Global Refugee Forum closes with over $2.2bn in pledges
15/12/2023: Held every four years, the Global Refugee Forum is the world’s largest international gathering on refugees. Over three days in Geneva, financial commitments totalling over $2.2 billion were announced by governments and other sectors, alongside a pledge to resettle 1 million refugees by 2030.
Source: UN Refugee Agency
Warning that that hunger catastrophe looms in conflict-hit Sudan
13/12/2023: Nearly 18 million people across Sudan are facing acute hunger, more than double the number at the same time a year ago. Many of these people are cornered in areas where humanitarian access has been intermittent or impossible due to ongoing fighting.
Source: World Food Programme
FAO’s net-zero plan for food systems lacks ambition
11/12/2023: Agrifood systems contribute about one-third of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Experts are concerned that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's road map to 1.5 degrees Celsius calls for marginal changes at a time when wholesale transformation is needed. The road map hardly mentions fossil fuels, upholding a status quo in which global industrialized food systems are highly energy intensive.
Source: Devex
FAO launches roadmap to eradicate hunger within 1.5°C limits
10/12/2023: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has laid the foundation for a roadmap to eliminate hunger within the constraints of the 1.5°C climate threshold. Against the backdrop of a projected 600 million people facing chronic hunger by 2030 and rising greenhouse gas emissions, the roadmap calls for a transformative shift in agrifood systems.
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization
Should Africa celebrate or mourn COP28?
14/12/2023: A panel of African experts and activists give their verdict on the outcomes of the Dubai climate talks. There is a recurring sense of injustice in the overwhelming presence of 2,400 lobbyists representing fossil fuel interests.
Source: African Arguments
Tropical deforestation increased in 2022
11/12/2023: Emissions from deforestation in the world's tropical forests rose by 5% in 2022, although Indonesia and the Congo Basin bucked this trend. A new carbon mapping tool developed by California-based nonprofit CTrees aims to help countries around the world input to the global stocktake of emissions.
Source: Mongabay
No ‘phase-out’, but COP28 puts oil and gas sector on notice
13/12/2023: Countries have agreed on the need to shift away from burning fossil fuels for the first time in the UN climate process, at Cop28 talks in Dubai. The “UAE consensus” did not go so far as to call for a “phase-out”, as more than a hundred countries wanted. It settled on “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems”.
Source: Climate Home News
Negligible US contribution to loss and damage fund
12/12/2023: Contributions by various countries at COP28 towards the new World Bank-hosted Climate Loss and Damage Fund have reached $700 million, of which the US accounts for just $17.5 million. This equals nine minutes of Pentagon spending, says Jeffrey D. Sachs, a world-renowned economist.
Source: Inter Press Service
UN General Assembly overwhelmingly demands Gaza ceasefire
13/12/2023: The UN General Assembly has passed a non-binding resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, piling pressure on Israel and Washington. The vote came after the Security Council responsible for global peace has repeatedly failed to make such a call, blocked by the US veto.
Source: The East African
Is Bangladesh heading toward another ‘one-sided’ election?
12/12/2023: The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has said it will boycott the general election on January 7, citing the arrest of its entire leadership, along with thousands of activists, over the past five weeks. The past two elections were marred by allegations of massive vote rigging. A fourth successive term for the Awami League and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seems the likely outcome.
Source: DW