Climate change experts from the ACT Alliance network have published a report assessing the threats posed by climate change on the sustainable development goals (SDG) and disaster risk reduction. The report finds that warming of 1.5°C will severely impact climate-vulnerable developing countries and urges more ambitious climate action. The report also identifies policy recommendations to maintain the possibility of staying ...

Global emissions are on the rise as national commitments to combat climate change come up short. But surging momentum from the private sector and untapped potential from innovation and green-financing offer pathways to bridge the emissions gap. Those findings along with a sweeping review of climate action and the latest measurements of global emissions were presented by authors of the 2018 ...

A brand-new national water policy, an innovative water law and a foreign intervention running into millions of Euros now typify the hitherto sluggish water sector in Benin Republic. Courtesy of the Global Water Partnership (GWP), the West African nation has developed an effective Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) plan, which was facilitated by GWP Benin (the Country Water Partnership), with ...

An expert on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) from India has told a UN conference on biodiversity that GMO cotton growing is not causing of deaths in the country. Bhagirath Choudhary, founder director of South Asia Biotechnology Centre, said that the cotton variety has nothing to do with suicide cases in the country. “The deaths are as a result of social ...

A senior UN official has commended sub-national governments in ensuring that the global biodiversity targets, known as Aichi Biodiversity targets, are achieved on the ground. Cristiana Pașca Palmer, UN Assistant Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, told journalists that by being the nexus between the Parties and the local governments, the sub-national governments are responsible ...

Poisonous chemicals will no longer be used for the preservation of food, particularly seedlings, with the development of bioinsecticides, the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) has said. Bioinsecticides are organic substances harmless to man the environment, regarded by scientists as safe alternatives to Snipper as a crop insecticide. The bioinsecticides are being produced by BioCrops Biotechnology Company Ltd, an indigenous company. ...

Conservation experts have called on African leaders to change the global emphasis for development agendas to water, energy and food sectors. Frederick Kumah, Africa director, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said that it is time for leaders to look at the deals that benefits people and nature. “Given the current projections, the continent’s population will double in 2050 hence ...

African mayors and local authorities, who met at 8th edition of the Africities Summit in Marrakech, Morocco, from November 20 to 24, 2018 have expressed the determination to establish a climate that is conducive to social harmony within the territories and which rejects discrimination of all kinds, stigmatisation and xenophobia. They made the submission in a resolution tagged: “Declaration of ...

The eighth International Summit of Cities and Territorial Communities of Africa (Africities) closed on Saturday, November 24, 2018 in the Moroccan city of Marrakech. Held since Tuesday, November 20 under the theme “The Transition to Sustainable Cities and Territories, The Role of Local and Sub-National Governments of Africa,” the summit saw a record of nearly 7,000 participants. The summit gathered ...

Delegates at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Thursday, November 22, 2018 at a side event celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Participants at the gathering, among other functions, explored key successes achieved under the Biosafety Protocol. Ulrika Nilsson of the CBD Secretariat, who opened the ...