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Racism is “an evil infecting countries and societies around the world” the UN chief said in his message marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 20 March 2024 ---but it impacts communities differently. Credit: Unsplash/Clay Banks. UN News

By Shihana Mohamed
NEW YORK, Jun 12 2024 (IPS)

As we commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre this month, organizations and communities should focus on white privilege as it is a critical but often overlooked component of effective racial justice change processes. White privilege, rooted in European-led colonization, provides unearned advantages to white individuals, often unnoticed due to their perception as universal experiences.

In 1988, American scholar and activist Peggy McIntosh famously defined white privilege as: “The unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed upon people solely because they are white. Generally, white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.”

Operating within institutions, policies, and societal norms, white privilege perpetuates racial disparities on interpersonal and systemic levels. These structures, ingrained in globalization, sustain racist mindsets, enabling economic, political, and cultural hierarchies that benefit white communities. Dismantling such systemic privilege is complex as it is deeply embedded in modern societal structures.

White privilege is a concept that extends beyond the borders of the United States and Europe. Recognizing how white privilege operates worldwide is essential for meaningful change within organizations, social structures and communities. Discussions of global governance often omit race.

However, it is imprudent to ignore how racist views influence major decisions, including acts of aggression against perceived inferiors and vulnerable communities. Having white privilege and recognizing it is not racist as white privilege exists because of historic, enduring racism and biases.

During the General Assembly’s observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March 2024 United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that, “Racism is an evil infecting countries and societies around the world – a deeply entrenched legacy of colonialism and enslavement. The results are devastating: opportunities stolen; dignity denied; rights violated; lives taken and lives destroyed. Racism is rife, but it impacts communities differently.” He highlighted the persistence of racism globally, stemming from centuries of colonialism, enslavement, and discriminatory practices.

The establishment of the UN in 1945 occurred during a time when much of the world was under European colonial rule, leading to a dominant influence of colonial and former enslaving powers in its creation. This is reflected in the composition of the UN Security Council (UNSC) that plays a central role in maintaining global peace and security.

Particularly, the five permanent members, known as the P5, are the victors of World War II: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China. Among them, three are Western nations, and four are majority-White countries, while China is the only non-Western, non-majority-White member.

The P5 holds veto power, enabling it to block any significant resolution, regardless of widespread support from other member states. This privileged status originates from the post-World War II era, positioning the P5 members as the primary decision-makers in global security matters.

While the UN, as an international organization, employs a diverse workforce from various countries and backgrounds, white privilege still manifests within the UN system. The composition of staffing within the organizations of the UN system mirrors a pattern as in the UNSC.

Among the professional staff in UN organizations, there is a visible disproportionate parity between the West and the rest of the world. Out of five regional groups of the UN member states — Western European and Other States, African States, Asia-Pacific States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States — staff from Western European and Other States (including the United States of America and Canda) constitute more than half of the population of professional staff in the UN system. This disparity, directly and indirectly, contributes to the current organizational culture that enables racism and racial discrimination within the UN.

The JIU review on racism and racial discrimination found that staff from predominantly non-white countries in the global South tend to occupy lower-paid positions and wield less decision-making authority compared to their counterparts from predominantly white countries. Personnel identifying as Black/African descent, South Asian, or Middle Eastern/North African face prolonged career advancement timelines, contrasting with quicker progress for those identifying as white.

This racial discrimination in seniority and authority has emerged as a macro-structural issue to be addressed. The survey conducted by the UN Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) on racism and racial discrimination highlighted that discrimination, both subtle and overt, further divides staff from developed and developing nations within the UN, perpetuating notions of superiority and privilege. These dynamics, rooted in historical legacies of slavery and colonialism, impact recruitment, promotion, performance evaluation, and workload distribution within the organization.

Acknowledging white privilege is a crucial step toward addressing racism within the UN. It involves recognizing the inherent advantages that white individuals have due to the color of their skin and understanding that white privilege exists within the UN organizations.

This can be achieved by staff those identifying as white through learning, self-reflection, listening to marginalized voices, promoting empathy, challenging the status quo, collaborating with diverse groups, becoming an ally, and advocating for organizational change. While discussions around white privilege may be uncomfortable, the focus should be on implementing structural changes within the organization.

In the collective endeavor to eradicate racism within the UN, acknowledging white privilege stands as a fundamental component of the solution. The UN organizations must develop strategies to utilize white privilege to promote equality and dismantle systemic racism and biases within their institutions. Leveraging white privilege can be a powerful tool in creating a fairer and more just environment within the UN.

Shihana Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national, is one of the Coordinators of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls. She is a dedicated human rights activist and a strong advocate of gender equality and advancement of women. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shihana-mohamed-68556b15/

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Community Health Assistants from Kenya. Credit: Friday Phiri/Amref

By Friday Phiri
BONN, Jun 11 2024 (IPS)

There is a rapid realization that climate change is impacting health, which is why the recently adopted World Health Organization’s Climate Change and Health Resolution is considered pivotal.

“Knowing that some of the difficulties we are currently facing are a result of climate change is assisting us in understanding which diseases are prevalent when it’s dry or during heavy rains. That way, we can increase awareness of which of the diseases that commonly occur in Mandera, especially malaria, dengue fever, and cholera, are likely to spread depending on the season,” are the sentiments of health assistants only identified as Nasra, Salima, Samlina and Ubah.

They are among over 100 Community Health Assistants (CHAs) from Mandera County in Kenya who are part of on-going country-wide training by Amref Health Africa to build capacity on essential skills to tackle health challenges.

This exemplifies the different layers of challenges that climate change creates for the health sector, not only altering disease spread and patterns but also complicating service delivery.

African Group of Negotiators Chair Ali Mohamed of Kenya during the SB60 opening session.

It is for this reason that at the just-ended 77th World Health Assembly (WHA 77) in Geneva, Switzerland, the 194 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a historic resolution on Climate Change and Health.

The landmark decision marks a pivotal step in the global endeavor to protect communities from the diverse negative health impacts driven by climate change, as well as calling on the health sector to decarbonize.

The escalating climate crisis is a major driver of poor health outcomes, threatening to reverse five decades of progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction while exacerbating existing health disparities both between and within populations. The associated health damage costs are estimated to range between USD 2-4 billion annually by 2030. Regions with fragile health infrastructures, particularly in developing countries, will face the greatest challenges in coping without substantial assistance to bolster their preparedness and response capabilities.

“The movement to position health as ‘the human face of climate change’ has gained significant momentum with the adoption of this resolution, and I am profoundly optimistic about its transformative potential,” said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Amref Health Africa and the COP28 Climate and Health Envoy for Africa.

“This marks a pivotal moment where global leaders have formally acknowledged the urgent need to address the intertwined crises of environmental and public health with a unified, collaborative approach.”

However, there is still some work to be undertaken, as health is not yet part of the mainstream agenda of climate negotiations at the global level. The health community has the daunting task of navigating its way into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) processes for a comprehensive global agenda on climate and health.

It is worth noting, however, that there have been efforts at the global and regional levels, such as at COP26 in Glasgow, where the health community reached an important milestone in bringing human health to the forefront of climate change work, with initiatives to support countries in developing climate-resilient and low-carbon sustainable health systems.

At COP28, the Climate and Health Declaration articulated similar commitments, including pledges of financial support to the sector in support of climate and health actions.

At the 60th session of the UN Climate Change Subsidiary Bodies (SB60) in Bonn, Germany, the African constituency is seeking ways to actively engage in the discourse and ensure that Africa’s interests in relation to the impacts of climate change on health are well noted.

Amref Health Africa Director of Population Health and Environment, Dr. Martin Muchangi.

During the preparatory meeting of the African Group of Negotiators prior to the SB60, AGN outgoing Chair, Zambia, raised the climate and health agenda and encouraged negotiators to take keen interest and actively engage in the climate and health discourse to set Africa’s agenda, particularly in the Global Goal on Adaptation’s UAE-Belem work programme on indicators where health is one of the thematic targets.

“A crucial point for us to ponder under the UAE-Belem work programme is the inclusion of health as one of the thematic targets. Instead of waiting for this agenda to be set by others, we should, as a group, be actively involved. The work programme offers a window for us to input in terms of how health should be mainstreamed into climate negotiations. As AGN, we have the AAI, which stands out as a shining example of our capacity to set our own agenda in these processes,” said Dr. Alick Muvundika, representing Zambia, as outgoing Chair of the AGN.

Paragraph 9(c) of the GGA decision at COP28 urges Parties and invites non-Party stakeholders to pursue the objectives of the GGA and increase ambition and enhance adaptation action and support in order to accelerate swift action at scale and at all levels, from local to global, in alignment with other global frameworks, towards; attaining resilience against climate change-related health impacts, promoting climate-resilient health services, and significantly reducing climate-related morbidity and mortality, particularly in the most vulnerable communities.

In view of the decision, the health sector in Africa, led by Amref Health Africa and partners, is leading efforts in support of Africa’s active engagement in the UAE-Belem Work programme on indicators for the GGA framework, as well as general technical support for mainstreaming health in climate policies and plans.

During a meeting of African Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) with AGN Chair at the on-going SB60, Amref Health Africa Director for Population Health and Environment, Martin Muchangi, said climate change is complicating health interventions and delivery, adding that “the visible impacts highlight that health is the human face of climate change.”

Muchangi briefed the AGN Chair on Amref’s availability and readiness to support the group to ensure that the yet-to-be developed indicators and related metrics of the health thematic target in the GGA framework would be in line with Africa’s aspirations in view of the continent’s unique circumstances and vulnerability.

“Amref and partners stand ready to support and ensure that the impacts of climate change on health are systematically addressed through investments, capacity building, building strong and resilient health systems, and ensuring that the voice of reason and science gets us where we want to be,” added Muchangi.

And AGN Chair Ali Mohamed welcomed the World Health Organization (WHO) resolution on climate and health, saying it was a step in the right direction.

Ambassador Mohamed challenged CSOs to heavily invest in research for Africa’s positions to be founded on well-grounded evidence, saying the continent continues grappling with climate-induced challenges, thereby worsening most countries’ debt portfolios.

“I am aware of the climate and health agenda as the WHO passed a resolution last week. This is a welcome move amid the visible impacts of climate change on health. The impacts on infrastructure, water and all other sectors are ultimately on human health. For us, health is one of the thematic targets of the Global Goal on Adaptation and we are ready as a group to engage further on the matter,” said the AGN Chair.

“My plea is for us, and I challenge you as CSOs to invest in research. Let’s generate a formidable base of evidence, building on the existing evidence base of Africa’s vulnerability and disproportionate impacts of climate change so that our arguments in these processes are well informed and clear,” added ambassador Mohamed.

Amidst all this, a recent report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), titled “Building Africa’s Resilience to Global Economic Shocks,” indicates that climate shocks generally are highly correlated with the cyclical component of GDP growth and not with the long-term trend in Africa, which suggests that part of the volatility observed in growth emanates from climate-induced shocks.

With the situation already volatile, as highlighted, stakeholders continue to seek integrated interventions, including the mainstreaming of health in climate policies and plans.

Note: The author is the Climate Change Health Advocacy Lead at Amref Health Africa.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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While Africa is responsible for two to three percent of global emissions, the continent stands out disproportionately as the most vulnerable. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
BONN & NAIROBI, Jun 11 2024 (IPS)

As the planet groans under record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events, Africa, which is responsible for only two to three percent of global emissions, stands out disproportionately as the most vulnerable region in the world. 

António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General’s special address on climate action titled ‘A Moment of Truth’ said 2024 was the hottest May in recorded history, and that this marks twelve straight months of the hottest months ever. For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat.

“Our planet is trying to tell us something.  But we do not seem to be listening. Humanity is just one small blip on the radar. But like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, we’re having an outsized impact. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteors. We are not only in danger. We are the danger. But we are also the solution,” he said.

The speech was made during the 60th Sessions of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Bodies—also called the 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference—to build on the many mandates of COP28 in Dubai, drive forward progress on key issues and prepare decisions for adoption at the COP29 UN Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2024.

“We are at a moment of truth. It is a travesty of climate justice that those least responsible for the crisis are hardest hit: the poorest people, the most vulnerable countries, Indigenous Peoples, women and girls. The richest one percent emits as much as two-thirds of humanity,” Guterres observed.

