PLANET EARTH – Page 8 – IDN-InDepthNews

Climate Change2013-07-112023-07-10

Green Climate Fund Moves Ahead

By Meena Raman* | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

GENEVA (IDN) – The fourth meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board, which began on June 26 in Songdo, South Korea, concluded on June 28 with the selection of its Executive Director as well as the adoption of decisions on the ‘business model framework’, which includes the private sector facility.

A decision was taken to set up three new structures under the private sector facility, to determine the terms of engagement with the private sector, exert due diligence and manage risks, as well as to review investment proposals and instruments.

The GCF Board selected Hela Cheikhrouhou as the Fund Secretariat’s first Executive Director (ED), following a global recruitment process.

PLANET EARTH2013-06-282023-07-10

‘It’s the Earth Democracy We Need To Create’

As India reels under the havoc caused by devastating floods in the country’s northern Himalayan region, the call by eminent environmental activist Vandana Shiva [1] for a new economic model that respects the planet and all species of life in a keynote address at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn on June 19, assumes an added significance. IDN is reproducing extracts of the speech transcribed by its partner Pressenza international press agency.

By Vandana Shiva* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

My home is in my heart and in my mind because I come from the Himalaya. 40 years ago ordinary peasant women came out and told the world something the world had forgotten; that somehow forests were connected to water because the market value of timber – and it was a German forester, who set up the system for the British in India on how to exploit forests – forests were just that much square foot of timber.

Climate Change2013-06-152023-07-10

Up To 5.3°C Rise in Global Temperatures Likely

By Richard Johnson | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

LONDON (IDN) – The world is not on track to limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, says the World Energy Outlook Special Report, Redrawing the Energy-Climate Map, urging governments to swiftly enact four energy policies that would keep climate goals alive without harming economic growth.

“Climate change has quite frankly slipped to the back burner of policy priorities. But the problem is not going away – quite the opposite,” said the International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven launching the report in London on June 10.

Climate Change2013-05-202023-07-10

Global Climate Change Fears Are Genuine

By Stephen Leahy* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

UXBRIDGE (IDN) – Around the world scientists are not sleeping well. They toss and turn knowing humanity is destroying the Earth’s ability to support mankind. The science is crystal clear and all of us ‘ought to be shaking in our boots’, Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme told me last year.

But hardly any of us are shaking in our boots. Why is that?

The most extensive survey about the scientific consensus that humanity is causing global warming was published on May 16, 2013 in Environmental Research Letters (ERL). Researchers looked at 12,000 scientific articles published between 1991 and 2011 on the subject and found that 97.1% of these agreed global warming is primarily caused by human activities.

PLANET EARTH2013-05-172023-07-10

Uncertainty About Canada’s Arctic Vision

By R. Nastranis | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN (IDN) – While scientists and environmentalists watch the Arctic as a bellwether of global climate change, and nations and corporations seek to exploit its oil, gas and mineral reserves as well as new shipping routes, rapid and even abrupt changes occurring on multiple fronts across the polar region are threatening to cause irreversible impact on ecosystems and societies, according to experts.

PLANET EARTH2013-05-102023-07-10

Before The Next Drought Wreaks Havoc

By Jutta Wolf | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN (IDN) – The growing intensity, frequency and duration of droughts worldwide is a source of acute anxiety to secretariat of UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which was agreed in the aftermath of the severe drought in the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s and continues to be key to global efforts to combat desertification.

Together with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UNCCD therefore organised a High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy in Geneva, Switzerland, to impress on stakeholders that they urgently need to take action.

Environment2013-04-272023-07-10

Globalisation Polluting Environment

By Jaya Ramachandran | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

PARIS (IDN) – Globalisation has had some crucial negative impacts on the environment. But given vital, political regulations and incentives, it can be part of a solution that addresses the breadth and urgency of the challenges ahead, says a new study commissioned by the Public Affairs and Communications Directorate of Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Presently, disagreements between developed and developing countries on responsibilities and cost sharing are major stumbling blocks in discussions about an international agreement on climate change.

PLANET EARTH2013-04-102023-07-10

Land Degradation Involves Huge Costs

By Jaya Ramachandran | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

BERLIN (IDN) – Some 600 scientists, government officials and representatives of civil society organizations are gathered in Bonn to carry out the first ever comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of desertification, land degradation and drought. During the meetings, concluding April 19, governments will for the first time also provide concrete data on the status of poverty and of land cover in the areas affected by desertification in their countries.

PLANET EARTH2013-03-212023-07-10

Land and Forest Should Ride A Tandem

By Luc Gnacadja* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

There is widespread agreement that sustainable forest management on a global scale is not achievable without halting land degradation. But this view is not shared by the rationale and focus of the tools and mechanisms designed during the past decade to promote and incentivize sustainable forest management.

As if to prove the point, the global coalition of the willing has been putting its money and effort into saying “Yes we can achieve sustainable forest management on a global scale without halting land degradation.”

“What if we change this state of affairs?” asks UNCCD Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja. “Can the economy and the business community benefit from such a change?” he adds and elaborates “on the nexus of land degradation and sustainable forest management” and highlights the specific case of drylands.

PLANET EARTH2013-03-212023-07-10

Fossil-Fuel Subsidies Help Asia Roar

By Will Hickey* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

DAEJEON (IDN) – One reason behind greater pollution leading to global warming has been artificially lowered gas prices brought by subsidies. Governments have carried on this shortsighted policy to foster growth and satisfy consumers. But as world fuel prices begin rising again, the costs of subsidy – both budgetary and environmental – will come to the fore. While the much-talked-about carbon tax remains unpopular with consumers, curbing producer subsidies that encourage fossil fuel consumption could be a more effective way to fight environmental challenges.