Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed on Monday, July 3, 2017 called for the strengthening of the relationship between the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) in order to deliver on promised development for Africa’s youth.
Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo credit: African Union Commission
Addressing her first African Union Summit since taking office, Ms. Mohammed said that the AU’s thematic focus this year on youth is a “powerful reminder” of the core principle at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the AU’s strategic framework known as Agenda 2063 and other global agreements, namely, creating a better world for the next generation.
“For the 226 million young people aged 15 to 24 living in Africa today, these agendas address challenges and opportunities that are integral to their futures,” she said.
“Today you are here taking decisions that will ensure that Africa benefits from the full potential of all its people, including young women and men,” she added, in a nod to this year’s theme of Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through investments in Youth.
“Investing in our youth today reaps the dividend of a peaceful and prosperous Africa tomorrow.”
Addressing leaders from across the continent who have gathered at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Ms. Mohammed called for “building new bridges between us, and fortifying the ones that already exist” to deliver on the promises of the development agenda for Africa and its people.
In April, the UN-AU annual conference in New York resulted in a joint framework for enhanced partnership on peace and security. The two organisations are now preparing a joint framework on sustainable development, focusing on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and of Agenda 2063, according to Ms. Mohammed.
She also noted that the UN will be collaborating with the AU on a new UN-European Union initiative to be launched at the UN General Assembly this September to end gender-based violence around the world.
The deputy UN chief also highlighted some of the other areas where the UN and the AU are working more closely, including on efforts to enhance the UN’s partnership with Africa’s regional economic communities in areas of peacekeeping, elections and democratic transitions.
Secretary-General António Guterres recently reiterated the need for “predictable, reliable and sustainable” financing for AU peace operations, and is said to be working on a set of concrete proposals for the UN Security Council.
“Our efforts should continue to be based on urgency, flexibility and innovation to improve complementarity, cost-effectiveness and impact,” Ms. Mohammed said.
She also echoed Mr. Guterres’ call at the G7 summit in Italy, where he urged world leaders to invest in young people, with stronger investment in technology, relevant education and capacity-building in Africa.
“The challenge of strengthening Africa’s human capital, starting with its young people, has galvanised commitments to promote their rights and invest in quality and relevant education at all levels, health, science and technology and innovation,” said Ms. Mohammed.
The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) and the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) as part of efforts to regulate genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and its products in the country.
Officials of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) and the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) after the signing of the MOU
Signing the MoU on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 in Abuja, Dr. Rufus Ebegba, NBMA Director General/CEO, said that the MoU presented the various agencies the needed platform for synergy and the opportunity to fast track the management of issues of genetic modification in a way to safeguard the health of Nigerians and the environment.
Dr. Ebegba added that the MoU remained a landmark development in the history of biosafety in the country as it would ensure the agencies speak with one voice on issues of biosafety.
“The controversy surrounding GMOs will not abate soon therefore, it is important for us, as government, to work together and be courageous to say the truth without fear or favour,” Ebegba added.
He noted that NBMA does not promote GMOs but promotes safety measures that will ensure the overall wellbeing of Nigerians.
Dr. Vincent Iselgbe, Coordinating Director, NAQS, during the signing ceremony acknowledged the role NBMA is playing in safeguarding the health of Nigerians.
“The existence of the NBMA is vital for our country. The Agency is in the forefront of protecting the health of Nigerians, as well as the environment. The country’s agriculture is currently saddled with challenges such as army worms and other insect infestations, these developments reinforce the need for all to support the NBMA in carrying out its mandate,” he said.
He said the MoU provided the necessary framework for his service to collaborate with NBMA as far as import and export of GMOs are concerned.
Also speaking, Dr. Phillip Olusegun Ojo, Director General, NASC, said that the National Seed Policy recognises the place of GM seeds hence the need for the council to work closely with NBMA in regulating the nation’s seed industry.