Emphasizing that extreme events “turbocharged by climate chaos are piling up—destroying lives, pummeling economies, and hammering health. Wrecking sustainable development; forcing people from their homes; and rocking the foundations of peace and security—as people are displaced and vital resources depleted.”

Climate justice is an approach to climate action centered on the unequal impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations. It seeks to achieve an equitable distribution of both the burdens of climate change and the efforts to mitigate climate change, examining issues such as equality, human rights and historical responsibilities for climate change.

Activists demand that negotiators at the 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference and COP29 stay on track with climate finance demands. Credit: UNFCCC

This approach recognizes that marginalized or vulnerable communities, especially in developing and least-developed countries, often face the worst consequences of climate change. The “triple injustice” of climate change means that they frequently experience additional disadvantage as a result of climate change responses, which exacerbates already existing inequalities.

Meena Raman from the Third World Network spoke about the poor performance and duplicity of the developed countries.

“They come to these negotiations talking about issues such as mitigation ambition while regressing and moving away from the climate finance agenda,” she said, pointing to the failure of the developed world to keep to their promises of reducing their carbon emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020.

“There are only 17.4 percent emissions reductions overall in developed countries and economies in transition…This is the height of irresponsibility.”

She also called them out on climate finance.

“The developed world has only managed to generate about USD 51.6 billion annually from 2019 to 2020, against a commitment of USD 100 billion per year. And here they come talking about achievements and being on target while they are nowhere near that target,” she said.

Sara Shaw from Friends of the Earth International stressed that developed countries have not provided the finance they owe to developing countries over the past decades to deliver a just transition and a meaningful and just phase out of fossil fuels. This has led to a dire emergency situation, with the impacts of the climate crisis becoming increasingly devastating.

“The situation is fueling, understandably, a narrative of urgency. But instead of the urgency meaning that the action is directed at tackling the root causes of the climate crisis at source, including fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions, we see rich countries and big polluters chasing after a range of dangerous distractions, such as the carbon market,” she said.

Raman speaks of a lack of good faith in the negotiations, of big countries minimizing and disguising their contribution to global emissions, and their financial responsibility to developing and underdeveloped countries. Saying there is a resistance to focusing on finance and a deliberate shift to focusing on other issues.

“Developed countries are saying that negotiations here are not only about finance but about the global stocktake—how parties have progressed towards achieving global climate goals—in their entirety. The negotiations are about every global stocktake outcome. But what they are attempting to do is dilute and muddy the discussions so that there will not be a total focus on finance,” Raman emphasized.

“For Baku, COP29 is a finance COP and the new collective quantified goal on finance is a very critical discussion that is going on now and that has to be decided in terms of what the quantity of the new goal is going to be.”

Civil society from Africa, under the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), is in Bonn to voice their concerns and demands on behalf of millions of Africans suffering from climate change’s impacts. To remind the Parties to the UNFCCC of their moral and legal obligations to protect their planet and people from the existential threat of global warming. To hold them accountable for their actions and inactions that have caused and exacerbated this crisis.

“Africa is on the frontlines of the climate crisis. We are experiencing the worst effects of a problem that we did not create. Our communities are facing severe water scarcity, crop failures, malnutrition, diseases, displacement, conflicts, heat waves and loss of life due to climate change. Our natural resources and ecosystems are under immense pressure from climate change and other human activities. Our development prospects and aspirations are being undermined by inadequate support and finance from the international community,” their joint statement read.

Their statement said their call was not for charity or sympathy.

“We are here to demand justice and equity; to demand that the parties, especially those from the North, stop procrastination; to call on them to listen to the voices of the people, especially those who are most vulnerable and marginalized, and to act following the best available science and the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities. We are here to call on rich countries to demonstrate leadership and courage in tackling this crisis that threatens our common future.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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International LGBT+ Pride Day, also known as National Pride Day, is celebrated on June 28th each year. The day commemorates the Stonewall Riots, which took place on June 28, 1969 when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village. Credit: Unsplash/Mercedes Mehling

By Winnie Byanyima
Jun 11 2024 (IPS)

The events of this year’s PRIDE month are showing the world the power of inclusivity. It is by only insisting on acceptance, and rejecting criminalization, discrimination and stigmatization, that we can ensure a fairer, safer, future for all. We are all invited to be allies.

PRIDE has always been a protest and commemoration as much as celebration. The first marchers in New York more than 50 years ago understood PRIDE as a way to reject the shame that others sought to impose on them, and to honour the memory of people who had been mistreated and defamed.

For them, defiance and joy were not opposites; their joy was defiance. The LGBTQ+ community have refused to accept subjugation, and have stood in solidarity with all marginalized people.

Winnie Byanyima

PRIDE has always been about collective action for justice. The determination of LGBTQ+ communities and of allies to ensure inclusion for all people has been core to the advances that have been made in recent decades on human rights and in public health.

It is not a coincidence that it was the networks of gay activists built up from the late 1960s who went on to pioneer the community response to HIV at the onset of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. They helped mitigate the spread and impact of the virus by providing peer-to-peer information about HIV and delivering care and support at a time when no one else was willing to do so.

They reached out in partnership to defend all minorities from discrimination and violence, and they founded campaigns to overturn the laws and attitudes which violate human rights and obstruct people’s access to services.

As HIV treatment and prevention innovations expanded, it was groups spearheaded by LGBTQ+ activists including ACT UP in the United States and the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa who drove the campaigns to break the monopoly hold on production of medicines so that all who needed medicines to treat and prevent HIV could access them.

So much has been won. At the beginning of the AIDS pandemic most countries criminalized LGBTQ+ people — but today more than two thirds of countries do not criminalize them. Since 2019 alone, Botswana, Gabon, Angola, Bhutan, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Singapore, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cook Islands, Mauritius and Dominica have all repealed laws that had criminalized LGBTQ+ people.

But the progress that has been made is in danger. LGBTQ+ people are under attack, and alongside the attacks on LGBTQ+ communities are attacks on the rights of women and girls, on migrants, and on ethnic and religious minorities.

Leaders fearful of their status and power are whipping up hatred of minorities to divert attention from economic and political woes. They are pushing for draconian laws and enabling vigilantes to follow through on their verbal violence with physical violence.

Meanwhile, at a time when solidarity with human rights defenders is vital and urgent, funding support for civil society organizations is shrinking as donor countries cut their budgets.

We are at a hinge moment, a crossroads: the end of AIDS as a public health threat is realizable in this decade, but progress is imperiled; we can win the battle for human rights for all, but only if we join together to fight for it. Our collective future will be set by what we do now. Courage and urgency in support of everyone’s human rights is essential to protect everyone’s health.

It is the people at the toughest intersections of injustice who are leading the way. But they cannot succeed alone; they need allies not only on their side but by their side. Stigma kills; solidarity saves lives.

The United Nations is clear: be proud of who you are, and be proud to be an ally for the human rights of everyone.

Winnie Byanyima is Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. The link follows: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media/images/unaids-executive-director-winnie-byanyima.jpg

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A village with 9,144 solar panels about eight kilometers from Juazeiro, a city and municipality in Brazil's semi-arid Northeast region, hosts a failed electricity and income generation project, which for three years enabled investments in the urbanization and community development of the 1,000 resident families. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

By Mario Osava
JUAZEIRO, Brazil , Jun 10 2024 (IPS)

“I feel like a mother who lost her son to drugs, to vice, destroying himself,” says Lucineide da Silva, 56, mother of eight children and grandmother of 11.

With her lost son, she symbolizes a novel solar energy project that used the roofs of a village built by the government programme “My House My Life” in Juazeiro, a municipality with 238,000 people in the state of Bahia, in the Northeast region of Brazil.

The 174 two-story buildings, totaling 1,000 family housing units, turned into a small power plant, with 9,144 photovoltaic panels installed on their roofs. With an output of 2.1 megawatts and the capacity to supply 3,600 low-consumption homes, the installation generated electricity from February 2014 to October 2016.

In addition to self-supply, each family in the village earned income from energy surpluses sold to the local power distribution company. Of this income, 60 per cent was distributed among the villagers and 10 per cent went to equipment maintenance.

The remaining 30 per cent of the profits were invested in Morada do Salitre and Praia do Rodeadouro, the two complexes the unnamed village was divided into for community administration.

Lucineide da Silva helped install the solar panels, having been trained with other residents of the two complexes that make up the unnamed village in northeastern Brazil. Her efficient work and passion for the project earned her the nickname “Galician of the panels”. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Energy for community cohesion

This income enabled residents to urbanize the town, with trees, clean streets, speed bumps for vehicles and security officers. Also, two community centers were built, offering medical and dental care, as well as computer and sewing courses.

Such benefits helped build a real community, with a sense of belonging and social organization, the stated goal of the project, developed by the company Brasil Solair and financed by the Socio-environmental Fund of the Caixa Economica Federal, a state bank with social purposes.

“It’s the best of the My House My Life villages I know,” assured Toni José Bispo, 64, despite his criticism of the solar project. “I had no benefit, the panels break the tiles, better take them all off as a neighbor did,” said the food merchant, who built a store in the front yard of his house.

A Community Center built by one of the two complexes in the city of Juazeiro, with income from the sale of electricity. Computer and sewing courses, apart from doctors and dentists, were other benefits of the small photovoltaic power plant installed in the village in northeastern Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

The useless photovoltaic panels have caused widespread complaints since October 2016, when the state-owned National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) cancelled the license to operate the small power plant.

The project had been launched with a license from Aneel, with a three-year deadline for it to comply with the specific regulation for distributed generation, up to five megawatts and carried out by the consumers, who can produce energy for self-supply and not for sale.

Brazilian regulation only allows “prosumers” (consumer producers) to deduct from their electricity bill the amount of energy generated and supplied to the distribution network, which is the basis for the development of community or distributed electricity. Certain types of association, such as cooperatives, allow this benefit to be shared, but without commercial purposes.

With the non-compliance by Brasil Solair, a company that disappeared from the market, and Caixa Economica Federal, the 9,144 photovoltaic panels remain for the last eight years a sad reminder of the project that was to be the inspiration of other My House My Life communities, which since early 2019 has provided 7.7 million homes.

Toni José Bispo’s small store, set up in front of his home, as is typical of the northeastern Brazilian town, has caused strong competition in a community with low demand and income. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Social decay

The town, with an estimated population of almost 5,000, is evidently in decay. Aging, fading walls, broken or missing roof tiles, garbage in the streets that was not noticeable during IPS’ previous visit in June 2018, are the most apparent signs. Some panels also appear damaged.

Violence and drug trafficking are other side-effects that can be attributed, at least in part, to the impoverishment of the local community.

Nicknamed “the Galician of the panels” because she excelled in their installation, Lucineide da Silva is “proud” of working on the project, as one of the trained villagers, and dreams of its restoration.

“We have many poor families. Solar energy would help them with their expenses, to have air conditioning to counter the heat, that is strong here”, he said.

“This complex is better than others, it gets top marks, but if the project were active it would be a reference for everyone”, said Da Silva, who rejected offers to continue installing panels, because she would have to work far away. She prefers to take care of children and senior citizens.

Gilsa Martins was an administrator in one of the two complexes organized for community management. She failed in her attempt to restore the photovoltaic energy and income generation project, but did not lose hope of giving back to her community the benefits of distributed generation. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Gilsa Martins, who was a community administrator of the Morada do Salitre complex during the good years while the project was active, and the bad ones that followed, still hopes to restore it. At 66, she is willing to “return to Brasilia” to negotiate with the government, as she has done in the past.

The useless photovoltaic panels have caused widespread complaints since October 2016, when the state-owned National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) cancelled the license to operate the small power plant

“Everything is deteriorating as a result of the neglect we are subjected to, with no support from the public administration,” she lamented. The computer and sewing courses are cancelled, and without the income from the solar power plant “we no longer have dentists or doctors here, since the public authorities don’t contribute anything,” she added.

The numerous stores in residential front yards reveal a lack of income sources. Many try to survive with informal businesses in a local market with insufficient demand. “Too much competition and not enough buyers,” Bispo said.

“The local population is sustained by the jobs offered by the irrigation districts, including young people who finish high school, but they have no opportunities in nearby commerce and industry,” he explained.

Juazeiro is at the center of an irrigated agriculture hub, with water from the São Francisco river pumped to seven irrigated districts or perimeters where the government settled small, medium and large farmers, and to large independent farms that stand out as the largest producers of mango and grapes for export.

