A Major Push Forward for Gender and Environment

By Joni Seager, Deepa Joshi, and Rebecca Pearl-Martinez
Experts from around the world gathered in New York recently to launch work on the Global Gender Environment Outlook (GGEO), the first comprehensive, integrated and global assessment of gender issues in relation to the environment and sustainability.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Climate Change

By Manipadma Jena
So much information about climate change now abounds that it is hard to differentiate fact from fiction. Scientific reports appear alongside conspiracy theories, data is interspersed with drastic predictions about the future, and everywhere one turns, the bad news just seems to be getting worse.

Island States Throw Off the Heavy Yoke of Fossil Fuels

By Desmond Brown
The Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, on a quest to become the world’s first sustainable island state, has taken a giant leap in its programme to cut energy costs.

GDP and the Unaccounted for 82 Percent of National Wealth

By Anantha Duraiappah
Virtually all countries use Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as their primary measurement of economic progress and overall societal progress. At the same time, countries express allegiance to the doctrine of sustainable development. This exposes an obvious disconnect.
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