“Solar Impulse is breaking through self-imposed barriers of possibility. We did not think before that it would be possible to traverse long distances with zero emissions in any flying vehicle. The fact that the two pilots have proven that this is possible, the fact that they are up in the air again and finishing the around the world flight they initiated proves that impossible is not a fact, it is an attitude.”
Solar Impulse prepares to land in San Francisco after a three-day Pacific Ocean crossing
Those were the words of the UN’s top climate change official Christiana Figueres, as she reacts to news that Solar Impulse, a zero-fuel aircraft powered entirely by the sun, has safely landed in San Francisco after a three-day Pacific Ocean crossing. The innovative plane is now preparing to fly over the continental United States.
The plane took off from Hawaii on 21April, the day before the signing of the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement in New York, piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard.
Bertrand Piccard at the controls of Solar Impulse
Ms. Figueres congratulated the renewed effort of the Solar Impulse team, which includes the pilot André Borschberg, in flying the aircraft to circumnavigate the globe.
For Figueres, the Paris Agreement is only the beginning of process to rapidly decarbonise the global economy. People must now turn the vision of Paris into reality, according to her.
Alluding to Solar Impulse and the potential of solar energy to replace the bulk of polluting fossil fuels world-wide, she said: “Now the rubber hits road – or rather, the sun hits the panel”.
Solar Impulse gets its energy from 17,000 photovoltaic cells that cover the top surfaces of the craft. These cells power propellers during the day, but also charge batteries that the vehicle’s motors can then use during the night.
Bertrand Piccard and his team tried to circumnavigate the world last year, but the vehicle’s batteries overheated during the trip, forcing the project to layover on the Pacific archipelago while repairs were conducted.
The Swiss pilots intend to get to New York by the start of June to begin preparations for an Atlantic crossing.
Assuming this is completed successfully, the plane will then return back to its point of departure, which is Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Following the signing of the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement in New York on 22 April, governments have pledged to take concerted action to lower the costs of clean energy and to unleash a potential investment flow of up to $1 trillion into solar assets, among a raft of other initiatives.
Indian Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal with French Environment Minister and President of COP 21 Ségolène Royal
At the United Nations in New York, Indian Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal and French Environment Minister and President of COP 21 Ségolène Royal co-hosted an event on the International Solar Alliance (ISA), launched by India and France at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris last December.
Ministers and representatives from over 25 countries, including Nigeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, the US and France, were in attendance.
In order to accelerate massive deployment of solar energy at various scales in their countries, ministers and representative from 25 countries agreed to take concerted action through targeted programmes launched on a voluntary basis, to better harmonize and aggregate the demand for:
Solar finance, so as to lower the cost of finance and facilitate the flow of more than $1000 billion investment in solar assets in member countries;
Mature solar technologies that are currently deployed only at small scale and need to be scaled up;
Future solar technologies and capacity building, through strategic and collaborative solar R&D, to improve the efficiency and integration of solar power as well as increase the number of solar applications available.
The 25 countries represented at the event included Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Namibia, Uganda, Nigeria, Peru, Djibouti, Surinam, Zambia, Bolivia, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Mali, India, USA and France.
Also in New York, the International Solar Alliance and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) pledged to cooperate to promote solar energy globally, by looking for strategic cooperation in the areas of programmatic and technical expertise.
Secure territorial rights of indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge must be central to post-conflict initiatives to save the Colombian Amazon and achieve sustainable development, says a study
Kamentsa indigenes of the Colombian Amazon. Photo credit: huffingtonpost.com
A new report “Deforestation and Indigenous Peoples Rights in the Colombian Amazon” co-published by social justice and environmental NGO DEDISE and Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) underlines the critical role of secure land and territorial rights and traditional knowledge in sustaining one of the most culturally and biologically diverse forests on the planet.
Drawing on grassroots interviews, community workshops and a review of official documents, the study assesses historical and contemporary direct and underlying causes of forest destruction and associated human rights impacts in the region. It finds that current deforestation and associated negative impacts on indigenous peoples are most rampant in Caquetá, Guaviare and Putumayo. Forest loss and rights violations in western and northern areas are driven by expansion of cattle ranching and commercial cultivation of illicit crops. According to the report, deforestation is closely linked to road construction, while mining and oil developments act as poles of colonisation leading to urbanisation, land grabbing, militarisation, conflict and human rights violations.
