5 things the world could teach America about economic justice

By John D. Sutter, CNN

Income inequality is going up, up, up in America. In Brazil, meanwhile, it's been dropping for years.

The likely outcome?

"Perhaps both countries will meet halfway," said Pedro Ferreira de Souza, a researcher at Brazil's Institute for Applied Economic Research.

Brazil, while still incredibly unequal, has realized something the United States hasn't: That wealth and income inequality are threats to democracy, and that smart policies can help narrow the gap between rich and poor. We would be wise to adopt the cash transfer programs and minimum wage policies that economists say have helped Brazil reduce its income inequality.

But many U.S. politicians are reluctant to deal with this issue.

"I think that is perhaps the most important lesson from Brazil ... that inequality IS a legitimate political matter," Ferreira de Souza wrote in an e-mail to me. "That it does affect people's lives and that at the end of the day, inequality begets inequality ..."

To deny that, he said, would be "ludicrous."

Here are five unexpected tips for how the United States can and should curb its rising income inequality, pulled from Brazil and other foreign shores, as well as our own history books. Adopting policies from other countries always raises eyebrows. None will be a perfect fit. But the bottom line is that we need to do something before we turn into a society where, as Ferreira de Souza put it, "rags-to-riches stories become increasingly unlikely."

1. Scandinavia: Equality is safer ... and skinnier

Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway are the gold standards for economic equality and justice. It's not that everyone is equal -- it's that the gap between rich and poor is small enough that it doesn't cause all sorts of other problems. Violence, mental illness ... even obesity. All of these are associated with economically split societies, according to decades of research that went into the book "The Spirit Level," by two epidemiologists.

Another outcome of income inequality is that it's harder to move up in a society. This has been proved by data, but it's also logical. When the gap is wider, a person has further to go.

"If you want to live the American Dream," said Kate Picket, one of the researchers, "you'd better go to Denmark or Finland."

Their rates of economic mobility are much higher. They achieve this with higher tax rates and better social services. Norway, for example, provides 10 weeks of paid paternity leave. College and health care are free in Denmark. When these tools exist and are available to everyone, it matters less how rich you are at birth. You have the same tools for success as everyone else.

2. Iceland: Publish the names of the rich

Economic inequalities are somewhat invisible in the United States. They're masked by credit, as Harvard's Michael Norton explained it to me, and we tend to surround ourselves with people from the same tax bracket. We also don't tell each other how much money we make. An Esquire writer tested this idea by running around the country asking people, "How much do you make?"

"You mean money?" one man responded.

Money isn't something Americans discuss. And maybe that's holding us back. Iceland clears up all mysteries about the size of the rich-poor gap by making individual income tax records public, said Stefán Ólafsson, a professor at the University of Iceland.

"It reveals the differences," he told me. In the lead up to the financial crisis, "people could see how the bankers earnings were galloping ahead of everybody else ..."

3. Australia: McDonald's pays $15 an hour

Fast-food workers in the United States have been protesting for a higher minimum wage. The federal minimum is $7.25 per hour, which is worth less than the minimum wage was in the late 1960s, when you adjust for inflation.

Australia, meanwhile, manages to pay all of its workers $15 per hour -- and the economy, fast-food and otherwise, hasn't collapsed. The country also maintains a lower level of income inequality.

4. Brazil: Income inequality isn't forever

In 2001, Brazil's Gini index rating, one measure of income inequality, was 59.4, according to a government source.

By 2009, it had dropped to 53.9.

A score of 100 means one person earns all income in the country.

Zero means income is perfectly distributed.

Related: Is class the new race?

Brazil is still more economically divided than the United States, which had a rating of 45 in 2007, according to data compiled by the CIA, but Brazil's downward trajectory is encouraging, and it's at least partly the result of policies designed to lift people out of extreme poverty and to encourage equality of opportunity.