Hired workers commute daily on buses from these companies and from the districts, generally subject to the seasonality of the fruit. “They are our salvation,” said Martins.

The Bolsa Familia, a government income transfer program, also “protects many unemployed mothers. That’s why we don’t go hungry here,” he said.

But people complain about inadequate transportation. They only have one bus to commute to the city of Juazeiro, the municipal capital, eight kilometers away. It is a common adversity among My House My Life communities, usually located far from the city and its urban infrastructure and services.

A roof with solar panels and transformers installed on a neighboring building. This equipment is going to waste since the small power plant was shut down in 2016. Brazilian restrictions on distributed or community generation make its restoration difficult. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Solar roofs

Complaints against photovoltaic panels are also widespread, assured Martins. “Many complain of holes in the roof and blame them on the panels, others want them removed,” he said.

“Since the panels were installed I’ve had leaks in the roof, draining down the walls. Then they spread to one room and the corridor, then to two rooms. My husband plugged them with cement. We have already lost a bed and a closet,” explained Josenilda dos Santos, 37 and with five children.

She remembers having received income from electricity only for three months, 280 reais (about 120 dollars at the time) the first time and only 3 per cent of that the last time. “I will take all of them off, since they are useless, they only heat the rooms,” she concluded.

“The sun, like water, is a common wealth, but only capital appropriates it. Solar roofs for decentralized electricity generation can generate income for the population and reduce poverty, especially in the countryside,” according to Roberto Malvezzi, a local activist with the Catholic Pastoral Land Commission.

The failure of the My House My Life pilot project hinders a promising path, in addition to wasting 9,144 panels already installed on the roofs.

Mavsuma M. Muini, deputy chairperson of the Majlisi Namoyandagon Majlisi Oli (Parliament) of the Republic of Tajikistan.

By IPS Correspondent
Jun 10 2024 (IPS)

It’s been 30 years since the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (ICPD30) was adopted in Cairo, transforming policy and thinking on population and development issues.

During this crucial year, parliamentarians are participating in the 30-year review, recognizing that while there has been significant progress, this is threatened by multifaceted crises, including the backsliding on the rights and choices of women and girls and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regional parliamentarians are gathering this week on the sidelines of the Third Dushanbe Water Action Decade Conference in the Republic of Tajikistan.

On the agenda are topics related to demographic shifts, gender equality, young people’s empowerment, water scarcity and climate change, which will form a milestone on the way to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku in November 2024.

Ahead of the meeting, IPS interviewed Mavsuma M. Muini, deputy chairperson of the Majlisi Namoyandagon Majlisi Oli (Parliament) of the Republic of Tajikistan.

IPS: What role do people see for addressing climate change and ensuring that water scarcity is not exacerbated?

Mavsuma M. Muini: The Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) provides a good basis for multilateral cooperation across the entire spectrum of population issues. Adopted in Cairo in 1994, the document remains relevant and appropriate in the context of contemporary demographic processes.

With the adoption of the ICPD Programme of Action, governments set an ambitious agenda for achieving inclusive, equitable and sustainable global development and contributed to significant improvements in gender equality and women’s empowerment, poverty reduction, increased access to health and education, and environmental sustainability. The ICPD Program of Action was a landmark in the history of human rights, women’s empowerment and sustainable development.

Based on the ICPD agenda, we must now mobilize our supporters and our governments to implement the strategies, principles, goals, and targets identified in the Programme of Action related to demographics, climate change, water and food security, and increased access to renewable energy. More concrete and inclusive climate solutions must be accelerated and scaled up to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Environmental challenges, such as global climate change, which is largely driven by unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, are exacerbating threats to the well-being of future generations.  This situation is exacerbated by increasing and recurrent extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, which are straining our ecosystems and having catastrophic consequences for global food security.

In view of the above, the water initiatives of the Republic of Tajikistan, supported by the UN General Assembly, including the declaration of 2003 as the International Year of Freshwater, 2005–2015 as the International Decade of Action “Water for Life,”  2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation, and 2018–2028 as the International Decade of Action “Water for Sustainable Development,”  have strengthened the understanding of the world community of the need to move from the discussions on the expression of water for sustainable development. The International Decade of Action “Water for Life,” the 2013 International Year of Water Cooperation and the International Decade of Action “Water for Sustainable Development,”  2018-2028, strengthened the understanding of the world community’s need to move from discussions, expression of intentions and declaration of commitments to the implementation of practical measures. This is a new strategic goal of the international community for the sake of life and humanity.

Speaking at the World Water Forum in Istanbul, the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rakhmon, proposed adapting fundamental international legal documents in the field of water resources management, taking into account modern requirements and challenges. He also took the initiative to declare 2012 the International Year of Water Diplomacy to strengthen cooperation in the settlement of water relations.

The solution to water problems on a global scale is becoming more complicated due to climate change, which is becoming increasingly evident in all regions of the globe. Recognizing climate change as the main challenge to water resources, the President of the Republic of Tajikistan proposed to declare 2025 the International Year of Glacier Conservation, as well as to define World Glacier Conservation Day and establish a special Trust Fund under the UN to promote glacier conservation.

On December 14, 2022, the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on declaring 2025 the International Year of Glacier Conservation, proposed by the Republic of Tajikistan. It is unique in its essence, as it simultaneously declares both the International Day and the International Year of Glacier Conservation. All these efforts of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, respected Emomali Rahmon, are characterized by the desire to attract more attention from the world community to solving water issues and improving water cooperation.

IPS: As parliamentarians responsible for the legislative framework and financial resources for the ICPD POA, what key messages would you like to take to the Summit of the Future regarding reproductive health rights and women’s empowerment for the region?

Muini: The commitment of parliamentarians is vital as a bridge between the people and the government in creating support and an enabling environment to accelerate and implement the SDGs to increase gender equality and violence development.

Tajikistan, having endorsed the ICPD Programme of Action, adopted it as a framework for achieving national development priorities and implemented several policies and strategic and practical measures to ensure human rights and equality, which are fundamental to the country’s development. The Government of Tajikistan has identified reproductive health as a key priority of health reform and reproductive health-oriented measures as priorities of the National Development Strategy 2030 and SDGs.

It is significant that in order to implement the ICPD Program of Action in Tajikistan, a National Council on Population and Development was established, which brought together the efforts of the Parliament, the Government and civil society to develop and implement legislative acts, set and solve joint tasks and jointly monitor the implementation of legislation on population and development. It is clear that the development challenges facing the global community require the systematic involvement of all stakeholders in developing responses.

A world where everyone can live their lives with greater dignity is within reach. We must ensure that people’s rights and choices remain central to ensuring a sustainable future in a demographically diverse world. Parliamentarians must therefore focus their efforts in tandem with UNFPA, AFPPD and other regional or international partners to protect people’s rights and needs, reproductive health rights and women’s empowerment by improving or introducing more effective laws.

The legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan guarantees young people’s access to health care, reproductive health and family planning services, and training in healthy lifestyles.

We are fully committed to the continued implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and call for the inclusion of the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General and the results of the regional reviews in the 2030 Development Agenda.

IPS: While there is a perception that the world is far behind the projected outcomes of the ICPD, there are successes to celebrate. The conference has planned a session about how parliamentarians have contributed to adopting laws and policies addressing inequalities, positioning population dynamics in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and empowering women and young people. Could you please share some of these?

Muini: In April 2019, UN Member States at the UN Commission on Population and Development adopted a Political Declaration calling for the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This provided the political impetus for governments and all other relevant partners to come together, celebrate the adoption of the ICPD Programme of Action and celebrate its success in advancing rights and choices for all.

Our countries have made some progress towards achieving the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development, but concrete measures still need to be taken to fully implement the program. This requires, inter alia, systematically integrating population dynamics into national and international strategies and policies, reflecting such factors as population ageing and declining fertility, climate change, natural disasters, conflict and displacement, the reversal of the HIV pandemic, and comprehensively addressing international migration in the context of the ICPD.

In this regard, we reaffirm our commitment to the ICPD Programme of Action, recognizing that its implementation is essential for countries to eliminate social and economic inequalities, improve the lives of all their peoples, ensure the health and rights of women, men, girls and boys, including sexual and reproductive rights and health, promote gender equality and women’s health, create an environment in which all people can live in dignity, protect the environment, and protect the rights of women, men, girls and boys. We also reaffirm the commitments made at earlier ICPDs and emphasize our willingness to act with a sense of urgency.

We believe that progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the next steps in accelerating action to achieve the three transformative results by 2030 can only be achieved with an increased focus on protecting and promoting the rights and inclusive participation of women, adolescents and youth.

Note: The UNFPA, the Japan Trust Fund, the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) and the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) supported this workshop.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: Jimmy Villalta/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Jun 10 2024 (IPS)

Venezuela’s 28 July presidential election could offer a genuine chance of democratic transition. Despite an array of challenges, the opposition is coming into the campaign unified behind a single candidate. Many Venezuelans seem prepared to believe that voting could deliver change.

But the authoritarian government is digging in its heels. The opposition reasonably fears the election could be suspended or the government could suppress the opposition vote. Large-scale fraud can’t be ruled out.

All credible opinion polls show that authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro, in power since the death of Hugo Chávez in 2013 and seeking a third term in office, is highly unpopular. But his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) extensively controls the state apparatus. Electoral authorities aren’t neutral and the election system is riddled with irregularities. A recent decision by the government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) excluded from voting over five million Venezuelans who’ve emigrated.

If the opposition defeats the PSUV at the polls, the government will only accept the results if the costs of repression outweigh the costs of withdrawal. This means some form of exit guarantees will need to be agreed. An agreement to coexist would also be needed for a transition period that could last several years, during which PSUV supporters would continue to hold important positions and the party would need to be given the chance to reinvent itself as a participant in democratic processes.

Civil society in resistance mode

Venezuelan civil society has long played a key role in promoting democracy and defending human rights. But civic space has increasingly been shut down, with activists and journalists routinely subjected to threats, harassment, intimidation, raids, arrests, detention and prosecution by courts lacking any independence.

Many civil society organisations (CSOs) and media outlets have closed and others self-censor or have changed their focus to avoid reprisals. Numerous journalists, academics and activists have joined the exodus to other countries.

The government give repression legal cover through a barrage of laws and regulations, supposedly on grounds such as the defence of sovereignty and the fight against terrorism. Many of these, starting with the 2010 National Sovereignty and Self-Determination Law, sought to restrict access to funding to financially suffocate civil society.

In 2017, the state introduced the Constitutional Law Against Hatred, for Tolerance and Peaceful Coexistence, known as the Anti-Hate Law, imposing heavy punishments, including lengthy jail sentences, for inciting hatred or violence through electronic means, including social media. The law leaves the definition of what constitutes hate speech to the government-aligned courts.

In 2021, the government passed an International Cooperation Act that includes a mandatory register of CSOs and an obligation to provide sensitive information.

The government has doubled down ahead of the election. In January, the National Assembly approved the first reading of a draft law known as the Anti-NGO Law, which would prohibit CSOs from engaging in vaguely defined ‘political activities’. The National Assembly is also currently discussing a law against fascism, aimed at banning and criminalising ideas, expressions and activities it deems to be ‘fascist’.

A united opposition

Over the years, the opposition has found it hard to present a unified front and a credible alternative. But this has changed in the run-up to the 2024 election, with the opposition agreeing to select a single presidential candidate.

María Corina Machado emerged as a consensus candidate with over 90 per cent of the vote at the October 2023 primary election. More than two million people were said to have taken part, defying threats from the authorities, censorship and physical attacks on candidates.

In an attempt to regain the initiative, the government sought to stir up nationalist sentiment by activating its dispute over Essequibo Guiana, a large territory in Guyana claimed by Venezuela. In December 2023 it held and predictably won a consultative referendum on the issue.

A week after the opposition primary, the Supreme Court suspended the process and results. In December, Machado filed a Supreme Court writ, but instead the court ratified her disqualification. So on 22 March, three days before the deadline for candidate registration, she announced 80-year-old academic Corina Yoris-Villasana as her replacement.

The government couldn’t find any excuse to disqualify Yoris, so instead it blocked the registration website. Right up to the deadline, the automated system had selective technical issues that affected opposition candidates.

Following an international press conference in which Machado denounced the manoeuvre, support came from two unlikely allies, the leftist governments of Brazil and Colombia. The CNE eventually authorised a 12-hour extension to register its candidates.