Insecure land rights, perverse incentives and violation of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are key underlying drivers of land use change and rights violations. The report finds that existing Colombian legal and institutional mechanisms to apply the FPIC standard and prior consultation are defective, while mining, oil and gas concessions overlap indigenous forest territories throughout the region. Imposed infrastructure and road building programmes like the Iniciativa para la Integración de la Infraestructura Regional Suramericana (IIRSA), facilitated by the Inter-American Development Bank also threaten indigenous territories and fragile forest watersheds in the region.
One indigenous Kamentsa leader observes: “Implementation of IIRSA in Colombia will lead to the extermination of indigenous peoples and accelerate deforestation as it opens up forests to mining and logging. In Putumayo, one of the country’s major oil production areas, the impacts have been very negative for our people and our way of life…”
The study pinpoints contradictions between national policies for economic growth and recent pledges made by Colombia’s government to tackle climate change, promote sustainable development and achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon region by 2020.
Mayra Tenjo, one of the co-authors of the report, says: “There is a major disconnect between national commitments to uphold indigenous peoples’ rights, combat deforestation and achieve sustainable development in the Amazon on the one hand, and Colombia’s existing National Development Plan (PND) on the other. The PND promotes mining, extractive industries, infrastructure development and industrial agriculture. The two different sets of policies are not coherent. Better cross-sectoral policy coordination and more inclusive, rights-based approaches are needed to respect indigenous peoples and achieve genuine sustainable development…”
As well as contradictions in national and sub-national land use and development policies, the analysis finds that programmes intended to safeguard the forest and deliver development, such as the GEF funded “Heart of the Amazon Programme” and Vision Amazonía 2020 initiative funded by the UK, Norway and Germany, are not properly involving grassroots communities, who know little about these top-down interventions.
Hernando Castro, an indigenous leader from the Middle Caquetá, notes: “Forest projects to expand national parks like the Heart of the Amazon Programme are mostly driven by government technicians, the World Bank and NGOs in Bogotá and Washington DC without effective FPIC and sufficient prior consultation with our Resguardos. We do not know exactly what budgets are destined for our communities and our demands for extension of our Resguardo titles are not being given enough priority by these programmes…”
A similar issue is now arising with the larger Visión Amazonía 2020 and related Sustainable Colombia initiatives of the Santos government. The same leader adds: “Now there is a new bigger forest programme that we understand is funded by countries like Germany and the UK, but we know little about it. It is essential that the indigenous component of the Visión 2020 programme is developed with the full involvement of our traditional authorities and Cabildos. This programme must support our systems of self-government and it must build on our ancestral knowledge and our collective visions for forest management and self-determined development.”
In assessing possible future threats, the report highlights that a successful peace process could open up vast areas of the Amazon forest and eastern plains to foreign investment in oil palm, maize, sugar cane and soybean monocultures as well as extractive industries. The risk of increasing land grabs, deforestation, rights violations and displacement of small farmers to the forest frontier are heightened by the recent adoption of the controversial ZIDRES land and rural development law.
This law risks facilitating the allocation of concessions to commercial interests, privatisation and the enclosure of so-called vacant State lands (baldíos), without adequate protections for the pre-existing customary collective territorial rights of indigenous peoples. Among other consequences, this law could allow companies to obtain legal rights over “baldíos” they had already accumulated through land grabbing in the past.
Given these risks, the report concludes that effective interventions to uphold human rights, slow deforestation, maintain biodiversity and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Colombian Amazon must involve reform of the top-down system for land use zoning, concessions and territorial planning that allocates land and minerals to private commercial interests. Crucially, the report emphasises that more effective actions to protect and secure territorial rights are needed alongside reforms to ensure genuine respect for free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). Actions to strengthen self-government of indigenous peoples, apply traditional knowledge and reinforce indigenous agroforestry systems are identified as essential for achieving effective forest and climate policies in the region.
The Ogun State Government has begun plans to generate electricity from saw dust. Officials say the development is part of government’s contribution towards increasing power output in the country.
Sawdust
Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, revealed this during an inspection visit to sawmill sites in Ijebu-Igbo, Ijebu-North Local Government Area of the state.
Chief Lawal, in a statement signed by the Ministry’s Press Officer, Olubodun Olusola, said the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) in collaboration with the state government are putting heads together to devise a technology that would generate electricity from sawdust.