One much-touted program, Bolsa Familia, provides direct cash transfers to poor families on the condition that their children attend school. The program only costs 0.5% of GDP per year, Ferreira de Souza said. "It certainly will not solve all our problems," he told me, "but it has played an important role in bringing down inequality."

The country also adjusts its minimum wage for inflation and pegs social support programs to that amount. The minimum wage has increased in recent years, making it possible for people to work their way out of poverty.

5. United States: Clues from a time capsule

Finally, we in the United States need look no further than our own history for tips about how to run a country where prosperity is broadly shared.

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich told me he's often asked which countries the United States should try to emulate to try to narrow the rich-poor gap. He always says 1950s or 1960s America. Back then, unions gave workers a voice; college was affordable; CEO pay wasn't off the charts; and the minimum wage was higher in relative terms.

Reinstating some of those policies might stop America from becoming more unequal than it already is. We're (barely) beating Zimbabwe. Let's keep it that way.

5 things the world could teach America about economic justice

Caribbean Looks to the Sky for Water Security

By Jewel Fraser, IPS News

A centuries-old system for ensuring water security is making a comeback in the Caribbean.

It’s known as rainwater harvesting, and it is now becoming a formal part of the region’s strategic planning in the face of not only more and stronger storms, but droughts as well. By 2100, there could be a 20 to 30 percent decrease in precipitation, research shows, making every drop count.

“Rainwater harvesting is, in fact, seen as one of the important tools to ensure resilience and redundancy in Caribbean water supplies, in particular to augment existing municipal water supplies,” Dr. Natalie Boodram, manager of the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), told IPS. “Rainwater can provide a backup water supply in case of disruption.”

One advantage is that the technology is already in place, with many householders, especially in rural areas, creating catchments for rainwater running off of their roofs to supply them with water for daily household use. In the Virgin Islands, slightly more than half of homes use RWH to supply all their water needs.

An estimated 500,000 people in the region at least partially depend on RWH, with the heaviest users including Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos and the Grenadines.

Earlier this month, ministers from the Caribbean Community meeting in Barbados launched a Water, Climate and Development Programme for the Caribbean (WACDEP) that promotes rainwater harvesting as one of the approaches to secure the region’s water supplies.

While RWH has existed for hundreds of years, Boodram says that municipal systems which depend on surface water supplies have displaced it in many parts of the Caribbean, so there’s a need to “re-establish a rainwater harvesting culture in the region.”

The GWP-C has undertaken a number of Caribbean rainwater harvesting projects, as part of its parent body’s worldwide initiative to support the integration of water security and climate change adaptation into development planning.

The aim was to eliminate some of the common problems associated with rainwater harvesting, such as “exposure to air pollution, animal droppings, contaminants from poorly maintained roofs, among other debris,” Boodram explained.

The technology promoted by GWP-C with the help of its partners, particularly the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, involves a first-flush diverter.

“The first-flush system which forms the bottom part of the downpipe is used to divert the initial water with pollutants from the roof, ensuring that these do not enter the water tank/storage device being used. The first flow of water containing roof debris would then settle at the bottom of the downpipe with the cleaner water settling on top, allowing clean water to enter the storage component,” she explained.

That design was used by Trinidad and Tobago’s National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST), which partnered with GWP-C to introduce rainwater harvesting technology to rural communities in Trinidad “with a focus on outfitting disaster shelters, namely, schools,” said NIHERST Senior Project Officer Lovaan Superville.

“Because of climate change, we need to be disaster prepared,” she said, adding that “the first thing to go in hurricanes is the water.”

NIHERST outfitted 15 schools with the rainwater harvesting technology, and provided a few of them with solar panels as a backup energy source as well. To ensure maintenance, Superville said they trained about 25 persons in each community, that is, Toco, Moruga, and Barrackpore.

“The materials used to make the rainwater harvesters are easily available, easy to clean. It’s out of local materials and so it is not expensive,” she said. “Any plumber or electrician, once trained in how our system works, can easily duplicate them.”