As a result of further negotiations in April, all registered opposition candidates withdrew apart from one. The compromise candidate was former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, a moderate few could object to.

International community’s role

Some countries, notably European Union (EU) members and the USA, have supported the Venezuelan opposition and urged the government to respect human rights and hold free and fair elections.

Anything the USA does is open to the accusation of imperialist interference, but the EU has been able to supply a credible set of proposals on how to hold fair elections. Recommendations of its report following 2021 regional and municipal elections included strengthening the separation of powers, abolishing disqualifications, holding a public voter education campaign, allowing balanced media coverage, repealing the Anti-Hate Law and ensuring enough properly trained and accredited polling station officials are available on election day.

However, the EU’s role in the upcoming election remains in doubt. After the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Machado’s disqualification, the National Assembly leader said the EU wouldn’t be allowed to do election observation.

A key step in the right direction was taken in October 2023, just ahead of the primary, when government and opposition representatives met in Barbados and signed an agreement on the right of political organisations to choose their presidential candidates, an electoral timetable and a set of procedural guarantees.

The day after the signing of the Barbados Agreement, the US government eased its oil and gas sanctions but warned it would reinstate them if the government didn’t honour its commitments; in April 2023, it brought them back. The Venezuelan government immediately breached the agreement’s first point, as it initiated legal proceedings against the opposition primary.

Upon the signing of the agreement, the US Secretary of State also said that political prisoners were expected to be released by November. Five were immediately freed, but many more remain behind bars. Their release is a key opposition demand ahead of the election.

Two months before the big day, everything hangs in the balance. The unofficial campaign is well underway. Machado and González are touring the country, promising orderly and peaceful change. The government has launched an aggressive smear and disinformation campaign against González. Relentless harassment follows Machado wherever she goes. Local activists are routinely arrested following opposition rallies in their area.

There are surely many more twists and turns ahead. The Venezuelan government is used to ignoring international criticism, but it’s harder when calls to respect the democratic process come from leftist Latin American leaders. They can play a key role in urging Venezuela to let genuine elections happen and accept the results. The logic of democracy is that sooner or later Maduro will have to go. It would be wise for him to start negotiating the how.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Senior Research Specialist, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

 

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Jishuram Das has been catching fish from the Karnaphuli River since his childhood. Nowadays, he often sits idle after drastic fall of fish in the river due to pollution and salinity intrusion. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
CHATTOGRAM, Bangladesh, Jun 10 2024 (IPS)

Jishuram Das, a sexagenarian who was born in Jelepara, located in Chattogram, has been catching fish from the Karnaphuli River since his childhood. But nowadays, he often sits idle without going to catch fish, as their catches have drastically fallen.

“Once there were plenty of fish in the Karnaphuli River, where we caught fish generation after generation. But, in recent years, salinity has entered the river water, driving the freshwater fish species to disappear, which makes our lives harder,” Jishuram said.

Recalling the days when fishermen were able to catch enough fish from the river about 10 to 12 years ago and earn handsome money by selling their catches, Jishuram said nowadays he can catch merely half a kilogram of fish in a day and many days even he has to return home empty-handed.

“My son and I used to catch fish together from the Karnaphuli River. As we cannot catch enough fish from the river for our living, I am not taking my son fishing. I asked my only son to find an alternative livelihood. Now he has been working at a factory so that he can support my family,” he said.

The seasoned fisherman said, as he does not know any other work, he still continues their traditional fishing despite the drastic fall of fish in the river.

“But many have already changed their livelihoods for a better life,” he told IPS.

Gopal Das (55), who learned fishing from his father, said when he was young, he caught big fish from the river by fishhook. But now he could not catch a single fish in a whole day as big fish have disappeared from the river due to unchecked pollution, he said.

“In the past, I caught big fish like rui (rohu fish), catla, chitol (chitala chitala), and boal (wallago fish), weighting 15-20 kg, from the river, but these are not found there right now. We can now catch only three or four sea fish species, including shrimp and poya fish; the river has become salty,” Gopal said.

The families of fishermen in Karnaphuli struggle to make a living and feed their families, and many have fallen into a debt trap.

Gopal, a fisherman living in Jelepara, said, “We have fallen into economic hardship. I borrowed Taka 30,000 (nearly USD 300) from a microcredit organization, and now I am repaying the loan. Like me, many others in our locality get trapped in the circle of debt.”

Gopal has changed professions and now works as an assistant to a mason.

“So, we are not taking our children to fishing boats anymore. We are sending our children to educational institutions so that they can choose other professions except fishing after completing their studies,” he added.

The younger generation of Jelepara has left their time-honored way of life.

“I caught fish from the Karnaphuli River but now I am working as a shopkeeper.  There is a scarcity of fish in the river, so I have chosen another work. The young generation is not interested in fishing and that’s why they are looking for jobs or other work,” Soman Das (28) told IPS.

Md Sarowar Hossain Khan, town manager of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said they have been providing training to young fishermen on livelihood options under its Livelihood Improvement of Urban Poor Communities (LIUPC) Project so that they can find suitable professions.

“Young people in Jelepara have been given training on driving and ready made garment (RMG) work, while many of them have already switched to these from fishing,” he said.

A 2016 study revealed that salinity and dissolved oxygen (DO) were the two most important variables shaping the species makeup in the Karnaphuli River estuary. Species diversity was low as the river estuary is highly polluted due to industrial pollution and the high discharge of polluted material from oil tankers, fertilizer factories, and Chattogram City Corporation.

Earlier in March 2024, various species of fish and aquatic animals died in the Karnaphuli River due to melted raw sugar burned in a fire at a warehouse in Chattogram. The burnt sugar fell to the river, declining its water quality, leading to various fish species dying.

“Fish stock in the Karnaphuli River has drastically declined due to overfishing and unchecked water pollution,” Dr Mohammed Shahidul Alam, Associate Professor of the Fisheries Department at the University of Chittagong, told IPS.

Factories and tanneries located on the banks of Karnaphuli have been discharging chemical waste into the river, destroying the habitat of aquatic species, he said, adding that climate change-induced salinity is also contributing to the rapid decline of freshwater fish species in the river.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Lesotho games. Credit: David Lazar

By Heike Kuhn
BONN, Germany, Jun 10 2024 (IPS)

For the first time ever, we will commemorate the joy of playing with an International Day of Play“ on June 11, 2024. On their website, the UN state that this „marks a significant milestone in efforts to preserve, promote, and prioritize playing so that all people, especially children, can reap the rewards and thrive to their full potential“. But why ist playing so important?

Here is a closer look, starting with children: We all have witnessed globally that children do learn best through play, everywhere, in each region and in each culture. Through play children can be creative, learn to express themselves and to cooperate. By playing with peers, they connect with others, learn to put themselves in the position of others, follow and respect rules and develop resilience when winning or losing, understanding that both come along with playing.

The right to play is protected: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Children declares that „states parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts“ (Article 31). Remembering that this Convention is one of the most ratified UN conventions, one could suppose that engaging in play would be easy for children everywhere as this right is implemented.

However, we face big differences between countries: In so called developed countries,playing does take place at home and in public spaces: At home children play with animals, dolls, games and electronic devices. At kindergartens and schools children can furthermore play during sports lessons. And even in small cities you will find public playgrounds with swings, climbing frames and whipping tops.

Coming to developing countries where the majority of global youth is living, we see a quite different situation: Many children simply have no time to play, but instead have chores (especially girls), are working on fields in rural areas to support their families living in poverty, are working in factories or are refugees on the move, threatened by wars, conflicts or climate change. Yet – whenever, wherever there is a chance for it, you see children playing with their peers – be it kicking in the streets, playing hide and seek or local games. By playing children’s well-being is secured – everywhere. Playing gives a sense of normalcy even in the most difficult circumstances.

Turning now to adults: Why do we still like to play? Let us start with sports: football, tennis, cricket, kabbadi, just to name some. Mental exercises comprise bridge, backgammon, chess or multiple forms of quizzes. Many adults find a great satisfaction in playing, getting a distance from their daily routine, coming together with peers, exchange and have fun, sink into the game, immerse in playing, having all the attention in this very moment, just as children do.

So what is the magic in playing? In her introduction in the guide to the outdoor exhibition „Radical Playgrounds – from Competion to Collaboration“, taking place in Berlin, the Curator Joanna Warsza, states: „The core idea of ludology, the study of play, tells us that play is necessary for a human being to thrive and needs to be based on voluntary participation involving a set of fictive rules and the possibility to quit at any time …“

From my point of view, the participation on a voluntary basis is key for playing as much as the factor of having fun: The activity is optional, there is no enforcement. You are either interested because your mind is attracted and you concentrate as you experiment new ideas or materials (free play) or you like the task, the team or the competition, e.g. in sports during a match (competitive play). Playing creates communities, playing let you thrive as you can be anyone, play is fun, be it alone or with others. At the same time you are learning, as „Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning“, to quote American writer Diane Ackermann.

Digging a little deeper in competitive play and transferring lessons to our daily lives: Whenever we play with others, first we have to agree on the rules, jointly. Afterwards, we all have to respect them. Of course, temper and emotions come in and have to be handled. Still, without respecting the rules once agreed upon, you cannot play as some of us will get frustrated and stop it. How important rules are you can also witness in the position of a referee, who secures their respect during the tournament, e.g. in football matches: You will get yellow- or red-carded if you do not obey the rules in place.

So what are the lessons? Playing means enjoying and learning. Playing is a most powerful tool for all societies, bringing together persons from all social classes and enjoying themselves. Here in Europe, my continent, three big sports events will attract many people this summer: The European Athletics Championships in Rome, the European Championship tournament in football in Germany and the Summer Olympics in Paris. We will witness how athletes will show maximum performance, will respect rules and therefore have to play fair. They will be role models for many of us an will inspire millions, especially the youth. And we will have fun. That’s another reason why I embrace the first ever International Day of Play!

Dr. Heike Kuhn is Head of Division, Education, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Bonn, Germany

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: UNRWA
 
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 270 people including children and other non-combatants were killed during intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in and around the Nuseirat refugee camp on June 8, in the middle area of the war-torn enclave. More than 600 were reportedly injured with hospitals overwhelmed. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said in a post on X that the Nuseirat camp “is the epicentre of the seismic trauma that civilians in Gaza continue to suffer.” “Seeing shrouded bodies on the ground, we are reminded that nowhere is safe in Gaza”, he said.

By HMGS Palihakkara
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jun 10 2024 (IPS)

Since the eviction of Palestinians from their homeland pursuant to the controversial Balfour declaration of 1917, the quest for regaining Palestinian statehood has continued as a means towards lasting peace and security within and between Israel and Palestine.

The effort straddled two centuries but the issue remained unresolved. It became a core question of peace and security in the Middle East and the world. The so-called rules-based order of the international system that grew out of the carnage of two world wars was unable or unwilling to find a reasonable consensus on this issue as major powers juggled ‘rules-based-justice’ with ‘power-based practice’.

The unresolved conflict thus peaked in atrocious violence in Gaza with Hamas and Israel being accused of things ranging from war crimes to genocide including the brazen massacre of over 200 civilians in a hostage rescue drama over the week end. The heart-rending tragedy in Gaza is therefore obvious but the opportunity embedded therein not so.

In a not- so-strange irony of war, it was the unprecedented human suffering and devastation in Gaza, not the political will of the major powers, that brought back the Palestinian statehood issue to the fore as a new inflection point in building peace among parties to this conflict.

What is new is that the bold joint move by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognize the Palestine State as a precursor to peace rather than in its aftermath, can set in motion a new dynamic.

It has somewhat shaken the US led conventional Euro-Atlantic posture on the Israeli Palestinian conflict that peaceful and secure two states can only emerge at the end of a bilateral peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

The question is — will that posture now face a reboot calling for international recognition of two States– first, as a via media to peace between the two nations. Israeli intransigence and the devastation in Gaza has brought the need for this re-sequencing into sharper focus.

It can generate a constructive momentum especially if more European countries join Norway,Spain,and Ireland plus 140 odd other countries of the world. Slovenia has already done that.

Obviously, it is not a big snow ball- at least not yet- but something has started to roll. Norwegian Foreign Minister Eide signalled this when he declared at the press conference that if present double standards continue, it will undermine the ‘rules-based international order’-a rebuke to their ‘hold out’ Western partners who preach human rights to some and protect impunity by others.

