Environment and Climate Change
Le changement climatique aura-il un impact sur le droit à la santé et au développement ?
Dans un site de construction couvert de poussière situé à l’ouest de la Chine, M. Tan est un travailleur migrant parmi de nombreux autres. Mais cet ancien agriculteur modeste doit aussi faire face à une série complexe de crises qui menacent la santé mondiale.
Le réchauffement climatique et les surges glaciaires
Le climat de la Terre enregistre des variations et au cours les derniers milliers d’années a connu des périodes de réchauffement et de refroidissement. Au XVIIe siècle, le Sud de l’Europe a connu des hivers rudes et longs, appelés le « petit âge glaciaire ». Dans les tableaux des grands maîtres flamands, les canaux sont gelés et la Hollande est couverte de neige.
Understanding state capture
In the common understanding, corruption is often referred to either as bribery practice or as major embezzlement/ plundering of public monies. The former type of bribery is usually called administrative or petty corruption, and the latter is grand corruption (which also includes bribes paid at higher level within public tender, for example).
In the spotlight. Applying restorative justice to the genocide in Rwanda
Dan Van Ness is Executive Director of the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, (www.restorativejusticeonline. org), a programme of Prison Fellowship International, PFI, (www.pfi.org), based in Virginia (USA). PFI is an association of national NGOS from 116 countries working in prisons and communities to reduce the damage caused by crime. Beginning in 2001, Mr. Van Ness assisted Prison Fellowship Rwanda in preparing genocide perpetrators to confront their victims, survivors and communities.
Innovations financières et marchés du carbone
Pour la première fois dans l’histoire, les activités humaines ont des conséquences sur la planète qui peuvent mettre en danger ses systèmes de base essentiels à la vie. Ces activités transforment rapidement l’atmosphère de la planète, ses étendues d’eau et la variété des espèces vivantes. Les émissions de dioxyde de carbone et d’autres gaz à effet de serre causées par les activités anthropiques ont changé l’atmosphère de la Terre, entraînant un changement climatique potentiellement catastrophique qui peut menacer la survie de la civilisation humaine. C’est une réalité et un phénomène qui se produisent sous nos yeux. Alors que les calottes polaires et le permafrost au Groenland commencent à fondre, le niveau de mer augmente. En Alaska, des villes entières sont submergées par les eaux. Des espèces comme l’ours polaire sont en voie d’extinction. Des États insulaires comme les Seychelles et des pays à faible élévation comme le Bangladesh risquent de disparaître dans l’océan. Et des centaines de millions de personnes pourraient connaître le même sort. On estime qu’il y aura 50 millions de « réfugiés environnementaux » d’ici à 2010 et plus de 200 millions d’ici à 2050 – soit une personne sur 45.
UN environment at work. Fighting chemical and waste crime
Rapid economic growth is greatly increasing the generation of hazardous and other waste: it is projected to reach 27 billion tons worldwide by 2050. Its movement across boundaries is also on the rise across much of Asia and Africa despite the fact that the Basel Convention requires the country of origin, when exporting hazardous and other wastes, to obtain the written consent of the country receiving them. This is largely due to higher recycling costs in countries of origin than in receiving ones where environmental regulations are less stringent and labour is cheaper.
Cutting down deforestation
Amazonia is the largest of the six Brazilian biomes, spanning 420 million hectares – or about 49 per cent of the national territory – of which 320 million hectares are covered by natural forests.
Smuggling destruction
It was a warm July day in 1997 when a fax arrived at the London headquarters of refrigerant company Trans-Cool Trading from a Chinese chemicals supplier. It was sent in response to an enquiry about the possibility of importing banned chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into Europe.
A formidable effort is needed
Environmental crime does not only hurt animals or forests. It's dangerous for humans too. Many forms of environmental crime are serious, organized and transnational, weakening the very fibre of our societies. Not only is it the world's fourth largest illegal economy, it is also growing many times faster than the legal one. Many forms of environmental crime are profit driven, no-risk, and contribute to financing terror networks, war and armed conflicts. Let's be straight: we are talking about a global security challenge.
Reflections
A decade ago, when I took up my appointment as Executive Director of UNEP, the economic, social and environmental landscape looked very different. The world was wedded to a paradigm of at-all-costs economic development. Social concerns – health, equality, justice – had little integration with economic concerns. Climate change and environmental degradation were gaining traction as global issues, but were more often than not treated as discrete challenges.
Righting the balance
Two major threats face the world: environmental degradation and the growing gap between rich and poor. Historical and contemporary evidence indicates that they are symptomatic of a growing structural imbalance in all economies – how nature is exploited to create wealth and how it is shared among the population. The root of this imbalance is that natural capital is under-priced, and hence overly exploited, whereas human capital is insufficient to meet demand, thus encouraging relatively higher wages for skilled labour and wealth inequality.
Serious, and growing
Environmental crime is the fourth largest criminal enterprise after drug smuggling, counterfeiting and human trafficking. But this statistic – perhaps the most commonly cited regarding environmental crime – fails to recognize the nature or scope of the problem, and implies it is less serious than other forms of crime.
Environmental champion
Most of us go up or down in the world, but for Bertrand Piccard the alternatives were particularly acute. His grandfather, Auguste Piccard, set altitude records by balloon, becoming the first person to enter the stratosphere and thus observe the curvature of the Earth. And his father, Jacques, set the submarine depth record by descending nearly 11,000 metres to touch the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Femmes et radio: Sur la même longueur d'ondes
Dans un environnement sonore longtemps dominé par les hommes, les femmes ont mis du temps à se forger une place à la radio. Auditrices assidues depuis l'origine, elles ont pourtant contribué à façonner l'histoire de ce média.
People’s power
You may not have felt the ground shaking, but the energy world underwent a seismic shift in 2015. The impacts of the Paris climate agreement, and other energy policy advances, on people everywhere in the world and at every level of the economy will be beneficial and profound. Last year launched us all in into the 21st-century clean energy economy, and 2016 is the year that true democratization of energy begins.
En Chine, des contenus à la carte sur Himalaya FM
Ancien animateur radio de la province de Jilin (Chine), Shi Zhan s'est reconverti dans les médias audio en ligne. Il pratique aujourd'hui une nouvelle forme de récit sonore. Depuis 2014, il raconte de manière créative et vivante l'histoire des anciennes dynasties chinoises sur une chaîne nationale basée à Shanghai, Himalaya FM, le réseau audio le plus populaire de Chine.
Time for boldness
The evidence is irrefutable: the climate is changing, generating a range of environmental, social and economic problems. Without a doubt, climate change is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. The broad consensus is that the cause is human activity, and specifically how we fuel our economies. We have become, ironically, our own worst enemies. Put simply, our current consumption and production patterns are unsustainable, and the consequences will be felt by our children and grandchildren. Urgent action is needed.
Las mujeres y la radio: En plena sintonía
En un contexto sonoro en el que los hombres han predominado durante largo tiempo, las mujeres tardaron un poco en labrarse un nicho profesional. Pero en su función de oyentes asiduas desde los orígenes de la radiodifusión, las mujeres han contribuido a moldear la historia de este medio de comunicación.
Ecological civilization
The Chinese government always attaches great importance to environmental protection, adopting a series of major measures in promoting sustainable development. Since the turn of the 21st century, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council have been vigorously progressing sustainable development from both theoretical and practical perspectives with remarkable achievements.