“The UNIDO, ECN and the state government are on a project now that will convert sawdust to energy,” he was quoted as saying.
Lawal added that government was currently carrying out a feasibility study of the project which, according to him, would materialise in due course.
He therefore implored the saw millers not to waste the sawdust, saying though it is seen as waste product but would soon become raw materials for energy production.
“Plants are gone, and the aquatic environment is going off, the flora and fauna is actually going off too. The clean-up should start, not coming around to make announcement and make a minister to visit, that is not a clean-up. We have anticipated, we have hoped, but it is long over-due. Let the clean-up start, that is our prayer.”
Participants at the session
These were the words Mr Dum Syl Amainikpo an Ogoni activist, last week in Port Harcourt, River State during a daylong session involving the civil society and community leaders tagged: Environmental Parliament on Non-Implementation of UNEP Report and organised by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN).
Dr Uyi Ojo, executive director of ERA/FoEN, said: “Based on the strong evidence contained in the 2011 UNEP report recommendations, there is monumental damage done to the environment this past 50 years. The plight of the Ogonis has worsened with monumental pollution of water sources with potentially carcinogenic substances and soil contamination up to the depth of five meters that has resulted in poor wealth conditions, lowering farm yields and fish catch depletion that have combined to make life more difficult for the Ogonis.
“The Ogoni environment has been ruined by the Shell Oil Company operations over the years and communities constitute sites of ecological crime against the people and their environment, is no longer news.”
He faulted the Federal Government for not putting in place “the much-needed institutional frame work to drive the process nor has the proposed governing board been inaugurated”. He expressed displeasure over the absence of “a realistic time table and dateline of commencement of Ogoni land.”
Another Ogoni activist Young Kigbara when asked what his expectations were, said: “I suffered a lot and am still suffering. We have it on record that people are dying all over Ogoni consequent upon the fact that they have been affected by the pollutant and no one is talking it seriously.” He expressed his doubt over the fact that the Federal Government has the political will to deliver the Ogoni clean-up project.
He added: “My understanding of political will means that if you say that you will do one thing, you will commit yourself completely to it and have it done.”
Mr Kigbara said: “Almost a year now we have people in government who told us that we are going to do this in less than no time,” but he regretted that “there hasn’t been a match of that promise with action.
“So I want a situation where government will reason well and clean-up the environment so that I will live a better life,” he said resignedly.
Dr Koba, another prominent Ogoni son, warned “that reforming Ogoni environment would not succeed unless they start the restoration of the mangroves”.
An Ogoni woman Activist Martha Agbani, Executive Director of Lokiaka Development Centre, while speaking to EnviroNews, said: They are supposed to start with serious consultation with the people, it shouldn’t be the kind of top of bottom approach.”
She advocated for an all inclusive broad consultation. She also called for a review of the UNEP Report saying: “Review the report they have so released because it is about four years now that the report was released so there must be some gaps within what they already have from the species, from the ecosystem.
“They cannot do without working with people,” she continued, advising that youths should be a strong focus of whatever they are doing. She also talked about the inclusion of women, saying: “We cannot talk about this without women. The Federal Government has not done anything.”
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has disclosed that top on its agenda for this year is the mandatory enforcement of speed limit device and use of the rear seat safety belt.
Oyeyemi Boboye, FRSC Corps Marshal, at the rear seat using a safety belt
Corp Marshal, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, who made the disclosure at the sector headquarters in Lagos on Friday at a session with members of Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), said that the strategy is to continuously reduce accidents and fatal crashes on Nigerian roads.
He warned that most Nigerians, especially those who are described as “car-owners” and who usually seat at the rear, should imbibe the habit of wearing their seat belts along with other rear seat passengers or face the wrath of the law. He stressed that, by so doing, “car-owners” will inspire others beside him or her to wear their belts as well.
According to him, annually, most probable cause of road traffic crashes has been linked to speed violation, loss of control and dangerous driving.
On top of this list, Oyeyemi said, has been speed violation, which has also continued to reduce in the last four years with about 8.7 per cent. He added that, as at December 2015, speed violation road accidents were at 26.5 per cent, while loss of control was at 22.9 per cent and dangerous driving at 9.4 per cent.
He also revealed that the Corps has commenced advisory enforcement on the use of rear seat belts to further reduce fatalities and save more lives.
