The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
World opinion has been like a pendulum where us president George W Bush is concerned. If last week Bush was a rogue because of his extremely crazy nuclear policy, this week he is seen as a good guy after he promised at the just ended Monterrey conference on Financing for …
As always , in the run up to Budget 2002-2003, there was much speculation about what the budget would or would not contain, and what finance minister Yashwant Sinha might or might not say in his speech. February 28 has come and gone, and the speculation is over. Budget pundits …
"too small, too slow, or too poorly rooted.' This is how the recently released 19th annual edition of Worldwatch Institute's State of the World 2002 report describes the steps taken in the 1990s for an ecologically resilient world. Considering the dismal scenario, the document recommends "a global war on poverty …
WHEN the "last chance to save the Earth" came around in 1992, the global environment and development community was full of hope, energy and expectations. Ten years later, another such chance is round the corner, but nobody is getting his or her hopes up. Commentators around the world have remarked …
the choice of venue was clever and the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center added to the security paranoia. The result was that it combined to give trade negotiators somewhat of a breather when they met in Doha, Qatar, for the fourth ministerial conference of the World Trade …
However, the Doha declaration does not take a decision on whether countries with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector will be allowed to import generic drugs to deal with a health crisis. Instead, it calls upon the trips council to
agriculture remains the biggest source of inequity in the world trading system. Unlike telecom, financial, and legal services, farming practices in the North have stoutly resisted the logic of market forces. Farming in the North thrives on prodigious subsidies and price support systems combined with coddling protection through high tariffs …
Developing countries also fear the huge costs associated with greener technologies, which will be unbearable by their domestic industries. It could make their goods uncompetitive in western markets. This unequivocal opposition to greening of trade is what brings the motley crew of poor countries together. “If there’s one thing that …
During the past years, there have been calls to move the tasks of sustainable development at the international level to a new independent body, often labelled a World Environment Organisation (weo) or International Environmental Organisation. Advocates of weo include academics and expert commissions as well as international civil servants, politicians, …
The focus of the country study is to prepare on overview of the mining (including processing of ore) and mineral industry and its impacts on sustainable development.This report seeks to provide an overview of the mining and minerals sector in India and the issues that have a bearing on the …
Fishing has been banned in 28 rivers and canals flowing through the Sunderbans of Bangladesh. This has been done to conserve the aquatic biodiversity and encourage the sustainable development of fisheries resources. The prohibition is a part of many other programmes adopted by the aquatic resource division of the on-going …
Everyone has the right to live in a world free from toxic pollution and environmental degradation, declared the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. It is for the first time that any un organisation has recognised the association between environment and human rights. The declaration was made at the conclusion …
The recent historic declaration by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights at the conclusion of its 57th session in Geneva has addressed the link between environment and human rights. The Commission concluded that everyone has the right to live in a world free from toxic pollution and environmental degradation. …
Gandhi's vision of self-sufficient villages in India still remains a distant dream. Community participation and decentralisation seem nothing but, oft-repeated rhetoric from our politicians. But few individuals do try to rise against the tide and show a ray of hope. Parasu Ram Mishra who died on March 25 this year …
The term biodiversity, had its origin in us bureaucratic literature in the early eighties. During this period, tremendous economic potential of biodiversity was beginning to become obvious. The far-sighted Americans, using their patriotic think-tanks and foreign aid mechanism advocated the need for a global treaty on biodiversity. Their objective was …
water harvesting is no longer a subject for academic discussions or committee room confabulations. It is a living subject today for thousands of devotees whose numbers are growing by the day. Today 5,000, five years later 50,000, and 10 years after 500,000
A great example of how decentralised approaches to water harvesting boost innovation comes from Ladakh in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Chewang Norphel, retired engineer of the department of rural development, has found a way to make
Shahdol: A thousand tanks now Shahdol literally means one thousand tanks in Hindi. Of its 2,772 tanks, 584 have been renovated in the past 15 months and have enough water to irrigate 3,000 hectares or quench the thirst of 400 villages and their large livestock population, thanks to the tank …
