The UN’s trade and development body has downgraded its global economic growth projection for 2022 to 2.6% from 3.6% due to the Ukraine war and to changes in macroeconomic policies made by countries in recent months. While Russia will experience a deep recession this year, significant slowdowns in growth are …
The government of Afghanistan and the United Nations have launched an emergency appeal to combat drought in the region. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, US $71.3 million is required to combat the drought. Despite emergency assistance, more than six million people continue to go without food. …
www.first8.org At this year's UN Commission of Sustainable Development's meet in New York (April 19 to 30), progress on millennium development goals (MDGs) related to clean drinking water, human settlements and sanitation was reviewed. The world was nowhere in sight of attaining the goals, the evaluation showed. Meeting the MDGs …
The United Nations (UN) is set to take center-stage in the longstanding controversy over new sources of innovative funding for the world's poorer nations. The proposals on the table include a carbon tax on fuel use, the
How is the world faring in terms of water and sanitation? As per figures, Asia is not doing badly. The real crisis is in Africa and in rural Latin America. According to statistics, developing countries such as India are also doing well. But we should never forget that there is …
function chart() { var popurl="files/images/20040630/28-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=650,height=350,scrollbars=yes") } Over the ages, human civilisations have excelled and fallen depending on the availability and use of limited resources. Fossil fuels, minerals, land, freshwater and food are often the measuring sticks of relative wealth. These limited resources determine just how long exploitation can continue …
function loop() { var popurl="image/20040630/32-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=430,height=375,scrollbars=yes") } In nature, nitrogen remains constant. The Earth's atmosphere has 78 per cent nitrogen, but very little of this vital nutrient can be absorbed by plants. A chain of chemical reactions deposits atmospheric nitrogen in rain and then takes it to the soil. Nitrogen-fixing …
When deliberations began on May 13, 2004 the world's forest policy-makers thought that all was well at the fourth UN Forum on Forest meet (UNFF-4). But by midnight everything had collapsed: two resolutions were dropped and another significantly watered down. By next afternoon, the delegates were on their way home, …
the un, a key opponent of weapons of mass destruction, is ironically all set to harness nuclear energy to combat malaria. Its International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) intends to soon use the Sterile Insect Technique (sit) in Africa
Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the United Nations (UN), it has been agreed to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, added a similar global sanitation target. All this …
The un Food and Agriculture Organisation (fao) has just released its annual report. Hunger is on the rise again after falling steadily till the mid 1990s. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003 says its latest estimates "signal a setback in the war against hunger'. The fao publication …
I met Jacques Chirac this fortnight. Just before he made the call to George Bush and just before he left to attend the European Union summit in Athens, the French president met some 20 of us in his presidential palace for discussions on what would be the future of this …
Why is it so difficult to control HIV/AIDS after all we know? The disease is linked with immorality and promiscuity. People don't want to accept these issues or discuss perceptions of them. As many people have never heard about hiv, they do not know how to avoid it. There is …
Environmental disasters, including drought and flood, cost the world more than us $70 billion in 2002, reveals United Nations Environment Programme (unep). This year floods ravaged Europe, China, India, Nepal and Bangladesh killing thousands of people and leaving millions homeless. "Natural catastrophes, a vast majority of which have been weather-related, …
The ethical implications of human cloning have spurred the un General Assembly's legal committee into action. The panel is laying the groundwork for an international treaty that would ban the creation of human clones. In this regard, a working group has already been assigned the task of drafting the clauses …
Inside the Beltway, the climate movement is comatose. During the Clinton-Gore years, while the us dragged its feet in international climate negotiations, the major national environmental groups allowed themselves to be used by the administration. Seduced by the former vice-president's rhetoric, the groups watched their issue disappear from the political …