The MoU took into cognisance the mandates of the various agencies’ specified areas of partnership in the import and export of GM products, seed multiplication and commercialisation, and handling.
The International Anti-Corruption Day is commemorated on December 9 of every year, especially by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the European Union (EU) and the US Embassy in conjunction with the government of Nigeria on the platform of the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT). The IATT comprises 22 government agencies with Anti-Corruption and accountability mandates, but the menace is still a clear and present danger that must be tackled consistently.
A view of participants at the conference
Corruption is basically defined as dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery and it is the bane of development especially in developing countries such as Nigeria, which has been rated by Transparency International whose 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index puts the country as the 136th least corrupt country in the world.
Accordingly, records by TI show that the scale of corruption in the world is still huge as 68 percent of countries worldwide have serious corruption problems.
“Half of the G20 are among them. Not one single country is corruption-free,” it states.
Successive administrations in the country right from the return of democracy in 1999 have one way or the other failed to stem corruption in the fabric of the very existence of the country. According to observers, corruption is present in all spheres of the Nigerian society, be it in governance, religious bodies, and the private sector, among others.
The current administration in the country led by President Muhammadu Buhari has made concerted efforts in fighting corruption headlong, with many celebrated cases of trials, arraignments and investigations into alleged corrupt practices mostly from the previous administration. However, it is not yet Uhuru. The drive though commendable must go further and be domesticated at the lowest rungs of the society in order to involve even the civil servant in the ministry who resorts to collecting inducement before processing a file and the policeman on the high way who extorts monies from drivers.
It will be recalled that the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, gave a cost of corruption stating that 55 Nigerians stole N1.34 trillion between 2000 and 2013, and that 15 former governors and five former ministers stole N146.84 billion.
It is worthy of note that the UNODC floated anti-corruption programme in the country will go a long way in conscientiously bringing to the fore the need to abhor corruption and stem its further growth, to enhance development and growth of the nation.
As advocated by participants at a three-day Media Meeting on Anti-Corruption in Nigeria, organised by the UNODC with funding from the European Union (EU) through a reviewed 16-point communique in Lagos on Monday, July 3, 2017, Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs) were charged to develop strategic communication plans for their operations, government urged to establish special courts to tackle corruption matters, and that the fight against corruption should not be limited to the federal level but should include states and LGAs.
The resolution also also underlined the need to further give emphasis to the importance of value re-orientation of citizens in the fight against corruption, promote the need to curb institutional corruption through systemic reviews, and urged the ACAs to help build the capacity of the media in the fight against corruption.
Little wonder, the National Project Officer UNODC, Nigeria Country Office, Sylvester Atere, who noted that strengthening integrity and reducing corruption has been a priority for Nigeria for a number of years, maintained that the anti-corruption sector in Nigeria currently has a reasonable quantity and quality of legislative texts, statutes and mandates to carry out its work and a number of anti-corruption institutions have been created.
However, he opines: “Though the existing legal framework could be improved further, specifically in areas relating to preventive action, incentives for reporting, whistle blowing and witness protection as it provides a fair basis for anti-corruption agencies to conduct their work, if it were fully enforced.”
Atere stresses that “the Government of Nigeria took part in the consultations leading to the adoption of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2003 which is the global framework for the fight against corruption.”
“This project builds on the achievements of a previous EU-funded project under the 9th EDF, and will support the Government of Nigeria by promoting good governance and by contributing to Nigeria’s efforts in enhancing transparency, accountability and combating corruption,” he said.
The time to fight corruption in the country is now or never if we must get out of the doldrums of economic malaise, and the quagmire of under-development for now and future generations.
The scientists, representing 54 institutions in 21 countries across the continent, have been participating in the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) Africa Annual Meeting, a $100 million programme to build world class research leaders. The meeting held from Monday, July 3 to Wednesday, July 5, 2017 in Accra, Ghana.
