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By Ronald Joshua
JOHANNESEBURG | MADRID (IDN) – Fewer lives were being lost as a result of natural disasters, because of advanced early warning systems. However, many cash-strapped African countries – including the small island states, bearing the brunt of climate change – are not benefiting from new technologies to develop early warning systems, said the climate expert John Harding at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
By Fabíola Ortiz
MADRID (IDN) – As the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 moved toward an end, the African Group of Negotiators criticized the “very limited progress” of the climate talks and said “no deal is better than bad deal”.
“We are very very very worried about the balance of the outcome. We are concerned that what we are seeing now is regressing on implementing all the commitments we have under the Paris Agreement,” announced Ambassador Mohamed Nasr, Head of Environmental Affairs at Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs who led the African Group of Negotiators (AGN).
By Fabíola Ortiz
MADRID (IDN) – The youth and human rights activists have been emphasizing since the start of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) on December 2 the pressing need of placing people in the centre of climate action. Spearheaded by the social movement ‘Fridays for Future’ initiated by the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, the youth been calling for social participation in the decision-making process and the re-shaping of national climate commitments to align with youth’s aspirations.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – The stench of fish rot is wafting over Namibia. It’s taken down two Namibian ministers and leaves an Icelandic fisheries minister in the hot seat.
“A coterie of well-heeled vampires is sucking our fishing sector dry!” protested the local Namibian newspaper as news of the corrupt trading of valuable fishing quotas came to light.
Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona
The writer is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary.
The Economist proclaimed recently that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the man who, as secretary of defense, presided over this horrifying episode (the final phase of Sri Lanka’s terrorist inspired internal conflict), has just been elected president of Sri Lanka. To Sinhalese Buddhists, about 70% of the population, he is a hero. After all, the militia he destroyed was appallingly cruel and bloodthirsty and had tormented Tamils as much as, if not more than, other Sri Lankans.
By Aquila Hassanzada*
NARYN, Kyrgyzstan (IDN) – Mairam Bibi says her sons will not follow in their father’s footsteps – an abductor who kidnapped a teenage girl and forced her into a violent marriage.
At the age of 41, Mairam is sitting in her small straw house telling the story so many women in Kyrgyzstan could tell.
One morning when she was a teenager, Mairam was going to school when an old car stopped in front of her. Two men ran out of the car and headed towards her. She was terrified.
Viewpoint by Kaveh Zahedi* and Van Nguyen**
BANGKOK (IDN) – “The 2030 Agenda is coming to life”, declared the Secretary-General at the opening of the first SDG Summit [September 24-25], a quadrennial event for the follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As leaders from Asia-Pacific took the floor, they highlighted country progress of SDG implementation and reaffirmed commitment to achieve the 2030 Agenda. Statements reflected different approaches across the region. Yet all converged on one priority: accelerated actions and transformative pathways.
By Robert Kibet
NAIROBI (IDN) – “Ensuring that democracy, peace and prosperity prevails everywhere in the world, amidst global turbulence, increasing state of fragility in our countries, large or small, is at the heart of a transformed ACP group of states,” Dr. Patrick I. Gomes, outgoing Secretary General of ACP told the official inauguration of 9th African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Heads of State and Government Summit in Nairobi.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The Europeans have not done well in countering President Donald Trump’s onslaught on Iran. When Trump unilaterally decided that the U.S. should withdraw from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, which committed Iran to winding down its nuclear research in return for the West, Russia and China (the latter two were also part of the deal) lifting sanctions which were crippling the Iranian economy, the Europeans huffed and puffed and then did little.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | MADRID (IDN) – As the 25th United Nations climate conference COP25 moved into its second week, environmental activists from around the world denounced the influence of corporate power plainly visible at the Madrid summit and took to the streets in a massive climate protest led by indigenous leaders and youth.
The summit has so far focused on meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise. But climate scientists say the talks are failing to produce the drastic measures necessary to address the climate crisis.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.
IDN-InDepthNews serves as flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate and its partner, the Global Cooperation Council, established in February 1983.