These four European countries have taken the first step. Will the United States now re-assert its leadership by taking the next ‘giant step’?.

After all, it was President John Kennedy announcing the other ‘giant step’ his great country took in the last century, who famously said -“ we decide to go to the moon and do other things not because they are easy but because they are difficult”.

This is 21st Century, There is an unprecedented opportunity to follow the European lead to recognize the reality of two states and end the forever-war between an Iron-domed State backed by ‘Western might’ and a hapless and stateless people – the latter being a creation by ‘Western democracies’ themselves. If the US does not seize the opportunity, the opportunists will seize it.

HMGS Palihakkara is former Foreign Secretary, Sri Lanka, former Ambassador to the United Nations, and a one-time chairman of the UN Israeli Practices Committee.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The distinctive boats used by fishworkers in Andhra Pradesh, India. Their unique design, with a curvy end and flat middle, enables stability in the waters of Andhra Pradesh, reflecting the ingenuity of local fishermen. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS

By Aishwarya Bajpai
NEW DELHI , Jun 8 2024 (IPS)

The area where land meets the sea, known as coastal ecosystems, could be the key to reducing the effects of climate change.

What is blue carbon?

Blue carbon refers to the carbon dioxide (CO2) stored within marine or coastal ecosystems worldwide. These ecosystems include coastal plants such as mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes, which trap CO2 in their seabeds.

Why is it important?

The coastal ecosystem provides a protective shield, safeguarding communities from the adverse effects of natural disasters and climate change by maintaining cooler temperatures, even in summer.

How do we know this?

Research indicates that, despite covering less than 5 percent of the global land area and less than 2 percent of the ocean, coastal ecosystems store approximately 50 percent of all carbon buried in ocean sediments. Remarkably, they can store 5–10 times more carbon than land-based forest patches. These carbon stores can extend up to 6 meters deep, with layers dating back thousands of years. As the largest carbon sink (the ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere), they play a crucial role in reducing the effects of climate change by absorbing 90 percent of excess heat and 23 percent of man-made CO2 emissions.

What else do coastal ecosystems do?

Coastal ecosystems serve as a barrier against natural disasters like floods and storms and contribute to climate regulation in coastal regions. They provide habitat for coastal animals and support communities dependent on coastal resources for food and livelihoods, particularly ocean people and fishworkers globally.

In the Indian state of Goa, women traditionally perform the early morning ritual of drying fish. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS

What happens if coastal ecosystems deteriorate?

More than one-third of the world’s population or about 1.4 million people resides in coastal areas and small islands, comprising a mere 4 percent of the Earth’s total land area. For example, mangrove loss has soared to 40 percent since 1970, while coral reefs have witnessed a 50 percent decline since 1870.

At the same time, the global coastal population has surged, from approximately 2 billion in 1990 to 2.2 billion by 1995, encompassing four out of every ten people on the planet.

What does the sea tell us about global warming?

Over the past five decades, more than 90 percent of the Earth’s warming has been observed in the ocean. Recent research suggests that approximately 63 percent of the total increase in stored heat within the climate system from 1971 to 2010 can be attributed to the warming of the upper oceans, while warming from depths of 700 meters to the ocean floor contributes an additional 30 percent.

What are the impacts of this global warming?

Specifically in the Indian context, between 1950 and 2020, the Indian Ocean experienced a temperature rise of 1.2°C. This warming trend has led to the rapid intensification of cyclones, with projections indicating a tenfold increase in cyclone formation, from the current average of 20 days per year to an estimated 220–250 days per year.

So, how can blue carbon combat climate change?

Blue carbon ecosystems are crucial to combating climate change because they are an effective carbon sink. For example, mangroves, renowned as one of the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics, boast an average annual carbon sequestration rate ranging from 6 to 8 Mg CO₂e/ha, surpassing global rates observed in mature tropical forests.

Can we revive our coastal ecosystems?

Yes, there are several ways to do so, including carbon capture technologies and strategies like phytoplankton blooms, where fertilizing the ocean with nutrients can enhance carbon uptake. We could also use wave pumps to transport carbon-saturated surface waters down into the deep ocean, aiding carbon sequestration. Another method includes adding pulverized minerals to the ocean, which can absorb greater amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to carbon capture efforts.

We should also ensure our policy frameworks reduce carbon footprints, including actions to conserve natural systems and reduce emissions.

There should be ongoing research and training for skilled carbon capture system experts.

Therefore, countries around the world can protect their future, biodiversity, and the planet by encouraging conservation of coastal ecosystems.

This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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Excerpt:

The coastal ecosystem protects us, feeds us, and could be the solution to mitigating climate change. In this explainer, published on World Ocean Day, IPS, looks at blue carbon and why it is so crucial.

Credit: Himanshu Sharma/picture alliance via Getty Images

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Jun 7 2024 (IPS)

India’s Hindu nationalist strongman Narendra Modi has won his third prime ministerial term. But the result of the country’s April-to-June election fell short of the sweeping triumph that seemed within his grasp.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shed seats compared to the 2019 election, losing its parliamentary majority. Modi remains prime minister thanks to coalition partners. It’s a long way from the 400-seat supermajority Modi proclaimed he wanted – which would have given him power to rewrite the constitution.

The outcome may be that Modi faces more checks on his power. If so, that can only be good news for those he’s consistently attacked – including civil society and India’s Muslim minority.

Modi’s crackdown

Under Modi, in power since 2014, civic space conditions have deteriorated. India’s election was accompanied by the usual headlines about the country being the world’s largest democracy. But India’s democracy has long been underpinned by an active, vibrant and diverse civil society. Modi has sought to constrain this civic energy, seeing it as a hindrance to his highly centralised and personalised rule.

Modi’s government has repeatedly used repressive laws, including the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, to harass, intimidate and detain activists and journalists on fabricated charges. Law enforcement agencies have raided numerous civil society organisations and media companies. In October 2023, for example, police raided the homes of around 40 staff members of the NewsClick portal and detained its editor.

This was one of many attacks on media freedoms. Independent journalists routinely face harassment, intimidation, threats, violence, arrests and prosecution. Last year, the government banned a BBC documentary on Modi, followed by tax investigation raids on the corporation’s Indian offices.

The authorities have also used the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to block access to international funding for civil society organisations, targeting those critical of their attacks on human rights. In 2020, the government amended the law to make it even stricter, extending powers to freeze bank accounts. Since the start of 2022, the authorities have cancelled registrations of almost 6,000 organisations.

The authorities have also unleashed violence against protesters. In 2019, citizenship legislation created a way for undocumented migrants to become Indian citizens – but only if they weren’t Muslim. Despite India’s secular constitution, the law introduced religious criteria into the determination of citizenship. The passage of this discriminatory law brought tens of thousands to the streets. Security forces responded with beatings, teargas and arrests, accompanied by internet shutdowns.

It was the same when farmers protested in 2020 and 2021, believing new farming laws would undermine their ability to make a living. The farmers ultimately triumphed, with Modi repealing the unpopular laws. But several farmers died as a result of the authorities’ heavy-handed response, including when a minister’s car ploughed into a crowd of protesters. Once again, the authorities shut down internet and mobile services, and police used batons and teargas and arrested many protesters.

As the new citizenship law made clear, those who have least access to rights are the ones most under attack. Muslims are the BJP’s favourite target, since it seeks to recast the country as an explicitly Hindu nation. The party’s politicians have consistently stoked anti-Muslim hatred, including over the wearing of hijabs, interfaith marriage and the protection of cows – a revered animal in Hinduism.

Modi has been accused of spreading anti-Muslim hate speech and conspiracy theories, including on the campaign trail. During the election, he called Muslims ‘infiltrators’ and alluded to India’s version of a narrative often advanced by far-right parties – that a minority population is out to replace the majority through a higher birthrate and the conversion of partners.

The BJP’s populist rhetoric has encouraged hatred and violence. In 2020, Delhi saw its worst riots in decades, sparked by violence at a protest against the citizenship law. Groups of Hindus and Muslims fought each other and 53 people were killed, most of them Muslims.

Top-down institutional violence followed the unilateral revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special autonomous status in 2019. The removal of constitutional protections for this Muslim-majority region was accompanied by a military occupation, curfew, public meeting ban, movement restrictions and one of the world’s longest-ever internet shutdowns. Indian government authorities have detained thousands of Kashmiri activists and criminalised countless journalists.

Disinformation thrives

Ahead of the election, the state detained key opposition politicians such as Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and froze opposition bank accounts, including of the main opposition party, Congress. Almost all politicians investigated by the government’s Enforcement Directorate are from the opposition.

Indian elections always take several weeks, given the huge logistical challenge of allowing up to 969 million people to vote. But this one, spread over 82 days, was unusually long. This allowed Modi to travel the country and make as many appearances as possible, representing a campaign that put his personality front and centre.

Disinformation was rife in the campaign. BJP politicians spread claims that Muslims were engaged in what they called a ‘vote jihad’ against Hindus, accompanied by accusations that the opposition would favour Muslims. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was a particular target, with false allegations of links to China and Pakistan and doctored videos in circulation.

But despite the many challenges, the opposition coalition performed better than expected. The result suggests at least some are tired of the Modi personality cult and politics of polarisation. And for all the BJP’s attempts to emphasise economic success, many voters don’t feel better off. What matters to them are rising prices and unemployment, and they judged the incumbent accordingly.

It’s to be hoped the result leads to a change in style, with less divisive rhetoric and more emphasis on compromise and consensus building. That may be a tall order, but the opposition might now be better able to play its proper accountability role. Modi has lost his sheen of invincibility. For civil society, this could open up opportunities to push back and urge the government to stop its onslaught.

Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

 

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres (center right) attends a Security Council meeting on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation on March 18, 2024. With geopolitical tensions escalating the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades, reducing and abolishing nuclear weapons is the only viable path to saving humanity. The UN chief told the Security Council delegates that he was deeply concerned about the continuous erosion of the international non-proliferation architecture.Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 7 2024 (IPS)

The continued veiled threats from Russia, warning of nuclear attacks on Ukraine, have prompted some politicians in Europe to visualize a nuclear-armed European Union (EU).

But Volkert Ohm, Co-Chair of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) in Germany, told IPS that the call for nuclear weapons for the EU contradicts international law.

“The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is that even in extreme circumstances of self-defense, states may only defend themselves with weapons that fulfil the conditions of international humanitarian law.”

“Nuclear weapons do not fulfill them. Nuclear radiation is inherent in any nuclear weapon; thus, “clean” nuclear weapons cannot exist. Debates and statements by politicians in the EU, and particularly in Germany, are neglecting international law on many levels,” he pointed out.

Facing the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House, the head of the EU’s biggest political grouping is calling for Europeans to prepare for war without support from the United States and to build their own nuclear umbrella, according to POLITICO, a US-based online publication.

Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), has described Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “the two who set the framework” for 2024.

The 27 member states of the European Union (EU) are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

But France is the only EU member that is also one of the world’s nine nuclear powers, along with the US, UK, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.

John Burroughs, Vice President, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms and Senior Analyst, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, told IPS that interest in some quarters in the European Union (EU) or some European entity acquiring nuclear weapons stems in part from the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine accompanied by illegal nuclear threats.

But the solution is not some form of increased European reliance on nuclear arms. Rather, it is bringing Russia’s war on Ukraine to an end soon, which would involve painful compromises on Ukraine’s part, he said.

“That would eliminate the very real potential for nuclear war arising out of the conflict, and it would open the way for getting arms control and disarmament negotiations with Russia back on track.”

This, he pointed out, is a far better path than the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the EU or another European entity. That would violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as the IALANA Germany statement points out, reinforce nuclear arms racing already underway, and tend to greenlight the spread of nuclear weapons in other regions.

“The interest in European nuclear weapons has also been spurred by concern over statements by former and possible future US President Donald Trump implying US disengagement from NATO. This concern is exaggerated.”

The US government as a whole is deeply committed to NATO, as is illustrated by the fact that Congress passed and President Biden signed a law requiring that a withdrawal from NATO be approved by Congress. It is also true that French and British nuclear arsenals are available for defense of Europe through NATO or otherwise, said Burroughs.

“While they are not as large and diverse as the US or Russian arsenals, it does not take many nuclear weapons to cause Russia or any other country to think twice about aggression. More fundamentally, as the IALANA Germany statement conveys, reliance on nuclear arms, US or European, is incompatible with a law-governed world, and increasing such reliance is going in the wrong direction,” he declared.

