Climate Action

Image: The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development will be held as a virtual conference from 17 to 19 May 2021. Credit: UNESCO

Education For Sustainable Development as Overarching Framework to Achieve the SDGs

Viewpoint by Simone Galimberti

The writer is Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit in Nepal. He writes on volunteerism, social inclusion, youth development, and regional integration as an engine to improve people’s lives. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (IDN) — A life insurance policy for humanity, this is how Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Director-General defined the scope of all efforts focused on addressing climate change and the persistent degradation of our biodiversity.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 15 May 2021

The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene [1]

Viewpoint by Franz Baumann*, Former UN Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations.

This article was first published in Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, Volume 63 Issue 3, May/June 2021 and is being republished with the author's permission.

NEW YORK (IDN) — One must thank UNDP for putting together the 2020 UNDP Human Development Report (HDR). It is a magisterial work and could well be an excellent textbook, if a slightly nerdy one, useful more for dedicated teachers than for students new to the subject, not to mention the general public.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 May 2021

Photo credit: Pexels | Harry Cunningham @harry.digital

Renewables Are the Building Blocks of Global Energy Transition

By J W Jackie

RENO, Nevada, USA (IDN) — The latest International Renewable Energy Agency IRENA analysis reveals that by 2050, variable renewables like wind and solar PV will dominate the global total power supply. The insights from IRENA’s World Energy Transitions Outlook were released on March 16-17, 2021, at the Berlin Energy Transitions Dialogue.

With 163 Members, IRENA plays a leading role in the energy transformation as a centre of excellence for knowledge and innovation, a global voice for renewables, a network hub and a source of advice and support for countries.

: Europe Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Affordable Clean Energy; 08 May 2021

Image Credit: Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations.

Avert the Worst Impacts of Climate Disruption

Viewpoint by António Guterres

Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German government convened this year’s Petersberg Climate Dialogue virtually on May 6 with Alok Sharma, the UK Chair-designate of 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Glasgow, from November 1 to November 12, 2021. UN Secretary-General António Guterres also spoke. Following are major excerpts from his remarks.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNDG*) — Six months ahead of COP26, and still deep in the COVID-19 crisis, I would like to share my assessment of where we stand.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 06 May 2021

Photo: Many Pacific nations are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Image: In the Eye of the Storm.

New Zealand’s Climate Aid in the Pacific Comes With Strings Attached

By Matthew Scott*

A special feature moved in association with the Asia Pacific Report.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (IDN) — The beach is vanishing, one day at a time. The sea approaches the coastal village. It will not be negotiated with. With seawater flooding the water table, crops that have fed the islanders for centuries are losing viability. The problem is invisible, under the people’s feet. But it demands change.

Each year, the cyclones have seemed to get more volatile and less predictable. What used to be a cycle of weathering the storm and rebuilding has become a frenetic game of wits with the elements.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 29 April 2021

Compelling Need To 'End Our War on Nature"

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd was first published in #WhyWeCare on April 22.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) — “End our war on nature” was Antonio Guterres’s call at the Leaders Summit on Climate convened by President Biden this, April 22 Earth Day morning. Last week we had quoted from the remarks by Viet Nam’s Deputy Prime Minister, Nguyen Duy Trinh, at the time of his country’s admission to the United Nations in 1977; rereading that speech, I was struck by his observation that how “in our time mankind is making enormous progress in its endeavour to transform nature and society.”

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 25 April 2021

Image: A NASA image of the Earth. Public Domain.

Rich Countries, Are You Listening? Pay Up the Climate Debt Owed to Global South!

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A number of African activists were listening in at President Joe Biden’s major climate summit on April 22 at which 40 world leaders were invited. Among the listeners was Kumi Naidoo, special adviser for the Green Economy Coalition’s Social Contract Initiative and Dipti Bhatnagar of Friends of the Earth International.

Naidoo, former head of Amnesty International and Greenpeace, claimed that foot dragging, particularly on the part of the United States, not only with Trump but with previous administrations, has left the world basically at one minute to midnight in terms of the climate crisis.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 24 April 2021

World Bank-IMF Pledge Support for Pandemic Affected Countries

By Caroline Mwanga

WASHINGTON (IDN) — While planning to rebuild economies after the COVID-19 pandemic, countries would do well to lay the foundation for a green, resilient, and inclusive future. This was the message of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) virtual Spring Meetings from April 5 to 11, 2021. World Bank Group President David Malpass outlined the major challenges facing the world, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality, and growing fragility and violence as a part of the focus on Economic Recovery: Toward a Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Future.

: Caroline Mwanga; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 21 April 2021

Photo: Sinharaja Forest Reserve © Ko Hon Chiu Vincent

The Destruction of the World Heritage Sinharaja Forest

An OPEN LETTER to UNESCO, IUCN and WCPA

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — As a former staff member of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1978 to 1995, and as a Sri Lankan, I write this OPEN LETTER to UNESCO, to the International Union for the Conservation of Forests (IUCN) and to the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) to point out the plight of the Sinharaja Forest in Sri Lanka—declared as a World Heritage site.

Sri Lankans are grateful to UNESCO and its World Heritage Centre (WHC) for including six of our cultural sites and two natural sites in the World Heritage list—in accordance with the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

: Somar Wijayadasa; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 08 April 2021

Image: Ecological economics views the economy as a subset of the larger ecological environment. Source: ResearchGate

ECOLOGY & ECONOMICS: Humanity Has Reached A Critical Decade

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) — A new report, published on March 14, 2021 in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' journal Ambio [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-021-01544-8] points out that humanity is hurtling towards destruction unless we have the collective wisdom to change course quickly.

The article was written as part of the preparation of a meeting of Nobel Prize winners to discuss the state of the planet. The virtual meeting will be held on April 26-28, 2021.