He, therefore, solicited partnership with the Nigerian media to ensure this initiative gets the buying-in of all Nigerians.
Oyeyemi advised Nigerians and media practitioners particularly to also show examples by fastening their rear seat belts.
He also solicited media partnership with FRSC, saying, “Nowhere in Nigeria is better covered without the Press. Information from remote parts of the country can be accessed through the Press and vice versa; hence, FRSC has better mileage when the Press is there for her.”
Though Nigeria is yet to neither sign nor ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change, the nation was ably represented at the landmark event that saw some 175 countries signing the Paris Agreement at a ceremony at the UN Headquarters on Friday 22 April that observers say far exceeds the historical record for first-day signatures to an international agreement.
Environment Minister, Amina J. Mohammed, in the company of Acting Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Usman Sarki, led the Nigerian delegation at the forum, that featured numerous side events.
Environment Minister, Amina Mohammed, holds on to several SDG optionsDr Peter Tarfa, Amb. Usman Sarki and Ms Amina MohammedAchim Steiner, Rachel Kyte and Amina MohammedAmina Mohammed (right) formally inducted as a member of Troika+ of Women Leaders on Gender & Climate ChangeAmb. Usman Sarki (left) with President Mahamadou Issoufou of NigerAkon (right) with Ms Amina MohammedAkon with Ms. Amina Mohammed’s aide, Esther AgbarakweAmerican actor, film producer and environmental campaigner, Leonardo DicaprioAmina Mohammed in the company of personalities such as Rachel Kyte, Christiana Figueres and Helen Clark discuss ways to improve grassroots women participation in climate governance process
The 43-member Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) on Friday joined other Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to take forward commitments to fully implement the Paris Agreement. In a press conference held in conjunction with the Paris Agreement Signing Ceremony, the leadership of the Climate Vulnerable Forum emphasised the significance of urgently translating pledges into solid and decisive actions, as well as partnership with civil society and efforts in the context of the High Ambition Coalition.
Senator Loren Legarda
The more than 160 nations present at UN Headquarters in New York for the Paris Agreement Signing Ceremony represents about 93% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“With the signing today of the Paris Agreement by over 160 countries, the time for talk is over and the time for urgent climate action is now,” said Philippine Senator Loren Legarda.
“The 1.5 degrees Celsius-cap on global temperature increase is at the core of the Paris Agreement. ‘Well below’ 2 degrees certainly cannot mean 1.9, 1.8 or 1.7 degrees. 1.5 is really the minimum deliverable and we can already take actions to achieve it well before 2020,” she added.
Legarda further commented: “We have already breached one degrees Celsius and look what has happened to countries like my country, the Philippines. We still feel the effects of Typhoon Haiyan. Our country and large parts of the world are reeling from the effects of extended drought.”
Manuel Gonzalez, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica said that the successful signing ceremony should be immediately followed with domestic and international initiatives that will make sure that the Paris Agreement takes effect and is acted on as soon as possible.
He further stressed that more ambitious pre-2020 action must be aligned with the 1.5 degrees Celsius-goal: “We cannot live in a world fraught with challenges to life and human well-being. Nobody is going to come from Mars to help us. It’s very simple. Our effort here today is sending a strong signal to the world on the type of development model and public and private investments we need in the future,” Gonzalez pointed out.
Wael Hmaidan, a member of the Climate Vulnerable Forum Expert Advisors Group and International Director of the Climate Action Network, expressed confidence that the overwhelming turnout at the signing of the Paris Agreement only indicates that the world is eager and ready to tackle climate change.
“Usually, after a big political moment like Paris, the level of momentum stalls. But climate action is only growing as the events in New York today attest,” he said. “On a civil society-level we see the same momentum continuing to progress. This transformational movement will only grow. One of the key objectives for us going forward is to support the Climate Vulnerable Forum on its 1.5 degrees Celsius-advocacy and on achieving 100% renewable energy.”
For his part, Secretary Emmanuel M. De Guzman of the Philippine Climate Change Commission (CCC) underscored the importance of governments working hand-in-hand with civil society: “There is a lot of work to do and without civil society action and support at the local level it becomes very difficult to achieve change. In the Philippines, we are rolling out an initiative called Communities for Resilience (CORE), and we are working to mainstream emissions reductions strategies down to the very local level. We are going down to the community and engaging them on how they can contribute to achieve the Philippines negative 70% emissions,” De Guzman noted.
