IDN-InDepthNews

By J C Suresh | IDN-InDepthNews Report

WASHINGTON (IDN) – Trillions, not billions, are required to transition to a low carbon and resilient economy and to prevent more than 100 million people, particularly in Africa and South Asia, being pushed back into poverty over the next 15 years, says the World Bank.

The World Bank Group has committed to increasing the share of its portfolio devoted to climate finance, from the current 21 percent, to 28 percent, over the next five years.  “When including financing generated from other partners and associated private sector financing, such financing would amount to a potential $29 billion a year by 2020.”

By Emad Mekay* | IDN-InDepthNews Viewpoint

WASHINGTON (IDN) – President Barack Obama’s argument that a ban on gun sales to people on the no-fly list is disingenuous. The U.S. is the biggest seller of arms to people much worse than those on that list. Washington sells weapons to tyrants on the most abusive dictators list – which the State Department certifies repeatedly in its annual account of global human rights abusers.

By INPS* | IDN-InDepthNews Report

NAIROBI (IDN) – Trade ministers of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries have emphasized the importance of securing a development centred outcome at the Tenth Ministerial Conference (MC10) of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This is the first ever WTO conference to be held in Africa – from December 15 to 18, 2015 in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. At a strategic preparatory meeting a day ahead of the conference, WTO members of the 79-nation ACP Group reaffirmed their declaration on the WTO 10th Ministerial Conference, which was previously endorsed in October by trade ministers meeting in Brussels.

By Emiliano Alessandri* | IDN-InDepthNews Viewpoint

WASHINGTON (IDN | GMF) – Ongoing developments in EU-Turkey relations are as significant as they are worrying. In an exceptional summit in November, the EU committed itself to massive financial aid in exchange for Turkey bearing the brunt of a refugee crisis that has sent it over 2 million Syrians since 2011.

Despite the direct threat posed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State group (ISIS) after the Paris terrorist attacks, the summit’s focus was only partly on the transit of foreign terrorist fighters across the porous Turkish-Syrian border that Turkey has recently been working to block.

By Roberto Savio* | IDN-InDepthNews Viewpoint

ROME (IDN) – In the space of just a few days, two fundamental lessons have come from Paris for the world about democracy and climate. The media have been dealing with them as separate issues, but they are, in fact, linked by the same problem that can no longer be ignored: democracy is on the wane. | READ IN JAPANESE |

While all media have reported the defeat of the Front National in the French administrative elections, and while few have made the old observation that to win a battle is not to win a war, there is no doubt that the FN is becoming a mainstream party.

In these elections, the traditional political system – the centre-right under former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the socialists under current president François Hollande – again joined forces to keep the FN under Marine Le Pen out.