Dr Alphonsus Neba, the Programme Manager for DELTAS Africa
The ambitious initiative was launched in 2015 with funding commitments through 2020 by the African Academy of Sciences and the NEPAD Agency’s Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), with the support of the Wellcome Trust and the UK’s Department for International Development.
DELTAS Africa is dedicated to training the next generation of scientific leaders on the continent at the level of master’s, PhD and postdoctoral fellowship. It also builds the infrastructure to produce world class research to address Africa’s health and research priorities.
“We are glad to be hosting some of Africa’s best minds in Ghana, which shows a commitment from our scientists to galvanise resources to solving our pressing health challenges,” said Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.
In the two years since its implementation, DELTAS Africa has recruited close to 500 masters, PhD and postdoctoral fellows, half of whom are women.
“We are proud of the progress so far. Through DELTAS Africa, we are contributing to increasing the population of African health researchers and women scientists and providing the infrastructure needed to do quality research to improve health outcomes and to retain our best young talent on the continent,” said Dr Tom Kariuki, African Academy of Sciences Interim Executive Director and AESA Director.
Africa’s global share of health researchers is a meagre 0.3 percent while women researchers across different scientific disciplines account for only 22% of African researchers. This limits the continent’s efforts to improve its public health systems, a prerequisite to creating healthy nations. As a result, the continent, which represents 17% of the world’s population, bears a disproportionate 25% of the global disease burden. Devastating outbreaks such as Ebola have underscored the lack of trained doctors and other healthcare providers, as well as outdated and underdeveloped health and research systems.
By 2034, the continent is forecast to be home to the world’s largest working age population of 1.1 billion. Building the knowledge base that will create high level R&D driven jobs for this young population so they can live, work and thrive in Africa, will require massive domestic and foreign investment in African R&D. AESA and its partners, such as Wellcome and DFID are setting the pace through investments in DELTAS Africa.
DELTAS Africa promises to reap the population dividend by improving research environments, training researchers who are conducting important studies that shed light oninfectious diseases, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and population and public health challenges, including:
Vaccine development for malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis including finding ways of controlling and eliminating endemic diseases in Africa
Large population studies to track health changes and inform policy to adopt and implement adaptive measures
Better understanding of neglected tropical diseases that will lead to the development of new treatment and preventative approaches.
Dr Alphonsus Neba, the Programme Manager for DELTAS Africa, said, “Healthy nations are wealthy nations. Health research generates the knowledge to improve health systems and provide a productive and healthy workforce that can contribute to socio-economic development.”
The DELTAS Africa Annual Meeting also provides an essential platform for intra-African collaboration, which still significantly lags behind foreign collaboration. Of the continent’s six most productive research nations – Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia – none of its top collaborators are fellow African nations.
“Collaboration is key to optimising our limited resources to solve our common challenges,”says Dr Neba.
Funding for safe, shared toilets in fast-growing developing-world cities is at risk of neglect from donors, policymakers and planners, a new journal article authored by sanitation specialists, senior economists and leading academics has warned.
Senior policy analyst, WaterAid, Andrés Hueso
Authors from the World Bank, WaterAid and Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor have joined leading academics from the University of Leeds and the University of Colorado – Boulder in calling for shared toilets as an essential stepping-stone towards universal sanitation.
The UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 aspires to providing access to safely-managed sanitation for all by 2030. Safely-managed, the new ‘gold standard’ of sanitation, means not only a toilet in every household, but also ensuring human waste is properly treated so that it poses no risk to human health or the environment.
But a senior group of economists and policy analysts have warned of the risk that governments will interpret this as the only acceptable standard. The result, they warn, could be a focus on improving services to those who already have basic access to sanitation, rather than making it a priority to provide some sort of access to poor and vulnerable populations who have none.
An editorial carried in the Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development calls on governments, policymakers and donors to recognise the role that high-quality shared toilets can play in addressing the urgent needs of those living in dense slums, where a toilet in every household is not often an option, and warn against dwindling investment, planning and delivery of this essential step toward better health and dignity for the urban poor.
