UN Insider

COP27 Agreement (Is it Really?) on Compensation Fund

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Welcome to our 15th issue of Sustainable Development Observer, focusing almost exclusively on COP 27—or what is known as the annual UN climatic change conference.

Three decades after small island states introduced the term "loss and damage" to the United Nations, the world has finally agreed to set up a fund to help vulnerable countries cope with climate risks. But who pays, who receives and how much money should be raised are all open questions to be settled in the next year or so (at COP28?). At this year’s talkfest, rich nations insisted that the payments should not be seen as an admission of liability.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 24 November 2022

Image: Visual illustration of the nuclear-weapon-free-zones. Source: United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs

A Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in Middle East Remains a Fantasy

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A longstanding proposal for a nuclear-weapons-free-zone (NWFZ) in the politically and militarily volatile Middle East has been kicked around the corridors—and committee rooms—of the UN since the 1960s.

A joint declaration by Egypt and Iran in 1974 resulted in a General Assembly resolution. But it never reached the stage of political reality.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 23 November 2022

Photo: Training on mycotoxin analysis in food samples at the Veterinary Public Health Laboratory in Malaysia. Credit: M. Modzi/Veterinary Public Health Laboratory, Malaysia.

UN Agencies Help Enhance Food Safety and International Trade in 14 Countries

By Joanne Burge, IAEA Office of Public Information and Communication

VIENNA (IDN | IAEA) — Animal diseases and crop pests can badly affect food supply and economies. Managing these problems can result in farming practices that involve the use of chemicals, which can lead to another problem: unsafe levels of chemical residues and contaminants in foods.

To help countries enhance food safety and adhere to the stringent requirements of import and export controls, the IAEA and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently completed a regional project in Asia and the Pacific with laboratories in 14 countries to help establish or improve their food safety testing capabilities.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 23 November 2022

Photo: The Champions of Earth laureates. Credit: UNEP.

UN’s Top Environmental Award Supports Ecosystem Restoration

By Devendra Kamarajan

NAIROBI (IDN) — A conservationist, an enterprise, an economist, a women’s rights activist, and a wildlife biologist have been honoured by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) with its 2022 Champions of the Earth award for their transformative action to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation.

: Devendra Kamarajan; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 22 November 2022

Climate Deal Disappoints Climate Activists

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (IDN) — Delegates to the UN climate conference (COP27) reached a compromise to create a fund for disadvantaged countries coping with climate disasters worsened by pollution, mainly from wealthy nations.

The meeting of almost 200 countries, ending on November 20 after two weeks of talks, put a finishing touch to one of the most contentious issues dogging the UN group that saw years of discussion but no agreement on how to phase out fossil fuels or meet the urgent needs of African and other regions of the Global South.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 22 November 2022

Photo source: Pesticide Action Network – North America

Agroecology, The Antidote for Climate Change?

By Busani Bafana

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (IDN) — The world needs to dump the false solutions of industrial agriculture for food and nutritional security and adopt agroecology in tackling climate change, says Edward Mukiibi, president of Slow Food, a global organization promoting local food and traditional cooking.

Agroecology rejects chemical fertilizers and tackles climate change while making it possible to move from exploiting resources to regenerating them. Instead of taking away from the planet, it brings back diversity, valuing local varieties, biodiversity, and knowledge.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 22 November 2022

Photo: Gina Cortes of the Women & Gender Constituency leads protest on climate justice and human rights. Credit: Gerimara Manuel, APWLD

Women Highlight Their Under-Representation at UN Climate Conference

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | SHARAM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (IDN) — More than 20 years since the first UN climate conference was held, less than five women have been climate conference presidents out of 110 heads of state and government.

Women are now calling for greater representation at the next conference to be held next year in the United Arab Emirates.

Last year the percentage of women sent from participating countries was around 37 per cent, while over 70 per cent of the total speaking time by delegates was taken up by men, according to the United Nations Foundation.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 22 November 2022

Done Deal on Loss and Damage but More Work on Cutting Emissions

By Busani Bafana

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (IDN) — Developing countries hard hit by climate change are set to get funds to help them deal with climate disasters after delegates to COP27 agreed to establish a long-sought Loss and Damage Fund but made little progress about cutting carbon emissions responsible for them.

Following around-the-clock negotiations that saw COP being extended by a day, negotiators from 200 countries struck an early morning deal on Sunday to establish a historic loss and damage fund.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 21 November 2022

Photo: Seventy-eight-year-old Maloncho Begum received a Disabled Friendly Latrine from GUK and UNICEF under the WASH & Child Protection-Emergency Flood Response Project. Noyon, her daughter, helps her to use the latrine facilities (Bangladesh, 2021). Credit: Bashir Ahmed Sujan.

Realising Safe Cities for Sanitation Workers in India

By Sameer Unhale, Dr Simi Mehta, Dr Arjun Kumar and Kushgara Khatri

NEW DELHI (IDN) — World Toilet Day is held every year on November 19. It has been an annual United Nations observance since 2013, which celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation.

It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Water and Sanitation for All. SDG 6.2 is the world’s promise to ensure safe toilets for all by 2030. This year, the theme is "Let’s make the invisible visible."

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 19 November 2022

Photo: Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Secretary General for Foreign Affairs. (BMEIA). Credit: BMEIA/Grube

An Attack on Journalists is an Attack on Democracy, Emphasises a UN Conference

A Special Report by Aurora Weiss

VIENNA (IDN) — United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (BMEIA) joined in early November to mark the 10th anniversary of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists at a high-level conference entitled "Safety of Journalists: Protecting media to protect democracy".