The Forum also released a statement with delegates also highlighting the need for all countries to already begin work to prepare new, higher ambition contributions to emission reductions (INDCs) under the Paris Agreement in order to ensure alignment with the 1.5 degrees Celsius-limit. Also highlighted were the importance of rapid progress towards achieving the $100 billion joint commitment of developed countries on climate finance in support of raising ambition, and the humanitarian priority of achieving a 50:50 balance of climate finance between mitigation and adaptation by 2020.
“Keeping the 1.5 degrees Celsius-promise, scaling up and funding increased action will help protect the 1 billion people who are most vulnerable to climate change. It will, at the same time, help lift billions of people from poverty,” De Guzman said. “The world will not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, also agreed last year, without ensuring the Paris Agreement reaches its full potential.”
“Not funding adaptation would be the worst kind of false economy as it would only drive up the costs of humanitarian emergencies,” De Guzman also asserted. “We are looking forward to seeing real progress on this front, as much remains to be accomplished.”
In an extraordinary show of support for the Paris climate agreement adopted last December, 175 countries signed the Paris Agreement at a ceremony at UN Headquarters on Friday 22 April that far exceeded the historical record for first-day signatures to an international agreement.
The ceremony, held the first day the Paris Agreement was open for signature, marked the initial step toward ensuring the agreement enters into force. Photo credit: UN /Mark Garten
The ceremony, held the first day the Paris Agreement was open for signature, marked the initial step toward ensuring the agreement enters into force. The agreement can enter into force 30 days after 55 countries accounting for 55 per cent of global emissions deposit their instruments of ratification.
“The world will have met the requirement needed for the Paris Agreement to enter into force,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “if all 175 countries that have signed today take the next step at the national level and join the Agreement.”
Fifteen countries submitted their ratifications during the signing ceremony, including small island developing countries that are on the frontlines of climate impacts.
Several countries announced plans to join the agreement in 2016, including Australia, Argentina, Cameroon, Canada, China, France, Mali, Mexico, Philippines, and the United States. Other countries, including Brazil, the European Union, and the Russian Federation, pledged to swiftly work to complete the necessary steps for joining the agreement.
“I am very pleased to see so much support and political momentum to move the Agreement forward,” said the Secretary-General. “The spirit of multilateralism is strong.”
He added that the participation by so many countries today, and the attendance by 55 world leaders, along with leaders from civil society and the private sector, leaves no doubt that the world is determined to take climate action.
French President François Hollande, who hosted the Paris climate conference, said his country would take the lead to set a price on carbon.
There was strong business engagement at the Signature Ceremony, and United Nations Global Compact Executive Director Lise Kingo called on companies around the world to set an internal carbon price at a minimum of $100 per metric ton over time.
“The Paris Agreement sends a clear signal that business and investors must put climate at the heart of decision-making,” said Ms. Kingo. “We believe that setting a $100 internal price on carbon is one of the most effective ways to drive climate deep into corporate strategy and investment. While leading companies have taken steps to price carbon, we need to see an ascent in ambition and price across the board.”
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: “Today is a remarkable, record-breaking day in the history of international cooperation on climate change and a sustainable future for billions of people alive today and those to come.”
Figueres added, “The urgency now is to implement the Paris Agreement’s visionary pathways at a speed and scale that can deliver the next crucial steps; namely a swift peaking of global emissions, a climate neutral world in the second half of the century and the building of resilient countries and communities for every man, woman and child.”
The Paris Agreement marked a watershed moment in taking action on climate change. After years of negotiation, countries agreed to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, while pursuing efforts to keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
Even as the agreement was adopted, countries recognised that present pledges to reduce emissions were still insufficient to reach these goals. The Paris Agreement mandates regular meetings every five years, starting in 2018, to review progress, and to consider whether it is necessary to increase ambition.
Earth Day is believed to be the largest secular event in the world. It has been described as the power of a contagious people’s movement that returns each year. This year, world leaders united in New York City to sign the Paris Agreement, a landmark achievement in the fight against climate change.
Honduran prize-winning campaigner Berta Caceres was slain by gunmen this year weeks after opposing a hydroelectric dam project. In Puerto Cortes, Honduras, dozens of people participated in a tree planting and educational event on Earth Day this year in her memory
According to the Earth Day Network, Earth Day is people standing up for an environmental problem they are passionate about.