WaterAid senior policy analyst, Andrés Hueso, said: “We know that in this globalised world, one slum’s waste problem quickly becomes a much wider issue, as demonstrated during the crises of Ebola and Zika, both of which were exacerbated due to poor sanitation.
“Everyone everywhere deserves a safe, private toilet. But we know that for densely populated slums, where large families may live in single rooms and private toilets are simply not yet an option, well-designed and well-managed shared sanitation provides an essential stepping stone to dignity and better health.
“Decades ago, before household toilets became the norm, tenement outhouses and shared privies in London and New York played an important – if imperfect – role in helping to prevent disease from spreading. The governments, donors and planners in today’s ambitious and fast-growing cities in Africa and South Asia should acknowledge that well-managed shared toilets can be part of a path to further progress.”
Senior World Bank economist, Sophie Trémolet, said: “Economic returns and public health gains from interim solutions for those who are currently without sanitation can be far greater than delivering gold-standard service to a few, most of whom already have another, if less than perfect, option.
“Despite the fact that shared toilets are not currently counted as safely managed toilets in the SDG framework, we need to maintain incentives for governments, entrepreneurs and communities to invent, invest in and run appropriate shared toilet solutions as a stepping stone towards other solutions. We also need to work on developing practical ways to distinguish well-managed shared toilets from those which simply do not pass the mark. Some isolated initiatives have sprung up, such as EcoTact or Freshlife toilets in Kenya run by aspiring young entrepreneurs. We need those to become mainstream and inspire other actors to turn uninspiring assets into symbols of modernity.”
WaterAid Nigeria’s Country Director, Dr Michael Ojo, said: “Nigeria has a huge population and extremely rapid rural–urban migration; however, economic development and urban planning have not kept pace with the sheer volumes of people arriving – and being born – every day in its towns and cities. The high population density of urban areas means that diseases like cholera or Ebola can spread further and faster without sanitation and hygiene practices to block their path and an outbreak found in a slum can quickly become a city-wide, national or international epidemic.
“Everyone – no matter where they live – deserves affordable access to water, sanitation and hygiene. Yet at present rates of progress only one-third of people in sub-Saharan Africa will have a safe, private toilet by 2030. The message to consider all options of getting sanitation to everyone, including shared latrines, couldn’t be more apt particularly for a country like Nigeria.
“WaterAid has been implementing its own evolving version of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) in Nigeria since 2006 and has been contributing even more to the sanitation efforts in Nigeria with the Sustainable Total Sanitation (STS) project which seeks to progressively develop a more effective and sustainable total sanitation implementation model at a significant scale. WaterAid Nigeria launched the Water Easy Toilet (WET) – a dual model improved toilet – as part of its sanitation marketing (SanMark) approach and as a way of providing entrepreneurial opportunities and at the same time encouraging households towards uptake of latrines that meet their aspirations as part of efforts to end open defecation.
“Our analysis shows just how many nations in the world are failing to give sanitation the political prioritisation and financing required – with Nigeria featuring strongly at the top of that list. Government leaders need to increase efforts to meet their commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, including achieving targets to reach everyone everywhere with adequate sanitation and hygiene as well as water by 2030.”
According to experts, poor sanitation increases the risk of illness, particularly in slums and informal settlements which are common at the edges of many fast-growing cities in the developing world. Globally, an estimated 289,000 children under five die each year of diarrhoeal illnesses directly linked to dirty water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene. Good sanitation is the bedrock of public health. Where poor sanitation exists, improvements in health and nutrition aren’t sustainable and children are repeatedly exposed to and at considerable risk of harm throughout their childhood.
The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agreed by world leaders in September 2015 aim to end extreme poverty and create a fairer, healthier, more sustainable world by 2030. Among them is Goal 6 that aims to ensure access to water and decent toilets for all.
