GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Photo: A press conference was held at the conclusion of the 6th Meeting of ACP Ministers in charge of Fisheries and Aquaculture on 13 September to highlight the ACP Secretariat contribution to its members. Source: Samoa Observer | Vaitogi Asuisui Matafeo.

ACP Mobilises USD12 Billion in Resources for Members

By PACNEWS | Samoa Observer

APIA (ACP-IDN) – The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States has mobilised more than 4 billion Euros ($12 billion tala, the currency of Samoa) for projects in ACP countries, including Samoa over the past six years, according to its Assistant Secretary-General, Viwanou Gnassounou.

“We have projects in every area including private sector developments, climate change, trade, natural disasters monitoring, prevention,” Gnassounou said in an interview with the Samoa Observer.

: Admin; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 16 September 2019

Photo: CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo addressing UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on 9 September 2019 to commemorate and promote the International Day against Nuclear Tests (29 August). Credit: CTBTO

Special UN Meeting Calls for Entry into Force of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ten years ago, on December 2, 2009, the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared August 29 the International Day against Nuclear Tests by unanimously adopting resolution 64/35. The resolution was initiated by the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with a large number of sponsors and cosponsors with a view to commemorating the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test site on August 29, 1991.

: J Nastranis; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 13 September 2019

Photo: ACP Secretary-General Dr Patrick I. Gomes at the first-ever United Nations Trade Forum, organized by UNCTAD in Geneva, Switzerland, from 9 to 13 September 2019. Credit: Timothy Sullivan (UNCTAD)

ACP Reiterates Call for Urgent Ambitious Climate Action

Viewpoint by Dr. Patrick I. Gomes

The writer is the Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). Following are extensive excerpts from his presentation at the United Nations Trade Forum from 9-13 September 2019 in the Session ‘Climate Action and Trade’ in Geneva.

GENEVA (IDN) – The ACP Group of States shares with the great majority of well-informed persons, globally, that climate change is the most significant challenge, this century, for the achievement of sustainable development on planet Earth.

: Dr. Patrick Gomes - ACP Seretary-General; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 13 September 2019

Photo: Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister, Allen Chastanet Speaking at the first-ever United Nations Trade Forum, organized by UNCTAD in Geneva, Switzerland, from 9 to 13 September 2019. Credit: Timothy Sullivan (UNCTAD)

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, visible vulnerability of critical infrastructure such as ports and airports, growing unpredictability, and the fact that there is nowhere to go, is a daily threat for the 65 million people living in 57 small island developing states (SIDS) scattered throughout the world’s oceans.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 12 September 2019

Photo: Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya.

Kenya President Keen to Boost the Caribbean Presence at ACP December Summit

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – ACP Secretary General, Dr. Patrick I. Gomes has welcomed the recent visit of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta to the Caribbean and said that it could help boost the region’s participation at the December 9-10 ACP Summit to be held in Nairobi.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), he said that the response to President Kenyatta’s visit to the Caribbean in August 2019, and his talks with Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley and St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has been “encouraging”.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 10 September 2019

Financing Gap of Trillions of Dollars to Achieve 17 SDGs

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – Although significant progress has been made since the adoption of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda in 2015, recent data confirm that the world is not on track to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This includes the slow pace at which the financing gap for the SDGs – amounting to trillions of dollars – is being filled.

This in turn is adversely affecting financing, which is the thread that connects many of the priorities from advances on climate action to universal health coverage to the SDGs and small island developing States.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 09 September 2019

Organic Agriculture Key to Combat Land Degradation

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI (IDN) – In 2018, the first 100% organic state in the world, Sikkim in the North of India, received the Gold Award of the UN backed Future Policy Award, also known as ‘Oscar’ for best policies. The policy enhances soil fertility and increases biodiversity at field and landscape level. Further states in India and the Himalayas have adopted 100% organic farming goals or aim to adopt them.

: Devinder Kumar; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 07 September 2019

Image credit: sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgsummit

Everything Has to Change for Our Planet to Stay the Same

By António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

NEW YORK (IDN) – Our planet is changing dramatically. Forests are burning, sea ice is shrinking, and the Greenland icecap is pouring unprecedented amounts of water into the ocean. Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are higher than they have been in human history, climate disruption is the new reality, and scientists are warning that the planet is simply not capable of coping with the growing pressure being placed on it by humanity.

Since I became Secretary-General, I have witnessed what it means to live in a world that is, on average, one degree Celsius hotter than it was before the industrial revolution. I have come to know the dramatic force of natural disasters supercharged by climate change.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 06 September 2019

Photo: Dr. Maro (at right) with colleagues at the Regional Dialogue. Credit: ACP Press.

ACP discusses NDC Progress and Successes During Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week

BRUSSELS (ACP Press) – Dr Pendo Maro, team leader of the Intra-ACP GCCA+ Programme – an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group funded by the European Development Fund (EDF) – recently chaired a panel discussion on the progress and successes of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the Caribbean region during the Regional Dialogue on NDCs for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Regional Dialogue was held on 19 to 20 August during the Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week 2019 (LACCW), from 19 to 23 August in Salvador de Bahía, Brazil.

: Admin; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 05 September 2019

Photo: Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear test in eastern Kazakhstan near the secret town of Semipalatinsk on August 29, 1949. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | INPS-IDN August 2019

It Is Time to Close and Lock the Door on Nuclear Testing

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The writer is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. The following is the text of his article published in Arms Control Today.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN | Arms Control Association) – Everybody knows that nuclear weapons have been used twice in wartime and with terrible consequences. Often overlooked, however, is the large-scale, postwar use of nuclear weapons: At least eight countries have conducted 2,056 nuclear test explosions, most of which were far larger than the bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States alone has detonated more than 1,030 nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, underwater, and underground.