(UN News)* — Negotiations began on 26 July 2021 to approve a UN science report which will anchor high level summits later this year, charged with boosting climate action worldwide.
UNDP Tuvalu | The low-lying archipelago, Tuvalu, in the Pacific Ocean is reclaiming land as it fights the effects of climate change.
.The assessment comes as record-breaking heat waves, devastating floods and drought struck across three continents in recent weeks.“This report has been prepared in exceptional circumstances, and this is an unprecedented IPCC approval session,” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair, Hoesung Lee, told the opening session of the meeting.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jul 26 2021 (IPS)* – Undoubtedly, the world needs to reform existing food systems to better serve humanity and sustainable development. But the United Nations World Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) must be consistent with UN-led multilateralism.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
For the first time ever, the World Economic Forum (WEF), a partnership of some of the world’s most powerful corporations, is partnering the UN in launching the Summit, now scheduled for September, with its ‘Pre-Summit’ beginning today.
Food insecurity is primarily due to inequalities and deprivations as victims lack the means to obtain the food they need.
The UN should not serve those who cynically use hunger, starvation and deprivation to advance private commercial interests.
Opening ceremony features refugee athletes marching out under the Olympic flag, showcasing the power of sport and sending a message of hope to 82 million displaced people worldwide.| Français | عربي
One is a marathon runner who as a child fled fighting by crossing a desert on foot. Another is a swimmer escaping conflict who helped steer a boatful of people to safety when its motor broke down by jumping into the water.
Space travel was once about collective efforts to go beyond the limits of one’s imagination. Now it’s an exhibition of extreme entitlement
Billionaire Jeff Bezos is launched into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on 20 July 2021 | Joe Skipper/Reuters/Alamy
24 July 2021 (openDemocracy)* — On 20 July, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos became the second billionaire in a matter of weeks to take a flashy joyride into space. The date was significant, marking 52 years since the first moon landing in 1969.
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 26 2021 (IPS)* – As a wisecracking cynic once remarked: “The sun would never set on the British empire because God wouldn’t trust an Englishman in the dark“. Perhaps it was an uncharitable remark because most of the British colonies have long gone.
Trusteeship Council. Credit: UN Photo/CCOI
But when I quoted this witticism to a British journalist, he countered: “I am sure it was told by a Scotsman.“
Since Scotland is not a colony, its demand for independence is not a matter of decolonization, which is virtually dead on the UN’s political agenda.
– Devastating floods in Europe. Temperatures soaring to 45ºC in Canada. Mudslides in Japan. Cloud bursts in India. Floods in New York subways, central China and Uganda, and a sweltering heatwave in Morocco.
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A woman is trying to move in a flooded street following heavy rains in Liege, on July 15, 2021. Illustration shows the scene in Liege after heavy rainfall, Thursday 15 July 2021. – The provincial disaster plan has been declared in Liege, Luxembourg and Namur provinces after large amounts of rainfall. Water in several rivers has reached alarming levels. – Belgium OUT (Photo by BRUNO FAHY / Belga / AFP)
ROME, (WFP)* — Ahead of the UN’s Food Systems Summit in September, people involved in all aspects of the production, transport and consumption of food are meeting at a ‘pre-summit’ in Rome.
VIDEO: Click on image to check out how we consume, distribute and consume food
24 July 2021 (UN News)* — Farmers, especially women and indigenous people, work tirelessly to put food on our tables. UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed met on Saturday 24 July 2021 women producers at a farmers’ market in Circo Massimo, Rome, ahead of the Food Systems Pre-Summit taking place next week.
UN Photo | UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed meets women producers at a farmers’ market in Circo Massimo, Rome.
Dozens of stalls were set up in the vicinity of the UN event’s venue, where heads of state and delegates will gather from Monday to discuss ways to transform food systems to tackle hunger, poverty, climate change and inequality.
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UN and government officials toured the market to meet with farmers before paying tribute to producers, particularly women, for their central role in food systems.
The region is in a trap of high inequality and low growth. Concentration of power, violence, and inefficient social protection policies fuel this vicious circle and limit human development, according to new UNDP report
The report recommends that the solutions must lead to greater growth with environmental sustainability, and to greater inclusion and social mobility.Photo: UNDP Colombia
New York (UNDP)* – In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the gap between extreme wealth and extreme poverty and vulnerability that characterizes the region, was made more evident and deepened even further.
22 July 2021 (UNEP)* — For the last half-century, money and meat have been a package deal: Across the globe, as wealth increases, so does consumption of animal-based foods. And by 2050, the demand for animal-based foods could increase by as much as 70 per cent.
Unsplash/Scott Warman / 21 Jul 2021
The irony, of course, is that this voracious consumption has not necessarily improved the quality of human life.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 