Environment and Climate Change
Ethical business works best
Forty-four years ago my parents joined the Government of Malaysia's settler programme administered by the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) a decision that has had a big influence on my life right up to today.
Blood gold
Day or night? It makes no difference in the Amazon gold rush. The clatter of the hundreds of engines that pump water in search of the precious metal never stops. By day enormous trucks move the earth where forests once stood; by night the soil is washed with hundreds of cubic metres of water to extract the gold. Informal mining camps extend into Peru Colombia Bolivia and Brazil destroying the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world and poisoning the land inhabited by hundreds of indigenous peoples with mercury. Huge tracts of tropical rainforest have become graveyards for trees drenched in the toxic metal.
Delivering on the mission
“No matter how minuscule or how vast only protection will make them last. We need to help the ones that can't help themselves because they become extinct so fast.”
Good connections
In 2012 I was invited to join a safari at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. Lion prides cheetah coalitions and herds of buffalo and giraffes walk freely there. Majestic African elephants also roam the conservancy’s terrain but in far smaller numbers than they once did.
Green and fair
The richest 1 per cent of the world’s population now controls 50 per cent of global assets while the poorest half owns just 1 per cent – and that gap is set to widen. At the same time 60 per cent of the world’s ecosystems are degraded. If ever there was a need to rewrite the economic rulebook it’s now.
Innovation 01. Tracking progress
Open access to data and knowledge is fundamental to the transition to a vibrant and inclusive green economy. Such access enables all stakeholders to better understand and participate in the collection use and analysis of data. That’s why UNEP has developed UNEP Live (uneplive.unep.org) a web-based knowledge management platform that gives users access to substantiated contextualized data about sustainable consumption and production patterns and economic performance. Such information which looks beyond growth in income and GDP to include human well-being can be a powerful tool for policy-makers.
Prosecute climate crimes
Criminal justice can help achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change as part of an integrated approach from governments private businesses finance science civil society and others.
Zoom: Des femmes puissantes
Naliapou la doyenne de Tumai un village kenyan interdit aux hommes se prépare pour la cérémonie des chants aux esprits en enduisant son visage de terre rouge mélangée de graisse animale.
Greener finance
The Paris Agreement has sent clear signals to markets and to the financial sector that more than 190 countries are going to vigorously pursue the transition to a low-carbon economy that’s resilient to mounting climate change. It is no longer a question of if this transition will happen but of how fast. Some of the key changes required lie outside the financial sector such as changing relative prices of harmful goods and services vis-à-vis those that benefit the environment and the development of new technologies to facilitate changes in consumption patterns. Finance however has an important role to play.
Clearing the air
Ninety-eight per cent of cities with more than 100000 inhabitants in low and middle income countries do not meet World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines concludes the WHO Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database 2016 update. In high-income countries however that percentage decreases to 56 per cent. In South Asia air pollution is especially acute in such countries as China Indonesia and India requiring State authorities to take immediate action to safeguard the health of their citizens. Long-term health effects include respiratory diseases like lung cancer and even damage to the brain and an increased risk of heart disease. A WHO study estimated that about 12.6 million deaths in the year 2012 could be linked to an unhealthy environment. India's Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 defines air pollution as “the presence in the atmosphere of any air pollutant” and an air pollutant as “any solid liquid or gaseous substance including noise present in the atmosphere in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to human beings or other living creatures or plants or property or environment.”
Leading the way
People across the globe celebrated the signing of the United Nations climate accord in Paris in December. It was truly a landmark event and I was proud to be a part of the Local Climate Leaders Circle of Mayors representing my city and others across the United States.
Colonel: We must act quickly!
Apathetic and soporific. These words describe the state of public opinion and the media’s attitude to climate change according to French-Danish conceptual artist Thierry Geoffroy alias Colonel. Little by little his slogans – that wavered between “Before it’s too late” and “Tomorrow is too late” – were reduced to a simple “Too late”. Paradoxically it is in despair that he finds some consolation.
Catching crime
Indonesia the world’s largest archipelago – consisting of approximately 17000 islands spread across nearly 2 million square kilometres – also holds at over 80000 km its second longest coastline. Sixty per cent of its population lives in the coastal area. So it is no surprise that fishing is one of our biggest economic activities. And soon after Joko Widodo was elected as the President of the Republic of Indonesia he made a political commitment to reclaim the nation's status as a global maritime axis.
Protecting people through nature
For too long we have been told that conserving the environment comes at the expense of economic opportunities for people. But the world’s new commitment to sustainable development clearly shows that humanity is waking up to the fact that social economic and environmental agendas are intrinsically linked.
Defining moment
We stand at a defining moment for the future of the planet and human well-being. Our global commons – the land seas and atmosphere we share and the ecosystems they host – are under severe threat from ever more powerful human activities.
Current Affairs: Mandela’s South Africa: Reality or distant dream?
Twenty-five years after attaining democracy South Africa has taken giant strides towards forging a united nation. But overcoming racism and realizing Nelson Mandela’s vision of a nation that belongs to all who live in it remains a wonderful ideal – which still requires a lot of work according to Justice Jody Kollapen. Both an arbitrator and a victim of racist cases (he was refused a haircut as recently as in October 2003!) this human rights defender maintains that there is enough goodwill to build on Mandela’s vision.
Climate change: A new subject for the law
More and more citizens and nongovernmental organizations around the world are going to court to seek climate change justice. The unprecedented extent of these disputes deserves to be highlighted. This relatively recent type of litigation is forging public opinion and constitutes a form of pressure on states and industries that is forcing them out of their inertia.
Pakistan: Green again
A billion trees have been planted in recent years in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa about fifty kilometres from Islamabad the country’s capital. The landscape has been transformed and so has society. The fight against global warming and the fight against poverty are one and the same.