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 World Summit on Sustainable Development (wssd) is over. The best thing about it is that it could have been much worse. As I write this with regret and bitterness about the idealism of times gone by, I begin to feel my age. I was not in Stockholm for the …
During the past decade, natural hazards have wrought havoc like never before. As many as 4,777 natural disasters have claimed more than 880,000 lives, affected the homes, health and livelihoods of 1.88 billion people and inflicted economic losses of around us $685 billion. While divulging these alarming facts, the 400-page …
Kwasi Odoi Agyarko is glad that the United Nations has honoured him. This Ghanaian doctor has been bestowed with the un Population Award for his contribution to increasing awareness about global population problems and suggesting solutions for the same. Agyarko, who is also the executive director of Rural Help Integrated …
The world has reached an environmental crossroads, according to the third Global Environment Outlook (geo-3) report. And the choice between greed and humanity will decide the fate of millions of people for decades to come. While painting a bleak picture of the future, the document stated that present human actions …
Efforts to reduce the impact of business and industry on nature are falling short, reveals a new United Nations Environment Programme (unep) report. Very few companies in each industry are actively integrating social and environmental factors into business decisions. Furthermore, improvements are being overtaken by economic growth and increasing demand …
The world's cities are burgeoning. Fifty years ago, New York was the only metropolis with a population of more than10 million. Today there are 19 such cities. At present, some three billion people live in cities and towns. Between 1990 and 1995, cities in the developing world grew by 263 …
LESTER Brown, founder of Worldwatch Institute, recently published the book 'Eco-Economy' - an ambitious and broad sketch of a new global economy that prioritises the ecological imperatives of our time. Brown refers to Thomas Kuhn who, to recapitulate, is the philosopher of science who made 'paradigm shifts' famous. It is …
The Poor Will Decide: Future business growth depends on the poor. Successful companies tomorrow will be those that will bring these people, currently on the sidelines of the global economy into the mainstream. Such corporates must focus on social and environmental values today. "These values will create major new opportunities …
ON FEBRUARY 2, 2002, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) may have finally brought the curtain down on India's first pressurised heavy water nuclear reactor - Rajasthan Atomic Power Station's unit-I (RAPS-I). India's nodal regulatory body for its civil nuclear establishment took the decision to decommission RAPS-I by April 30, …
Developing countries should have tougher safeguards against the production and storage of hazardous chemicals. This was stated recently in the UN Environment Programme's 18-point strategy for preventing accidents and environmental degradation due to the rapid shift of chemical manufacturing from industrialised nations to developing countries. The presentation was made at …
International experts met at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters in Rome recently to discuss ways and means to combat illegal forest practices. They also considered policy options for improving compliance with the law in the forestry sector. "The global goal of managing forests in ways that are …
The recently published World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity estimates that every week the world loses two of its valuable domestic breeds. The document, issued by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is the result of 10 years of data collection in 170 countries …
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has asked developing nations to boost exports of organic produce so that they can take advantage of growing organic food markets in developed countries. In a recent report entitled
International forests conservation activities should target 15 countries that have the best prospects for continued existence of their green cover, states a recent report of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "Short of a miraculous transformation in the attitude of people and governments, the Earth's remaining closed-canopy forests and their associated …
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Industrial Deve lopment Organisation (UNIDO) have launched a new website on the cost-effective means of phasing out the extremely toxic and ozone depleting pesticide, methyl bromide. The website www.uneptie.org/ unido-harvest provides information on the experiences and results of projects aimed at phasing …
A UN commission has agreed on setting up, for the first time, global principles for assessing the safety of genetically modified (GM) foods. The Codex Alimentarius Commission, a division of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has agreed that the safety of food derived …
The UN world food body has reached a landmark agreement for saving the diversity of agricultural crops. Members of the body, including the US, have decided to make it mandatory for plant breeders and geneticists developing new crop varieties to pay for having access to public seed banks. The agreement, …
The UN has launched a four-year study to examine the damage to the Earth's environment and identifying ways to contain them. Some 1,500 scientists will undertake the study Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. "All the world's ecosystems will be studied to bring the world's best science to bear on the pressing choices …
Africa's first consignment of cheap generic antiretroviral drugs for treating AIDS was given to Kenya's Nyumbani Orphanage on June 12, 2001. "It's the beginning of the flow of medicines that have hitherto been prohibited,' said Angelo D'Agostino, a priest who runs the orphanage. Five-year-old Dickson, made history by becoming the …
