Climate Action

COP26 Will Be the Litmus Test of The Paris Agreement

COP25 Ignored Demands for Climate Justice

Viewpoint by Mary Church*

EDINBURGH (IDN) – The outcomes of the longest ever meeting in the history of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – the COP25 negotiations in Madrid – have failed to reflect the urgency of the crisis or any grasp of the real solutions to the climate emergency.

Rather, governments around the world continued to ignore both the undeniable science and the rising tide of peoples’ movements demanding radical action on climate.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 11 February 2020

Photo: Australian bushfires: Source: East Asia Forum.

Australia’s Exceptional Vulnerability to Climate Change

Viewpoint by Andrew Walter*

MELBOURNE (IDN) -- The bushfires now ravaging Australia’s flora, fauna and rural communities on an unprecedented scale underline the country’s exceptional vulnerability to global heating and its strong interest in global climate change mitigation and adaptation. Decarbonisation should be taken as an economic opportunity and it could elevate Australia’s leading role in Asia for years to come.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 February 2020

Photo: People's Climate March 2017 in Washington DC. CC BY-SA 4.0

Climate Change Means Lifestyle Change

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery *

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – I would like to announce the publication of a book, which deals with the world's failure to adequately address the existential danger of catastrophic climate change. The book consists mainly of book chapters and articles that I have previously published, although a considerable amount of new material has been added. It can be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Climate-Change-Means-Lifestyle-Change-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 February 2020

Photo: The session on climate emergency at Jaipur Literature Festival. (L to R Ms. Renata Dessallien, resident coordinator of UN in India; Ms. Namita Waikar, managing editor of online journal PARI; Ms. Shubhangi Swarup, writer and filmmaker; Ms. Dia Mirza, Actress and UN Advocate for Sustainable Development. Credit: UN India/Yangerla Jamir.

UN Avails of Famed Literature Festival to Achieve Global Goals

By Devinder Kumar

JAPIPUR (IDN) – As part of a Decade of Action for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges — ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and closing the finance gap – the United Nations availed of a new tool end of January: the world’s largest literature festival in India’s eminent ‘pink city’ of Jaipur, the capital of the scenic, almost magical Indian state of Rajasthan. It is known as the Pink City due to the colour of the stone used for many of its glorious palaces and historic monuments.

: Devinder Kumar; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 04 February 2020

Photo: A view of participants in the UN Youth Climate Summit on 21 September 2019. Credit: UN.

Climate and Nuclear Weapons Are the Focus of Buddhist Leader's Peace Proposals

By Taro Ichikawa

TOKYO (IDN) – Climate action and nuclear weapons abolition, with a focus on the individual lives and suffering often hidden behind macroeconomic indices, is the main theme of the 38th annual peace proposal by Daisaku Ikeda, president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist network.

Titled 'Toward Our Shared Future: Constructing an Era of Human Solidarity', the proposals were released on January 26 marking the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Soka Gakkai and the 45th anniversary of the founding of SGI.

: Taro Ichikawa; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 27 January 2020

Image: With a U.S. administration under Trump, European unity and leadership is the only hope for driving China's climate ambitions at COP26 in Glasgow. As the UN Environment Programme’s latest report on the ‘emissions gap’ shows the targeted emission reductions need to be three times more than agreed in Paris in 2015. Source: UN Environment Programme.

Sino-EU Duo Is Crucial to Driving the Global Climate Ambition

Viewpoint by Adam Tooze*

NEW YORK (IDN) – There are turning points in history. Moments that matter, that mark beginnings and ends. As Martin Luther King reminded us: "There is such a thing as being too late". It is that which can give politics its fierce urgency. As far as global climate politics is concerned, 2020 may be such a moment — and it is vital that Europe should not be late.

The latest round of United Nations-sponsored global climate talks, COP26, to be hosted in Glasgow from November 9 to 19, was always going to be important. This is the moment, when the Paris agreement of 2015 is scheduled for another round of updated national commitments that reflect the ever-more alarming reality of the climate emergency.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 24 January 2020

Photo: The number of people living in extreme poverty has risen in several sub-Saharan African countries and in parts of Latin America and Western Asia. Credit: UN/Logan Abass

Broad-based Deterioration of World Economy Threatening Sustainable Development

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | BANGKOK (IDN) – Prolonged trade disputes and wide-ranging policy uncertainties have catapulted the world economy into a significant and broad-based deterioration in 2019. This threatens to hamper efforts to reduce poverty, create decent jobs, broaden access to affordable and clean energy, and achieve many other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to the United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2020 report, gross product growth slipped to 2.3 per cent in 2019—the lowest rate since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.

: Devinder Kumar; UN INSIDER; 22 January 2020

Image: People with Sinhalese ancestry as a percentage of the population in Sydney, divided geographically by postal area, as of the 2011 census. CC BY-SA 3.0 au

Australia Burns Furiously but Still Remains an Attractive Destination to Sri Lankans

By Dr Palitha Kohona

The writer is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary.

COLOMBO (IDN) – Summer temperatures continue to establish new records. The capital clocks up an unprecedented 44 degrees Celsius, a more familiar figure in Middle Eastern cities. Bush fires have continued to burn for months, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of forest and farmland (an area bigger than Scotland has been consumed by the fires so far) and thousands of houses.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 January 2020

The Multinational Nestlé a New Colonial Power

Viewpoint by Franklin Frederick*

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil (IDN) – On November 14 the Canadian group Wellington Water Watchers organized the «All Eyes on Nestlé» conference in the city of Guelph, Ontario, bringing together indigenous’ peoples and citizens’ movements fighting Nestlé’s water takings from Canada, the U.S., France and Brazil. Following this public event, the representatives of the organizations involved met for a workshop to exchange information and discuss possible common strategies of resistance to this giant corporation water grabbing.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 12 January 2020

Photo: G20 leaders pose for a group photo at the start of the G20 Osaka Summit, 28 June 2019. Source: Japan’s Public Relations Office.

The G20 Should Have Nuclear Disarmament on Their Agenda

Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf*

DUISBURG, Germany (IDN) – Right now, two critical developments are literally threatening the very existence of humankind: the climate crisis and the possibility of nuclear war. There is a broad consensus when it comes to the severity of climate change, even if there is still absolutely no sign of a solution despite the affirmations by many governments. But at least the climate debate is a lively one, accompanied by countless demonstrations against policies that are damaging to the environment.