SUSTAINABILITY

Photo: The G20 “Family Photo” at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Public Domain.

G20 Leaders Keep the Multilateralism Torch Alive

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK | BUENOS AIRES (IDN) – Going by the 31-point G20 Leaders' declaration titled 'Building consensus for fair and sustainable development', a plenty more drew the focus of the November 30-December 1 summit than preoccupation with shadow-boxing between the champion of 'America First ' and the rest of the world.

This must have been much to the satisfaction of UN Secretary-General António Guterres who, during press briefings at the beginning of the G20 meeting described the event as an essential forum, in view of a lack of confidence and high level of confrontation within the international community, because globalization has divided the world into winners and losers.

: Santo D. Banerjee; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; The Group of Twenty (G20); 02 December 2018

Photo: Lesotho has had its fair share of the climate change impacts owing to the El Nino crisis in the past years. Credit: Lesotho: Agence Kaolin

ACP Steps in to Rescue Africa from Climate Change Impacts

By Jeffrey Moyo

MASERU (ACP-IDN) – Three years ago, Lesotho, Southern Africa’s small mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa, was hit hard by the drought that led to the driest season in the region in 35 years. In the tiny dynastic nation, the El Niño driven-phenomenon resulted in a fall in maize production, the country's staple food.

But now thanks to ACP, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, a group that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975, climate change impacts in African countries like Lesotho have met their match.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 01 December 2018

Photo: King Mohammed VI of Morocco. Source: The Moroccan Times

A Moment of Reckoning for Decentralisation in Morocco

Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is a sociologist and Founder President of the High Atlas Foundation, based in Marrakech, Morocco, working to establish livelihood advancement projects – all of which are identified and managed by local communities, in partnership with the public, private and civil sectors.

MARRAKECH (IDN) – Morocco’s parliament is currently deciding the nation’s Decentralisation Charter. Since its working draft is not currently made public, we can only hope that every parliamentarian realises that the human development course of the nation and the relationships between public, civil and private institutions depend upon the creation of a meaningful charter.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 01 December 2018

Photo: African Penguin Credit: Mike Barth. Source: www.unep-aewa.org

AEWA - International Environmental Cooperation At Its Best

Viewpoint by Jacques Trouvilliez

Internationalism seems to be falling out of vogue, but Jacques Trouvilliez, Executive Secretary of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), holds his organization up as an example of how conservation objectives are being effectively achieved through cross-continental cooperation.

BONN (IDN) – The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) is a good, and certainly not the only example of international cooperation working well. It is a UN Treaty which operates on the basis of concerted actions. It has 78 members including the European Union with another 41 countries within its area eligible to join.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 30 November 2018

Photo: Saudi National Atomic Energy Project SNAEP. Credit: KACARE

Ensuring Energy Sustainability for Future Generations in Saudi Arabia

By K A CARE

The following is sourced from the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy website.

RIYADH (IDN-INPS) – Saudi Arabia is a dynamic nation facing high rates of demand for energy and desalinated water as the nation’s population grows and the utilization of low-priced electricity and desalinated water accelerates.

According to government estimates, the anticipated demand for electricity in the Kingdom is expected to exceed 120 GW in 2032. Unless alternative energy and energy conservation measures are implemented, the overall demand for fossil fuels for power, industry, transportation and desalination is estimated to grow from 3.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2010 to 8.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2028.

: Africa & ME Editor; SYNDICATION; Research organisations; 30 November 2018

Photo: A boy watches the shore from a boat near Sirajganj, a community affected by severe erosion that has left many displaced. Sirajganj, Bangladesh. October 2016. Credit: IOM/Amanda Nero.

New Study Calls for USD 2.3 Billion Support to ACP Countries

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – A new study finds that the 79-nation African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States can boost climate action with technical and financial support amounting to a minimum of USD 2,317 billion. Capacity building, an important aspect of efforts to halt climate catastrophe, is expected to draw considerable attention at the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland.

The urgency of climate action is underlined also by the new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It shows that global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose again during 2017 after a three-year break, highlighting the imperative for countries to deliver on the historic Paris Agreement to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 29 November 2018

Photo: Prime Minister Imran Khan and Premier Li Keqiang signed important MOUs during the former's first visit to China early November. Credit: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Baloch Separatists' Attack on Chinese Consulate Has a Message

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandran*

Balochistan – the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan in terms of land area, forming the southwestern region of the country – is aggrieved at not getting its due share of development out of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative. This has caused resentment and, combined with the suppression of Baloch rights and aspirations, is a powder keg.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – The storming of the Chinese consulate in Karachi on November 24 by three heavily armed suicide squad members of a Baloch separatist group is loaded with meaning and message. It should be read correctly for understanding what gave rise to the attack and how the conditions that caused it may be eliminated.

: Shastri Ramachandaran; OPINION; 29 November 2018

Photo: 2018 Right Livelihood Award Laureates (from left to right): Thelma Aldana (Guatemala), Tony Rinaudo (Australia) , Yacouba Sawadogo (Burkina Faso), and Iván Velásquez (Colombia). They are holding a picture showing the three jailed Laureates from Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Al-Hamid, Waleed Abu Al-Khair and Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani. Credit: Right Livelihood Award Foundation/Wolfgang Schmidt.

'Right Livelihood' Awards to Visionary Global Citizens

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | STOCKHOLM (IDN) - The laureates of the 2018 Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, received their prizes on November 23 at the award presentation in Stockholm, Sweden. Regrettably, three Saudi laureates were prevented from attending due to lengthy prison sentences for their work promoting justice and equality.

The awards recognize the outstanding contributions of global citizens in the areas of the environment, human rights, peace, democracy, and law. The Saudi laureates, sharing an award for 2018, were civil and human rights activists Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani, and Waleed Abu al-Khair.

: Global Information Network; GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP; 28 November 2018

Photo: Oilrig in the sea. Source: Public Domain

New Scrutiny of Nigerian Billions Swiped in Massive Fraud

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – It’s been called one of the biggest corruption cases in corporate history which has escaped the attention of much of the media and few have even heard about it.

In the drama, playing out in an Italian court, two middlemen have been convicted for their role in the scheme involving one of Africa’s most promising oil fields and its sale – allegedly engineered by oil giants Italian-owned Eni and Royal Dutch Shell – that deprived the people of Nigeria of an estimated $6 billion in future revenues.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 November 2018

Photo: The picture shows two women from Lesotho trafficked in South Africa. Credit: Sunday Times.

ACP Fights Human Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling in Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

BEITBRIDGE (ACP-IDN) – At the age of 39, Ndikonyaga Muleya hailing from Beitbridge, Zimbabwe’s border town with South Africa, has found illegal crossing into South Africa convenient.

Over the years he became experienced crossing into the neighboring country looking for casual jobs in Musina, also a South African border town with Zimbabwe, which he now frequents as an illegal transporter of undocumented Zimbabweans itching to cross into South Africa fleeing from this country’s mounting economic woes.

“I earn money from transporting people through unmanned crossing points into South Africa. I was also helped before when I started crossing to SA,” Muleya told IDN.