Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Saturday, August 1, 2015
UN Security Council hears climate fears of small island states | RTCC
By Ed King, RTCC
Unusual debate at UN HQ in New York highlights security concerns of world’s most climate vulnerable countries
Leaders of small island states warned the UN Security Council on Thursday their future is under threat from climate change as rising sea levels eat away at their coastlines.
The prime ministers of Samoa and Jamaica joined UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon at the unusual session, which was also addressed by China, Russia, the UK, France and US.
Ban told envoys he hoped debate at Council level would aid negotiations on a UN-backed greenhouse gas cutting deal, due to be finalised in Paris this December.
Recent storms affecting Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands were forcing small islands to redefine the concept of security suggested Maldives foreign secretary Ali Naseer Mohamed.
“Our small size, geographic isolation, and high exposure to impacts like powerful tropical storms and other extremes make it challenging to prepare for a disaster before it strikes,” he said.
Tuvalu’s envoy to the UN Sunema Pie Simati revealed the tiny country had lost four islands since 2000, two of them after Cyclone Pam this year. The nation of 4 atolls and 5 main islands, has over 120 in total.
“That’s how fast our islands can disappear, in the blink of an eye,” she added.
Maldives minister: Warming above 1.5C will overwhelm islands
The UN rates 52 countries as small island developing states, which are dotted across the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.
Last year the UN’s IPCC climate science panel said sea levels had risen 20cm since 1900. Experts at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say that rate is now increasing.
A previous attempt in 2013 to get the Security Council to debate climate change was rejected by China, India and Russia, who said the UN’s climate convention is the proper place for these debates.
But this year’s New Zealand sponsored discussion received wide support, with 75 countries making statements.
UK ambassador Matthew Rycroft warned of mass migration and economic damage if climate change progressed “unchecked”, with Kiribati already buying lands in Fiji as an exit strategy.
“The risk climate change poses goes beyond our shores and those of small islands,” he said.
“Left unaddressed, climate change could constitute one of the gravest threats to international peace and security for generations.”
Speaking to RTCC before he addressed the Council, Maldives minister Mohamed said the debate was “just the beginning” and expressed hopes it would take a more active role in highlighting climate concerns.
“This is unprecedented at the highest level,” he said. “The international will and intention is there, and we believe that’s a good thing, but it is political support that is required.”
Unusual debate at UN HQ in New York highlights security concerns of world’s most climate vulnerable countries
Leaders of small island states warned the UN Security Council on Thursday their future is under threat from climate change as rising sea levels eat away at their coastlines.
The prime ministers of Samoa and Jamaica joined UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon at the unusual session, which was also addressed by China, Russia, the UK, France and US.
Ban told envoys he hoped debate at Council level would aid negotiations on a UN-backed greenhouse gas cutting deal, due to be finalised in Paris this December.
Recent storms affecting Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands were forcing small islands to redefine the concept of security suggested Maldives foreign secretary Ali Naseer Mohamed.
“Our small size, geographic isolation, and high exposure to impacts like powerful tropical storms and other extremes make it challenging to prepare for a disaster before it strikes,” he said.
Tuvalu’s envoy to the UN Sunema Pie Simati revealed the tiny country had lost four islands since 2000, two of them after Cyclone Pam this year. The nation of 4 atolls and 5 main islands, has over 120 in total.
“That’s how fast our islands can disappear, in the blink of an eye,” she added.
Maldives minister: Warming above 1.5C will overwhelm islands
The UN rates 52 countries as small island developing states, which are dotted across the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.
Last year the UN’s IPCC climate science panel said sea levels had risen 20cm since 1900. Experts at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say that rate is now increasing.
A previous attempt in 2013 to get the Security Council to debate climate change was rejected by China, India and Russia, who said the UN’s climate convention is the proper place for these debates.
But this year’s New Zealand sponsored discussion received wide support, with 75 countries making statements.
UK ambassador Matthew Rycroft warned of mass migration and economic damage if climate change progressed “unchecked”, with Kiribati already buying lands in Fiji as an exit strategy.
“The risk climate change poses goes beyond our shores and those of small islands,” he said.
“Left unaddressed, climate change could constitute one of the gravest threats to international peace and security for generations.”
Speaking to RTCC before he addressed the Council, Maldives minister Mohamed said the debate was “just the beginning” and expressed hopes it would take a more active role in highlighting climate concerns.
“This is unprecedented at the highest level,” he said. “The international will and intention is there, and we believe that’s a good thing, but it is political support that is required.”
