Climate Action

Photo: COP24 closing plenary meeting in Katowice, Poland.

World's Poorest Look Forward to 2019 Climate Summit at the UN

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | KATOWICE (IDN) – The year 2018 has been marked by a series of natural disasters underlining that no country is immune to the impacts of climate change. But it is the nearly 1 billion world's poorest people living in the 47 least developed countries (LDCs) that are often hit the hardest, suffer the most, and have the least capacity to cope with the catastrophic consequences, says Ethiopia's Gebru Jember Endalew, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group.

"While there are parts of the package that could and should have been stronger, the implementation guidelines adopted . . . provide a strong basis to start implementing the Agreement. The next step, of course, is for countries to take urgent, ambitious action to fulfil their Paris Agreement commitments," LDC Group's Chair added.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 15 December 2018

UNDP Welcomes Significant Rise in German Funding

Berlin a 'Launch Partner' to UNDP’s Accelerator Labs in 60 Countries

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has greeted the German government's decision to raise a further 25 percent in funding from its 2019 core resources, which follows a 60 percent increase for 2018. Germany is currently the largest government donor to UNDP.

Germany – which assumes a seat in the UN Security Council on January 1, 2019 as a non-permanent member for 2019-2020 – has also confirmed that it will become a “launch partner” in supporting UNDP’s pioneering and groundbreaking launch in January 2019 of Accelerator Labs in 60 developing countries.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 13 December 2018

Photo credit: Sunrise Movement / @SunriseMvmt. Source: Common Dreams.

Why Green New Deal Advocates Must Address Militarism

Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Alice Slater*

Where is the call for the New Peace Deal that would free up hundreds of billions from the overblown military budget to invest in green infrastructure? ask the authors of this article that first appeared on Common Dreams on 12 December 2018.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – In the spirit of a new year and a new Congress, 2019 may well be our best and last opportunity to steer our ship of state away from the twin planetary perils of environmental chaos and militarism, charting a course towards an earth-affirming 21st century.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 12 December 2018

Parliamentarians for Nuclear Disarmament Emphasize Need to Combat Climate Change

By Aleksandra Gadzinski

KATOWICE (IDN) – Nuclear weapons and climate change are the two major existential threats to the survival of humanity, civilization and the planet Earth. With this in view, in January 2018 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the legendary Doomsday Clock to 2 minutes to Midnight, due to the threats from nuclear weapons and climate change, said Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) at an event on December 9.

The event was hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the two-week-long COP24, the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland that concludes on December 14.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 10 December 2018

Photo credit: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Shigeo Hayashi - RA119-RA134

Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change Threaten Human Survival

John Avery interviews David Krieger

COPENHAGEN | SANTA BARBARA, CA (IDN) – One of the five “M’s” can trigger a nuclear war any time: malice, madness, mistake, miscalculation and manipulation. "Of these five, only malice is subject to possibly being prevented by nuclear deterrence and of this there is no certainty. But nuclear deterrence (threat of nuclear retaliation) will not be at all effective against madness, mistake, miscalculation or manipulation (hacking)," David Krieger tells John Scales Avery in an exceptional interview.

Krieger is the Founder and President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) that has been committed to a world free of nuclear weapons since 1982. He has been working steadily and unwaveringly for peace and the total abolition of nuclear weapons. Avery is an eminent academician and scientist, and an impassioned peace activist.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 09 December 2018

Photo (L-R): Benjamin Schachter, OHCHR; Jennifer Hanna, PCCB; Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, UN Secretary General Special Envoy for the 2019 Climate Summit; Verona Collantes, UN Women; Michael Windfuhr, German Institute for Human Rights; Agnes Leina, Illaramatak Community Concerns; and Sébastien Duyck, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Credit: IISD.

Experts Urge Respect for Human Rights in Climate Actions

By Aleksandra Gadzinski

KATOWICE (IDN) – Independent experts of the UN Human Rights Council, are calling on States to fully integrate human rights standards and principles in the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change (the Paris Rulebook) adopted by the international community.

In the run-up to the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, they recalled that "in a significant breakthrough" in 2015, Parties to the Paris Agreement recognized the need to integrate their human rights obligations and their efforts to address climate change, pledging to respect and protect human rights in all climate actions.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 09 December 2018

Gap Widens Between Ambition and Action To Combat Future Climate Risks

By Aleksandra Gadzinski

KATOWICE (IDN) – Climate consciousness across the globe is on the rise. But a new report has found a considerable gap between countries’ preparedness for climate change and the actual measures put in place to prepare communities for a future of increasing climate risks.

The fourth edition of the UN Environment's Adaptation Gap Report highlights in particular a growing divide between the estimated annual costs of adaptation and the actual global investments in resilience measures, establishing a distinct connection between adaptation to climate change and sustainable development that results in healthy communities and thriving economies.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 08 December 2018

Photo: Seyni Nafo (left), spokesman of the African delegation to the COP24, with Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, at a meeting in 2016. Credit: World Bank

Africa Seeks Commitments to Fight Climate Threat at COP24

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Seyni Nafo, spokesman of the African delegation at the UN Climate Change Conference COP24 taking place in Katowice in southern Poland from December 2-14 is not one to mince words about the serious climate threat now facing the African continent.

"We are the most vulnerable, we are the least responsible but we will suffer the most," the Malian-born Nafo summed up in an interview with Germany’s international broadcaster DW. The African continent is already experiencing the effects of climate change. In many places drought, torrential rainfall or flooding are regular occurrences.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 04 December 2018

Photo: UN Chief Opening COP24. Credit: UNFCCC.

UN Chief Calls for Katowice to Lay Down Ground Rules for the Paris Agreement

By António Guterres

Following are extensive excerpts from the UN Secretary-General's remarks at the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP14) from December 2-14 in Katowice, Poland.

KATOWICE (IDN-INPS) – We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with climate change.

Climate change is running faster than we are and we must catch up sooner rather than later before it is too late.

For many, people, regions even countries this is already a matter of life and death.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 04 December 2018

Photo: COP24 Opening Ceremony. Credit: UNFCCC.

Polish Perspectives of the UN Climate Change Conference

By Aleksandra Gadzinski

KATOWICE (IDN) – "We can't afford to fail in Katowice," declared UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening remarks to the two-week-long 24th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in southern Poland.

The political will to fight climate change had faded since the Paris Agreement three years ago. The accord in December 2015 saw countries agree to step up efforts to fight the pressing problem of global warming. But with temperatures rising, oceans warming and glaciers receding faster than expected, climate change was running away from us.