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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A coalition of over 700 religious and civil society organizations (CSOs) is making a collective appeal to end the crisis in the Korean peninsula and avoid "military action provoking war".
In a recently released statement, the coalition says: "We are here today in a great sense of crisis. The word 'war' feels closer than ever. Tensions are rising like never before as the military exercises of South Korea, the US, and North Korea continue for days."
But Is Philanthropy the Way to Go?
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — A coalition of climate philanthropies, governments, technical support providers and others, responding to an urgent call by African leaders for environmental funding, has pledged close to $2 billion to help protect carbon reserves and biodiversity.
Viewpoint by Jackie Cabasso
The writer is the Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, based in Oakland, California.
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, USA (IDN) — If our attention wasn’t riveted on the midterm election results and Russia’s continuing nuclear threats in Ukraine, we would be rightly alarmed about rising nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula. It’s a very dangerous situation and one that presents extraordinary challenges.
By Bernhard Schell
SHARM EL-SHEIKH (IDN) — The Egyptian Presidency of the UN Climate Conference COP27 has launched a new initiative Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation or FAST, to improve the quantity and quality of climate finance contributions to transform agriculture and food systems by 2030.
The cooperation programme will have concrete deliverables for helping countries access climate finance and investment, increase knowledge, and provide policy support and dialogue.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The United States, which has failed in its attempts to move a divided UN Security Council to adopt a resolution restricting arms sales to the military regime in Myanmar, has been left with only one alternative: continue to hit Myanmar with unilateral military sanctions.
With two veto-wielding permanent members—China and Russia—implicitly and explicitly backing Myanmar, the Security Council has remained paralyzed.
Viewpoint by Tomohiko Aishima
The writer is the Executive Director of Peace and Global Issues, Soka Gakkai International
TOKYO (IDN) — While the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference held this past summer failed to adopt a final document, the fact that the conference saw a repeated debate on reducing the risk of nuclear weapon use was a small but real, source of hope. Policies of No First Use (NFU) of nuclear weapons were referenced in early drafts of the final document for the first time in the conference’s history.
By Rita Joshi
BONN | SHARM EL-SHEIKH (IDN) — Leaders from over 25 countries and 20 organizations have launched the International Drought Resilience Alliance to accelerate action and help countries to be better prepared for future droughts.
Drought represents the most serious hazard to livestock and crops in nearly every part of the world, and ranks among the greatest threats to sustainable development, especially in developing countries, but increasingly so in developed nations too.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE (IDN) — At COP 27 in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, the Global South led by Asia and the South Pacific (as well as Africa) are demanding that nature rights and climatic justice be recognized as a human right and COP (Conference of Parties) process go beyond pledges for climatic change mitigation.
And this by agreeing to look into a binding agreement for financial reparations from the rich for the damage done by climatic change, as evidenced in 2021 by floods, cyclones and heat waves hitting the most economically vulnerable countries.
By Busani Bafana
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (IDN) — After much horse-trading, loss and damage is on the agenda at the COP27 raising expectations of an agreement for funding to promote resilience and address longer-term impacts of climate change.
For the first time since the adoption of the UN climate convention, the contentious issue of loss and damage made it onto the agenda after tumultuous 48 hours of informal consultations led by the Egyptian COP Presidency.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN) — A new report titled "Impacts of the current drought on wildlife in Kenya" by Wildlife Research and Training Institute gives a devastating picture of the high mortality of wildlife across the East African nation whose animal kingdom has been the backbone of tourism for years.
Images from the region show feeble cows with ribcages protruding from their sides. According to the Kenya News Agency, herders are calling on the county and national government to buy meat from them as they lose their livestock to an unprecedented drought.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.