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 …
Exnora international, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), is involved mainly in solid-waste management and sorting out rural problems. Recently, however, they have entered the field of rainwater harvesting (RWH), propagating water harvesting methods and offering technical support. The NGO has atso succeeded in motivating the villagers of Kovalam, near Chennai, to …
The summer of 1998 was a wet one. Danes fled to the warmer latitudes to get some sun in their holidays. While they were away, the rain, though unsuitable for sunbathing, was collected in pots, pans, barrels and large storage tanks. Collected to help conserve dwindling drinking water resources. In …
JAPAN After battling both water scarcity and floods, the Sumida City in Tokyo has become a trailblazer in catching and using rainwater Rain falling in the reservoir area is a must whereas rain falling in the communities is a nuisance, thinks the average person in Tokyo. Makoto Murase, director of …
Environment is degrading rapidly in the third world. Air pollution from industrial activity, vehicular emissions and burning of fossil fuels claims more than 2.7 million lives every year, as it results in respiratory diseases and cancer. According to the Human Development Report, 1998, more than 90 per cent of these …
A DEBATE similar to the one raised during the time when scientists were busy harnessing atomic power is taking place in the field of agriculture. The issue this time is genetically modified crops. Those in favour are claiming that production will go up many folds while those opposing it believe …
Industrialised nations are planning to impose a moratorium on the export of hazardous ship-for-scrap to developing countries, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Environmentalists are strongly opposed to these conditionalities. Environmental group, Greenpeace International, said under the move the ships which are stripped of the hazardous constituents such as poly chlorinated …
Despite its negative effect on human health, chemical farming based on the use of pesticides and fertilisers is widespread. In volume terms, developing countries use these chemicals less than the developed world, hut pesticide use is growing steadily everywhere except in Eastern Europe. According to the latest report of the …
THE issue of land use change and forestry (LUCF), and its treatment as "sinks", has always loomed large in climate change negotiations in the past. It was among the hotly-debated subjects in the lead-up to the Kyoto meeting in December, 1997, and was subsequently addressed in Articles 3.3 and 3.4 …
What in your opinion were the contentious issues in the deliberations on sinks at the Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technical Advice (SUBSTA)? Most issues were contentious as many parties had no clue what the issue of "sinks" was all about. This showed neglect or ignorance regarding climate feedbacks on …
IN OCTOBER 1995, a study about the future of the industrialised world created a great deal of interest as well as controversy. The publishers of the book were the church-based relief association, Misereor, and the environment protection group, Bund. These organisations do not normally issue public statements. However, making a …
IN DECEMBER 1997, the Kyoto Protocol on the Climate Change Convention was adopted merely five years after the adoption of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). The rapidity with which these treaties have been negotiated and adopted and the number of countries involved (more than 173 countries have ratified …
A FEW months prior to Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the US Senate passed a resolution to ratify a protocol in the Climate Change Convention "all nations should be required to act within the same time frame". The Senate resolution was substantiated by the US delegation in Kyoto with frequent references …
The Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Change Convention is the first step towards defining the emissions reduction targets of industralised countries. However, as a first step it falls short of expectations." Under the protocol, between the years 2008 and 2012, industralised countries are expected to cut their overall carbon emissions …
Taking the lead Developing countries must take the lead in proposing a system of entitlements, and North-South trading, which is both ecologically effective and socially just THE KEY ISSUES PREVENTlNG, global warming raises a very serious question for the world"s nations. It means putting a cap or a limit on …
CLIMATE negotiations and international climate policy are very recent compared to other policy issues. Thus, one cannot expect all problems to be solved at once. While the question of efficient mitigation is dealt with prominently in the Kyoto Protocol, the inequitable distribution of current emissions is widely taken for granted. …
IT MAY not be possible to eradicate poliomyelitis from the world by the year 2000 unless adequate resources are mobilised in time, warn World Health Organisation (WHO) officials. Bruce Aylward, in-charge of the WHO Global Polio Eradication Initiative, says that only a few polio-endemic countries are left in the world. …
FLUSHING excreta is not ecologically viable, says Uno Winblad, coordinator of a Rs 2.5-crore international research and development project "Sanres" (Sanitation and Recycle) which is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and aimed at developing alternative, eco-logical concepts of sanitation for urban areas. "From an ecological point of …
'There is no consensus among G-77 nations' espen ronneberg, counsellor, Permanent Mission to the United Nations of the Republic of the Marshall Islands The US expects developing nations to take their word for the workability of the emissions trading scheme without explaining how it would work. There is no de …
On entitlements: Each human being is entitled to a share of the global commons. This entitlement should not be dependent on wealth. However, it is difficult to get people to agree on the principle of per capita entitlement. Countries want to continue with current levels of emissions. The Montreal Protocol …
