Reporting the underreported about the plan of action for People, Planet and Prosperity, and efforts to make the promise of the SDGs a reality.
A project of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as the Flagship Agency in partnership with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.
![Nature Contributes to Economic Prosperity and Well-Being By Ramu Damodaran The author is Senior Fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP). NEW YORK (IDN) — I was in Athens three years ago this week, on what was to be my last trip outside New York, where I am based, before the pandemic; I have not travelled after that. My journey was to attend the International Conference on Energy and Climate Change, which the Energy and Policy Centre (KEPA) at the National and Kapodistrian University had organized. The fifteenth in a series of annual conferences takes place between October 13 and 15; as KEPA’s dynamic director, Dr Dimitrios Mavrakis, reminded us at the 2020 meeting, “during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, the daily global CO2 emissions cut to 2006 levels,” a statistic that revealed the savage brutality with which global despair can achieve results that global political will appears inadequate to attain. It is a truth that informs the magisterial “Our Common Agenda” report released last year by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in which he affirms that “addressing risks to our planet needs to be part of every decision, every policy, every investment and every budget” even as he, in the very next sentence, notes that “ the countries that are members of the G-20 provided over $3.3 trillion in direct support for coal, oil , gas and fossil fuel power between 2015 and 2019.” (A few days after the report was released, the “Guardian” reported that “the fossil fuel industry benefits from subsidies of $11 million every minute, according to an analysis by the International Monetary Fund.”) Statistical stealth allows the translation of these furtive figures into portrayals of robust economies that are misleading, obscuring the projection cited by Guterres that “shifting to a green economy could yield a direct economic gain of $26 trillion through 2030, compared with business as usual, and create over 65 million new low-carbon jobs.” Last year, the United Nations Statistical Commission adopted “a new framework that includes the contributions of nature when measuring economic prosperity and human well-being; the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA)”, dramatically expanding the instinctive but infirm indicator of gross domestic product (GDP) as the mark of measurement; the new standard “would ensure that natural capital—forests, wetlands and other ecosystems—are recognized in economic reporting. Experts emphasize that while a statistic such as GDP does a good job of showing the value of goods and services exchanged in markets, it does not reflect the dependency of the economy on nature, nor its impacts on nature, such as the deterioration of water quality or the loss of a forest.” Which brings to mind the “75—UN75 Trees UNAI SDG 7” launched in the UN’s 75th anniversary year by KEPA; at the end of 2020, the initially set target of 1 million trees was dramatically surpassed; official commitments to plant trees reached 11 million. It is measurements such as this that Antonio Guterres proposes to incorporate, bringing “together (United Nations) the Member States, international financial institutions and statistical, science and policy experts to identify a complement or complements to GDP that will measure inclusive and sustainable growth and prosperity,” countering the absurdity that “GDP rises when there is overfishing, cutting of forests or burning of fossil fuels.” In many ways, the KEPA conference, bringing together as it does governments, investors and bankers, scholars and scientists, anticipates the wisdom of such an endeavour. In a world where environmental responsibility is so ably and adventurously exercised at so many community and personal levels, even as human beings relentlessly prove themselves capable of destroying what they themselves cannot create, we do need an agency that, like the forest, serves to filter and channel those ideas before they reach the streams and rivers of concerted global action. That agency is the United Nations. In Greece’s first address to the United Nations General Assembly 77 years ago this month, Ambassador Thanassis Aghnides spoke of the Organization as “a magnificent framework; yet it is and will remain incomplete until such time as men of goodwill endow it with the breath of life, with a powerful soul, with a sense of human fellowship, good faith in international relations, and charity worthy of the United Nations.” In its stewardship of a planet and its people today, and the exercise of charity in its truest sense of kindness to all, including oneself, it can still realize that completion, as we blue the green. [IDN-InDepthNews – 29 September 2022] Image: KEPA brings scholarship to energy, climate ...and trees. UN Photo/Nektarios Markogiannis](/images/energy_climate_trees.jpeg)
By Ramu Damodaran
The author is Senior Fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP).
