Climate Action

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What Do We Know About Climate Change, Peace and Conflict?

Viewpoint by Tobias Ide

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

PERTH, Australia (IDN) — The impacts of climate change on peace and conflict are high on the agenda of policy makers and the general public. From UN Security Council debates about climate change and security to comics about the impact of drought on the Syrian civil war, interest in the topic has grown immensely in recent years. If challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic have taught us anything, it is the importance of science in addressing global problems. So, what is the scientific evidence on climate change, peace and conflict?

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 March 2022

Triple Threat of Climate Crises, Conflict, and Gender Inequality Highlighted

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) — At a side event of the 66th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) that concluded on March 25, UN leaders, policy makers, and civil society activists highlighted the impacts of climate shocks and environmental hazards on women and girls in humanitarian settings.

: Caroline Mwanga; UN INSIDER; 27 March 2022

MiniMines Mixes Lithium Extraction with Circular Economy and UN SDGs

By Anupam Kumar B.Tech***

NEW DELHI (IDN) — In 2018, the notion of circular economy and its inherent link to the UN SDGs gained currency globally especially after the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

UNCTAD defines a circular economy entailing markets that give incentives to recycling and reusing products, rather than scrapping them and then extracting new resources.

: Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 18 March 2022

Tiny Pacific Atolls Battered by King Tides as IPCC Makes Big Waves

Viewpoint by Volker Boege

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

BRISBANE, Australia (IDN) — On 25 February, the government of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea (PNG) declared a State of Emergency in the Atolls Constituency of the region. On 28 February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest climate science report.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 March 2022

Photo: A 30-foot-high monument entitled 'Turn off the plastics tap' by Canadian activist and artist Benjamin von Wong stands outside the venue for the UN Environment Assembly that concluded on March 2, 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: UNEP/Cyril Villemain

Striving for a Global Treaty to Combat Plastic Pollution, 'One of the Greatest Human-Made Threats our Planet Faces'

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — In the 1967 Hollywood box office hit “The Graduate”—a romantic comedy directed by Mike Nichols and based on a novel by Charles Webb—the newly-graduated Dustin Hoffman gets an unsolicited piece of advice: “The future is plastics”.

The widely disseminated one-liner was hailed as a boost for the world’s plastic industry. But 55 years later, the industry is under fire because of the environmental hazards it generates.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 11 March 2022

Photo: Back to back hurricanes in 2020 caused destruction and flooding across Central America, leaving thousands of people homeless. Credit: UNICEF/Inti Ocon/AFP-Services

UN Scientists Warn of Climate Change Threatening People and the Planet

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) — People and the planet are threatened by the impact of climate change, according to UN scientists. Ecosystem collapse, species extinction, deadly heatwaves and floods are among the "unavoidable multiple climate hazards” the world will face over the next two decades due to global warming, they warn.

: Jutta Wolf; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 28 February 2022

Photo: The Chinese naval amphibious dock landing ship Wuzhishan is seen berthing in the Nuku'alofa Port, Tonga on February 15, 2022. Credit: CCTV-7 official WeChat account.

South Pacific: US Announce New South Pacific Strategy to Counter China

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Marking the first visit by a US Secretary of State in 37 years to South Pacific’s major power Fiji, Antony Blinken during his 8-hour stay on February 13 insisted that the US is a Pacific nation and unveiled a raft of new strategies to better engage with the nations across the vast South Pacific Ocean.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 17 February 2022

Photo: Protest against the Amazon/River Club development Credit: Leon Lestrade. African News Agency/ANA.

Court Freezes Planned Amazon HQ in Cape Town on Historically Significant Site

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A massive new complex housing Amazon’s proposed South African headquarters along with a hotel and other businesses continues to face stiff opposition from indigenous Khoisan, environmental and community groups despite city officials already approving of construction of the nine-story construction.

Opponents say the project will ruin a historically significant riverside site in Cape Town and harm the environment. The Khoisan were some of the country's first inhabitants and their presence in the southern tip of Africa dates back thousands of years.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 24 January 2022

Photo: Two indigenous persons. Source: Survival International

Concern Over 'Fortress Conservation' and Evictions of Kenyans from Ancestral Homelands

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Nature conservancies, with the stated goal of protecting wilderness and endangered wildlife, have enabled the removal of tribal peoples from their ancestral homelands in Africa to allow superior “western” models of conservation to prevail, according to the activist group Survival International.

Under the western model, half of all land must be kept in a natural state to protect Earth, as the National Geographic Society recently declared on its magazine pages, if a stable climate and high quality of life are to be preserved in the near future.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 24 January 2022

Photo: Clerics carry the coffin after the funeral for Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu at St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, on Jan 1. (Jaco Marais/Pool/AP).

'Even In Death, Tutu Remains a Vigilant Protector of The Environment'

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Over the course of his 90 years, Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu gave voice to his beloved nation in its struggle for change and reconciliation under Black majority rule. His last wishes for a green burial have sparked a tweetstorm on the mostly unfamiliar practice among devoted followers of “the Arch”.