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Climate change poses threats to individuals, communities, and cities globally. Global conversations and scholarly debates have explored ways people adapt to the impacts of climate change including through migration and relocation. This study uses Lagos, Nigeria as a case study to examine the relationship between flooding events, migration intentions as a preferred adaptation, and the destination choices for affected residents. The study draws on a mixed-methods approach which involved a survey of 352 residents and semi-structured interviews with 21 residents. We use a capability approach to analyze mobility decisions following major or repetitive flood events. We found that the majority of affected residents are willing to migrate but the ability to do so is constrained by economic, social, and political factors leading to involuntary immobility. Furthermore, intra-city relocation is preferred to migration to other states in Nigeria or internationally. These findings challenge popular Global South-North migration narratives. Indeed, some residents welcome government-supported relocation plans but others remain skeptical due to lack of trust. Community-based relocation may therefore be preferred by some Lagosians. Overall, this study contributes a nuanced understanding of mobility intentions in response to climate-induced flooding in one of the world’s largest coastal cities.

Climate change poses threats to individuals, communities, and cities globally. Global conversations and scholarly debates have explored ways people adapt to the impacts of climate change including through migration and relocation. This study uses Lagos, Nigeria as a case study to examine the relationship between flooding events, migration intentions as a preferred adaptation, and the destination choices for affected residents. The study draws on a mixed-methods approach which involved a survey of 352 residents and semi-structured interviews with 21 residents. We use a capability approach to analyze mobility decisions following major or repetitive flood events. We found that the majority of affected residents are willing to migrate but the ability to do so is constrained by economic, social, and political factors leading to involuntary immobility. Furthermore, intra-city relocation is preferred to migration to other states in Nigeria or internationally. These findings challenge popular Global South-North migration narratives. Indeed, some residents welcome government-supported relocation plans but others remain skeptical due to lack of trust. Community-based relocation may therefore be preferred by some Lagosians. Overall, this study contributes a nuanced understanding of mobility intentions in response to climate-induced flooding in one of the world’s largest coastal cities.

Climate change poses threats to individuals, communities, and cities globally. Global conversations and scholarly debates have explored ways people adapt to the impacts of climate change including through migration and relocation. This study uses Lagos, Nigeria as a case study to examine the relationship between flooding events, migration intentions as a preferred adaptation, and the destination choices for affected residents. The study draws on a mixed-methods approach which involved a survey of 352 residents and semi-structured interviews with 21 residents. We use a capability approach to analyze mobility decisions following major or repetitive flood events. We found that the majority of affected residents are willing to migrate but the ability to do so is constrained by economic, social, and political factors leading to involuntary immobility. Furthermore, intra-city relocation is preferred to migration to other states in Nigeria or internationally. These findings challenge popular Global South-North migration narratives. Indeed, some residents welcome government-supported relocation plans but others remain skeptical due to lack of trust. Community-based relocation may therefore be preferred by some Lagosians. Overall, this study contributes a nuanced understanding of mobility intentions in response to climate-induced flooding in one of the world’s largest coastal cities.

Unpopular among European regulators, the European Commission’s idea of making Big Tech companies contribute to network costs has found an ally on the other side of the pond. Last February, the EU executive presented a Connectivity Package with measures to...

Jeff Bezos, der Gründer des Onlineversandhändlers Amazon und einer der reichsten Menschen der Welt, soll sich laut US-Medien mit seiner Freundin, der Moderatorin Lauren Sánchez, verlobt haben.

Le prévenu a fait boire un bubble tea contenant de la drogue. Il est aussi suspecté d’avoir abusé d’une amie de la plaignante.

Der armenische Premierminister Nikol Pashinyan wurde am Montag (22. Mai) zitiert, wobei er auf weitreichende Änderungen in der Politik seines Landes gegenüber seinem Erzfeind Aserbaidschan und seinem Verbündeten Russland hindeutete.

Die deutsch-französische parlamentarische Versammlung, die am Montag abgehalten wurde, wurde von Meinungsverschiedenheiten über die Atomenergie überschattet.

