Climate Action

Guiding Coal Companies to Meet the Dual Challenge of Net Zero and A Just Transition

Viewpoint by Noora Puro*

AMSTERDAM (IDN) — As the build-up continues to the pandemic-delayed UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), all eyes—and hopefully all agendas—are on how to reach net-zero carbon emissions. And as the International Energy Agency (IEA) made clear in its recent Net Zero by 2050 report, this aim will fall short without a radical decrease this decade in the share of coal in global energy generation. Indeed, taken together, the coal, oil, and gas sectors are the single main cause of climate change due to their production of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 07 July 2021

financial topics are published by numerous international media outlets. Photo: At the present time, mankind is losing the battle against the climate crisis. Wall Steet International.

Climate: The Collaboration Crisis

Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*

This is the third in a series of four articles. Click here for the second in the series.

QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — In their 2013 treatise, NY Times bestselling authors Ori Brafman and Judith Pollack observe: Information doesn’t change behavior. If it did, none of us would smoke and we’d all floss. (Ori Brafman and Judith Pollack, The Chaos Imperative – How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation Effectiveness and Success, 2013, p. 40).

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 24 June 2021

Nobel Laureate Offers Pathways to A Better Future After COVID-19 Crisis

By UNCTAD

GENEVA (IDN) — Coronavirus pandemic recovery efforts should provide comprehensive social protection, fight climate change, and ensure vaccines reach the poorest people quickly.

Nobel laureate Esther Duflo spelled out what an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 crisis should entail and outlined lessons learned from the pandemic, while delivering the 17th edition of UNCTAD’s prestigious Raúl Prebisch Lecture on June 15.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 20 June 2021

Photo: At the present time, mankind is losing the battle against the climate crisis. Wall Steet International.

Climate: The Creativity Crisis

Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*

This is the second in a series of four articles. Click here for the first in the series.

QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — If Covid-19 has taught us one lesson, it is that the creativity within the scientific community led to effective vaccine development in a timeframe nobody anticipated. Frankly, humanity got lucky. Imagine if science had not made the requisite advances to create effective COVID-19 vaccines in record time. Regarding the climate challenge, there are no effective vaccines available. There is no immunity from the deleterious effects of climate change. Like the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the climate challenge threatens the survival of humanity.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 June 2021

Climate: The Cognition, Collaboration and Creativity Crisis

Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*

This is the first in a series of four articles.

QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — The climate crisis is the most daunting challenge ever confronted by humankind. At the present time, mankind is losing the battle. This article explores the first of three dimensions of our inept response; cognition. As a point of full disclosure, I am a climate crisis believer; one who remains deeply concerned about the current state of efforts of every type to deliver elements of a comprehensive solution…in time.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 18 June 2021

Photo: Dr. Kakha Shengelia, President of IAUP and Caucasus University.

The Role of Academia and Universities in Fostering Awareness of SDGs

Viewpoint by Dr. Kakha Shengelia

The writer is President of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) and President of Caucasus University (CU). The following is the text of Dr Kakha's Foreword to Striving for People, Planet and Peace, 2021 Joint Media Project Report of the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as flagship agency in partnership with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

TBILISI, Georgia (IDN) — It was in the year 2015 when the world convened and defined 17 concrete objectives to achieve till 2030 that would improve everyone’s lot around the globe. Touching on every aspect of human existence, from social inequalities to the planet we live on.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 09 June 2021

Photo: UNICEF Teachers and students were able to return to school in Lao Cai, Vietnam, in May 2020. Credit: UNICEF

Make People’s Vaccine Top Priority to Fight a Mutating Virus

Viewpoint by Nicolas J. S. Davies*

PORTLAND | USA (IDN) — A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that worries about the COVID pandemic in the United States are at their lowest level since it began. Only half of Americans are either “very worried” (15%) or “somewhat worried” (35%) about the virus, while the other half are “not very worried” (30%) or “not worried at all” (20%).

But the news from around the world makes it clear that this pandemic is far from over, and a story from Vietnam highlights the nature of the danger.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 08 June 2021

Photo: Before and after image of the effects of three years of ecosystem restoration in Tanzania. Using bund-digging, the water level in the soil has been restored to regrow trees and grass (Just Diggit: 2018-2021) Source: UN Environment Programme.

Avenues of Action: UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) — The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, 2021-2030 began on June 5. An ecosystem is an interaction between people, plants, animals and their surroundings. The UN Environment Programme and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization are the lead UN agencies for this Decade. However, the Decade aims to become a broad-based global movement in which many can play a role.

: Rene Wadlow; OPINION; 06 June 2021

Photo: The fruit tree nursery management by the Takherkhourt Women’s Cooperative in the Marrakech region of Morocco (High Atlas Foundation), 2021

People’s Participation Decides the World’s Environment

Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir

The writer is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and president of the High Atlas Foundation

MARRAKECH (IDN) — Recognizing this week’s World Environment Day reminds us of the evolution of the concept of sustainable development since the phrase was coined in a 1987 United Nations report. At that time, sustainable development concentrated on the idea of natural resource management and how humanity must not consume the sources of our sustenance to an extent that any harm is brought upon our collective future.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 04 June 2021

Photo: Students demonstrating in Berlin on 15 March 2019 against the climate crisis. Source: Clean Energy Wire | Rachel Waldholz.

Germany's Constitutional Court Gives Teeth to Paris Climate Agreement

Viewpoint by Franz Baumann, PassBlue

NEW YORK (IDN) — In September 2016, the German parliament unanimously adopted the Paris Agreement. The government then translated Germany’s commitments under the agreement into a Climate Protection Law, which was approved by the Bundestag in November 2019 with a wide majority, making Germany the first country in the world with a greenhouse gas neutrality plan.