Sudhirendar Sharma Mention of a railway journey invites memories of the good, and not-so-good travel experiences over time. More than the destination, it is the sheer experience of being on the train journey that replays through awful encounters, amusing anecdotes, and avoidable follies. Yet, there is something compelling that continues to entice people to persist with their train journeys, quite ... Read More »
By Bertrand Badré and Antoine Sire Paris – Four years after world leaders signed the Paris climate agreement and adopted the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global environmental crisis shows every sign of worsening. Polar ice and glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate. Read More »
by Lee White, Tanguy Gahouma Libreville – When Gabon ratified the 2015 Paris climate agreement, its real work was just beginning. The main challenge was to find ways to conserve the country’s natu ral environment and address the growing climate crisis, while not limiting economic opportunities for its people. Almost four years later, we have a deeper understanding of the ... Read More »
by Amandine Crespy on 17th October 2019 The rejection by the European Parliament of Slyvie Goulard as French commissioner showed that ‘it’s France’ is not a sufficient excuse for special treatment. Read More »
by Alida Vračić on 16th October 2019 High emigration rates are doing massive damage to the prospects of the western Balkans—would a stronger EU perspective reverse this outflow? Read More »
By Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary-General 16 October 2019 -Trade wars, protectionism, and nationalist rhetoric are combining to create the possibility of a nightmare debt crisis that could be worse than any previously experienced. Global borrowing is now at the highest levels since the 1950s – and history suggests we should take this as a warning that a debt crisis could ... Read More »
by Karin Pettersson on 15th October 2019 @AB_Karin Karin Pettersson argues that ‘free speech’ is not a licence for politicians relying on rage to lie, and for such lies to be amplified by ‘social media’. Read More »
Sudhirendar Sharma Liberalisation of morality notwithstanding, the heroism of surrender and sacrifice is unlikely to fade anytime soon. Read More »
By Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary-General 7 October 2019 – Global uncertainties and tensions are escalating and affecting trade in every region. We see rising protectionism, while multilateral cooperation – including through the World Trade Organisation – is increasingly under threat. Meanwhile, the resilience of many smaller or less developed countries is being undermined by the impact of climate change and ... Read More »
by Maria Skóra on 7th October 2019 @MariaSkora Whether the coming election in Poland will consolidate the monopoly of the national-conservative PiS or favour a more pluralist balance of power, it will have a significant impact on Polish political culture. Read More »
By Jan Lundius Stockholm / Rome, Oct 2 2019 (IPS) – In a 1974 article, Woody Allen poked fun at biblical stories presenting ludicrous paraphrases of The Book of Job, Abraham´s intended sacrifice of his son Isaac, as well as The Book of Proverbs. One of Allen´s invented proverbs was: “The wicked at heart probably know something”, thus implementing that ... Read More »
by François Martel SUVA – Geoengineering will save us from the climate crisis, its champions insist. By using technology either to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or to deflect some solar radiation away from the Earth, they claim, we can undo the damage wrought by humanity’s failure to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. But while it certainly sounds like a ... Read More »
Sudhirendar Sharma Bad news holds currency, subsuming whatever little good that lies littered around. That has been the way of life, lately. Had I not read hugely popular Factfulness by noted statistician Hans Rosling who stressed that one must strive to get the good things out in the public, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to revisit the momentous weeks ... Read More »
by Justine Nolan and Martijn Boersma on 1st October 2019 @justine_nolan The US Business Roundtable statement in favour of stakeholder rather than shareholder capitalism has opened the question of corporate responsibility—crucially, it extends to global supply chains. Read More »
Mahfuz Adnan New York, Sept 28 – The activists concerned have called for world conscience to be addressed in a permanent solution to the Rohingya issue, adding that it is important for Myanmar to be extradited to the international court for crimes against humanity. However, with the sources of China, Bangladesh and Myanmar meeting at the UN, however, some are ... Read More »
By Rafayil Abbasov Reforming state-owned enterprises can be an extraordinarily complex activity but it is underpinned by a single clear goal. Read More »
