By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK IDN) – Eminent leaders from business, politics, media, the film and music industries gathered in New York on September 22 to spotlight the 8000 km Great Green Wall – natural wonder of the world across the entire width of the African continent – as a practical, low-cost nature-based solution responding […]
Up to 5 Billion People Could Miss Out on Health Care in 2030
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – Time is running out for countries to achieve the global goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). A new report warns that if current trends continue, up to 5 billion people will still be unable to access health care in 2030 – the deadline world leaders have set […]
New Report Highlights Growing Gap Between Global Targets and Climate Reality
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – A landmark new report has underlined the glaring – and growing – gap between agreed targets to tackle global warming and the actual reality. The report, United in Science, includes details on the state of the climate and presents trends in the emissions and atmospheric concentrations of […]
Leaders Demand Urgent Climate Action in Dorian’s Wake
By Josephine Latu-Sanft The writer is Senior Communications Officer, Communications Division, Commonwealth Secretariat. LONDON (IDN) – In the lead up to September 23 global climate summit in New York and barely two weeks after Hurricane Dorian battered The Bahamas, the Commonwealth’s top official is calling for urgent action to tackle climate change and its disastrous […]
Securing a World of Climate Resilience, Prosperity and Peace
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN (IDN) – In the run-up to the Climate Action Summit at the UN in New York on September 23, the World Future Council (WFC) has called for immediate measures to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 to avoid climate catastrophe and to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, […]
Outer Space, the Common Heritage of Mankind, In Peril
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK (IDN) – The world’s arms race—which is being played out with sophisticated weapons largely in the battle fields of Asia and the Middle East – is steadily advancing into a new frontier: outer space. And he who dominates outer space, argue military analysts projecting into the future, may perhaps dominate […]
Need to Boost Climate Finance for Developing Countries
By Robert Johnson PARIS (IDN) – A new report will call for attention when climate finance provided and mobilized by developed countries for climate action in developing countries is discussed at the Climate Action Summit at the UN in New York on September 23 and in the run-up to the COP25 climate talks in Santiago […]
Extinction ‘Imminent’ for Small Islands
By Sean Buchanan NEW YORK | GENEVA (IDN) – Islands are often emblazoned across tourism pamphlets, glorified as the epitome of natural beauty and portrayed as idyllic places of escape. But this image is far from the dark reality they face. Changes in sea level, temperature, precipitation, a growing number of extreme storms and floods, […]
Sri Lanka Praised for Advancing the Cluster Munitions Convention’s Objectives
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) – Sri Lanka has won kudos for a number of progressive measures taken during its presidency of the Ninth Meeting of States Parties (MSP) to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) that addresses the humanitarian consequences and unacceptable harm caused to civilians by cluster munitions, through a categorical prohibition and […]
UN Convenes A High-Level Forum to Stress the Significance of Culture of Peace
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – “The seed of peace exists in all of us. It must be nurtured, cared for and promoted by us all to flourish. Peace cannot be imposed from outside – it must be realized from within,” says Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury in the run-up to the High-Level […]