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IDN-InDepthNews

 

CENTRAL ASIA

   

 

Acronym of the Year

    

UN INSIDER

UN Insider

Photo: Timoci Naulusala from Fiji addressing UN Climate Conference. Credit: UNFCCC

By Ramesh Jaura

BONN (IDN) - Twenty-five years ago, governments came together at the Earth Summit in Rio driven by the idea that the world needed to change the way it was treating its environment.

From that idea, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted – "and a movement began. A movement that, two years ago, resulted in the Paris Agreement," said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa in her opening speech at COP23, the 23rd annual UN Climate Conference.

SUSTAINABILITY
Climate Action

Photo: UN retary-General António Guterres addresses the UN Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany. Photo: Video screen capture

By António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

Following are extensive excerpts from UN Secretary-General António Guterres' remarks on November 15, 2017 at the Opening of the High-level Segment of COP23, the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  – The Editor

BONN (IDN-INPS) – It is fitting that this year’s conference is led by Fiji, a nation on the frontlines. Last month I visited other small islands facing the impacts of a warming world: Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica. The hurricane damage was beyond belief.

The catastrophic effects of climate change are upon us. Floods, fires, extreme storms and drought are growing in intensity and frequency. Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are higher than they have been for 800,000 years.

SUSTAINABILITY
Climate Action

Photo: UNESCO's General Conference. Credit: UNESCO

By A.D. McKenzie

PARIS (IDN) – “May the force be with you” was one of the comments by an ambassador at the investiture ceremony of UNESCO’s new director-general, Audrey Azoulay of France, on November 13.

The “Star Wars” quotation was meant to evoke the many challenges that lie ahead for Azoulay as she takes over management of the cash-strapped UN educational, scientific and cultural agency and tries to heal internal rifts.

In the absence of a magical lightsaber (a fictional energy sword featured in the Star Wars universe), she will have to rely on her experience, diplomatic skills and the backing of member states, many of which expressed support and encouragement after her election, although they did not all vote for her.

UN INSIDER

Image credit: COP23

By Jaya Ramachandran

BONN (IDN) - The 28-nation European Union and 79 countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group have reaffirmed their commitment to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, which entered into force on November 4, 2016. They also urged all member states to ensure concrete progress at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP23).

COP23 is an abbreviation for the 23rd session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the former West German capital city Bonn, from November 6 to 17.

Both the EU and the ACP Group acknowledge the importance of this year's conference to ensure the achievement of key milestones for the full implementation of the Paris accord.

SUSTAINABILITY
Climate Action

Image source: radio.gov.pk

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - When Donald Trump stretched his hand across our television screens on Sunday (November 12) to shake the hand of the Philippines’ president, Rodrigo Duterte, and then said he had “a great relationship” with him I felt my gorge contracting.

Having tasted the great, if sometimes flawed, (remember the totally counterproductive policy of arming the Afghani mujahedeen against the Soviet invaders) campaign of another U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, to put human rights at the centre of American foreign, to see this bald regression is a bitter fruit to swallow.

SUSTAINABILITY
Peace & Justice

Photo: A view of the Vatican Conference on November 10-11, 2017. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | IDN-INPS

By Ramesh Jaura

VATICAN CITY (IDN) – When world leaders approved 'Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development', as an outcome document of the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development two years ago, they designated it as "a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity" that "also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom".

The document, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, is based on a consensus emerging from protracted discussions within the Open Working Group. It meticulously avoids words such as "a world free of nuclear weapons".

ARMAMENTS
Nuclear Weapons

Photo: Alexey Arbatov. Credit: NTI.

By Alexey Arbatov

Dr. Alexei Arbatov is the head of the Center for International Security at the Institute of Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations. He is a former scholar in residence with the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Nonproliferation Program. Formerly, he was a member of the State Duma, vice chairman of the Russian United Democratic Party (Yabloko), and deputy chairman of the Duma Defense Committee. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is the head of the academy’s Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. Following is the complete text of his paper presented to the conference on 'Perspectives for a world free from nuclear weapons and for integral disarmament' at Vatican City on 11 November 2017 – The Editor

ARMAMENTS
Nuclear Weapons

Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu addressing nuclear disarmament conference in Vatican City on November 10, 2017. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | IDN-INPS.

By Izumi Nakamitsu

The author is High Representative for Disarmament Affairs United Nations (UNODA). Addressing the conference on 'Perspectives for a world free from nuclear weapons and for integral disarmament' at Vatican City on 10 November 2017, she expressed her gratitude to Pope Francis and the Holy See for their commitment to a world free from nuclear weapons. The Holy See was one of the very first to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Following are extensive excerpts from her remarks. - The Editor

VATICAN CITY (IDN-INPS) - I would like to recall Pope Francis’ words to the General Assembly in 2015, “An ethics and a law based on the threat of mutual destruction – and possibly the destruction of all mankind – are self-contradictory and an affront to the entire framework of the United Nations.”

ARMAMENTS
Nuclear Weapons

Photo: Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana welcoming Vatican conference participants on November 10. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | IDN-INPSPhoto: Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana addressing a press conference on November 10.

By Ramesh Jaura

VATICAN CITY (IDN) – The Vatican's first international conference on the prospects for "a world free from nuclear weapons and for integral disarmament" on November 10-11 was not intentionally planned to overlap with U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Asia as the U.S. faces heightened tensions with North Korea. It has been in the works for several years, and the timing, as Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana quipped, is a coincidence that could be seen as an act of "divine providence".

Eleven Nobel Peace laureates, UN and NATO officials and a handful of nuclear powers including Russia, the United States, South Korea and Iran, are together with the lay Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai International (SGI) among participants in what is officially described as an international symposium that aims to galvanize support for a shift from the Cold War era policy of deterrence to one of complete nuclear disarmament.

ARMAMENTS
Nuclear Weapons

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