Interviews with the principals of some of the schools in Trinidad’s southeast communities of Moruga and Barrackpore confirm that the rainwater harvesters have thus far been a success.

Benjamin Santoo, the principal of Rochard Douglas Presbyterian school, told IPS that when the school cleaned the tap water tank, “it has four inches of slush. When we clean the rainwater tanks, we have no such problem.”

“Water used to come once a month [through the mains],” he added. “We depended on water trucks to give us water Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Because of the school population, 500-plus, the water that we had was not enough for both drinking and flushing toilets.”

In many instances, schools received pipeborne water from the municipal supply only twice a week, sometimes less. With the installation of the rainwater harvesters, they have been able to save the pipeborne water for drinking and use the rainwater for flushing toilets, watering gardens, and carrying out school projects.

Dr. Henry Smith is director of the Water Resources Research Institute, University of the Virgin Islands, where low groundwater resources have made it difficult to ensure a steady water supply.

“Rainwater harvesting at individual installations allows users access to a source that they can manage independently to their benefit as they develop a good understanding of their own needs, what they can expect from rainfall in their local area, and also what other sources of water might be available to them,” he told IPS.

“Harvesting can be a low-cost alternative, or supplement, that is based on relatively simple technology that could make a major difference to many people who might otherwise not be provided for as a result of climate change.”

Caribbean Looks to the Sky for Water Security

Treaty to cut mercury pollution signed by 92 countries

By SciDevNet

A ground-breaking, legally-binding global treaty on reducing mercury pollution has been signed by 92 countries.

The treaty spells “the beginning of the end of mercury as a threat to human health and the environment”, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Achim Steiner, told a diplomatic meeting in Japan earlier this month (10-11 October) where the treaty was signed.

But much work remains to provide the funding and technical and scientific advice needed to implement the treaty, and to expand mercury monitoring capacity worldwide, experts say.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury will come into force once 50 countries have ratified it. It was agreed in Geneva in January.

“We’re hoping that it will take a maximum of three years for ratification and that we will have early ratification based on the overwhelming support we have seen here, with 92 signatories and 139 countries in attendance,” Tim Kasten, deputy director of UNEP’s Division of Environmental Policy Implementation tells SciDev.Net.

The treaty bans a range of mercury products by 2020 and will forbid the mining of fresh mercury and mercury emissions from new power plants within 15 years of the treaty coming into effect.Countries will also be required to draw up plans to curb artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations — one of the biggest contributors to mercury pollution, according to UNEP January report ‘Global Mercury Assessment 2013’.

The ministerial conference in Kumamoto, Japan, discussed what needs to be done in the interim period until the treaty comes into force, including identifying the assistance required to help developing countries draw up mercury inventories.

The work ahead “includes a thorough scientific review of the mercury problems in their country — where the sources are, what kind of products are being made, what kind of emissions they may have,” Kasten tells SciDev.Net.

Western nations and international funds will donate funds to assist with this and other treaty requirements.

“The provisions for capacity building and technical and financial assistance — for example via [financing organisation] the Global Environment Facility and voluntary contributions — provide pathways to assist poorer countries and communities to be part of this remarkable global effort,” Steiner said.

Funding pledges

Japan pledged at the meeting to provide US$1 million towards drawing up international laws to regulate mercury, build capacity in developing countries and assist in finding industrial technologies to replace the need for mercury in mining and industry.

Switzerland announced a contribution of 7.5 million francs (around US$8.3 million), up from a pledge in January of 1 million francs.

Six million Swiss francs will go towards improving conditions in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector, Switzerland’s energy minister, Doris Leuthard, said.

Switzerland “will support the introduction of environmental, social and legal standards and technology in this sector,” she told the delegates. The rest of the funding will support ratification and early implementation of the convention.