Comoé National Park in Côte d’Ivoire on Tuesday, July 4, 2017 came off the List of World Heritage in Danger, as its wildlife recovers from impacts of civil unrest. The decision follows a recommendation from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the official advisory body to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, which meets this week in Kraków, Poland.
A water body in the Comoé National Park in Côte d’Ivoire
It is said to be the first World Heritage site to be removed from the “danger list” in West and Central Africa in over 10 years, where half of the region’s 20 natural World Heritage sites are listed as “in danger”.
Species populations in Côte d’Ivoire’s Comoé National Park are on the rise, possibly for the first time in nearly 15 years, thanks to effective management of the park following a stabilisation of the political situation in 2012. An IUCN field mission earlier this year confirmed encouraging numbers of chimpanzees and elephants, which were thought to have disappeared from the park. Côte d’Ivoire has seen a decline of about 90% of its chimpanzee population since the early 1990s. Around 300 chimps and about 120 elephants are believed to live in Comoé National Park today.
“Comoé National Park serves as an inspiration, and shows that the recovery of World Heritage sites impacted by civil unrest is possible,” says Tim Badman, Director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. “It proves yet again that conservation action works when it is given a chance. IUCN congratulates the government of Côte d’Ivoire, and the park’s management and rangers, who have made this success possible.”
West and Central Africa boast 20 natural World Heritage sites, which are home to iconic species such as great apes, big cats, elephants and rhinos. However, due the region’s instability, 10 of these sites have been listed as “in danger”, many of them for decades. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, all five World Heritage sites are in danger, including Africa’s oldest park, Virunga National Park, which has been facing severe threats for over 20 years, including poaching, armed conflict, oil and gas projects. The danger list contains a total of 18 natural World Heritage sites globally.
Comoé National Park, one of the largest protected areas in West Africa, was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2003 due to farming, illegal gold mining and poaching affecting its species populations. These threats were further exacerbated by political instability. Due to insecurity in the region, park staffers were unable to access some areas until civil unrest ended in 2012, allowing the management to regain control of the site and start carrying out conservation work.
The park now benefits from a new management plan, developed in consultation with local communities who take part in wildlife monitoring and other conservation activities. However, threats remain, including farming and artisanal gold mining taking place within the park. Such activities still pose a threat to its species’ key habitats, and continued action is needed to tackle them, according to IUCN.
“The Committee’s decision to take Comoé off the List of World Heritage in Danger serves as a recognition of the efforts carried out by the government and the Ivorian park service,” says Adama Tondossama, Director General of Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves (OIPR) – the authority responsible for parks in Côte d’Ivoire. “It also points to the challenges that the site’s management faces going forward in order to maintain and enhance the achievements of these past years.”
Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983, Comoé National Park contains a remarkable variety of habitats including savannas, grasslands and forests. It is home to 620 species of plants, 500 species of birds, 135 species of mammals, 35 species of amphibians and 60 species of fish. Many of the animals living in the park are listed as threatened on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, including the dwarf crocodile, the chimpanzee, the African wild dog and the African elephant.
Long-term institutional investors – 390 representing more than $22 trillion in assets – have written to G20 heads of state urging governments to stand by their commitments to the Paris Agreement at their upcoming Summit in Hamburg, Germany on July 7-8, 2017.
Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change
Underscoring the urgency of action by G7 and G20 nations to implement the global climate pact and deliver their emissions reduction commitments (nationally-determined contributions), and echoing a message previously delivered to the G7, the investors called on G20 leaders to:
Reiterate their support for and commitment to implement the Paris Agreement, including the delivery of their own Nationally Determined Contributions in full.
Bring forward focused and targeted long-term climate and energy plans that will ensure their future actions align with commitments under the pact to keep global average temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and preferably to 1.5 °C.
Drive investment into the low carbon transition through aligning climate-related policies, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and introducing carbon pricing where appropriate.
