Conflict and climate change impede Africa’s Great Green Wall
26/11/2021: Fourteen years since the launch of Africa's Great Green Wall project only 4% of the land restoration in the Sahel region has been completed. Billions of dollars in new funding announced this year have raised hopes that the initiative to combat desertification will gain momentum.
Source: Mongabay
Brazilian deforestation surges 22% to highest level since 2006
18/11/2021: Deforestation has been on an upward trend in the Brazilian Amazon which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the entire Amazon rainforest since 2012. It has accelerated particularly sharply under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.
Source: Mongabay
COP26: key outcomes from the UN climate talks
17/11/2021: A considered summary from the World Resources Institute. The long-awaited COP26 climate summit in Glasgow has made important progress in a number of areas but not enough. The world still remains off track to beat back the climate crisis.
Source: World Resources Institute
World leaders back deal to end deforestation by 2030 (again)
1/11/2021: More than 100 countries, including Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have signed up to the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forest and Land Use to stop and reverse deforestation by the end of the decade. A 2014 UN climate meeting in New York issued a similar declaration.
Source: DW
Half of the world is failing to manage its water resources
18/10/2021: Over half the countries across the world are unlikely to achieve the 2030 target date for managing their water resources sustainably, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization. As water know no borders, more coordination between countries will be necessary.
Source: Devex
The biodiversity crisis is a global security crisis
23/9/2021: Environmental degradation is a key driver of insecurity. To achieve peace, we must protect the planet and finance these efforts accordingly. It is no coincidence that 6 of the 10 largest UN-led peacekeeping operations currently exist in areas highly exposed to the impact of climate change.
Source: African Arguments
UN Refugee Agency contemplates rights for climate migrants
1/8/2021: Evidence has emerged that the UN Refugee Agency is considering whether international refugee law might apply to climate migrants. Such a shift would open the door to unprecedented legal protections for people uprooted from their home countries due to climate change.
Source: PassBlue
How protected are protected areas?
6/7/2021: The UN biodiversity conference in Kunming this October will consider a new 2030 target to designate 30% of the planet's land and marine areas as protected. But a series of reports have questioned the capacity of many countries to deliver standards that fulfil protected status.
Source: China Dialogue
Billions risk being without access to clean water by 2030
1/7/2021: Latest global data from the World Health Organization and UN Children’s Fund reveals that access to safely managed drinking water at home increased only from 70 to 74 per cent between 2016 and 2020. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of universal coverage by 2030 will require a quadrupling of the current rate of progress.
Source: UN News
Palm oil: What’s the big deal?
16/6/2021: Palm oil has become an ingredient in so many of our daily staples. But more than 90% of palm oil is produced in the regions of Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, where the land being cleared is tropical rainforests. Is this as bad as we are led to believe?
Source: DW