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Video: the Summit of Conscience | Why do I Care
People from many of the world’s religions and wisdoms met in Paris on July 21 for a World Summit of Conscience to answer the question "Why do I care about the planet?” and launch a “Call to Conscience for climate”.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Investing in Disaster Protection | Dukascopy TV (EN)
Globally, disasters caused by natural hazards such as storms, floods and earthquakes take a huge toll in terms of human life, destruction of crops and livelihoods, and economic losses. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) estimates that between 2000 and 2012 some 1.2 million people lost their lives as result of disasters, 2.6 billion people were affected and the cost of the damage was some US$ 1.7 trillion.
Reducing the risk of disasters is a crucial part of sustainable development strategies and nature can play an important role in helping to protect us. IUCN’s Radhika Murti explains how in a new web television series called GreenViews on Dukascopy TV
Reducing the risk of disasters is a crucial part of sustainable development strategies and nature can play an important role in helping to protect us. IUCN’s Radhika Murti explains how in a new web television series called GreenViews on Dukascopy TV
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Civil Society Sceptical Over “Action Agenda” to Finance Development | IPS News
By Thalif Deen, IPS News
Despite high expectations, the third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) ended on a predictable note: the United Nations proclaimed it a roaring success while most civil society organisations (CSOs) expressed scepticism over the final outcome.
Hours after the conclusion of the conference in the Ethiopian capital, the United Nations trumpeted the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) as a “ground-breaking agreement that provides a foundation for implementing the global sustainable development agenda that world leaders are expected to adopt this September.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sounded optimistic when he said the agreement was a critical step forward in building a sustainable future for all since it provides a global framework for financing sustainable development.
He added, “The results here in Addis Ababa give us the foundation of a revitalized global partnership for sustainable development that will leave no one behind.”
But Dr. Danny Sriskandarajah, Secretary-General of the Johannesburg-based CIVICUS, was blunt: “This week we saw a further sign that we are at the beginning of the end of the post-World War II (WWII) development world order.”
Rich countries seem unable or unwilling to increase official aid flows, which stand at a fraction of what they themselves promised years ago, he said.
“We are disappointed that the FfD process has not yielded new resources to fund the investments needed to end poverty or taken meaningful steps to address problems in the international financial system,” he said at the conclusion of the conference Wednesday.
He added: “The outcome will not deliver the reforms we need in areas like tax, that most in civil society had hoped for and, that are needed to increase the resources available for development.”
Asked about the failed proposal for the creation of a global tax body, ActionAid’s international tax power campaign manager, Martin Hojsik, told IPS: “The decision is an appalling failure and a great blow to the fight against poverty and injustice.”
He said it means that developing countries, which are losing billions of dollars a year to tax dodging, are not being given an equal say in fixing unjust global tax rules.
“This lost money could have gone to the provision of education, healthcare and other poverty-reducing public services. While the multinationals prosper, the poor and marginalised will suffer,” he said. “The fight for a fair global tax system should not and cannot falter.”
In a statement released here, Oxfam International said unresolved rigged tax rules and privatised development are the major drawbacks of the FfD outcome.
However, after such tense negotiations there can be no doubt that developing countries’ determination to call for true global tax reform and tax cooperation has been noted, and cannot go unheeded for long.
Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “Today, one in seven people live in poverty and Addis was a once in a decade chance to find the resources needed to end this scandal. But the Addis Action Agenda has allowed aid commitments to dry up, and has merely handed over development to the private sector without adequate safeguards.”
She said developing countries held firm in Addis on the need to set up an intergovernmental tax body that would give them an equal say in how the global rules on taxation are designed.
“Instead they are returning home with a weak compromise meaning rigged rules and tax avoidance will continue to rob the world’s poorest people.”
Byanyima said fair taxation is vital in the fight against poverty and inequality.
“Citizens must be able to depend on their own governments to deliver the services they need. But it is just not logical to ask developing countries to raise more of their own resources without also reforming the global tax system that prevents them doing this,” she added.
Eric LeCompte, executive director of the Jubilee USA Network, told IPS “while compromised language on a tax committee was reached, we have the first global agreement that notes the harm of illicit financial flows and calls to stop them by 2030.”
Right now the developing world is losing a trillion dollars a year to corruption and tax evasion, he said, pointing out, “those are resources we need to end poverty.”
In a joint statement released late Wednesday, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), the Africa Progress Panel (APP) and Jubilee USA applauded the global commitment to reduce the massive flow of illicit funds from developing country economies.
For the first time international consensus was reached on the importance of an issue that has been at the forefront of efforts by hundreds of research and development organisations for the last 10 years.