Implement climate-related financial reporting frameworks, including supporting the Financial Stability Board Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’ recommendations.
“Investors are sending a powerful signal today that climate change action must be an urgent priority in the G20 countries, especially the United States, whose commitment is in question,” said Mindy Lubber, CEO and President of the sustainability non-profit organisation Ceres, which directs the Ceres Investor Network on Climate Risk and Sustainability. “Global investors are eager to open their wallets to a low-carbon future, but it won’t happen without clear, stable policy signals from countries worldwide – in particular, the US government whose waffling on the Paris Climate Agreement is hugely troubling.”
Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) in Europe, added, “Investors recognise the global transition to a low-carbon, clean energy economy is now firmly underway and they want to make well-informed decisions that help Paris Agreement signatories deliver their national commitments. Regardless of what the US administration does, it is vital that every signatory across the G7 and G20 adopts policies that drive better disclosure of climate risk, curb fossil fuel subsidies and put in place strong pricing signals sufficient to catalyse the significant private sector investment in low carbon solutions.”
Emma Herd, CEO of the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) in Australia, said: “Maintaining policy commitments which drive strong growth in low carbon investment is key to tackling climate change. While the private sector can provide the investment required to build a secure, affordable and low emissions global energy system, we urge the G20 to set strong policy signals which provide the investment certainty needed to drive trillions of dollars into new clean energy investment opportunities.”
Paul Simpson, CEO of CDP, added: “The G20 must move swiftly to put in place the frameworks required to improve the availability, reliability and comparability of climate-related information, and to ensure carbon pricing signals which will drive the incorporation of climate risks and opportunities into financial assessments. That is why investors are calling on G7 leaders to prioritise rulemaking by national financial regulators to require disclosure of ‘material’ climate risks in line with the forthcoming recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD).”
“With the US clearly presenting a threat to a robust consensus for urgent worldwide climate action, now is the time for investors to make their voices heard by encouraging governments to stand firm on their individual and collective commitment to the Paris Agreement,” said Fiona Reynolds, managing director of the PRI. “Investors worldwide have come to understand the material financial risks around climate change. Certainly, at the PRI, our members have noted climate risks as their number one ESG concern.”
It was a mix grill of emotions and expectations as shocks, grief and disappointment ruled the opening of this year’s Wimbledon Open, which served-off on Monday, July 3, 2017.
Fifth seed Stan Wawrinka was knocked out by Daniil Medvedev
Fifth seed Stan Wawrinka was knocked out by Daniil Medvedev in the biggest shock as he fell 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1on Centre Court.
The Russian’s victory over world number three Wawrinka came just hours after the 21-year-old moved into the world’s top 50 for the first time.
Wawrinka, having already won the Australian, French and US Open, was attempting to become only the sixth man to complete the career Grand Slam in the Open Era.
In the Women category, former Wimbledon champion, Venus Williams, broke down in tears as she was questioned by reporters about a Florida car crash that killed Jerome Barson, 78.
Williams, 37, could face a wrongful death law suit from the family of the man, after she was accused by police of being at fault for the collision.
The American produced an emphatic shot to secure a 7,-6, (9-7), 6-4 victory over 2-1 Mertens, who is playing her first Wimbledon.
Another female player, Mandy Minella from Luxembourg, revealed that she is four and half months pregnant. She made this revelation, after losing 6-1, 6-1 to Italian veteran Francisca Schiavone. The world number two is also due to play in the doubles.
On a brighter note, Britain’s Andy Murray began the defense of his Wimbledon title with a straight-set win over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 on Centre Court, despite an hip injury which disrupted his build-up.
The world number one will face Germany’s Dustin Brown, the man who beat Rafael Nadal in 2015 in round two.
Spanish world number two Raphael Nadal breezed past Millman 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 to record the 850th career win and came in his 50th match at Wimbledon.
He will face American world number 43, Donald Young, who was 2-1 up in three sets when opponent Denis Istomin retired.
