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
By J. Tuyet Nguyen
NEW YORK (IDN) – Governments from Africa, Caribbean, Pacific and the European Union issued on September 24 a joint declaration calling for “bold decisions” to implement the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate change agreements, saying that the two programs are closely linked.…
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK IDN) – Eminent leaders from business, politics, media, the film and music industries gathered in New York on September 22 to spotlight the 8000 km Great Green Wall – natural wonder of the world across the entire width of the African continent – as a practical, low-cost nature-based solution responding to the global climate emergency. They issued an urgent call on governments, civil society and business to join a growing global movement to make the Great Green Wall a reality by 2030.…
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – Time is running out for countries to achieve the global goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). A new report warns that if current trends continue, up to 5 billion people will still be unable to access health care in 2030 – the deadline world leaders have set for achieving universal health coverage. Most of those people are poor and already disadvantaged.…
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – A landmark new report has underlined the glaring – and growing – gap between agreed targets to tackle global warming and the actual reality. The report, United in Science, includes details on the state of the climate and presents trends in the emissions and atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gases. It highlights the urgency of fundamental socio-economic transformation in key sectors such as land use and energy in order to avert dangerous global temperature increase with potentially irreversible impacts. It also examines tools to support both mitigation and adaptation.…
By Bronwen Evans*
CHANTHABURI, Thailand (IDN) – There are generally two reasons why Thai farmers embrace organics – one is health and the other is economics. For 73-year old Kumnung Chanthasit it was the latter. He had farmed the same plot of land in Thailand’s eastern province of Chanthaburi since boyhood. Despite the rich volcanic soil, he found himself sinking deeper and deeper into debt as he struggled to pay for the fertilisers and pesticides he thought he needed. (P14) INDONESIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | TAGALOG | THAI
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Viewpoint by Luis Alfonso de Alba
The writer is the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Climate Action Summit.
NEW YORK (IDN) – Climate change is not a far-away problem – it is causing huge damage right now in Asia-Pacific and around the world. From air pollution choking many major cities, to more extreme heat and natural disasters, to one million species at risk, the urgent need for climate action is clear.…
Viewpoint by Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, President, Soka Gakkai International (SGI)
TOKYO (IDN) – “That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it,” observed Aristotle, highlighting an all-too-common human tendency. His warning is still relevant today, especially in our fight against climate change. CHINESE | JAPANESE | ITALIAN｜SPANISH…
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Since independence, natural resources in Kenya have been on a fast track to extinction. Today, nearly half of all its forests are gone, resulting in more droughts, floods and other dire consequences for communities, ecosystems, food security and infrastructure.
From 10% of the country covered in forest in 1963, noted Kaluki Paul Mutuku, Youth4Nature Regional Coordinator, Africa Group, only 6% was covered in 2009.…
By Josephine Latu-Sanft
The writer is Senior Communications Officer, Communications Division, Commonwealth Secretariat.
LONDON (IDN) – In the lead up to September 23 global climate summit in New York and barely two weeks after Hurricane Dorian battered The Bahamas, the Commonwealth’s top official is calling for urgent action to tackle climate change and its disastrous impacts.…
By Robert Johnson
PARIS (IDN) – A new report will call for attention when climate finance provided and mobilized by developed countries for climate action in developing countries is discussed at the Climate Action Summit at the UN in New York on September 23 and in the run-up to the COP25 climate talks in Santiago de Chile in December.
This report finds that while climate finance reached USD 71.2 billion in 2017 – marking an up from USD 58.6 billion in 2016 – it fell short of the goal to be reached by 2020.…
