By Justus Wanzala NAIROBI (IDN) – African and Asian countries face a huge challenge in protecting their wildlife from the illegal killing and trafficking that has already endangered some species. Over the years, national and regional efforts to combat the threat have met with mixed success and wildlife and their products continue to be sold […]
UN Fears Middle East Engulfing into the ‘Vortex of Religious Radicalism’
By Santo D. Banerjee UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has been widely welcomed in Israel but it has also caused much anger among Palestinians and anxiety across the Middle East and beyond – at the United Nations too. On December 6, Trump announced that […]
Kazakhstan Committed to Sustainable Development and Mutual Prosperity in Central Asia
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run-up to Kazakhstan assuming the UN Security Council’s rotating presidency for January 2018, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov has accentuated that the Central Asian country stands for the creation of a model of a regional zone of peace, security and cooperation in Central Asia and Afghanistan. […]
134-Nation Group Garners Support for SDG 9 at UNIDO Meeting
By Ramesh Jaura VIENNA (IDN) – “We are in a time when multilateralism is being challenged. Your participation in this General Conference reaffirms the relevance of UNIDO’s work to your governments and the people on the ground,” said Miroslav Lajčák, Slovakia’s Foreign Minister and President of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly until […]
UNGA Adopts Six Resolutions on Palestine, Middle East
By J Nastranis UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Seventy years since the United Nations adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine as Resolution 181 (1947) on November 29, 1947 a hectic debate in the General Assembly has reaffirmed that peace in the Middle East is nowhere on the horizon. In fact, several delegates voiced concern that the […]
UNIDO Chief Has A ‘Dream’, Urgently Needs Funds
By Ramesh Jaura VIENNA (IDN) – Li Yong has a ‘dream’, the dream to give young people, living in similarly poor conditions as he experienced in China in his childhood, an opportunity to play a part in “the global fight against poverty”. Li was re-appointed head of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on […]
Security Council Delegation Visits Kabul Before Kazakhstan Assumes Presidency for January
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018. Ambassador Kairat Umarov, the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations, chairs the Council’s Committees 1988 on the Taliban movement and 1267 on ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida. Nearly two months ahead of Kazakhstan assuming the […]
New UNESCO Director-General Aims to Bridge Divides
By A.D. McKenzie PARIS (IDN) – “May the force be with you” was one of the comments by an ambassador at the investiture ceremony of UNESCO’s new director-general, Audrey Azoulay of France, on November 13. The “Star Wars” quotation was meant to evoke the many challenges that lie ahead for Azoulay as she takes over […]
France Puts Focus on Funding with ‘One Planet Summit’
By A.D. McKenzie
PARIS (IDN) – A day after the latest UN Climate Change Conference (COP 23) began in Bonn, Germany, the French government upped the momentum by announcing concrete plans for its own “One Planet Summit” to be held December 12.
This summit will have more than 100 countries represented and will focus on financing to combat climate change, according to the organisers.
French officials said that “for the moment” U.S. President Donald Trump had not been invited, but that “numerous American players” who are mobilising for climate action will be present. In June, Trump announced plans to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, to international criticism.
Cataclysm Looms Large As UN Climate Talks Convene
By Franz Baumann | Reproduced courtesy of PassBlue
The author is a visiting professor at New York University and a former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations (and special adviser on environment and peace operations). This article originally appeared with the headline: As UN Climate Talks Convene, the Earth Veers Toward Catastrophe. – The Editor
NEW YORK (IDN | Passblue) – Two years ago, the governments of the world unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a remarkable blueprint of the world’s most pressing long-term predicaments that the United Nations is good at lifting into the global conscience. Cataloguing 17 goals and 169 targets, the agenda contains an inventory of the remedial activities that are expected of all countries, and that includes climate change.