Tuesday, June 20, 2017 appears to symbolise a special day in the history of global climate action as it marks the day when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) opened for signing by Governments at the UN in New York. This followed its adoption a few weeks before in 1992 by world leaders at the UN Conference ...

President Donald Trump’s stand notwithstanding, U.S. cities and states are increasingly seeking ways to play an active role in international climate change efforts. In an apparent move to complement this role, the Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law of Columbia Law School has released a new resource to help them engage in climate action. The report, entitled “Act Locally, Reflect ...

Sweden last week passed a legislation which legally binds the country to reach net-zero emissions by the year 2045, five years earlier than previously planned. The new Climate Act, passed in parliament with an overwhelming majority vote (254 against 41), is believed to be more ambitious than what Sweden pledged under the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The Paris Agreement commits ...

As some 1.4 million people in Europe and Central Asia die prematurely each year from polluted environments, United Nations agency heads at high-level meeting have called on regional leaders to scale up action to stem environmental deaths and diseases. “In the era of Sustainable Development, we can prevent the 1.4 million environment related deaths by making health a political choice ...

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, on the occasion of the World Blood Donor Day, says that this year’s theme raises awareness for voluntary, regular blood donations to maintain sufficient stock of blood and blood products in blood transfusion services Every year on 14 June, the African Region joins the global community to commemorate World Blood ...

Have you heard the word “Desertification” before? Are you aware of the devastating impacts it could have? Does it make any sense to have a hand in such environmental disaster? Wouldn’t you rather be a solution to this threat? By way of introduction, Desertification is the process by which a fertile land becomes a desert. It is a land degradation ...

On World Day to Combat Desertification observed globally on Saturday, June 17, 2017 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) explores how conserving soil biodiversity can make dryland communities more resilient to drought and other threats, and prevent desertification Conserving soil-dwelling worms, insects and bacteria is not the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about nature conservation. In fact, ...

A high-level symposium of Africa’s interior, environment and foreign affairs ministers held recently in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, warned that ignoring the plight of jobless young people in sub-Saharan Africa is a recipe for political instability and global insecurity. They called for support to create land-based jobs in the rural areas to ward off the temptation for the most disillusioned to ...

Gridlock, caused by the invasion by petrol tankers and trucks of the Apapa Road and other link roads, which are in a state of disrepair, paralysed movement in Lagos on Friday, June 16, 2017 with commuters spending long, productive hours in an unusual traffic snarl, which forced others to resort to trekking unhealthy distances to get to their duty posts. ...

The Government of France on Thursday, June 15, 2017, deposited its instrument of ratification, thereby becoming the 58th future Party to the Minamata Convention. This emerged a couple of days after Austria on Monday, June 12, 2017 ratified the global accord, and making it the 57th country to do so. A few days before that, the West African nation of ...