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 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an independent scientific and technical body under the sponsorship of UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) which provides the world with the 'science' of global warming. But with politics getting increasingly separated from science it is important to review what this …
A review of the positions of these three groups shows important differences in approach towards trading, as well as their approach towards the three mechanisms laid out in the Kyoto Protocol: Joint Implementation (Article 6), CDM (Article 12) and Emissions Trading (Article 17). There are important differences between the Free …
"Meaningful participation' is being defined in many ways, depending on the interests of the party involved. One such approach is to use the (cdm). • The purpose of the
The Costa Rican government has recently agreed to swap its tropical rainforest with a Nebraska-based power company, Tenaska Inc. The deal would mean that the us power utility would pay the Costa Rican government
The Kyoto protocol provides that industrialised countries can agree to invest in carbon efficient projects in each other's territory. The first such deal, post-Kyoto, has been struck between two most likely partners: Russia and Japan. Japan has to meet a difficult target of six per cent cut from 1990 levels. …
Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol says that the conference of parties (COP) shall define the relevant guidelines for emission trading. But without waiting for the COP to define principles, emissions trading is starting to take place. • British Petroleum (BP) is going to use its sprawling oil company as …
Six months after the Kyoto meet, governments convened again to deliberate climate-change affairs. The United States led an attempt to set up a free market trading system which would enable the us to do zero at home and allow other developed countries to meet their emissions reduction commitments by paying …
Infectious and parasitic diseases such as acute lower respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS and malaria were responsible for at least 75 per cent of the 50 million deaths that occurred worldwide in 1997, according to the World Health Organisation. While deaths due to circulatory diseases came down from 51 per …
twenty years ago, the world received a major jolt when reports about the existence of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids) virus was confirmed. It has spread so fiercely over the years that it now rivals history's deadliest epidemics
The world's 12,000 top researchers believe that HIV-infected mothers can protect their babies from the killer virus. Recent studies reveal that if the infected mother is administered the anti-HIV drug, AZT, and gives birth by caesarean, chances of the virus transfer to a baby is virtually eliminated. The studies are …
Diabetes is no longer a problem of developed countries, it is now spreading like an epidemic in the developing nations also. Uton M Rafel, regional director of the World Health Organisation Southeast Asia Region, says the number of diabetics in Southeast Asia reached 28 million in 1995 and is likely …
Poor environmental conditions would increase human health risks, warns a study jointly conducted by the World Resource Institute (WRI), the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank. The WRI 1998-99 report, titled 'Environmental Change and Human Health', says that despite vast improvements in human …
AT a time when developing nations are getting lured into global economy issues, that translate into increased consumerism promoted by the developed world, the 1998 annual state of the earth report by the Worldwatch Institute, usa, comes as a timely warning. As the living standards of people around the globe …
by being a member of the World Trade Organisation (wto ), India has agreed to provide protection to plant varieties through patents or an effective sui-generis system or by a combination of the two. Trade related intellectual property rights (trips) of the wto do not insist upon the protection of …
There is a firm belief amongst economists that poor people are more worried about their present than their future. In other words, the poor 'discount' their future. This is exactly what is happening in global environmental negotiations which are slowly but steadily setting up a 'global ecological order'. This is …
Noah saved the world from a flood. Today, an effort of similar proportions is required to deal with a different kind of problem: an unprecedented shortage of freshwater. In Noah's absence, governments of the world made an attempt in this direction in New York (April 15 to May 1) at …
The doomsday predictions of wars being fought over water indicate the world's precarious position with regard to water. Though 70 per cent of the planet is covered by water, only 2.5 per cent of water is freshwater. Of this, nearly 70 per cent is frozen in the ice caps of …
The gravity of the problem of freshwater scarcity on a global scale was recognised as far back as 1977, when the un Water Conference took place at Mar del Plata, Argentina. The action plan drawn up at Mar del Plata is considered by many as "an excellent road map", much …
"W e are dealing with a different type of reality,' said Nicky Nzioki, a non-governmental representative from Kenya. "In the South, it would be almost impossible to put an economic value on water that flows by in a stream in a village, far away from developed areas.' China reflected this …
