The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
The steep decline in the world oil price in the last quarter of 2014 slashed fuel price subsidies. Several governments responded by announcing that they would remove subsidies for one or more fuels and move to market-based pricing with full cost recovery. Other governments took advantage of low world prices …
Weak growth among major emerging markets will weigh on global growth in 2016, but economic activity should still pick up modestly to a 2.9 percent pace, from 2.4 percent growth in 2015, as advanced economies gain speed, according to the World Bank’s January 2016 Global Economic Prospects. Simultaneous weakness in …
Bioenergy is a major source of energy in developing countries. However, increasing demand for agricultural commodities can lead to a stronger competition for natural resources with the bioenergy production. The nexus among energy, food production and natural resource use may result in trade-offs and synergies. Accordingly, it is important to …
In the agricultural sector, risks are inherent and ubiquitous, posing potentially serious consequences for stakeholders and consumers. Risks disrupt supply chains, causing extensive financial and economic losses. Agricultural risks are also the principal cause of transient food insecurity, creating a poverty trap for millions of households across the developing world …
Low emissions development strategies (LEDS) are national economic and social development plans that promote sustainable development while reducing GHG emissions. While LEDS programs have helped to mainstream economy-wide planning for low emissions, planning for low emissions agriculture has remained nascent. Low-emissions development (LED) in agriculture acknowledges that the primary purpose …
Soaring pollution levels, crippling floods, quivering Richter notes to scores of environment laws awaiting implementation — this, in short, was India's environmental standing this year. As alarming as the climatic challenges posed to the nation have been, India is still found struggling to find the right laws to fight climate …
Countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) have agreed to abolish subsidies on farming exports. Developed countries agreed to stop the subsidies immediately and developing nations must follow by the end of 2018. The WTO, which represents 162 countries, called it "the most significant outcome on agriculture" since the body's …
“THE test of a first-rate intelligence”, F. Scott Fitzgerald, a sometime Parisian, once wrote, “is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time.” By this standard, the 195 countries that gathered outside Paris in the two weeks running up to December 12th to negotiate a …
When the gavel came down for the final time at the climate summit in Paris on 12 December, representatives from 195 countries erupted into cheers. They had approved a landmark plan to combat climate change after two weeks of gruelling negotiations. The agreement commits most countries to reduce their greenhouse-gas …
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has welcomed last weekend's historic Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) agreement to limit global emissions well below 2 degrees Celsius, with an aspiration of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Agreed by 195 countries following two weeks of negotiations, the deal also provides for regular reviews …
After two weeks of hectic negotiations, bilateral meetings through several sleep-deprived nights, back-room chats and huddles, India's negotiating team for the Paris climate talks can take a bow. Arriving at a consensus document endorsed by all 196 signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change necessitates compromise. Yet, India …
PARIS/NEW DELHI: World leaders on Sunday welcomed the climate deal to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius with Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing it as a victory of "climate justice" while the pact evoked mixed reactions from environmentalists. "This agreement represents the best chance we've had to …
The much-awaited Paris Agreement on climate change was adopted by all members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Saturday. The Agreement will now be open for ratification by each member nation from April 2016 onwards Paris agreement has come after an intense two weeks of …
The much-awaited Paris Agreement on climate change was adopted by all members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Saturday. The Agreement will now be open for ratification by each member nation from April 2016 onwards
PARIS: Negotiators huddled through Wednesday night and most of Thursday, racing against the clock to resolve key differences between the rich and developing nations in an attempt to stitch together an international pact to fight climate by the self-imposed deadline of Friday. In the tense final hours, the key issues …
While global hunger figures are decreasing, the number of food insecure people in mountain areas rose 30 percent between 2000 and 2012, according to a new study, released by FAO and the Mountain Partnership on International Mountain Day. Mapping the vulnerability of mountain peoples to food insecurity found that the …
PARIS: Hours after the French presidency of the climate summit (COP21) came out with the first draft of the Paris agreement, India on Wednesday said that there were "many points of departure" in the text and much work was needed to reach a point of convergence. The biggest group of …
As the rich countries of the West lock horns with the developing world at Paris on the question of who will cut how much carbon emissions, a new study by Oxfam shows the jaw dropping chasm between emissions of the two sides. The richest 10 percent people of the world …
India today strongly asserted that the goal of capping global warming to within 1.5 degree Celsius from pre-industrial times will require developed countries to "massively" reduce their emissions and "scale up" the financial support to developing countries. "On long term temperature goal, we are deeply sensitive to the demands for …
Raising global climate ambition to confine future temperature rise to 1.5°C over the 2°C aimed for so far is a laudable goal, but needs a sharp reallocation of the available carbon budget and massive funds and technology transfers with particular reference to India, a group of researchers said. Climate negotiators …
