Climate Action

Photo: United Silicon Plant. Credit: Lowana Veal | IDN-INPS

Shaky Start to Silicon Smelters in Iceland

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – Silicon metal smelters have taken over from aluminium plants as the desirable heavy industry for Iceland. At Helguvik in the southwest of the island, close to Reykjavik’s international airport, United Silicon has just started operating a silicon smelter, while an adjacent lot is marked out for a silicon smelter of similar production capacity – 110,000 tonnes per year – run by Thorsil.

The United Silicon plant is situated just over one kilometre from the southernmost point of Reykjanesbaer municipality. Plans were developed for industrial development around the harbour of Helguvik over 14 years ago, including an aluminium smelter slightly north of Helguvik which has never been completed because of disputes over who should provide energy.

: Lowana Veal; THE WORLD; Europe & Central Asia; 25 January 2017

Photo: With incessant droughts owing to climate change effects, many women in Southern Africa have turned to alternative agricultural ways such as goat breeding as they battle to survive the growing impacts of climate change here. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo | IDN-INPS

Southern Africa’s Women Wrestle Climate Change On Their Own

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – From planting maize to trying tobacco and cotton on her fields, 44-year-old mother of four Silvia Hungwe says she has seen it all as she wrestles with effects of climate change which have caused her crops to fail each farming season.

Seated under a tree as she talks to IDN in Mbudzi on the outskirts of Harare, an area that has turned into a hive of goat trading activity over the years, Hungwe – who has now turned to keeping goats – is on the lookout for customers.

A number of other women like Hungwe are strolling nearby with their goats, eagerly approaching each passer-by in the hope of doing business.

: Jeffrey Moyo; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 January 2017

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 19 January 2017. Credit: World Economic Forum/Valeriano Di Domenico.

Conflict Prevention Needs UN Reform and Much More

By António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

"The best prevention for conflict and the best prevention for other negative impacts on societies is, of course, sustainable and inclusive development," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in remarks at the special session on “Cooperation for Peace: Tackling the Root Causes of Global Crises” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 19. He also urged the need for "a new generation of partnerships, partnerships not only with governments, not only with civil society and academia but equally partnerships with the business community". Following are detailed excerpts from his remarks.

DAVOS (IDN-INPS) - We live in a dangerous world. We see a proliferation of new conflicts; old conflicts seem never to die. Conflicts are becoming more and more interlinked, more linked with the new threat of global terrorism.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 20 January 2017

Photo: ACP Secretary-General Gomes (2nd from left) and UNEP Deputy Executive Director Thiaw (second from right). Credit: UNEP.

UNEP To Help ACP Implement 2030 SDG Agenda

NAIROBI (IDN) – The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Brussels-based ACP Secretariat have agreed on a more coherent and integrated approach towards the implementation of the sustainable development goals in 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states.

UNEP Deputy Executive Director Ibrahim Thiaw and the ACP Secretary-General Patrick I. Gomes signed on December 20 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the margins of the 32nd session of the joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly from December 19 to 21 in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The MoU aims to reinforce collaboration between the two international organizations in the field of environment and climate change.

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; UN INSIDER; 21 December 2016

Photo: A home largely destroyed by the storm in Tailevu Province. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

South Pacific: Climatic Disaster Recovery a Rights Issue

By Neelam Prasad

This is the third in a series of features on the South Pacific produced in collaboration with Wansolwara, an independent student newspaper of the University of the South Pacific.

SUVA, Fiji (IDN) - Climatic change disasters are hitting Pacific Island nations at regular intervals in recent years, devastating communities and forcing people to move out to other areas, islands and even far away countries.

As such, there is a strong case for the peoples’ rights to recover from such climatic disasters to be included in the international human rights agenda, argue people and experts from the Pacific.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 19 December 2016

Photo: South Africa's mine dumps have over the years heavily contributed to climate change impacts, consequently endangering many lives in the Southern African nation. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo | IDN-INPS

Mining Deepening South Africa’s Climate Change Crisis

By Jeffrey Moyo

JOHANNESBURG (ACP-IDN) – Mariette Lieferink has been dubbed South Africa’s climate change hero and she is prominently featured as the country's leading environmental activist in South African media.

Now, moved by the heavy contribution of the country's mines to climate change, Lieferink, who heads the Federation for a Sustainable Development (FSE), is working flat out to clean up the hugely polluted mining areas of Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, which is also one of the world's 50 largest urban areas.

According to Lieferink, climate change is a potential disaster, poised to trigger the 'toxic time bomb' left by over 120 years of mining, particularly across Johannesburg, which is also South Africa’s industrial hub.

: Jeffrey Moyo; THE WORLD; Africa; 08 December 2016

Photo: Nappier grass growing in a farm in Busia county Western, Kenya.

African Livestock Experts Focus on Climate-Resilient Fodder

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) - Demand for milk and livestock products in Kenya is growing fast and has already outstripped supply in some parts of the country. One of the results is that many smallholder farmers are venturing into rearing dairy cattle and, to some extent, dairy goats.

One of these farmers is Emily Mukwambo, who keeps six dairy cows in her three and half acre farm in Busia County, western Kenya. However as Emily and thousands of other small-scale farmers embrace dairy farming, it is emerging that climate change is affecting the availability of fodder and forage leading to farmers failing to meet the nutritional needs of their livestock. Compounded by the lack of information some farmers have about these needs, milk production is being affected, leading to diminished incomes.

: Justus Wanzala; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 November 2016

Photo: Farming in arid zones in Morocco's Province of Settat. Credit: Fabiola Ortiz | IDN-INPS.

Agriculture Should Be at the Heart of the Climate Agenda

By Fabíola Ortiz

MARRAKECH (IDN) – The African continent is responsible for emitting only four percent of greenhouse gas emissions, yet six of the ten countries most threatened by the climate change effects of such emissions are in Africa.

With the continent currently receiving just five percent of funds to combat or cope with climate change, and a very small proportion of these being allocated in the agricultural sector, experts at the latest United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22) in Marrakech have warned that agricultural yields in Africa could fall 20 percent by 2050 if agriculture does not adapt to climate change.

There is a strong need to increase the continent’s resilience to the impacts of climate change, Mohammed Badraoui, head of Morocco's National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA), told IDN.

: Fabiola Ortiz; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 21 November 2016

Why Women Matter for Effective Climate Change Solutions

By Fabíola Ortiz

MARRAKECH (IDN) – Establishing a clear path forward and including women and girls in global efforts on climate change were some of the biggest challenges the delegations and non-state actors faced at the latest United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakech.

Formally known as the Twenty-Second Conference of Parties (COP22), the conference had a special day (November 14) for discussing exclusively gender issues within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“Study after study has shown that women are the most vulnerable to climate change and that's why there is a need for strong leadership on this issue,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa.

: Fabiola Ortiz; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 18 November 2016

Photo: Climate Change affects Tajikistan mountain communities: In July 2015, the abnormal rise of temperature caused glacier melting and intense mudflows and floods in Barsem village, resulting in the entire village being flooded. Photo: OCHA/M. Sadvakassova

Finance and Investment Key to a New Dawn in Climate Change

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – While there is "a new dawn for global cooperation on climate change", greater efforts are required to mobilize funding to address climate change, especially to support developing countries, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“Finance and investment hold the key to achieving low-emissions and resilient societies,” Ban said in remarks read by his Special Advisor on Climate Change, Bob Orr, to a High-Level Ministerial dialogue on climate financing at the 22nd Conference of Parties Conference (COP 22) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).