by Caroline Marie Lancaster on 26th September 2019 The typical radical-right voter is often assumed to be older and male, with conservative views on women’s and LGBT rights—an assumption which should now be reassessed. Today’s European radical right is rife with contradiction. Once the electoral home of working-class men, disillusioned with the decline of industry and the rapid entry of ... Read More »
By Rémy Rioux Paris – In a profoundly volatile world riddled with fractures, the temptation to embrace a seemingly reassuring path of withdrawal or isolation may be strong. In fact, avoidance of potential hazards seems only natural. For lack of a better alternative, we may be instinctively inclined to look inward in order to circumvent or at least mitigate the ... Read More »
By Rachel Kyte Washington, DC – When emergencies strike, special processes within governments and communities swing into gear. And everyone steps up to help. Read More »
By Andrew Holness and Frank Bainimarama Kingston/Suva – Small island developing states like ours are barometers of the world’s commitment to climate action and sustainable development. Our economies and societies thrive when national ambitions and progress are supported by bold global action. However, global inaction on climate change is threatening our way of life, development achievements, and growth prospects, and ... Read More »
Mostafa Kamal Majumder The British Parliament is resuming its sitting on Wednesday unceremoniously ending its prorogation, termed unlawful by the Supreme Court, forcing a fresh assessment of the limits of House’s sovereignty, and making political scientists to ponder, shall the Westminster still have power to do anything except turning a man a women or a woman man. Read More »
Mostafa Kamal Majumder Three thousand school and college students in Dhaka joined the Global Climate Strike carrying placards seeking climate justice, an end to the use of fossil fuels and chanted slogans urging action from global leaders to protect Planet Earth from climate catastrophes. Read More »
By Abby Maxman Boston, USA, Sep 19 2019 (IPS) – As the UN General Assembly begins, we are once again ringing the alarm on the urgent issues of climate and development that demand our global attention and action. And I worry yet again leaders will not heed the warnings and not act with the clarity and at the scale the ... Read More »
by Sébastien Duyck on 18th September 2019 A ‘people’s summit’ in New York ahead of the official UN climate summit brings environmental and human-rights campaigners together in pursuit of climate justice. Read More »
by Susanne Wixforth and Reiner Hoffmann on 17th September 2019 A European approach to the politics of climate change must integrate social justice, as climate neutrality will be costly but growth without end is unsustainable. On June 20th 2019, the European Council presented a New Strategic Agenda, 2019-2024. Among its priorities, climate change is placed in the context of social ... Read More »
By Stella Paul Manila, Sep 2019 (IPS) – Octogenarian Yohei Sasakawa has travelled to more than 90 countries across the globe; from areas of conflict to the jungles of Brazil, shaking hands, hugging and washing the feet of Hansen’s disease-affected people. His message is simple: Stop stigmatisation and eliminate the disease. Sasakawa, who has spent more than 40 years working ... Read More »
By Cameron Diver New Caledonia, Sep 13 2019 (IPS) – In less than 10 days, countries from around the planet will come together in New York for the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit. I look forward to representing the Pacific Community (SPC) at this important event, and throughout “Action Week” during the upcoming UN General Assembly. Read More »
by Kingsmill Bond, Angus McCrone, Jules Kortenhorst London – The global transition from carbon-intensive fossil fuels to cleaner, more reliable renewables like wind and solar is already well underway. But the big question – for the 2020s and beyond – is how fast it will happen. A slow transition would mean that energy-sector incumbents continue to flourish, and we would ... Read More »
by Anita Inder Singh on 12th September 2019 If Vladimir Putin thinks liberalism is obsolete when it comes to managing cultural diversity, democratic western-European leaders should not be echoing him. Greece is one of the latest member states of the European Union to be framing measures to tackle a fresh wave of human arrivals. And the handling of such newcomers—whether ... Read More »
by Frank Götmark, Robin Maynard Gothenburg/London – On September 24-25, world leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York to review progress toward the UN’s 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs, which aim “to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all,” are commendable, and summarize the kind of world many of ... Read More »
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