By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — At the Stockholm+50 international conference in Sweden in early June, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed deep disappointment over the failure of rich nations to provide financing to mitigate the devastating consequences of climate change, including droughts, floods, heat waves, pollution and biodiversity loss worldwide. The shortfall in funding […]
Environmental Lawyer Bags Award for Niger Delta Legal Win
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A Nigerian lawyer who took up the cause for delta communities harmed by a subsidiary of the oil conglomerate Royal Dutch Shell will be recognized this year with a “Nobel Prize for grassroots advocacy to protect the environment,” formally known as the Goldman Environmental Prize […]
New Report Focuses on Security Risks of Environment Crisis
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The world’s growing environmental crisis—including climate change, which has resulted in widespread droughts, floods and heatwaves threatening major food crops—is escalating security risks worldwide. A new policy report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), titled Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk,‘ points […]
A Coastal South African Province Experiences Threat Posed by Climate Change
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | DURBAN (IDN) — Record-breaking levels of rainfall threaten a new round of flooding and landslides in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal. Already, the calamity has taken over 400 lives, left some 40,000 homeless, with an economic cost yet to be tallied. Weather forecasters and climate scientists, speaking to […]
UN Warns It’s ‘Now or Never’ To Limit Global Warming
By Radwan Jakeem with UN News NEW YORK (IDN) — Backed by scientists, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that it’s ‘now or never’ to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. He was reacting to the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The Urgent Need for Climate Action
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery* COPENHAGEN (IDN) — One reason why the Glasgow Climate Conference (October-November 2021) failed so miserably to produce urgently needed climate action was that humans tend to react to what is close to them. Money to pay the rent is urgent, while a climate catastrophe seems to be a distant threat.
MiniMines Mixes Lithium Extraction with Circular Economy and UN SDGs
By Anupam Kumar B.Tech*** NEW DELHI (IDN) — In 2018, the notion of circular economy and its inherent link to the UN SDGs gained currency globally especially after the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. UNCTAD defines a circular economy entailing markets that give incentives to recycling and reusing products, rather than scrapping […]
Striving for a Global Treaty to Combat Plastic Pollution, ‘One of the Greatest Human-Made Threats our Planet Faces’
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — In the 1967 Hollywood box office hit “The Graduate”—a romantic comedy directed by Mike Nichols and based on a novel by Charles Webb—the newly-graduated Dustin Hoffman gets an unsolicited piece of advice: “The future is plastics”. The widely disseminated one-liner was hailed as a boost for the world’s […]
UN Scientists Warn of Climate Change Threatening People and the Planet
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN (IDN) — People and the planet are threatened by the impact of climate change, according to UN scientists. Ecosystem collapse, species extinction, deadly heatwaves and floods are among the “unavoidable multiple climate hazards” the world will face over the next two decades due to global warming, they warn.
Billion Dollar Gas Project Threatens Mozambique
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — An investment of $1.15 billion in a gas project in northern Mozambique is being challenged by Friends of the Earth which foresees a major increase in greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10 per cent by 2022. That’s the equivalent of the combined annual emissions […]