“We want NATO, but we also have to be strong enough to be able to defend ourselves without it or in times of Trump,” Weber said in a phone interview with POLITICO on the return leg of a train trip to Kyiv.

“Regardless of who is elected in America, Europe must be able to stand on its own in terms of foreign policy and be able to defend itself independently,” the influential German conservative said.

That brought him to the vexing question of European nuclear defenses. NATO currently relies heavily on U.S. nuclear warheads, which are deployed on six military air bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey, according to POLITICO.

“Europe must build deterrence; we must be able to deter and defend ourselves,” he said. “We all know that when push comes to shove, the nuclear option is the really decisive one.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin has significantly upped his nuclear rhetoric and regularly made veiled atomic threats toward the West.

Within the EU, the only country that would be able to play a larger role is France, which has about 300 nuclear warheads.

The other European nuclear power—but outside the EU—is Britain, with fewer than some 260 warheads. “Perhaps, just to make the options clear, we are now at a point where, after the years and decade of Brexit, we should open a constructive dialogue with our British friends,” Weber continued.

Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, Oakland, California, told IPS that in light of the Russian Federation’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and its attendant drumbeat of nuclear threats, a number of former German government officials and politicians have called for the European Union to acquire its own nuclear arsenal.

For example, former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of the Green Party told Der Speigel last year, “As long as we have a neighbor Russia that follows Putin’s imperial ideology, we cannot do without deterring this Russia.”

Asked whether deterrence includes Germany acquiring its own nuclear weapons, he said, “That is indeed the most difficult question.” Noting that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is “also working with nuclear blackmail,” he said: “Should the Federal Republic of Germany possess nuclear weapons? No. Europe? Yes. The EU needs its own nuclear deterrent.”

As pointed out in the IALANA Germany statement, such plans would violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and other applicable laws. But more alarming is the growing normalization of nuclear threats and legitimization of nuclear proliferation suggested by Fischer and others, said Cabasso.

At a time when all of the nuclear armed states are qualitatively and, in some cases, quantitatively upgrading their nuclear arsenals, a new multipolar arms race is underway, and the dangers of wars among nuclear armed states are growing, adding more nuclear-armed actors to the world stage is a truly terrifying prospect, she pointed out.

Germany and other EU members should rebuff any suggestion of acquiring nuclear weapons and take the lead in rejecting reliance on nuclear weapons, use every diplomatic means at their disposal to lower the temperature with Russia and bring the Ukraine war to an end, and promote negotiations among nuclear-armed states to begin the process of nuclear disarmament, declared Cabasso.

Dr M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told IPS that the vast majority of the countries that are part of the European Union have signed the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as non-nuclear-weapon State Parties.

According to Article 2 of the NPT, each “non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to receive the transfer from any transferor whatsoever of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or of control over such weapons or explosive devices directly or indirectly.”

Likewise, nuclear-weapon State Parties to the NPT that are either part of the EU (i.e., France) or not (e.g., the United States) are obligated under Article 1 of the NPT “not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons or explosive devices directly or indirectly; and not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce any non-nuclear-weapon State to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, or control over such weapons or explosive devices,” he said.

Even without going into the details of who might control these proposed “nuclear weapons for the EU”, it is clear that such an arsenal would contradict the spirit of the NPT and weaken the already weak non-proliferation and disarmament norms.

As IALANA says, EU states should distance themselves from this idea and work for a world free of nuclear weapons, declared Ramana.

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram, in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Alina Kadhila, a hydrogeologist at Namibia Water Corporation, operating a mud rotary drilling rig. Credit: Alina Kadhila

By Ashley Malepe
PRETORIA, South Africa, Jun 7 2024 (IPS)

In the expansive field of groundwater resource management, a pressing question often emerges: are we truly equipping women with the necessary tools and opportunities to thrive, or are we simply attempting to fill in the gender gap without tackling the root causes?

Despite significant progress in gender equality across various sectors, including science and technology, the underrepresentation of women in groundwater-related fields remains alarmingly high.

Recent statistics reveal that women make up only 22% of the global groundwater workforce, a stark indication of a persistent gender gap that demands immediate attention. This gap suggests that while there may be efforts to increase women’s representation, there may still be systemic challenges and barriers that hinder true equity and inclusion in the field.

While progress has been made in bridging the gender gap in recent years, the statistics present a stark reality of the hurdles that women still encounter in entering and thriving in groundwater-related professions.

Despite significant progress in gender equality across various sectors, including science and technology, the underrepresentation of women in groundwater-related fields remains alarmingly high. Recent statistics reveal that women make up only 22% of the global groundwater workforce, a stark indication of a persistent gender gap that demands immediate attention

Despite their equal capabilities and potential to contribute to the field, systemic barriers such as limited opportunities for career growth, and pervasive gender biases persist, impeding their full participation. In addition to these structural hurdles, women in groundwater often face cultural norms and stereotypes that reinforce the idea of male dominance in scientific and technical fields.

For instance, women have been believed to be suited for lighter duties, while more physically demanding duties, such as drilling or engineering work, are often associated with men.

Even when women are hired in these fields, they encounter resistance in being acknowledged and respected for their authority and expertise. In some cases, individuals may refuse to follow directives issued by women, viewing them as less authoritative solely because of their gender. This resistance not only undermines women’s contributions but also perpetuates the belief that women have no place in positions of leadership or decision-making.

Reflecting on her experiences, Alina Kadhila, a hydrogeologist at Namibia Water Corporation, notes, “While progress has been made in recognizing the importance of gender diversity, there’s still a long way to go.” Societal norms and cultural beliefs greatly shadow efforts to promote gender equality.

Entrenched stereotypes perpetuate the notion that certain professions are inherently male domains, “To address these challenges truly,” she asserts, “we need to challenge stereotypes, dismantle systemic biases, and create pathways for women to thrive. Alina emphasizes.”

Phera Ramoeli, Executive Secretary at the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM), echoes Kadhila’s sentiments, emphasizing the need for an integrated approach to gender equality and equity.

“Gender equality is not just about promoting the interests of one gender over another,” he emphasizes. “It’s about creating a level playing field where everyone has equal opportunities to succeed.” Ramoeli advocates for empowering both a girl and boy child, nurturing a culture of inclusivity that transcends traditional gender norms.

Furthermore, Ramoeli highlights the importance of recognizing diversity’s inherent value to the groundwater sector. “Diverse perspectives foster innovation and drive progress,” he asserts.

By embracing gender diversity, organizations can tap into a broader talent pool, resulting in more creative problem-solving and sustainable solutions to complex challenges. Encouragingly, as awareness grows regarding the benefits of diversity, there is a growing momentum towards fostering inclusive environments where all individuals, regardless of gender, can thrive.

Addressing the challenge of societal norms and cultural beliefs that perpetuate gender disparities requires a paradigm shift and multifaceted strategies. In the groundwater field, tackling the challenges rooted in societal norms and cultural beliefs demands a targeted approach.

It begins with reshaping perceptions from the ground up. Implementing gender-sensitive educational programs within hydrogeology and related disciplines can debunk stereotypes and instil values of inclusivity early on. Integrating these programs into academic curricula will pave the way for a future generation of hydrogeologists who understand and champion gender equality.

Within the professional sphere, initiatives aimed at creating inclusive environments are paramount. Groundwater organizations must adopt policies that accommodate the diverse needs of their workforce, particularly women.

Flexible work arrangements tailored to the demands of fieldwork and family responsibilities can remove barriers to entry and retention. Mentorship programs that pair women with experienced professionals offer guidance and support, nurturing talent and fostering career advancement.

Equally essential is ensuring equitable opportunities for pay and progression, underlining the value of every individual’s contribution irrespective of gender. By cultivating a culture of inclusivity and support, groundwater institutions can heighten the collective expertise of all professionals, driving innovation and progress in the field.

The journey toward true equity involves more than just providing access; it requires dismantling systemic barriers and fostering an environment where every individual, regardless of gender, can thrive. It demands efforts to challenge ingrained biases, reshape societal norms, and advocate for inclusive policies and practices.

As we navigate this path, it becomes clear that actual progress lies not in isolated initiatives but in a holistic, systemic change. It entails equipping women with the tools, resources, and opportunities they need to excel while simultaneously addressing the underlying structures perpetuating gender disparities. It requires a commitment to fostering an inclusive culture that values diversity and empowers individuals to reach their full potential.

Ultimately, the goal of gender inclusivity is not simply to bridge the gender gap but to create a professional ecosystem where gender is no longer a factor that impedes anyone’s ability to succeed.

It is crucial to proactively address gender biases, promote mentorship and networking opportunities, and ensure that contributions from women are recognized and valued equally. Only then we can honestly say that we are not just filling the gender gap but actively equipping women, forging a future where equality and equity is not just a goal but a lived reality.

 

Ashley Malepe is Communication Intern at the SADC-Groundwater Management Institute

 

Dr Essam Yassin Mohammed explains the characteristics of corals adapted to turbid water environments. Credit: Sean Lee Kuan Shern/WorldFish

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Jun 7 2024 (IPS)

The Global South is crucial for ensuring aquatic food security to feed the growing world population. It is imperative that blue economy initiatives benefit fishing communities in developing and small island nations, which are facing disproportionate impacts of climate change, says Dr Essam Yassin Mohammed, Director General of WorldFish, an international non-profit research organization based in Penang, Malaysia.

“More than three billion people depend on aquatic foods as their main source of protein and micronutrients, and nearly 800 million people rely on fishing for their livelihood. The Global South produces a significant portion of the world’s aquatic food and 95 percent of the fishing workforce comes from these regions,” notes Mohammed, who is also CGIAR’s Senior Director of Aquatic Food Systems.

Growing up in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, situated on a highland plateau 2325 meters above sea level, Mohammed learned the value of food early in life. The country had recently gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991, and young children like him were motivated to contribute to the nation’s food security.

“Eritrea, a coastal country by the Red Sea, had abundant fish and marine resources. We believed these resources would be critical in making the country food secure so some of us decided to study marine biology and fishery science,” he adds.

While working for Eritrea’s Ministry of Fisheries, he was tasked with enhancing fish consumption amongst the Highlanders, who traditionally had no connection with the sea. He then realized that driving behavioral change in people’s diets, while considering cultural food preferences, is far more complex. To meet this challenging task and to better understand the interaction between humans and the ecosystem, he decided to train as a development economist.

“Integrating fisheries science with economics has profoundly shifted my viewpoint and deepened my comprehension of the intricate interplay within socio-ecological systems. This has defined my career, and I have never looked back,”  says Mohammed, who is committed to improving fisheries and aquaculture amidst the challenges of climate change, habitat degradation, and aquatic animal diseases.

Shifting ocean currents and warming waters are having a significant impact on fish stocks and coastal infrastructure, inundating lands and altering marine ecosystems, which is affecting the productivity of some fish species and forcing them to migrate to more optimal environments.

He says, “While large-scale commercial fishing vessels can still pursue and catch these fish say 20 km away, it is technically and financially prohibitive for small-scale operators with small boats to do so. This is where climate change becomes a social justice issue, impacting coastal communities’ access to food and causing loss of livelihoods and cultural identity.”

“At WorldFish, we are going beyond helping communities become climate resilient by creating viable livelihood opportunities, which include development of climate-resilient fish strains, adoption of sustainable aquaculture practices and assisting governments strengthen their fisheries policies, for fishing and fish farming-dependent communities to thrive under a changing climate,” he adds.

WorldFish research is helping prevent aquatic animal diseases, which cause an estimated global annual loss of over USD 6 billion, by ensuring that the food being produced is safe for human consumption.

“One of the critical aspects of fish farming is that once fish are exposed to a disease, the entire stock can perish.

We are democratizing fish health diagnosis with Lab in a Backpack initiative. It’s a compact digital tool that enables fish farmers to quickly diagnose the disease, contact service providers for treatment advice, and also learn how to deal with anti-microbial-resistant  diseases,” he explains.

The initiative is helping fish farmers build their capacity for the best biosecurity management practices by integrating the One Health approach, which prioritizes the health of fish, the environment, and people.

Besides diseases, plastic pollution in the ocean poses a significant threat to marine life and ecosystems. In November 2024, governments will meet for the final round of UN negotiations for a global treaty to end plastic pollution.