Sweden announced an unspecified amount and Finland pledged €300,000 (about US$332,000) for the interim period. China and Norway made funding promises earlier in the year.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) had previously allocated US$15 million to mercury control measures. In June, it agreed another US$10 million under a funding round that lasts until 2014.

The US$25 million GEF funding and other pledges mean that upwards of US$30 million will be available to implement the convention before the treaty comes into force. But Kasten says this is well short of the US$100 million needed to assist countries with implementation before then.

Science advice

The ministerial meeting also discussed establishing an experts group to provide technical and scientific guidance.

“It will be a fairly significant undertaking to help identify what the best available technology and best available environmental practice requirements will be,” Kasten says.

A number of partnerships with the scientific community running parallel to the formal convention will continue to operate, says Noelle Selin, assistant professor in engineering systems and atmospheric chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States.

“We need to get better at not only monitoring, but also the modelling tools and interpretation tools that allow us to figure out where the mercury is coming from.”

But monitoring will also be crucial for assessing compliance, says Nicola Pirrone, coordinator of the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS), a project to establish a worldwide system for measuring mercury in the environment.

He says there are currently 45 monitoring stations around the world, but there is a lack of measurement in the Southern Hemisphere.

“What is needed for the convention is to have a global observing system that can provide data on mercury concentrations in all environmental areas,” including the oceans, he says.

If the system can be extended to a greater number of developing countries, it will help monitor whether the convention is effective, Pirrone says. “We are hoping to establish additional monitoring sites in artisanal gold mining areas, particularly Venezuela, Brazil and Chile.”

Treaty to cut mercury pollution signed by 92 countries

Future Development Goals: ‘The Tough Work is About to Begin’

By UNSDN

Macharia Kamau, the Kenyan representative to the UN in New York, has taken up the co-chair of the open working group on sustainable development goals (SDGs), a relatively low-profile UN initiative set up after the Rio+20 conference in Brazil last year. The group’s large task is the design of a new set of ambitious, global goals that will apply to all countries and help orient international attention – and resources – towards tackling some of the world’s most pressing problems.

To do this, he and Csaba Kõrösi, his Hungarian counterpart, will have to bring together governments, NGOs, campaign groups, and civil society.

So far, Kamau says, discussions have stayed close to poverty, hunger, water and other topics covered by the millennium development goals (MDGs) – the UN’s flagship development campaign set in 2000 and structured around eight goals to be met by 2015. From November, however, Kamau says debates will have to move on to trickier territory.

“The tough work is about to begin. People will have to face up to that,” he says. Issues on the table range from trade and debt, through to human rights and conflict, to biodiversity, oceans and forests. “I mean, the WTO has been stuck on trade for years, and here we are wading into that, but we have no choice.”

Unlike the MDGs, which Kamau describes as a “top-down arrangement” focused on developing countries, this new set of goals will apply to rich and poor countries and has to be built on progressive, negotiated agreements by UN member states, he says.

“There is a growing realization that we are all in the same boat. On some of these issues – biodiversity, climate, environment – there is no getting away from the fact that everyone has to contribute,” says Kamau, though he concedes that rich countries did initially seem a bit surprised, and a little sceptical about goals applying to them as well. There remains “a bit of a wait and see approach” from some governments, he adds.

Between now and March, the working group is looking for broad consensus on what the main issues are and how they affect all countries, says Kamau. The group will then get into detail on specific goals, and by September 2014 should have a set of proposals ready to unveil at the UN general assembly.

United Nations Social Development Network (UNSDN) » Future Development Goals: ‘The Tough Work is About to Begin’

RELEASE: New Effort Launched to Measure and Monitor Global Food Loss and Waste | World Resources Institute

Source: World Resources Institute

The World Resources Institute (WRI) October 21, announced the first step in designing a global standard for measuring food loss and waste. The forthcoming guidance, called the “Food Loss and Waste Protocol,” will enable countries and companies to measure and monitor the food loss and waste that occur within their boundaries and value chains in a credible, practical, and consistent manner.

