Commitment to Biodiversity Misses Virtually All of its Targets; Community Hydropower Dam Illuminates Life in Salvadoran Villages; and more | Inter Press Service

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Covid-19 Deaths: 1 Million and Surging Joseph Chamie Covid-19 deaths worldwide have surpassed 1 million. With new cases of coronavirus infections rapidly mounting again, the numbers of Covid-19 deaths are feared to surge in the coming months. It took approximately 40 weeks to reach the first million Covid-19 recorded deaths. Some have projected ... MORE > >

We Need Nature and Biodiversity if We Want a Sustainable Future Samira Sadeque “Investing in nature is investing in a sustainable future,” was one of the key messages from yesterday’s first-ever United Nations Summit on Biodiversity where world leaders and experts agreed on the urgency to act swiftly to preserve biodiversity globally. “More than 60 percent of the world’s ... MORE > >

A 10-Year-Old Commitment to Biodiversity Misses Virtually All of its Targets Thalif Deen The coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over one million people worldwide and destabilized the global economy, also upended the UN’s ambitious socio-economic goals, including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. While extreme poverty rates have fallen in past ... MORE > >

From Pledges to Policy and Practice: Moving Nature to the Heart of Decision-Making Ana María Hernández Salgar This week, Heads of State and Government from 64 countries announced one of the strongest pledges yet to reverse the loss of biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people by 2030. Advancing from powerful pledges to concrete policy and action, however, means that nature must be moved to the ... MORE > >

Community Hydropower Dam Illuminates Life in Salvadoran Villages Edgardo Ayala Ermelinda Lobos's life has improved substantially since she and the rest of the people in her small village, hidden in the mountains of northeastern El Salvador, worked hard to build a mini hydroelectric plant and become self-sufficient in energy. Now the seamstress sews on an electric machine ... MORE > >

Papua New Guinea: Bougainville Elects Former Revolutionary Leader as President ahead of Tough Talks on Independence Catherine Wilson Ishmael Toroama, a former revolutionary leader and fighter during the decade long civil war which engulfed the remote islands of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the 1990s, has been elected the autonomous region’s new President ahead of high-level talks about its political future. “I, ... MORE > >

Less Food Loss and Waste, More Right to Food Juan Carlos García y Cebolla Most cultures have created taboos and norms that prevent food waste. At the same time, social mores have reserved for occasions of celebrations or hospitality a code associating the abundance of food, in quantities much higher than normal, with concepts such as generosity and honour. In the ... MORE > >

Staff to UN Management: Please Drop Your Plans for Uber-Style Contracts Prisca Chaoui and Ian Richards As the United Nations prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary we have been made aware of an extremely worrying development concerning the future of UN staff contracts. It seems that UN management is bringing forward plans that, if implemented, will rip up long-established, secure standards ... MORE > >

30th anniversary of World Summit for Children - Today Children Need a New Initiative Richard Jolly On the eve of the UN's 75th anniversary, Antonio Guterres, the UN’s Secretary-General has declared that the coronavirus pandemic is the world's top security threat. He has called for action - for greater international co-operation in controlling outbreaks and developing an affordable vaccine, ... MORE > >

How to Make Nutritious Food Affordable for the 1 Billion Africans Dr Lawrence Haddad and Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko One of the biggest revelations of the COVID-19 pandemic has been that people with pre-existing, diet-related conditions such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, are more at risk of suffering severe forms of the disease leading to a need for intensive hospitalization. In Kenya, for ... MORE > >

Q&A: How Fast Fashion Sits at the Crucial Intersection of Environmental & Gender Justice Samira Sadeque Racism “keeps the global north oblivious to the effect of fast fashion addiction on the global south” say environmental and gender justice experts. Organisers and activists came together last week to discuss how the fast fashion industry sits at the intersection of environmental and gender ... MORE > >

No More Excuses – Time for Global Economic Solutions Tove Maria Ryding, Pooja Rangaprasad and Emilia Reyes On 29 September, the world’s heads of state will come together (virtually) at an extraordinary meeting to discuss financing for development during the 75th UN general assembly. This will be crucial in the battle to address the Coronavirus crisis. Our leaders will need to ask themselves this ... MORE > >

Intercontinental Energy Forum to Discuss Post-Covid Challenges Emilio Godoy The economic recovery after the covid-19 pandemic, renewable energy, the gas situation, regulations and investment; mobility and transport, as well as new technologies and the progress of the Paris Agreement will be discussed at the Madrid Energy Conference from 28 September to 2 October. Jeremy ... MORE > >

‘Leave No one Behind’: How Inclusive is World Leaders’ Call to Climate Action? Samira Sadeque Wrapping up Climate Week at the United Nations General Assembly, global leaders called for climate action that may be “ambitious but achievable” and called for climate measures that would “leave no one behind”. But some climate activists remain concerned about how this can be achieved. “The ... MORE > >

Ecology is Economy - 'We Need an Integrated Approach Between Lives and Livelihoods' Ranjit Barthakur We usually think of livelihoods and lives separately, however, it is now time to imagine a more integrated approach. Consider these statistics: The 2019 UN-IPBES report—the most recent attempt to holistically assess the major threats to the world’s biodiversity, internationally and across ... MORE > >