Mohammed says, “Once plastics enter the ocean, they are there to stay indefinitely. We have seen many instances of plastics harming marine life—straws stuck in the nostrils of turtles or dolphins—and now traces of microplastics have been found in fish tissues. It means those microplastics are being ingested by human beings, impacting their health too.”

“We need a legally binding treaty to mitigate plastic pollution. There is a global consensus now, but this needs to be followed by action on minimizing and eliminating plastic use and establishing a robust waste management system,” he adds.

Mohammed warns that many developed countries are prioritizing short-term economic gains at the cost of long-term sustainability and conservation of the global marine ecosystem. “We need to perceive the natural capital—marine life, oceans, and water bodies as economic infrastructure; and reinvest in them to ensure they continue to provide for us in the future,” he asserts.

According to the World Bank, blue economy is the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem.”

Currently, investments in blue economy initiatives are not percolating down to developing countries. WorldFish research reveals that from 2017 to 2021, USD 5.9 billion allocated to blue economy initiatives was concentrated mainly in Europe and Central Asia, and 35 percent of examined projects had potential risks for creating or exacerbating social inequities.

“Blue economy investments must benefit developing countries and small island nations. Those who are farthest behind must be able to benefit the most,” Mohammed tells IPS.

The total fisheries and aquaculture production (excluding algae) is expected to reach over 200 million metric tons in 2030, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

“Small-scale operators in the Global South supply up to 50 percent of aquatic food consumed globally. Ensuring that investments in the blue economy benefit these communities is essential for achieving shared prosperity and addressing climate change impacts on food security,” says Mohammed.

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IPS UN Bureau, IPS UN Bureau Report, Blue Economy, World Oceans Day 2024

By Rajika Mahajan
BANGKOK, Jun 7 2024 (IPS)

Each year, millions of children worldwide fall prey to the targeted tactics of the tobacco industry in its attempts to lure new customers. This year’s World No Tobacco Day (May 31), aptly themed “Protecting children from tobacco industry interference”, saw global youth unite to confront the pervasive influence of Big Tobacco.

The Global Youth Voices (GYV) movement, convened by the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC), has become a powerful front to hold the tobacco industry accountable and safeguard the well-being of future generations.

The addictive nature of nicotine, a key ingredient in tobacco products, is largely unknown to many. Nicotine is as addictive as cocaine or heroin, manipulating nerve cells to release more dopamine, which creates a feeling of ‘high’. The young brain creates more receptors to handle the anticipated nicotine, which leads teens to needing more nicotine to get the same high.

This addiction is particularly potent in young brains, which continue to develop until about age 25, making teens more susceptible to addiction. Among youth, smoking causes faster heart rates, shortness of breath, increased risk of lung cancers, reduced lung function, limitations on performance and endurance , and other health issues. ,

Moreover, emerging evidence shows that Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) or e-cigarettes, launched by the industry as alternate tobacco products are harmful and may act as a gateway to conventional smoking among young people or the renormalization of smoking in society.

At a momentous summit hosted by GYV, the youth adopted a Declaration demanding comprehensive measures to address the tobacco industry’s exploitation of young people.. They called for accountability from the tobacco industry for luring young people into addiction and inflicting harm on health and the environment. They urged governments, educational institutions, international organizations, and the media to combat the industry’s insidious influence.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has thrown its weight behind the role of young people in combating the tobacco and nicotine epidemic and, underscores the pivotal role of youth as a force of change and a key element in shaping a tobacco-free future. This acknowledgement of the energy, passion, and innovation that young voices bring to the table is instrumental in galvanizing a global movement against Big Tobacco.

The tobacco industry has long manipulated and ensnared youth into lifelong addiction through flavored tobacco products and targeted marketing. According to WHO, about 37 million children (13-15 years) globally use tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. Young e-cigarette users are two to four times more likely to transition to traditional cigarettes, underlining the urgency of the situation as it threatens to roll-back any achievement in controlling youth smoking.

Beyond addicting youth, the tobacco industry inflicts significant environmental harm, costing an estimated US$26 billion annually due to plastics in cigarette butts and packaging. Cigarette butt pollution has become a pervasive global issue, exacerbating environmental degradation for future generations.

The urgency of addressing the tobacco industry’s profound threat is indisputable. Dr. Mary Assunta, Head of Research and Advocacy at GGTC, highlights the need to dismantle the industry’s deceptive web to protect children, “The tobacco industry is a diabolical predator preying on children, despite its claims of not targeting them. Telling children not to smoke or vape is simply not enough. We must act to prevent the industry from trapping our youth.”

In response to these alarming trends, GGTC has empowered youth to counter the tobacco industry’s ploys. Its new advocacy toolkit, “Protecting youth from tobacco industry interference” offers easy–to-execute strategies and guidance to tobacco control advocates.

To harness the creativity of youth to expose the deceptive tactics of the tobacco industry, a global media competition, the ‘Social Reels Challenge,’ a collaboration with WHO, provides a platform for youth to voice their concerns..

With millions of children worldwide falling into nicotine addiction trap, it is imperative to act decisively and stop the exploitative actions of the tobacco industry. The voices of youth must be heard, their stories shared, and their calls to action heeded as we work towards a future free from the grip of Big Tobacco.

The collective efforts of global youth supported by international organizations and the public health community are spearheading this vital movement to safeguard the health and well-being of present and future generations. Together, we can pave the way for a healthier, tobacco-free future.

Rajika Mahajan is the Communications Officer at GGTC.

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IFAD President Alvaro Lario and others celebrate as the organization lists its sustainable bonds on the London Stock Exchange. Credit: IFAD

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI & ROME, Jun 6 2024 (IPS)

Technology and innovation are at the center of the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s strategy to fulfill its global mission to eradicate poverty and hunger in the developing world, IFAD’s President Alvaro Lario told IPS in an exclusive interview.

According to Lario, IFAD‘s work centers around innovation in funding, agriculture, climate change, and development. This mission aims to foster groundbreaking, life-transforming solutions from the forefront of technology and digital innovation, supporting communities in remote rural areas facing a debilitating climate onslaught. The challenges are great, considering small-scale farmers produce one-third of the world’s food and nearly 80 percent of the world’s extremely poor people live in rural areas.

As IFAD is both a UN organization and an International Financial Institution (IFI), Lario, who is a seasoned international development finance leader with a PhD in Financial Economics, has steered the organization to become the first and only United Nations body and specialized agency, other than the World Bank Group, to enter the capital markets and obtain a credit rating. This enabled the UN agency to expand resource mobilization efforts to the private sector. IFAD issued its first Australian Dollar (AUD) private placement on May 9, 2024. An investor, one of Japan’s leading life insurers, bought a 15-year AUD 75 million sustainable bond to support IFAD’s mission to accelerate sustainable growth and inclusive development in developing countries’ rural areas.

“We are now innovatively bringing the private sector on board and are the first UN agency to use its own balance sheet to invest and co-invest with the private sector. Being a financial institution, we incentivize and mobilize private sector investment through an innovative risk-sharing mechanism—the Africa Rural Climate Adaptation Finance Mechanism (ARCAFIM). Launched at COP28, this risk sharing mechanism will support local banks to de-risk some of the loans in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda to enable hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers to access loans for climate adaptation,” he says.

The UN specialized agency has long been at the forefront of AI adoption, even before it was well known, and was one of the first multilateral organizations to leverage AI technology, using Microsoft AI solutions to build Omnidata, a centralized analytics platform that connects data, dashboards, visualizations, and analytics powered by machine learning and AI to address small-scale farmers’ needs through targeted investments. It is essentially a tool that enables the agency to have all the data they need at their fingertips, allowing IFAD to make responsive and evidence-based decisions. For instance, AI can track weather patterns, simulate potential impacts on rural communities, intervene, and build resilience to climate shocks.

IFAD President Alvaro Lario and farmer Gilbert Muriuki harvest healthy cabbages at his farm in Embu County, which benefited from the Karimari Rutune Community Irrigation Project. Credit: IFAD

“Data is key to effective decision-making. In Kenya, for instance, we are investing in and supporting a small start-up called Farmers Lifeline Technologies. They use solar-powered cameras to scan the farms regularly and identify potential threats such as pests and diseases. The data is processed through AI and the results are sent back as a phone message to the respective farmer, providing them with timely, critical advice on how to neutralize the threat. We also use drones and satellites to collect data and make informed, time-sensitive decisions,” says the IFAD President.

“We work with the European Space Agency on geographical information systems to facilitate the use of satellites to support, analyze, and take decisions with regard to, say, how deforestation and climate change affect small-scale farmers and, in turn, using the satellite images to develop much-needed solutions.”

In February 2024, IFAD and the Inter-American Development Bank Group Innovation Lab (IDB LAB) announced a partnership to build AgroWeb 3, a global digital public good infrastructure using blockchain and Web3 technology, enabling rural people to easily receive and make digital payments and protect their data. The collaboration aims to provide access to universal digital wallets tailored to the needs of small-scale farmers.

Ngumbi Ndambuki, a Kenya Cereal Enhancement Programme (KCEP) farmer, packs his cereal storage bags on his motorbike. He purchased the bags from Planet Agrovet, an agro-dealer based in Kathonzweni, Makueni County. IFAD aims to create resilient smallholder farmers. Credit: IFAD/Isaiah Muthuirg

IFAD plans to roll out the initiative globally, accelerating the inclusion and resilience of rural people and vulnerable groups, especially in remote rural areas where poverty and hunger are deepest, so that rural populations are not left behind and can lift themselves out of poverty.

“The complexity and diversity of rural poverty call for new, better solutions. We have a program in the Sahel providing loans to local banks at a zero percent rate so that small-scale farmers have access to funds for climate investments and adaptation to climate change,” says Lario, explaining some of their projects aimed at increasing resilience.

“Further afield, we have been working in Indonesia with a private sector company to train small-scale cocoa farmers to become ‘cocoa doctors’ which is a way of improving the health of the cocoa plant by addressing pressing challenges such as soil health and pests and a practical example for other farmers to emulate.”

The UN agency seeks to collaborate widely in an inclusive process where no one is left behind, including women, as they are a critical pillar of food and nutrition security, while ensuring that their children access an education to break the cycle of vulnerability, risk, and poverty. These objectives are at the heart of IFAD’s application of the latest tools and technologies to design and implement programs that work for rural people.

Looking to the future, IFAD’s goal is to move towards open innovation that transcends sectors and geography. It has already co-founded the Moonshots for Development (M4D) network, which harnesses AI and works collectively to launch ambitious solutions to global development challenges using emerging technologies, as well as holding regular open innovation challenges.

From cutting-edge technology to low-tech solutions, like in Bolivia, where llama farmers are supported through an IFAD partnership with a tractor hailing service. Credit: IFAD

However, it is not only state-of-the-art technology they are proud of—even the humble tractor can make a difference, says Lario, explaining that innovation can manifest in various forms and across various locations.

He recounts a visit to Bolivia, where he recently joined Bolivia’s President in celebrating the International Year of Camelids, considered heroes of deserts and highlands because of the roles they play in the lives of people, particularly Indigenous Peoples, who live in hostile environments.

“It’s not always cutting-edge technology. For decades, we have invested in the value chains of camelids by partnering with a small start-up named Halo Tractor, also known as ‘call a tractor’, to provide these tractors to farmers for hire,” he explains. “As farmers search for greener pastures, they can move and fence in their llamas to graze within a protected area in just two hours, as opposed to the five to seven days it took to build a mobile fence to protect their livestock.”

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Aerial view of the European Parliament in Brussels

By Alice Slater
NEW YORK, Jun 6 2024 (IPS)

It is quite astonishing and clearly insane, that Manfred Weber, the German leader of the European Union’s center-right European People’s Party, now expected to come in first in the European Parliament election scheduled on June 6-9th, is calling for the EU’s own nuclear “deterrent”—arguing that the US-stationed nuclear weapons in five NATO states, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherland, and Turkey, may be inadequate protection for Europe’s security should Trump, that great friend of Russia, be elected!

There is a total disconnect from reality in the western world. It is driven by what has been described as an expansion of the warning of former General Eisenhower, commander of US World War II forces that worked with Russia to defeat the Nazi onslaught, which happened to kill the astounding number of 27 million Russians, in his outgoing presidential address.