The announcement was made at the Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) conference in Copenhagen, with the leaders of UN Environment Programme (UNEP), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), WRI, and others. The Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) also participated in the forum.

Food loss and waste refers to food intended for human consumption that is not ultimately eaten. WRI estimates that halving the rate of food loss and waste by 2050 would close more than 20 percent of the gap between the food available today and what is needed in 2050.

“Meeting the world’s growing food demand is one of the great challenges we face. But we can shift this dynamic by greatly reducing food loss and waste, a critical step in ensuring that all people have enough food to meet their needs,” said Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute. “Developing a consistent, global standard to measure food loss and waste will help create a more sustainable future for people and the planet.”

Globally, a significant amount of food is lost and wasted each year. One-third of food by weight (or one-quarter measured by calories) intended for people is not ultimately consumed. About two-thirds of the food calories lost in developing countries occurs immediately after harvest and in storage. About half of the food calories wasted in developing countries occurs at the point of consumption, whether at home or when eating elsewhere.

“The absurd reality that one third of all the food we produce is lost or wasted each year has significant impacts on people and the planet,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director. “Wasting and losing 1.3 billion tonnes of food annually is clearly an ethical issue given that 870 million people go hungry every day, not to mention the 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases this waste adds to the planet’s atmosphere.”

The Protocol will contribute to the “Think Eat Save: Reduce Your Food Print” campaign led by UNEP in collaboration with FAO, WRAP and other partners, as well as to FAO’s Save Food Initiative. The Protocol development will build on other programs, including engagement with EU FUSIONS, which is developing food wastage measurement guidance for the European Union.

“One of my priorities in FAO is opening our doors to potential allies. Fighting food loss and waste is clearly one area in which partnership is needed. Developing a global protocol can help provide clear measurements and indicators on which we can base guidance on how to reduce food loss and waste,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

The Protocol will provide guidance on multiple aspects of measuring food loss and waste. These include definitions, boundaries of what to measure, appropriate data sources and quantification methods, and how to evaluate tradeoffs between accuracy, completeness, relevance, and cost. By creating a global standard, the Protocol will ensure international consistency, enable comparability, and facilitate transparency by users. By using the Protocol, countries and companies will be able to identify how much and where food is being lost and wasted.

“We have committed to play a leading role in reducing food waste globally—not only in our stores but also in areas of shared responsibility from farm to fork," said Philip Clarke, CEO of Tesco, one of the world's largest food retailers. "Having a globally consistent standard for measuring food loss and waste will play an important role in taking effective, collaborative action to achieve our goals.”

WRI will convene numerous experts and stakeholders to develop the Protocol. Participants will include representatives from academia, the private sector, government, and civil society organizations.

“Public-private partnership will be a critical ingredient of this Protocol,” said Peter Bakker, President of the WBCSD. “We are delighted to be partnering with WRI again, supporting the development of this new Protocol. Bringing together experts and perspectives from a range of sectors is vital to ensuring that the measurement method is robust and will be widely adopted by the private sector, just as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol has been.”

Echoing the importance of collaboration, Richard Swannell, Director of Sustainable Food Systems for WRAP, said, “WRAP is delighted to lend its support to this ambitious project, availing of our extensive knowledge and practical experience of measuring food waste both in the home, the hospitality sector and the food retail and manufacturing sectors. Measuring the extent of food waste is a key requirement to engender action to reduce it, not only through highlighting the scale of the problem, but also to assess progress.”

During the 3GF session, Steer made an open invitation for interested parties to join the Food Loss and Waste Protocol development process.

To join or find out more, visit www.wri.org/food/protocol.

Additional resources are available at: www.thinkeatsave.org and www.fao.org/save-food.