Specifically, the FfD3 Outcome Document requires member states to “redouble efforts to substantially reduce illicit financial flows (IFFs) by 2030, with a view to eventually eliminate them, including by combatting tax evasion and corruption through strengthened national regulation and increased international cooperation.”
Additionally, the final text calls on “appropriate international institutions and regional organizations to publish estimates of IFF volume and composition”
The statement said the ability to measure illicit flows was at the heart of significant disagreement during the FfD3 preparatory negotiations in New York earlier this year with the 132-member Group of 77 developing countries calling for country-level estimates of illicit flow volumes.
In its statement, the United Nations said the Addis Ababa Action Agenda contains more than 100 concrete measures.
It also addresses all sources of finance, and covers cooperation on a range of issues including technology, science, innovation, trade and capacity building.
The Action Agenda builds on the outcomes of two previous Financing for Development conferences, in Monterrey, Mexico, and in Doha, Qatar.
Wu Hongbo, the Secretary-General of the Conference, said, “This historic agreement marks a turning point in international cooperation that will result in the necessary investments for the new and transformative sustainable development agenda that will improve the lives of people everywhere.”
Despite high expectations, the third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) ended on a predictable note: the United Nations proclaimed it a roaring success while most civil society organisations (CSOs) expressed scepticism over the final outcome.
Hours after the conclusion of the conference in the Ethiopian capital, the United Nations trumpeted the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) as a “ground-breaking agreement that provides a foundation for implementing the global sustainable development agenda that world leaders are expected to adopt this September.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sounded optimistic when he said the agreement was a critical step forward in building a sustainable future for all since it provides a global framework for financing sustainable development.
He added, “The results here in Addis Ababa give us the foundation of a revitalized global partnership for sustainable development that will leave no one behind.”
But Dr. Danny Sriskandarajah, Secretary-General of the Johannesburg-based CIVICUS, was blunt: “This week we saw a further sign that we are at the beginning of the end of the post-World War II (WWII) development world order.”
Rich countries seem unable or unwilling to increase official aid flows, which stand at a fraction of what they themselves promised years ago, he said.
“We are disappointed that the FfD process has not yielded new resources to fund the investments needed to end poverty or taken meaningful steps to address problems in the international financial system,” he said at the conclusion of the conference Wednesday.
He added: “The outcome will not deliver the reforms we need in areas like tax, that most in civil society had hoped for and, that are needed to increase the resources available for development.”
Asked about the failed proposal for the creation of a global tax body, ActionAid’s international tax power campaign manager, Martin Hojsik, told IPS: “The decision is an appalling failure and a great blow to the fight against poverty and injustice.”
He said it means that developing countries, which are losing billions of dollars a year to tax dodging, are not being given an equal say in fixing unjust global tax rules.
“This lost money could have gone to the provision of education, healthcare and other poverty-reducing public services. While the multinationals prosper, the poor and marginalised will suffer,” he said. “The fight for a fair global tax system should not and cannot falter.”
In a statement released here, Oxfam International said unresolved rigged tax rules and privatised development are the major drawbacks of the FfD outcome.
However, after such tense negotiations there can be no doubt that developing countries’ determination to call for true global tax reform and tax cooperation has been noted, and cannot go unheeded for long.
Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “Today, one in seven people live in poverty and Addis was a once in a decade chance to find the resources needed to end this scandal. But the Addis Action Agenda has allowed aid commitments to dry up, and has merely handed over development to the private sector without adequate safeguards.”
She said developing countries held firm in Addis on the need to set up an intergovernmental tax body that would give them an equal say in how the global rules on taxation are designed.
“Instead they are returning home with a weak compromise meaning rigged rules and tax avoidance will continue to rob the world’s poorest people.”
Byanyima said fair taxation is vital in the fight against poverty and inequality.
“Citizens must be able to depend on their own governments to deliver the services they need. But it is just not logical to ask developing countries to raise more of their own resources without also reforming the global tax system that prevents them doing this,” she added.
Eric LeCompte, executive director of the Jubilee USA Network, told IPS “while compromised language on a tax committee was reached, we have the first global agreement that notes the harm of illicit financial flows and calls to stop them by 2030.”
Right now the developing world is losing a trillion dollars a year to corruption and tax evasion, he said, pointing out, “those are resources we need to end poverty.”
In a joint statement released late Wednesday, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), the Africa Progress Panel (APP) and Jubilee USA applauded the global commitment to reduce the massive flow of illicit funds from developing country economies.
