Climate Action

Photo: Participants in the April 1-3 meeting in Apia. Credit: SPREP

15 Pacific States Build Resilience to Climate Change

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS | APIA, Samoa (ACP-IDN) – Leaders of the Pacific Island Forum, the region’s premier political and economic policy organisation, have repeatedly identified climate change as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific. A three-day meeting, concluded on April 3 in Apia, Samoa, marked a major milestone in helping to build Pacific island resilience to this threat with the start of a EUR 12 million project spanning 15 countries.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 04 April 2019

Image: Male and female capelin. Credit: The Navigator

Ocean Warming Blamed for Lack of Iceland’s Capelin

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – After five research expeditions in search of capelin, Iceland’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (IMFRI) has decided not to recommend a quota for it this year, arguing that global warming is probably responsible for the lack of the fish.

According to Thorsteinn Sigurdsson, head of the Pelagic Division at the institute, capelin (Mallotus villosus) is a cold-water fish and mostly chooses to be at a marine temperature between 1-3°C. “Concomitant with ocean warming north of Iceland before the turn of the century, changes started to appear in the distribution of capelin off Iceland and instead of being spread out to the north of Iceland and the West Fjords, it was mostly found off the east coast of Greenland,” he said.

: Lowana Veal; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 02 April 2019

Photo: UN Chief addressing High-level meeting on Climate and Sustainable Development for All on March 28. UN Photo/Manuel Elias

UN Chief Calls for Urgent Action to Address Dangers Linked to Climate Change

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – Concerned about rising global temperatures and disastrous consequences, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on Heads of State to attend the Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23, and achieve positive change.

“Don’t come with a speech, come with a plan,” he said, adding: “This is what science says is needed. It is what young people around the globe are rightfully demanding.”

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 29 March 2019

The Campaign Against Greta is an Index of the Loss of Values

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN | OtherNews) – Since the powerful march of hundreds of thousands of students in 1,000 towns against climate change, an unexpected campaign of delegitimation, ”demystification” and demonisation has started against Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who started the movement. After searching the media, social media and websites, this campaign can be divided into four different groups.

The first could be called the stupid. A writer reports pictures of Greta eating a banana, claiming that this proves she has double standards. She wants to reduce gas emissions, and then she eats banana which come from far away. Why does she not eat an apple, which are produced locally in Sweden?

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 28 March 2019

IDN is flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate.

UN Environment Assembly Spells Out 'The Future We Want'

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (IDN) – Global gross domestic product has doubled since 1970, enabling immense progress, and lifting of billions of people out of poverty. At the same time, this economic growth has been fueled by a relentless demand for natural resources. At no point in time nor at any level of income, has our demand for natural resources wavered, notes the Global Resources Outlook 2019.

"Our consume and throwaway models of consumption have had devastating impacts on our planet," says the report presented during the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya, March 11-15.

: Justus Wanzala; UN INSIDER; 25 March 2019

The System, Youth and Democracy

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN | OtherNews) – If we ever needed proof of how the political system has become self-referential and unable to update itself, the latest student march in more than 1,000 towns is a very good example.

Of course, politicians referred to it in declarations and, in a totally demagogic gesture, Jean-Claude, President of the European Community and an old political fox with a lot of mileage, even kissed the hand of Greta Thunberg. She is the 16-year-old Swedish girl who, frustrated with the pace of government action to deal with climate change, launched a "school strike for climate" in 2018, setting off an international youth movement and widespread demonstrations in an unprecedented initiative on climate change.

: Roberto Savio; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 24 March 2019

Photo: Youth attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany. Credit: UNFCCC

UN Chief Emboldens the 'Fridays for Future' Climate Movement

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – "My generation has failed to respond properly to the dramatic challenge of climate change. This is deeply felt by young people. No wonder they are angry," says UN Secretary-General António Guterres in an opinion piece for The Guardian, in the wake of unprecedented March 15 demonstrations by schoolchildren across the world against climate change inaction.

The youth-led School Strike for Climate movement Fridays for Future held the first global climate demonstration in history spanning over more than 100 countries from Australia to America embracing the developing nations of India and Uganda and the Philippines and Nepal – countries acutely impacted by climate change.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 15 March 2019

UN Environment Assembly Convenes to Ramp Up Solutions for Sustainable Economies

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN) – A five-day meeting of the United Nations top body on the environment, which is expected to take bold decisions and produce far-reaching outcomes that move global societies to a more sustainable path, began in Kenya's capital Nairobi on March 11.

Over 4,700 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives are attending the fourth UN Environment Assembly from March 11-15 at the UN Headquarters for Africa. Prominent world leaders attending are the Presidents of France and Kenya, Emmanuel Macron and Uhuru Kenyatta, and CEOs from major corporations.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 11 March 2019

Image: Chinese skyline. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

UN Commends Beijing Air Quality as Model for Other Cities

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN) – More than two decades after China's capital city Beijing began looking for ways to improve air quality in one of the largest and fastest growing cities in the developing world, its successful efforts provide a model for other cities to follow, according to a new report.

Research by the UN Environment Programme and the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau (BEE) outlines how Beijing’s air quality management programme has evolved, and makes recommendations for near, medium, and long-term steps that Beijing can take to maintain its momentum toward clean air.

: Santo D. Banerjee; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 11 March 2019

UN Environment Forum Underlines the Science-Innovation-Entrepreneurship Nexus

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN) – Eminent scientists, Nobel laureates, artists, ministers, parliamentarians, industry and business leaders, young game changers in the science and business communities, heads of United Nations entities and civil society representatives participated in the UN Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment at the UN Headquarters in Nairobi from March 8-10, 2019 in the lead up to the Fourth Session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 4).

Recommendations from the Forum will inform the UN Environment Assembly from March 11-15, and the UN’s work on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement.