by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up, World
By Vishal Gulati,
Katowice (Poland) : The political phase of the ongoing UN climate negotiations, amid the assembly of nearly 200 nations delegates, including India, was held on Tuesday with ministers and high-level country representatives together with non-party stakeholders shared plans for the transformation of economies in line with the 2015 Paris goals.
Climate experts told IANS the facilitative dialogue, also called Talanoa Dialogue, illustrated the huge progress already underway across all sectors and together with the landmark 1.5 degrees Celsius Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report with urgency and also scaled up ambition.
The high-level Talanoa roundtables, part of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP24), constitute the final part of a year-long global review that governments, business and civil society have fed into following the questions: “Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?” with the goal to increase countries climate ambition, a climate expert said.
Mahindra Group Chief Sustainable Officer Anirban Ghosh said: “The Talanoa Dialogue provides opportunities to have these bold discussions without any inhibitions, we are all in this together and we must all help each other to do more.”
“Climate champions like India and China realise that reducing emissions will help their countries, not only in reducing rising temperature but also in terms of air pollution,” he said.
Though the champions must also realise that they need to spearhead other countries in taking bold actions too. Processes like the Talanoa Dialogue infuse trust in the process, which is an essential element of any progress, and found wanting in the negotiations right now, Ghosh added.
Jennifer Morgan, Greenpeace International Executive Director said the leaders must now rise to the challenge and negotiate a decision on ambition here.
“Our world is on fire and the question that must be answered at this COP is: Will decision makers take responsibility and act? Youth and activists around the world are rising up, warning that they have had enough of inaction,” she said.
US-based World Resources Institute Senior Associate Eliza Northrop said: “The Talanoa Dialogue has been a breath of fresh air — creating an inclusive and participatory process to agree on a shared vision for a low carbon prosperous future and what we need to do to get there.”
“The many stories shared by countries, business, regions and cities emphasize the opportunities available for us to go further, faster and together. What countries need to do now is to send an unequivocal signal that they have listened to the 1.5 Celsius report and will enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions by 2020.”
So what is the Talanoa Dialogue?
In the Paris Agreement provisions foresee a “global stocktake” every five years, starting in 2023, to prepare a new round of ever-increasing national climate commitments called Nationally Determined Contributions.
The Talanoa Dialogue which was launched at the last COP in Bonn is meant to serve as an initial stocktaking exercise to inspire progress among countries and encourage them to increase their climate ambition.
By March 2020, the parties must update their national climate strategies, which currently are not sufficient to reach the two degrees Celsius let alone the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement.
Three crucial days are left starting Wednesday to ensure that the ongoing for COP-24 talks respond to the urgency highlighted by the IPCC report that says temperatures could rise 1.5 degrees as early as 2030 – with devastating impact.
To do that, in addition to delivering the Paris rulebook, the nations, both developed and developing, need to send a signal they are committed to collectively raise their ambition on climate change and united on a path forward to achieve that goal, say climate negotiators.
It means by December 14 there must be a clear and unambiguous outcome to that effect, a negotiator added.
(Vishal Gulati is in Katowice at the invitation of Climate Trends to cover the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP24. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Geneva : UN officials and agencies on Tuesday spoke of exceptional levels of drought in Afghanistan affecting millions of people in the country.
With 3.6 million living with chronic food insecurity, Toby Lanzer, Deputy Special Representative for the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said it’s the “worst drought in a lifetime,” noting “it’s one step away from famine”, Xinhua news agency reported.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said at a later briefing that a series of airlifts have begun to western Afghanistan, bringing thousands of tents for people displaced by a mix of conflict and the ongoing severe drought.
“Together the drought and ongoing conflict have seen over a quarter of a million Afghans being displaced in this region of the country since April,” said UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch.
At the same briefing, Alison Parker, chief of communication in Afghanistan of the UNICEF, UN Children’s Fund, said that “2019 will mark 40 years of conflict in Afghanistan — four decades that have left a terrible impact on the country’s children”.
She said this year has been especially challenging: “A spike in violence, unprecedented levels of drought and food insecurity, increased poverty, and fledgling social service systems are taking a disproportionate toll on children.”
Parker said some six million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance, over half of whom are children.
She said the more than three million children are out of school, 60 percent of whom are girls.
“Severe acute malnutrition among children is among the highest globally, with about half a million children affected,” added Parker.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Jeddah : The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) welcomed the United Nations General Assembly’s vote in favor of a resolution granting the State of Palestine additional powers to be able to assume the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China in 2019.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the OIC considered the resolution as reflecting a sound international position toward consolidating the status of the State of Palestine and its right to enjoy full UN membership.
OIC Secretary General of the Organization Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen commended the positions of all the countries that voted for Palestine. He said the resolution is a political, moral and humanitarian message from the international community toward supporting the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Meanwhile, the OIC chief called for taking advantage of this historic achievement in mobilizing international efforts for sponsoring a political process leading to the realization of the vision of a two-state solution, based on the international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Muslim World, Social Round-up
United Nations : United Nations Special Representative for International Migration, Louise Arbour, has said the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, to be held in December in Marrakech, Morocco, would be a crucial inter-governmental conference.
During a meeting in New York with Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita, she also commended Morocco’s leadership on migration issues, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, who was appointed at the 28th AU Summit as Leader of the African Union on the Question of Migration.
Arbour said the talks with the Moroccan official were an opportunity to discuss preparations for the international conference for the formal adoption of the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, to be held on December 10-11.
She said the conference will be “the most important inter-governmental conference for the UN this year, as it will be held at the highest level and will therefore bring together heads of state and government as well as foreign ministers”.
She also discussed the content of the Global Compact on migration, which is a testimony to the “strength” of multilateralism, she said, stressing that the Marrakech conference will see the launch of innovative partnerships and the implementation of the Global Compact itself.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Nikki Haley
By Umar Farooq,
Washington: The U.S. on Monday announced giving over $185 million in additional aid to Rohingya relief efforts in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The announcement was made by U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, at a meeting attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
In a statement, Haley said the bulk of the aid would go towards helping Rohingya refugee communities in Bangladesh to support emergency services such as food, water, sanitation, health care and psychosocial support.
“Still more needs to be done, so we need other countries to do their part as well,” she said in the statement.
“This additional funding brings U.S. humanitarian assistance in response to the Rakhine State crisis to nearly $389 million since the outbreak of violence in August 2017,” read the statement.
Rohingya Persecution
Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).
More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, entitled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.
According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly children and women, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community.
The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.
The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
—AA
