By M.K. Bhadrakumar* This article was produced in partnership with Indian Punchline and Globetrotter. NEW DELHI (IDN) — The European Union has returned to the ritual of sanctioning Iran to leverage its foreign and security policies. The highlight of the EU Foreign Affairs Council ministerial meeting in Brussels on December 12 was the imposition of […]
Fossil Fuels Cast Dark Shadow Over Tanzania’s Green Future
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) — Issa Abdul’s desperate urge for solar power began when he realised a smoke-spewing generator at his barber shop was costing him too much. “Solar power is very cheap. I regret spending my money on this fuel-guzzling machine,” he said. The 32-year-old barber in Tanzania’s port city spent […]
How India’s Enormous Solar Park Left the Landless Stricken
By Gareth Bryant, Devleena Ghosh, Jake Morcom, and Priya P Pillai* This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. MELBOURNE, Australia (IDN) — India, like many other countries, is looking to renewables as an antidote to soaring fossil fuel prices and to tackle climate change. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sees renewables […]
Why Not Use Money Power to Wind Back Military Spending?
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The U.S. is not the only well-built actor on the Western stage. Some argue, quite understandably after the missed opportunities and mistaken steps of recent decades, that there is a lot to be said for trying to ignore the U.S. as much as possible or, at least, […]
City Mayors Urge Increased Investment to Halt Ecosystem Loss
UNEP and Other Organisations Support the Call By J C Suresh TORONTO (IDN) — Cities are on the front line of the socio-economic impacts of climate change and ecosystem loss. They play a significant role in view of the planet experiencing a decline in nature at rates unprecedented in human history—and the largest loss of […]
Three UN Agencies Call for Investments in Rural Employment
Nature-Based Solutions Could Generate 20 million New Jobs By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) — A joint report by three UN organisations says that 20 million jobs could be created by further harnessing the power of nature to address the major challenges facing society, such as climate change, disaster risk and food and water insecurity. According […]
China: From A Health Crisis to A Political Crisis?
By Jan Servaes* BRUSSELS (IDN) — After nearly three years of fighting Covid-19 tooth and nail with a so-called ‘zero-Covid’ policy and denouncing Western countries for choosing to live with the virus at the cost of millions of lives, China’s rhetoric seems to be moving in a more nuanced direction. The current number of 5,235 […]
Africa: Industrialization Trapped in Limbo Despite All Efforts
By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Jobless and weighed down by idleness, 53-year-old Jasper Mhandu, in the Zimbabwean capital, now has to spend time sited at a street corner chatting with gangs of drug-taking jobless youths in Highfield, a poor income suburb here. Mhandu used to work for a clothing factory that shut its […]
South Africans Caught in Destructive Flash Floods Decry Climate Inaction
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) — Torrential rainfall and flooding came full throttle to Johannesburg for a third time in December, damaging hundreds of houses in Soweto, Roodepoort, Protea Glen and surrounding areas. The heavy downpour loosened street poles, flooded transformer chambers, uprooted trees and damaged overhead cables and […]
US Foundation Commits $19.2 Million to Bolster Nigerian Media
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced 13 grants totalling more than $19.2 million to strengthen local and regional investigative journalism in Nigeria. The initiative, awarded through the foundation’s Nigeria program, seeks to reduce corruption by supporting Nigerian-led anti-corruption efforts that advance […]