Climate Action

Photo: Dr. Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun.

Climate Change: A People-Centered Approach

By Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, President, Soka Gakkai International (SGI)

TOKYO (IDN) – “That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it,” observed Aristotle, highlighting an all-too-common human tendency. His warning is still relevant today, especially in our fight against climate change.

The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, is an international framework to strengthen efforts to mitigate global warming. However, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres warns, “climate change is moving faster than our efforts to address it,” and is posing a threat to the very survival of humankind. This year alone has seen strong heat waves sweeping over Europe and India, and record high temperatures in the Arctic region including Alaska and Siberia.

: Daisaku Ikeda; OPINION; 19 September 2019

Photo: The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired these natural-color images of Great Abaco Island and Grand Bahama on September 7, 2019. Note the change in the color of the island landscape from green to brown, as well as the brightening of the reefs and shoals around the island due to sediments stirred up by the storm. Credit: NASA

Leaders Demand Urgent Climate Action in Dorian’s Wake

By Josephine Latu-Sanft

The writer is Senior Communications Officer, Communications Division, Commonwealth Secretariat.

LONDON (IDN) – In the lead up to September 23 global climate summit in New York and barely two weeks after Hurricane Dorian battered The Bahamas, the Commonwealth’s top official is calling for urgent action to tackle climate change and its disastrous impacts.

Speaking at the UN Trade Forum (September 9-13) in Geneva, co-organised by the UNCTAD, the Commonwealth and other partners, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland stressed the need for responses to the global climate crisis to be more coordinated and more swiftly implemented.

: Admin; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 18 September 2019

Photo: Gathering of WFC Councillors and recipients of Alternative Nobel Prize from 13 to 15 September at SEKEM, Egypt. Credit: SEKEM

Securing a World of Climate Resilience, Prosperity and Peace

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) – In the run-up to the Climate Action Summit at the UN in New York on September 23, the World Future Council (WFC) has called for immediate measures to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 to avoid climate catastrophe and to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, and elimination of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

: Jutta Wolf; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 17 September 2019

Image: In this image from June 2002, astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Diaz works with a grapple fixture during a spacewalk on the STS-111 mission to perform work on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA.

Outer Space, the Common Heritage of Mankind, In Peril

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – The world’s arms race—which is being played out with sophisticated weapons largely in the battle fields of Asia and the Middle East – is steadily advancing into a new frontier: outer space.

And he who dominates outer space, argue military analysts projecting into the future, may perhaps dominate the world.

: Somar Wijayadasa; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 16 September 2019

Need to Boost Climate Finance for Developing Countries

By Robert Johnson

PARIS (IDN) – A new report will call for attention when climate finance provided and mobilized by developed countries for climate action in developing countries is discussed at the Climate Action Summit at the UN in New York on September 23 and in the run-up to the COP25 climate talks in Santiago de Chile in December.

This report finds that while climate finance reached USD 71.2 billion in 2017 – marking an up from USD 58.6 billion in 2016 – it fell short of the goal to be reached by 2020.

: Robert Johnson; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 16 September 2019

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: 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: Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest, near Manaus. CC BY-SA 2.0

The Emerald Forests Need Not Die

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Belem is the Brazilian city at the mouth of the Amazon. Unlike its slummy counterpart, Kinshasa, at the mouth of the Congo, it’s full of resplendent streets with beautiful nineteenth century houses. It has squares and marketplaces full of cafes, fountains and life.

The large city grew up shipping rubber from the Amazon forest, which begins on its doorstep. This made it wealthy. One can see the beautiful baroque Theatre of Peace, a fluffy pink building where Anna Pavlova danced. On the main square, ornate with pavements of black and white quartz, is the Hotel Grao Para where Xavier Cugat and his orchestra would play and Zsa Zsa Gabor would stop over on her way, by propeller plane, on the slow flight to Rio.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 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.