Eisenhower warned against the undue influence of the Military Industrial Complex–which has been described by Ray McGovern, former CIA agent and founder of VIPS (Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity) as the MICIMATT– the Military, Industrial, Congressional, Intelligence, Media, Academic, Think Tank complex! They are all making a killing on killing!

The US, leading this doomsday machine, is hurtling us towards destruction based on a flouting of all the laws and treaties that have been painfully negotiated and put in place to avoid WWIII, for what it calls its “rules-based order”.

This was the alibi it used when it bombed Kosovo over Russia’s UN Security Council veto, despite its UN treaty obligation not to commit any war of aggression without Security Council approval unless under “imminent threat of attack”, which could hardly be rationally expected to come from Kosovo!

Although the US violated no treaty, it’s steady expansion of NATO eastward, despite well documented promises to Gorbachev, when he miraculously dissolved the Warsaw pact, without a shot, and expressed his apprehension at the Nazi slaughter Russia had suffered with a hope that a unified Germany would not be part of NATO.

Reassurances were given to him that we would never allow Germany to commit aggression again and that we would not expand NATO one inch to the east. At one point, Russia was so threatened by the expansion of NATO that Putin proposed to Clinton that Russia be invited to join. The US turned him down.

And of course, Putin actually tabled a proposed agreement two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, promising not to take action if Ukraine remained neutral and was not accepted into NATO. Bush walked out of the 1972 ABM Treaty we had with the USSR to stop the proliferation of anti-ballistic missiles, and the US put missile bases in Romania and Poland.

Russia (as well as China-the other enemy we are creating to keep the war machine going) has been very forthcoming in seeking nuclear disarmament and peace. After the devastating destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Stalin asked Truman to turn the bomb over to the UN which we jointly founded “to end the scourge of war” and the US turned him down. So, Russia got the bomb!

Gorbachev, after the wall came down, asked Reagan to join the USSR in eliminating nuclear weapons, provided the US gave up its Star Wars policy to “dominate and control the military use of space”. Reagan turned him down. Russia and China both tabled treaties for a space weapons ban at the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva where consensus is required to discuss negotiations.

The US vetoed it, refusing even any discussion in 2008, and again in 2014. Putin proposed to Clinton that we cut our nuclear arsenals to 1,000 bombs each and call the six other nuclear armed countries to the table for a treaty to abolish them. The US turned him down.

When the US and Israel boasted about their use of the Stuxnet virus to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment plant, Putin approached Obama to negotiate a cyberwar ban treaty. The US turned him down.

The demonization of Russia and Putin and now China as well, is a major project of the MICIMATT! The EU has bought the brainwashing caused by the manufacture of a false narrative to keep the war machine going.

In the words of Pogo Possum, a Walt Kelly cartoon character during the first Red Scare, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

Alice Slater serves on the Boards of World BEYOND War and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. She is the UN NGO Representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and on the Advisory Board of Nuclear Ban U.S. in support of the 2017 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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The Secretary-General, António Guterres, recently visited Antarctica to see the deadly impact of the climate crisis. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

By Naureen Hossain
NEW YORK, Jun 5 2024 (IPS)

Coming at a time of record-breaking global temperatures over the last twelve months, the UN chief calls on world leaders, including the G20 and G7 members, to commit to their climate action goals as laid out in the Paris Agreement. Experts across multiple industries are also encouraged to do their part to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis.

Today (June 5, 2024) is World Environment Day, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres marked with a special address delivered at the American Museum of Natural History. He warned that global efforts to address the climate crisis need to be strengthened, which would depend on the decisions that world leaders will take in the coming months and years.  In the lead-up to major global conferences such as the G20 and G7 summits, the United Nations General Assembly in September and COP29 this November, this time is considered critical for countries to reassess and reaffirm their nationally determined contributions and their climate action plans.

“The need for action is unprecedented but so is the opportunity—not just to deliver on climate, but on economic prosperity and sustainable development,” said Guterres. “Climate action cannot be captive to geo-political divisions.”

The Secretary-General’s special address also coincided with the release of a new report and findings from the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Global Annual to Decade Climate Update 2024 report. In addition to revealing the 80 percent likelihood of the global annual average temperature exceeding the 1.5 degree limit, the report also notes that the global annual average temperature may exceed the 1.5-degree Celsius limit at least once within the next five years, between 2024 and 2028. There is a high likelihood that one of these years will set a new record temperature high, which could beat 2023, the current hottest year on record.

“WMO is sounding the alarm that we will be exceeding the 1.5°C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency. We have already temporarily surpassed this level for individual months—and indeed, as averaged over the most recent 12-month period. However, it is important to stress that temporary breaches do not mean that the 1.5 °C goal is permanently lost because this refers to long-term warming over decades,” said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett.

Guterres also drew from data findings from the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service, which found that the highest global average temperature over the last twelve-month period (June 2023–May 2024) was the highest on record, at 1.63 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.

During the speech, Guterres made several key recommendations for world governments and other stakeholders, namely to slash carbon emissions, boost climate financing, and protect people and places from the extremes of climate change. He called on the G20 countries, who account for up to eighty percent of global carbon emissions, to bolster their climate action plans that would include majorly reducing global emissions. They were also called on to show what he referred to as climate solidarity by providing technical and financial support to developing countries’ efforts to meet their goals. G20 economies would not only have the means to take these measures, but they should also be able to set the standard for other countries.

UN Secretary General António Guterres. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

Guterres also called for G20 countries to commit to reducing or ending their use of coal, oil, and gas fuels to reduce supply and demand by sixty percent by 2035. For all other countries, including developing economies, their climate action plans should also “double as investment plans,”  which will spur sustainable development and make use of renewable energy sources to meet the “soaring energy demand.”

Protecting people and places is also of key importance in Guterres’ address, as he recommended ramping up protections from climate chaos, particularly for the most vulnerable communities. Recently, this has manifested through extreme weather conditions such as heatwaves in countries across South and Southeast Asia and heavy storms in Latin America, such as Brazil. All countries will be expected to set out their climate adaptation plans, including accounting for adaptation finance, which goes towards actions to reduce the risks communities face in times of climate hazards. Guterres reiterated that developed countries should honor their commitment to double adaptation financing up to 40 billion USD a year by 2025. He also noted that the gap in adaptation finance must be addressed in COP29 this year.

Guterres took aim at the fossil fuel industry in his speech, referring to it as the “Godfather of climate chaos.” He noted that the industry takes in profits and benefits from taxpayer-subsidies that amount to trillions of dollars and have stood in the way of progress with “relentless zeal” over the years. He noted that the industry has spent far more time and money—billions, even—sowing doubt about alternate energy sources and investing as little as 2.5 percent of their capital in clean energy.

“Doubling down on fossil fuels in the 21st century is like doubling down on horseshoes and carriage wheels in the 19th (century),” he said.

He went further to urge others to stop extending their support to the fossil fuel industry, calling on financial institutions to stop bankrolling fossil fuel companies, urging advertising and public relations companies to stop working with them to spread their influence, and even calling for countries to ban advertisements for fossil fuels.

Among these harrowing concerns and the stark facts of the immediate impact of climate change, there is still some hope. It has been emphasized that countries already possess the resources to meet the challenges brought on by climate change.

“We are living in unprecedented times, but we also have unprecedented skill in monitoring the climate and this can help inform our actions,” said Carlo Buontempo, Director of Copernicus Climate Change Service. “This string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold but if we manage to stabilize the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in the very near future, we might be able to return to these “cold” temperatures by the end of the century.”

In his speech, Guterres commended those in civil society, the business sector, and activists, along with cities and regions that have advocated for or implemented measures towards environmental consciousness. “You are on the right side of history. You speak for the majority,” he said.

Guterres also noted that the United Nations would be “all in” in finding solutions and encouraging cooperation between stakeholders. This level of cooperation would only yield concrete results with full involvement and commitment to undo the damage caused by man-made climate change. “Now is the time to mobilize. Now is the time to act. Now is the time to deliver. This is our moment of truth.”

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Meeting the continent’s emission reduction targets could enhance energy security metrics by 8 percent by 2030—and that would be just the start. Credit: Dusan Petkovic/Stock by Getty Images

By Geoffroy Dolphin, Romain Duval, Galen Sher and Hugo Rojas-Romagosa
WASHINGTON DC, Jun 5 2024 (IPS)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered Europe’s worst energy crisis since the 1970s and put energy security back at the top of the policy agenda.

Policymakers reacted swiftly by securing alternative natural gas supplies, improving energy efficiency, and expanding renewables.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions would, they said, not only mitigate climate change but also strengthen energy security. Skeptics, however, countered that this approach would increase the cost of energy, phase out safe (albeit dirty) domestic coal more rapidly, and ultimately weaken the continent’s energy security.

So, which view is correct? Our new research shows that boosting Europe’s climate action delivers sizable energy security benefits, too.

We weigh the effects of climate action on energy security in a global economic model with many countries and sectors. It simulates the impacts of policies to reduce emissions on two essential security measures.

The first measure, security of supply, assesses the risk of a disruption to energy supply by combining how dependent a country is on imports for its energy consumption with how diversified those energy imports are. The second is the resilience of its economy to an energy disruption, represented by the share of gross domestic product it spends on energy.

Strikingly, our analysis reveals that Europe’s energy security deteriorated in the decades before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as countries relied increasingly on imports from ever fewer suppliers.

The simulations also show that higher carbon prices, stronger sector-specific energy efficiency regulations, and accelerated permitting for renewables would all improve Europe’s energy security along these two key metrics.

Effects would differ across policies, however:

Carbon pricing cuts emissions at the lowest output cost to the economy but may take time to improve energy security in some energy- and emission-intensive economies in Central and Eastern Europe, if used as the only emission-reduction tool.

This is partly because these countries would have to phase out domestic coal sooner than otherwise.

Stronger energy-efficiency regulations for transport and buildings, by contrast, are less efficient than carbon pricing in cutting emissions, but they deliver larger energy security co-benefits. They also spread those benefits more evenly across countries.

Such regulations lower the consumption of energy, just as carbon pricing does, but they tend to reduce the price of energy—and thereby overall energy expenditures—more. Combining them with support to poorer households—for purchases of more energy-efficient vehicles and domestic heating systems, for example—would make them more palatable and thereby speed up implementation.

Accelerated permitting for renewables also improves energy security widely across Europe by expanding domestic energy supply.

Packaging climate policies

A climate policy package that includes all these tools is the most promising way forward because it combines the economic efficiency of carbon pricing with the larger and more evenly shared energy security benefits of regulations.

Specifically, a package of measures improves energy security in three ways. First, it lowers dependence on imports by replacing imported fossil fuels with domestically produced renewable electricity.

Second, it diversifies individual economies’ energy imports away from non-European suppliers toward European ones—through enhanced penetration of renewables and electrification of end uses such as vehicles and house heating systems, in particular, given that European countries predominantly trade electricity with their European neighbors.

And third, it lowers energy expenditures because efficiency investments reduce demand and accelerated renewables deployment raises energy supply—both of which lead to lower energy prices. This more than offsets the higher cost from higher carbon pricing.

An illustrative policy package that cuts emissions by 55 percent compared to 1990 levels would improve the two energy security metrics by close to 8 percent by 2030 for Europe as a whole.

For the European Union, this package, which is consistent with the “Fit-for-55” agenda, would reverse 13 years of deterioration in economic resilience to energy disruptions and eight years of reduction in security of energy supply. As Europe continues to ramp up its climate policy action beyond 2030, these gains would only increase.

Multilateral cooperation

The simulations also support the case for strong multilateral cooperation within Europe, given that countries differ in their energy security gains and emission reduction costs (which, in turn, reflect factors such as their current energy intensity, energy mix, and potential for renewable power generation).

A common facility that would pool resources and coordinate green investments at the EU level could accelerate the green transition at low cost while distributing its gains more evenly, including by tapping cheap abatement options in emerging EU member countries.

Completing the EU’s energy union strategy is a case in point: better connecting national grids would lower costs and help individual countries import electricity from other member countries in the event of domestic disruptions, improving energy security for all.

At a time when the momentum behind climate action is at risk of fading, European policymakers should consider its full benefits. By ramping up their individual emission reduction policies as planned and strengthening their cooperation, not only will they remain global leaders on the path toward net zero emissions by 2050, but they will also secure abundant and safe energy supply to power their economies into the future.

Source: International Monetary Fund (IMF)

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