UN sets up emergency General Assembly on Ukraine crisis
27/2/2022: Only 10 such emergency special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened since 1950. The text gives the Assembly the power to take up matters of international peace and security when the Security Council lacks unanimity among its five veto-wielding permanent members. Last week Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have deplored the aggression against Ukraine.
Source: UN News
US seeks to remove climate loss and damage from IPCC report
24/2/2022: An 18-chapter draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change addresses the scenario when adaptation measures are not enough to resist extreme weather events. Fearful of litigation the US insists that the term "losses and damages" be replaced with "impacts".
Source: Climate Home News
Ukraine conflict threatens Africa’s food security
24/2/2022: There is significant agricultural trade between African countries and both Russia and Ukraine especially in wheat. Disruption to shipments would add to existing concerns about global food price inflation.
Source: The Conversation
Global population growth and sustainable development
23/2/2022: Most of the world's future population growth will take place in developing countries, a feature of demographic transition that is both a sign of success and a challenge to be met. One of the key findings of a new report by the UN's Population Division.
Source: UN Population Division
Democratic resilience under pressure
23/2/2022: For the first time since 2004 the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Transformation Index counts more autocratically governed states than democracies. Civil society engagement offers a ray of hope directed in many places against rising levels of inequality and efforts to dilute democratic standards.
Source: Transformation Index
Ukraine crisis exposes ineffectiveness of UN Security Council
23/2/2022: The UN Security Council whose primary mandate is the maintenance of international peace and security has remained paralyzed in the Ukraine crisis by the double veto option of Russia and China. Civil society voices suggest that the International Court of Justice should examine whether Russia's actions can be reconciled with the UN Charter.
Source: Inter Press Service
Changing assumptions about climate change and migration
22/2/2022: Climate change is a driver of migration but not in isolation from social political and economic factors. Most climate-influenced migration is rural to urban and within - not between - countries.
Source: The New Humanitarian
Ethiopia begins generating power from Nile dam
20/2/2022: Ethiopia has launched power generation from the largest dam on the continent aiming to provide electricity to the unserved 60 percent of its population. The Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam is opposed by Egypt and Sudan as harming their water needs.
Source: The East African
Europe’s troop withdrawal leaves Mali in limbo
17/2/2022: The African Union chairman has called for more solidarity with Sahel states in the fight against terrorism. French President Emmanuel Macron has said that France would pull most troops out of Mali within six months.
Source: DW
Macron expected to announce Mali withdrawal
15/2/2022: President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce that French troops will be withdrawn from Mali and redeployed elsewhere in the Sahel following a breakdown in ties with the country's military regime. A pullout would amount to a major strategic shift by France provoked by two military coups in Mali.
Source: The East African