Das Statistische Bundesamt hat heute bekannt gegeben, dass im vergangenen Jahr in Deutschland rund 0,6 Prozent mehr Wohnungen fertiggestellt wurden als 2021. Die Entwicklung kommentiert Konstantin Kholodilin, Immobilienökonom im Deutschen Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin), wie folgt:

Die Zahl fertiggestellter Wohnungen in Deutschland ist im vergangenen Jahr im Vergleich zu 2021 um lediglich 0,6 Prozent gestiegen, was auf eine Stagnation der Bauaktivitäten hindeutet. Insgesamt wurden im Jahr 2022 gut 295 000 Wohnungen gebaut – rund vier Prozent weniger als noch 2020. Damit nähert sich die Zahl kaum dem vom Bund vorgegebenen Ziel von 400 000 Wohnungen pro Jahr, die notwendig wären, um der steigenden Nachfrage nach Wohnraum gerecht zu werden. Es ist äußerst wahrscheinlich, dass sich diese schwache Entwicklung angesichts der stark abnehmenden Zahl der Baugenehmigungen auch im laufenden Jahr fortsetzen wird. Gestiegene Zinssätze sowie deutlich höhere Bau- und Energiekosten spielen dabei eine bedeutende Rolle. Hinzu kommt, dass so mancher Bauträger auch aufgrund geplanter Gesetze und damit verbundener Unsicherheiten zögert. Unter dem Strich sind immer weniger Menschen bereit, neue Wohnungen zu erwerben und zu bauen. All dies markiert einen Einbruch des seit 2010 für viele Jahre zu sehenden Baubooms – ausgerechnet zu einer Zeit, in der Wohnraum knapp ist. Preisregulierung und Wohnraumlenkung können das Problem kaum lösen, während die Erweiterung der Wohngeld- und Bauförderung angesichts der damit verbundenen Inflationsgefahr und steigender Staatsverschuldung immer problematischer wird. Es wäre gut, ergänzende Konzepte zu entwickeln, die die Nachfrage so lenken, dass die in einigen Regionen vorhandenen leerstehenden Wohnungen in Anspruch genommen werden.

In der Nacht auf Dienstag gab es Regenfälle, der Vormittag startet jedoch trocken. Die Temperaturen liegen am Dienstag um die 19 Grad, aber es ist so richtig schwülwarm.

Der französische Tennisspieler Hugo Gaston wird von der ATP mit einer Busse von 144'000 Franken belegt. Er hat in Madrid mit Absicht einen Ball auf den Platz fallen lassen.

Die Landwirte unterzeichneten am Samstag eine Vereinbarung mit den serbischen Regierungsvertretern, in der sie sich unter anderem auf höhere Subventionen, eine Milchprämie und eine Importabgabe einigten und die fünftägige Straßenblockade und Proteste im ganzen Land beendeten.

Yellowfin tuna diving.

By Grantly Galland
WASHINGTON DC, May 23 2023 (IPS)

Global fisheries are worth more than US$140 billion each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. But this hefty sum does not capture the true value of fish to ocean health, and to the food security and cultures of communities around the world.

Unfortunately, many important populations were allowed to be overfished for decades by the same regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) charged with their conservation and sustainable use, and in some regions, this continues.

At the same time, the demand for fish continues to grow— from consumers of high-end bluefin tuna sushi to coastal communities who depend on seafood as their primary source of protein. So, RFMOs and governments must do more to ensure sustainable fishing and long-term ocean health.

More than 20 years ago, the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA) entered into force as the only global, binding instrument holding governments accountable for managing the shared fish stocks of the high seas.

Under the agreement, fish should be managed sustainably and consistent with the best available science. Governments that are party to this treaty—and to RFMOs—are supposed to follow its management obligations, and work towards greater sustainability of the transboundary species, including tunas and sharks, vital to the ocean and economies.

Five of those RFMOs focus specifically on tuna management, one each in the Atlantic, eastern Pacific, western and central Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans. They operate autonomously and, although there is some overlap among their constituent members, each sets its own rules for tuna fishing in its waters.

This makes UNFSA critical to successful management of tuna fisheries. And because the tuna RFMOs manage some of the world’s most iconic species, they often set the tone for how other similar bodies operate.

All of this is pertinent now because UNFSA member governments are meeting in New York May 22-26 to evaluate whether RFMOs are performing consistent with their commitments. A similar review was conducted in 2016, and although management has improved over time, some areas require more work, especially when it comes to ending overfishing and considering the health and biodiversity of the entire ecosystem.

Since 2016, the share of highly migratory stocks that are overfished increased from 36% to 40%, making it all the more urgent for governments to act quickly.

