SUSTAINABILITY Archives - Page 159 of 170

Health & Well Being2017-05-142023-07-10

Arming Health Professionals for Global Diplomacy

By Desmond Brown

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (ACP-IDN) – In recent weeks, African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have been fine-tuning their strategy for the May 22-31 annual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Charged with establishing WHO policies, appointing its director-general, supervising financial policies, and reviewing and approving proposed programme budgets, the WHA is considered highly important by ACP countries because of the increasingly significant role played by health issues on the international agenda.

Affordable Clean Energy2017-04-142023-07-10

Hydrogen, Iceland and the Future of Transport

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – “Renewable hydrogen is set to outperform gasoline on a cost basis, due to substantial cost reductions for hydrogen and renewable technologies,” according to Jakob Kropsgaard of Norwegian firm NEL Hydrogen, which delivers solutions for producing, storing and distributing hydrogen from renewable energy

Speaking at a seminar here on alternative fuels for the future at the end of March, Kropsgaard said that “it is possible to produce hydrogen at a cost of 3-5 euros per kg”. When used for fuel, hydrogen is measured in kilos rather than litres.

Nevertheless, according to Valgeir Baldursson, CEO of Skeljungur oil company, “consumption of hydrogen fuel at the moment is not sufficient to produce a low price. The current cost in Europe is about 10 euros per kg.”

Climate Action2017-04-132023-07-10

Rich Nations Urged to Honour Paris Commitments at COP23

By Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN (IDN) – Brazil, South Africa, India and China have urged rich nations to honour their commitments made in Paris in 2015 and provide money, help in capacity building and transfer technology to developing countries to fight against climate change.

The four countries comprising BASIC made the plea in a joint statement emerging from their 24th Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change on April 10-11, 2017 in Beijing, China. The statement urged industrialized countries to honour their commitments and increase climate finance towards the 100 billion dollars per annum goal, to be scaled-up significantly after 2025.

Global Partnerships2017-04-112023-07-10

ACP Countries Resolve to Negotiate as a Unified Entity with EU

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – Seventy-nine countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) are determined to speak with one voice as they prepare to negotiate a major partnership framework with the 27-nation European Union (EU).

The new accord will follow on the current ACP-EU Partnership Agreement (also known as the Cotonou Agreement), which covers trade, development cooperation and political dialogue between the two parties until 2020.

Leading up to the launch of negotiations for the post-Cotonou period in 2018, there is a clear common interest in aligning future ACP-EU cooperation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Peace & Security2017-04-082023-07-10

On the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination

Analysis by Pier Francesco Zarcone*

ROME (IDN) – Well-meaning people of various countries have long tried to introduce the rule of law in relations among States, placing their trust for this purpose in the instrument of international law.

This is an imperfect, fragile instrument which is part conventional and part covenantal in nature, and works only by leveraging the fear of effective retaliation by other States.

In the context of today, talk of international law more than ever smacks of a joke, given that under the “new world order” of imperialism the issues of legality and illegality have now been relegated to the level of study and discussion for specialists in law, but without any practical relevance. Today, those who can do what they want.

Climate Action2017-03-252023-07-10

Banks Join UN to Channel Money for Sustainable Development

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Nearly 20 leading global banks and investors, totalling $6.6 trillion in assets, have launched a United Nations-backed global framework aimed at channelling the money they manage towards clean, low carbon and inclusive projects, according to UN News.

The Principles for Positive Impact Finance – a first of its kind set of criteria for investments to be considered sustainable – provide financiers and investors with a global framework applicable across their different business lines, including retail and wholesale lending, corporate and investment lending and asset management.

Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture2017-03-212023-07-10

The Poor are Keen to Make Progress Despite Famine

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Once again the media is presenting us with the images of the mother of all famines – stretching from the Yemen to Somalia, to Sudan and South Sudan, to the Central African Republic, to northern Nigeria.

It’s a bad famine but there have been bad famines in the not so distant past – the great Ethiopian one in 1985, which triggered the rock star, Bob Geldorf, to organise a massive world-wide popular response. (I remember running with tens of thousands of other campaigners in London’s Hyde Park.) Before that, in 1974 at the World Food Conference, there was a real feeling that the world was running out of food and dramatic new policies must be put in place by the richer countries.

Gender Equality2017-03-122023-07-10

Finland Launches Landmark Gender Equality Prize

By Rita Joshi

NEW YORK (IDN) – In run-up to the sixty-first session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, CSW61, in New York from March 13 to 24, the government of Finland has launched the International Gender Equality Prize, which will be awarded for the first time later this year.

The prize, intended to promote gender equality worldwide, to support discussion on equality between women and men and to celebrate Finland’s 100 years of independence, was launchded by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä in Tampere on southern Finland on March 8, the International Women’s Day.

Global Partnerships2017-03-112023-07-10

Going Bananas Over Brexit

By Samantha Sen

LONDON (ACP-IDN) – The Brexit question as seen by the small and poor group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries is far simpler – and potentially far more lethal – than those the more usual Brexit debate engages with. It belongs less to debate on knock-on effects rolling into the future than to questions of physical survival here and now. When a fifth of Fiji exports head for the UK, when a Caribbean island lives off bananas sold to Britain, new spokes in buying and selling can hit the people, and even all of the people, of a small nation.

Gender Equality2017-03-062023-07-10

The Shameful Epidemic That Is Rape

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Do legal systems around the world give women and girls true protection from rape and other forms of sexual violence? Do the victims of rape and sexual violence have access to real justice if violence is perpetrated?

The answer is ‘no’, says a report issued March 6 by Equality Now, an international human rights organisation working to protect and promote the rights of women and girls.

Are governments ensuring that adequate laws dealing with sexual violence are enacted, developed and enforced? Are governments living up their commitments to end all forms of violence – including sexual violence – against women and girls?