HUMAN DEVELOPMENT – Page 109

Climate Change2015-09-172023-07-10

Groups Urge Coordinated Communications Initiatives on Climate Change

By Rodrigo Pérez | IDN-InDepthNews Report

QUITO (IDN) – A group of major international organisations has issued a call for strong and coordinated communications initiatives to support action on climate change.

The UN-backed Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Programme (REEEP) and Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) together with the Overseas Development Institute, Climate and Development Knowledge Network and dozens more are backing the launch of the ‘Climate Knowledge Brokers’ Manifesto’, which lists the key principles for communicating climate change effectively and so precipitating a step change in society’s response to the climate crisis.

PLANET EARTH2014-10-312023-07-10

Eco-driving: Innovative Approach to Cutting Emissions of Transport Vehicles

By Valentina Gasbarri | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Governments, private sector, civil society organisations and individuals around the globe are engaged in reducing C02 emissions and diminishing the environmental impact both on people and on eco-systems.

The car industry is one of the main stakeholders responding actively and constructively to this major threat of the 21st Century. Through huge investment in a wide range of technological innovations, emissions from new cars are progressively declining.

However, achieving a low-carbon global society from driving is not just about making more efficient vehicles nor is it the unique responsibility of car manufacturers.

PLANET EARTH2014-10-272023-07-10

Eco-Drive A Sustainable Solution at the heart of the UN Agenda

By Valentina Gasbarri and Katsuhiro Asagiri | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As an American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the newly appointed UN Messenger for Peace, warned some 120 heads of states at the UN Climate Summit on September 24, impacts of climate change and global warming have been perceived more dangerous and globally widespread and it has become the gravest existential threat to humanity. While he urged governments and industries to take an immediate and decisive actions to tackle this global issue, he stressed that protecting our future on this planet depends on “the conscious evolution of our species”.

Climate change is a problem requiring new and transformative solutions. In order to achieve the goal of sustainability, the role of public-policy makers, governments and international institutions as well as of the private sector and the academia is essential. Taking a cue from the United Nations, the first “International Conference on Global Environment, Carbon Reduction, and Eco-Drive as a solution towards sustainability” was held on October 17, 2014 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. It was co-hosted by the World Association of Former United Nations Internes and Fellows (WAFUNIN), the ASUA Corporation of Japan and the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations.

USA and Canada2014-09-222023-07-12

U. S. Military Three Years After ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

By Chas Henry* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – On a recent summer morning in Northern Virginia, about 100 very fit 20-somethings in camouflaged uniforms marched onto a large asphalt parade field in Quantico, Virginia – elated after ten weeks of tough physical and mental screening to have been selected as officers in the U. S. Marine Corps.

Among their ranks: Joseph Rocha, who many would have imagined the last person who would want to be part of that formation.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT2014-07-282023-07-10

Social Protection For The Poor Too

By Martin Khor* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

GENEVA (IDN) – “Social security” and “social protection” feature increasingly in the global policy atmosphere these days. The two terms encapsulate the idea that people should be able to have a basic income and access to health care and education, and that includes those who are poor or jobless.

Climate Change2014-07-282023-07-10

Strengthening Community Forest Rights Mitigates Climate Change

By Caleb Stevens, Robert Winterbottom, Sarah Parsons and Carni Klirs*

WASHINGTON DC (IDN | WRI) – Deforestation and other land changes produce about 11 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions globally. A new report reveals an undervalued and often-overlooked strategy for curbing these emissions – strengthening the rights of forest communities.

Governments around the world legally recognize at least 513 million hectares of community forests, land held collectively by either rural populations or Indigenous Peoples. This area stores about 37 billion tonnes of carbon – 29 times the annual carbon footprint of all the passenger vehicles in the world. Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change, a new report from WRI and the Rights and Resources Initiative, shows that by protecting and expanding the amount of officially recognized community forests, national governments can meet their climate goals while also improving citizens’ livelihoods.

Health2014-07-242023-07-10

WHO Warns Of A Post-Antibiotic Era

By Martin Khor* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

GENEVA (IDN) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) has sounded a loud alarm bell that many types of disease-causing bacteria can no longer be treated with the usual antibiotics and the benefits of modern medicine are increasingly being eroded.

Latin America & the Caribbean2014-04-292023-07-12

UN Consolidating Rule of Law in Haiti

By J. C. Suresh | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

NEW YORK (IDN) – “The objective of every peacekeeping mission is for the national authorities to take over the responsibilities to which the mission makes its contributions,” says Sandra Honoré of Trinidad and Tobago, who is Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti and Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission there, known as MINUSTAH, a position she assumed in July 2013.

“The outcome I would like to see in Haiti is one in which the four areas of focus of the Mission in this phase of consolidation is fully taken over by the Government of Haiti, so the Mission can leave with satisfaction that the Government has fully taken up its responsibilities and that security in country is be assured by the National Police with, as I’ve said, at least a minimum of 15,000 agents, putting it into a good situation to keep developing,” Honoré adds.

Climate Change2014-04-272023-07-10

Climate Change Action Has A Future

By e360 digest | Interview with IPCC Chairman

NEW HAVEN (IDN) – This month, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report on steps the world can take to avoid the worst impacts of future climate change. The report by the panel’s Working Group III was the final interim report before the IPCC’s major Fifth Assessment Report due to be released in October. Yale Environment 360 asked Rajendra K. Pachauri, who has served as IPCC chairman since 2002, five questions about the latest report and about the prospects that the international community will finally take decisive action to address climate change.

1. The most recent IPCC report suggests that the political will to tackle the climate issue seems to be growing around the world. Can you give some specific examples of that?

There is nothing that I am aware of in the Working Group III report that speaks to the political will to tackle climate change. But I can say that in my personal view I have been encouraged by a growing level of awareness and concern about climate change among senior government officials, including presidents and cabinet ministers, across the globe.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT2014-04-192023-07-10

Aid To Sub-Sahara Expected To Decline

By Jaya Ramachandran | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

PARIS (IDN) – While the trend of rise in international development assistance, which increased by 6.1 percent in real terms in 2013, is expected to continue in 2014 and stabilize thereafter, the declining share of aid for sub-Saharan countries, which need it most, looks likely to continue, according to an annual survey of donor spending plans by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

Development aid reached the highest level ever recorded in real terms in 2013 despite continued pressure on budgets in OECD countries since the global economic crisis, says the DAC report. Donors provided a total of USD 134.8 billion in net official development assistance (ODA), marking a rebound after two years of falling volumes, as a number of governments stepped up their spending on foreign aid.