NEW YORK (IDN) — I was in Athens three years ago this week, on what was to be my last trip outside New York, where I am based, before the pandemic; I have not travelled after that. My journey was to attend the International Conference on Energy and Climate Change, which the Energy and Policy Centre (KEPA) at the National and Kapodistrian University had organized.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE (IDN) — A new 414 kilometres high-speed rail link between China and Laos has finally opened landlocked mountainous Laos to the region and made it possible for trade and tourism to expand across Southeast Asia. This link has technically facilitated rail travel from China to Singapore, and land-based trade that could make the South China Sea less important for regional trade. (P25) CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN
Viewpoint by Tina Nybo Jensen*
AMSTERDAM (IDN) — In this Decade of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we hear much about how organizations, countries and individuals are stepping up their efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda. Despite this, the reality is that the pace of action has not been quick enough, and we are already far behind on delivering the Global Goals.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — In the Asia-Pacific region which is home to about 60 percent of the global population, some 1.6 billion people primarily rely on open fires or simple stoves fueled by kerosene, coal, or biomass such as wood, dung and agricultural residues for their daily cooking needs, that impacts on climatic change and health hazards. (P11) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | THAI
By J W Jackie
RENO, Nevada, USA (IDN) — The latest International Renewable Energy Agency IRENA analysis reveals that by 2050, variable renewables like wind and solar PV will dominate the global total power supply. The insights from IRENA’s World Energy Transitions Outlook were released on March 16-17, 2021, at the Berlin Energy Transitions Dialogue.
With 163 Members, IRENA plays a leading role in the energy transformation as a centre of excellence for knowledge and innovation, a global voice for renewables, a network hub and a source of advice and support for countries. (P05) ARABIC | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
Viewpoint by Kaveh Zahedi* and Van Nguyen**
BANGKOK (IDN) – “The 2030 Agenda is coming to life”, declared the Secretary-General at the opening of the first SDG Summit [September 24-25], a quadrennial event for the follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As leaders from Asia-Pacific took the floor, they highlighted country progress of SDG implementation and reaffirmed commitment to achieve the 2030 Agenda. Statements reflected different approaches across the region. Yet all converged on one priority: accelerated actions and transformative pathways.
By Kizito Makoye
KIGALI (IDN) – At a bustling neighbourhood, nestled on the rolling hills of Nyamirambo, southwest of the Rwandan capital city, Kigali every woman has a story to tell about a smart cooker and how it has removed hardship when someone is preparing a meal.
“It’s such a good stove, it doesn’t emit smoke, it is easy to use and saves a lot of cooking time,” says Lydia Kashozi, a resident of Nyamirambo.
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK | BEIJING (IDN) – The world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs) will fail to achieve global sustainable energy targets by 2030 unless urgent and enhanced action is undertaken. This was the backdrop to discussions which took place on May 30-31, 2019 at a United Nations conference on 'Scaling-Up Energy Access and Finance in the Least Developed Countries' in Beijing, China.
Na Kizito Makoye
KENDWA, Tanzania (IDN) – Giza linapoingia, Natasha Mahmood na kaka yake hupiga gumzo karibu na mwali wa taa ya mafuta taa, wakiharakisha kumaliza kazi yao ya ziada kabla mama yao aizime taa ili kuhifadhi mafuta.
"Mimi mara nyingi hujaribu kuikamilisha mapema. Lakini hilo sio suala wakati wote. Mwalimu wangu wakati mwingine huniadhibu kwa ajili ya kushindwa kukamilisha kazi yangu," anasema Mahmood, moshi kutoka kwenye taa unapofuka ndani ya paa la mabati lililochafuliwa na masizi yanayotokana na moshi.
By Kizito Makoye
KENDWA, Tanzania (IDN) – As darkness falls, Natasha Mahmood and her brother huddle around the weak flame of a paraffin lamp, rushing to finish their homework before their mother blows it out to save fuel.
“I often try to get it done early. But that’s not always the case. My teacher sometimes punishes me for failing to complete my work," says Mahmood, as a trail of smoke from the lamp rises into a corrugated roof smirched with soot. (P08) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWAHILI
