The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, explicitly excluded the world’s five largest emitters of greenhouse gasses – China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan – from his Climate Ambition Summit, held Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The United Kingdom, another major polluter, was notably absent from the summit, amid reports […] Continue reading ->
At the first international conference on water security in five decades, governments, international organizations and civil society groups from over 170 countries committed to nearly 700 new initiatives to address a global water crisis that is causing record droughts, threatening food security, and threatening global supplies of drinking water.  This week’s UN Water Conference is only […] Continue reading ->
SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT – Michael Terungwa, a solar entrepreneur in Abuja, Nigeria, will know that real progress is being made on climate change when things change in his hometown.  When the 10-20% in customs and tariffs that he pays for cheap, imported Chinese solar panels are removed; when his customers’  solar purchases are subsidized […] Continue reading ->
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT – As global delegations fight to keep the dream of limiting warming to 1.5C within reach, plastic pollution contaminating aquatic life, soil quality and the human body, is skyrocketing. The relentless growth of demand for plastics driven by subsidies for fossil fuels, coupled with the failure of recycling and waste management systems […] Continue reading ->
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – The International Renewable Agency (IRENA), on Tuesday, said it would pump $1billion into a new effort that would electrify health facilities, along with food storage and agriculture, with solar power, while the World Bank said it also plans to triple its investments in solar electrification efforts to reach 100,000 health facilities […] Continue reading ->
As ceremonies opened in Sharm El-Sheik’s grand plenary hall on Monday, only one word came to mind in trying to sum up the scene: surreal. World leaders paraded into the hall to music seemingly taken from a Star Wars film. The cast of speakers taking the stage consisted of a petro-state monarch, a friendly host […] Continue reading ->