RELEASE: New Effort Launched to Measure and Monitor Global Food Loss and Waste | World Resources Institute

GGGI Marks Its One-year Anniversary as an International Organization

Source

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) held the first Establishment Day Event at its Seoul headquarters on Friday, October 18 2013 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of GGGI since its official launch as an international organization. To mark the occasion, GGGI held several activities including the launch of the book called 'Post 2020 Climate Change Regime Formation' by Professor Suh-Yong Chung of Korea University, which is based on the GGGI International Expert Series, and the promotion of the Korea launch of the 'New Climate Economy Initiative', a new major global initiative on the economics of climate change.

In his welcoming remarks, Director-General Howard Bamsey said that "GGGI has become a truly international organization with membership from 20 countries and the ratification of GGGI's Headquarters Agreement by the Korean government. GGGI now operates in 20 countries assisting governments with development strategies that are more sustainable."

The Director-General added that "GGGI is the world's first and only international organization dedicated to green growth and its uniqueness helped the organization to be granted Official Development Assistance (ODA) eligibility status. The development has enabled GGGI to increase its ability to assist developing and emerging economies in green growth planning and implementation."

"As of mid-2013, GGGI has been developing, scoping, setting up or implementing over 20 green growth-related projects in developing and emerging countries across the world. On our work on the ground, we are seeing how countries increasingly recognize the potential of green growth to deliver wealthier, safer, more inclusive economies for their populations. GGGI is committed to continuously supporting them and sharing their experience with others," said Mattia Romani, GGP&I Deputy Director-General, GGGI.

DDG Romani explained that "GGGI is also supporting, together with other leading economic institutions in the world, the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, chaired by former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón. GGGI will work with the Commission, supported by a number of governments including the Republic of Korea, to produce a flagship report on the Economy and Climate Action in September 2014 at the UNSG Leaders Meeting in advance of COP 21 in Paris in 2015."

The Establishment Day Event was attended by distinguished guests including H.E. Dr. Dibaba Abdetta, Ambassador of Ethiopia; H.E Omar Al-Nahar, Ambassador of Jordan, H.E. Mr. Jose Luis Bernal, Ambassador of Mexico; H.E. Kaman Singh Lama, Ambassador to Nepal; H.E. Desmond Akawor, Ambassador of Nigeria; H.E. Bill Veri, Ambassador of Papua New Guinea as well as Boonam Shin, Ambassador to Climate Change, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea.

Embassy officials from Costa Rica, Finland, Denmark, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Norway, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the UAE as well as representatives from the EU delegation and UNDP took part in the event to congratulate GGGI's first birthday as an international organization.

On 18 October 2012, GGGI officially converted into an international organization from a non-profit foundation under Korean law. On September 18 2012, the Pacific island nation of Kiribati became the third country to approve GGGI's conversion, following the ratification by Denmark and Guyana. International law stipulates that at least three countries must ratify a treaty for such a transformation, and the agreement takes effect 30 days after the third ratification.

13 of the 20 member countries that have ratified the GGGI Establishment Agreement to date are Denmark, Guyana, Kiribati, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Qatar, Papua New Guinea, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Norway.

GGGI is an international organization dedicated to developing and diffusing a new paradigm of economic growth -- green growth -- which simultaneously balances economic performance and environmental sustainability to help build strong and inclusive societies. Headquartered in Seoul, GGGI works in long-term partnership with developing and emerging economies through rigorous green growth planning, research and public-private cooperation. For more information see: www.gggi.org

GGGI Marks Its One-year Anniversary as an International Organization

Forestry and the forest industry in a green economy-10min32sec

An effort is under way worldwide to better manage our planet's forest resources and better enhance their role in mitigating climate change. Forest loss and degradation in developing countries account for nearly 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Monitoring and reducing these emissions has been the key goal for the international community in climate change negotiations and is important for the upcoming Rio+20 conference on sustainable development. Viet Nam is one example of a country that's taking important steps to manage and expand its forest resources. Previous loss of forested areas has been reversed and the country is now increasing forest area by about 1% every year.