23/04/2016
Deforestation, as seen in this part of Rio Branco, the northern Brazilian state of Acre, is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Latin America. Credit: Kate Evans/Center for International Forestry Research
More than 160 countries have confirmed their attendance at the ceremony scheduled for Friday, Apr. 22 in New York by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. And eight have announced that they will present the ratification of the agreement during the event, having already completed the internal procedures to approve it.
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23/04/2016
A wind farm outside Tianjin. China is the world’s leading manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels. Credit: Mitch Moxley/IPS
On 21 April, the eve of the signing of the Paris agreement, UN member States, UN officials and civil society representatives met to discuss how South-South cooperation can help developing countries tackle climate change.
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23/04/2016
By Dawn Bickett*
22 April, 2016 (Greenpeace) – More than 45 years ago – on the very first Earth Day – tens of millions of people decided to do something about environmental destruction. They rallied against pollution, oil spills, pesticides and deforestation… issues that continue to resonate with us today.
Their activism remains inspiring. But as Earth Day comes and goes each year, we can’t just celebrate the past. The day must be a rallying cry for action in this present moment! This Earth Day, challenge yourself, your friends and your community to step up and make a change.
Want to get moving but don’t know where to start? Here are a just a few ways you can do something for the planet right now.
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23/04/2016
Expressing grave concern over a number of issues regarding the right to housing in India, an independent UN human rights expert on 22 April 2016 called on the Government for immediate attention and implementation of the right to ensure adequate housing for the most disadvantaged.
A woman outside her small home in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Photo: World Bank/Graham Crouch
“I am extremely concerned for the millions of people who experience exclusion, discrimination, evictions, insecure tenure, homelessness and who lack hope of accessing affordable and adequate housing in their lifetimes,” Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, warned at the end of her two-week official visit to the country.
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23/04/2016
One year after the crisis in Burundi began, the United Nations refugee agency on 22 April 2016 said that almost 260,000 people have fled the country, warning that the number could increase by thousands throughout the year – unless a political solution is found and a civil war averted.
At Ndutu refugee camp in Tanzania, Abdul Yamuremye in his tent with his wife Hadija Umugure and their family fled violence in Burundi after their house had been attacked killing Abdul’s two brothers, a friend who stayed with them and her three children. Photo: UNHCR/Benjamin Loyseau
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “to date, 259,132 people have fled the country, and we are planning our humanitarian response based on a figure of some 330,000 refugees by year’s end.”
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22/04/2016
By Roberto Savio*
ROME, 21 April 2016 (IPS) – On the 17th of April, Italians were called to vote in a national referendum, on the extension of licenses to extract petrol and gas from the seas. The government, the media and those in the economic circles, all took a position against the referendum, claiming that 2000 jobs were at a stake. The proponents of the referendum (among them five regions), lost.
Roberto Savio
Italy is following a consistent trend, after the Summit on Climate Change (Paris December 2015), in which all countries (Italy included) took a solemn engagement to reduce emissions.
Two weeks after the Summit, the British Prime Minister took the initiative to extend the licenses to extract coal, explaining that 10.000 jobs were at stake.
Then it was India’s turn, to declare that licenses for coal powered stations would be increased, as the development of the country comes before protection of the environment.
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21/04/2016
In a watershed moment for international cooperation, global political, business and civil society leaders were headed to New York on 20 April 2016 where they will pledge fast action on the new United Nations sustainable development agenda and the landmark Paris climate agreement, to build on momentum from 2015 to create a better future for people and the planet.
Effects of climate change: the Tunari Mountain, part of the Andes Range, near the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, used to be covered by snow most of the year, and it was an important source of water. Currently snow is only present a few weeks a year. Photo: UN/Robert Brockmann
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21/04/2016
By John Scales Avery*
21 April 2016
The lyrics of a popular song repeat a message of comforting (but irresponsible) fatalism: “Que Sera Sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see. Que Sera Sera. What will be will be.”
John Scales Avery
I strongly believe that we must not allow ourselves the luxury of fatalism, especially today, when our future is darkened by the twin threats of catastrophic climate change and thermonuclear war.
We must accept our responsibility for both the near future and the distant future. We must do all that is within our power to make our world one in which our children and their descendants can survive. We must save the environment. We must save plants and animals from extinction.
What has happened to the global environment is a human creation. Its very name, the anthhropocene, indicates that we made it. What will happen in the future will also be our creation, the sum of the choices that we make.
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19/04/2016
By Baher Kamal*
This is part II of a two-part series of reports focusing on the impact of climate change on the Middle East & North of Africa region, ahead of the signing ceremony of the Paris climate agreement, on 22 April 2016 in New York. Part I: Will the Middle East Become ‘Uninhabitable’?
In Somaliland and Puntland, close to two million people are affected by the drought amid the El Niño phenomenon. Somalia is a member of the League of Arab States. Photo credit: WFP/Petterik Wiggers
CAIRO, 19 April 2016 (IPS) – There is an oil producing country situated in the Gulf region, made of a cluster of islands. It is small, surface and population wise. But it holds the dubious privilege of ranking top of the list of 14 out of the 33 countries most likely to be water-stressed in the year 2040.
This country is the “Mamlakat Al Bahrain” (the Kingdom of the Two Seas) or simply Bahrain.
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19/04/2016
By Baher Kamal*
This is the first of a two-part series of reports focusing on the impact of climate change on the Middle East & North of Africa region, ahead of the signing ceremony of the Paris climate agreement, on 22 April 2016 in New York. Part II will address the dramatic issue of water scarcity in the region.
CAIRO, 19 April 2016 (IPS) – This is not about any alarming header—it is the dramatic conclusion of several scientific studies about the on-going climate change impact on the Middle East region, particularly in the Gulf area. The examples are stark.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 