Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Global warming and the burning issue of money
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/11/2024
» It's hard to imagine a less plausible venue for the annual UN-sponsored conference on climate than the dictatorial petrostate of Azerbaijan. Baku, the capital, has a walled medieval centre that's worth a day or two, but offshore the shallow Caspian Sea is littered with a century's worth of old and new oil wells.
Meet your biodiversity pledges
Oped, Mary Robinson, Published on 19/07/2024
» This summer of record-breaking heat waves and contentious elections around the world offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on the role individuals can play in driving positive change. By building coalitions and amplifying the voices of those most affected by crises, we can muster the courage and political will needed to overcome seemingly insurmountable global challenges.
Cities can drive climate solutions
Oped, Michael R Bloomberg & Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Published on 06/12/2023
» Nation-states, presidents, and prime ministers are the players who garner the biggest headlines and the most media attention at each year's UN Climate Change Conference. Yet for the past decade, and with far less fanfare, cities, states, and regional governments (known as "subnationals") have been implementing the Paris climate agreement's guidance, even when their national governments have not. This has meant investing in clean-energy systems and other urban innovations to reduce emissions locally and sharing what works through networks like C40 and the Global Covenant of Mayors to accelerate progress on a larger scale.
Creative climate solutions are the way forward
Oped, May Boeve, Published on 20/01/2023
» This year was a tumultuous one in many ways. While climate-related shocks became even more prevalent and severe, Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered a global energy crisis that continues to affect millions of peoples' lives and livelihoods. Following that shock, unprecedented heatwaves across Europe, Asia, and North America, and then devastating flooding in Pakistan, highlighted the urgency of reducing our fossil-fuel dependency and reshaping our energy systems.
Investing in nature pays dividends
Oped, Mari Pangestu, Published on 14/12/2022
» The mega-challenges engulfing the world today -- from Covid-19 to climate change -- have highlighted the interdependencies between people, planet, and the economy. As we chart a course to reignite global growth and drive green, resilient, and inclusive development, we must not ignore these interlinkages. Nature -- meaning biodiversity and the services that healthy ecosystems provide -- is central to this endeavour, especially in developing countries, where poor people in rural areas tend to rely heavily on nature's services and are the most vulnerable to its depletion.
Free the money for a brighter future
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 03/03/2022
» The main factor limiting the global recovery is not the much-discussed increase in inflation in advanced economies, which is likely to be transient, but rather the massive inequalities between most rich countries and the rest of the world, with the exception of China. These disparities, by constraining the expansion of global effective demand, keep some poorer economies mired in stagnation, and eventually will affect investors in richer countries as well.
World needs climate accountability
Oped, Mary Robinson, Published on 01/03/2022
» It has been 30 years since world leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro and agreed on a set of measures to start the global mobilisation against human-caused climate change and to meet the imperative of a more sustainable development model. Their Rio Declaration affirmed that "human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature".
COP26 falls sadly short of financial 'grand plan'
Oped, Jeffrey D Sachs, Published on 18/11/2021
» The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) fell far short of what is needed for a safe planet, owing mainly to the same lack of trust that has burdened global climate negotiations for almost three decades. Developing countries regard climate change as a crisis caused largely by the rich countries, which they also view as shirking their historical and ongoing responsibility for the crisis. Worried that they will be left paying the bills, many key developing countries, such as India, don't much care to negotiate or strategise.
The rich world's climate hypocrisy
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 17/11/2021
» Many people around the world already consider the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow a disappointment. That is a massive understatement. Global leaders -- especially in the developed world -- although they acknowledge its severity and urgency, they mostly pursue short-term national interests and make conveniently distant "net-zero" emission pledges without clear and immediate commitments to act.