For the first time international consensus was reached on the importance of an issue that has been at the forefront of efforts by hundreds of research and development organisations for the last 10 years.
Specifically, the FfD3 Outcome Document requires member states to “redouble efforts to substantially reduce illicit financial flows (IFFs) by 2030, with a view to eventually eliminate them, including by combatting tax evasion and corruption through strengthened national regulation and increased international cooperation.”
Additionally, the final text calls on “appropriate international institutions and regional organizations to publish estimates of IFF volume and composition”
The statement said the ability to measure illicit flows was at the heart of significant disagreement during the FfD3 preparatory negotiations in New York earlier this year with the 132-member Group of 77 developing countries calling for country-level estimates of illicit flow volumes.
In its statement, the United Nations said the Addis Ababa Action Agenda contains more than 100 concrete measures.
It also addresses all sources of finance, and covers cooperation on a range of issues including technology, science, innovation, trade and capacity building.
The Action Agenda builds on the outcomes of two previous Financing for Development conferences, in Monterrey, Mexico, and in Doha, Qatar.
Wu Hongbo, the Secretary-General of the Conference, said, “This historic agreement marks a turning point in international cooperation that will result in the necessary investments for the new and transformative sustainable development agenda that will improve the lives of people everywhere.”
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Friday, July 3, 2015
Ecuador Moves From Money to Community to Measure Happiness | teleSUR
By teleSUR
The Ministry of Good Living will define new measures of well-being this month. Ecuador has planned to create new standards to measure well-being, including environment and community, moving away from income and economic growth as conventional markers.
To measure and define ‘Good Living’--or Buen Vivir in Spanish--experts from Latin America and Europe will come together to discuss the details on 2 and 3 July. The measures of happiness to be discussed will be based on three pillars: human beings, the environment, and community.
The new happiness index is based on the indigenous concept of "good living", or Sumak Kawsay in the indigenous Kichwa language. Good Living is protected and promoted under Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution.
According to the Minister of Good Living, Freddy Ehler, the way to measure progress shouldn’t be strictly based on economic income, but rather on what makes people happy and offers them ‘“inner peace.”
Currently international organizations like the United Nations and the OECD measure well-being based on a country’s GDP, purchasing powers and access to basic services.
For José Rosero, executive director of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), this is an “orthodox paradigm” linked to capital accumulation and economic growth. “You don’t need to acumulate wealth, but rather produce and consume the necessary amount,” Rosero said.
According to Rosero, Ecuador is also developing another form to measure poverty, which will include multiple aspects like health, education, and quality of life.
The ‘Good Living’ minister stressed that this requires individual change since ‘Sumak Kawsay’ is a personal choice to live in harmony with each other and with nature--not something that can be imposed by government, military, economic or political powers.
The project is inspired by the policy of Bhutan, a small country located close to the Himalayas, whose policy and development model is based on philosophy of gross national happiness (GNH ). This concept based on four pillars: sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development; the preservation and promotion of culture, environmental preservation and good governance .
Source
The Ministry of Good Living will define new measures of well-being this month. Ecuador has planned to create new standards to measure well-being, including environment and community, moving away from income and economic growth as conventional markers.
To measure and define ‘Good Living’--or Buen Vivir in Spanish--experts from Latin America and Europe will come together to discuss the details on 2 and 3 July. The measures of happiness to be discussed will be based on three pillars: human beings, the environment, and community.
The new happiness index is based on the indigenous concept of "good living", or Sumak Kawsay in the indigenous Kichwa language. Good Living is protected and promoted under Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution.
According to the Minister of Good Living, Freddy Ehler, the way to measure progress shouldn’t be strictly based on economic income, but rather on what makes people happy and offers them ‘“inner peace.”
Currently international organizations like the United Nations and the OECD measure well-being based on a country’s GDP, purchasing powers and access to basic services.
For José Rosero, executive director of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), this is an “orthodox paradigm” linked to capital accumulation and economic growth. “You don’t need to acumulate wealth, but rather produce and consume the necessary amount,” Rosero said.
According to Rosero, Ecuador is also developing another form to measure poverty, which will include multiple aspects like health, education, and quality of life.
The ‘Good Living’ minister stressed that this requires individual change since ‘Sumak Kawsay’ is a personal choice to live in harmony with each other and with nature--not something that can be imposed by government, military, economic or political powers.
The project is inspired by the policy of Bhutan, a small country located close to the Himalayas, whose policy and development model is based on philosophy of gross national happiness (GNH ). This concept based on four pillars: sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development; the preservation and promotion of culture, environmental preservation and good governance .
Source
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