“It’s creating learning experiences in schools so that our next generation will be environmentally informed global citizens. It’s recognising an opportunity for your community to become more sustainable. Small green acts add up. Mobilising people creates change. Earth Day is being engaged, being responsible, and being part of a movement,” stresses the Earth Day Network.
Eleven stand out events that happened around the World to mark Earth Day are worthy of note.
Tree-planting in Lagos. Four-year-old Miss Fagekemi Kolawole was among a gathering of Lagosians that planted trees on Friday 22 April to mark the Earth Day in Nigeria. At the event held along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ketu axis, youth groups called on the Lagos State Government to address the rapid depletion of green areas in the state, informed by the development of housing estates, which the youths say are not environmentally sustainable. They made a case for Nigerians of all age brackets to hugely get involved in tree planting efforts so as to replace lost tree covers and protect the earth.
Setting the bar high for cities. Mayor Tomás Pedro Regalado is helping make Miami green. His Earth Day proclamation sets Miami apart as an American city that is taking climate change seriously. Mayor Regalado announced that Miami will be going 100% renewable energy by 2050. As one of the hottest cities on the map, it is hoped that their action will inspire others to follow suit.
A clean sweep in Europe. The “Let’s Do It” campaign is making headway in cleaning up the world. The movement started in Estonia and has engaged 13.8 million people over the past seven years. In celebration of Earth Day 2016 Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Ukraine, and Lithuania held massive clean-ups across Eastern Europe. Four-10% of their populations are anticipated to help pick up trash after mapping it first.
Students for a greener China. China is the world’s top carbon emitter. University students there have taken note and are stepping into environmentalist shoes. Universities in Beijing are spreading awareness about recycling and helping plant trees. Students will now receive seeds in return for their recyclables.
One islander, one tree. Down in the Caribbean, St. Kitts and Nevis made a bold move and planted a tree for each of its citizens this Earth Day. A nation of 55,000 people, they are taking Earth Day Network’s Trees for the Earth goal head on and will plant 55,000 trees over the next five years.
India pedals towards a greener Earth. Cyclists in India kicked-off an environmental awareness rally in Bangaluru, Kranataka. A parade had over 20,000 environmentalist cyclists. In addition to their cycling awareness campaign, the contributed to the #Trees4Earth campaign by planting 60,000 tree saplings in public spaces at all of the district headquarters.
Morocco is (royally) committed to fighting climate change. The hosts of COP22 in Fall 2016, demonstrated their sincere commitment to a sustainable future by sending Princess Lalla Hasnaa to sign the Paris Agreement. Following a successful COP21 in Paris, this is a positive indication that Morocco will pick up where France left off.
Vietnam gets in rhythm with Earth Day. A flash mob dance performance grabs attention. In Ho Chi Minh City a creatively choreographed flash mob had 1,000 dancers. Young students and hearing-impaired members of the local Deaf Community Organisation (source: http://bit.ly/1VxuOHd) were among the dedicated participants. The theme of their Earth Day celebration was water conservation.
Honduras Remembers Berta Cáceres. In Puerto Cortes, Honduras, dozens of people participated in a tree planting and educational event on Earth Day this year in the memory of the Lenca activist Berta Cáceres. Coral Tree seedlings were given out and organisers of the event described who Berta was, as well as the important role trees play in the hydrological cycle in Honduras. Berta Cáceres was an indigenous Goldman Environmental Prize-winning environment and land defender who was assassinated last March. She co-founded an indigenous people’s campaign against the Agua Zarca dam. Earth Day is the perfect day to remember and be inspired by the memory of someone such as her. ¡Viva Berta!
Kiribati builds its resilience. Islands feel the devastating effects of climate change first. Kiribati islanders are working as hard as possible to protect their home. They have responded to the #Trees4Earth call for action campaign by planting trees that will benefit their native ecosystems. Mangroves are essential for Kiribati as they can thrive in salinised water, boost fish populations, and ultimately help stabilise the coastline and prevent further erosion from rising Pacific seas.
North American fans of the sci-fi classic Independence Day. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is offering a special 99 cent Digital HD purchase of the film via Google Play today through Monday, with all of Fox’s net proceeds benefiting Earth Day Network and our Trees for the Earth initiative!
