Lines of people waited to collect drinking water during the drought in Cape Town, South Africa, January 2018.
©Mark Fisher/Shutterstock.com
By : Marianne Kjellén, Senior Water Advisor, UNDP
UNDP— Fears of cities running out of water have become very real in several parts of the world, most recently in South Asia in places such as Karachi, Islamabad, Chennai, and Delhi. These crises reveal severe underlying problems with water resource management and distribution. Continue reading
Bhagirath Yogi, London—Leaders from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have called the international community to ease their access to climate finance. Continue reading
Quamrul Chowdhury, Daily Star: 26 December: Amid deep frustration of scientists and activists, the political economy of climate change has taken a new turn at the ever-widening gulf between science and politics as a depleted number of official delegates from around 200 countries struggled to reach a common ground at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP24, in Katowice, Poland.
6 December 2018: A new review of climate targets says the global distribution of wealth shows how ‘fair shares’ should work, as the richest 10%t of the global population receives 52% of global income, must take greater responsibility for creating climate change, and has greater capacity to prevent the situation worsening.. The report After Paris: inequality, fair shares, and the climate emergency has been released during the UN climate conference in Poland (COP24) by social movements, NGOs, trade unions, faith and other civil society groups. Continue reading
Gebru Jember Endalew, Chair the 47-strong least developed countries (LDCs) group at the UN climate negotiations, says that LDCs’ vulnerabilities to climate change mean they are hurt the most by its effects; floods, droughts and storms stunt their development. The science is clear that these impacts – and more – are only going to increase in intensity and frequency. LDCs are among those who suffer the most from climate change, despite contributing the least to its cause. Continue reading
Governments in Least Developed Countries need to adopt a “pragmatic, strategic and evolutionary” approach to strengthen their public sector capacity, bring about institutional reform and promote policy learning, says a new United Nations report. Entrepreneurs in LDCs are marred by limited finances, weak infrastructure, and, often, elevated political, economic and environmental risks, so they are “forced into” small-scale, low-value economic activities, stifling growth, says the latest Least Developed Countries Report 2018, ‘Entrepreneurship for Structural Transformation’, issued by UNCTAD. Continue reading
14 November, 2018, Chiang Mai, Thailand: Women’s groups from Asia Pacific are deeply concerned about the bill passed by the Polish Government that will prevent any ‘spontaneous’ public gathering of climate groups during COP24 and subject human rights defenders to state-led surveillance including access and storing all personal information. They fear the Bill is setting a dangerous precedent that undermines human rights and fundamental freedoms, particularly including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, association and of speech, and the right to privacy in the context of digital technologies, multilateral process, and the role and importance of peoples’ organisations in fighting climate change. Continue reading
While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that an increase in global warming will adversely affect livestock and crop production, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, herders have already seen increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, drought, floods, and land degradation threaten their way of life. Continue reading
Following a meeting in Addis Ababa to discuss preparations for COP24 climate negotiations in Katowice, Poland in December 2018, Gebru Jember Endalew, Chair of the LDC Group, said the world’s 47 LDCs need climate action and collaboration to lift their people out of poverty and achieve low-carbon, climate-resilient sustainable development. Continue reading
HONG KONG, Mike Ives, New York Times, 13 September 2018— When industrialized nations pledged in 2009 to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 to help the poorest countries deal with climate change, it won over some sceptics in the developing world who had argued that rich nations should pay up for contributing so much to the problem. But so far only $3.5 billion is committed out of $10.3 billion pledged to the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF). Continue reading