The Arab Republic of Egypt on Thursday, June 29, 2017 deposited its instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt
The North African nation thus becomes the 152nd country to endorse the global treaty, after Togo, which ratified the climate accord just a day before on Wednesday, June 28 2017.
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Egypt’s ratification of the pact will enter into force in a month’s time on Saturday, July 29, 2017.
The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention (UNFCCC) and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.
The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework.
New guidance launched recently by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) urges the World Heritage Convention to better conserve wilderness areas, and large landscapes and seascapes, as they are increasingly threatened, including by climate change. It explains how this can be achieved through existing mechanisms, identifies broad gaps where new wilderness World Heritage sites might be found, and suggests innovation to help the Convention better respond to threats to wilderness.
A wilderness area in the US
Wilderness areas are crucial as they protect massive carbon stocks, ensure clean freshwater supplies, and safeguard biodiversity. They are often home to Indigenous Peoples, whose livelihoods, lifestyles and worldviews are inseparable from these natural areas.
Wilderness areas are largely intact land- and seascapes which have a low human population density and are mostly free of industrial infrastructure. They help respond to climate change, for instance stocking huge amounts of carbon and serving as refuge for species which are forced to migrate due to a changing climate. They also provide livelihoods to local communities and are culturally significant, hosting sacred natural sites and indigenous territories.
However, intact areas are under severe threat from climate change. They are also continuously being cleared, degraded and fragmented, largely due to industrial activities such as oil and gas extraction, mining, logging, agriculture, construction of roads and dams. The wilderness left on land now covers less than a quarter of Earth’s total land surface.
“We have an ethical obligation to respect life on Earth and protect the last intact, wild areas left on the planet as a crucial part of our common heritage,” says Cyril Kormos, Vice Chair for World Heritage at IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas. “Wilderness areas provide solutions to global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss, and protecting these areas can also help recognise communities’ rights. The World Heritage Convention can go further to support these invaluable places.”
The report, “World Heritage, Wilderness, and Large Landscapes and Seascapes”, argues that protecting large intact land- and seascapes is a crucial strategy to address climate change and biodiversity loss, as these irreplaceable areas provide greater benefits and host more plant and animal species than smaller, more disturbed areas.
The World Heritage Convention makes a significant contribution to conserving such areas effectively. Natural World Heritage sites often include very large areas: the 238 sites currently listed for their natural values account for 8% of the total surface covered by all 200,000+ protected areas worldwide. Large natural World Heritage sites with wilderness values include iconic sites such as the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, Yellowstone National Park in the USA and the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
However, the report explains how the World Heritage Convention can do more to protect wilderness. Providing guidance on how this can be achieved, it identifies broad gaps in wilderness coverage by the World Heritage List.
On land, natural World Heritage sites cover 1.8% of the world’s remaining wilderness area, while at sea 0.9% of marine wilderness has World Heritage status. Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests are the least represented type of wilderness represented by the World Heritage List. Only one World Heritage site, the Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve in Russia, exists in the Arctic Ocean – the largest marine wilderness area identified by the report, with 3.3 million square kilometres, equating to half of the ocean.
The guidance strongly highlights the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their role in conserving large wilderness World Heritage sites, as many of these areas have remained ecologically intact thanks to indigenous stewardship and ownership – sometimes over millennia. Many Indigenous Peoples and local communities directly depend on large and intact natural areas for their survival, and therefore conserving these sites is critically important for sustaining their livelihoods and cultures.
To illustrate the complex relationship between humans and World Heritage sites, the guidance features fives case studies in listed wilderness areas. These include the Golden Mountains of Altai in Russia, Kakadu National Park in Australia, Manú National Park in Peru, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and Papahānaumokuākea in Hawai‘i, USA.
The report was prepared over several years by a team of experts from IUCN and its World Commission on Protected Areas, with support from The Christensen Fund and The Pew Charitable Trusts.
