Sustainable Devpt

The General Assembly of Oilwatch, which is celebrating its 20 years of existence, met recently in Quito, Ecuador in the framework of the Social Forum Resistance to Habitat III. In this declaration, the group frowns at the Habitat concept as well as the newly-adopted New Urban Agenda, saying that they encourage land grabbing and oil extraction. Oilwatch is thus demanding ...

The 15th Session of the Committee of the Review of Implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (CRIC 15) concluded its three-day meeting on Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya, with the adoption of an outcome that would ramp up global efforts to curb desertification and drought. Two issues were deemed particularly important for CRIC 15. First, the elaboration of a ...

“Ignoring land degradation neutrality (LDN) could be political suicide,” said Monique Barbut, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), emphasising the real benefits populations will feel in terms of climate change, rural employment and food security. LDN is one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the opening of the 15th session ...

A new online knowledge hub launched on Tuesday provides an unparalleled view of multilateral, national and sub-national efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The International Institute for Sustainable Development’s (IISD) SDG Knowledge Hub consolidates the organisation’s Policy & Practice knowledgebases – and the tens of thousands of published articles contained within them. Focused on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable ...

It is crystal clear that the growing population, rapid urbanisation and rising standard of living have accelerated the domestic solid waste generation rate in Nigeria. The 2015 edition of the United Nations’ World Population Prospect report stated that, “by 2050, the world’s population growth rate will be 9.7 billion with the bulk of it coming from Africa”. Nigeria being one ...

The entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation to the Convention on Biological Diversity was observed on Wednesday. Adopted in 2010 and entering into force on 12 October 2014, the Nagoya Protocol aims to create equity between providers and users of genetic resources ...

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched a new platform for scaling up innovative finance solutions to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to him, the initiative can help in identifying and piloting innovative finance instruments that can drive investment and support well thought-out SDG interventions. “Financial actors and institutions are already beginning to develop solutions for attracting ...

A new report from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate has called on governments and finance institutions to scale up and shift investment for sustainable infrastructure as a fundamental strategy to spur growth. “Investing in sustainable infrastructure is essential to solve all the world’s most pressing problems,” said Felipe Calderón, former President of Mexico and Chair of the Global Commission. “It’s ...

Grassroots leaders from oil and energy-impacted communities across the country will on Wednesday gather at the Houston offices of Energy Transfer Partners for a prayer action in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and thousands of water defenders mobilising against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In one of the largest environmental justice mobilisations in history, Standing Rock water defenders have ...

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has opened new operation offices in Adamawa, Edo and Kano states in its effort to bring disaster management closer to communities, and thereby reducing response time to disasters. A statement issued by the Head of Media and Public Relations, Sani Datti, quoted the Director General, Muhammad Sani Sidi, as saying during the weekend that ...