UNFSA calls on RFMOs to be precautionary in how they regulate fishing, although that guidance is not always followed. There are several examples of extensive overfishing of target species, such as bluefin tuna in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean; and mako, oceanic whitetip sharks and other species that are caught unintentionally.

Although the RFMOs that manage these fisheries have stopped the overfishing in some cases, in others they have not. But there are signs of progress. Over the past decade, a new precautionary management approach known as harvest strategies has gained traction among RFMOs.

These strategies (or management procedures) are science-based rules that automatically adjust catch limits based on several factors, such as population status. If widely implemented, they should end overfishing and prevent it from threatening these populations again.

Harvest strategies have already been successful, particularly in the Southern and Atlantic oceans, where they’ve been adopted for several species, including bluefin tuna and cod, fish stocks for which precautionary management has historically been difficult, or even controversial.

While this progress is important, UNFSA members are still falling short in an area they have agreed is critically important: taking an ecosystem approach to management. For generations, fisheries managers focused on individual fish stocks—adopting catch limits and other measures with little thought to the broader ecosystem.

Science shows that maintaining ecosystem health is critical to sustainable fishing. Yet, to date, RFMOs largely have not consistently assessed or addressed the wider impacts of fishing on ecosystems, including predator-prey relationships, habitat for target and non-target species, and other factors.

Instead, most action has been limited to reducing the impact of bycatch on individual shark species. Better data collection and sharing, and more monitoring of fishing activities, could help integrate stronger ecosystem considerations into management. The more RFMOs can build the whole ecosystem into their decisions, the better it will be for their fisheries.

For example, in the western and central Pacific, the $10 billion skipjack tuna fishery is an enormous economic driver for island nations that are threatened by climate change. But the harvest strategy in place there is nonbinding and unimplemented.

For a fishery facing changes in stock distribution due to warming waters, as well as increased market pressures, delayed action on implementation—and a lack of an ecosystem approach—may make matters worse.

At this week’s UNFSA meeting, RFMOs should be commended for the work they have done in the seven years since the last review. Good progress has been made, including improvements to compliance efforts, and monitoring and enforcement to fight illegal fishing.

But many of the legal obligations of the treaty remain unfulfilled. As such, sustainability is still out of reach for some critically important stocks, and almost no ecosystem-based protections are in place.

As governments convene this week, they should look to the lessons of the past—when poor decision-making threatened the future of some fisheries—and seize the opportunity to modernize management and adhere to the promises they have made on conservation. The biodiversity in the world’s ocean shouldn’t have to wait another seven years for action.

Grantly Galland leads policy work related to regional fisheries management organizations for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ international fisheries project.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Vor einer Woche stritten sich die griechischen Sozialdemokraten (Pasok) und die Linkspartei Syriza noch darüber, ob eine progressive Regierung zwischen ihnen funktionieren könnte.

Regierungsbildungen sind in Bulgarien besonders schwierig. Daran haben auch die vielen Wahlwiederholungen nichts geändert. Jetzt könnte aber ein Durchbruch gelungen sein.

Der Schuldenstreit um die Obergrenze der Staatsausgaben geht weiter und langsam wird die Zeit knapp. Am Montag treffen sich US-Präsident Joe Biden und Sprecher des US-Repräsentantenhaus Kevin McCarthy erneut, finden jedoch wieder keine Einigung.

Das National Bureau of Investigation hat Strafanzeige gegen die Vorstandsmitglieder der slowenischen Zentralbank, einschließlich des ehemaligen Gouverneurs Boštjan Jazbec, gestellt, die an der Bankenrettung 2013 beteiligt waren.

Milliardär Klaus-Michael Kühne hat als grösster Aktionär der Lufthansa-Gruppe derzeit wenig Freude an der Swiss: Die Schweizer Airline lässt nämlich immer wieder Maschinen anderer Gesellschaften für sie fliegen. Das verwässere die Gruppe, kritisiert Kühne.

Portugal kann ukrainische Piloten für den Einsatz von F-16-Kampfjets ausbilden, kann aber vorerst keine eigenen Flugzeuge entsenden, sagte Außenminister João Gomes Cravinho am Montag.

Der belgische Premierminister Alexander De Croo kritisierte am Montag (22. Mai) die Idee, die Wirtschaft aus Umweltgründen nicht wachsen zu lassen, und schloss sich der Forderung an, umwelt- und gesundheitsbezogene Regulierungen zu stoppen, um eine Überlastung der Unternehmen zu vermeiden.