Kenya’s pitch at Africa Climate Summit sparks justice concerns
21/8/2023: Africa's first climate summit aims to unify the continent’s position on key issues ahead of the COP28 climate talks in December. Co-host Kenya is calling for a new narrative that ends the “blame game” between developed and developing countries. Fellow negotiators are anxious not to disregard the strongly held principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
Source: African Arguments
Saudi Arabia: mass killings of migrants at Yemen border
21/8/2023: According to a report by Human Rights Watch, Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023. Over this period, the country has spent billions on sports-washing to try to improve its image.
Source: Human Rights Watch
What drives and halts tropical deforestation?
24/8/2023: Researchers have conducted a meta-analysis of 320 studies covering a period of 24 years, confirming that the key drivers of tropical deforestation are agriculture, cattle ranching, building roads, expanding cities into forests, and population growth. Stronger protections for parks and nature reserves help slow deforestation, as does better law enforcement and bans on logging.
Source: Mongabay
US aims to limit loss and damage fund
24/8/2023: The US, which long opposed the new Loss and Damage fund, proposes that it should target the most vulnerable countries and focus on areas not already covered by development banks or emergency relief funds. The G77+China umbrella group of countries argues that they are all vulnerable and should be eligible.
Source: Climate Home News
A plea for a UN summit on the global food crisis
25/8/2023: Launched by Hungry for Action, a coalition of civil society organizations is calling for an emergency meeting of world leaders to address the global food crisis during the UN General Assembly next month. The campaign argues that a combination of conflict, climate change, rising food prices and punishing debt burdens has led to 735 million people going hungry, 122 million more than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Inter Press Service
Foreign observers say Zimbabwe poll not free and fair
26/8/2023: Most observer missions have reported that although the recent elections in Zimbabwe were generally peaceful, the electoral processes did not meet international standards. In its preliminary report, the European Union Observation Mission referred to “an environment that was not always conducive to voters making a free and informed choice.”
Source: The East African
Inflation, COVID plunges 68 million into poverty in Asia
24/8/2023: An estimated 155.2 million people in developing Asia, which is 3.9% of the region's population, lived in extreme poverty as of last year. This figure was 67.8 million higher than it would have been without the pandemic and cost-of-living crises, according to a report published by the Asian Development Bank.
Source: DW
Does India’s rice market disruption threaten food security?
20/8/2023: The general election in India scheduled for the spring of 2024 has politicians’ eyes focused on stabilising staple food prices, a probable explanation of the rice export ban in July. It is uncertain if India, the current G20 chair, can provide leadership on calming an increasingly turbulent world food economy.
Source: East Asia Forum
Fragility & poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: two sides of the same coin
17/8/2023: In the three decades since 1990, extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa has declined only slightly; whereas in South Asia and in East Asia and the Pacific regions the reduction has been very significant. Fragility, conflict, and violence, or more generally, the lack of peace and security, is a key explanation for the difference.
Source: Inter Press Service
Middle East’s groundwater: Will it soon run out?
16/8/2023: As rivers dry up and rainfall declines, water stored underground is more important than ever. Many Middle Eastern countries already have regulations about water use but there is a lack of enforcement to regulate water abstraction for agriculture.
Source: DW